Monday, April 20, 2015

A Journey Orchestrated By God

It has been ten days since I posted anything here at my cyber home.  Most of those days were spent preparing for a seminar we presented on healing last Saturday outside a small town in SW Minnesota where around 25-30 gathered to hear our healing stories and the Biblical principles we teach on healing.  The ALC Lutheran church we were at flows in the Holy Spirit and has an active inner healing ministry.  That in itself was wonderful to experience. 

So, hours of prep time, writing and re-writing, praying, discussing, and even an interview on a Christian radio station out of SW MN, plus Joel's night meetings and work, and our youngest having major surgery on Friday?  Yeah.  The week was a bit full!

We spoke from 10-12 and 1-3, then we had a worship and prayer service that lasted from 3-4:30. It was a long day with the 3 hours of driving time added in, but well worth it. 

How this seminar came about can only be described as a God-incidence.  When Joel was filling in at a church in Northern Iowa, a retired pastor heard him speak on his healing story.  He told Joel about his daughter and her family who have been diagnosed with Lyme and are fighting a hard battle.  He told his daughter about Joel and she remembered meeting him at a Sozo training center in St. Paul nearly a year before her diagnosis.  She emailed Joel 9 months later and we communicated back and forth with her.  Then she talked to her pastor about us coming to the church to speak.  Her pastor called us to see if we were interested in sharing our stories and the principles of healing we teach.  We said yes!  Only God.

So, what touched us most deeply was the deep pain and suffering we saw and felt in so many of the people there.  Many are suffering with Lyme and co-infections.  It is where we used to live.  Hard to listen, difficult to watch.  It made us angry, this disease that has only one goal.....tp destroy the body, soul, and spirit.  All I could think of was that God came to heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds.  Oh, Lord, use us to teach others Your Word on healing.....use us to release healing in the brokenhearted. In Your name.  Only in Your name.

While we were teaching, a man in the back got up, walked over to the pastor of the church, and showed him a tick he had just found crawling up his arm.  Really?  We were talking about healing from Lyme and a tick just happens to be in the church?  Thinking the enemy was at work...just sayin'. 

Lyme is a disease of fear.  It is truly evil, destroying the body and affecting everyone involved.  This area of SW Mn seems to have more than their share of people diagnosed with it.  It. was. everywhere.  It was visible to us in the way people moved, sat, talked.  It was visible in the dark circles under their eyes, the heavy blanket they seemed to move under.  A casual observer might think they were depressed, but they are not.  They are oppressed people.  Oppressed by the horrible bacteria carried in a tiny tick that eats away at the brain, the body, the soul.   They were people trying hard to find normalcy in a life that was hijacked by a disease that is not from God.  Never from God.

The seminar?  Rewarding.  Appreciated.  Restorative.  They expressed to us that they were blessed.  We know we were blessed.  We heard Holy Spirit and saw Jesus at work.  We received more than we gave.  God orchestrated this event and for that we are so grateful. 

I think the most eye opening part of this day was learning that there are more than one or two Lutheran churches out there who feel like we do about Holy Spirit and believe how we believe about healing.  People who continue to look for that something more.  People just a little to the right of crazy?  Hmmmm nice to know we are not alone. 

The seminar only made us want to do more, say more, pray more, learn more.  The people we met and grew to quickly care about only made us feel more determined than ever to continue on this journey.  A journey orchestrated by God. 

2 comments:

NanaNor's said...

Renee, I love this testimony of His timing and hand in your lives and the lives of others. I must say that when I first read that you were in a Lutheran church I was surprised, because I had never heard of a spirit filled Lutheran church. Of course, shouldn't we all be praying that our denomination churches will be Spirit filled. I love this dear one.
Did you ever get to know Ella-another prayer warrior who has had Lyme too. I also knew a family who had it too.
Blessings on you as you continue to minister His healing to others.
Love,
Noreen

Sharon said...

God always has a way of orchestrating our steps for accomplishing His purposes. My prayers go out to people suffering from Lyme's disease. It is a terrible affliction, and one that does indeed affect many aspects of health. May the words and the hope that you and Joel brought bring the power of God to these hurting ones.

GOD BLESS.