This is transcribed from a John Paul Jackson conference entitled Storms, Faith and the Miraculous. I have not been able to find the youtube video anymore so I post this to share because it changed how I think about circumstances.
He wants to prepare you to become what He created you to become. You are here for a purpose and He wants you to achieve that purpose. The enemy is a faithful adversary who does not want you to achieve that purpose. He wants to stop you from getting where God created you to go. I love what it says in Acts 17:26-28 it says that He has taken from one blood every people and He determined the exact time they would live the exact time of their anointing and not only that the NIV says it this way and the exact place they should live. That doesn’t mean like live in Alabama. It means live exactly in the house number apartment number you’re living in. And He determined that before you were born. Why? so that you would grope for Him. Most of us feel that way. We’re groping for Him. Where He at? When’s He going to come and help us? Even though he is not far from any of us. It goes on to say in verse 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being. You were created for this hour. You were birthed for this moment in time you are living where you are living because God wants you to accomplish something by your mere presence. By your mere presence. What do I mean by that? The Lord allowed me one time to have a vision of a young woman and about half of her day. And she was moving from one apartment to another apartment and she was not happy. She loved this apartment but they had raised her rent, her lease so high that she could no longer afford it. Very upset she finally found another apartment over here some blocks away. She’s walking into that apartment upset not knowing that the angels went to great lengths to get the other person out of that apartment and to cause the other company to raise the rent so that she would have to move because she was so comfortable there that she wouldn’t have ever moved. Because why? Because when she walked into that apartment I watched what happened to the powers of darkness. I could see both worlds, the angelic realm, the physical realm, the demonic realm. And when she walked into that apartment I heard the most terrifying shrieks I have ever heard in my life and I heard them screaming “Help us! Help us! The Light is here! The Light!” Over and over hundreds of demonic voices screaming because the light had come into the room. She did not know that she carried the light she was so aware of her own frustration about having to live here. But the Lord wanted her there. She doesn’t have the right food that she needs she doesn’t have sugar or something she ends up going to the store as she is going to the store she sees the store on the left hand side of the road. She tries to move over but she can’t because there is a car right here so she has to go past the store that is closest to her apartment goes, on down the street and before she can get over into the left lane to turn around and make a u-turn, she sees another store and she goes into that store and she doesn’t even know that the angels purposely put that car beside her so she couldn’t go into the previous store. She is so aware of her own frustrations she doesn’t know the hand of God is guiding her. She gets into the store that she didn’t really want to go to the second store. She gets into that store and when she gets in there she is walking up and down the isles and again the demons are shrieking demons of greed, demons of manipulation, demons of control etc, shrieking because light is walking up and down the isles. She finally gets all the things that she needs in her shopping cart she makes her way to the checkout stand she starts to push her way into one line of the checkout stand and somebody some woman comes right in front of her and cuts her off jumps right in front. She is so upset she changes and goes into the other checkout line. Not knowing angels pushed that woman in front of her. Why? Cause they didn’t want her in that checkout line, they wanted her in this checkout line. Why? As she’s checking out the cashier’s ringing up her groceries she is still frustrated “I can’t believe it, I can’t get over into the right lane to go to a store that is closer to me, I finally get here somebody cuts me off in front of the line. This isn’t my day.” Not knowing it really is her day. As she’s checking out the cashier is looking at her and seeing something in her and saying to herself “I wish my life could be like hers not like mine. What is it that she has? I wish I had it. $39.95 please.” She pays it. She goes on out, not knowing that three more people will come across that cashier’s checkout and by the end of that day, she will be convicted and be in church tomorrow morning and give her life to the Lord. She has no clue that she contributed to that happening. She’s so caught up in her own emotional state, she fails to realize what the Holy Spirit has orchestrated throughout the day. That happens to us all the time. We live and move and have our being in this grand, great, only God of ours. And He has arranged it so that we would be trained to know and get over the issue of the frustrating moments we go through and recognize this woman at the cash register is hungry for Jesus. I get over my own issues and I look for what God is doing in the moment. That’s what I have to do. That’s what we have to do. You want to have vision, look for what God’s doing in the moment it will open up eternity to you.
Month: April 2020
Book Review: He Numbered The Pores On My Face by Scarlet Hiltibdal
From the publisher:
When Scarlet Hiltibidal was a teenager, plastic butterfly clips were all the rage. She couldn’t understand why they didn’t look the same in her “frizzy, bulbous hair” as they did on the blonde whose mom was a professional hair stylist. Back then, she would have sanctioned the destruction of scores of actual butterflies just to own the label “pretty butterfly clips girl.” And so it goes for many girls like Scarlet who strive for self-worth yet struggle to find it.
He Numbered the Pores on My Face is for teens who long for beauty, love, and rest. Any labels you long for today might as well be “looks good in butterfly clips” if you are not rooted in who Jesus says you are, because any self-centered identity is going to leave you in the same place: unfulfilled and unhappy. Girls will relate to Scarlet’s stories as she discusses hottie lists, eating disorders, and haphazard beauty in a way that is both humorous and thought provoking. Through it all, she describes how she found peace by learning to see life not through a mirror but through a Savior who shapes who we were, who we are, and who we will be.
My Review:
He Numbered the Pores on My Face by Scarlet Hiltibidal is a book about issues that teens face and shows them how God sees them. This book is very relatable. My teenage daughter enjoyed looking through this book. She laughed at many of the chapter titles. I like the scripture verses throughout the book and quotes written in cursive. Every page talks about how we see ourselves and how we see flaws but the Lord sees beauty and how He created us. When you look at the table of contents, the book looks short but each chapter has sub chapters full of stories that are relatable to everyone especially teens. This book talks about how God changes how we see ourselves to line up with how He sees us. He even changes our name to line up with what He is doing in us.
I recommend this book for teenagers and anyone that struggles with their identity in God or has lack of self esteem.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BH/Lifeway Bloggers program. https://www.bhbloggers.com/ I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”