My hubs and I are on the cusp of a season of change.  That sweet fella’ of mine is off fishing with my dear old dad and has left me home to ponder things a bit.

We’ve been talking about possibilities — Big Ones — for our future lately and we are making big decisions. Today out of the blue he called and invited me to go to lunch. Our schedules usually don’t mesh enough for lunch, but today they did. We talked again about possibilities and new life is springing up in our tired middle-aged bodies and minds. God life is flowing in our spirits as we consider the future and all it may hold. I’m a bit smitten which is really a beautiful thing. Sorry to go on about it. I just do love that man so. What was I saying? Oh yeah…

About an hour ago hubs left for ye olde fishing dock  as I placed an online order for pizza. While I waited for dinner I popped online to a favorite blog haunt of mine.  There I found a question based on a group study of Ruth that led me to remember that sweet time in our lives when God began something that would change us both forever — And, we thought we made that call! Little did we know. I brought it on over to share ’cause well, I just want to brag on God and my man… Will you indulge me a bit?

My man and I met in a sordid fashion that doesn’t present anyone in a favorable light so I’ll just leave it there. What I can say about that time in my life — MESSY. I was a confused, abused and beaten down mess. As a single mother I struggled with every aspect of life, and had just moved back home with my mom and dad — my three kiddoes under 10 in tow.

Upon my return home, after years of one kind of disastrous relationship or another, I found myself to be a woman who officially declared herself “no man required.”

Bone-weary of looking for the right guy and not too anxious to set out looking for another… I told people if God had a man in mind for me He’d have to send him to my front door. Mind you I did not often darken the doorsteps of God’s door much back then… So it really was as sarcastic as it sounds. Be careful what you ask for – or boast upon…God might deliver.

On a hot early June afternoon I found myself under the front end of my car attempting to change the oil stored in an engine I had apparently blown. My father felt if I had not done terminal damage we might be able to salvage the engine but the first step would be change the oil.

With Father gone to work, Mother at the Bingo hall, and ex-husband and the kids out fishing,  I was home alone. I set out to change the oil, “No Man Required.”

I could not even budge either the filter or the little nut that plugs the oil pan. No way. No how. Not even a little bit.

There was this guy forty-five minutes away in a neighboring town and a mutual “so-n-so” happened to call and volunteer him to come and help me out. I argued, and emphatically stated a big “NO” to this busy-body. I was quite frankly a bit terrified of the prospect of being alone with him because I found him so striking. But, when he got on the line he insisted on coming in spite of my best diversion… “You really don’t want to come ALL THIS WAY, DO YOU?”

He did. About an hour later he came riding up in his white Chevy Silverado like Prince Charming on a white horse. He unplugged the oil pan and dislodged the oil filter. We determined the engine was a fatality and not just walking wounded while the sludge glopped slowly out the little hole.

We then sat on my parent’s front porch and talked about all manner of life for about four hours before he bid me farewell. Just before he went he said, “Maybe I will get your number.”

I said, “Only if you want to be friends.”

Famous last words, but he just kept coming back. Every weekend he landed on my doorstep and by the end of that summer we were head over feet for each other. The rest as they say is history. He brought such peace and calm and love to my life like no one I’d ever known. He truly came to my rescue and delivered to me a life I could have only dreamed of back then. I guess God always knew, didn’t He?

I could have never imagined the life we now have and the journey we’ve been on for now almost twelve… well thirteen if you count the datin’ year… years. God is so graciously good to take two pit dwellers like us and make us happily ever after as He has. Not always easy, but always worth it. I love that guy… Both of them. (God and my husband! )

Do you believe in the

HEALING POWER

of the Lord God?

I do.

I’ve seen it in action.

There was a post on the site some time back for Blogwise Wednesday called “The Rice Testifies”. It really caught my interest and got me thinking about God’s power over the land and the crops in particular.

During that time, I had some Day Lily plants out in front of my house that didn’t look well. It was pre-season for their blooms, but one in particular looked sickly…its leaves were turning yellow while the other Day Lilies were looking green and healthy. Each day, more and more of that plant’s leaves were turning yellow and brown on the edges. That plant was dying. Dying before it even would have a chance to bloom. The one next to it was starting to look bad too.

I did some research on the internet and discovered that it was likely a condition called “root rot”. Not a good disease for a Day Lily to have. It is a bacteria living in the soil, killing the plant at its root and spreading through the soil to other plants around it. The only cure was to dig the plant out, remove all the soil around it, replace it with fresh soil, cut the roots back on the plant, and re-plant it. Weeding is about my limit when it comes to gardening so I was thinking about other options…I didn’t want all my plants in that section of the yard to die. That’s when I got the idea to pray the Healing Word over that plant.

I prayed for that plant pretty much the same way I do when I am praying for a sick person. I’m sure my neighbors were wondering what I was doing. Squatted down on my knees, I stuck my hands deep down into that plant and asked God to heal it. Believing and receiving the Healing power of the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, creator of all things, dominion over all things…the power to make well …power from God Himself, manifest through the Holy Spirit, myself operating as a pretty darn unworthy but willing and yielded vessel. On the authority of Jesus, commanding that plant to bring forth its buds, In the Name of Jesus.

I prayed 4 or 5 times over the course of about two weeks. Nothing else was done for that plant. I wish I had a photo of day 1, which shows the plant at its sickest, but when I began to see change in the plant I decided to take some photos . The first 3 photos were taken about a week after I began to pray.

It’s a little bit hard to see. The first photo shows the yellowing condition…if you look closely, even most of the mature green shoots are turning yellow. All of my healthy Day Lilies were totally green at this point in the summer.

The second photo shows the new baby green shoots coming up out of the center of the plant.

The third photo shows a tree, directly across the path from the plant I was praying over. Directly across the path about 4 feet away. A green root sprang right out of the trunk of that tree. You tell me. Coincidence?

The fourth photo I just took a couple of days ago.

I just love all those fresh beautiful blooms in the center, right in the midst of all the dead leaves. From death to life. Sickness to health. Made well. Hallelujia and Praise God.

God knows that I need His encouragement now for the healing ministry…I think that’s why He is willing to show me these things. I need confidence to know that I can be a vessel for Him in this way and not screw it up. And for something bigger than Day Lily plants and burned fingers. God’s almighty power coming against cancer. In the Name of Jesus.