Victory over Storms in our Lives!

Wow, I love how God works! William and I spent some awesome time in the Word Tues. and Wed., mostly in the minor prophets. God wants us to do a thorough study of Hosea and the other prophets of that time period. Also, God has been speaking to William and has been telling him some incredible things. There are so many parallels to today and the USA that it is uncanny! We (the USA, esp. leadership) are under judgment and big time bad stuff is coming VERY soon and we as a nation are about to have our world turned upside-down … God has been trying to call us to repentance for years, but people want to be on their downward destruction path.  But before the 'big-time bad stuff', God is pouring out His Spirit in a BIG way and the biggest revival is about to hit this country!

We are to spend the next 5 months really studying God’s Word, getting closer to Him than ever before. What is coming next spring is big – we are to get out there and really preach – William has to psych himself up big time because he believes he will be arrested and beat up for preaching the gospel. It is finally coming to that, we’ve known it all along.

Yesterday, we left Coquille around 7 am and headed for Crescent City since I had been asked months ago to speak at a Women’s meeting at the Cornerstone Church there. We left so early because a major storm was to hit (actually, it started raining in buckets late the night before) with winds at 80 mph around 11 am. As it turned out, we drove in a lot of winds; however, we could tell we were right ahead of the storm. We stopped for breakfast in Gold Beach and when we hit the road again, the winds were doubled. We got to Crescent City about 10:30 and the storm had followed us. Throughout the day, it increased and last night, it was massively huge and awesome. Mom even called me and said that the news was calling it even bigger than the ’64 flooding (which I remember in Ashland) and it was to affect the whole of southern Oregon/Northern CA. Should be interesting traveling to the Rogue Valley after leaving here!

We roamed a bit/went out to lunch before heading to the mission. We hung out there for awhile and Daphne showed up and I went with her – to her house, then to the church to set up for the 6pm meeting, while William stayed at the mission. I had been seeking God for some time now as to what He wanted me to speak on and at this point, I still didn’t know what scripture to base it on. The theme was Tie-die and I was trying to come up with something; yet at the same time, wait on God to show me what he wanted me to say.

At this point, the storm was so intense, winds had to be over 60 mph at this point. Only about 15 women showed to the meeting. Daphne prayed over me (as did Catherine) and Daphne said that the Spirit of God was all over me so don’t worry about what I was to speak about, God would give it to me. I wasn’t that worried, I knew God would, it was just a little unnerving. I was struck by Haggai (I had turned right to it when I was talking to God) esp. vs 5-11. Sure enough, when I got up, I spoke of several related things ending with the fact that God wants obedience and repentance and that it must start within the church. I told them that our world was about to be rocked and we had to be ready to be that light to those who were going to be out there freaking out. Since I had not put a mark into Haggai, I kept trying to find it while I was talking, so I mentioned how God’s glory has left the temple and we needed to be obedient and repentant to see God come back. In other words, the Holy Spirit – the church tends to ‘work up the Spirit’ and say he is present, when all the while he is not. I kept bring up the parallels of the minor prophets to our time now and instead of looking to the future with fear, we are to see it in faith, that we are in line with God’s will and that as we rise up in faith and be that light, God will guide us through. All through the talk I kept trying to find Haggai again and finally Catherine grabbed my bible and found it for me, but by then I didn’t feel drawn to share those verses. It was rather funny, because I never actually ‘read’ the Word, just gave the message.

South Beach, Battery Point Lighthouse in background.

Anyway, Daphne said it was exactly what everyone needed to hear. After I was done speaking a hot flash hit me real hard, had me sweating and shaking. I was sitting there and all the people gathered around me to pray and I felt great (but drenched in sweat). After that, I had a chill hit me that just wouldn’t leave. After leaving there, we went to the mission to check on things, since the doors were open for the homeless to spend the night. As I was walking into the door, one of the people were outside smoking and he looks at me and said, “I don’t know who you are but God is all over you.” I just smiled at him and said hi and went in. The place was packed with people, beds laying out everywhere, general chaos, but happy. William was all fired up and talking with the people – he said he was having a great time.

Later that night, Daphne and I were talking about many things; she mentioned how she believed that because of my past, I have a special anointing against the spirit of depression, that spirit could not stay around because of it (I have noticed that – it must have grown over the year because no matter what, I haven’t felt that depression try to take me over in well over a year now.) She believes that as God presents the opportunity to me, I pray over people and it will leave.

William had an incredible time spending the night at the mission – he said that he ministered to so many people there (19 came to stay because of the storm + the 8 disciples, 2 leaders, and him) – full house! There is such a need for mature Christian men to step up and disciple the people there, including the leaders! William and Jasper even had to get up on the trailer parked there at 1 in the morning to tie a tarp down on it since it was leaking so bad (since a couple lives in there).

South Beach after the storm!

God is Great!

Wow, what incredible ‘God connections’ we’ve had this week – the Holy Spirit was operating BIG TIME and totally blew me away! First off, Wednesday, I think it was, we were down at the auto shop checking on our RV again (we had taken it in for a $200 break job that turned into a 2 ½ week $900 ordeal) and met up with a homeless guy who was living in the back of his truck (small canopy) there to get a transmission job (they even let him stay nights in his rig while they were working on his rig); anyway, we got to talking to him (he’s one of those ‘universalist collective thought’ people, but a very nice guy, so we’re talking to him about God, like we always do, and so on, but we could tell that God was working on him through what we were saying. Then we got to talking about his living situation and how he freezes during the winter and I told him about my ‘hot pads’ I had made that we put on our windows for insulation, showed them to him and he got all excited when I told him I would make him some, custom, for his rig, no charge. He couldn’t believe that I would do it for him – I told him, he gets the fabric and I’ll make it for him. Then he told us he was living in Port Orford and I said, “no problem, I’ll just drive down there if you just cover gas for me – it’s only an hour away.” He was blown away that I would do this for him and I said that God was doing it through me. So we exchanged phone numbers and parted and since it was a rainy day and William couldn’t finish the roof or deck on the house he was working on, we decided to go to Coos Bay to take our showers (we’re back to once a week showers in Charleston) and run a few errands. Since we had skipped breakfast and didn’t have much $$ since we were saving up for that $900 job, we decided to go to the café in North Bend that serves meals for $1.50 each.

So, we’re sitting there and all the tables are full, so a lady comes in and asks if she could sit with us. We got to talking, and as we always do, got to talking about God. She was very guarded and tested us on several areas. As the conversation continued, everyone started opening up and the Holy Spirit really touched us all in a powerful way and after an hour or more of sitting there, our conversation was heard by those around and it seemed to be having an effect on them as well. So much was said, I can’t even remember it all, but basically she realized William was a Prophet and was overwhelmed by the fact he pegged a few things about her/for her when she was sharing about demon visitations, and such. Anyway, she knew he was the real deal and we agreed that we would meet again, because William said God had a special message for her, but he wanted to be sure, to go into prayer so as not to make a mistake with the message.

As it all ended, we were all practically in tears by the power of the Holy Spirit and went outside for a ‘God huddle’ and prayer. What powerful prayer we had! This one homeless guy was walking back and forth behind us watching us, another was standing nearby watching. I was so overcome by it all, I was shaking, yet so excited to finally meet someone in this area on the same page as us! We all parted, having exchanged numbers, all very overwhelmed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The next day, she contacted me and was so happy to have met us, and wanted to meet again. We chatted for a bit and I told her I’d call when I was coming out that way again. The next day she had called again, and asked if I’d meet her Saturday at the Methodist Church (where they serve a free lunch), and I said I would.

woodpecker in the orchard

I got there before her but obviously God set this up this way. I sat at a table with 2 guys, to whom I said hello. When the one asked how I was, I said, “blessed” like I usually do. He was thrown off by that, kind of gave a sarcastic chuckle and said that was good for me, but he wasn’t. He spoke of how everything he owned was ripped off that morning, his electronics, jacket, his clothes, etc and etc. All he had left was his sleeping bag, only because he was in it. He was visibly upset. I really don’t know all I said, but the Holy Spirit took over and wow, blow me away, God ministered to that guy in a powerful way. By this time (it seems to happen when the Holy Spirit takes over), I was shaking all over and about that time, my friend came in and sat down. I said hello to her and asked her if she would join me in prayer for this guy because he had just had everything he owned stolen. She agreed and I prayed. I didn’t really ignore her, but I continued talking with the guy, and he, by this time, was obviously overcome and was trying not to cry. I handed him a $20 and he did start crying. I said a few more things about how God was going to bless him and he left, carrying a few clothes and a jacket he had gotten from the Methodist Church.

I then turned to her and we started conversing. She told me she didn’t believe his story and that ‘she knew homeless and their ways,’ and that he was pulling my leg. I honestly didn’t buy that, but she obviously has a hurt past of something that made her say such a thing. Anyway, we got past that and we had the most wonderful conversation. She didn’t open up to me much, but me, being such a talker, just kept sharing stories about myself, which I believe God had me share, because it all ministered to her in such a way that I could see she had the same/similar experiences. The more we talked, the more excited she became that she ‘finally had a friend’, a peer, as she said, that she could relate to. She told me that she’s tried for 37 years to find a real friend and she believed that I was finally one for her.

She basically let me do most of the talking. Anyway, at the end of our time (this was probably about an hour or so later), God told me to sing her a song – now this has never happened to me before, but I did as I was asked, told her that I was to do this. She kind of looked at me funny, and said ok, so I told her about Paul Wilbur and what an anointed, blessed songwriter/performer he was and then started to sing: Barruch Haba (Blessed is he who comes) – I didn’t remember all the words to the main verse, but God had me interject his own special message in the couple places I couldn’t remember – and it flowed naturally as if it was supposed to be there. I could hardly get through it, from wanting to cry, but I did, and afterwards we were both in tears. I really wasn’t paying attention to those around us, but the room was silent (which normally quite loud). She was so overcome, we basically cleaned up our places, gave each other a hug and headed to our cars.

I don’t know what God was doing with all this, but I was so overwhelmed by it all, I was shaking most of my drive home. That night, she sent me a couple of texts about how blessed she was by our meeting.

deer in the orchard

Pretty much this whole summer, we got caught up in doing the ‘world’ thing of working and whatever and didn’t spent our usual time in the Word, listening to sermons, etc and etc. and so this summer became a ‘dry’ time for both of us. Sure, we had a good summer overall, William’s wore out from working pretty steady the last 6 months, but spiritually, it was very dry. We both lamented the fact, but didn’t put much effort toward solving the issue until about 2 weeks ago or so, when we started back into listening to sermons, getting into the Word, praying together, etc. The enemy had pretty much left us alone much of the summer because we weren’t out there making an impact spiritually for the most part. However, the attacks sure did start up again this past week! William’s got walking pneumonia again – he’s weak, coughing up tons of green chunks, lungs feel heavy, etc. but he’s still pushing himself to get this job done – he would have been done already if it hadn’t been for the rain the past couple weeks off and on. Not only that, but the enemy has been tormenting our dreams/sleep again and causing little things to happen to irritate or make things harder for us. He’s mad at us for making impacts again! Oh well, bring it on! There is NO stopping us! He only does what God allows him to do and we have been through this enough to know the routine.

This morning in prayer time, we read/prayed Ps. 91 over us again (we hadn’t done that in a long time). William went to work anyway since it was sunny today – he’s on the roof finishing that, finished the deck this morning. Anyway, he only has a day or so more of work. However, he has to go into the hospital tonight and get himself an antibiotic. The treatments we did this week got things started, but he’s at the point he needs an antibiotic. Because I had been researching herbal remedies/collecting herbals, oils, etc. he’s been taking in eucalyptus and juniper steam treatments and I’ve been doing percussions on his back every night – it helped, loosened things up for him, but he just can’t breathe! He’s had constant headaches which tells him he is oxygen deprived. He’s constantly on his breathing machine lately. I gave him an iron tablet this morning to help him with some energy.

Not only all this, but when we brought the RV back on Friday from getting new breaks, we parked it beside the trailer, because we’re going to keep a 10’ space between the two, and between putting up the 2 canopies we have and tarp over it all between the two rigs, then enclose it with shower curtains, etc., we’re creating a new room between to use during the winter. We haven’t started all that yet, but anyway, William drove the RV up and parked it.

 

Oct. 11 – because of all the “God Highs” lately, of course the enemy had to attack. Sunday night I had to take William to the emergency room because he has walking pneumonia! And of course, the Dr. couldn’t just take the word of a patient and had to ‘educate’ William on all he knew about asthma etc and etc. William was obviously in pain, knew what he was talking about, but he just played the Dr. out until he got what he wanted in the first place: antibiotic and predneszone for his chest. The effect was almost immediate, with William actually able to sleep the night through for the first time in 3 weeks, didn’t hack up a lung constantly, etc, which of course, gave him the energy he needed the next day and ability to breath! Like he said, no wonder he’d gone through 2 inhailers this past month and was taking 8 treatments a day on his machine. He just needed that swelling to go down.

I hadn’t been able to sleep the past 3 nights due to back to back hot flashes all night long! Headaches and nausea. We went out to breakfast today and I couldn’t even keep it down! My body is all messed up from menopause; however, this is over the top!