Psalm 36:7 ESV
Psalm 36:8-9 ESV
John 10:10 NKJV
Proverbs 29:11
Listening Series
When I was six months old I had a life-threatening illness. It wasn’t diagnosed at the time, but recent events indicate I had pneumonia. I found out what happened in a strange way.
I had a CT scan checking to see why I had unexplained pain in my right leg. My lungs were not on the radar, but the scan included my spine and caught a glimpse of my lungs. It showed significant scarring in one lung. When the doctor’s office called to give me the report on what was causing the pain, she told me about the scarring in my lung. She asked me a series of questions related to what would have caused the scarring. I answered each question with a “no”.
When every possibility had been exhausted, she said , “well something caused the scarring. Are you sure you haven’t had pneumonia?”
Then it hit me. In 1954 when I was extremely ill, they might not have diagnosed my illness as pneumonia. So, I told the nurse about the events that happened when I was 6 months old. The conclusion was that I did have pneumonia that left scarring in my lung.
I’ve heard other people talk about their lung issues because of scarring. I realized God has been protecting me. Psalm 36:7 says, “How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!
And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.”
I’ve known a miracle occurred when I was six months old because my parents told me the story. It became ‘my miracle story’ as they talked about what God did that day when my dad prayed and asked God to heal me.
Even when I was too young to know it, God’s loving-kindness gave me refuge. Without knowing it, the prayer my dad prayed had placed me in the shadow of His wings. Without knowing it, I’d been there for decades.
The prayer My dad spoke that day was also the start of a huge change in my dad’s life. He was forever changed because of the healing prayer request he spoke that day. Also, little did we know at the time that I would eventually be part of a ministry that would focus on God’s healing power.
When God called me to go to Seminary in 2007, I was Director of a Healing Prayer Service at a church in Iowa. I struggled with God’s request to send me to Seminary. I couldn’t see the need, but God made it perfectly clear that He was calling me to go to Seminary. I had a B.A. in Communication from the University of Missouri, Columbia and my college transcript showed my GPA more than met the requirement to go to graduate school. I was accepted within hours of sending in my application. God had paved the way years before I knew what HE would have me do.
When I graduated from college years before I had no thought of going to Seminary. It wasn’t even on the radar. As a matter of fact, I at the time I graduated I had considered going on to Law School, but after praying about it I didn’t think it was part of God’s plan for me.
I prayed and I listened, because that’s what my dad encouraged me to do. His council to me was always that when I pray, I need sit in silence with God and listen for God’s response. That advice was years before I knew about anything called ‘Listening Prayer’.
Psalm 36:8 says,
“They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.”
God gave abundance. Even though I didn’t want to go to Seminary, God called me and abundantly blessed my journey. Today, I do “drink from the River” of God’s “delights” because of the unexpected journey God set before me.
Even though the thought of going to Seminary wasn’t what I wanted to hear when I listened, God knew what was best. He knew what He had for me in my future.
Because of God’s loving-kindness, all things unseen by me were seen by God.
In the first part of John 10:10, John wrote “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” Jesus’ words warn us that we need to beware of ‘the thief’ (the evil) that would separate us from the goodness and loving-kindness of God.
As we listen to the voice of God, and we experience His character we come to know that God not only does God know everything about our past and our present condition, God knows our future.
God has a good plan for us (Proverbs 29:11), and that includes what Jesus spoke of in the last part of John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
Abundant life is ours. When we turn to God, when we listen, God directs us in every way toward His loving-kindness.
That does not mean life will be easy and will not have lessons for us along the way. It does mean that every lesson, every pitfall, every unseen thing is SEEN by God.
In Psalm 36:9, David wrote “For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light do we see light.”
Psalm 36 was written by David who knew even what is unseen by us is SEEN by God. He knew the fountain of life was illuminated by a Holy God. He knew God’s light was THE light.
The same is true for you. God’s light is YOUR light.
Today’s Spiritual Practice: Light
Let The light of God shine on you. Bask in the healing light of God.
In God, Deborah
acrazyjourney.com
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