When we moved to our new home in Byron our family had been battling sickness for a few weeks. Some condition similar to bronchitis had been passed around from one member to another, and I had come down with it about a week before our move. Tony also was afflicted with it at this time. I did not think too much of it, for I knew that in time it would pass and we would be restored to health. I did not know that things would get worse before they got better.
A few days after we had moved in my daughter asked me to fix a shelving unit in her room. I was tired from the move, and from battling the respiratory ailment that was going on, but I agreed to do what I could. I asked Kristin to bring me a chair to stand on so that I could reach where the repair needed to be made. I had anticipated her bringing one of the sturdy kitchen chairs, but instead she showed up with a small child size wooden chair, and she offered it to me. I looked at it for a moment, but being too tired to make a further effort I accepted the chair and sat it in the closet.
When I got both feet up on the chair it shattered into a half dozen pieces and I fell and landed on my left arm and side. My daughter was very startled, but I took inventory of myself for a moment and found that nothing seemed seriously hurt. I told her I was okay and I got back up and asked her to bring me a different chair, and I finished the job.
During the rest of the evening my left arm grew progressively more painful, and it began to stiffen up. By the next morning I was barely able to bend it at all at the elbow, and my forearm was very tender. I still considered that it was not anything serious, since I had been able to use it fully the evening before, and I knew it would heal on its own. I was tempted to grumble to God about my sickness and my injury, but I checked myself, and chose to ask God to give me understanding of why these things were happening.
Over the course of the next few days the Lord gave me understanding of my arm injury. I was reminded that in Scripture the left arm represents defense, for the soldiers would typically wear the shield on their left arm while wielding a sword or spear with the right arm. My arm was injured at the exact spot where a shield would be worn. At this time the Spirit had led me to write some articles that generated a lot of negative response, and He was seeking to teach me to not be defensive at all in my responses. This message of not being defensive was confirmed through a couple of sources, so I thanked God for His lesson, and I asked Him to teach me how to be totally without defense before man. I was to receive plenty of practice as the negative mail continued to come in, and much of it was very vitriolic in nature.
The physical tests continued as I had something resembling a blister come up on my left eye. It didn’t affect my vision, but it looked bad, and was a little worrisome. My wife also continued with her respiratory sickness, and she got to the point where she was having great difficulty sleeping at night, and this affliction was wearing upon her.
About this time my son came into the house one day and he said, “Dad, did you know the air conditioner here has the same name on it as the one on Levie Road? It says it is a Payne.” I had already noted this myself, but I noticed one difference. The lettering was smaller on this air conditioner, and it had a second name on it which was Carrier. So it was not just Payne, but a Payne Carrier. I wasn’t sure what difference this signified, but I sensed that there would be some difference from our previous experiences.
About a month after we moved in I was experiencing some relief from my respiratory problems. I was not coughing as much, and my breathing was improved, though my wife continued on with much difficulty. I noticed one day that my tongue felt like someone had given me a shot of novocaine. It felt a little numb, and had a strange sensation to it. The next morning I woke up and this sensation had spread to my lips, which felt a little puffy and numb. By the end of the day the entire right side of my face was paralyzed, and I realized I had come down with Bell’s Palsy.
I knew about Bell’s Palsy because I had an uncle who had come down with this condition years earlier. I read what I could on the Internet about it and I found it was often precipitated by a viral infection, and it was due to inflammation and damage to the seventh cranial nerve. The condition typically persists anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, with some cases lasting longer than a year.
Over the next week the symptoms reached maturity where the right side of my mouth was drooping. When I smiled, I only had half a smile. When I raised my eyebrows, only my left eyebrow would go up. My right eye would not blink fully, and this led to a dry eye condition and the need to use my finger to manually blink my eye. At times I began wearing a patch over my right eye to keep it from being irritated and drying out. I also experienced much pain in the right side of my head that felt like a severe ear ache with shooting pains. All these things are symptoms of Bell’s Palsy.
When I read about this condition on the Internet I learned that there is little to be done in the way of treatment. It has not been proven that any medication will improve the condition. One must simply wait for the damaged nerve to regenerate itself, and this can be a slow process. All of these things have occurred as I have been writing this book, which speaks in places about God performing supernatural healing in our lives. We have no health insurance, for God has told us to look to Him for our health needs, and He continues to reaffirm that this is His will for us.
I knew all of these things happening in our lives were not coincidental, for God orders our steps, and He is the One who chooses our trials and tests. I have been reminded again of the significance of our house number 24-40. God is seeking to teach us to worship Him in the midst of trials. He wants to see if He will find a response of worship in our hearts, or whether we will resort to murmuring and complaint against Him as the Israelites also did in their wilderness journeys. I have been very mindful of this, and because of this fact I have chosen to adopt an attitude of trust and worship, rather than fear and complaint.
As all of these things have been occurring, my family and I have had to choose to recognize the presence of God in our situations and struggles. We can either choose to believe that He orders the events of our lives, and He has a very good purpose for all things, or we can live in the unconscious reality spoken of earlier in this book. What we choose to believe will radically impact what our response will be.
Because I have chosen to recognize the presence of God, and to not think that anything in my life is chance, or accident, I was ready to receive what God spoke to me yesterday through a prophetic word He led me to. I was writing a chapter in this book and I had just penned the following words:
Our time had started off with great promise, but had ended with tremendous disappointment. I had felt certain that the Lord would use this people as a core group to begin to raise up a people to His praise. I had prayed for such a people for ten years...
These words, “a people for His praise,” were still in my mind when I went to find a prophetic word at an Internet site so that I could quote it in the chapter. What I found first was a word that had recently been posted that was titled, “A People that will be a Praise unto My Name.” The Spirit bid me to read this prophecy, and He spoke to me through it. Below is the text of this word.
A People That Will Be A Praise Unto My Name
Dee Hoetmer - 17th March 2004
Isa 33:10 Now will I rise, saith the LORD; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself.
Do not look to the left or to the right, for your deliverance will come from Me. Look to the hills from whence comes your deliverance. Some trust in horses, some trust in chariots. Why do you look to Egypt My people for your deliverance from your circumstances?
Psa 121:1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. Psa 121:2 My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. Psa 121:3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Psa 121:4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. Psa 121:5 The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
Psa 20:7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. Psa 20:8 They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen, and stand upright. Psa 20:9 Save, LORD: let the king hear us when we call.
Isa 54:4 Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.
Have I not said that I will open the door? Have I not said that I will hold you by the right hand and show you the way in which you must go? Many are fretting, looking for that open door, anxious to move forward in your call. Yes the world awaits the revelation of the Sons of God. Creation awaits redemption, but for now My children I have to teach you patience, longsuffering and fortitude.
Rom 8:21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
You are to have the attributes of My Son before I reveal MY SONS to the world. Lay down your own agendas, lay down your presumptuous thoughts about what awaits you in your calling. All self seeking, all self glorification must cease. Long have I suffered My name being brought into disrepute. Long have I suffered the mockings of My Holy name, for My children have not brought glory to Me! Now when I send out My prepared ones, MY SONS, they will go forth ablaze in My Glory!
Rom 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
There will be no mistaking who is LORD, CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE AND ALL THAT IS THEREIN. You will stretch forth your hand in faith and I will do creative miracles. Yea limbs will grow where there were only stumps, eyes will appear in empty eye sockets. There will be no mistaking that I, THE LORD GOD JEHOVAH, IS GOD!
The miracles will not be for you Beloved, in that day, but that the world will know who I AM. Kings will bow down to Me in that day I will reveal My power through you. My name will no longer be mocked. My people be ye Holy even as I AM Holy! My name will no longer be mocked, the world will see who I AM.
So now you see Beloved, why it is just a little longer, a little more refining and I WILL SEND FORTH A PEOPLE THAT WILL BE A PRAISE UNTO MY NAME!
1Pe 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
Phi 1:11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
Eph 1:12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
[End Quote]
It is for such a people that I have been led to pray for over ten years. The Spirit is testifying that such a people will be seen soon. At this moment He is doing a further refining work. He is seeking to teach us patience, longsuffering and fortitude. I can easily see how the present trials being encountered in my family are designed to produce these characteristics. Because I have discerned God’s hand in this matter, I am encouraged to endure with patience, and to look with hope for that glory which is soon to be revealed. I am enabled to praise and worship God in the midst of tests.
I am still praying for healing, and I am praying for God’s provision to be manifest on behalf of my family, for God has told us to ask. His words says:
Philippians 4:6
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
This book is not yet finished, for my story is not yet concluded. I look to great things to come in just a short time. If you have learned anything in this book, I hope you have noted how important it is to discern the presence of God in our lives. God is not absent in the lives of any of His children, though many live as if He is nowhere around. Only when we discern His presence can we respond appropriately to the circumstances of our lives. We must consciously choose to live by faith and not by sight.
The life of faith is not some mystical experience reserved for a few. It is to be the portion of all God’s children. We enter into this life of faith one moment, and one act of belief at a time. The Scriptures do testify, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.”
Without faith I would not be confessing that He has ordered my steps and allowed my wife and I to know physical infirmity at this time. I would also not respond with the patience and worshipful attitude that He desires. Without faith I would not believe that days are just ahead when God will place awesome anointings upon His elect, and the blind will receive sight, amputated limbs will grow back, and many other extraordinary things will occur. Yet I do believe, and I look to a day soon when the name of Yahweh and His Son Yahshua will be a praise in the earth because there is a people who walk worthy of Them.
No, this book is not finished, for God is not finished. He will complete what He has begun. He has taken a family that was very much out of order, bound by many ungodly things, and He has been setting things in order. He is bringing forth something that will glorify His name. When our own fears and weaknesses would have caused us to turn back from the course He chose from us, He has held us steadily to the path. It is not our faithfulness that is in view in this book, but the faithfulness of God to complete that which He has begun. As Jude has stated,
Jude 24-25
Now to Him Who is able to keep you without stumbling or slipping or falling, and to present [you] unblemished (blameless and faultless) before the presence of His glory in triumphant joy and exultation [with unspeakable, ecstatic delight]-- to the one only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory (splendor), majesty, might and dominion, and power and authority, before all time and now and forever (unto all the ages of eternity). Amen (so be it).
(Amplified Bible)
He is faithful! Amen!
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This is an excerpt from the book Evidence of Things Unseen:
http://www.heart4god.ws/evidence-of-things-unseen.htm
Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws
Parables Blog: www.parablesblog.blogspot.com
Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063
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