In this life there are highs and lows, battles and breakthroughs, but when you trust in Jesus, the beautiful One who only leads us in triumph, expect moments of being overwhelmed by heaven’s miraculous intervention, sometimes at the very last moment! Don’t be discouraged or disappointed by divine delays, there are times when God seems to keep our faith on it’s toes, in fact on our tippy toes, desperately reaching up, longing for more and desiring only Him! Family and friends always laugh at me, without shoes I actually do walk on tip toes, that’s clearly why my life requires tippy toe faith! Why just survive when faith in God causes us to thrive! I heard the voice of heaven say, “Make way for miracles, not singular, but multiple, divine turnarounds in a day”!
I love living God’s word! It’s one thing to simply read the Bible but quite another to apply God’s word and promises to your life and circumstances! That’s where the power for Kingdom living is! When God called me to this I thought it would just be a year of blogging (18 months on I’m still going). It was during my maternity time with baby Judah. I promised to be real, raw, and prepared to be misunderstood, all for the sake of showing, not just telling others, how they too can live in the power of God’s word. You see, In order to be God’s living word it takes more than reading it but finding His Word for you in every situation then living it, breathing it, believing it, regardless of whether the opposite seems to happen and all hell breaks out trying to steal your faith in it! You make God’s word your legal claim and right until your circumstances, health, relationships and finances fall into line with it! There’s good reason why God’s word is often referred to as the ‘law of the Lord’, it carries the enforcement of heaven behind it!
I captured this moment watching the sun go down on our Sprowston Manor Stay. It was our last night. I sensed in my spirit, and there are people who need to receive this, that the sun was going down on this battle season and rising on a new day of breakthrough, promotion and fresh opportunities for Kingdom influence.
I thanked God for the beautiful setting, the special people we had met, the staff that we so often celebrated and the battles He was bringing us through. We were due to check out the next morning and as you know from Marriott, Mould & Miracles and Mountains Bow, Mountains Move, Mountains Make Way… Marriott management had kindly offered a gesture of goodwill for the suffering encountered. Sadly, on principle we prayerfully felt unable to accept it as it meant signing a waiver of denial that the events ever happened. Our Marriott mountain wouldn’t move, and neither could we move and accept any money if we had to sign away our honesty and integrity. We had decided not to pursue the matter legally either, God was our shield, abundant compensation and exceedingly great reward, as promised in Genesis 15:1. We were stuck between a rock (immovable mountain) and a hard place.
God spoke to me as I went to collect my belongings from the changing room locker, number 95, after my time of resting outside. I heard the oh so familiar, beautiful still small voice of God’s Holy Spirit speaking inside of me. Often we need to silence the noise of the voices all around us; doubt, fear, intimidation, insecurity, to hear Him. Quite simply He said as I looked at my locker number 95, “read Psalm 95”! The Bible is a BIG book, I had no recollection of what Psalm 95 contained.
The next morning we planned to check out around 12 noon. At 11.15 am the phone rang and I just knew it was heaven’s miracle calling and our mountain moving. It was the lovely Hotel Manager who asked my husband if we three could meet at 12 noon. At that moment I remembered God’s word to me from the night before. I grabbed my Bible and turned to Psalm 95. I read the whole Psalm out loud.
Psalm 95:1-11 NLT
[1] Come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. [2] Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him. [3] For the LORD is a great God, a great King above all gods. [4] He holds in his hands the depths of the earth and the mightiest mountains…. [6] Come, let us worship and BOW DOWN. Let us kneel before the LORD our maker, [7] for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care. If only you would listen to his voice today….
Our mountains may look strong, impossible, insurmountable and immovable, but we don’t focus on that cold hard rock or allow the situation to pull us down, we shout joyfully to THE ROCK OF OUR SALVATION and make our great God our focus! He will always save us! Next the words “He holds in His hands… the mightiest Mountains” jumped off the page, reassuring me and assuring you today, that the mountains we face belong to God! I knew my God had this.
In worship, I literally bowed and knelt before the Lord our Maker, in front of Liella, our daughter’s bed in our room. I began to praise and pray out loud and then heard my husband praying beside me. I turned and saw him bowed down on His knees by the chair.
I remembered God’s word spoken through me only the day before:
“ ‘If the mountains bow in reverence, so will I!’ I declare today as you bow in surrender to Almighty God, your loving Heavenly Father, every mountain, obstacle, problem, sickness you are facing will bow before you! Stand strong, walk on confidently, God is breaking through and making a way for you!”
I realised we quite literally, spontaneously and without realising it, obeyed and fulfilled that word as God brought it round full circle in Psalm 95!
We walked into the Marriott Management meeting and the mountain had bowed, moved and made way for the miraculous, albeit at the ‘midnight hour’. In fact, there was no mountain, only a plain. An admission, acknowledgement and apology. A thanks for reminding them of the roots that Marriott had been built upon which was of honesty, integrity and a heart to care for people! The stories the Manager shared with us of Marriott’s foundation were heart warming. Then came the next heavenly surprise, the gesture of goodwill… it doubled! That was not something we had asked for or even expected. Our only request had been an honest rewording within the legalities requiring our signature. We met our miracle with heaven’s compensation system clearly defined throughout the Bible, ‘double for trouble’!
Mistakes happen, things go wrong but when responsibility is taken, true resolution can be found and change, as well as positive turnaround, happen for the good of all! Their gesture of goodwill was very generous and greatly appreciated, but of far greater, lasting value than money was the restored confidence in Marriott’s integrity, honesty, responsibility and those attributes that we must not allow to become old fashioned values! Let’s bring them back, celebrate them and make them trendy, fresh and new! I hasten to add I don’t always get it right, none of us do, we all need a helpful, heavenly reminder of God’s higher ways. I probably need this every hour of every day! Today I can wholeheartedly honour Marriott and I am truly grateful for God’s hand and divine turnaround! Honesty, integrity, responsibility and Godly character may sometimes appear a big price to pay in the short term but they will win through and overcome in the long run!
Overwhelmed, grateful and totally amazed we floated back to our bedroom but that wasn’t all… We received yet another miraculous call. What I hadn’t disclosed was we were checking out that day with 5 kiddos in tow and nowhere to go (no fault of the hotel, they had been full for sometime beyond this date). Up our sleeve were the very kind invitations from family and friends as well as another God whisper to my heart from the night before to “launch out into the deep” – in other words not to worry but faith it until you make it and enjoy the adventure! Naturally this was crazy but I reminded myself this was a year of overflow, as prophesied in A Change is Coming – A God Word for 2018 (Hebrew year 5778). I decided to again embrace the season we are in whilst recovering from pleurisy, although my husband further diagnosed I was suffering from a severe dose of F.O.M.O. (Fear of missing out). With Doctors prescribing rest to fully recover, it now looked as though our plans for Hillsong Conference in London, at O2 Arena next week were up in the air. Right on time a bestie in Australia messaged me to confirm very practically that rest and Hillsong Conference definitely didn’t go together!
At that moment heaven called again, hot on the heels of the last mountain moving miracle and to cut a long story short, as I type this we are currently on our way to South of France – see you soon Nice, Cannes, Monaco and Saint Tropez! God only lined up a miraculous villa for us, but get this….. expenses paid!!!!
Our mountains bowed, moved, and made way for the miraculous goodness, favour and blessing of God, all in a day! That is the same destiny of every mountain facing you too. Live His Word my friend – God’s word will never fail but will overflow His works into your world. You can stake your life and circumstances on it! You will hit highs and lows but you will overflow with miracles everywhere you go! I pray this puts faith and courage into you today!
So often my life can feel like I’m living a modern day Bible story. In a way when we choose to be God’s living word I guess that’s what we are. The ongoing, modern day version and sequel that others can ‘read’, watch, follow so they can find faith in the God of miracles too.
I never wear my life out loud for sympathy or to boast. In all honesty it can be humbling and there is no comfort in making myself vulnerable, but this much I do know, it’s not about me but lifting up Jesus so others can see Him clearly. I only desire that His beauty may be greater revealed in and through me as every circumstance in my life shouts His praise and gives God glory. I don’t deserve any of it, I know only too well my weakness and humanness! Preaching and declaring God’s Word and wonders is in every fibre of my being… that others may know Him; really know Him, experience God’s signs, wonders and miracles so their lives and circumstances too, may overcome and shout God’s praise.
In closing, I acknowledge it can’t always be easy being my Mama (my Dad cheers me on from heaven), my husband, my brothers, my friends, even my gorgeous kids – looking in at my life in the ‘middle’ can resemble some kind of crazy. Yours can too. I’m certainly blessed with the best husband, children, family, Church and friends on the planet. As my Mama sums up beautifully so many times “Christine, I’ve given up worrying about you, God always comes through!” Trust God’s word, honour it above every other voice in your life, stand on it, cling to it, declare it, and God’s Word will always come through for you too! Trust Him in the middle of the mess and you will meet your miracle every time!
“For the word of the Lord holds true, and we can trust everything He does”. Psalm 33:4