Pipe Dreams

PIPE DREAM

Have you ever had someone tell you that your hope was a pipe dream and to get with it?  Well, I was surprised yesterday when someone told me this.  I was sharing about how our church is hoping to one day be able to support house missionaries, to spread the revival fire across Canada and the States.  Not a bad dream to have because it's a Kingdom motivated dream or hope.

It costs money to send people especially when they have to give up their work to do it, so we are stretching our faith, but that's okay.  Faith needs something to work on because it's a muscle.  Faith that can't be tested, can't be trusted.

Anyhow,  I was told to throw away my pipe dream and get with reality.   I didn't respond right away because I didn't want a fight and I'm trying to grow in the fruit of the spirit.  A fool vents all his anger but a wise man holds it in, right? Right. (ref. Prov. 12:6)

I started thinking about all the things people have told me I would never do and all the dreams people, well meaning people have told me to give up on and I got excited.

I started shouting, "Thank God for pipe dreams!" Thank God for the wild dreams that He gives us because He is able to bring them to pass!  I yelled, "Ha!" and it felt really good.

People told me I would never amount to anything, that I would always be a failure.  I went on to get my Engineering degree, with good marks and I have had several careers along the way!

People told me that I wasn't a good mom and I almost believed it. Thank God the worker at the Children's Aid Society took the time to open my eyes to see that I was doing a fine job with my daughter-- before I gave her up for adoption.

People told me that I would be back within three months when I shared how God was leading me to move to Ottawa, Ontario.  I was originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba which is about 2350 kms away. Ha!  I want to tell you that I have been living in the Ottawa area for 23 years so far.

People told me to sell my horse-back riding saddle because with all the debt I had and being a single mom it was a pipe dream to think of owning horses again.  I want to tell you that I have owned 15 horses over the last 17 years and I have a huge barn with foaling stalls and standing stalls, two run-in sheds, a round pen and a 1.5 acre riding ring on my property.  God promises that if we seek him with all our hearts that he will give us the desires of our hearts.  It's true!  He did that an so much more than I could ever initially hope for!

People thought it was impossible for Canada to be covered with the Glory of God as the waters cover the sea, but we are seeing it grow and spread over the last 12 years thanks to groups like the Watchmen, ( http://www.watchmen.org/ )

So, my advice is laugh!  I started laughing while I was working yesterday because I know how great my God is!  I have received the spirit of adoption. I know I am not an orphan!  My God loves me so much, he is not going to let me fall!  He takes no delight in seeing his children beat up by the devil. He specializes in making the weak and foolish look super.  Thank God we all qualify for his help.

Does anybody have any pipe dreams I can agree with you about in prayer?  It's time we started speaking to our mountains and asking the Lord for strategies. Oh, and let's make sure we ask for joy in our daily journey with Holy Spirit.  That's what he wants most of all-- our fellowship. I Bless you in Jesus' name; spiritually, mentally, physically, financially and relationally. Amen!

Big hugs,
Brenda Gale
(photo courtesy of photobucket.com) 

P.S. A good song to start with is Steve Swanson's "Changing the Atmosphere".  Here is a link to a youtube video of this song.  Awesome declarations!     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWqWauY0Nds&feature=related

Puppy Turn Around

The puppies are cute at 4 weeks old. They were not very good at licking up the pablum at first. They started licking it off my fingers initially and then I would draw them to the plate edge. Once they realized the food was there they got excited and tried to climb into the plate. Well that was hilarious as all legs skidded out on them.

It took them a while to realize that walking across the plate was not a good idea. I had to keep pulling them back.
The mother is from a little town way past Kitchener and the Daddy is from Missouri.   I was really happy with their markings and their health, so you can imagine my shock when the vet told me that one of them had a heart murmur.  I had done everything possible to make sure the parents were not related.

"What is that?," I asked in my ignorance.

She replied, "It's when the heart valves don't work properly." 

"Is it serious?," I probed, looking for more information.

"No, 95% of the time they go away on their own by the time the dog is full grown," she explained.

Hmm.  I couldn't get her to try the stethoscope again and she wrote the damning information on the vet report. This was horrible news. Sick puppies don't sell and I was counting on the money to pay off the summer bills because I didn't have a job. Never mind that fact that I was going back to work and didn't have time to look after an additional puppy.

By the time I got into the car to head home I was upset to say the least.  I told the Lord, "This is not blessed. You told me I was blessed, so show me what to say or do to change this into a blessing."

Immediately the words of the vet came back to me.... it goes away on it's own 95% of the time.   So what I needed was for God to speed up the healing process.  She was an otherwise healthy pup and played as hard or harder than the other pups, so I had peace to pray that.

As soon as I got home I got  my son and daughter to agree with me that Ruby was supernaturally healed and that she would never have a heart problem again and neither would her future puppies.
Nothing happened that we could see, no physical witness, tears, heat, tingles.  Therefore we stood by faith. I wouldn't let anyone confess anything but health and blessing over Ruby.

It was the longest 4 days ever.  I had a hard time sleeping at night because so much was hinged on this puppy selling.  I disliked not telling the lady about the situation, but the Lord kept telling me to wait whenever I asked him if I could let her know.  Ruby was scheduled to fly out on Tuesday so we went to the vet on Monday.

The senior vet examined her and when she had the stethoscope on her, she kept moving it.  Laughter and tears hit me as I realized that she couldn't find the murmur.  I had brought two business cards from church and was sharing about all the miracles that had happened recently in the meetings.

She didn't want to acknowledge the miracle and said, "Well, hang on a minute." Bringing out a pediatric stethoscope, she again listened to Ruby's heart from many different angles.

Well it's not there," she stated.  "It could be that it was intermittent," she offered by way of explanation.

We know better.   Ruby got her miracle and I got my testimony and the opportunity to witness to the receptionist and the vet. To God be all the glory!

Incidentally, this is what the vet put on the travel document:
"Innocent Heart Murmur noted on first exam Aug 19/10. 
Unable to detect today - maybe intermittent but unlikely pathological."

I emailed Ruby's new owner with the news and a pdf of the Certificate of Health and gave her the option of taking her or I would refund her money.  She decided to take her and Ruby flew out via West Jet on Tuesday.

I rejoice in how it worked out.  God is on our side and there is a devil/bully on the loose trying to kill, steal and destroy any area of our lives he can, especially our finances.  That is his last stronghold because he knows that money makes the world go around.

So the challenge is to renew our minds and then ask the Lord what we can say or do that will change things.  He says that all things will work together for our good, to those that love Him and that we should have no fear of bad news, so now we have to dig in to the word and put it to work for us. (Rom. 8:28, Ps. 112:7-10)

Rejoice!  Again I say rejoice!  The Lord takes pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.(Psalm 35:27) That's good news in these economic times.

I decree you are blessed with God's wisdom  today. May you have His joy in your journey and may you know His love more and more, in Jesus' name I ask. Amen.

Same Spirit (part 1)

The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you! (Romans 8:11)

I know we've heard it before but it bears repeating. "The same Spirit that raised Jesus up from the grave dwells in you." (Rom. 8:11 my paraphrase)

I am convinced that we don't understand all that this verse implies.
In 1 John 4:17 we read that "...as Jesus is, so are we in this world."

If resurrection power, earth shattering, devil stomping power resides in me, in my spirit what am I doing with it?

What am I speaking to my situations? Am I exercising authority over them? Ouch... I wish I could say I was but sometimes it's hard to recognize the fight, because we've put up with failure so long.

Therefore I am asking the Lord to help me wise up to what's going on around me.

His power is the greatest thing around so I have got get better at releasing it into my situations. How you ask? The same way the disciples did. They were told to wait to be endued with power so they did and God came through. The result was Pentecost! They didn't just wait that one time either. Throughout the book of Acts it mentions how they prayed and asked for even more power! (Acts 4:29-33) What a thought! (I'm not doing even a tenth of what those disciples did!)

They spent time every day in prayer, seeking God. They also spoke what God told them to. They spoke words of authority like, "Stand up and walk."... commanding words that were not to be argued with. They had a revelation of who they were.

I don't know about you, but I never got anywhere begging God. The bible says that "He is waiting on us to make His enemies His footstool." (Heb. 10:13)

It would be very unkind to expect us to do something without giving us the tools to do it and since God is such a good Daddy, I know He's put the tools where we can reach them. He's not far from us. He's patient with us, not wanting any to perish. He wants us to get this.

The Bible contains more tools than I will ever need. So I am going to ask Him to reveal them to me day by day.

Let's pray.
Lord help me to make time to listen to You every day. Show me how to make you first in my life. Thank You Jesus for protecting my time with You. Help me to hear and trust Your voice. Thank You for leading me into Your word. Thank You for wisdom and revelation from the Bible. Thank You Lord Jesus for showing me what to speak over my life and circumstances. I thank you in advance for the answers you are giving me Lord. Amen!

A Wholesome Tongue

Diane Maartens, from South Africa is on Face Book and has quite the ministry encouraging believers in the Word of God with 770 friends thus far. Here's a snippet of a daily quote she wrote.

"Proverbs 15:4: Tells us that, "A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit." You have your very own tree of life, IN your mouth, the words you speak must bring life to you and those around you. Create your own miracle garden, with the words of your mouth, which are seeds...."

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap. (Gal 6:7) Do not mock God by saying He brings sickness to you, He has clearly said as a man sows so shall he reap. When we speak things that are not consistent with the Word of God and with our nature which is the God nature, it causes calamity. Proverbs 18:21 tell us that life and death are in the power of your tongue..so a perverse tongue will bring death and destruction to your life, so what are you saying?"

That's food for thought eh? Lord help us all to keep a better guard on our mouths. (Psalm 141:3)