FG brethren! :-) :-) OK, now's the time for me to share the big praise report regarding my next-door neighbor Hal (He is outside in our yard, treating and watering the grass because the black ants have emerged because of the change in the weather). On Sunday afternoon, just as I was standing out in the garage waiting for my ride to come and take me to church, Hal's wife Debbie came up to me, smiling and full of the joy of the Lord. As we talked, she motioned to Hal and called him over. "Here, go and talk to her. This is your chancel" she said, then quietly left for their front door. As Hal slowly approached me, I stood there in the driveway, head held up high, smiling and unafraid.
"Jolene, how are you?" he asked, coming up and clasping my hand in a cheerful handshake. "I'm so very sorry for...so very sorry..."
And the rest was history, in a good way! Amid tears of joy and brokenness, we talked everything over for a half-hour before my ride pulled up. Amid Hal's quiet admittance to being overbearing with me and my eager chimings to forgive him and pray for his salvation, the Lord showed me a couple of Scriptures as confirmation to me that, yes, Hal was one of my brothers in the faith but had simply gotten sucked by doctrines of demons from the word of faith teachings and had taken upon himself the "role" of overseer over my ministry because of some misguided, biased persuation from some within his church! Oh, my mouth was agape with shock and astonishment over how the truth was beign revealed and how God was restoring peace between him and I in a way that only the Holy Spirit was able to
"Pray for me, please," Hal said at one point. "I'm just learning, you know. Sometimes, I just buy into everything I'm told from the Bible by somebody without testing it first. Other times, I just come to my own conclusions about what I THINK the Bible says about this and that And that's how I get myself into deep trouble, you know."
WHOA!... You see how important it is to TEST, TEST and TEST the spirits to see if they are of God instead of believing everything a Bible teacher, pastor and so forth tells you which they claim is according to the Word of God? See how dangerously easy it can be to walk with God on the basis of your own personal interpretations of Scripture instead of testing what you believe against it to see if it is really of the Lord? Very very important! Just because you don't believe that Genesis 1:1 is 100% proof of Creationism, for example, it doesn't change the very fact that God DID make the heavens and the earth and everything therein. Unbelief doesn't cancel out the validity of Scripture! I'm learning this from Hal's horrible experience of being deceived by man's wisdom right now and I thank God for using my now-returned brother in the faith as an example of what being wise in God's eyes should look like! PRAISE THE LORD!!! HAL IS BACK IN FELLOWSHIP-- WISER IN THE THINGS OF THE LORD THAN BEFORE!!!
in Christ my True Everything,
Jolene.
The LORD is my strength and my shield;
My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped;
Therefore my heart exults, And with my song I shall thank Him.--Psalm 28:7 (NASB)
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