This Week's Encounters with Legalism

[tv1a]

I'm fine if no one responds. I need to get my thoughts down about what happened this week.

The background:

The relationship between my mother and I deteriorated since my father passed away in 2008. Without going into details, she has mad some poor decisions with any rational reasons for doing so. As a result, I limited the contact I have with her. My mother is the classic legalist. She knows her standards better than she knows her Bible.

My mom lives 1/2 hour away. But in order to find out there's a family problem, my sister who lives 6 hours away calls me to fill me in about what is happening. My sister calls me Tuesday evening and says mom was in the emergency room with chest pains. The next morning as I was getting ready for work, my wife got a text mom was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. I didn't have any intentions of going to the hospital to check on mom. The Holy Spirit prompted me to visit mom. I called my wife and told her I was going to check on mom and that I may be late for church.

I had every intention of building my mother's faith with healings I witnessed the past few years. I told her about praying for someone who doctors said needed dialysis until a kidney donor could be found. I told my mom how this lady testified she felt a warmth flow through her body as if someone was hugging her from behind. She said Troy, I knew it wasn't you because you were holding my hands. The lady testified she went back to the doctor and the doctor said her kidneys were doing great, she wasn't going to need dialysis or a kidney transplant.

I told my mom about a lady diagnosed with falling arches. She developed back problems and was in constant pain. She was at our house. I prayed, rebuked the pain, and with a couple minutes she was healed. She was jumping on that leg.

My mom had to interject a story about God doing miracles. Her story was about someone donating $10,000 to pave a church parking lot. I'm sitting there dumbfounded. I'm thinking God is healing people and the best story she has is about a paved parking lot? I wanted to say something really bad, but I held my tongue and changed the subject.

My mother was sharing the hospital room with a lady who was in for various medical issues. She heard the stories of miraculous healings. A few minutes after I told my mom the stories, her roommate started screaming in pain. I asked if I could pray for her pain. She agreed. She told me doctors diagnosed her with restless leg syndrome. She said the pain was seven out of ten. I began to talk to God for a couple minutes. I asked the lady how she felt, she said the pain was at a five. I continued praying for complete healing asking God to fill the lady's body with His love. The lady said she started to feel a warm sensation in her leg and the pain was gone. A few minutes later, a nurse shows up because someone pushed the emergency button for assistance. The lady said I pushed the button to see if you could bring me a pain pill, but I don't need the pill now.

Ironically I asked my mom if she wanted prayer for healing. She said she would be fine. Again, I'm flabbergasted. A lady with a methodist background is healed. A one God, tongue talking apostolic accepts the illness in her body. Needless to say, I walked out without praying for my mom. She had no desire to be healed. Meanwhile the methodist lady had an encounter with God she will never forget.

[CC1]

Do you think maybe she was waiting for her pastor or someone from her church to pray for her? If she does not approve of where you are at religiously my experience with a lot of people in old time Pentecost is they think that means you are not a "real" Christian so your prayers for healing would not be valid.

Bottom line is that it may not be she does not believe in prayer. Just not yours.

[jediwill83]

Wow...id accept prayer from anybody.

[Steve Epley]

Originally Posted by CC1

Do you think maybe she was waiting for her pastor or someone from her church to pray for her? If she does not approve of where you are at religiously my experience with a lot of people in old time Pentecost is they think that means you are not a "real" Christian so your prayers for healing would not be valid.

Bottom line is that it may not be she does not believe in prayer. Just not yours.

Tis true.

[AreYouReady?]

tv1, many people will not accept family members witness, testimony, or prayers.

Pride? I think many of us have stories like yours.

Knowing that doesn't make it any easier because we want all our loved ones to share in God's healings.

[tv1a]

Part 2.

I don't put a lot of stock in the spooky of the supernatural. But I had a dream a couple days after visiting my mother at the hospital that disturbed and excited me. I dreamed God was using me in one of our church services to encourage people to receive healing. I remember two things about the dream. There were issues with our PowerPoint presentation and I was wearing only one sock and one shoe. I remember in the dream I kept trying to hide my foot, while trying to encourage people to respond to God's presence. I didn't know what the dream meant. I kind of put it off to the side until the Sunday Morning Service.

Right before service started, we had a couple of unexpected guests. A upci missionary and his daughter. They are related to a family who attends our church. Again the element of legalism was present. I told the missionary I was glad to see him, I told him I loved him, and he still looked as young as he did 20 years ago when I first met him. He literally blew me off with some lame remark. No problem. I know he heard a lot of junk about me. It's hard to receive love from someone who has gotten a lot of negative press.

We were singing a song with the line There's no one like you, there's no one like you Lord there's no one like you in all the earth. Something about that line brought the power of God into the room. I got the cue to come up and to share the announcements. I shared the healing I witness earlier in the week. I didn't mention my mother's reaction. As I told the story, we went back into the bridge of the song. Everyone responded to the Spirit's move except for our two guests. I asked if anyone needed healing and two people came up to be prayed for. The first person said she needed healing for her feet. God healed her feet.

In the meantime while God was healing people, our audio/visual techs were switching laptops because of an issue with the overhead projector.

I don't know why main part of my dream had to do with feet and technical glitches in the video department. I don't know if it's a dream, vision, or as Epley calls it, a case of indigestion.

What's sad is the only people who didn't get anything out of the service were the legalists. Twice in one week God was giving people the opportunity to have something miraculous happen. Twice in one week, the so-called less spiritual received a miracle. Twice in one week, people who claim to be so holy and so righteous declined to allow God to supernaturally meet their need.

Why do people who claim to understand God and His ways more than anyone else, shut down when they realize the narrative isn't scripted the way they think it should read, but the person coming to Jesus with child like faith, goes out changed? Some things I'll be reflecting on the next few days.

[tv1a]

My sister sent me an email that was going around her prayer group at church. A lady was in the hospital and wanted anyone on the pastoral staff to pray for her except for one. She had a problem with him. The preacher took it with a grain of salt.

Originally Posted by CC1

Do you think maybe she was waiting for her pastor or someone from her church to pray for her? If she does not approve of where you are at religiously my experience with a lot of people in old time Pentecost is they think that means you are not a "real" Christian so your prayers for healing would not be valid.

Bottom line is that it may not be she does not believe in prayer. Just not yours.

[jediwill83]

Originally Posted by AreYouReady?

tv1, many people will not accept family members witness, testimony, or prayers.

Pride? I think many of us have stories like yours.

Knowing that doesn't make it any easier because we want all our loved ones to share in God's healings.

A prophet hath no honor in his own country.....

[AreYouReady?]

Originally Posted by jediwill83

A prophet hath no honor in his own country.....

Just the verse I was thinking about.

[AreYouReady?]

tv1a, will you pray for my healing?

I have several things that I have need of. God knows what they are. I am tired and overwhelmed and I need a move of God in my life.