Well.  What a wonderful week of evangelistic meetings we have had at MCAOG.  It has been great having  Carl Harris with us.  I have sat under Carl's teaching for almost 11 years now and each message gets better and better.   Eleven years ago this month, Carl prayed against what the doctors had said.  He prayed for Tim and I to have a child.  Almost 2 years to the day of him praying for us, our beautiful daughter, Kierstynne Mykayla, was born.   Tomorrow she turns 8.  Where has the time gone?  It has been the longest eight years of my life, but by the same token, it has been the shortest eight years of my life.  I can vividly remember finding out I was pregnant with her.  I can tell you every minute of the day of her birth.  It's unbelievable to me that she has grown up so very fast.  But I digress..

This last week has been very hard on me.  I have been fighting an infection that is stubborn.  The doctors aren't sure what it is, how to treat it or how to get rid of it.  I have been nauseated for the past three days, but I didn't let that keep me out of the nightly meetings with Carl.  The devil has devices.  That has been the theme of this week's meetings.  The devil has a plan for your life, just as God has a plan for your life.  Which do you think is the better plan?  I know which is the better plan because God's Word tells me in Jeremiah 29:11 that God has a plan for me.  A plan to prosper me.  A good plan.  God has His eyes on me at all times.  He also knows the plans that devil has to use against me.  God's plan will overrule the devil's plan if I allow God to work in my life.  What would I have missed if I had allowed my sickness to keep me at home and not at church?  I would have missed the Word of God.  I would have missed signs and wonders of healing going on in my church body.  I would have missed testimonies of healings.  All these things work together to bolster our faith.

Seeing others getting healed can work in two ways.  It can lift you up, strengthen your faith, and cause an overflow of joy to flood your soul...God's plan.  Or, it can cause jealousy, resentment and the whole "Why not me" feeling...the devil's plan.  You have the choice of deciding which result you have.  How you view other's healings can have a huge impact on your own.  I choose to be joyful and rejoice with those who were healed this week.  I am believing God for healing in my body, whether it be from a miraculous touch of God's healing hands or through the doctor and the wisdom that God gives them to find cures.  Either way, I will be healed. 

Another thing that Carl has been speaking on is finances.  Right now, mine are in the toilet.  The devil's devices are devious.  Being a slave to your finances is his plan.  When we are a slave to our money, it prevents us from sowing into the Kingdom of God.  When we have to live paycheck to paycheck, it prevents us from blessing others.   When God got ahold of me on March 3rd, I thought I was completely set free from the bondage of money.  I didn't realize that the devil had plans for me and money.  He has kept me in bondage with this thing.  And the sad part is, I didn't even realize it until last night.  The devil's plan for me is that I stay in bondage to money.  God's plan is to set me free from it.  I choose God's plan.  So, tonight when I got home from church, I took my stack of bills, my check book and my debit card and prayed over them.  I prayed that God would set His seal upon the checkbook and debit card.  I prayed that only good will come from them.  No longer will I be subject to the money.  I laid my hands upon them and set them apart for the Kingdom of God.  I then laid my hands on the stack of bills and prayed over them.   I prayed that they will all be paid.  I will no longer be subject to the lender.  I will owe noone anything.  I am believing in God's plan for my life.  The Word says to call things that are not as if they are.  That's what I'm doing.  Right now, I can't see a way to pay what has to be paid by next Friday.  I need over $800 and our checking account is in the red.  But....but God.  God can make a way where I don't see a way.  God's plan is a good plan.    I know that God is going to take care of me.  But I also know that it's not going to be easy. 

Tonight Carl made the comment that Jesus said to take up our cross daily.  No where in the Bible will you find that following Jesus is going to be easy.  It actually says the opposite.  Why do we think that being a Christ follower is going to be a bed of roses?  Those who followed Jesus in Biblical times were persecuted for it.  They were stoned, imprisoned, and killed.  Where do we get the idea that following Christ is a cake walk?  It's hard to follow Jesus.  It calls for us to set ourselves apart from the world.  Yes, we all live in the world, but we are not of this world.  Everyday, people commit suicide because of their finances.  People place their trust in the stock market, or the casinos.  Those things are temporal.  They are not reliable.  My God is reliable.  He will never leave us or forsake us.  He will stand beside us when the going gets tough.  Psalm 23 tells that even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death that we need fear.  God is walking right there with us.  I know that God is walking right beside me through this valley of bad finances.  When I make it out, I will be able to look back and see just how far I have come and when I look back, I will see two sets of footprints.  God's and mine.  Thank you God for that promise.  Thank you Lord that you love me and will never leave me.  And Lord, thank You than when I am too weak to carry myself any further, that you will carry me the distance to victory in Your Name.  The Name above all names.  The Name that everything and everyone will eventually bow down to.  The Name of Jesus Christ.