This series of blogs will be testifying to the incredibly humbling Father we have in Heaven. Who are we that are so important to Him that He graciously paves the way ahead so intricately with attention to detail - that can be so subtle it may go amiss. We are His children that He wants to love and nurture, to walk with us daily.
With Jesus at the Helm, steering our pathway, His Provision can be so incredible it blows our mind.
Over the years as He has answered many a prayer in a way beyond our wildest imagination, and not our ideals - but His, I have exclaimed "I don't believe it!"....not because I don't believe it, but because the answers are truly breathtakingly unbelievable. His plans far outweigh any ideas I may have come up with.
For many years I wanted to write a book by the title of this blog, testifying to not only 'our' outstanding provisions but also answered prayers of so many other family and friends.
So to kick start this series, I'm going to share a recent example of how The Lord prepared the way in the finest detail. A simple yet profound story - not a result of prayer, but His Hand reaching down into a situation before even I knew it existed.
November 2014, I woke up excited. Today I was embarking on an adventure. My brother was in his last week of cancer treatment, and I was going up north to visit him. The adventurous bit was the planned train journey,
I hadn't been on a train in years, and I was looking forward to letting 'the train take the strain', rather than the 4 hour long drive.
Precious hours to spend editing my blog about 'Willie getting his wings'
into a book.
As I woke I had a strong sense of taking a 'prayer cloth' with me. Quite a surprising thought as I had
only recently been told about prayer cloths by a relatively new Christian friend. Someone had given her one to place over her scar whilst recovering from breast cancer, she is still in remission years
later.
Although I thought it was a great idea, I wasn't sure where it fitted into the Bible. Waking up with this thought, I wasn't sure if it was me thinking it would be a nice idea or God nudging me.
Apparently I felt it had to be a specific tea towel, a soft one we had somewhere in the house, that wasn't that effective on wet dishes. I was slightly concerned I wouldn't find it as tea towels are a rarity in our kitchen...but whilst in the downstairs toilet I opened one of the dawers...wondering if I should use our dear mums' wig...but thought Dave would be freaked out by that..he knew mum would
want him to get better, but probably not by using the wig.
It was in the drawer below I found the tea towel.
Only those who know me well will not be surprised at the contents of the drawers in our downstairs cloakroom. Order does not rank high on my priority list so I was pleasantly suprised to find the tea
towel so swiftly.
It didn't smell overly fresh, so I did consider finding an alternative, but my gut
feeling was to take it anyway, not any other, in my rucksack...I didn't have to use it, but if The Lord prompted me, at least it would be in the bag!
After a great journey, I settled in to my brothers house, it was lovely to be with him and his family. He looked amazing, the 6 weeks of chemo/radiotherapy mix had not caused him to lose his hair as I imagined it would, but instead gave him a healthy glow on his face and neck.
This belied the suffering his stage 4 squamous cell mouth cancer, spread into his jaw and neck was causing him. He continued to smile and laugh inspite of his intense pain. He takes after my mum.
In the morning I left him getting ready for his daily radiotherapy visit, and strolled off to the local church.
Although a playgroup session was on, they showed me into a side room where I could kneel and pray. I appreciated the quietness of the room, set up for a smaller Sunday service.
I sat on one of the neatly lined up chairs and started to lift my brother before God.
Immediately I had the sense that The Lord wanted me to read His Word, and found a pile of bibles at the back.
I prayed just before opening it. I love The Bible but am one of life's worst Bible Scholars. When it fell open at Acts 19, I confess I felt slightly disappointed...I was hoping for an example of Jesus' power to Heal from one of the Gospels.
I confess that the Book of acts was not one of my favourites.
(I have since changed my mind and was challenged to reread Acts...it is Actually amazing like all of His word).
Still I thought rather than re-opening it, I might as well read from this page. My eyes were drawn to verse 11.
This is what I read...
Acts 19: verses 11-12
'God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.'
Wow. Just wow. I did not know that this was even in the Bible, yet here it was, loud and clear.
Humbling is an understatement.
I thanked God and walked swiftly back to share this with my dear brother. He got choked up. Dave had gone a little way away from Jesus since our mum died, and had felt guilty about asking Him for help when he was diagnosed, and yet The Lord was making it clear to him, that He was on the case. I knew He loved my brother with all His heart, but now David did to.
What a gift, to be able to leave a prayer cloth with him when I left to go home. But it transpired to be even more of a provision than I thought.
That evening my hurting and anxious sister in law angrily told me it was all a load of rubbish, how
could there be a God if He allowed lovely people like Dave to suffer. I disn't have the answers, although of course I tried to share my heartfelt faith in a loving God walking with us through these dark days, like in the 'footprints' poem.
I had not realised how angry and bitter she was until that moment. Out of respect I realised it would be inappropriate for me to pray for my brother in her presence.
God had provided a means of allowing me to pray without any awkwardness or being antagonising. I could also refuel the cloth by praying into it on future visits.
Amazingly My brother was well enough to enjoy Christmas and celebrate his 50th birthday just a few weeks after treatment finished.
At his check up in January, his oncologists were amazed at the speed his mouth was healing. They
even joked about the fact the radiotherapy machine may not have been switched on. There was no evidence of treatment on his skin, no thickening, no scar tissue or discolouration.
The team looking after him were speechless. I was convinced Jesus had left His signature across the treated area.
They examined him and said he was in remission, the treatment had been successful. Stage 4 cancer can be lethal, but Praise God For Healing.
My sister in law is Praising the doctors, I'm praising God for the doctors.
My brother is thankful to God, relieved and looking forward to a well deserved holiday.
The pain is still ongoing but getting easier. He is still quite tired as a result of the intensity of the
treatment, but he is far ahead of where the medical experts anticipated he would be At this stage.
My ongoing prayer is for David and his family to know the Love and care of Our Lord Jesus Christ in a personal way, and that he remains in remission.
God never does cease to amaze me, He truly does blow my mind at the detail in all things.
'Prayer cloths'...something I learnt after 27 years of becoming a Christian.
Praise God - Amen.
