Miracles by Design

There are some things that haven’t been adding up for me.

Let me go back a bit. I was raised in the home of a Baptist minister – a wonderful home in many ways – not perfect, but filled with wonderful memories.  The one thing that made less and less sense as I matured, was the total devotion to a God who didn’t seem to do anything anymore. He seemed to be taking a 2000 year vacation after all that healing, delivering and miracle making. Involvement of Him in one’s life seemed to me to be akin to building one’s life around history lessons. Not a lot of fun.

A high-spirited girl, I went as far away from home as I could (in Canada) to university. Leaving not only my home, but the history lessons behind, I broke free and lived life as it came for 15 years – no rules, no accountability, no sense of being part of any great, cosmic ‘plan,’ I did my thing. By the time 15 years had rolled away, the fun was gone. I was tangled in a marriage that wasn’t working and my life was spiraling downward. Mired in depression, I gave up, thinking that if this was all there was to life, I didn’t want it.

Unbeknown to me, by that time, my mother and Aunt Jessie had been praying and fasting for me for about four months. They were concerned about my situation and believed that God could restore me. Without a word from them, I began to develop a hunger for purpose in my life. I began to read the Bible, and had a strong sense of knowing that it contained the answers I sought. The problem was that I needed a God who was bigger than me – a God who was still alive and could still do miracles. I wasn’t willing to go back into boring history lessons.

I asked my mom what was the difference between Aunt Jessie (a lively, happy Christian) and so many I had seen who didn’t seem to have any life of God in them at all. She said it was the “baptism in the Holy Spirit.” I’d never heard of it before and so set upon a quest of discovery. What I found was that God had not changed. It was the church that had changed. He was still alive and still did miracles (which I began to experience) in people who really believed!

Typically, I immersed myself in study, thrilled with discovery! The depression was replaced with bubbling joy. I discovered that there was a huge move of God happening in the world that had started at Azuza St. in California at the turn of the century. The Gifts of the Holy Spirit were becoming evident on earth once again, after having disappeared in the Dark Ages.  Blind people were seeing again, crippled people were walking and thousands of people, all over the world, were being filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, prophesying and being delivered from things like depression. Wow! I asked around and discovered a group of these new “believers” right in my home town.

So – that was 33 years ago. Very interesting, because I was 33 years old when I was “born again” and now here it is, 33 years later, and I feel I’ve made an equally important discovery now!

Here’s the thing… For the past 2000 years, ever since Constantine declared Christianity to be the state religion in Rome, Christianity and Judaism have appeared to be two separate religions. However, it always seemed strange to me that Jesus was a Jew and I didn’t see any place in the Bible where it said Judaism stopped and Christianity took over as the new approved-by-God religion. As a matter of fact, it seemed to me that the early Christians were still doing all the ‘Jewish’ things (except sacrificing animals) to get right with God. Of course they no longer had to do that because Jesus had laid His life down and was sacrificed as the “once-and-for-all” sacrifice for all who would believe.

Over the past year, all things Jewish seem to have been coming to my attention. Recently, I began to do some research. What I found, I believe, reveals the astounding truth that we’ve been totally, sadly off track for 2000 years!

The early Christian church was a mixture of Jews and Gentiles, all of whom continued to observe the Feasts that God had ordained for them to celebrate. While the life of the Holy Spirit in each one had dissolved the need for the legalism of the Law, things like observance of the Sabbath as a day of rest were still central aspects of their faith. They rested on Saturdays because it was a healthy thing to do and then met together on Sundays to worship together. They were full of dance and joy and celebration. The very idea that their worship could ever become a matter of sitting silently in a stiff-backed pew was unthinkable!

Then along came good old Constantine, the Roman ruler who made Christianity the state religion. While I had assumed that he was some kind of hero for ending the persecution of Christians, I discovered something quite different. What appeared initially to be a great blessing in terms of his acceptance of Christianity, in fact rang the death-knell for the genuine Christian church. It was probably engineered by Satan himself – that sly destroyer. Here’s what happened:

In A.D. 312, the Roman Empire was in great turmoil. Constantine and Maxentius were contending for the throne. Afraid that Maxentius could have an edge because he was known to be a master of magical arts, Constantine prayed to the “Supreme God” for victory. As far as he knew, he was praying to Mithras, the Persian sun god who he assumed was the supreme god. When he prayed, he apparently saw a flaming cross in the sky, with the words, “Conquor by this!” So – recognizing Jesus as associated with the cross, Constantine was victorious in battle and took the throne with the proclamation that he was now a follower of Jesus.

You can imagine the shock of the Christians who, until then, had been suffering dreadful persecution! For 18 years, they had been living under the brutal rule of Diocletian when many were tortured and killed. There must have been HUGE celebrations in the homes! Fear was vanquished! They must have seen it as an enormous answer to prayer.

Christian leaders were now honoured! It became financially advantageous to become a convert. Rest on Sundays became obligatory. Fabulous churches were built and pagan temples were either destroyed or turned into places to worship God.

The only problem was that Constantine didn’t really know Jesus. He mistakenly understood Him to be the manifestation of the sun-god, Mithras – so – while he claimed to be a Christ-follower, he mixed pagan worship into the pot. He kept the image of Mithras on his coins and set up a statue of him in Constantinople (bearing Constantine’s own features!).

While the enfolding of Christianity appeared to be wonderful at the outset, the changes proved disastrous. At the Council of Nicea, the first general council of the church in 325, Constantine detailed his un-Jewish design for the church. He declared that it was “improper” for the church to follow the customs of the Jews and identified them as “adversaries” of Rome. In eliminating Passover as an integral part of Christianity, he determined to have nothing in common with the “detestable” Jews. The church leaders apparently didn’t object because they were so grateful for his support. A few checks in the spirit appealed more to them than martyrdom!

While the early church had been built on the model of the home church, Constantine abolished “houses of prayer” in favour of the great basilicas he built where crowds would assemble to “hear” the Bishop speak from his prominent throne at the front. Celebrations and dance were no more. Participation in celebratory worship was forbidden. The Bible was chained to the throne so that no one could take it and read it – a far cry from the early church teaching the Torah to children, line upon line. The air in the basilicas was stuffy and rigid. No one was allowed to hold church anywhere but in a Catholic Church building. (The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomon, Book Two, Ch. 32). The essence of the family of believers became lost when the ‘Church’ became a building.

(As an aside, this is in no way a rant against Catholic believers. I have dear friends who are Catholics, who I know to be genuine Christians.)

The intimate, Spirit-led worship of the early church was replaced by solemn rituals and liturgy – to Constantine, with his Roman mind-set, the richest expression of dedication. The burning of incense and the use of candles, both part of the pagan worship he had known, came into widespread use. The new solemnity or the church mirrored the ceremonies of the Roman imperial court.

In 321, Constantine declared the Christian day of worship to be a Roman holiday. He called it “the venerable day of the sun.” That’s where we get Sunday! By the fifth century, worshipers entering St. Peter’s Basilica were expected to turn at the door and bow down to worship the rising sun!

Biblical feasts were replaced by pagan holidays. While the early church never celebrated Christ’s birth, under Constantine they began to observe December 25th, the birthday of Mithras – a favorite pagan holiday characterized by merriness and gift-giving. Now that Jesus was thought to be a manifestation of Mithras, it was declared a Christian holiday! The spring celebration to honour the goddess of fertility (Asherah, Aestarte, Ishtar or, in England, Eastre) became the ‘Christian’ Easter, to salve the concern of Constantine that Christ’s death and resurrection was celebrated on Passover, a Jewish holiday. Because the original pagan celebration of fertility was symbolized by the egg, pagans and Christians alike, decorated eggs and gave them as gifts to celebrate. Oi vey! They didn’t even bother to change the name! We now say we’re celebrating Easter – the name of a pagan goddess.

Worshipers of Isis (an Egyptian goddess revered as the mother of god and the great virgin) and Artemis (Diana) began calling their goddesses by the name “Mary,” so that they could continue their idolatry. Not much wonder the church became full of superstition and idols! While it might have become powerful and respected on many levels in the world, it had no room for the supernatural power of God.

According to legend, when Francis of Assisi had an audience with Pope Innocent III, the Pope, showing off the wealth of the church, said, “Do you see, Francis, the church can no longer say, as Peter once did, ‘silver and gold have I none.'” Francis replied, “Yes your Holiness, but neither can the church say ‘In the Name of Jesus, rise up and walk'” (from The Messianic Church Arising by Dr. Robert Heidler).

Basically, Constantine’s legacy is that he chopped off the Jewish roots and grafted in Greek paganism and Roman imperialism to the extent that what we have seen to be the church is a distorted misrepresentation of what it was meant to be! I am appalled that one man in power could have changed the entire course of humanity!!!!!! So sad!

By the beginning of the fourth century, Christianity was a mixed-up hodge podge in terms of how it was lived. In the cities, it incorporated aspects of paganism and Greek philosophy, while rural areas still exhibited much of the Jewish roots as taught by the apostles. There, the Torah was still taught in homes and Jews and Gentiles celebrated together as “one new man.” People walked in the freedom of the New Covenant while still benefiting from the richness of their Jewish heritage.

History records Constantine’s hatred for the Jewish people. It was a Roman mind-set and had been for centuries. Frustrated by the diversity, he was determined to standardize Christian worship according to his own paganized style and so commanded every church in the Roman empire to conform to his standard, which eliminated every vestige of Jewish roots. Non-conformity resulted in severe persecution and death. Anyone who followed Jewish practices (as the early church had done for over a hundred years following the death of Christ) was to be declared “anathema” (cut off or accursed) and killed.

Despite Constantine’s ruthless changes, the evolving (evilving) Christian church found it necessary to follow the Nicean decrees with Council after Council where they attempted to reinforce the stamping out of Jewish roots. Right up to A.D. 787 at the second Council of Nicea,, it was decreed, “Those who openly or secretly keep the Sabbath and follow other practices in the manner of the Jews are not to be received into communion, nor into prayer, nor into the church” (Canon VIII).

The question begs to be asked – if Jewish elements of Christianity were simply unnecessary adjuncts, why was the the Roman church hierarchy still working so hard to stamp them out over 700 years later?

Sadly, even though people who didn’t know Jesus were now called, “Christians,” they were still pagans and all manner of atrocities were perpetuated through the Dark Ages in the name of Christianity. How often have I heard people ask, “How can you be part of something that caused such horrors in the world during the Holy wars?” They don’t understand that those wars had NOTHING to do with Jesus!!!!

I had a very interesting insight into the workings of God this morning.

The past two weeks have been particularly difficult, not only prior to my healing from macular degeneration, but with some unexpected challenges. A few nights ago, my friend Jane Anne (who some of you are getting to know through reading this blog!) was praying. After asking God for wisdom, she distinctly heard Him say, “Intercede for thy sister.” (Although she and I have different parents, we are very close and feel we are spiritually related through the blood of Jesus. Like sisters, we have a lot of fun together and call each other “Sisti.” 🙂

Anyway, Jane Anne went on her face before the Lord, asked Him to forgive her for anything that would separate her from Him and asked that He would open the portals of Heaven to her, as is her custom. Then she simply waited to hear Him speak a word pertaining to her Sisti. Amid all the human thoughts that went through her mind, the voice of the Lord eventually sounded unmistakably. He said, “Open” and then “the ladder.”

Jane Anne remembered the story of Jacob and how he had a dream one night, where a ladder came down from heaven and angels ascended and descended upon it. She then prayed that God would open the ladder for me.

Without understanding why, I have been very happy for the past few days – even bubbly – in sharp contrast to the depression that has been trying to overtake me.

A few weeks prior to this, JA and her mom and I had gone to a Jewish synagogue in observance of the Day of Atonement. (I have begun to have a deeper desire to understand the Jewish roots of Christianity in order to understand my faith more deeply.) There we were greeted by a woman by the name of Joan who, in later conversation with JA, told her about the importance of the Body of Christ reading portions of the Torah in the same period of time, so that God can address particular issues in peoples lives at the same time. It was very interesting. Joan then directed her to www.torahportions.org, whereupon JA went to the site when she got home and printed out the prescribed Torah portions for us. (I encourage you to go to the site and print them out for your own use.)

Interestingly, Elaine Zimora, who connected with me re my legacy work, has been speaking to me regarding the importance of the Torah portions. I had never heard of this prior to these two introductions.

Today, I decided to begin the Torah readings for the first time. There was a reading from Genesis, one from the Prophets and another from the New Testament. As I began to read the Genesis portion in Chapter 28, I was stunned to read, “And Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place and put them for his pillows and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed and behold a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it…”

With all the places in the Bible I could have read today – what are the chances…? Have my happy feelings been the result of angels running up and down the ladder, ministering to me? What a delightful thought. It is so important to pray for each other!! God hears us – by design!

P.S. After reading this blog, JA called me and said Gid had had a further word for me. It was, “Hold tight to the rungs!” That’s a word that important for all of us. Our journey through this life to the next is lived just one rung at a time, but we must hold tight to the Sure Support. 🙂

A week and a half ago, I went to the eye doctor with grave concerns that I was losing vision in my right eye – and was diagnosed with macular degeneration! It was a devastating blow, particularly as a graphic designer / writer who is so dependent on my eyes for my livelihood. With memories of watching my mother-in-law go blind quite quickly after the same diagnosis, I felt as though my world had suddenly jolted to a stop. I would have no further opportunity to contribute to the world. I could become a burden to my family. Independence and driving would be a thing of the past. I would have no further opportunity to travel and see all the things I’ve waited a lifetime to see.

The week and a half following the diagnosis until the appointment with the specialist who would determine if it were the “wet” or “dry” variety, was an exhausting teeter-totter of faith versus fear – one day totally trusting in God to lead according to His perfect will and the next day listening to voices of doubt, despair and imaginings into the dark unknown.

Many people prayed that I would be given a new retina – that I would not indeed go blind.

Today I went to the specialist. He examined me with the latest technology available in the field – and could find absolutely no macular degeneration! Pointing to slides showing detailed cross section images of my eyes, he demonstrated the perfect health of my eyes! To top it off, he said, “You will have good vision for the rest of your life!” Now I have to ask you – what doctor ever says something like that? I felt that he was speaking the very promise of God Himself. The words were prophetic!

Anyway, I went flying out of the examination room to the waiting room to tell my friend, Jane-Anne (who had driven me) the wonderful news. “Jane-Anne – I don’t have any mascular degeneration! My eye is totally healthy,” I exclaimed. She jumped up, hugged me and joined me in a little happy dance right there in the waiting room.

“You’ve been healed!” she said. Meanwhile, two men, an aging father and a middle-aged son sat wondering what on earth was going on. “My friend has been healed!”Jane -Anne exclaimed again. “She had macular degeneration and now it’s gone!”

The younger man said, “That’s what my dad has.”

“Do you want us to pray with you?” JA asked. “God can heal you, too!” Both men agreed and, right there in the waiting room, we prayed for the man’s healing. We then began to tell them about other wonderful things we had seen Jesus do and how much He loves each of us. They were very open and receptive – just waiting for hope – and we had it to give.

It’s possible that this whole exercise – the whole macular degeneration thing – could have been orchestrated by God to touch the lives of these precious men  and demonstrate His reality and love for them. Incredible! 🙂

Tonite, everything has changed. Instead of my life being short circuited, it has opened up with fresh opportunities to serve Jesus in whatever way He leads me. I am ashamed that I didn’t trust Him more through out the ordeal. I’m so grateful that His plan for my life did not include blindness. Who knows what lies ahead?? What an adventure this life is, when walked with God of grace and mercy!

I seem to always be talking about money on this blog – but that’s the area where God seems to be teaching me to trust Him most in these last few years. I know that many of you probably wonder why I’m always stretched for cash, but it’s simply because I’m still in the process of getting back on my feet after losing everything.

Today, once again, God proved His faithfulness. My car insurance was due and life insurance comes tomorrow. I was short about $230.00. Payment for the magazine I’m doing won’t be here for a couple of weeks, but I hoped that a cheque from the States would be here in time.

I spent the morning with the Lord, learning of His ways and reminding Him of the bills due today and tomorrow. At noon, I went to the mailbox – but no cheque. So, I came home wondering, “What now Lord?”

As I prepared lunch, Lola (my cockapoo) made it evident that she was hungry too. As I opened the refrigerator to get her food, she lay down on the floor, confident that her needs were about to be met. It occurred to me that the Lord was using her as an example of how I could face my needs. I am His child. He is my Father and He knows what I need. I can relax in the assurance that He’s looking after me.

My worry turned to peace as I felt directed to simply go to my computer and work as though all were well. A scripture from 2 Chronicles 20:17 rolled through my mind: “You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions(s); stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you.” I believed I had positioned myself (as well as I knew how) according to God’s principles for participation in His Kingdom economy. I had tithed, happily given offerings where needed and blessed them for use in His Kingdom. Therefore, I was expecting Him to intervene in some way – I just didn’t know how He’d do it.

About 2 o’clock, the phone rang. It was an old friend whom I hadn’t seen for some time, saying that he had been prompted by the Holy Spirit to call and wanted to know what was happening. Because of the apparent connection, I told him. He asked for my banking information and said to check my account in about an hour.

Long story short, my insurance is paid. Thank you Lord. Another miracle of your gentle grace and kindness – by design.

This is amazing!

Let me go back a bit. Six years ago, through a family trauma, I was left (at the age of 60) with nothing but my furniture, my computer and my position as a child of God. I knew no one would hire me at my age and so I went back to school and, one year to the day after the trauma, I registered a little graphic design company called byDesign Media – because I knew God had a plan, a design for my life.

During that six years, He has been faithful to supply everything I needed – but the debt I incurred getting back on my feet has remained and I always seem to be cash poor. I have known there was something wrong – something missing in my understanding of God’s principles because debt is not glorifying to Him and being cash strapped prevents me from doing a lot of things that would bless people.

Last week, I had to borrow $60.00 from my sister to put out a fire at the bank. It was humiliating, depressing and made no sense to me because I tithe and try to do things to honour God. I couldn’t understand why, with my portfolio, my experience and all the things I had produced, I couldn’t seem to enter into the blessing He promised.

I went for prayer counseling to see if there might be curses on my life that hindered the release of God’s supply. When I arrived home after the prayer, there was a message from a Christian magazine asking if I would do the layout and design for this month as their designer is unable to do it this month. I was thrilled, and certainly saw it as an answer to prayer, but the fact remained that I had only five dollars to last me until the end of the month – and there was a lot of month between now and then. I had no fresh fruit left in the frig and my food supply was dwindling. Several friends offered to loan me money, but I was determined not to borrow another cent because it doesn’t solve the big problem – just increases the debt issue.

Last night I read a book by Gary Kersee called, “Fix the Money Thing,” in which He explains some little known secrets of the Kingdom of God. He wrote about Jesus’ teaching of Kingdom laws (just like the natural laws of gravity, etc.) that mirror the same kind of cause and effect. When the five thousand needed to be fed on the hillside, Jesus didn’t just make food appear; He said, “Bring Me what you have.” When the disciples brought the five loaves and two fishes, He blessed then and instructed them to feed the people. After what they had brought to HIm had been multiplied to feed all the people, Jesus instructed them to pick up the “fragments.” They gathered 12 basketsful of left overs.

It occurred to me today that I needed to pay more attention to the “fragments” in my life and give Jesus what I had (my five dollars), bless it and ask Him to release provision from Heaven. I heard about a situation where a lady was in need and so I asked my friend Peter to give her the five dollars. Long story short, he had brought a huge lot of fresh produce from his garden for me and, on the spot, gave me $400. towards some design work he wants me to do. Wow. God is good. Tonight, my refrigerator is full and I am so excited about what I’m learning.

We need to release what we have to God, bless it for His use and know we can never outgive Him.

On the way home, I went into the grocery store. A young Iranian girl  was sitting at a little table taking her break. I smiled at her and she said, “Oh I love your scharf! (my favourite one) – I wish I had a scharf like that to wrap around my neck because it’s so cold in here. Hardly thinking twice, I took off the scharf, gave it to her and said, “Tell you what – take my scharf and every time you look at it or wear it, remember how much Jesus loves you.” She was shocked.

Later, I saw her at her post – one of those little tables where people pass out samples, etc. – and there whe was, wearing my scharf. She said, “I really want to thank you. That is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me in my whole life. It’s good to see that there are still some nice people in this world.” With that, she came out from behind her little desk and gave me a big hug – right in the middle of Zehrs! I asked her if she knew Jesus and then the door opened wide for me to tell her about Him and how much He loves her.

Ah – what an exciting life! Miracles – by design!

Today was Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement. I haven’t celebrated the Jewish feasts through the years, thinking that it’s not necessary under the New Covenant. However, I’ve been thinking about it and the fact that they were to be a “lasting ordinance” and the possibility that observance of the feasts could bring a new depth to my understanding of God’s plan.

Anyway, despite my desire to get some work done, I took the day off and did some reading about atonement and getting things right with God and man. So – remembering a relationship that was shattered many years ago, I called the person and asked if we could get together. Long story short, I extended forgiveness and requested the same of them. Before I left, my negative feelings had morphed into a genuine love! We hugged and expressed a desire to keep in touch. Wow! Amazing!

The transformation of an enemy into a friend is a miracle indeed!