make your list

During our prayer and fasting in January, Pastor Marie asked us to make a list what was lacking and what was debt. On my list was: To get my drivers license, pay back my loan, find a place to live, and buy a car.

7 days later, I got my driver’s license, and one week later, I had the money to pay back my loan for my plane ticket. (My loan was $1000.00) Two months later, a friend and I found a place to live, and the best part is that we didn’t need the co- signer to lease our apartment. Then, I bought my car, I paid six months of my car insurance, and I also paid $650.00 for my school.

In less than five months I got everything that was on my list. Sometimes things look like impossible for us, but with God everything is possible. So, declare the word of God, have a relationship with Jesus, be strong in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.

the Word works!

Pastor Anton had a word of knowledge on Sunday, for someone who has been battling stomach pain. At first I didn’t think it was for me, because I hadn’t gone to the doctor yet, so she wasn’t sure what the issue was.

I had been having stomach pains for over two years, and it would come on me in the middle of the night.

After Sunday, I haven’t had pain in my stomach at all.

put us in your position, Father

My son is over in Iraq again and he is in the medical field so I felt he was always safe. He called and told me that a few weeks ago he started having to go back out in the streets again. We hung up and I thought that is not good and in the same breath said he is covered by the Blood and nothing will happen. Two weeks later they took him off the streets and he is back again in the hospital.

Jesus’ hands on the wheel

On Saturday, as I was getting ready to leave, I started having a lot of thoughts of getting into a serious car accident. I didn’t speak the fear, I spoke faith.

Later that day, my husband drove the van to check it out, and he said the front end needed fixing and that we needed to plan to purchase another car instead of putting more money into this one.

The next day, on my way back home from the store, my van made a noise and then it really started to wobble. I called on Jesus, applied my breaks and the van started to veer off to the right. That’s when my entire wheel came off and my van and rolled onto the curb. I slid about 10 feet before I came to a stop.

This happened in front of an auto repair shop! The auto shop purchased our un-drivable van, for the price of a drivable van. Isn’t God Good?

As I was sharing this with my son, Wednesday night, and he told me that on Tuesday morning, he was talking on the phone and had a thought of me in a car accident. He stopped talking and prayed, “Father protect my mom from harm, I cast that down in Jesus name. He said, “Mom, I know God had His hand on that wheel until you were in a safe place, He protected you.” My God is great and greatly to be praised!!!

the Jesus change

I have been at this office for 5 years and did not care who I hurt, didn’t talk to people at work, they knew nothing about me as I did not want to be the gossip around the office, would tell someone off before thinking. However still worked hard and did my job so they kept me. My kids and I were having problems, I was having a year long pitty party and it was all about me and nothing was going right. I was giving my problems to God and wanting him to fix things but then I would take the problem back and put the problem and me in a bubble and no one could get into my bubble, you wouldn’t have been able to get through with a chisel and then I wondered why God was not answering any of my prayers and why he wasn’t there for me.

One day he gave me a picture of him with his arms out for me to come in and me with my back to him. For the last year people at work have noticed that I have changed, I never raise my voice I treat everyone with kindness and I just don’t let the day to day stuff get to me. Now, when I do get a little stressed out, I think what did I do differently and usually it’s because I did not ask for His guidance.

I have had people ask me what is changed in my life and I tell them about my church and my Jesus. I have had people that did not know me tell me how great it was to work with me. Praise God He has changed my life!

God’s got a plan for your family

A few years ago, Pastor Tracy counseled me how to pray for our children, who were not walking in Christ. She told me to confess the Word over them, and to pray in tongues for them daily. I have done this consistently since then. I walk about 5 days a week, and that is my time to make confessions for our kids, and to pray in tongues.

About 3 years ago, one of our sons was in a serious car accident, and walked away from it unharmed. A bystander wearing a shirt that said, “Jesus saves” told him that he had witnessed the accident and didn’t see how he could possibly have walked away from it without injury. This incident opened up the door for our son to finally be open to talk about salvation, and a few weeks later, we prayed with our son for his salvation.

He lives in the Lake Tahoe area, and loves to ski. He met a girl on the slopes about 2 years ago. We met her in February, and my first impression wasn’t good. She didn’t have any faith at all. Our son came home in May and asked me what I thought about her. After a long discussion, I asked my son, “Do you talk about important stuff, like your faith, and the desires of your heart?” He responded with, “Not really, but we just really have fun together.” He went home and talked! He and she both came home later that summer. He told me that he had started going to a non-denominational church with her, and that they really liked it. One of the prayers I had prayed during that time was that God would place laborers in the paths of my children. Well, a man named Lee moved to Tahoe and works with our son. He used to be a pastor, and has a tremendous heart for the Lord. He’s the one that took them to this church.

One day on this summer visit, our son’s girlfriend came into the kitchen one afternoon while I was getting dinner. With tears, she asked me, “Will you please talk to me about Jesus? I don’t even know what to ask, but I know that I want to know Him”. She had a paperback NIV bible that the church had given her. We spent a lot of time talking that week, and before she left, she prayed for her salvation.

He and she continue to attend this church. They are also involved in a bible study with their mentor, Lee, and many of their friends who they have also brought to the church. They were baptized together in Lake Tahoe! Our son even sings in the choir (another prayer answered, that our children will give their gifts and voices to the Lord through praise and worship!)

Our son’s girlfriend has grown up spiritually really quickly, (even more than he). The last time we visited, I saw her come home from work with her purse and her Bible. She frequently e-mails or calls me with questions or prayer requests. I started talking to her about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. She wasn’t sure about it, but the next time she visited, she told me her testimony of being filled with the Holy Spirit with the Bible evidence of speaking in tongues.

Our son just bought a diamond for her, and plans to propose on the slopes in February! All of those confessions, “God has set aside a Christian husband or wife for each of my children. They will not be unequally yoked with unbelievers,” is coming to pass! Praise my God!

God moving in school

I am responsible for intervention for all of the students that are not learning for whatever the reason. I work with over 100 students, and consult with parents and teachers for many more. I am also a key person in our school for school improvement, including improving state test scores. Since my salvation 6 years ago, I thought I had completely surrendered every area of my life to the Lord, but last year I realized that I was hanging onto control of my job. And it wasn’t going well. I was putting in so very much effort, and not happy with the results I was seeing. I was tired and discouraged.

Over the summer, I spent a lot of time in prayer about this. God revealed to me that my common prayer, “Lord, help me to get this work done. Give me short cuts. Multiply my time” was NOT a prayer of trust and of faith. I changed my speaking about my job. I finally truly entrusted God with this part of my life. I prayed, “Father, you have called me to be a teacher. I entrust this calling to You. I need Your anointing, Your wisdom, Your direction. I’m not going to try to figure it all out.”

Now here’s the beginning of my testimony! Just see what God has done!

• We have a new school psychologist this year who has great experience in Response to Intervention, and has led our school in this awesome process!
• We have a retired teacher who volunteers two days a week to tutor 12 children in math. The results have been astounding! (and she’s free!)
• Another parent called and wanted to help kids with reading. She’s working with 4 children in reading, for free! Her own kids don’t even go to our school any more. She’s an awesome person, a great teacher, and a Christian!
• A friend has been on workmen’s comp. for an injury that happened at school last spring. At the beginning of the year, we got approval to have her work in an area where she would not have the probability of stressing her injured arm. She was placed in my program, and has been integral in the Response to Intervention program, which involves hours of assessing, data collection and analysis, and working with kids!
• After Christmas, we got a message that she would be moved to another job within the district. Our program at Baldwin can not function without this extra help. BUT, God opened yet another door! Our state funding amount was given to me in January, and it was more than 4 times what we have ever gotten before, enough to pay her from our school monies, rather than workmen’s comp!
• A teacher who was previously at Baldwin contacted me and wants to do her thesis on Response to Intervention. She will be doing a lot of the research and data analysis that takes so much time that I simply don’t have. She will also come to school twice a week to do intervention herself!
• Another source just opened up for college students from Rochester College (a Christian college) to work with more of our children in targeting their specific learning needs.

I am simply in awe of how God has taken my job this year, and completely turned it around! I have this deep knowing in my spirit that I am truly helping the kids in a way that I’ve never done before, in 8 years as a learning consultant! Praise God!

And thank you Jesus for the Word of God that I’m being taught at Life Christian Church!

prayer works

So I thought I had been missing my son as our schedules sometimes do not mesh, then Saturday he told me he was in love and moving in with this girl that already has two kids from someone else and not going to California in November, this bothered me so I gave it to God like I was supposed to do, and mentioned to a friend at LCC to pray for my son. So last night we prayed over the phone for him and we get off the phone and he calls and says don’t lock me out I’m coming home tonight. I then got up this morning and he was sleeping in his bed, so I’m praising God.

I just got a call from my son who stated, I have decided that I am not ready for a family and I am still going out to Cali in November to get on with my life/career, I have put my life on hold for to long and if it is love it will be there down the road, I know prayer works but God is so faithful, God stopped it before anything happened. My kids all know the word so it upsets me when they do something wrong like this, but I gave it to God and put it out of my mind, I really didn’t even think about it until my friend texted me and said “lets pray” for your son, and look how well God took care of the situation.

Praise you Jesus!

Wrapped in blessing

It is with great pleasure that I am finally able to sit down and write out a small portion of some of the blessings that God has placed in my life since calling you and calling you …and calling you with my good reports! I am excited and encouraged beyond words to humbly begin to experience and be LAVISHED with the grace and blessings of God EVERYWHERE in my life. I am going to write you specifically about the financial blessings as this is what Pastor Sarah Marie has been preaching on and I want her, Pastor Tracy and Cindy to know how God is glorifying Himself in my life and I cannot help to speak out to the WONDER OF HIS LOVE to those around me!

May I begin by saying that the teaching of our church has enabled me to stand on and speak out the Word. I have heard of taking this kind of action, but I needed the testimonies of brothers and sisters in Christ and the faithfulness of teaching and a community willing to submit to God’s Ways to begin to chase after the very heart of Jesus personally. My eyes are full of grateful tears. Because of your teaching and encouragement, I can now say: “I put no confidence in the flesh or outward privileges and physical advantages and external appearances. I put my confidence in Jesus Christ and I glory in Him.” Philippians 3:3

Here is my report on our financial blessings in the last 2 weeks.

For that last few months my husband and I have seen that the only steady income we have from one of his consulting jobs could possibly end. With the credit crunch and this economy, this business owner told him that he was not sure if he could continue to pay him and would now pay week to week and might have to stop paying him for his services sometime in the near future. As I know that God made the heart of men to provide for their families, I knew this would be a sword of Satan in the confidence of my husband and I would not allow Satan to have even a small victory over my husband’s heart. BUT…GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME…. we were in the middle of Sunday morning lessons focusing on God’s economy and not of the mayhem that is going on in our economy. With DETERMINATION I decided to plant the little seed money we had to the church and next to go buy the little book, “God’s Creative Power for Finances” at the church library. I knew that Cindy had stood on Charles Capp’s book and God’s promises and His healing scriptures for her healing with GREAT SUCCESS and that I could stand on God’s promises for mine and my husband’s finances. It was time to TRUST THE LORD WITH ALL MY HEART AND NOT LEAN ON MY OWN UNDERSTANDING…TO ACKNOWLEDGE HIM IN AAALLLLLLL MY WAYS. So I began….

As Charles Capps suggested, I got all our bills together and put them in a stack and said, “In Jesus’ name and on the authority of His Holy Word, I call these debts PAID IN FULL! Debt, I speak to you in Jesus name. BE PAID AND BE GONE! Dematerialize and CEASE TO EXIST! I now declare that all our debts, mortgages and taxes are PAID IN FULL, CANCELED OR DISSOLVED!” I then wrapped together all my bills with a clothespin and further wrapped the little finance book around them so that God’s promises for my finances would be constantly around those bills between the times I read scripture over them! As Jesus spoke to the fig tree, which was wood, like the paper in my bills that come from wood, I spoke to my bills. Within a few weeks God moved! I awoke on a Saturday morning to open the Friday mail and there from our mortgage company was a check for overpaid escrow for $1200 and our mortgage payment was being lowered beginning December! Glory to God in the Highest! The tears and the praise rushed out of me!!!!!!! My husband was still sleeping and I could not wait to share what God had done. Oh, but God had more news for us 2 days later, that following Monday morning as we opened the mail to a $2300 check for overpayment of our 2006 taxes which we had been paying on as we waited for the IRS to amended! Again….Glory to God in the Highest and what impeccable timing He has as it was only 2 days later we received this second check! I knew I was under the canopy of God’s blessing from our Father Abraham as Pastor Tracy had preached. We were experiencing the extravagant nature of God’s love in a VERY REAL way in our lives. Now, I have my bills wrapped in scripture by my computer and every morning as I wait for the computer to boot I claim the goodness of God’s prosperity over the bills and I call in His financial blessings over all the business that we are doing. I look forward and anticipate more and more provision and canceling of our debts as my desire is to be completely debt free in the name of Jesus!

God is…

1 John 4:16
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

1 John 4:8
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

At the Friday night More Meeting as Pastor Dino was praying for a healthy spine for me and for healing in my entire body and mind he was holding me in his arms and told me that God loves me. I already knew that but as I received my healing a new awareness of how much God loves me and the depth of His love!

I was standing on my feet for five hours on Saturday and never once did my back feel tired or hurt! Thank you Lord for my healing.

1 Peter 2:24

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

A month or six weeks ago an asthmatic condition was healed when Pastor Tracy prayed. I was told that I had a condition called COPD in my lungs and Pastor Tom prayed and that is gone.

I praise God and thank Him for my healings and His love.