Adventures With My FATHER...(part 2)

Adventures With My FATHER...(part 2) Every day seems like a brand new adventure to me. I’m learning more and more about the kingdom of God, the abundance of grace, and the awesome gift of righteousness (Romans 5:17). It is God’s good pleasure to give us thekingdom (Luke 6:12), and we have total access to it because we are believers who are absolutely famished for more of Him. I’ll tell you what, every new day I get more attached to my Father, my big brother Jesus, and my very best friend, the Holy Spirit. Boy, am I hooked! Because I’ve been born-again into this “heavenly family,” of LOVE, I can’t help but receive the peace and the joy and pass it on to my earthly familyand to my brothers and sisters in the Lord...as well as the world. It’s become a lifestyle for me. Everything else that I have to deal with on this planet seems trivial and of lesser importance. If I’m at a theater watching a good movie, I’ll find myself stopping in the middle of the action to just quietly praise Lord. Or if I’m watching a football game on the tube, I will stop often and gently pray in the Spirit. I can’t help it (and don’t want to). A “two minute warning” to me simply means that I’ve gone too long without thanking Jesus for everything He’s ever done for me. We were not created for lesser things than a close communion with our Creator. He is more and more becoming the predominant focus of my life. And sobe it. Even as I am writing this, a beautiful wave of His presence is fallingover me and my eyes water as He confirms that He is speaking through me to others. That is my gift, and I feel honored and privileged. His touch quickens my total being and gives me the strength to get through the rest of the day. Understand this, please: this is not about me. No way. He will do the same for you if you will allow Him to. Right now. I love my Dad. I love my big Brother. And I love the Holy Spirit. I will never leave them nor forsake them. “Nunca.” In His presence, bad things become good, anger becomes love, resentment becomes forgiveness, fear becomes boldness, anxiety becomes patience, pain becomes healing, and the unattractive becomes beautiful. And that’s just for starters. Like so many others, I’m looking forward to Jesus’ “second coming” andgoing on home. But in actuality, He’s already done that when He returned in spirit with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Listen, I know Jesus is here because He lives inside of me. I am learning that we serve a God of order. Everything He does is according to fixed statutes of operation, both in the physical realm...and also in the spiritual realm. When we cooperate with the principles of the kingdom of God that is within us, power flows and things begin to happen. I believe we are at a point in time where “hit and miss” Christianity is no longer going to cut it. “God’s universe is ONE, and the laws in the spiritual realm are equally as fixed and functional as in the physical realm (John W. Lawrence).” The farmer knows what makes things grow and manifest on the earth in the physical realm...and the astronauts knew that the laws of physics and their proper application allowed them to walk on the moon. “In just the same way, man needs both to know the spiritual principles of God, and to govern hislife according to them if he would prosper and advance spiritually. If the farmer knew no more about the principles of farming than the average Christian does about producing a spiritual harvest, he would never make it through the winter.” The Bible calls these principles the “keys of the kingdom.” But that’s not all. Jesus said in Matthew 16:19: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven.” We must seek deeply and crack the veneer of our earthly understanding. When we freely receive the finished work of the Cross through faith and trust, the righteousness of God and the abundance of Grace will begin to give us the revelation that we need in order to do the things that Jesus did consistently. Now, if I may, I would like to share another testimony withregard to “Adventures with my Father...” The Mission Field atM.D. Anderson Hospital About two years ago, I received a phone call from my brother who pastors a church in Bay City (about a hundred miles down the road from Houston). After the salutation, he asked if I could put Linda on the phone with me...that he had to give us some startling news. It seems that after a whole bunch of tests, his physician discovered a very aggressive case of prostate cancer in his body. From what I was able to initially understand, on the scale of 1 to 8...this was about an 8. It was very serious and the doctor quickly recommended immediate surgery at M.D. Anderson Cancer Hospital in Houston. Linda and I talked with my brother extensively on the phone, and then he asked us to pray for him. So we did. The cancer was very aggressive and could quickly spread, but we decided that we would be even more aggressive and persevering in our declaration for his total healing. What a lot of folks don’t understand is that as Christians who have faith and receive the finished work of Jesus at the Cross, we are not battling to get something, we are battling to keep that which has already been granted to us. My brother was healed of this killer cancer 2,000 years ago at Calvary (Isaiah 53:4; Matthew 8:17). He agreed with Linda and I that his healing was a done deal and we werein high anticipation of an upcoming great report. He and his wife then made the decision to proceed with the surgery. M.D. Anderson Hospital is probably the foremost facility in the world with regard to cancer treatment. Only the very best surgeons on the planet operate there and the technology is state of the art. I have been there on several occasions to pray for the afflicted, especially those who have beendeclared terminal. The first thing I have to say is that just trying to find a place to park in this humongous hospital can bring about serious symptoms of heart failure, severe depression, and notable loss of mental stability and joy. I’m one of those guys that is always in a hurry to get something done, so that I can get in yet another hurry to get something else done. But I have learned to eradicate stress from my agenda, so it’s okay. Jesus is my peace and comfort. Linda and I finally made it into the hospital, only to be faced with this giant MAZE of corridors, elevators, and dead-ends (like the ones that research scientists use to experiment on white mice). I felt like an estranged brown mouse who never finished high school as I stumbled through the hallway in a daze. Incidentally, extensive and highly credible studies have been made that determined that brown mice were smarter than the whiteones.............C’mon, lighten up. I’m just kidding. The bottom line to this is that if a patient can finally navigate to his assigned room in this hospital, he has completed the first successful step to his road of recovery. It was early in the morning on a Monday when we arrived and my brother was about to go into surgery. I was high as a kite because I sensed that something marvelous was about to happen in this place. I was not only “prayed up,” but I was “paid up” because of the price Jesus paid for our healing onthe Cross. No need to beg and plead for what has already been granted to us at Calvary. As Linda and my sister-in-law and I sat in the huge waiting room full of people, the surgeon that would operate on my brother approached us and gave us the rundown on what he planned to do (he was wearing the green “scrubs”and had a surgical mask hanging from his neck). He had a guarded look on his face and was very careful about what he said to us. But it was obvious that my brother’s chances of surviving (in the natural) were not very good. My brother had already undergone a quintuple (5) heart bypass operation fairly recently and his heart was not in a strong condition to withstand a 7-hoursurgical procedure. In addition to that he was up in years and had other complications. It was not a pleasant atmosphere. As the doctor turned to leave I asked him to stop for a minute. “Sir, would you join us in prayer that this operation would be a total success?” No way I was going to let him enter the operating room without God’s anointing on him. He was surprised but he was willing. So we grabbed each other’s hands (and both of his hands), squeezed them hard and decreed that not only would supernatural strength guard my brother’s longevity, but that his complete recovery would be a marvel to behold.. As we prayed, there was no fear, pleading, or egging...and I sensed that the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit would be transferred from us into this precious man’s hands and spirit. As he excused himself and left, I could see a smile on his face and a spring in his step. Just imagine the scene that I just described to you. Here were four ofus openly holding hands in a circle, and one of us was a highly renowned, world-recognized surgeon in his green “scrubs.”. We were proclaiming Jesus healing power boldly and loudly in middle of a huge and crowded waiting room in one of the most prestigious hospitals in the world. That’s what I call a powerful witness! People around us watched and listened and were touched. We thanked God for His powerful presence and Linda and I went home. Only my Father could have orchestrated such a wonderful thing. The operation was a huge success. The infected prostate gland was removed, there were no complications...and my brother’s heart never skipped a beat! But it was not over. Later that evening while in Intensive Care, my brother began bleeding internally and had to undergo immediate emergency surgery yet again. From what I understand, at that point the attending physicians just about “hung ‘em up” and the prognosis was bleak. No way that he could do another 7 hours under anesthesia and the stress of another operation. In essence, my sister-in-law was told to prepare her “final good-bye’s.” But Jesus had other plans. Everything went well, his heart never skippeda beat...and the cancer disappeared. He’s still preaching the Gospel and loving his life...and loving his God. Is Father good...or what... "He, God Himself has said, “I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. I will not, I will not, I will not in any degree leave you helpless, nor forsake you nor let you down, or relax my hold on you-- assuredly not!” Hebrews 13:5