"And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen." Mark 16:20 NKJ |
| A Piece of Possibility |
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| Written by Billie |
| Saturday, 18 July 2009 09:02 |
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A PIECE OF POSSIBLITY By Billie Johnson at JGLM International Conference in Denver, June 19, 2009 As I was talking with the Lord the other day he said, “Yes, you hear those things that are from the Almighty. Your mind can contain the secrets that have been hidden from the ages. You know the mind of Christ. It is possible! You have only to listen and put pen to paper.” So I sat up in bed, took pen in hand and wrote. That is the way I communicate best with our sweet Lord. We know that all things are possible for us through Jesus Christ. At this June 2009 conference of JGLM we are looking at where we have been and where we are going. We have traveled many different routes to find John G. Lake Ministries but we all believe this message to be Biblical and sound. Don and I Come from a main line denominational background. We were members of First Christian Church and or Baptist Churches most of our lives. We were searching for more of God. We received the baptism of the Holy Spirit in a Christian church that had started to move in that direction. But that church didn’t continue to move into power. They told us we’ll get there, we’ll do that soon -- but the direction of the church was to stay in the same old pattern.We continue to seek more light from the scriptures. We seek to be enlightened – to have more light more illumination, to see more clearly! The way to do that is to spend more time in the Word – that is where the light is. Jesus said he was from above. Light comes to you from above. You sit a candle upon a stand where the light grows brighter and the shadows are less. The light causes the darkness to recede. You see as you get more light there is less darkness – that includes your mind as well as your eyes! The dark recesses are opened up so they are dark no longer. They are flooded with light. Where light is darkness flees. Jesus said “I am the light of the world.” I am – the present, not the future or the past but the immediate right now. Way back in the Old Testament in Ex 3:14 God told Moses that his name is I AM. “And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.' That is why you say NOW when you are commanding healing. It is for the present not the future; not the things that are behind. You reach for it now. You ascertain it now. It is immediate. The light of the world means to be flooded with light all over. Not just a small spot or place but covering a large area – an area that IS.All men will come to that light. They will creep out of the darkness. They will walk with purpose. They will stride with resoluteness. They will know the TRUTH and it makes them free -- free NOW not in the future.But to know the truth you have to grasp it. It is more than just hearing; more than just reading. It is allowing the truth to penetrate into your mind; to bring it up out of your spirit where it is planted, to bring it out of your mouth. As Curry says what goes in your ear must come out of your mouth. It may take some stirring, some coagulating; some holding it above and looking at it. It takes time to do that. It may not be immediate to come out of your mouth but it has been stirred, tested, known in a deeper way. Sometimes it takes experience to set it in your mind so it can come out of your mouth. Mind to mouth – spirit to soul! Ears to hear and then mouth to speak – it is only as you continue to stir the truth that you are able to hear it and then to speak it. I really like to work with fabric. To make a man’s shirt or vest a tailor uses several processes. To make something; to create something out of cloth, you have to do more than just see it with your eyes. The fabric is there, folded, neat but useless --- just a large piece of possibility! It is what you do with it that makes it useful. You see in your imagination what it can be. Or you have a picture and then a pattern of what to do with it. You lay the cloth out. We have a pool table that was my sisters that is downstairs. It makes a great cutting table! You stretch out the cloth so you see the fullness of it. You smooth out the wrinkles. You feel it with your hands. You experience it by touch as well as sight.After laying the cloth out flat on a table and seeing the possibilities you place the pattern upon it. You mark where it needs to be cut. You pin the pattern to the fabric. You do this so it is held in place.Then you begin to cut out around the pattern. You experience it by the touch of your hand and also by the tool in your hand. The scissors are the tool in this case. After it is cut then it is marked to show where some construction details need to be. This is the preparation stage. It is needed so that you don’t end up with one sleeve longer than the other or the collar on crooked – we’ve seen the examples in the comics of the person that knitted a sock that is way too long. That was because she didn’t do the preparation necessary to begin the project! The time was not taken to be sure the right amount of stitches were taken or the pattern wasn’t followed closely. Next is the construction stage. You need more tools; a sewing machine or needle and thread. You apply the correct pieces so they fit together and then you stitch them. But the experience doesn’t end there. You need to cut the thread, trim the seams, and adjust as necessary. To grade the seams in tailoring means to make one side a bit more narrow than the other so that the seam is flat from the right side of the garment. Then here may be a bit of pressing with an iron needed to set things right.Fitting a garment is one of the last things to be done before the final pressing. This is done and then the finishing work such as hemming and making closures: button holes and button, snaps or drawstrings – whatever is used to make the cloth into a garment. It has to expand with openings and then close after it is put on the body.The finished garment is sturdy and won’t fall a part because the seams are made well. It is useful– to cover the body – to keep out cold or shade from the heat. It is also a piece of beauty. It is creativity. A piece of possibly has now become a reality.We can see how this process works when using the word of God. We need to continually study the word. We have to be teachable. First you see it; you regard the pattern it sets for you. You smooth out the rough places – those words you don’t understand. Or the sentences that are not clear you study more to make clear. You check them out with what other scripture says or you use a dictionary to look up the meanings of words or other study guides or a computer program. You may see what other people say about this particular scripture.You put the piece of possibility in your mind. You pin those thoughts that help you to remember it. You cut out the unusable pieces. Then you stitch the words together to make a new thought! You make a new way of thinking or habit. You delight in the words from God that are included or added as needed. You cut out the unnecessary thoughts that don’t help you to understand. You trim out the old way of thinking. Some of the trimming is more on one way of doing something, less on another. You do this by putting into practice the new piece of possibility. You DO it. You iron out the wrinkles by adjusting your habits and thoughts to the new one that you are practicing. The finished piece is a new way of experiencing what God has taught you. It is serviceable but also a thing of beauty as you use what God has said. You DO it – you experience scripture in your life. It has been a process but you arrive at a new way of thinking. Your mind is illuminated in a way it hasn’t been before! Glory! It is to God’s glory that a new habit is formed. A new brain wave or pattern is fixed in your mind.You know with a certainty that this piece of possibility is not just probable but is now experienced! You have used your mind, sight, touch and movement of your body, soul and spirit. You’ve also used tools that help you to create a new way of looking at God’s word. It has helped you to experience it and then you DO it and it becomes a habit that is a part of your life.You have let some light shine on a portion of scripture so that it becomes a NOW possibility. You have handled it; you have meditated on it; you have fashioned it to fit in your mind. Then you have tried it out by speaking it and then by DOING it!”We are to be available and we are to be paid what the Lord feels we are worth. As I was reading in Romans 6:23 from the Wuest translation I was struck by the way it says: “For the subsistence pay which the sinful nature doles out is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ.” In the King James or New King James this scripture reads “For the wages of sin [is] death, but the gift of God [is] eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Subsistence pay really hits harder to me than does the word ‘wages’. Subsistence is just what you can get by on – barely enough. Wages are another matter; hopefully they are something you can use for more than just barely get enough to live on. The sinful nature doles out death; something that is doled out is given just barley to get by. A dole is something that you don’t work for, something that is given because you can’t find a job that pays enough to live on. So that pay that ends in death is a dole, something you really don’t want but it is given to you. Praise God that He gives us a gift – something that we don’t have to work for; something that is given out of his bounty, his mercy, just because he wants to give it to us. This gift is to show his love for us, not something that we can barley exist on. This gift is luxurious in its richness. It is bountiful, full and overflowing. This is the opposite of something that is doled out, given in pity and received in shame. When we hear about the people who had to receive the dole in the great depression of the 1930’s they really wished they didn’t have to receive it. What they really wanted was a job which they could work at to provide for themselves and their families. There was a pride there. Perhaps we have lost that pride in providing for ourselves and our families since that time. We need to be pleased with ourselves and proud that we are able to provide more than just the bare necessities. Scripture says to work with our hands and provide for our families and more to give to help others who are in need. 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12 “For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. 11For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. 12Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.”We need to be responsible for ourselves. We are to work in order to eat. We are not to beg of others for the food that we need to sustain our bodies. We are to be the good workers in the vineyard. To do the work that Jesus did takes time. You have to be available to go and pray with someone or to set up a time for them to come to you. You command healing and allow the Holy Spirit to move from you to the person who needs that healing. Your touch is the transmission of that healing from the Lord. Too often we see only what is in front of us and we concentrate on the negative. The Lord told me once in a conversation, “Yes, you see child, when you get your mind off the problem then the situation changes. When you remind yourself of the things to be thankful for the situation is different. Re-mind, change your mind, your focus, you see things differently. You no longer focus on the negative but on the positive, the possibilities. You can see beyond the problem that you have at the time. You can see the beauty of the day, the beauty of praise, the beauty of a new morning.You re-focus and the possibilities are endless: the possibility to soar above the problem to concentrate on the goodness of your God, of your life, of the ability to see other things than the ‘problem’ of the present.”We have learned that using our prayer language and praying in the Holy Spirit is very much a need in order to do the work that Jesus did. When you pray in tongues the mind is open to the spirit. The Spirit surfaces like a swimmer coming up for air! Your mind is open to the things of the Spirit and you can grasp the mind of Christ. That is connections with the Almighty! That is why you need to pray in tongues: you need the fresh air of the Spirit which blows thru the mind like a mighty wind and sometimes like a gentle breeze. You need it to get the dust and cobwebs out; those useless thoughts that don’t honor Him! We’ve looked at some of the basic things that are taught in the JGLM message. We are to do these things by being available, bold, and compassionate. A scripture for Available is from James 4:17 “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do [it], to him it is sin.” We have learned in JGLM what the good works that we are responsible to do are to speak in new tongues, heal the sick, cast out demons and preach the gospel as it says in Mark 16: 17-18. “And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." If we know what to do and don’t do it, this scripture says it is sin to us. That is a hard saying to us Americans. We have a lot of knowledge but little actions to show for it. As I mentioned before we have to make time in our schedule for others. If you have not had people ask for prayer before it is a new experience to have to schedule a time for them to come for you to pray for healing. Or you have to be available and take a side trip from your shopping when you notice someone who needs prayer. That takes boldness to step out of your comfort zone and to go over and command healing for them. Be bold in believing from is from 1John 4:17-19; 17 “Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.19We love Him because He first loved us.” We are bold because we know what we believe. Our boldness is shown because the righteous are as bold as a lion. We are not shy and retiring or holding back because of what people will say. We silence those thoughts that tell us not to do it because of what people will think or that it may not work. We step up and do what Jesus did! We lay hands and command healing so that person is blessed. Remember there is always a blessing that follows obedience. Most of us still have those moments of fear but we go on through that fear in the love of God. He makes us strong so that we can continue even though we are afraid. We know we are loved and we love others and have compassion as Jesus did from Matt 20:34 “So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him.” When we see someone who needs healing, a touch from the Lord we are to step up and do it NOW. The Lord uses our sight, our touch, our voice to allow the Holy Spirit to do His work in the sick person. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that the Lord wants us to be full of his compassion, not to turn away when we see someone who walks with a cane or limps. We have to speak to our soul, like David, soul you will do this and body you will follow! Don and I have been praying weekly for a woman who was in an auto accident just after last Christmas. Their car hit a patch of ice and the car rolled several times. Her husband who was driving had a few scratches. Their little girl had a few bumps. Their son had a couple of broken feet which he has gotten over quickly. Her spinal cord just below her neck was pushed to one side and the doctors surgically straightened it. The doctors said she would never walk. We have watched her come back from a drug induced coma and we continue to see her body responding. We see constant improvement. She is able to move her legs up and down, to open and close her hands. She told us the other day that she can now touch her thumb to the third finger which she couldn’t do before. She has a good positive outlook and we continue to encourage her when we see her to pray for her. She is learning to command her body to obey her voice as well. She believes as do we that she will walk again. Jesus is doing her healing by stages but it is a miracle by man’s standards. Her physical therapist is always amazed at her progress. To God be the glory!Jesus is our pattern. We are to make our lives after his example. We are to do the works of Jesus in this world right now. We don’t need to wait for more training but get the training as we go. As John Lake said, we pray as we go, we pray on the run. We use our tongue to praise our God at all times. As I have increased the time I spend praying in the Spirit I have seen my closeness to God grow. I can sense his nearness quicker. I tell people I pray in tongues in the shower. What better way to start a day than by getting your body clean but also clearing out your soul and mind by praying in tongues. When I’m folding clothes or when I’m doing dishes or sweeping the floor or riding in the car, it doesn’t matter where I am, I can use that language that God gave me to communicate with Him. I’d like to share a story that Joyce Meyer shares in her book, Never Give Up. A farmer took an egg from an eagle’s nest and took it home and placed it under one of his hens. It hatched with the chickens. The farmer tried to tame it but he couldn’t make it like the chickens. The eagles never really fit in with those chickens. It couldn’t relate or interact with them. The eagle didn’t know any other existence but he knew he wasn’t like the chickens. He tried to fly and the farmer clipped his wings so he couldn’t as the farmer wanted to keep the eagle.So the eagle just sat in the chicken yard and looked up at the sky. One time there was a storm. The sky grew dark and all the chickens scurried for cover. Chickens are chickens so they were scardie cats! They were really frightened. Have you ever seen a bunch of chickens get upset and scared? They really run around like a chicken with its head cut off! They flap around and screech like a bunch of chickens! The eagle just sat there and watched the chickens get all upset and realized that he wasn’t scared of the storm. He stretched out his wings and then he noticed that the farmer hadn’t clipped them recently. The eagle with his eagle eyes caught sight of another great eagle riding the thermal winds above. This eagle looked majestic with his wings outstretched.That eagle that had been raised as a chicken looked again at the chickens that were frantically running around and then he looked again at the eagle above him. He looked at the chickens and then at the eagle again. Then he heard the eagle let out a piercing cry that sounded awesome to his ears. In that instant he knew he had to get out of the chicken yard! A mighty gust of wind swept beneath his outstretched wings and lifted him into the air. With a shrill scream of victory and freedom, he left the barnyard forever.That story stirs something inside of us to be more than we have been. We are eagles made to soar on the wings of the almighty. We are not fearsome chickens that want to hide from everything. We need to break free from anything that holds us back from being the person that God wants us to be. We know God has a purpose for our life – we have learned we are to be like Jesus and heal the sick and set the captives free. We have may to work hard, take risks, endure loneliness, leave some things behind, make some difficult decisions and maybe be misunderstood, judged or criticized in order to be all that we are supposed to be. But it is worth it. The green trees soak up the sun while it is light so they can then make their energy needed when the light wanes and the darkness closes in. After that brief period then the light returns and they are rejuvenated to begin again. Begin again – always a new beginning – He is a God of new beginnings. There is always hope. Not looking back at the things that have been, but looking with new eyes to a new beginning. Be an eagle not a chicken! You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. That includes going through the problem; not wrestling with what is but looking beyond it to what is starting: a new day to do what you need to do. See yourself as a piece of possibility in a new day to encourage others and in the process encourage yourself!You are a piece of possibility in God’s hands. He is the potter, you are the clay or to use the illustration I used this evening, you are the cloth he is the tailor. He sees the possibilities in your life that would bring him glory and further His Kingdom. See yourself as a piece of possibility! And get busy eagles! |
