Just recently as we were worshipping God in Plano, He began to remind me once again of the strength of His Spirit. Many years ago my Dad was teaching from Proverbs 18:14 The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear? He began to describe by the Spirit of God the things that came upon Jesus when He was on the cross and how He was sustained by the Spirit that was within Him. God began to write this in my heart, and I must tell you this is one of the most beneficial things that God has ever ministered to me out of any of His servants. If we have received Jesus as our Lord, we are joined to Him, and that same Spirit lives in us. When we are believing the gospel, the Spirit of the Lord in us will sustain our infirmities as well. Another thing that God has written in my heart over the years that was spoken through the mouth of His servants the prophets comes from Hebrews 4:14-16 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. 15For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. 16Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. That is the kind of strength the Lord Jesus walked in, and that is what is available to us if we believe the gospel.
God has taken my life and torn down many false doctrines and replaced them with the Kingdom that cannot be shaken. God has made me a sober individual, and He has taught me things that I will be sharing with you as He leads me. There was a period of years that I went through much purging, and I told the Lord at that time, "You get me through this, and I will share anything that will help others to overcome the powers of darkness in their lives." One of those nuggets is the revelation of the strength of the Spirit of the the Lord Jesus.
Countless overcomings have taken place in my heart as I would believe the gospel and meditate on the things that Jesus experienced going to the cross, on the cross, in hell, and when He came out of there, He triumphed over it!!! As I mentioned in the earlier part of this testimony, God wrote this in my heart one night as my Dad was teaching about the strength of the Spirit in Jesus. He began to go through the things that Jesus experienced. He shared how Jesus was brought before Herod and Pilate, and He did not open His mouth to anything except what He knew God wanted. That took strength. He was scourged, He was mocked, He was spit upon, they were plucking out the hairs of His beard, He was stripped and had a purple robe put upon Him, they put a reed in His hand, and a crown of thorns on His head. They were saying all manner of evil against Him, and Jesus did not get offended. He kept His heart fixed on God. I remember one time when Dad was teaching out of I Corinthians 14, and it came out by the Spirit, love does not consider the evil done to it. I could understand why Jesus was able to accomplish what He did. He was walking in the love of God.
I remember Dad talking to us about the strength that was demonstated in Jesus while He was on that cross. He knew in Himself that everything that had been written about Him had to be accomplished before He gave up the ghost. They tried to give Him vinegar mixed with gall, and He refused it knowing He was to drink vinegar.(Psalm 69:21) He asked God to forgive the people who were crucifying Him. Luke 23:34, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. He was between two malefactors, one of which He told would be with Him in paradise.(Luke 23:43) Jesus saw that His mother and one of His disciples were cared for.(John 19:26-27) Jesus was made sin for you and me, and He was cut off from the Father. In Matthew 27:46, And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? In John 19:28 Jesus said, I thirst. At this point Jesus drank the vinegar. This demonstrated to me the strength of His Spirit? He knew all that had been written about Him in the Psalms and the Prophets, and scripture was fulfilled perfectly. Jesus said in John 19:30, "It is finished." Jesus completed the work on the cross, and He said to the Father in Luke 23:46, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, He gave up the ghost." Jesus did not give up the ghost until He had finished what the Father had sent Him to do. I know what the Spirit of God ministered to me when I heard this. It changed my life and hopefully by me sharing this with you, it will encourage you to believe as well. When I come up against things in the Spirit that I wonder if I have the strength to deal with, this is what I begin to meditate on. The Spirit in Jesus accomplished all this, and not only that, went into hell, and rose again triumphant. If we believe His Spirit dwells within us, we can walk as Jesus walked doing the will of the Father. One thing we have learned over the years, God will not give us something that we cannot handle. If He is leading us, He will strengthen us to accomplish whatever He has put before us. In our weakness His strength is made perfect.(2 Corinthians 12:9) I thank God for the opportunity to share with you, and I will be back as God directs.
When I was in the fifth or sixth
grade, I was with a brownie troop one day, and we were having a little field
trip. I was running down the street, and all of the sudden, I was gasping for
air. The next thing I knew, I woke up laying on the ground. The leader of the
brownie troop proceeded to call my folks, and Dad took me to a physician who was a friend
of the family. I really don't remember what he said, except it being an embarrassing
time for me, being the age I was and all. What I do know is that a spirit entered my
heart that day, and I obviously yielded to that fear. I did not run long distances
after that, not knowing I was trying to protect myself from this ever happening
again. I was fast at the 50 yd. dash and could out run most of the boys, but I would
never commit myself to anything past that.
Years ago, Terry and I were walking one day, and all of a
sudden, I was gasping for air. Terry began to pray for me, and I overcame it.
We went out the next day, and the same thing happened. In fact, this went on for
several days. I got to the point I did not even want to walk, and one of my favorite
things to do is walk. Well, one day God revealed this spirit to Terry and me, and he
broke the power of the devil over my life. I never did experience this again.
The Lord spoke to me one day as I was going out to take
my walk, and said, "Why don't you jog today?" I said, "Lord, you know
that I hate to jog, it just builds up my legs, so on and so forth." I found
myself telling the Lord all the reasons I should not jog. Well, I began to walk
briskly down the street, and the Lord reminded me of the incident when I was a little girl
and wound up laying on the street. I knew immediately what was happening in my
heart. The light of the glorious gospel had shined on something in my heart that had
bound me up for over thirty years. I began to pick up my feet, and I began to
jog. I only jogged a half a block the first day, and then I walked briskly.
The next day I went further, and the day after that even further. I jogged for six
weeks until I knew that I no longer was afraid that Terry would find me laying along the
side of the road dead somewhere. Hebrews 2:14-15 states this; Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and
blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of
death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
We don't know the things that are in our hearts, but God knows everything
that will hinder us from walking in his kingdom. That is why we stress the
importance of believing the gospel. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to
all those that believe.(Romans 1:16)
It is an amazing thing what Jesus did for us when he rose
from the dead. He has justified us, redeemed us, made us righteous, and sanctified
us by his blood. He healed us from every sickness, disease, fear, torment, and has
made us rich. He has forgiven our sins, reconciled us back unto God, given us peace,
and given us the right to become a son of God. Do you realize that Jesus has done
everything he is ever going to do for us when he raised from the dead. All we have
to do is believe that Jesus died, was buried, and rose on the third day.
Hebrews 4 tells us that the gospel will not profit us if we do not mix faith with
it. Serving God with our spirit in the gospel is a way of life.
See you next time. Remember believe the gospel, it brings
salvation.
Back in the Spring of l987, I
had headed for a little dress shop where I used to pick up things from time to time.
I arrived and was looking through some things, but I just couldn't quite find what I
wanted. So, I jumped in my car and headed for the mall. I checked out a couple
of the stores and still wasn't satisfied with what I was finding. We were having a
banquet that evening for the Water of Life Christian Training School. Ashley had
been born in December, and I actually was a little smaller in size, so I felt like I
needed something to wear that night. After I had hit the third store, I began to
pray. This was not normal for me not to find something. Jesus spoke these
words to me; Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is
not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the
world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will
of God abideth for ever.(1John 2:15-17) I knew God was
saying to me that I was going to overcome some more of the world. I went to my car,
and I began to pray and ask God to forgive me for loving the world more than I loved
him. I remember saying to him, "Okay, Lord, I will not buy anything to wear
tonight, but you know I don't have anything in the right size for the season."
I went home and began to read the word of God out loud. I will tell you the most
amazing thing happened before that evening. The temperature dropped fifteen to
twenty degrees, totally unexpected, said the weatherman. I knew why that temperature
had dropped. I went to the closet and found something to wear that night, knowing
that I had heard God, and he had granted me much grace for my obedience. It is an
amazing thing what God will do in a person's life if you will just dare to believe
him. I have not ever been disappointed with the results of obeying God. Yes,
it's been hard, but the benefits can not be beat. Romans 8:14 tells us; For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons
of God. Yes, God will even lead you to shop, and when he leads, you will
find what you've gone for and not spend the whole day spinning your wheels. I
appreciate God for correcting me that day. It changed my heart and my way of
shopping. You say, "Kathy, you are a fanatic!" You bet, and I
intend to stay that way. When you make Jesus Lord of your life, that means exactly
what it says, Lord. That means you only do what he is telling you to do, not what
you feel led to do. Jesus tells us in Matthew 16:24, If
any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up
his cross, and follow me. If you have followed this
ministry for any length of time, you too have learned that the cross and the gospel are
one in the same. You will take up the gospel daily, that being, Jesus died, was
buried, and rose on the third day, and follow Jesus. If you are believing the
gospel, God will lead you by his Spirit, and you will only want to do the will of the
Father. God has led me over the years to lay down my life and take up the life of
the Lord Jesus.
You're saying, "Kathy, share with us some of the deep things
of God!" Let me tell you something folks, the deepest thing you will ever get
is the revelation that Jesus died, he was buried, and he rose again on the third
day. If you don't want to stay with this, then you don't realize that this is
the power of God unto your salvation. It is a fight to keep your heart set on the
gospel. However, when God opens your heart to the revelation of what he did for you
when he raised Jesus from the dead, you will not want to depart from it. When he
raised Jesus from the dead, he raised us with him and seated us in heavenly places, far
above principalities, powers, mights and dominions, too.
There are a two more instances God is reminding me where he led
me to the mall. No, I don't spend my time at the mall, but this took place during
the time in which God was leading me to know Jesus, the man. One day I called my mom
and I said, "I need to pick up a couple of things for the girls. Would
you like to ride with me?" Mom and I were in Dillards in an elevator, and another
lady and her daughter were riding up also. I wasn't trying to listen to their
conversation, but it was if they had microphones, and I could hear what they were
saying. I heard the daughter mention that she needed a new flute, but she would like
to find a nice used one. I thought I was at the mall for one reason, but I was
really there for another. I just knew I was supposed to be there. Mom and I
moved out into the food court area, and I asked mom if she would like to have a snack or
coke. She replied, "Sure!" So we proceeded to get in a line, and
here was this lady and her daughter talking about the flute situation. Again, it was
like microphones ringing in my ears. I went back to the table, and I began to talk
with mother. I knew Candace had mentioned on more than one occasion she would like
to have a better flute. I said, "You don't suppose that little stinker is
believing God for a new flute, do you?" Well, the answer was,
"yes". She had been praying and had proved herself faithful with the one
she had at the time. I told my mother, "This is the strangest thing I have
ever experienced, but I really think this is God." I said, "Okay, Lord, if
this is you, then you bring those two ladies across my path again." Guess
what? Mother and I were walking into another store, and here they came right in my
path. I approached the lady, which is totally against my nature, and explained to
her what I had heard. I asked if they were looking for a used flute and they said,
"Yes!" I told them it was possible that we had one for sale. I just
needed to check with Terry and Candace. They gave me a number where I could reach
them, which by the way was in a town 20 miles north of Plano. I went home that
night, discussed it with Terry and Candace, agreed that this was God, and called the
people to meet us the next day at my folks house. They came, tried out the flute,
and bought it. Needless to say, Candace got a new flute. It came by the
Spirit, not just because she had a desire. If I had not obeyed God that day, we
would never have run into those people. Jesus led me by his Spirit, and he
will lead anyone who will believe they can hear his voice.
A few years ago, the Lord told me to take my mother
to the mall one day. Mother was in the ladies department, Candace had gone across
the isle to look at some little Christmas gadget, and I was standing in the middle of the
aisle. I heard a sound a few feet away from me that sounded like someone was
choking. I looked around to see if I could tell where this was, and as I did, I saw
this man approaching me. It was obvious that he was in trouble. This little
man walked up to me and pointed to his throat. I could see he was gasping for
air. I simply touched the man on the back and said, "Thank you, Jesus" in
a quiet voice. The man coughed again and out popped a piece of an apple that had
obviously wedged in his throat. By that time, the management of the store had come
to take him for a glass of water. They didn't even realize what had happened.
I did though, I knew I was where God told me to be at that instant, and he demonstrated
his power for me. That is what I am talking about, being led by his Spirit in
everything that we do. That was the power of God unto salvation that delivered
that man from that hindering influence. I saw the man a little later from a
distance, and he was fine.
I thank God that he revealed this gospel to my dad and
that he has written it in the fleshly tables of our hearts. We
have in these earthen vessels a treasure, that the excellency of the power may be of God,
not of us. (IICor. 4:7) I also appreciate the fact that we have been
taught to look unto Jesus, not a man. He has taught us that Jesus is the author and
the finisher of our faith.(Hebrews 12:2) I now can say that I know Jesus and the
power of his resurrection. You can too! Believe this gospel! It
will work everytime, if you will dare to believe. See ya next time!
Hello again! Terry and I have
both shared with you things that were overcome with the birth of two of our
daughters. Today, I'm going to share with you about Rachel. God used each one
of their births to deal with things in Terry’s heart and mine. We all know that
Amos 3:7 tells us Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he
revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. Years ago, the Lord
led Dad to have two church locations here in Plano. It was for his perfection as
well as ours. One Sunday morning as Terry was speaking, he began to prophesy.
The prophecy was out of Psalms 127-128 pertaining to Thy wife
shall be as a fruitful vine by the side of thine house: thy children like olive plants
round about thy table. Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb
is his reward. He proceeded on with some other things, but I thought,
"what a strange thing to come out by the spirit of God." Well, duh!
Within thirty days, guess who popped up with child? Yours truly! Terry and I
both kept saying,"this can't be possible", and then God reminded us of the
prophecy that Sunday morning. We were both so dull we didn't even consider that it
was for us. We were perfectly content with the family we had. God began to
remind us out of Ephesians 1 how he had chosen us and predestinated us before the
foundation of the earth, and this child was no different. I was a little
apprehensive about this because I had lost a child a year earlier. I have to tell
you I never expected something like this to happen to me. At this time there was
tremendous purging taking place in my heart. I was overcoming sorcery, medical
science, fortunetelling curses, astrology, and and various other witchcrafts.
I have shared with you in previous testimonies how I was raised in medicine, had relatives
who went to fortunetellers and I myself read horoscopes from time to time. Isaiah 47
talks about the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy
youth. One of the things that can come upon us is the loss of children. There
were other things going on as well, but I believe God would have me leave it at
this. Anyway, that curse was exposed in my life. It was very humbling to say
the least. You know the amazing thing is that only a few people even knew.
Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a thing.
Our children didn't even know it had happened until years later. That was the
goodness of God. I know that God wants me to share this with you today, because if
you have had problems with miscarriages, those are curses, and they can be broken.
Yes, you can have a normal pregnancy and a normal child.
Anyway, on with Rachel. As I stated
before, I was a little apprehensive about the pregnancy, and because of that fear, things
began to happen. (Job 3:25, For the thing which I greatly
feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.) Well,
I began to bleed, and the devil kept saying, "This one won't make it
either." I continued to pray and shake for several days. Actually, I won't tell
you how long. I knew the curse was broken, but I was still tempted with that
fear. Terry would come home every day from work, lay hands on my tummy, and thank
God that this child would live and not die. He just kept breaking the power of
the devil over Rachel and me. We didn't tell a soul. We just continued to try
to believe that gospel. I say try because that is where I was until I got past the
fear. I Peter 5:10 states: But the God of all grace, who
hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a
while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. I was
suffering, because I was being tempted not to believe. When my faith began working,
I finally came to the place where my heart was settled.
One night we met Mom and Dad at Steak and Ale for
dinner, and the Lord told me to tell them I was pregnant. I had a war in my
heart. My flesh was saying, "don't you dare, or you'll look like a fool,
shortly", but my spirit was calm, and I knew I needed to do this. So, I
proceeded to tell my folks we were expecting another baby. Within 24 hours the
bleeding totally subsided. I made an appointment with the doctor, and everything was
totally normal with the baby. Every child I had, they would always try to give me
iron pills and vitamins, because they said I was anemic. I overcame with Candace and
Ashley and never took those pills, but believed the gospel, trusted in that power, and did
not rely on test results. I'm not telling anyone to do this unless God leads you
this way. Rachel was no different. By the time she came along, my doctor said,
"I know you are believing God." He had seen Terry and I walk over the
years, and he knew we weren't crazy. He had come to know that we had a relationship
with God and could produce what we said we could. I overcame by believing the
gospel, and the rest of the pregnancy went along with no difficulties.
When it came time for Rachel to come into this world,
they had set me up to come in the following morning to induce my labor. I was
praying as I left the doctor's office, and I said, "Jesus, you maketh the hinds to
calf, and you say when it's time to be born. I am trusting you to cause everything
to start moving." After I made that statement, I knew they would not have to
induce my labor. I began thanking God and meditating on the gospel. As I was,
the Lord began to speak to me out of Isaiah 53 how he took all pain. I said,
"Sure Lord." His response to me was, "Do you believe that or
not?" I said, "Obviously not!" Then he reminded me of the
scripture in I Timothy 2:15 which says this Notwithstanding she
shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with
sobriety. We all know that faith is in the gospel. That word
"saved" literally means to be kept or made sound. Well, this opened my
eyes to a whole new way of thinking. Jesus even took pain and curses related to
childbearing. I began to meditate on that. That night I slept on the couch, because
I could not get comfortable. I didn't want to keep Terry up, and besides, I was
really believing God. I woke up once and nothing seemed to be happening.
I just lay there worshipping and considering what Jesus had said to me that
afternoon. I fell back to sleep, and I woke up a couple hours later with some low
back pain. I didn't think much about it, drifted back to sleep, and woke up the next
time with things in motion. I got up and began to walk through the kitchen just
thanking the Lord that, Surely he had born my griefs and carried my sorrows, yet I
esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded my
transgressions, he was bruised for my iniquities: the chastisement of my peace was upon
him; and with his stripes I was healed. I did this for twenty to thirty minutes
until I knew that this was definitely the real thing. I finally went and told Terry
that he had better get up. I thought we were on the way to the hospital. He
called Ralph to come down to stay with the girls. He called the doctor, and I got myself
ready to go. Everything had gone into motion. As we were driving to the
hospital, all the lights were on green. Terry was flying, and I reached over
and said, "I'm okay, you can slow down". His comment was "Just
stay in your seat!" I thank God he didn't listen to me. We got there, and
he dropped me off and went to park the car. He came inside to find no one was really
moving very fast. I guess I looked pretty calm and not too concerned. When he
came, he took a hold of things and said, "This woman is fixing to have her third
child, the contractions are minutes apart, and I think we'd better get on the
move." They proceeded to wheel me upstairs, the doctor walked in, and Rachel
was born. There was no time to think anything except thank you Jesus.
That was the fastest and easiest labor I
experienced. It was such a blessing because I knew I had believed what the Lord had
spoken to me. Terry shared with you how Rachel had no peace when she was born.
It all came as a result of what had happened with Ashley. When we recognized the
fear and got a hold of it, she settled down totally. She was born early that
morning, and I was discharged just before noon. That evening we all met Mom and Dad
for dinner at Al Vera's Mexican Restaurant. We were all fine. That is the
power of God unto salvation. That is what will take place in any person who will
dare to believe the gospel. It has always upset the devil how quickly I recouped
after the babies were born. If people only realized, it was only because I believed
what God said to me and not what tradition of man had ministered to me. I never was
pampered after the kids were born. I don't say this in pride. I am just giving
glory to God because of what he did for me as a result of believing this gospel.
Well, the spirits stirred up after I came home with Rachel. A couple of days later,
I began bleeding very(very) heavily. I called Terry and alerted him to the
problem. He told me a couple of things to do and encouraged me to just
believe. I had two children before this, and this was not normal. This did not
just stop immediately. We went a couple of days reading, praying, and believing on
the power that raised Jesus from the dead. The bleeding stopped, and I was fine from
then on. Praise God!
I just want to encourage you women who think
there is never of chance of carrying a child. Female problems are curses. I
have had other things in my body related to the female organs that God has healed.
There is hope in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus told us if we could
believe, all things are possible. I know women in this church who were told they
could never bare children. Well, guess what, they have them. Where do you
suppose they came from, and no they didn't adopt them? That is the power of God unto
salvation. He is the one that brings everything to pass in our lives. I just
encourage you to set your heart on the gospel. That being that Jesus died, he was
buried, and he rose the third day. Don't be removed from the simplicity of the
gospel. Do you know why we miss it folks? We think there has to be more.
Jesus made it so easy for us, and we make it so hard. By simply believing the
gospel, the power of God has to come forth in your life. As you have been able
to read in my overcomings, there was a major difference between the first and the last
birth. I was determined to see the power of God in each situation, and I did.
So, stand fast, don't faint, and you will see the salvation of God in your life. God
Bless you and I'll be back soon.