A Message To Ministers

GLORY IN THE LORD

Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him? (James 2:5)

·        1 Cor. 1:27 - But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise: and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; (28) And base things of the world and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: (29) That no flesh should glory in His presence. (30) But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: (31) That according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

·        2 Cor. 10:17-18 - But he that glorieth (boasteth), let him glory in the Lord. (18) For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth (Rom 2:28).  See Circumcision vs. Uncircumcision; there has been a change in circumcision).

·        Prov. 27b - So for men to search (seek) their own glory is not glory.  Define glory.

1 Tim. 6:17-18 - Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy (Jer. 9:23; 48:7, Eccl. 5:18-19);

·        Jer. 9:23 - Thus said the LORD, Let not the wise glory in his wisdom, neither let the might glory in his might, let not the rich glory in his riches: (24) But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I AM the LORD, which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these I delight saith the Lord.  

·        Jer. 48:7 - For because thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy treasures, thou shalt also be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity with his priests and his princes together. 

·        Psm. 52:7 - Lo (behold), the man made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness (destruction).

·        Eccl. 5:18-19 - Behold (see) which I have seen: it is good and comely to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion. (19) Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God.

1 Cor. 2:1-2 - (Paul speaking to the Corinthian Church)

(1) And I brethren when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God (Christ).

(2) For I determined not to know anything among you, save (except) Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Divine Titles for God - Part II

Ps. 16:2 - O my soul, thou has said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord should read “O my soul you have said to Yahweh (LORD), you are my Adonai (Lord).”   David is saying to Yahweh, you are my Master and my Owner.  You can’t put Adonai in every place for Yahweh because it does not give an accurate picture of Yahweh.  He is not Owner or Lord in every place.  In Greek they translate Lord Curios, which means Master and Sovereign.  Curios also means Jesus the Messiah and you have to go back to the Hebraic idea to know the name expresses the heart of God. 

Moses said please show me your glory.  God said no man can see my face and live so I will show you my back parts.   (To see God’s face before the cross would mean automatic death because God hates sin.) Under law, Moses could not see God’s face.  God must hide him in the cleft of the rock (which is Jesus the rock of ages cleft at the cross) to show him His back parts.  Under the Old Testament God was always leaving because his eyes are too holy to behold evil (turning His backside to the people).

In the New Testament, under grace we behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  That’s why when the woman with the issue of blood took the healing from Jesus, He had to turn around to face her so she would not think she took the healing by stealth because whatever was causing her to hemorrhage might still be there.  He wanted her to be well and he said daughter be of good comfort, your faith has made you well, go into peace (rest, ease, security) and remain well.  Not only does He want her well, He wants her to stay well.  What a wonderful Savior.  See how tenderly He addresses her as “daughter.”  She is the only one that Jesus addressed as daughter.  She has her healing and knows that Jesus loves her.  The woman is a picture of what Jesus came to do for mankind.  The face speaks of God smiling the light of His countenance on us.  The back parts of God speak of darkness.     

Gen. 3 - How the devil comes against your mind -- Satan said, Hath not God (Elohim) said.  The snake cannot use the name Lord.  He uses Elohim.  The devil said, Hath not God (Elohim) said.  Eve used Satan’s lingo, Elohim.  Which god is she talking about?  How you think and address God is how you receive from God.  People in the world call God the man upstairs and cannot receive from God because their revelation of God obstructs them.  LORD God (Yahweh Elohim) made everything.  By Him were all things created, and for His pleasure. 

During the last supper Jesus said one of you will betray Him.  Each of the disciples said, “Lord is it I”?  When it comes to Judas, Judas betrayed his answer and said, “Rabbi, is it I”? (Matt. 26:23).  Jesus said thou knowest.  Today Christianity makes Jesus a teacher or Rabbi and not someone to feed from.  Jesus said, I am the bread of life.  He that eats from me shall live together and shall never hunger.  (Take eat this is my body that was broken for you.  Take drink this is the blood of the new covenant which was shed.) He is not just someone to follow.  We can feed from Him and find power, wholeness, life, strength, prosperity, and renewal of our youth.  When we are fed, we can learn to do what He tells us to do.  We must see Jesus as God in the flesh to feed from, worship, spend time with, and then He will empower us from within.  We must not imitate Him because when we imitate a person, we are left in our own strength.  His strength causes us to be like him.  Christ-centered messages allow us to feed on the Lamb of God. 

1 Sam. 17:46-47 - David was a man after Gods’ own heart long before he killed Goliath. 

1.  He had the heart to bring the Ark of the Covenant (Jesus) back in the midst of God’s people. 

2.  He knew something about the names of God at age 17. 

He said to Goliath, this day the Lord (Yahweh) will deliver you into my hands that all the earth may know there is an Elohim in Israel.  All of the earth understands the Elohim (creator).  But that all Israel may know that Yahweh does not save by sword or spear for the battle is Yahweh’s and He will deliver you into my hands.  David knew the difference.  The world has never had the revelation of who Yahweh is.  Even Satan doesn’t know, but Christians are supposed to know who Yahweh is.  Yahweh is the one that fights.  The physical battle is not mine, it is the Lord’s whether its sickness, finances, my enemies, Satan, etc.  Stop fighting; the Lord will take care of it, not just God.  When unbelievers hear God, they say He is my God also.  Make sure you know the Lord. 

Exo.  6:2-3 - When God appeared to Moses He said, I am Yahweh and I appeared unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, (El Shadai), but by my name Yahweh I was not known to them.  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob used the name Yahweh, but they were more familiar with the name God Almighty. 

2 Chron. 26:5 - As long as King Uzziah sought Yahweh, Elohim caused him to prosper.  The one who put the diamonds and gems in the earth caused him to prosper.   Elohim and Yahweh is the same God, but the name Elohim is in charge of the earth, weather, riches, movement and earthly events.  We don’t seek Elohim, we seek the Lord (Yahweh) and God (Elohim) will arrange everything to make us prosper.  Elohim is the hand of God; Yahweh is the heart.  When you want to know someone, spend time getting to know His heart.  The hand will move when the heart is moved.  Jesus had compassion on the sick and then his hand moved to heal.

Yod Hey Vav Hey is Yahweh.  It is made up of 3 Hebrew words, I was (yeh-yeh), I am (ho-yeh), I will be (ha-vey).  Rev. 1:4 - God who is and was and is to come.  Jesus can change our past.  Jesus reached into Rahab’s past and changed her future.  She married the son of the captain of Judah (Salmon) and they had a son named Boaz who married Ruth, who produced Obed.  Obed produced Jesse.  Jesse produced David who became king and Jesus came out of the lineage (42 generations) of Rahab (who was a prostitute).  He can go to the was and change what was to what is.  Vav is a hook or a nail but it is like a conjunction and means “with.”  Everything hangs on Vav.  

Ayer, asher, ayer means I am that I am which means I will be (a blank check) and I will continue to be what I will be.  Whatever you need, God will be that.  If you need health say God is my health; i.e. I AM is my health.  God is full of grace and goodness. 

Yod Hey is yah where we get hallelujah (praise, boast).  From Yah we get Yeshua (Jesus saves).  Names ending in yah include Jeremiah, Hosea, Zechariah, Isaiah

Gen. 1:3 - God said Let there be light and there was light.  This was the first time ever that God spoke in the Bible.  In Hebrew the word light is Owr.  In Hebrew God said Y’whiy orw.  The first words of God were, “Light be.”  The first word out of His mouth was His name (Yod Hey) which creates everything.  Yahweh is 3 Hebrew words put together.   Yahweh is the God who is and was and is to come.  We don’t have to be victims of our past (like Rahab). 

·        Yahweh Jireh - Provider

·        Yahweh Rapha - Healer

·        Yahweh Tsidkenu -

·        Yah is Yeshua and means Yahweh saves.

·        Yahweh Nissi - the Lord my Banner (Ex. 17:14-15 - war with Amalek)

·        El-elohe-Israel - God, the God of Israel (after his meeting with Esau)

·        El-Bethel - The God of Bethel (the house of God)

·        Yahweh has to do with relationship, covenant and grace. 

·        Jesus (Yeshua) means Yahweh saves.

When Jesus finally came, the angels said the baby’s name would be Yahweh Yeshua, Yahweh saves not Yahweh judges.  When He comes into our life he saves us from the judgment of God, the curse of the law, and he saves us from ourselves.  He saves our minds from depression and He can save our finances.  When we think of Tiger Woods, we think of golf.  When you think of Jesus, think of salvation.  When we invite him into our life, the eternal effect is that he saves us from the judgment of God but there are also other effects like the forgiveness of sin.  People think salvation is all about going to heaven, but that is too shallow.  That saving begins to manifest; every day he saves us.  He will save our face.  He saves us from looking old (the health of our countenance).  God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings right now in this present world. 

Jewish believers will say Adonai (small L-o-r-d), which has its place.  Adonai means master, owner.  The root word comes from dan which means judgment.  Yahweh has the idea of the heart of grace.  We cannot have a relationship with the hand.  We cannot talk to the hand and get to know people.  You can’t get to know people with their back turned to you.  You can only have a relationship face to face.  He made known His acts (his hand) to the children of Israel, but he made known His ways (heart) to Moses. 

God told Noah to build an ark, and Elohim the Creator brought the flood.  Before the flood, God showed the people grace.  They were contrary to the law of God, which had not yet been given because God did not want to give the law.  He wanted the people to know that He was a gracious God.  The flood was what the people deserved because of their heinous acts. 

Elohim and Yahweh Elohim is not a separate person it is the same one.  It is Jesus.  But there is an aspect of God that is judicial, holy, righteous and just, but Yahweh comes before Elohim.  The aspect of grace comes first.  Once we understand this, we will understand the cross.  Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.  If truth had come first, we would all be dead men because the truth was we deserved death because of the fall of Adam.  But the cross shows the mercy of God.  God was protecting us from what we deserved.  The wages of sin is death, and we deserved to die.  Jesus was our remedy.  He died for us and appeased the wrath of God. 

Ps. 85:10 - Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed [each other at the cross].

God told Noah to bring the animals two-by-two.  God brought some two by two into the ark.  Some were migratory birds and some of these birds flew across continents to go back to where they were born.  Like salmon in the ocean, they can find the exact same tributary, stream or river all the way back to where they were born and spawn and die. No one can explain it.  The migratory bird and the salmon are Elohim’s creation; no one can come close to God’s creation.  Man has copied God’s creation. You have heard the saying “blind as a bat.”  Today our radar communication came from the bats.  Man learned it first from the blind bats.  If you watch a documentary and see someone step into cave, all the bats are stirred and fly all over the place, but not a single bat in a confined space fly into each other.  They have radar and man copied it.  We have eyeballs and step outside of the darkness into the light and bump into each other because we can’t see where we are going.  Man copied Elohim’s creation, but no one can improve on it.  It takes the Lord one chapter (Gen. 1) to explain his Elohim nature.  It takes the Lord many chapters to explain His grace. 

Genesis 7:16 - Male and female of all flesh went into the Ark as Elohim commanded, and the Lord (Yahweh) shut his Beloved in from the judgment.  It is so beautiful and accurate.  When it comes to creation bringing them two by two Elohim is involved.  When it comes to shutting his friend safe and secure from the waters of judgment, Yahweh shuts them in.  A writer will get all of these divine titles jumbled so it shows that the Bible is divinely inspired. 

Revelation:  Elohim is plural in operation.   Elohim does not speak of a plural in the terms of what it means to be plural in English.  That’s ascribing man’s definition to God.

Divine Titles for God - Part I

Know The Divine Titles

What we know about God’s names determines how we receive from God. 

·        The name Jesus means Yahweh saves.  Jesus did not come to condemn, He is here to save.  He saves us from the judgment of God. 

o   Yahweh (the heart of God) is who He is;

o   Elohim (hand of God) is what He does. 

o   Jesus is the Greek version of Yeshua.  But His name is Yahweh which means Yah saves. 

·        In creation He is just God (Gen. 1).  God revealed Himself in a progressive way starting at Gen. 1.

·        His name is LORD God, Yahweh Elohim (Gen. 2). 

The names of God in the Old Testament and of course the name that Jesus came to reveal was “Abba.”  The names in the Old Testament also uncover many of the truths that lie hidden there.  In fact, we learn the nature of God and what He is like based on the names of God.  When God changes a person’s nature, He changes their name.  When we say in the Name of Jesus, the devil comes out because the name is the person.  God said I will exalt Him because He has known my name (Psm. 91:14).  When you know God’s name, good things happen to you. 

Genesis 1:1 - The very first name the Bible records is Elohim.  When we find G-o-d in the Bible whether OKJV or NKJV it is always Elohim.  It is always Creator God, Mighty God, El.   

·        El means strength and power. 

·        Elohim means Creator God.

·        God in his heart is Yahweh; i.e., L-O-R-D (all caps), that is the name Yahweh.  People who speak English changed the Hebrew name.  The Hebrew do not pronounce the “J.”  God’s name is not Jehovah; people who speak English pronounce it that way.  Jehovah is a title.  Yahweh is always the God of covenant, who is gracious to us and our friend.  Yahweh is the God who shows grace. 

·        G-o-d is God in his hand and power (creation).  Long before you see God’s hand, His heart moves first.  You will not find Lord here. 

·        Adonai (small L-o-r-d) means Master, Owner, Boss.  Jewish believers will say Adonai, which has its place.  The root word comes from dan which means judgment. 

·        In Genesis 1 you always see Elohim said, made, saw.  God said, God made, God saw; that is Elohim.  When it comes to creation it is always Elohim. 

Genesis 2:4 - This is the history of the heaven and earth.  Now we find Yahweh Elohim (God of grace [covenant], God of power [creator]).  Vs. 7 The Lord God formed man and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. 

When God made man He is no longer Elohim per se, He is now Yahweh Elohim; i.e., the heart of God.  Yahweh is the God who shows grace, the heart of God.  Elohim is the God of power, the Almighty one.  Long before the hand moves, the heart is moved.  When we see a beggar begging; our heart is moved and our hand will move to our wallet.  The world knows God as Creator and judge.  The world does not know Him in covenant fellowship and grace (Lord).  This shows how accurate the Holy Spirit is.  The world believes in a God of power, the Mighty One, the man upstairs.  They use a term that expresses Elohim; i.e. Elohim is the hand of God.  That’s why when a Christian says God, the world thinks we are talking about the same one when we are not. 

LORD God is never God Lord.  It is Yahweh first, the Lord is my shepherd.  As we learn this, the Old Testament will open up to us.  Very interestingly, the Jewish people because of superstition and fear they take the name in vain will not pronounce the name Yahweh.  They change Yahweh to Adonai which means Lord as in Boss, Master, Owner because of a fear that they have.  They say Adonai instead of YHVH (Yahweh).  Many people think that Yahweh is owner and master, but He is not. 

The greatest command in the Old Testament is Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord (Deut. 6:4).  If you read carefully it does not say Adonai it says Yahweh Elohim.  Gensenius, a Hebrew and Greek scholar, says the Jews from superstition and reverence for the word of God read it Adonai which means a writer from a previous age is in the text.   Even Messianic Jews will say Adonai. The problem is that in some places where Yahweh is mentioned, Adonai cannot be used. 

A God Encounter - January 24, 2013

Disclaimer:  I do not recommend that anybody get up at 5:00 a.m.  If it is not how God deals with you, that's okay! 

About 5:00 a.m. the Lord woke me out of a dead sleep, and I heard Him say, "those that seek me early shall find me (Prov. 8:17)."  I rolled over to collect my wits and thought that's God speaking to me.  My daily scripture reading has been 1 Corinthians 7.  This was a casual reading to get an understanding of the passage, and the thought was "Do we think that God breathed the word to give a thought.  How can you get a thought from that which is perfect?" (Convince me!)  God will give you a thought if He has something to show you.  But, it is best to move when he is moving.  

I searched the scriptures for clarity and received the following topics for further study:

·           A Message To Ministers

·        Christ’s servant

·        What we say and what it means

·        God worketh -- the effectual working of His power

·        Difference between a wife and a virgin -- pictures in scripture

·        The Eyes of the Lord

·        What the Scripture does not Say

·        Circumcision Vs. Uncircumcision

These are topics that I will revisit again and again.  The more intimate we are with the truth, the more truth God reveals.  Sometimes the thoughts are so fleeting if you don't write them down they may be lost forever.  Keep a laptop handy for just such moments.  

The stillest time, and the most quietest time of the morning is 5:00 a.m. There is a warmth that cannot be experienced at any other time of the day.  God gives revelation that might not be received at any other time.  The scriptures have more clarity.  Truths jump out at you.  It's like the scriptures are waving and saying, "read me, read me."  We must learn to put the horse in front of the cart.  In other words, everything that is of God begins with God.  In the Greek, it is genitive, which means that God generates things to us.  If God doesn't generate them, they didn't come from Him.  About six (6) months ago, the Lord spoke to me and said His people are looking at Him backwards.  I had great fun trying to figure out what He meant.  I've learned to ask, "What do you mean, Lord?"

Now six (6) months later, God is showing me what He means:

• In your finances, don't work for money, make money work for you.    
• When it comes to salvation, we don't "get saved; GOD SAVES US!
• Don't study the word, to get a thought.  Study to give God something to work with. 

God Encounters

Religiously, many people believe that they''ve got to be rocked to their core to have an intereaction with God.  In the past I've heard testimonies which were unbelieveable in nature and came away with a skewed impression of how God works.  But now after years of Bible Study, I know that He moves in our everyday existence.  If we are not spiritually tuned in, we will miss God every time.  The best way to become spiritually tuned is to study the Bible.  I've heard all of the excuses of people claiming to walk with God, but they don't study their Bible.  That's like looking for a paycheck but you don't have a job. The Bible is God breathed and God inspired.  Holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (2 Pet. 1:21).  For those who have been born again, we are those holy men today.  God cannot speak to us if there is no word in us.  Even more disconcerting is God can't do anything with us, if there is no word in us. 

Homelectics, hermeneutics and the exegesis of a text are man-made principles.  Jesus said I only say those things that please the Father (John 8:26-27).  If you follow closely the things that Jesus said, they were scriptures from the Old Testament.  Paul was called to be an an apostle to the Gentiles, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;) (Gal. 1:1).  Since salvation was to the Jews first, Paul went to the Jews first.  Paul and Barnabas changed directions because most of the Jews rejected them at every turn.   He told them that it was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles (Acts 13:46).  Note the phrase "it was necessary that the word of God be preached."  The word of God is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16). 

To have God encounters, we need to invest ourselves in the word.  Jesus said, the words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life (John 6:63). When God speaks a word, it becomes the power to do what He says.  We never know which word, scripture, or principle is going to shine the light of God on our understanding to give us a "spiritual aha moment."   These moments become quite addictive as we continue in the word.  The avenues of golden nuggats that God opens up become too numerous to mention when we desire more of the word.  No word, no communion, no relationship, and no fellowship with Jesus and the Father.    

Only the truth that you know will set you free!

A Face To Face Encounter With God - Part 2

I had to get up my nerve to look at the sutures in my son's head.  They were truly a work of art.  A silver streak went down the right side of his head in an "S" curve.  It looked like 100 tiny staples side by side.  His wife was poetry in motion; she saw bleeding and jumped up to get something to stop it.  She was such an inspiration, until it gave me the courage to check out the wound..  My son was too busy grinning and extending his hand to everyone who came to visit to comprehend that the pain medication was keeping him afloat.  Only two people could visit him at a time and since there was this enless parade of people, I decided to sit in the visiting area across the hall.  As I watched all the people going in and out of his room, I thought "Lord, they are going to kill my child.  Don't they know that he just had an operation and was cut across two lobes of his head."  The shock of him being shot probably had the same effect on them that it had on me.  They wanted to see for themselves that he was alright. 

I decided to go back to my friends house and take a bath.  As I luxuriated in a tub big enough to swim in, the Lord spoke and said, "Long before the bullet left the gun, it had a designation but there was a parameter on it."  I struggled with that statement.  I've walked with God for 30 or more years and I thought things like this were not supposed to happen and here I have my Lord and Savior telling me a bullet was meant for my son.  I almost lost my grip, but God was speaking to me and He doesn't waste words.  Among other things He also spoke about faith.  I became so hyped, I had to call my spiritual advisor to tell her what the Lord said.  I talked non-stop for a good ten minutes and finally had to calm myself down. 

That's what happens when you have an encounter with God.  The mundane ceases to be and you get this whole new lease on life.  Life is so much more precious.  Time is not to be wasted.  As I drove home, I had forgotten what the Lord said about faith so I asked Him to remind me. The purpose of the Comforter, the Paraketos, the One along side who aids in our inabilities is to bring all things to our remembrance whatsoever the Lord has said unto us (John 14:26).  The Lord reminded me of what He had said.  I always repeat what the Lord says back to Him.  I said, you mean you give us the faith to believe you.  In response He answered, "Have the faith of Christ."  I came home, made a plaque and hung it on my bathroom wall and signed it...God!

When the Lord does something in our lives, we are not supposed to get emotional.  Faith is not an emotional feeling. It is not an attempt to do something.  It is not an attempt to believe something.  It is about having confidence in the LORD  (Yahweh--God of covenant) and trusting Him regardless of what our five senses say.  When we have a good opinion of God, we can expect the good in every situation..  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil that I may give you an expected in (Jer. 29:11).  God wants our highest good.  Before that fateful day in January, I had been pouring over the scriptures with a fine-tooth comb.  But, I've found that the beauty of studying the word of God is that our spiritual awareness is heightened and we receive strength in the inner man.  We see things that we would otherwise read right over.  As the word builds us up, God not only corrects our doctrine but things we've heard other people say.  I am convinced the Bible is not saying what we were told it says.  That's the whole purpose of reading it for ourselves.  What God wants to say to you is personal!  

A Face To Face Encounter With God - Part I

On January 6, 2012, Shon was shot in the head (and since then the event continues to be part of the most beautiful spiritual experience I’ve ever had).  When Heavenly called, the first thing she said was “Shon is all right.”  I didn’t think anything was strange about that.  When I asked what happened she started telling me, but it was taking her too long to get to the point.  I said her name in a very firm manner, “Heavenly -- what happened to Shon.  She called me “Mom” (which she never does) and struggled to tell me what happened.  I knew something was wrong, but “Shon being shot” certainly was the farthest thing from my mind.  When she said he had been shot, my first response was a shrill "No" and I headed to the floor when I heard A. Wommack’s voice say "Get your emotions in check"!  I stood straight up and asked to speak with him.  What I heard was incoherent, yet later he said he was calling me saying Mom, but I didn’t hear him.  Heavenly got back on the line as I searched for words to pray.  My first words were, "Lord, I don't know how to pray for this."  So I borrowed parts of a prayer from Andrew when his son was dead for 5 hours, but is alive to tell about it today.  So I said to God, "I know you didn't do this because you don't do stuff like this."  I asked him to give me a miracle and to suspend natural laws. In the midst of my prayer, Ms. Heavenly puts me on speaker phone and everyone surrounding Shon heard it. They said they were rejoicing and praising God.  (Shon later told me that it changed the atmosphere in the Emergency Room.  I had reservations about going to Grand Rapids because I had had chest pains on the right side and I couldn’t understand why I had started feeling sick that day starting at around 5:00 p.m.  Then about 1:30 a.m., I couldn’t go to sleep and that’s when Heavenly called.)   I think I lost all sensibility. I prayed, praised and packed, but I seemed to be walking around in a circle from the closet to the suitcase.  Finally, I just put the suitcase away and went to bed.

On Saturday I went for a walk to talk with God some more.  My son always talks about being in a bubble.  I felt like I was sequestered from the world.  I was walking by people and looking at them but either I wanted nothing to do with them or vice versa.  God had been speaking Psa. 8:2 to me for months, and I didn't know what it meant until I rounded the chainlink fence at the end of K-Mart.  Our of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise.  Praise stills the enemy.  I thanked God for preparing for a moment in time that changed my life forever.  

On Sunday about 3:00 a.m. I woke up.  I said to myself "Shon is shot."  Shot and Shon in the same sentence was so incomprehensible.  I said to myself, "Well you know that he's been shot because you are going to Grand Rapids to the hospital to see him."  I got on my knees to pray but I heard the Lord say, "You can pray down the highway because you are going to do that anyway.  At 5:00 a.m. my spiritual mentor called to see if I was about to leave.  At. 6:00 a.m. God told me to get going.  I looked out the window and it was that kind of darkness that is fresh, crisp, cool.  I hesitated as if to say, "Lord you know I'm afraid to go out in the dark (because of the wooded area to the west and north of my house)."  I did as I was instructed.  When I got on the highway, I felt out of my element when I've driven to Grand Rapids thousands of times before.  I wondered where is daylight.  An hour later I was in Lansing.  I looked back, and daylight was behind me.  An hour later I was at the 18 mile mark from Grand Rapids.  The instructions to the hospital were Greek.  I went to a friend's house.   I got to the hospital around 10:00 a.m. and Shon was sitting up grinning.  My prayers had been answered.