Petrina
Written 2014
After watching this rather interesting film, ‘Now You See Me’, I realised God was speaking to me through it about my own situation.
The film is about a bunch of magicians, all with different skills of illusion and deception, working together; their sole aim – to deceive and defraud their way towards a trophy.
At one point there was a scene with the rabbit in the box trick. One moment, the rabbit is in the box, the next, he’s gone. This theme was picked up later in the story with a safe box full of money hidden in a warehouse; the safe box along with the cash simply disappears. We were all deceived, the rabbit was there all along, so was the safe box, the deception was all done with mirrors.
A magician specialises in the art of distraction; taking our minds away from the main action and onto something we are deliberately deceived into thinking is the real thing.
It was the use of mirrors which got me thinking. How much of what we see around us is actually ‘real’?
My daughter has been struggling since the age of 14 with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and even now, each day is a challenge. Now, both she and I believe that God is our healer.
My daughter asked God to heal her, we have all asked God to heal her, we follow Jesus and we believe that God has answered our prayers.
She has been healed from the fear of being ill permanently and from the lack of joy that follows this illness. God did that. She is full of joy, her spirit is free and she praises God for what He has done and is doing in her life.
However, on a daily basis and on a very practical level, I look at her and all I see is the weakness; the sickness, and my heart sinks. I am deceived into seeing one thing when the truth is that the healing is there all along. I’m not being fanciful here, I’m saying that Satan is cunning, Satan is sly, Satan is a deceiver. He wants me to see the empty room. I begin to doubt, then I take my eyes off Jesus our healer, and I wobble and sink; I see the empty room. But, and here’s the best bit, when I look to Jesus, I see the truth and my faith rises.
It is the same for my daughter, being sick becomes the secondary issue and as she praises God, looking to Him for her daily strength, her faith rises and her heart sings for what He has done.
The truth is, my daughter is being healed by God. My daughter is a mighty strong woman of God, a daughter of the King. I have now seen the mirrors and, – there stands my healed daughter.
Satan might be after the trophy of my daughter. But he has been defeated by Christ on the cross.
Col. 2:13-15
Georgina
I may have been suffering with M.E/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for many years, but truly, the Joy of the Lord has been my strength.
Daily I make the desicion to enter the presence of God, to praise him throughout the difficulty. God has gifted me with His joy, He is continualy increasing my faith, and my spirits are high. But the most beautiful thing I have come to know is, “Be still, and know that I am God”.
God knows my heart for him. I am quite simply, ‘In love’. True, I struggle with being ill, its hard, and often I feel like giving up, but by His grace and because He loves me, I can always find the strength to draw close to Him – to BE still, and know that He IS God.
BE STILL.
I am in Love. He is all I can think about and you know, if my thoughts and heart, are focused on Him, the health issues, dissapointments, etc. loose all significance and the power, the very presence of God fulfils me; nothing can compare with this.
To sum this up. His love casts out fear, I believe that I am being healed, but that my love for Him, makes everything else small and insignificant and HIS LOVE for me, is exceedingly and abundantly more than enough.
‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.’ 2 Cor 3:17
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise Him. Psalm 28:7
End note: It is now 2019 and we are delighted to say that last year Georgina walked into her healing in and by the name of Jesus! By His stripes she is healed. We praise and honour His name.
Truly this has impacted me deep in my spirit. I keep reading it over and over again to let it sink deep. For the past 20 months our family has been rocked by watching our adorable wee grandson struggling with genetic liver disease and blood sugar issues. He has been in hospital so many times and had so many operations it has left us all exhausted. It is the hardest thing as a parent (as you well know Petrina) to watch your children suffering and not be able to fix things for them. My son and his wife have gone through things you would never wish on anyone. BUT … God has been faithful. We were told our precious boy would be listed for a liver transplant when he was only 4 months old. He was so yellow, he was almost green and his bilirubin was way over 300. God told me that the transplant wasn’t going to happen. I hung on to this promise when all around me everyone was preparing for it. We had people all over the world praying that his bilirubin would come down. It shot down so fast, the doctors were astonished and the transplant was cancelled. It is now lower than any of the rest of us!! There have been several times we thought we were going to lose him as every time he gets sick, his system just cannot seem to cope. Presently he has very scary blood sugar issues. I know that God heals. I know that God loves him even more than we do. I also know that Satan seeks to destroy our faith and undermine our belief in God’s healing. I respond to visual images (which is why I am an artist) so this image of the magician and the mirrors have given me a new way to combat Satan’s tricks and deceptions. Thank you for your beautiful writing xx
Wow, what a powerful testimony to the healing power of Christ. Faith as small as a mustard seed is all we need to build great things from. Your faithfulness and your faith is so heartwarming Cheryl and I believe you will see many more amazing things through Christ who strengthens us whenever we doubt.
Thank you so much for your comment and I shall be passing it on to let my daughter enjoy! Beautiful.