"JOSEPH MOMENTS"

 “JOSEPH MOMENTS”

I was off work all this past week because a coworker thought they might have the Covid virus. I wasn’t happy to be off work at first, but it worked out great! The Lord provided me with plenty of money to take care of the bills, go out to eat, and enjoy my time off without worrying.  I even got the extra blessing of inspiration to do a new painting, and on the way home yesterday, a neighbor had put an easel with paper on it and about twelve or so new brushes out on the sidewalk, all free for the taking! God’s timing is always perfect! The easel had two magnets of Jesus on it, just in case I didn’t recognize who really gave me the new gifts - haha. (see the photo above).

 

I suppose the devil wanted me to get all stressed about money or about getting Covid, but I wasn’t bothered about either of these. After my day of being grumpy, I refused to succumb to any more negative thoughts. I prayed for my friend and refused to believe that they had the Covid either. I went about taking care of things around the house like pruning my olive tree and doing the paperwork for a couple of class action suits—things that I’d been procrastinating about for months! I also made sure that every day I took time to do something relaxing and fun.

 

At the end of the week, at the very last moment, my company’s safety guy, bless his heart, and the HR person let me know that the Covid test on my friend was negative and I could go back to work on Monday.

 

I feel like God and the Lord Jesus stepped in on my behalf and worked everything out for me. It was one of those times that I call “Joseph moments.” Genesis 37 begins were with how Joseph’s brothers were jealous of him and hated him. They plotted to get him out into the desert to kill him. They lowered him down into a pit and left him there to die. When they saw a group of Ishmaelites coming, they decided it would be better to sell Joseph and make some money off  him, but by the time Joseph’s oldest brother, Reuben, came back to the pit, another group, the Midianites, came by, saw Joseph in the pit, got him out, and sold him to the Ishmaelites.

 

The Ishmaelites took Joseph to Egypt to sell him as a slave. Joseph was in prison for a while there, but great miracles happened for Joseph, and he ended up being the Pharaoh’s right-hand man, in charge of all the wealth in Egypt.

 

“And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, ‘See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.’ And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck;

 

“And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, ‘I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt’” (Gen. 41:41-44).

 

Later on in the story, Joseph’s father and brothers were in famine where they lived. The Pharaoh told Joseph to send for them:

 

“Now thou art commanded, this do ye; take you wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come. 

 

“Also regard not your stuff; for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours” (Gen 45:19-20).

 

When his family came down to Egypt, Joseph didn’t reveal who he was at first. His brothers thought that their plan worked and they’d gotten rid of Joseph for good. Isn’t that just how Satan works? He seems to think that he always wins, but time and time again he is proven wrong.

 

Nothing God has created can ever be above God himself. As many times as the devil tries to hurt us or destroy us, we need to remember that God is greater than the works of darkness, and God is on our side. We need to always keep that in our minds, our hearts, and our speech: No matter what the enemy does to stop us, delay us, or aggravate us, if we will look to the Lord, He will turn the worst things around for us, and the end result will be in our favor! That’s what happened for Joseph and will happen for us too.

 

When Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, he gave them food and supplies to take back with them. Over a year later, they met again. Joseph’s father had died, and now Joseph confronted his brothers with raw truth. He said to his brothers: “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive” (Gen. 50:20).

 

The devil, through the brothers, wanted one man dead, but instead, God turned it around. That one man not only lived in great prosperity and happiness, but through him, many others turned around to believe in our God.

 

We should never doubt that the Lord is working on our behalf. Even though the first day or so of my “Covid recess” was maddening, when I got my head around the truth, and I believed that God would make it a “Joseph moment,” everything changed. I’m so thankful that He takes such good care of us! And now I even have everything I need to start a new painting, AND confirmation from the Lord to do it!

 

Love, Carolyn

 

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BAD BLOOD

BAD BLOOD

What would make three brothers kidnap three girls, lock them up in ropes and chains, and torture them for ten years?

 

The devil and bad blood, that’s what. When Adam sinned and turned his back on God, the bloodline of all mankind was affected. The tendency toward sin literally got into his blood and was passed from generation to generation.

 

Adam sinned and his son Cain became the first murderer. Many of the people who are members of the Satanic church, and other Satanic groups claim that they are the progeny of Cain, believing that Eve had sex with the devil and Cain was the offspring. These committed followers believe that as progeny of Cain they have a right and calling to worship Satan, a worship that involves child sacrifice among other truly evil practices,

 

It’s hard to imagine some of the horrible things we hear about. Many of these evils are passed from generation to generation. “The guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation” (Ex. 34: 7).

 

There are lots of different kinds of generational curses, some more notorious than others. There is a way we can recognize them and all but one generational curse is curable and eraseable. The only sin that cannot be turned around is when a person sells their soul to the devil, and they get "born" of the seed of Satan. Spiritual seed from God is everlasting and seed from the devil is also everlasting. Spirit doesn’t die.

 

Recognizing a generational curse is the first step to deliverance from it. Deuteronomy 28:15-68 lists many of the generational curses that are still in existence to this day. Take time to read it this week.

 

In our own times we see molested children sometimes becoming the molesters when they get older. We see children of alcoholic parents becoming alcoholics themselves. Other examples of generational curses are stealing, uncontrollable lying, drug abuse, eating disorders, other addictions including codependent relationships, erroneous thinking about finances, irrational fears, physical sicknesses and diseases, inexplicable early deaths, mental problems, just to name a few.

 

When we read the Bible, we can see certain bad thinking and bad habits passed from father to son, mother to daughter, etc. Sometimes you’ll see that a curse skips a generation and comes roaring back to a grandchild. The Old Testament is full of examples of generational curses:

 

“And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God” (1 Kings 15:3).

 

“And Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned over Israel two years. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father” (1 Kings 15:25-26).

 

King David lusted after Bathsheba and even had her husband killed so he could have her. Then Solomon, his son, “loved many strange women: of the nations concerning which the Lord said, ‘Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods:’ Solomon clave unto these in love. And he had seven hundred wives. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord” (1 Kings. 11:1-3, 6).

 

But these evils that keep attacking God’s people throughout their lives, can all be overcome. God made a way to supernaturally cleanse the sin that causes bad blood.

 

The answer is Jesus. Because He shed His perfect blood, we receive redemption when we accept Him into our hearts. Our spiritual blood flow is without the curses that came before. It is up to us to accept it. We have to get strong against the devil’s forces that want us to accept our lives with all the bad we seem to be stuck with.

 

But we’re not stuck with it; God sent Jesus as a savior for us. He can supernaturally wipe away all generational curses.

“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins”(Matt. 1:21).

 

We have to first read God’s Word to convince ourselves, and then tell the devil and his evil forces what we now believe the truth: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse” (Gal. 3:13).

 

We keep reading the scriptures and let the truth enter our hearts and change them from the inside out. Only the spirit of God can get in between the cracks of our brains, our other organs, our souls, to repair, heal, restore, and create the new being God intended for us to be.

 

Every change is a miracle at the cellular level, no matter how long it takes. And God is a miracle-working God.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

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PRAYER FROM THE SPIRIT OF GOD

PRAYER FROM THE SPIRIT OF GOD

On my walk home from grade school, I would sing songs in a made-up language. Later in life, I realized this was singing in tongues. Often when children get born again, they exhibit the freedom to yield to the Holy Spirit by speaking or singing in their new God-given language. Did you have a secret language you spoke or sang songs with when you were young? Can you do it now? Of course you can. And the more, the better. When people in the New Testament times got born again, they also were inspired to speak or sing in a different language than they normally spoke in. The Bible says speaking with tongues is an outward sign of the miracle God did in us when He sent his spiritual seed to live in us and gave us everlasting life with Him.    

 

There’s been a lot of misunderstanding about speaking in tongues. People think a spirit takes over, and it’s like in the movies where a person’s eyes roll back in their head, they get possessed, and then they speak in a different language and are totally unaware of it. But it’s just the opposite. The person speaking or praying in tongues is in complete control of their actions. The Spirit from within gives the words, but the person does the speaking. We can start or stop anytime, just like speaking in our native language.

 

In the Old Testament times, the Spirit of God was “on” a person. In Jesus’ time on earth, the Spirit of God was “with” them. Jesus told His disciples that after He went back to the Father in Heaven, they would have the Spirit of God “in” them. Then He told them how they could build up that seed of His Spirit within, to become more spiritually mature.

 

“And he [Jesus] said unto them, ‘Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues” (Mark 16:15-16).

 

Jesus told them they would speak in new tongues. Why would they need that? Well, Jerusalem and that part of the world wasn’t in a peaceful place, much like the world is not in a peaceful place now. The believers then, and now too, need to build up the spiritual part of our lives as much as we can, to be able to be strong, more loving, more powerful, peaceful, and trusting. We need to be spiritually sharp on the inside, to be able to handle the things happening on the outside.

 

In wanting my faith to grow, I was recently urged by the Lord to add Jude 20 to the set of scriptures Jane and I say out loud on our way to my work: “Building yourselves up in your most holy faith, by praying in the Holy Spirit.” That’s praying in tongues.

 

The devil is getting a lot bolder with his attacks, but we can get stronger spiritually by speaking in tongues. “He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself” (1 Cor. 14:4). The Greek word for “edifieth” means “to be a house-builder, build up, embolden.” 

There are going to be problems with people and circumstances where we’ll want to see solutions, but we don’t really know what we should pray for. Romans 8:26-27 tells us: “The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”

 

The Greek translation reads: “The Holy Spirit maketh intercession for us in groanings that cannot be uttered in articulate speech.” Articulate speech refers to our known languages. We just don’t know what God knows, but the Holy Spirit within us does. The Holy Spirit gives us the words in another language so that we can pray the perfect will of God for any person or any situation.

 

Children easily learn to speak in tongues, and in this instance, it’s great if we can let ourselves be more like children. Just ask the Lord to give you your spiritual language, then you breathe in, believe to receive your words, and start to speak them out. That’s how Jesus taught his disciples to speak with new tongues. Jesus told the disciples to breathe in, then speak out the words the Holy Spirit gives. They will be a different language than you already know, so don’t think it’s weird just because it sounds odd to you.

 

If you need more documentation, read the book of Acts and see how often it comes up. Regular people all over the book of Acts spoke in tongues.

 

The more you speak, the more comfortable you will be. Once you start speaking in tongues out loud, you can start speaking in tongues in your head, just like you would talk to yourself silently. This way, you can speak in tongues while you’re at work or the gym or just going about your regular daily routines, without people wondering about what the heck you’re doing.  

 

There are many other great benefits to speaking in tongues that you can read about in the book of Acts and the Epistles. And of course, as you do speak with tongues, you’ll experience yourself growing spiritually as well, in your daily life.

 

We can be better equipped as ambassadors for our Lord when we do what Jesus instructed: “They shall speak with new tongues.” He said: “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:39). So let’s let it flow.

 

Note: I learned about speaking in tongues in a Bible class I took almost 50 years ago. But I’d be interested in how any of you individuals or leaders have led people into speaking or singing in tongues in more recent times. It’s such a valuable tool!

 

Love, Carolyn

 

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THE ZOMBIES CAN'T GET US

THE ZOMBIES CAN’T GET US

In the movie, “World War Z” the zombies are on the way and the hero of the movie tells the family, “People who keep moving, live.”

 

Movement is life. A while ago at work, I had to be standing in one position on a cement floor for 7 ½ hours. When I got home my back was stiff and sore. I did an exercise to stretch it but I had to do it four times before I heard that wonderful popping as the muscles stretched out.

 

When we feel like we’re on pause, or like we’re not really moving ahead with our life, we need to think about asking the Lord to help us to become more flexible and yield quickly to His urgings, without second-guessing ourselves. When the Pharisees got stuck in their ways, or even when Jesus’ disciples got stuck in their thinking, the Lord said they were slipping fast into hard-heartedness. We don’t want that. People need our love and our care, things we can’t give if we’re angry and ridged in our thinking.

 

Recently I’ve been exercising the ability to stay flexible mentally. When I got blocked from certain capabilities on Facebook, the first thing that popped into my head (after a brief dance with disappointment) was: “God will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert” (Isaiah 43:19). I wasn’t going to give up on reaching people with my writing, but I knew I had to be compliant to the Holy Spirit, ready to go in a divergent direction if necessary.

 

At work, I may think I have the right answer, but I’ve learned that often others have even better ideas. My co-workers would tell you that they’ve heard me say many times, “I’ve got a lot of ideas, but I can’t say they’re always good ones.”

 

When we know that we’re doing God’s will, nothing can stop us, but we may have to be a little flexible in the execution. We can’t be making all kinds of our own rules about how we think things should be done all the time. I know we all get into comfortable routines, but putting stiff unbreakable rules on ourselves can lead to rigidity and unnecessary hard heartedness.

 

That’s what happened to the Pharisees. They knew it was God’s will to heal people but they also knew that they weren’t supposed to do any work on the Sabbath. They became overbearingly inflexible about not working on the Sabbath, to the point that when Jesus went to heal a man on the Sabbath, they were furious:

 

“And he [Jesus] entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand.  And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him.  And he saith unto the man which had the withered hand, ‘Stand forth.’

 

“And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness [blindness] of their hearts, he saith unto the man, ‘Stretch forth thine hand’. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.

 

“And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.  But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea” (Mark 3:1-7).

 

Now I know none of us would want to be as ridiculous as the Pharisees, but at times we’ve sacrificed the greater blessing and gotten mad about having to change.

 

But we don’t want to lose sight of the bigger picture. When obstacles come up against the traditions we’ve set up, we want to let the Holy Spirit take us around some new bends in the stream. It may be more thrilling and more satisfying than we ever imagined.

 

Don’t get stuck in rigid rules. If we get brittle, we’ll break. Let’s be willing to go in a slightly different direction as the Holy Spirit opens new ways. The zombies will never be able to get us if we just keep moving with the Holy Spirit.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

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LIVING FAITH

LIVING FAITH

I don’t wake up anymore dreading the day ahead. It’s because I studied familiar spirits in the Bible and got rid of the one that was bringing around the tremendous dread every morning. I’ve been delivered from many other generational curses passed down in the DNA of my parents, grandparents, and ancestors. Some generational curses we experience come from so far back, we can’t possibly recognize their origin. But we can get clues to our personal spiritual ancestral history from studying the Bible. God will use His written Word, and then add personal revelations to us when we desire them and or need them.

 

Any person can study up on generational curses and can even recognize them in themselves and others. But studying isn’t a requirement for deliverance. Faith is.

 

Hebrews 11:1 tells us: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The Amplified puts it this way: “Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].”

 

Faith believes a thing before it’s seen in our reality. God wants us to “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7).

 

It’s in my nature to work. Even when I’m off for the weekend, I end up working in my yard. But faith is a different type of work. Faith is a yielding work, where we just believe God. The only way we even are able to claim that we have faith is because God gave it to us. It’s a spirit thing that is attached directly to Jesus’ spirit and the spirit of God Himself. We believe that what He’s said in His written Word or said to us by revelation, is true. It’s an intimate thing, personal, and based on is grace to us.

 

Jesus healed iniquities (generational curses) that the people did not know about: the man born blind, the man from the Gadarenes, the man with the withered hand. The Gospels are filled with the wonderful healings and deliverances God did through Jesus Christ. One that especially hits my heart is recorded in Luke 13:11:

 

“And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.”

 

If we were reading in the original language, we would know that this infirmity could have been in her body and in her mind. The infirmity was an inborn weakness or frailty of the body and soul. It was a lack of strength or even capacity to understand a thing, the inability to restrain corrupt desires, to bear up under trouble or trials, or ever do great things. She just didn’t have it in her. We all know people like that. In this woman’s case, her inborn frailty even affected her posture, and she was bent over under the overall strain of life itself.

 

“And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, ‘Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.’ And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God” (Luke 13:12-13).

 

The woman knew this was from God and she honored and celebrated Him for healing her. Life could no longer push her down. Jesus gifted her with the understanding and the strength to do great things and overcome corrupt desires and bear up under trials, things she could never do before.

 

We all have things that bother us about ourselves, but Jesus is here to heal us of all that. As He said to the man whose son was suicidal: “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23).

 

Got a problem? Jesus has the answer. Let’s respond like the man who had the suicidal son: “And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe” (Mark 9:24). And “When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, ‘Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him” (v. 25).

 

The spirit was causing the child to jump into fires and caused the boy to try to drown himself. So why didn’t Jesus cast out a suicide spirit? Because Jesus had to get right to the source. Instead of casting out a suicide spirit, He went straight to the spirit causing the son to be deaf and dumb.  It was a “foul” spirit, the definition is “unclean in thought and life.” Had Jesus cast out only a suicide spirit, the child would have been stalked by more suicide spirits later. Jesus got to the real problem of an unclean mind and lifestyle, a big foul spirit which resulted in him not being able to speak or hear.

 

“And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose” (Mark 9:25-27).

 

We have the faith in us to believe like the father for big deliverance, and we can be lifted up like the boy.  We have the kind of faith like the woman in Luke 13. She was lifted up—she was straightened up and set free, relieved from all her weaknesses. Faith makes us strong. And faith connects us to God.

 

Check out the Gospels this week and take a look at Hebrews 11 for great and small leaps of faith. :-)

 

Love, Carolyn

 

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WE CAN BE PATIENT BECAUSE THE LORD IS FAITHFUL

WE CAN BE PATIENT BECAUSE THE LORD IS FAITHFUL

In May of 2017, it was slow at work, but I was able to find a few things to do to keep busy. However, in about a week and a half, I started to get low on new ideas. It’s a good thing the Lord is faithful. He took this opportunity to teach me to be patient. It’s not that my boss doesn’t want me to work; He does. But I like to do tasks that will be profitable. We didn’t have any samples to work on, and I hate standing around trying to look like I’m busy. So Jesus came through for me and gave me new tasks to do.

 

Isaiah 48:6-7 says: “I have shown thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them. They are created now and not from the beginning, even before the day when thou heardest them not, lest thou shouldest say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’” I sure couldn’t brag about coming up with the new projects to make our work easier or more efficient. It was the Lord who gave me ideas, one at a time, and as I got started on one, He led me step by step into the next part or into an entirely new project. It was amazing.

 

At the beginning of this slow time, I had no idea of the ideas He would give me. One after another, the innovations came. There was the rattle can inventory—over 100 cans of spray paint! I wanted to be able to see what they’d look like once sprayed, but how was I going to do it in a neat and useful way? Ephesians 1:8 says: “He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom.” I love the way The Amplified Version puts it: “In all wisdom and understanding with practical insight.” I needed that practical insight in this situation.

 

The Holy Spirit gave me the idea to make a template with a small square-shaped opening just big enough to spray the paint through and show what the color looked like. So I divided up the colors in different categories and had three templates going at once. (In dry time, I experimented with some wild color spray paint covers for my new books.)

 

Once I finished that project, I wondered what would be next. Lamentations 3:22-26 says:  

 

“It is through the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness.

 

“‘The Lord is my portion,’ saith my soul, ‘Therefore will I hope in Him.’ The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him.

 

“It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.”

 

The word “salvation” also means “satisfaction.” When we seek the Lord and quietly wait, when we are patient, we will experience satisfaction. I was learning to believe in God’s faithfulness to me. He would keep me working, keep giving me new things to do, not just to busy my time, but things that would be helpful to us in the shop later on. So I was patient.

 

Again the Lord got me started on another task I didn’t see coming. I looked around and saw that I could organize the cans of paint on the shelves and label the shelves so that it would be easier and faster to find what we needed. When I started marking the shelves, one thing led to another; the labeling got more detailed, making the task of finding things even more efficient. It made me happy to be doing something that was going to be beneficial, something that, in normal working mode, we would never have the time to accomplish. But, of course, Jesus knew that!

 

In this slow time at work, the Lord is taking the opportunity to teach me about His faithfulness to me and showing me that I really can be patient and like it.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

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STAYING FAITHFUL

STAYING FAITHFUL

Fred had good Christian teaching as a child. He’s much older now, and he says he doesn’t believe in God anymore.  Many people who started as Bible-believing children, come dangerously close to wanting to give up on the Bible later in life.

 

Traumatic events take place, and God gets blamed. We’re born again, and we think things should be going better for us. But sometimes they don’t go well at all. The truth is faithfulness isn’t something for the weak-hearted. It takes some real inner strength to stay faithful, and our faithfulness gets tested over and over throughout our lives. Faithfulness isn’t that easy sometimes, but is it worth it? For sure!

 

Hebrews 11:6 tells us that God rewards faith: “He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

 

In the big picture of things, our lives are short here on earth compared to our eternity. “As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more” (Ps. 103:15).

 

Though life may seem unbearable at times, God promises that “there hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Cor. 10:13).

 

In Old Testament terms, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Ps. 30:5). You say, “That’s the longest night ever!” But God does promise joy in the morning. And God “is not a man that he should lie” (Num. 23:19).

 

In New Testament terms, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:17). I looked up the word “affliction” in the Greek. It is a thronging, crowding pressure. It’s narrow, burdened with anguish, persecution, and trouble. It comes from a root word meaning a rut or worn track. And isn’t that how the attacks come sometimes? We get in a rut of affliction, the same things over and over.

 

When the Bible says “light affliction” it doesn’t mean it’s no big deal. The word “light” has two meanings in the Greek. The older meaning is that the affliction is pushed like a torrential wind pushes or oars push in the water or how demonic powers push. We are all aware of what mighty winds can do to even the strongest of palm trees or buildings.

 

If you’ve ever watched the Olympic rowing teams, you know how powerful those oars cut through the water. And if demonic powers have pounded you at times, you know it’s no small matter.

 

This verse is telling us that the Lord understands that the afflictions are rough and hard to bear.

 

But the second meaning of the word “light” is just as we suspected. The afflictions we bear now are minimal, compared to the honor, praise, glory, and dignity we will have for eternity.

 

This is how Second Corinthians 4:17 is translated In the Amplified Version: “For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress of the passing hour) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory [beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!”

 

God shows us how to endure in this life. Read the Bible and see the many examples of men, women, and children who confronted adversity and came out on the other side.

 

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12: 1-2).

 

We have Jesus’ help! Let’s use it. “Help me. Help me. Help me!” He will help us. So let’s do our best to stay faithful even through the hard things.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

Check out my WINGS series on Amazon or email me at crolynmolica@hotmail.com to get a free pdf or word doc.

 

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I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING

I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE THINKING

We’ve all experienced times when we’re pretty sure we know what someone is thinking. But we don’t acknowledge it because if it’s something bad, we don’t want to be accused of being judgmental, and we don’t want to be wrong. But God wants us to believe in what we see by the spirit. He wants us to hear spiritually so that we’ll begin to understand the deeper levels of human behavior and be able to act quickly with wisdom.

 

Perception and understanding come from the Lord. When we’re pretty sure we’re getting a bead on what someone is thinking, we can ask the Lord to confirm it. Or, on the other hand, He’ll let us know when we’ve misunderstood. But we don’t give up. God gave this ability to Jesus for a purpose, and we are the Lord’s sisters and brothers, and God wants us to exercise this ability as well. This amazing ability helps us to see the problems and get to the solutions faster.

 

We see in Matthew 13:13 that Jesus tells his disciples that people without the spirit of Christ within, often don’t perceive the truth when they see it, and they can’t understand the truth when they hear it.

 

“Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing, see not; and hearing, they hear not, neither do they understand.”

 

To consistently and accurately understand the deeper levels of human behavior, you have to have the spirit of Christ within. Throughout the gospels, we see Jesus demonstrating the ability to know what people were thinking, perceiving accurately what He saw, and understanding perfectly what He was hearing. Jesus wants us to do this too. The following are just some examples of how valuable this ability was to Jesus and can be to us as well:

 

Matt. 12:25: “And Jesus knew their thoughts.”

 

Matt. 12:14-15: “Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him. But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence.”

 

Matt. 22:18: “But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, ‘Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?’”

 

Mark 8:17: “And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, ‘Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? Perceive ye not yet, neither understand? Have ye your heart yet hardened?’”

 

Luke 6:7-8 “And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him. But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, ‘Rise up, and stand forth in the midst.’”

 

Luke 20:23: “But he perceived their craftiness, and said unto them, ‘Why tempt ye me?’”

 

The Apostle Paul explains: “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). And with the spirit of Christ in us, we can do what He did.

 

Jesus told us in John 14:12: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also.”

 

Don’t doubt your ability to see and perceive, hear, and understand. The Lord Jesus gave you His same ability to know what’s on people’s minds. Test it out. Believe what you see. There are just some things in life we need to know ahead of time, and we can if we allow the Christ in us to open our eyes and ears.

 

In truth, we already see and hear. Now we need to step out in believing, and acting according to His wisdom.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

WINGS: A JOURNEY IN FAITH

 

This compelling volume will heighten your awareness and change how you look at circumstances around you.

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REVERSE THE CURSE

REVERSE THE CURSE

God set up certain laws of the universe such as the laws of physics, gravity, the intricate laws of what happens when certain chemicals are combined, laws of how our immune system works, laws of nature, and laws that govern many different aspects of our lives. In the first part of Deuteronomy 28, God tells us what happens if we seek to do those things that bring about good results for our lives. But from verse 15 to verse 68, He tells us about the curses of the law, which are the things that can and do happen when we deliberately break His laws and the laws of the universe.

 

We are familiar with the law of gravity, for instance. If you jump off a cliff, you’re going to fall. And yet, God is able and willing to reverse the curse of gravity for His people. In 2 Kings 6: 4-6, we see this in action. The men were in Bible school and wanted to build a place to live while they were learning from Elisha.

 

 “They cut down wood. But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water: and he cried, and said, ‘Alas, master! for it was borrowed.’ And the man of God said, ‘Where fell it?’ And he shewed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in thither; and the iron did swim.” You might want to say that he put the stick into the water and scooped up the axe, but that’s not it. The Bible says he “cast” it, and that word means he “flung” it in, or he “hurled” it in.

 

In this situation, gravity was a curse in that it took the iron axe head down to the bottom of the water, and the man was devastated because he had borrowed the axe and wanted to return it. But God Almighty reversed the curse for him. God stopped the law of gravity entirely, and the axe head floated up to the top!

 

In another Old Testament incident, God stopped the effect of poison.

 

“Elisha came again to Gilgal: and there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him: and he said unto his servant, ‘Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets.’ 

 

“And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not. 

 

“So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, ‘O thou man of God, there is death in the pot.’ And they could not eat thereof. 

 

“But he said, ‘Then bring meal.’ And he cast it into the pot; and he said, ‘Pour out for the people, that they may eat.’ And there was no harm in the pot” (2 Kings 4: 38-41).

 

The nature of poison is to kill, but when Elisha threw something in the pot, the poison couldn’t do what it wanted to do. The curse of the poison was nullified.

 

There are many other places in the Old Testament where God shows us that His love for people goes far beyond the rules of natural laws.

 

Then God sent Jesus onto the earth, and faith in Him was even more important than any law. Galatians 3:13 tells us: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.”

 

Jesus came to reverse the curses. Jesus took on all the curses that would ever try to hurt us, and He looked them in the face, and they ran. Philippians 2:10 tells us that: “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.” A virus is a thing; a demon is a thing; poverty is a thing; Nanoparticles are things. All things must bow to the name of Jesus Christ.

 

James 4:7 tells us: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

 

God can reverse the law of gravity and reverse the law of poison in a pot of stew and reverse the law of a vicious snake bite (like with the Apostle Paul). God slowed the sun down for one of the prophets and made time go backwards. God can reverse the laws of nature and the laws of any man-made element anywhere, anytime, and for anyone!

 

Do you believe in God’s ability to reverse a curse for you? I do.

 

Love, Carolyn