My sisters & I were homeschooled & I remember every morning we would start with reading through the Bible and memorising chunks of Scripture. We learnt how Creation fit into science and history fit into the Bible using the curriculum Mystery of History, we memorised passages from the New Testament, the Psalms & all the prophecies regarding the coming of Jesus. Mum was very persistent.
When I was 14 I went on a 6 week mission trip to Papua New Guinea with Dad that changed my life. I was very hungry for the Word of God when I returned home, read a lot, wrote out the Proverbs, and listened to a lot of preachers.
But sometimes it felt like I knew it all, grown up in a Christian home and all that, yet we know there’s always more. . .so I persisted.
And there’s a reason we persist . . .
It becomes for us a shield when the enemy attacks, we know if something’s not of God so we are able to resist it, instead of there being a hazy thought of maybe this is from God?
The Word of God pierces between soul and spirit, it cuts off our thinking that which is not of God.
I said to my husband as I got home from the fruit shop the other day, ‘of course I forgot the eggs’. God whispered to me, ‘why would you say of course? Why would you own a bad memory?’
It’s as His Word abides in us that we are able to ask anything and have it because we know what His will is.
As we persist in His Word, we shall know the truth and the truth shall set us free, in whatever area it is that we are currently bound.
I remember Lisa Bevere in one of her early books saying that she went to a prayer meeting to be set free via prayer from the preacher from anger & she was angry because John had a touch from the Lord but she didn’t, but God said to her, ‘I want this so rooted in you from My Word and as you root yourself in My Word this issue will fall off.’ I’ve since heard many others including @PeggyJoyceRuth say that often even when you get prayer for healing mentally, emotionally or physically you must then root yourself well in the Word in that area so you stay free, so that we KNOW that truth.
Another story I heard of persistence in the Word was of a lady called @carlie_terradez who became a Christian when she was 17 in England. Her body had started randomly having epilepsy seizures to the point where she was in a wheel chair.
Beyond salvation, the church hadn’t taught much about Christianity so Carly began reading the New Testament and writing out the Scriptures and pinning them up all over her bedroom.
As the Word of God came alive in her God gave her a dream of joining her youth group that summer at an outdoor camp and climbing a mountain with them.
One day she realised that in order to climb a mountain she would have to get out of her wheelchair.
As she is sitting there, God said to her, ‘speak to your legs’. She had never heard any one say that or teach that, so she said, ‘Ok, legs, you need to walk.’ She gradually got up and walked along her hallway and then decided to keep walking out the front door to join her friends on the town green playing tennis.
They were all astonished and simply handed her a tennis racquet.
Years later when she was married with a few children, their small 3 year old daughter was dying of severe malnourishment as her gut shut down, & had been sent home from the hospital to die.
They had seen that amazing miracle before, why was it not happening again? Over time, although they had been in church, they had not continued in hearing the Word over and over that God is HEALER, but as they began to marinate in that Word, hope arose in their hearts, that HEALER is who God is, not just the occasional miracle & they brought their daughter to an Andrew Wommack conference where he prayed for her & she was healed.
Her story particularly resonated with me because I had seen miracles with my 2nd daughter’s birth as I deeply invested in God’s Word around that time and area, but then got so sick afterwards. I had stopped sowing God’s Word of healing and was listening to all sorts of other things that leaned more towards you must have unconfessed sin in your life, or someone you haven’t forgiven or your healing is for a future time. My health did not majorly improve until I began hearing God’s Word preached again that it is finished. Jesus paid for our healing and it’s one of our benefits. Whether that healing is an instant miracle, a combination of miracles and medicine or progressive, there’s no wrong way to get healed. I share these stories because these are the stories that finally helped me to see traction and recovery in my health, not to say it’s my way or the highway but in the hope that someone is blessed by them.
I was listening to my daughter’s Adventures in Odyssey Bible stories cd while we were eating lunch today and a story I had heard before but not really paid attention to stared playing. It’s the story in 1 Samuel 11 where Nahash the Ammonite besieged Jabesh-gilead. The men of Jabesh were prepared to make a treaty with them and become their servants, but Nahash the Ammonite replied, “I will make a treaty with you on one condition, that I may put out everyone’s right eye and bring reproach upon all Israel.”1
The Israelites asked for a week to think about it and to send messages to their bothers for help, and the men of Israel wept but the Spirit of God came powerfully upon Saul and he organised an army to fight back and God gave them the victory.
It stood out to me that they were willing to be servants of the Ammonites until the conditions became intolerable.
SOMETIMES WE TOLERATE SMALLER ATTACKS; THEY WERE WILLING TO BECOME HIS SERVANTS.
SOMETIMES WE DON’T GET SERIOUS ABOUT FIGHTING THE ENEMY UNTIL THE CONDITIONS GET NASTY BUT GOD WANTED TO DELIVER US ALL THE WAY ALONG AND MADE PROVISION FOR IT.
Maybe we didn’t even know that we could fight it. We didn’t know that the provision was there in the Scripture, or due to doctrine of man things have gotten murky in our thinking. We are wandering around in the murky, splurky, 6 week old refrigerated turkey land of ‘but maybe this is God’s will, maybe He’s teaching me a lesson’ That kind of thinking keeps you sick. I know because I’ve been there.
God said my people perish for lack of knowledge. Hosea 4:6
He also said ‘Jesus comes to give life and life abundantly, but the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy.’ John 10:10
Once we realise that the provision is there we can take up our sword of the Spirit, and call our brothers and sisters to prayer and see the victory.
God has given us victory over the enemy through the cross, and the more we hear this, the more we are emboldened to stand in this authority .
If you feel like you are shooting the same arrows at the enemy over and over, go get more arrows, go listen to testimonies of the simple gospel being preached and people seeing a victory as a result. Testimonies empower us to see that it can happen for us too. I have declared victory over and over and then gone ‘and got more arrows’ listened to a testimony of another person overcoming in the same area and shot those arrows and seen the enemy fall.
It’s time for the goliath of sickness and disease to fall on its face. It does not need an anointing from the pulpit it needs someone to pick up a small stone and sling who knows the nature of their father.
Chris Gore
This is YouTube video where Carlie shares her story of getting out of her wheelchair and many others.
