Gratitude and thankfulness...

As I look back over my 60 years, I have so much to be grateful to God for, and I realised, as I thought about it this morning, that ‘needs’ often take precedence over gratefulness, and I want to public say that I’m so grateful to God for all that he’s done for me, all that he’s provided for me, all the blessings he’s dropped on me for those 60 years, when in truth, I don’t deserve any of it. Thank you, Dad, for all you’ve sustained with me, so far. Samuel, when making an altar to thank God for all he’d done, in defeating the Philistines, named the place ‘Ebenezer’ (1 Sam 7:12), saying ‘Thus far has the Lord helped us’….with the implied statement left hanging – ‘and from now on he will continue to help us’… That was a verse prophesied over my life, by Rodney Nelson, a great prophetic man whom – until one night in July 2008 – I’d never heard of. He was in Cali, Colombia, and called me and a friend out to prophesy over us.

We’d never met: and he got so much of ‘my story’ right that you know what comes next is going to be from God. Three days earlier, a 4-year-old boy had come back to life (having been dead for 80 minutes, killed by cerebral malaria). Rodney’s first statement over me was this: “You’ve seen the miracles, up until now God has been faithful, and from now on, you know God is going to be faithful.” You can imagine that blessed me… but then, he went on to say this: “God says that the dead IS raised, and there’s more to come. I’ve let you see it, I’ve let you be part of it, but God says that the miracles I’m going to use you to do, they’re going to get to the point where they don’t surprise you any more….God says it’s going to become such a common place, and your faith is going to be raised so much that your prayers are going to be shorter. You’re just going to say ‘Get up!” and they’re going to walk, ‘See!’ and the blind will see, ‘hear!’ and deaf ears will be opened.’ I’ll have THAT word, most certainly!

And it IS happening… up to now, God has been faithful, and from now on…. this doesn’t only apply to me: it’s for all of us.

The reason, I think, that this was in my spirit when I woke this morning – the whole thing of gratitude and thankfulness, is that today, 30 September, is the 48th ‘anniversary’ of my earthly dad, going to be with Jesus….I miss him, even now, so much. I’m sure he wasn’t perfect, but he was one of the loveliest men you could meet, and his death, at 41 years of age (due to a mis-diagnosis of his condition – diagnosed as pneumonia when he’d had a massive coronary to the lungs…) – was premature to say the least. I’m so grateful that I had 12 years with such a lovely dad: I’d have loved it to be 70 or more years, but thank you, Father, for my dad….Very ‘helpful’ Christians in the church told me that, as I carried more weight than was good for me, I’d die young like my dad…. (Don’t we ‘bless’ each other as Christians sometimes???!!!) A lovely man, now also with Jesus, named Johnny Barr, broke that curse off of my life when I was 34, and dreading (if I’m honest) reaching 40-41 years old…. the enemy still TRIED to take me out when I was 41, in a massive car crash (my ‘angel’ story – if anyone wants to know that, put it on Facebook, and I’ll blog the story!!! It’s absolutely amazing….), and on my 42nd birthday, I verbally kicked Satan between the legs, as he buckled kneed him on the chin, and as hit the floor, stood on his neck…. and told him just where to go!!!!