The God of More than Enough
There have been so many times when our family was in need that our Awesome God showed His Power! I just wanted to share some of those times with you:
The feeding of the sheep:
This first testimony takes place when I was single, and my work place had to close down unexpectedly. It really put us in a crunch financially, and I was trying not to worry about how we would eat. The best thing to do about worry? Cast all your worries unto the Lord!
One day I opened our freezer to discover that all that I had was two one pound packs of hamburger left in it. I sighed as I realized that this was not going to be enough to feed my family for very long. I placed my hand on both packs of meat and prayed to the Lord to bless our meals, and asked Him to make sure that we had more than enough to eat.
I took out one of the two packs of hamburger, un-thawed it, and cooked it up for our dinner. After dinner I went about my business doing the dishes and headed out the door to go and do some teaching of Gods Word. This was my favorite time of day because I love to go out ministering. Only I was not just going out to minister. I went to go 'feed' Jesus' sheep with some real good Spiritual food and impartation.
The next day I went back to the freezer to get out the last pack of hamburger to feed my family. When I opened the freezer, I stood there at a loss of words for a moment, as I realized that there were two packs of hamburger in the freezer again. I briefly thought about how I must have mis-counted the packs the day before. Then just as quickly as the thought came, I dismissed it because I had witnessed so many other times when the Lord had Supernaturally supplied our need.
I grinned and thanked the Lord for the supply of more than enough food as I again took another pack of hamburger out of the freezer, double checked to see that there was only one pack of hamburger left, and went and made dinner. Again after dinner I went about my business, doing dishes and then went to worship the Lord.
The next day I went back to the freezer to get some meat out for dinner, and could not help but laugh as I again saw not one pack, but two packs of hamburger in the freezer again! This went on day after day! Our God had made sure that I had enough food to feed my family every day lasting well into the next week when I had my final paycheck coming in and was able to go and do my own shopping!
Yes, I had sown into the feeding of my family by going out and ministering and 'feeding' Jesus' sheep! I got back what I put into it, and then some!
The wedding feast:
I had been making plans for my wedding day, and as any bride knows, this day was to be such a blessing that I wanted to make sure that everything was perfect and going as planned. I went over flowers, and dresses, and decorations over and over again to make sure that everything was right.
We had sent out 100 invitations, and had gotten only 30 RSVP's, and so my oldest daughter and I had gone out shopping for the wedding day feast. We chose the meal with great care, making sure to not only get enough food to feed the 30 guests, but picked up just a little extra in case anyone wanted a second helping. I picked out 15 bottles of white grape juice instead of wine, and figured that each bottle would be enough to fill 2 1/2 people's glasses to drink with their dinner.
Then came the big day. I was a nervous bride the way it was. I had two bridal assistants who were there to assist me with not only my dress and hair, but also with the food preparation and with serving the food to the wedding guests.
When it came time for me to walk down the isle, I stood at the back of the Church and was astonished to see that the Church was packed! Now I was even more nervous! I briefly thought about how I had only gotten 30 RSVP's back in the mail, but it appeared that most of the 100 people that were invited showed up!
The wedding was beautiful, and went on with no problems. I felt like the most beautiful bride in the world! After the wedding service, my husband and I were mingling with the crowd while my bridal assistants went about and set the wedding meal out and placed all of the food for the feast on the table for them to serve to our guests.
I was standing at the other end of the Church chatting with a guest when one of my bridal assistants came over to where I was at and said, "Mary! I need to talk to you! It's important!" I excused myself from the guest that I was chatting with and stepped aside with my assistant to see what it was that she was so worried about.
"Look!" she said. "We only have enough food for 30 people, and I counted them all. There are 70 people here, including you and your husband. We don't have enough food for all of these people! How are we going to feed them? Not only that, but we AREN'T going to have enough white grape juice for them to drink with their meal!"
I briefly looked out over the crowd, and immediately thought about how the disciples had said the same thing to Jesus when all that they had was 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. I looked up to heaven, held my hands up over the crowd, and said "Father, I ask that you bless this wedding feast and increase our meal, in Jesus' Name!"
Then I looked at my assistant and told her, "Okay, please go and feed our guests. They are lining up at the table because they are hungry." She looked at me like I was nuts. "But Mary, we don't have enough food to feed them all! Didn't you hear me?"
I looked at her and silently asked the Lord to help her with her unbelief. I answered, "Yes, I heard you. Now please go and feed our guests!" She shook her head, and said "Okay, but I'm telling you..." and went off to start serving up the food onto plates.
I stopped her as she was walking away, and told her "Oh, and PLEASE make sure that you give them PLENTY of food on their plates when you serve them, and FILL their glasses with the grape juice!" She again turned around and looked at me and shook her head like she thought that I was crazy.
I turned and walked back to my husband and our guests and stood there chatting with the guests while I kept an eye on my bridal assistant, who was busy heaping food onto peoples plates. I couldn't help but smile at what I was looking at, because I KNEW that the Lord was about to make a true believer out of this 'doubting Thomas' (ette).
When all of the guests were served, my husband and I went to the feast table and got our plates. We went and sat down to eat. While we were eating, I watched ALL of our guests enjoy their meals. Several times I watched as guests got up and went back to the table for a second helping. I smiled again, as I knew that it wasn't going to stop there.
I watched my guests again, and saw that my assistant was eating her meal at the other end of the feast table. Every time she saw someone come up to get a second helping, her fork stopped mid-air on the way to her mouth, and she shook her head in amazement at what she was seeing.
I finished eating, and sat there and watched as some guests went back up to the feast table for a third helping of the meal. After several minutes went by, my husband and I went to the feast table to cut the wedding cake. My assistant came running over to me and said, "Mary! Did you see that? Everyone was fed! Some even came up 2 and 3 times to eat!" Jesus is AWESOME! He answered your prayer for the food!"
I smiled even more then, as I realized that what my assistant had witnessed with the 'feeding of the multitude' at the wedding feast, had boosted her FAITH in our God tremendously!
And do you know what? We had MORE THAN ENOUGH FOOD! So much food, in a matter of fact, that we were able to pack a lot of the left overs as well as the many white grape juices into a box and bring it with us on our honeymoon/vacation with our children to the mountains in Yellowstone National Park!
My husband and I had communion with our children out in the mountains with one of the bottles of white grape juice left over, and another my husband and I drank alone to celebrate our wedding and reflect back on what we had seen our God do to make a believer out of my sweet assistant!
JESUS is King!!!
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Honor and Glory
Shortly after the visitation from the Lord, a man that I know came by for a visit to the apartment that I used to live in. This man by the name of Jimmy came over and was questioning me on the Power of the Holy Ghost. He stated that he wanted to be a good Christian, but was having a hard time believing that Jesus still heals today like He did over 2000 years ago.
Me and my children talked with him for some time about healing, and showed him verses in God's Word that referred to healing. He said that he would have to see it to believe it. I tried my best to convince him that with the Kingdom of God, you have to BELIEVE IT to SEE IT, but he would not listen to me on this.
After chatting with him for awhile, we asked him if he would like to go across the street with us to a place that everyone called 'the sales barn'. 'The sales barn' was an old farm house that had a big barn next to it, with a fenced in horse pasture that was quite large. We told Jimmy that we went over there quite often to feed the horses carrots because they loved them so much.
As we walked across the street to the horse farm, I was silently praying to the Lord to show Jimmy something that would change his mind about healing. We got to the horse farm, and we noticed that they had two new horses there.
One was a big beautiful brown horse, and the other one was a big beautiful blond horse with a very distinct marking on her head between her eyes. We walked to the fence with the bag of carrots, and the horses came running over to where we were at as though they were expecting something.
When the blond horse approached us, we could see that though she was a very beautiful horse, she was blind in one eye. Her left eye was beautiful and brown, but her right eye was completely white, with a thick milky 'glaze' over it. I looked at her eye, and saw that not only was it white and blind, but it was also deformed. The pupil was cone-shaped, and stuck out of her eye about a half an inch. It wasn't a pretty sight.
I quickly called Jimmy over and pointed this blind eye out to him, and told him that I knew that because the Lord had created this creature, that He could also heal its eye. Jimmy looked at me like I was crazy, rolled his eyes and said “Yeah, right!” I told him to come and stand by me and the children and see what the Lord Jesus could do. He shook his head and came and stood closer to where we were.
My children and I then laid our hands on the blond horses head and prayed for its healing. The horse sensed something was happening, and started moving her front legs. She then started nodding her head as though she was agreeing with whatever it was that the Lord was doing.
When we were done praying, Jimmy looked at us and chuckled. “See,” he said. “I told you that nothing would happen.” I looked at Jimmy, and looked back at the horse, and I then told Jimmy, “These signs shall follow those who BELIEVE...Come back to my house in three days, and I'll show you what the Lord has done.”
We then went back to my apartment, and Jimmy left. He came back three days later with a smirk on his face and said, “The only reason that I came back was to PROVE you wrong.” I just smiled at him as we headed out the door to go back across the street to 'the sales barn'. I was anxious myself to see what it was that the Lord had done.
As we approached the fence where the horses were, we could see the brown horse and the blond horse look our way. They both ran to us expecting treats. I swear I saw that blond horse SMILING at us! The horses approached the fence, and we got closer to them. The brown horse took a carrot and ran. The blond horse came and looked directly at Jimmy.
The first thing I noticed was her eyes. “Look, Jimmy! You SEE that! Three days ago she had one brown eye, and one white blind eye. Today she has two BEAUTIFUL BROWN EYES! Not one, but two! And it's not deformed either! I told you that Jesus could heal her!”
I turned to look at Jimmy, who was staring at the horse in dis-belief. His mouth was hanging wide open as he soaked in what it was that the Lord Jesus had done. I was grinning from ear to ear as I told him, “Pick your mouth up off of the ground and close it before the bugs start flying in there!” He clamped his mouth shut, and looked at me with buggy eyes, still full of dis-belief at what he just saw.
Then my daughter Ashley spoke up. “Mom, we should name the horses now.” I looked at her and said, “Okay, what do you have in mind?” She said “I think that we should name the brown one 'Honor', and the blond one 'Glory'.
I looked at my daughter, and understood that the Lord, Himself, had given my daughter that idea for the names. I thought it very appropriate that the name given to the horse that was healed would reflect the very GLORY of the Lord Himself! As for Jimmy, he never doubted the Power of the Lord Jesus again after that, and ...
Jesus is King!