God's ACD's

Has God ever spoken to you audibly? Me neither. In fact, I only know one person who has had that experience. But God does have many “alternative” ways of communicating. He speaks through his Word…through sermons…through music…through circumstances...through other people...through his creation...and through many other means. He finds ways of making himself known, so if our hearts are open we’ll hear him.

Because of my own speaking challenges, I’ve been thinking about this. My voice doesn’t work hardly at all so I use gestures…paper and pencil…extreme facial expressions…I even write in the air sometimes.

My Alternative Communication Device (ACD) arrived. I type what I want to say and it speaks for me. It's a little hard to understand but it's better than nothing. This one is a rental but the updated model will be here soon. Hopefully it will have better vocal inflections. (smile)

God’s determination to make himself understood has been my inspiration!

In fact, God spoke to Jim and me in a very unusual way this week. Here’s how it happened:

One day we were looking at the statistics about this blog site and marveling that there were readers now in 49 countries of the world! We’ve had almost 2000 hits this month, averaging 62 per day. And in October alone there were 465 NEW readers. That shocked us! We were rejoicing at how God has taken a very negative thing like ALS and has used it to do positive things.

As we were looking at those site statistics Jim said, “Remember that prophecy about you?”

I did remember, but had discounted it when it didn’t come true.

“No, think about it,” he insisted, “remember when that man said that your ministry would expand to many new cities?”

Yes. (I had pictured traveling to all of those places!)

“It HAS, Honey! Look at how God is ministering through you to so many people! And you’re touching people in cities we've never heard of. Did you write down exactly what the man said?”

Yes somewhere, but I have no idea where it is.

“Why don’t you try to find it? Remember he was crying the whole time he was saying that?”

Yes and I had cried even into the next morning because I had felt like God had really spoken to me.

“Try to find it.”

So I began digging into my old papers to see if I could find where I had written it down. Finally, I found it! And when I read it my mouth dropped open and I sat there in stunned silence. Then came the tears. “God, you are amazing!”

It was a Finnish businessman and church elder, a man we didn’t know, who had given me this word, and it had happened almost four years ago at a pastors’ conference in Finland! Here’s what he said:

“Your work will expand to include many other cities. Your influence will grow significantly. You have some of the keys already—both of you—and new shoots of growth are coming. You are in a significant time of growth right now. He is preparing you for what’s coming. Something new and strong has begun. He is going to use you in new ways that you can’t imagine. God holds out a scepter to you. Don’t be afraid. Move ahead into what God invites you to do.”

I guess that man was one of God’s “Alternative Communication Devices," and in God’s perfect timing we figured out what God had spoken to us--just when we needed a lift.

Last week was one of our toughest yet! I had one whole day of Atrial Fibrillation, several bouts of heart arrhythmia, and increased difficulty eating and swallowing. My body continues to lose muscle mass (and weight) so I’m noticeably weaker. Sometimes it’s overwhelming for both of us…and last week was one of those times.

It was a wonderful time to hear so directly from God and it was an enormous encouragement to us!

I keep thinking about my 465 new readers. I wonder who you are. Who referred you to my site? Do you also have a life threatening illness? Do you need a personal relationship with Jesus? Are you searching for peace? If so, I encourage you to find a Bible and read the entire book of John. It’s one of the four Gospels. Before you begin, ask God to speak into your life. Then read John from beginning to end, noticing who Christ is and what he wants to be to you. I hope you’ll choose to give your life completely to him. That is the most important decision of your whole earthly existence. If this happens (and I pray that it does) then find a Bible believing church and get to know some other believers. God will show you how to grow in him and become all he has planned for you to be. Get used to listening to his voice. You'll find it in many places!

Is it possible that God could use me, a perfect stranger, to speak into your life? I hope so. By the way, if you and I don’t get to meet on this earth, come find me in heaven and tell me your story!

That’s a pretty creative God who can use a lady who needs an ACD to be an ACD. (smile)

mm

P.S. One of the happiest spots of our week was Friday when Rhonda brought our three grandsons to go trick-or-treating.

We have a lovely neighborhood with many Christian families and it seemed like all of Nekoosa had brought their preschoolers to our street to go door to door for candy. It was like a big block party. Most adults don’t dress up, but our very creative daughter-in-law had created cute costumes for all six of us. We were dressed in pairs. Reuben and I were clowns…Jim and Levi were soldiers…Rhonda and Micah were frogs. It was lots of fun! And who could have dreamed that the temperature in Wisconsin on October 31 would be 66F (20C)?
If you'd like to see all of the photos from our fun afternoon, copy and paste this link into your browser: http://gallery.me.com/rdmathias#100129