Stories of a good God

Archive for the ‘Crossing the “chicken line”’ Category

And the termination was cancelled because…God IS Good! Praise Report!

In my last post I told a story of a friend of mine who stepped out and prayed for a pregnant woman.  The woman was carrying a child who had been diagnosed by the medical world as having downs syndrome and as missing a nose … the story includes how my friend took another testimony and used it as a precedent upon which to rely and ask God to do again …

Well, this testimony, is the testimony upon which my friend relied … this was the first testimony that was told at a church service, which relates to miracle healings … not of just one baby, and not just one healing, but a healing of twins and a number of healings …

The first section of the testimony retold here is the testimony that was released at church.  The second section is the more …

I received permission to retell the first testimony … with the more … because when you choose to step out and into who you are with God … the story never ends just there, with the prayer and healing, so often it is just the beginning of a journey for you and for the one you pray for … as you will no doubt see as you read …

The first part of the testimony retold in our church service a few weeks ago was this:

After having a shocking run of complications last year, my friend fell pregnant in December with twins and was very excited. One day soon after she fell pregnant, we bumped into each other and I felt strongly to ask her if it was ok for me to pray for her for a great pregnancy. She agreed, but since she is not a Christian, was a little cool about it.

Last month, I bumped into her again and she looked absolutely shocking. She told me that she had just come back from her doctors’ and was being encouraged to terminate the pregnancy due to one of the babies being profoundly disabled and both babies appearing to have severe heart defects. She was in a shocking place and very conflicted, as you can imagine. She told me that some Christian family members had said to her that her babies were damaged due to her ‘sinful’ lifestyle and that she needed to repent. Obviously she was angry and confused and very sad.

I just sat with her and cried with her, one: because I didn’t know what to say or do, and two: because I recognised that her situation was horrible and an impossibly hard one to find herself in. I asked her again if she minded if I prayed and whether she would mind if I got some of my friends to pray for her and her family. She said yes and I prayed explaining that God was crying with us and that He felt her pain and just wanted to hold her during this tough time. I told her that He was a God of miracles and that He cared for her and her babies dearly.

The next day, I got some of the young adults in our YA connect group to agree to fast and pray with me, as well as some friends of mine. Within 6 days, she rang me to say that the nuchal fold measurement which was showing severe Downs Syndrome in numerous previous tests had now REDUCED from a 6.8 reading to a 3.5 reading, which was approaching a normal reading. She said that neither her nor her doctor could understand this change at this stage of the pregnancy, but that it was a great sign and that instead of terminating, the doctor had suggested she wait another 3 weeks for further tests and decide after that. She begged me to keep praying (how cool!)

Well, yesterday was the end of the 3 weeks and I got a very excited phone call from the doctor’s office. Both babies are looking fine, the nuchal fold reading is normal, the blood tests are normal, there is no fluid in the brain or stomach of either baby, and the heart defects appear to be totally gone!

In her words: “Miracles Definitely Happen!”

As a nurse and healthcare professional, it was so much easier for me to go to a place of ‘realistic expectation’ and just be resigned to this situation, but I’m learning to go to a place of expecting that my Papa God has a better idea and REALLY WANTS to make an awful situation into a brilliant encounter with His love.

I’m overwhelmed at how amazing He is – this ‘crossing the chicken line thing’ is definitely the place we are meant to live from! Yay Papa!

My friend then went to write the further instalment to the story …

Since then there was a report that the smaller baby had a blood supply problem and was not growing, so we prayed for that and the next time the blood issue was gone too.

The next test revealed that one twin had shorter legs and this was a concern again with respect to possible Downes, so we prayed again for the baby’s legs to grow and the following scan showed no signs of short legs anymore.

Mum is healthy, babies are healthy and now past the 24 weeks viable delivery stage.

She has also had a 3D scan done and both babies have beautiful, normal healthy faces with no signs of anything untoward. It’s nearly like we were able to pray and tick all her concerns off the list. I’ve learnt that so often we get discouraged by small set-backs, but we can stand against those too and claim victory at every stage!

As a nurse and healthcare professional, this has totally blown my mind. I used to think that there were simply certain “medical truths” that couldn’t be refuted or altered. I have since learnt that the ONLY TRUTH is God’s truth.

Keep sharing testimony … because GOD IS CERTAINLY ONLY GOOD!

Do you have a story of God’s goodness that you can share?

Will you step out into your destiny with God and release Him to a world that needs His love so desperately?

This first testimony was available at our church because one girl decided to “cross the chicken line” for herself and allow God to be God … she reached out at the risk of being rejected, looking foolish, looking like a religious freak …and offered to pray … and as a result two little babies are healthy to go … and a testimony was then available for another person of courage to take and use in stepping over the chicken line and offer to pray, also at the risk of ridicule and rejection … and another baby was healed and born whole and healthy …

Who is waiting for you to “cross the chicken line” and to be all you were created to be?

Together, with God we have the power to change the face of this country … to change the face of the world … if we will just dare to stand up and be who we are called to be … if we will only offer Him to the world … as we go … we will impact an entire generation for His Glory and the world will be a vastly better place because …

God IS Good!

Post script: the “chicken line” is a phrase coined by Kevin Dedmon that describes the act of stepping out into a place of risk by offering God’s love, in whatever form that may take, to others around us …

I believe the “chicken line” is different for us all … but we are all called to cross over into that place, because in that place is where we experience risk which is faith in action (see Kevin Dedmon and Chad Dedmon’s book entitled the Risk factor: Crossing the chicken line into your supernatural destiny (2011 Destiny Image Publishers).

For some fun check out our church website and find the You tube videos of people at our church stepping over their chicken line …

Give it a go … its fun and God really does turn up because … well you know … God is Good! J

Category:

As you go, Crossing the "chicken line", God is good, healing, Kevin Dedmon, praise report, prayer, Pregnancy

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Crossing my chicken line…the lame DID walk…part 3 – releasing life and declaring destiny for God is Good!

To continue on from the last post … where I crossed “my chicken line” (see below for explanation) …  a woman walked away from her wheel chair pain-free (click here for story), and a mother is set free from a sense of darkness and hopelessness, being filled with hope and light … and where the mother then asks for prayer and blessing of her son (click here for story part 2) …

And so, standing before the tall young man, I placed my hand on his arm and started to pray and as I did I started to declare that “with long life He will satisfy you” (Is 91:16) and I looked at the mother and said, I sense that your son will live a long, long life …

She gasped.

I continued praying and then turned and said that I sensed that the men in his family lineage had their lives cut short, that I did not know if it was in his father’s lineage or his mother’s … and I rebuked the spirit of death and released Life into and over him in the name of Jesus …

I prayed that God would have vengeance on all that had been stolen and that her son would have long life … and I turned to the young man and said something like … “I sense you will live a long, long life, and you must, for what I sense you have been born for you will mature into when you are in your 50’s and beyond, that what you are called into has such great significance that you need many years of maturation to carry it forth” and I said that I sensed he had a strong call of leadership on him which would take many years to enter into the fullness of his destiny … hence with “long life he would be satisfied” …

I turned to the mother and asked if that resonated … had the men in the family had their lives cut short?

The mother looked in amazement and said “yes.”  She then went on to explain that – her father and grandfather had both died before the age of 50 and she that her son had been diagnosed with cancer 4 years prior and had just been given the “all clear” with much of his knee having been removed surgically to get rid of the cancer … he had nearly died and the doctors were amazed that he had survived … I could see her mother’s heart filling with relief and hope for her boy as she took in the fact that I had declared life and “known” the short life spans of his lineage in the males of his family and that therefore God knew and cared enough to have me stop, pray and declare the opposite …

She said to me “how did you know that?”

I responded saying I just felt that God was showing it to me, that He was a good God that loved her son and wanted him to know that His purposes for him was great and required a long life to fulfill … that the cancer was not for him, and that neither was the shortened life span that had gone before him in his family …

 I turned and cut the generational curses off her boy, as I had done for her, and released blessing, asking God to release the generational blessings over and into him in the name of Jesus … I also again told “death” and “cancer” to leave … with more confidence knowing that od had shown me what He had so that He could deal with them through my declarations over the young man … and I continued to agree with God’s purposes that this young man would have a long and fulfilling  life …

I then asked if I could pray for the young mans knee to be recreated, explaining that there was a word of promise over our Church, that creative miracles would be seen. 

He agreed and so I took a deep breath and knelt down and prayed for a creative miracle to take place, releasing life and commanding the knee to reform in the name of Jesus.  As I did I held  onto the promise that had been released over our church, knowing that I had to step into that promise and believe if we were to see it happen as a community … and that I must step out in faith and call it forth in the name of Jesus … regardless of what my mind was screaming at me as I did … for who was I to withhold such a promise from this young man … it had been declared over our church, and so I had to declare the promise as a member of our church over this man because … it could just happen …

As I knelt before him I recounted a friend’s testimony where they had prayed for someone with no knee caps and they had seen and felt an entire knee cap be created under their hands as they prayed …

I prayed, choosing to believe regardless of  “logic” … thoughts of my father’s atheism flashing before me and how he would think me mad … I prayed regardless of what I thought and how foolish I felt, holding onto God’s word over our congregation …

The young man said he did not feel much as I prayed, but he walked and tested it out, saying it felt a little better.  I walked with him, as I had done with his grandmother, and I encouraged him to keep walking and testing it out and to thank God for each and every positive development …

I then recounted how people at Bethel Church in Redding California had seen creative miracles and I told the formation of an eye-ball story that I had heard Bill Johnson tell many times over recent years … and I explained how sometimes God planted a seed of healing/creation into a person and over time the miracle would take place.  I recounted the story of A’s healing of two broken legs that had healed over the span of about two weeks … and as I did I relied all the while on the power of the testimony (thank you Bill Johnson) (see Rev 12:11) and the knowledge of the Truth that I felt that God was showing me prophetically …  regardless of what my mind screaming at me all the while.

I then sensed enough was enough … and I turned to the man and thanked him for allowing me to pray.  I looked at the mother who was still teary and I gave her my number and invited her to the Easter Sunday service the following day …

She said she would come .. or at least try …

Her husband approached me and thanked me fr praying for his mother, saying what a difference he could see … and the mother looked at me saying … he doesn;t believe … he is an atheist … and she looked so very excited as she spoke …

I left knowing I had found my God assignment … it had been worth the wait, and the inconvenience to find them.  I had delayed my own plans of getting home by half and hour to find them, and then the whole encounter must have been at least another half an hour … but it had been worth it …

I would like to say that the family all came to church the following morning and got radically saved … they didn’t … I looked for them, prayed for them … but then I had to let it go and release it all to God …

I was a part of their journey … a part of their story in discovering a good God … a part of the puzzle that revealed the goodness of God and His heart for a family that had been through so very much …

He wanted to release healing over the mother-in-law … hope and light over the mother … and long life and vindication for lost generations over the son …

I was the vessel that just happened to be available to agree with His purposes and release the declarations on earth over them … and so I got to co-labour with a good and loving God …

And while I still marvel at the words of knowledge, it makes me feel so very much more frail, fragile … I was nothing special, just merely a vessel to carry God into their world and reveal His loving kindness to them … without God I would have known nothing, without Jesus I have no power to help or change anything … and that is extremely humbling!

In any event … what a spectacular gift to be part of their journey on the eve of Easter Sunday – on the eve of the celebration of a resurrected and victorious Saviour …

Jesus has done it all … we just need to appropriate it and give it away … as best we know how …

And so I ask … will you join me and step out to stop for the one before you, where ever you may be?  I was picking up some shoes for my daughter when God apprehended me for this assignment …

It can be scary, it is often inconvenient, it is intimidating at times … but it gets easier each time you stop and offer Him, especially when you are filled with His love for the person before you … and so, oh my gosh … it becomes so very, very worth it because …

God IS Good!

Post script: the “chicken line” is a phrase coined by Kevin Dedmon that describes the act of stepping out into a place of risk by offering God’s love, in whatever form that may take, to others around us …

I believe the “chicken line” is different for us all … but we are all called to cross over into that place, because in that place is where we experience risk which is faith in action (see Kevin Dedmon and Chad Dedmon’s book entitled the Risk factor: Crossing the chicken line into your supernatural destiny (2011 Destiny Image Publishers).

For some fun check out our church website and find the You tube videos of people at our church stepping over their chicken line …

Give it a go … its fun and God really does turn up because … well you know … God is Good! J

Category:

As you go, Bill Johnson, Crossing the "chicken line", Isaiah 91:16, Revelation 12:11, Stopping for the one

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Crossing my chicken line…the lame DID walk…part 2 … releasing a word of hope and life – God is Good!

Easter Saturday I was set up by God to “cross the chicken line” by being given an assignment to pray for an elderly woman in a wheel chair.  She had got up and walked off into the shops after prayer for an injured knee, leaving her daughter-in-law and I standing beside a wheel chair she had gleefully left behind (click here for story).

I left the story at this point – the elderly woman happy and apparently healed of all her pain and discomfort … shopping … and while I had finished there, so much more occurred …

If you did not read the post click here to read for the context …

After the elderly woman trotted off to shop I turned to her daughter-in-law who was in awe of what had just occurred, and as she watched she explained that her mother-in-law did not believe in God …  she was breathless at how amazing it all was, and how God had shown His hand to an unbelieving woman …

I gently placed my hand on the daughter-in-law’s upper back, behind her shoulder, where I felt God direct me to touch her, and I asked if I could now pray for her.  She nodded enthusiastically, still watching her mother-in-law walking through the store with a big smile … and tears began to fill the daughter-in-law’s eyes.

She turned to me and as I invited the Holy Spirit to come a strong sense of God enveloped us.  She started to openly weep and I started to sense some of what she had been through.  I asked her/said to her … “you have been through a really tough season, but I sense that God is saying it is a new season … a season of joy, and hope, …” and with that I commanded all darkness to leave in the name of Jesus and released life and light into and over her.  She gasped and looked up at me and said with a smile that in that instant she felt a heavy darkness lift off her and she said she felt light … and that she felt full of light and hope … I smiled and said that Jesus wanted her free … that He came to give us life in all of its fullness, and to give it to us abundantly (John 10:10) …

I continued to pray as I felt led, and cut off all generational curses in the name of Jesus.  I then released a blessing over her and her family, declared her destiny open in the name of Jesus and asked God to release the stockpiled generational blessings that were there over her and her family.  She stood and wept some more …

As I prayed I felt some of the strength of God’s love for her, it was powerful and strong and I found myself getting teary … I asked if I could hug her and give her a kiss on the forehead, to bless her with the Father’s blessing  … she agreed and so I wrapt my arms about her and kissed her gently, releasing the blessing of the Father over her and as I gently held her she sobbed some more as we stood by the wheel chair in front of the store …

She eventually quieted, looked up at me, and I gently explained that while I believed that God wanted her mother-in-law healed,I felt that the appointment was in fact for her.  I went on to explain that I had been waiting for them to come, that God had wanted me to wait … and as soon as I had seen them I knew they were the ones I was to stop for and offer to pray …

She continued to cry and as we stood talking, unbeknownst to me, her son and husband came up behind us.  She took my hand and earnestly and asked if I would bless her son, as I had done for her.  She turned to her husband and explained all that had happened … pulling her son over to me … and she quietly explained to me that they did not believe either, but would I please pray for her boy …

I turned, expecting a little boy, and instead was before a young man, taller than me … who was, I found out later, 23 years of age.  I asked him if I could pray for him, explaining what I would do.  He agreed, and so I laid my hand on his arm and invited the Holy Spirit to come … knowing and trusting that, although he, his father and grandmother did not believe in God, God loved them regardless because always, and through and through …

God is Good!

to be continued …

Category:

Christian, Crossing the "chicken line", God is good, God's love, John 10:10, Shopping, Stopping for the one

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Crossing my chicken line…the lame DID walk…a God is Good praise report

In my last post I mentioned how wheel chairs of all shapes and sizes are my chicken line (see post script of linked story for explanation) …

Well, I had another story I thought I would post next … one of God’s goodness the following day on holiday, but, on returning to Melbourne I found myself in a shopping centre about half and hour away from home collecting a new pair of shoes for my 8-year-old daughter…

As I walked in I had the uncanny sense that there would be a God assignment for me there …

I walked around after collecting the shoes, but felt the Spirit of God say “stay, go up the escalators …”.

I recalled that earlier I had experienced trouble finding a car park, which was not normal, and I had asked God if the time in finding a car park was a “timing thing” … He responded in the affirmative.  This “conversation” came back to me as I turned to head back into the centre and up the escalators and so I asked Him “where next …”

After going in and out of a few shops, I still had that sense that there was something for me to do, someone to meet.  A candle caught my attention in a shop close to the external doors so I went in … I felt He said “buy it” so I did, and as I left the store I saw an elderly woman in a wheel chair …

I instantly knew this was my assignment so I approached the woman pushing the chair and the elderly woman in the chair and asked if I could pray.  They both said “yes” with great enthusiasm and so I introduced myself, knelt down and asked what the problem was …

The elderly lady in the chair swiftly pulled her sari thigh high, exposing a swollen, braced right knee.  I knelt down before her and laid my hands on her knee and started to pray, explaining as I did that she may feel something like heat, a tingle, or even a wind … or even nothing … and to let me know when and if she did …

She instantly said she felt a wind swirling around her knee … and warmth.  I pressed on praying, telling the story of A who had been healed of two broken legs (see below for related links) and had stood the first day, and had walked freely within two weeks … and I explained how a healing could be instant or it could be over time, coming in the form of a “seed” (thank you Bill Johnson).

I kept praying, feeling the Presence of God strongly as I did so.  She said the feeling was intensifying in her knee … I said it was intensifying on me too … laughing as I flinched a bit with the intensity of the Holy Spirit’s Presence.  She then mentioned the pain in her knee and so I rebuked the spirit of pain, and released the healing oil of the Holy Spirit … and as I did she said the pain completely left.

The anointing seemed to lighten so I asked her about it and she said the sensation was lessening and so lifted I suggested she check it out … by walking …

To my surprised delight, she agreed!

Her daughter-in-law and I lifted up the foot rests of the chair, and she rose shakily to her feet and started to gently check out God’s handy work.  She then straightened some more, took some more steps, smiled and nodded and then reported, with a big smile, that the pain was all gone, and with that she walked off into the store to shop, leaving her wheel chair and her daughter-in-law behind with me …

I turned to the daughter-in-law and placed my hand on the top of her back behind her shoulder, where I felt God said to touch her, knowing that she was next and as I touched her the daughter-in-law’s eyes filled with tears, remarking on the miracle that had just unfolded before her eyes … I gently looked at her and said “it is your turn now, can I pray for you?” and I took her hands in mine and she was visibly overwhelmed with a sense of God’s love for her.  I repeated to her that I had been there for a reason, for a purpose because God loved her mother-in-law … and her so very, very much … it was a God appointment for us both, and it was now her turn to be prayed for because times had been tough, to which she nodded, wept and stood ready to receive knowing now that …

God is Good!

(to be continued …)

Links to A’s story of healing and a family’s salvation (in three parts) see: Part 1 for the start of the story and Part 2 and Part 3 for the praise reports

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Bill Johnson, Christian, Crossing the "chicken line", God is good, knee, praise report

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Crossing my chicken line…”the lame shall walk” because…God is Good!

In my last post I mentioned that we had headed off on a walk on our first day in a local sea-side town.  My husband had just stepped out and crossed his “chicken line” and I had the sense that I was to keep a look out too …

We wandered up the beach and across a rope swing bridge, over the town river, and as we wandered up the walkway I saw a figure fishing from the vantage point of a wheel chair …

As I walked I knew that he was for me to stop and offer to pray … wheel chairs tend to be my current “chicken line”, even though I have witnessed people “getting out of them”.

I watched as my husband and son, who were a little further ahead, walked straight past and, as I walked hand in hand with my eight year old daughter, I readied myself to offer to pray.

We came along side of the man and I opened up the “encounter” with a comment about fishing … as with all fishermen, they are always up for a chat about the fish … whether they were biting or not … easy opener …

He reported his catch to us and I casually asked him about the chair and asked how he had ended up in one. He said a car crash 22 years ago, and once he explained I offered to pray for him to be healed, recounting the story of the healing of the girl in the wheel chair I had met, explaining how seemingly nothing happened straight away but, over the days to follow the prayer, the girl had been completely healed.

He agreed to the prayer.  My daughter stood by my side, I gave my name and he told me his name was Michael.

He gave me permission to place my hand on his upper spine and I prayed … I then asked him whether he felt anything … He did not, but I explained that God was at work anyway, that people do not always feel anything and they are healed regardless and I rested in the fact that I could feel the anointing, God had asked me to stop, and I trusted it was God’s will that he be healed.

I prayed some more and he then mentioned his left leg and the numbness so I got permission to place my hand on his knee and I commanded feeling to return … for atrophy to leave, for strength to come … and declared his body to be “on earth as it is in Heaven” (Matthew 6:10)… praying as Jesus taught us to pray.

I then thanked him for his time, gave him a number to call and report any change and encouraged him to thank God for every little bit of healing, every little bit of improvement he noticed, explaining that often the healing comes as a seed and as we water it with thanks and praise it will grow …

He promised me he would call with any improvement and I felt God prompt me to give him a kiss on the cheek. Now, I do not often kiss strange men on the cheek, or even give out my mobile (translate “cell”) phone number to men I do not know … to women, when prompted …yes … no problem … to men … no … but in this instance I felt to obey, sensing that it would show an acceptance and a love to this elderly man who in some way he needed and so, again, I asked for permission, this time to kiss him on the cheek …

I leant down, gave him a kiss and I wished this man, I wished Michael, well … wandering on to our destination of scones, jam and cream in the autumn sunshine…

What happens next to Michael I do not know. I just knew, I sensed that, I was to stop and pray … to cross my “chicken line”, again, as my husband had done before me… and to then rest in the knowledge that since the stopping was God’s idea, and God’s ideas are always good, that absolute good would come from stopping and offering to pray for this man, for Michael, because …

God is Good!

Post script: the “chicken line” is a phrase coined by Kevin Dedmon that describes the act of stepping out into a place of risk by offering God’s love, in whatever form that may take, to others around us …

I believe the “chicken line” is different for us all … but we are all called to cross over into that place, because in that place is where we experience risk which is faith in action (see Kevin Dedmon and Chad Dedmon’s book entitled the Risk factor: Crossing the chicken line into your supernatural destiny (2011 Destiny Image Publishers).

For some fun check out our church website and find the You tube videos of people at our church stepping over their chicken line …

Give it a go … its fun and God really does turn up because … well you know … God is Good! J

Category:

Christian, Crossing the "chicken line", declarations, God is good, Kevin Dedmon, Matthew 6:10, Obedience, Stopping for the one

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