The Healing Room

Ma and I were at the healing room last night, just like every Tuesday night. I wonder how long it will take for Peter's healing? He's still sick but we often see visions of him healed. I've decided that the day he gets healed I'm going to do something radical like run up and down the streets screaming out the news. Can't get drunk because I don't drink anymore.

I'm at least going to dance with him at church and scream and yell since I know he's going to cut loose once he's cut loose. Maybe I'll cry and pee my pants too, I don't know. My kids can pack me out and take me home. Ma too, but she might not pee her pants, being not as used to that as I am. She's more into the screaming and yelling and stomping her tiny little feet. Look out when she gets going.

Peter's a body builder so I can't wait to see him all healed up and able to use his body again. Not sure what might get smashed up and torn apart or lifted over his head. He used to be able to bench press over 500lbs. That's serious weight people. Maybe he'll lift me over his head and twirl me around.....but that'd be trouble if the pee thing was happening.

Should be quite a sight when Peter gets healed. We'll give you the full report when it happens.

Pa

Authority

I'm working away on my sermon about what the words 'heal, healed, cured, recover' mean (you would be surprised) and finding out that not all healings are created equal when all of a sudden the Lord starts telling me about authority. I do know a portion of the world that says when you hear God talking to you it's time for the nut house but I figure it's part of the normal Christian life. He's big on revelation but I will admit English is not his native tongue. I sometimes have to ask him to clarify things like 'give $500' because he sometimes gets his words mixed up. Sometimes. But not real often. Well...maybe never.

Anyway, the Lord reminds me that Jesus never once said 'I give you power to heal', he always said 'I give you authority to heal'. So I start going through all the authority scriptures and find out that, once again, God knows what he is talking about. He has given me and you authority to heal. Not just power, not just faith, not just the gift - Authority.

Then He points out John 10.17-18 where Jesus said he has authority to lay down his life and authority to pick it up again. His was raised from the dead by his own powerful act of authority. That was news to me, I always thought it was his Father that raised him from the dead.

That's what I like about teaching and preaching; the Spirit teaches you so much and the Word gets a chance to do some talking in your life.

Pa

The Cabin

Ma and I headed to the cabin this weekend. Silent. Still. Very cold until the fire gets going. You can feel the stress ooze out of you into the ground. It's always a place of healing for us.

I majored in riding my mtn bike on the gnarly trails and only getting bucked off twice. As I was riding back home down the highway I thought I'd detour across a fence, into a field and onto the Klondike Trail. I've wanted to see and be on that trail for a couple of years now and since I was on a ride I was master of the universe and could do what I wanted.

I rode it for 5km until it hit the river, all the while feeling the men and packhorses that used it to trek to the Klondike. Hudson's Bay packhorses started using it 151 years ago and it's rutted about a foot deep in places. You'd think it would be straight but it twists and turns around the trees and winds up and down the hills. It was a special time of history for me and I kept marvelling that I was actually on the very same trail thousands of men used to chase the promise of gold.

Then I went back to the cabin and chopped a few trees down for a rail fence we're going to build. Then I split some wood. Then I went in the cabin and fell asleep for a while. After that I roasted some hot dogs over the fire.

Thank you God for our cabin.

Shalom

I was praying this morning and started praying Shalom over and over again. The fullness of the word means' peace, safety, prosperity and well being'. I spoke it out loud over everything that came to my mind and things just kept coming and coming and coming.

I spoke it over my circumstances, my bank account, my relationships, my church, my kids...everything I could think of. I felt it was God making good on his promise that the spoken word will bring actual effect on that over which it is spoken.

Let me speak it over you, "Shalom". Did you feel it? If not, there may be a distance factor involved and you might have to wait a few seconds. But it will get to you.

Shalom,
Pa

Still Standing

Today was sort of nuts and evil and holy and stressful and peaceful and scary and uncertain all at the same time. You know those days when you battle somebody or something hard all day long and wonder if it's worth it? I was on deck today. My day in the ring. My time to shine.

It was all work stuff and one great big disagreement that got bigger as the day went. Started yesterday, suspect it won't have enough life to stretch into tomorrow. A slugfest can only last so long, just ask hockey players. I'm done, take me to the penalty box for a while so I can rest.

I don't have to win every battle and I didn't emerge the total victor in this one. But I tossed lots of knuckle sandwiches. Took a few too. Learned some lessons. Found some weaknesses.

You know what I really thought about today while going through this? I thought that this was sort of a joke because it doesn't really matter. I thought about somebody staring a terminal disease in the face, staring death in the face and trying to live life with that sort of battle. I thought about the people in the Healing Room. My afflictions today? Nothing, nothing at all. If I'm really bent out of shape I can quit and get another job. But them? No quitting there, just straight on battle it out until it's done.

That was my day. Tonight I am starting a word study on the word 'healed' and all its roots. Whatever a root is. Gotta preach soon.

No, it's not OK

Pa here. Yesterday was a day of battling things that are not OK. It started with a decision at the place I work to break a promise we made to the industry and not do something we said we would. I guess people thought I'd go a long with it but I told them it was not OK. Everyone seemed to just line up and do what they were told but I couldn't stand by and not speak up. It's not that I am some strong moral crusader, I know how to operate in the grey zone, it's more a fact of knowing that a commitment is a commitment and when you break your word in an industry you're toast.

Then it went on to receiving some vieled comments from my boss and another person about the ineptitude of the sales force I manage (and me, obviously), citing a certain account and our lack of business from that account. I'm OK with a challenge and I'm OK with getting questioned about what I am doing but I am not OK if the person comes at it without having done any homework on what has gone on so far and is making claims not based on the facts.

My boss was pretty idignant that I'd come back at him with a stout defence based on the facts but I'm not OK with people taking runs at me based on how they feel at that moment. I have this little phrase that says, "If you want to ring the bell, I'll come out of my corner". Guess he expected me to sit on my stool while he punched me in the head. The battle still rages so stay tuned....

Then it went on to our night at the Healing Room where, after we prayed for Ray with cancer and Peter with a sort of paralysis, I felt my spirit rise up and shout, "It's not OK!!!" I was almost scared to go with it because I thought I might tilt over the deep end of 'It's not OK' and start smashing up the room or something. Almost. I felt God was saying to rise up against this stuff and not let it be OK in our midst. Based on the facts, we have healing for our bodies. It's not OK to agree with sickness.

On a side note, I asked Ma when she was going to start blogging and she said I was always hogging and so she couldn't. A blog hog, that's what she called me. But I'm OK with that cause it's Ma. She rocks.

He is my King

I have been reading through the Larger Catechism based on the Westminster Confession of Faith. If you have not read it I highly recommend it. Forget the movies and TV shows, grab the Catechism and get ready for real entertainment. If you've never heard of it or ever read a Catechism you should be somewhat thankful. Back in the day you had to recite at least the shorter Catechism to get accepted as a church member, and certainly know the contents of the Larger to be a preacher.

Today I read Question 45, How doth Christ execute the office of a king? and I loved the answer. I'll take it out of the King's (King James, that is) english and put in today's language. You need to read it slow, not in a hurry like we always are:

Christ executes the office of a King by calling out of the world a people to himself and giving them leaders and his Word to govern them; in bestowing grace on everyone he has called, rewarding them for their obedience to Him and correcting their sins, preserving and supporting them every time they face temptation or suffer for Him, restraining and overcoming all their enemies and powerfully ordering all things for their good and his glory. Against all the rest he takes vengence because they know not the King, nor do they obey his Word.

When I read that I could just see my King watching over me, actively caring about me, always helping me, always protecting me.

In North America we do not have a King ruling over us and none of us living have grown up under the rule of a Monarch, so we don't know how to grasp this whole idea of being ruled by a King (except in movies). Being ruled by a righteous King is as good as life gets, all else is sinking sand.

I like being ruled by my King Jesus. I think the Catechism says it just right. And since every sentence in a catechism is taken from the Word I suppose it should. I give my King honor today.

stirring....stirring.....stirring

I teach/preach from time to time at our church and I'm on again in a few weeks time. This will be the third in a series about the healing of the body and the whole idea is to communicate to the church the ministry of the Healing Room Ma and I are leading.

The best thing about having to teach is that God really stirs me up as I listen for Him. I know what I'm teaching on, I got all that a while back in a huge series of revelations over about a three week period. Since then I've been working through all the revelations He gave me and it's simply a matter of hearing which one we (me and Him) are going to teach now.

I think the most profound revelation has been that we needed to pray the Word in the Healing Room. I've come to know that I am on a starvation diet when it comes to reading the Word. I've come to know that I can read it but it doesn't stick in my spirit (or heart, to more scripturally correct). My mouth has trouble speaking what my heart is full of because my heart is full of......well, never mind. I've come to know that the Word says way more about healing than I ever thought it did and that it is effective when spoken in faith over sick bodies.

I've got an increasingly good grip on that revelation but that's not on the teaching agenda this time. Not entirely sure what is yet.

The stirring is good because you start thinking "I think I'll say such and such", and your very next thought is, "I wonder if that's in the Bible?" and you start to see that a lot of what you believe to be true is just your own belief system. So you find yourself sitting there staring at the Word and asking yourself where to start to find out if your pet belief is in there or not. The Word divides, even between bones and marrow. It's a rather sharp tool.

Since I am in a stirring frame of mind I could go on and on and on with this thing but I'll stop. No conclusion, no point, no settledness. Just stirring.

No, maybe I won't stop. I really liked TW's new painting and I did three of my own last night. All were wretchedly bad but, like the great TW says, you gotta love them all and hang 'em on your wall until they speak to you, so I did give them a chance. They laid on the floor all night and this morning I felt they'd done enough talking. I'll turn them over and paint on the other side.

Cast down or cast out

Pa here, thinking things over.....

I was having trouble with this laminate floor thing. I'm helping someone and I came home last night disturbed about the circumstances. Things are a little goofy, let's say, and I really don't want to be helping goofy get goofier. So I was disturbed about it and was asking God about it.

The Holy Spirit, who will teach all things if you ask, took me to the picture in Revelation where the 24 elders are casting their crowns down before the Lamb. They take their mantles, their callings, their authority and willingly cast it down before the Lord. They seek to serve Him, not their own lives and ministries. If you think about it, it's a rather radical picture. Usually we think we get a mantle and walk in it all the time, but this picture says you should take it off and cast it down before Christ every now and then.

Then the Spirit had me consider satan, who would not cast his crown down before God and was therefore cast out of heaven. Then I started thinking of all the things that get cast out, such as demons. As soon as the Kingdom of God comes upon them they are cast out, just like their father.

So God said to me to think about taking off my crown and casting it before Jesus and to serve Him by the laying of laminate flooring in a place I did not want to serve. He reminded me that you can judge the level of your servant heart by being in a place where you do not want to serve. Your heart at that moment indicates the true level of your maturity.

I don't really want to help with this floor but I now know who I am serving and it makes it way easier. I talked this over with Ma and she said Jesus does not want us to serve with a critical spirit, finding fault with the situation we are serving in. That's what I was doing, finding fault with the situation. Ma said that Jesus acts to remove us from a place of serving with a critical spirit into a place of serving with a glad heart. And it's all about knowing that we are serving Him.

I take off my crown today and cast it at His feet. Look out, I'm ready to lay down some floor.

Laying it Down

I'm helping a person lay laminate flooring in their house and, although we stopped at 9:30pm, I kept going all night in my dreams. Corners, measurements, decisions, calculations - stop it already, I want to sleep. I don't know what pocket of adrenalin got opened but it wasn't closing until that floor was laid, that's for sure.

Talking about getting laid, the Parti Quebecois just elected as its leader an openly gay man. Having openly gay people in politics is nothing new but it's rare to have a person of this orientation elected as a leader. All I can think is, "Poor Quebec" since I beleive the wisdom of the Proverbs to be proverbially true, "when the wicked rise to power, the people hide". Of course my attitude is shockingly intolerant and judgemental, but we shall see........

Events like this are why I am putting my weight behind Kayle's group, My Canada, and pushing. Hopefully it gets enough weight, speed and momentum to take a few of these boys out. I believe the wisdom of Proverbs to be proverbially true, "when the righteous rise to power, the people rejoice". We need a righteous revolution.

Which reminds me of a business card Kayle gave me a long time ago. It says:

How Will Revival Get There?
You're going to take it!
Pray
Run
Live
Find the Darkness
Make it Light
It's Really that easy.

Rise Up Canada!

Contemplating Redemption

This is Pa. I'm feeling the reality of Redemption.

Redemption is when you sit in Kinship like I did last night with Ma Mumby and tell everybody about your not so nice past that had nothing to do with God and everything to do with evil and having an alcoholic marriage and bringing kids into it who you didn't raise even close to what God intended. It's about feeling sad and bad at the same time about your past and wishing, just wishing, you could do it all over.

Side note: it used to be about remorse too but Rod Howard and I talked that over one day and I don't go into remorse anymore. I do allow myself to feel the sadness though. It still feels heavy.

The good news is that after talking about how it was you then look at how it is now. Three sons, all in love with Jesus. I didn't do that. Three sons, all pursuing more of God in their lives and willing to sacrifice to get Him. I didn't teach them that. A marriage that is wonderfully fulfilling and safe. I didn't build that. God did it all. He Redeemed everything I wrecked and didn't do. I injected the poison, he washed it away with his blood.

I meditated on his redemptive love and power all night long. I'm still feeling contemplative and mystical and sort of out of body this morning. Since I have experienced such deep redemption in my life I can say that he can fix anything if you let him. Anything. But you have to let him and you can't hang on to the old stuff and draw identity out of it. You gotta let it go.

Another thing that I got thinking about last night (because we were talking about marriage at our kinship) was authority and submission. I really felt a stirring to teach on this at kinship because so many of us think the whole deal is about the wife submitting to the husband.

If you study the process it's all about the man submitting. The man is called to submit in four areas, the woman only one. The man submits first, the woman second. The first and foremost action of the man must be to submit to God in all areas of his life. If he does not do that, there are never any healthy roles of submission or authority played out in a marriage.

More marriages are wrecked due to the failure of the man to submit than the failure of the woman. When the man goes before God on the last day he is the one responsible for the marriage. There's gonna be a whole lot of surprised men on that day.

I don't plan on being one of them.

Slight rage against the machine

This is Pa. And I wasn't happy yesterday.

Tell me what's with the ultra-sensitivity to what people say to each other in the church? How come a simple, 'we could do this better' becomes a personal spiritual attack meant to take the entire church out? Why can't it just be people talking and expressing themselves, even if it is a bit messy. And why can't we let it go in one ear and out the other rather than getting it stuck in our brains and going round and round until it's a monster of our own making that needs confession and repentance and blood, fire and smoke before we can possibly move on as a ministry? It's just people talking and being people. Don't spiritualize everything. Happens to me 10 times a day at work and hasn't caused our company to fail yet. It's part of the territory.

And what's with this crap about the enemy always attacking us and wrecking our stuff every time we do a task? "The enemy must be really mad", we say, as if what we're doing even interests him. If my God can't protect my stuff then I'm looking for another God. Read the Book, he's big into protecting his flock. Show me in the Word where the enemy is credited with foreknowledge or an understanding of the plans of God? Are we not 'hidden in Christ'?

If this offends anyone, too bad. Let it go in one eye and out the other. Do a theology check against the manual. Some days I find the machine very hard to live with.

Not that the day was all bad. I repented, forgave, considered, read the manual and generally got cleaned up for the Healing Room. Before we started I repented, forgave, confessed and got cleaned up for ministry. God seemed to have enough power to put what was behind me, behind me, as long as I was willing to let it go.

In the Healing Room I learned yet again why God said to me, "Pray out of the Word". A chaplain from a hospital had joined us and I had encouraged him to pray the word. He got a chunk of scripture for a person at almost the same time as I did so he prayed his first and I did mine next. They were both identical in context but very different in the word. Essentially, the Lord said to this young man who had come for prayer for his feet that he was called to GO. There was a ministry call on his life to GO. Thus the healing of his foot was necessary and maybe even a sign. (Please notice that I have not spiritualized the foot injury as a bold attack from Satan who somehow, against all evidence of scripture, obtained foreknowledge about the call of God and had attacked the foot to destroy this young man's ministry before it got started. Note that he just had a sore foot and God brought him to be healed to display HIS glory.)

Anyhow, when this happened and when the young man affirmed he was feeling the call of God on his life to GO, this chaplain (and me) got all excited about the power of praying the word. It's a wonderful and exciting discovery that the bible has power to speak. Not sure if his foot got healed or not, he had no pain but had to test it out today at work.

I got prayer too and all the pain on the left side of my body in my knee and toe went directly to the right side of my body in my shoulder and toe. I told the guys praying to pray the Word because when I see pain moving around I think afflicting spirit. So the chaplain cranks off this awesome scripture about satan falling like lightning and us having authority to overcome all the power (all the power) of the enemy, the Spirit of God lands on me, the pain stops immediately and there we are just standing there laughing about what just happened. The Word happened. His Kingdom came.

There is no word that can stand against His Word. No word spoken to us, at us, against us, about us or around us. No word that does not bow to His Word gets heard. I'm resolved to not let the words of men sound louder in my mind than the Word of God.