The exciting testimony below is from Sybil Hamada, one of our graduate students who lives in Honolulu, Hawaii. She has just completed the Christian Leadership University course, REN507 Healing Anointing, and has found an increase in the healing anointing that flows out through her. Thank You, Lord, for courses which can stimulate faith and understanding and precipitate an increased anointing in our lives!
When you became a parent or a leader of kids, you were not given a handbook on how to raise or train them. You mostly had to learn by experience, and trust those who’ve gone before you to give thoughts and help. We learned how to bathe, feed, change diapers, wipe runny noses, calm a crying child, etc. We spent so much time attending to the physical and emotional needs of our children, but it was hard to feed the spiritual side!
If someone gives you an unexpected gift do you express your gratitude for it? If they continue to show the same generosity on a regular basis do you continue to be as expressive of your thanks as you were for the first gift? Most people are not. Have you heard of compassion fatigue? You may not have heard of gratitude fatigue, but the concept is just as real. The easy route that most people take is to take for granted those things that come routinely. Who is as grateful for the expected blessing as for the unexpected blessing? I want you to cultivate a heart of expressed gratitude for everything you receive whether you expect it or not.
You have my promise that I will return, and my word teaches you to watch for me. Note that watching and figuring it out are not the same activities. Yet where should you look for me? Where should you direct your attention? For I also taught that when you hear rumors of the return of the Son of Man you are not to chase them down. You can see world events but many have erred in interpreting them. Where then should you look? I have told you that the Kingdom of God comes not with observation, but it is within you. If you understand this mystery you will look within and see my return there before you see it elsewhere.
I used to be the one on the wall searching for things to warn others about, people to warn others about. But as my vision of Jesus went from blurry to clear, my understanding of what love looks like lived out did the same. I can’t say I always walk in perfect love perfectly, but I’m trying.
Here are five reasons why I won’t publicly admonish, correct, or condemn others.
I had relatively few followers when I was on earth even though my people knew that a Messiah was coming. They had particular expectations and I didn’t fit the profile. I wasn’t religious enough for the religious establishment. Some followed because of the miracles and they liked the loaves and fishes for lunch. Yet many of my followers fell away because of the shocking things I said. Even those closest to me struggled a great deal with the same statements, but they remained because I had the words of life. When you read the Bible do you do so with the same sense of shock and awe? You should, and find transformative meaning in my words of life.
Today, we are in Savory. It is a rural village that is a few miles from Gracette. It is very hot today. We looked into moving our mobile clinic outside, but with no success. As I walked along the trail that bisects the rice fields, I saw men and women bent over, picking the rice by hand. I expect their methodology hasn't changed at all in millennia. It is hard to imagine working in this heat day after day--and it will only get hotter during the next two months.
Friday at noon. We are about an hour into a medical clinic in Gracette. This is the community where we have installed enough water filters so that all of the nearly 6,000 inhabitants have full access to clan, safe drinking water. Prior to Impact Nations coming the area was rampant with water borne disease, including cholera and typhoid. These are killers.
It is 4:40 in the afternoon and we are in a community of a few thousand that runs along the river. As I write this, the sound system is being set up for our upcoming celebration. We already have much for which to be thankful. Today has been our first full day of ministry. From 10 until 3 we held a free clinic.
In several cases I asked those who were sick or crippled if they wanted to be healed. Do you think this is a stupid question? It isn’t if I ask it. There are times to state the obvious, and state the words that give substance to longing. Do you have issues in your own life that represent unmet needs? Do you come to me and articulate your desires? The Bible affirms the power of verbal declaration and teaches you to engage in it. Does it seem too good to be true that you can have whatever you ask for? Do you find that you have greater success when you ask according to my will? Yet your stated request is part of the process.
