BOOK: Exhortations

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Volume 5 ... #19

Speaking the Word when your family visits

Lk 21 ... 14 Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: 15 For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.

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Don't plan anything to say to them.  Put your trust in God that HE will give you anything you need to say.

Then when the door opens,  you speak to them the truth of God on the subject at hand. 

 Paul says:  "Be instant ... in season out of season ..." II Tim. 4:2

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The family of a woman in our little church group came to visit her. They are not born again. In the group was her daughter, her son, and her granddaughter.

Here is a very interesting account of the doors that opened during their visit.

• Friday night, Amy (daughter) and I were talking and I told her that Ed (husband) is holding up well for his age (74) but I do see him sleeping more than he used to.  He starts off his day with early morning yard work... 

I told her that the time would come when he wouldn't be able to maintain a property this size and when we saw that time, then I would know it was time for us to move because God had given me 2 dreams where this house was for sale and a dream where Ed was about to faint and another where he did faint. I told her I thought this was likely showing me that he would get to the age when he didn't have the physical strength to do all that needed to be done here and would show us the time to move.

I told her I wouldn't be surprised if we moved closer to her and Drew. She asked me which city we might move to. I told her I wasn't sure but God would decide that because of the following scripture...

Acts 17 26 ...From one man he (God) made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and HE determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. (NIV Original Translation)

• She thought we chose the area of the state where we now live. I told her I was looking online at different parts of the state, not knowing where exactly to move, so I prayed and asked God to help me to know which part of the state we should move to and He gave me a dream showing me the exact area where we should move to which was just outside of Charlottesville.

• At one point, she showed me a picture of Livie (granddaughter) in their backyard pool. She had the same bathing suit that showed bare midriff and which bothered me the first time I saw it. I warned her again about this...modesty is important...times are getting worse and Livie will want to be showing more and more of her body as she gets older because this is what she will see others doing. Women's clothes are becoming more lewd as time goes on and she (Amy) will be the only one who will have any restraint on what Livie wears as she grows up, in her household.  

• Drew (son) and I were talking about how small Bodhi (dog) is. I asked him if he remembered one day a few years ago when he called me and told me he had seen a documentary on hawks and how that made him concerned about Bodhi. I told him that same day I had seen a hawk in the backyard which was unusual. I told him I talked to God and believed that this was a warning to put Bodhi on a leash when outside.

But that after a while, as Bodhi got bigger, I thought it would be okay to let him off leash outside. I told him that God had given me a dream last month where Bodhi was running in backyard and a hawk was closing in on him. I was running and trying to get to Bodhi before hawk did but I knew I could not. I knew there was bad ending to the dream and a warning from God, so we started putting him back on leash when he is out during the day.

• We were all talking last evening and Amy mentioned a girl they went to high school with in Texas who was killed in a motorcycle accident. This reminded me of the woman who God gave a dream to showing that her grandson would die in motorcycle accident. And how she told the boy's mother and the boy about this dream and they said he would not ride motorcycle any more. But he did, and not long after, he died in motorcycle accident. Again, a warning through dream.

• Yesterday we were at grocery store and Drew was trying to buy some fish. Drew didn't think the man waiting on him was being very helpful and, at one point, Drew said that he did not like that man. Later I was reminded of how we will be judged by every idle word we speak (Matt. 12:36) and shared this with him. I told him is better to turn to God when something like this happens and ask Him to help us with situation. Is best not to let anger into your heart because it will probably come out of your mouth, at some point. These kinds of things happen often in world.

• Last evening Ed and Amy each told a story of people whose religion puts prohibitions on certain foods they can eat. Today I sent them an email sharing what God says about this subject ... I Tim. 4. 1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; 2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; 3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. 4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:5 For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

Drew was in considerably better spirits than last time I saw him. I asked him what was going on with him and Laura. (Drew and wife are currently separated.) He said they are talking and he thinks they will try to reconcile. I know she texted him once while he was up here.

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Barbara had planned to give Drew all the scriptures on divorce/remarriage. God did not have her do that. No doors opened on this subject.

It is so important to follow the Spirit of God when we speak with another person ... We must speak with a "pure" heart and that means a heart without preconceived notions and a heart that is not trying to do something to that other person.

We then speak by the Holy Spirit ... and not of ourselves.

If we pray beforehand, committing everything to God and asking God to open the doors to subjects HE wants spoken, we set ourselves in a good position to speak with a pure heart...

Then if the subject arises, speak truth.

It is very important to "clear your own heart" before the meeting by prayer ... and then to speak when the opening arises, for that is the door God wants you to go through ... with truth from God. 

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A woman in our little church group said she was planning out a scripture to take to her doctor at her next appointment.

I said, "Don't do that." (that is trusting in yourself to think you know what that doctor needs) 

 

Instead turn to God in prayer asking God to bring forth anything HE wants spoke.

 

Put your trust in God, not in yourself.

The last time I had doctor's appointment, it was with a new doctor. Before going to the appointment, I prayed much. I asked God to have me say anything HE wanted me to say. I prayed this doctor would not want to do anything to me other than that which was needed. 

 

It's rather amazing, but I ended up telling her about Moses and how you didn't have to be sick to die... that Moses wasn't sick. God told Moses the time had come for him to die. He died ... and God buried him. Moses was 120. 

 

Deut. 34:7 ... And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. 

 

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I also told her the story of something that happened to me recently. I could tell I was about to have a kidney infection. I remembered I had not been drinking water. I cried out to God, "Please don't let me have a kidney infection. I will start immediately drinking water. And I will really try to start drinking more water every day."

After I told her this she looked at me and asked: "Did it work? "

I said, "Yes".

 

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Another thing I told her ... I try very hard to not allow bitterness in my heart and to not allow unforgiveness in my heart. 

 

She said "That is the way I try to do also."

 

Had I been planning what I would say, I would never have thought of most of these things God had me say to this doctor!

 

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It is so important for us to learn to trust God to bring out in conversations that which HE wants brought out, otherwise we are in danger of doing works that are not of God. 

 

Before I go to any appointment, or meet with any person, I'm always praying that God will have me speak that which HE wants spoken. 

 

This is putting our trust in God.

 

When God brings something to our mind and we speak it, that is God doing the work through the Holy Spirit that is in us. 

 

Jn. 14:26 ... But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

 

*****

 

If we plan it ahead what we are going to say, we are in great danger of the work being "our own work" and not the work of God.

 

Mt. 7 ... Jesus says ... 21 Not every one that saith unto ME, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of MY Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in THY name? and in THY name have cast out devils? and in THY name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from ME, ye that work iniquity.