When the world is falling apart around you STAND, when there seems all hope is gone STAND, when you’ve been beaten down, betrayed & feel like there is no where to turn STAND, when the circumstances around you look like madness STAND.
Isaiah 41:10 - Fear not [there is nothing to fear], for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties, yes, I will help you; yes, I will hold you up and retain you with My [victorious] right hand of rightness and justice.
John 16:33 - "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
Isaiah 26:3-4 - You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You. So trust in the Lord (commit yourself to Him, lean on Him, hope confidently in Him) forever; for the Lord God is an everlasting Rock.
When all else fails stand. Stand on God’s word & His promises no matter what you see going on around you. Set your face like flint for your promises. Don’t be shaken by what you see. If you need to determine to not be shaken & to die in the faith without having seen the promises of God fulfilled like the saints of old then do so. God rewards those whose faith is strong & without faith it is impossible to please God.
2 Chronicles 15:7 - But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.
1 Corinthians 15:58 - Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
1 John 5:4 - For whatever is born of God is victorious over the world; and this is the victory that conquers the world, even our faith.
Romans 1:17 - For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
Sometimes when we read about the lives & miracles of the people in the bible, like Jesus healing Jairus daughter after she died (Mark 5:35-36) the people & stories don’t seem real to us. So today I’m going to do something a little different. I’m going to sow my dads story of salvation as a seed into your life. This will be a very real & very personal way for me to share with you how God can show us His undying faithfulness to His words & His promises. There is nothing too difficult for God. There is no heart so hard God can’t melt. When you stand in agreement with God’s promises for your life & your loved ones be ready to watch Him perform a mighty work on your behalf. Why? Because He loves you & He’s not a man that He should lie. Numbers 23:19
Jeremiah 32:17 - Alas, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! There is nothing too hard or too wonderful for You—
For all of you that are praying for salvation for someone you love, my prayer is that today will be an extra special encouragement for you. My prayer is that as you read my dads story your faith will be energized to keep on pressing in & believing for that loved one to get saved, that healing to manifest, that promise of God to be fulfilled in your life, that as your hope is renewed you will catch the fire of God today in your life.
Romans 15:13 - May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope.
My dad was a good man with a good heart. He loved life, loved a good laugh, loved helping people, giving them a chance when others had given up on them. I don’t know if my dad came to salvation through Christ as a young man attending church & being confirmed or not. He didn’t like to talk about salvation & voiced concern saying he couldn’t remember if he accepted Christ as his Savior as a youth or not. The only stumbling block for him as an adult was the idea that a loving God would allow anyone to go to hell because they followed a belief other then being a Christian. In my dad’s adult life he had started to believe people could earn their way into heaven by good works.
Ephesians 2:8-9 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.
As Cody & I tried to witness to him it didn’t always go well & he didn’t really understand. The devil had blocked his mind & ears to hear & understand. When the doctors diagnosed dad with terminal cancer & told us they thought he had less then a year to live I started to press in with everything I had. There was a battle for his soul & that is how I treated it. My weapon of choice, the power of God & the power of His word. God has given us authority & we need to walk in it. We need to talk like we have God given authority & we need to walk like we have authority. When people hear & see us they need to know we speak with authority that God has given us Himself.
Luke 10:19 - Behold! I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and scorpions, and physical and mental strength and ability over all the power that the enemy possesses; and nothing shall in any way harm you.
God says "I have given YOU authority & power". Do you sound like you have authority? When people hear you speak & see your action can they tell you have authority? Where is your faith? DO NOT cooperate with anything less then what God has promised for us. We need to walk in our authority. Your words set your course & our very own words will justified or condemn us on the day of judgement. Matthew 12:36 That is some power right there.
2 Corinthians 4:13 - Yet we have the same spirit of faith as he had who wrote, I have believed, and therefore have I spoken. We too believe, and therefore we speak
I did not beg, I did not plead & I did not bargain with God. First I had to know what God’s will for my dad was. God is long suffering & it’s not His will that any should perish.
2 Peter 3:9 - The Lord does not delay and is not tardy or slow about what He promises, but He is long-suffering (extraordinarily patient) toward you, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance.
While healing is spectacular there is NOTHING more precious then a persons soul & NOTHING more important then making the decision to accept Christ as our Savior. So that was my prayer for my dad through his sickness, we would rejoice in his healing but more important that he’d come to know Christ as his Lord & Savior & that God would not let him die before he was saved. I knew that God would go to any length to reach my dad... and He did. What does a man gain if he gains the entire world & looses his soul? (Matthew 16:26) Understand that I wanted my dad healed but in my heart I knew, for him, in his situation, that salvation MUST come first. Each person is different & God knows what it will take to touch each persons heart.
Then I found scripture, God’s very own words concerning the matter & I would speak them out loud back to God. I would position myself between my dad & the enemy & intercede on his behalf. There will be times we need to fight, times we need to stand & times we need to rest.
2 Chronicles 16:9 - For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.
Exodus 14:14 - The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace and remain at rest.
Have you ever seen a bear protect it’s cubs or a lion protect it’s pride? Or if you are a sports fan, you see the offensive line position themselves in a way to protect the QB. They all take on a certain posture. Their face, their bodies, their voices, their very appearance screams out battle so that everyone who sees or hears is pretty certain of their intentions before they engage. That was exactly what I would do. At times I would position myself between dad & the enemy & I would take on a defensive stance becoming a roaring lion as I become offensive. Sometimes I would shake my first, lift my hands & storm the house yelling God’s word into the atmosphere & standing on those promises & making sure every spirit in the air heard my desperate heart cry. When my ears hear my voice it strengthens my heart & faith to know, that I know, that I know, God will use whatever means necessary to reach my dads heart & He will never, no never, let him go because God is long suffering. However much I love my dad God loves him that much more.
Now while I want to keep your focus on what God was doing I also think some details about my dads health will help you to see how amazing God is & how wonderful His ways are. I also want you to notice all the wonderful little details of how God pulled so many events together just to reach my dad.
Truly our lives are like a tapestry with all these different colored & textured threads running through it woven together to make a beautiful image. God is the master weaver bringing all these circumstances together to work out His good plan.
My dad was diagnosed with 2 types of cancer with a tumor in his esophagus & another in his lung. The tumor in his esophagus being the most dangerous & deadly since it caused difficulty in swallowing & the inability to eat food. Instead of surgery to remove the tumor & a feeding tube, my dad wanted to see if radiation & chemo would shrink the tumor. Dad couldn’t stand the idea of never eating steak or chocolate cake again. At the same time Cody & I were invited to have church services at a local nursing home.
While I knew we were not going to get dad into a church & we’d be hard pressed to get him to watch any preacher on the television I thought I’d email my message notes to dad under the guise of having him to share them with mom when she got home from work. To my shear joy dad was so excited that he shared my notes with everyone he knew & told me that he may not go to church but that he talks to God every day & we think alike. It was during that conversation that I realized the nursing home, while other people might enjoy it, it was all about dad & God reaching out & talking to my dad. Now that is some kind of crazy love right there!
Dads condition rapidly got worse because he couldn’t eat, would choke when he’d try to drink anything thick like carnation & had difficulty swallowing. He had sever rapid weight loss & sever dehydration which led to several ER visits. Each visit to a doctor or the hospital God would send His army of believing doctors & nurses to pray for & with dad. Even when the night doctor would make his rounds he’d ask dad if he could pray for him before he left. On another ER visit to hydrate dad & give him a blood transfusion God sent a nurse down from ICU to pray for dad. She told us she was working in ICU & God told her to come down & pray for this man. She was nervous & admitted she’d never done anything like that before. God rewarded her obedience & faithfulness to step out in faith & at the same time revealed to dad how much he was loved & treasured by God.
At some point in your life you will have a rubber meets the road experience. You will need to stand on God’s word or fall to your circumstance. I promise if you will stand on God’s word not only will God come through for you, reward your strength but as you walk out that situation the devil will never be able to steal that experience & victory from you. You will come out on the other side so strong & unshakable that you will be able to stand up to any trial & encourage others in theirs.
Understand that God has miraculously healed & restored my health & body but the day my dad got his feeding tube forever changed my walk with the Lord. On a Friday the doctors scheduled my dad for an emergency feeding tube surgery because they didn’t think he’d live through the night much less over the weekend. Dad’s surgery was at 7:00 am & God woke me up at 3:00 am to talk. God gave me a vision of Ted Nuggent using God’s word as ammunition for a quad antiaircraft gun. While we were at the hospital waiting for dad to come out of surgery I wrote my notes for "Speak God’s Word for your healing." Little did I know that by the end of the day I would need to put them into practice as my dad’s life depended on it. Dad’s tumor had grown so large they had to put the feeding tube into his intestine instead of the stomach. Because of this it’s a much smaller tube that requires a special liquid nutrition mix that is thin. Also because it was an emergency surgery the regular doctor was not there. We were sent home & upon arriving at home getting dad settled in we realized there was no prescription for pain medication & no prescription for food. Cody & I anointed dad with oil & prayed for him & the pain did subside. After hours on the phone & days of going from one doctor office to another to speak to anyone in person & the run around from one doctor to another finally by late Monday they had a prescription for dad to have food UPS overnight for Tuesday. Tuesday the wrong food arrived & the process began over again. Saturday morning as I was proof reading my notes God asked me if I was going to share my message or if I was going to live it. It was like someone switched on a light switch. I’m going to live it! I’m living it! This will be a sign & a wonder. Then I proceed to quote God’s words & stand on those promises & I felt such an overwhelming peace just overcome me like being wrapped in a soft cozy comforter.
How many of you know that was a very frustrating, scary, upsetting, situation? How many of you know that we can not put our trust in man but that GOD is ALWAYS in control? Amen!
John 11:15 - And for your sake I am glad that I was not there; it will help you to believe, to trust and rely on Me.
God showed Himself in a much larger way by keeping dad alive until the following Wednesday without food. That was a much larger miracle that brought glory to God alone & no man. It built our faith to a whole new level in trusting God in all things. God will work ALL things for our good for those who believe.
I knew no matter what those doctors said that my dad would not die until he was saved. This is why God tells us not to lean on our own understanding. Our natural mind looks at what is going on around us. Our carnal or natural man is trying to understand the things of the spirit, while at the same time is looking at circumstance which messes with our emotions in the flesh. Fear is a faith killer. This is why we need to be led continually by the spirit & not according to the flesh.
Proverbs 3:5 - Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding.
How many of you remember the story of Jesus sleeping in the boat during the storm & the disciples were scared & woke him up?
Mark 4:38-40 - But He [Himself] was in the stern of the boat, asleep on the cushion; and they awoke Him and said to Him, Master, do You not care that we are perishing? And He arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, Hush now! Be still! And the wind ceased and there was immediately a great calm, a perfect peacefulness. He said to them, Why are you so timid and fearful? How is it that you have no faith (no firmly relying trust)?
If I had been looking at the storm & put my focus on it long enough it would have created fear & sunk my ship. I would have stopped walking in authority & speaking out in my authority.
Jesus was not moved by the storm instead He moved the storm. That is the example He set for us & the power He gave to us.
I made sure to line up my words to God’s words. God you said it’s not Your will that any should perish. God you said you will give me the petitions of my heart.
Jeremiah 1:12 - I am alert and active watching over My word to perform it.
Isaiah 55:11 - So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to Me void, without producing any effect, but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
Proverbs 18:20-21 - A man’s self shall be filled with the fruit of his mouth; and with the consequence of his words he must be satisfied whether good or evil. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it for death or life.
Jeremiah 23:29 - Is not My word like fire that consumes all that cannot endure the test? says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks in pieces the rock of most stubborn resistance?
Numbers 14:28 - As I live, says the Lord, what you have said in My hearing I will do to you
Psalm 37:4-5 - He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust also in Him and He will bring it to pass.
Isaiah 50:2 - Is My hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver?
2 Peter 3:9 - The Lord does not delay and is not tardy or slow about what He promises, according to some people’s conception of slowness, but He is long-suffering (extraordinarily patient) toward you, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance.
2 Corinthians 1:20 - For as many as are the promises of God, they all find their Yes in Him
Mark 11:24 - For this reason I am telling you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that it is granted to you, and you will get it
Dad did live for another 3 months after this. It would be neat to tell you we had one of those sweet fuzzy moments where I got to be the one to witness to dad & lead him through the prayer of salvation but that’s not our story. God told me that He has set me apart & that He will never give me more then I can handle & that my testimonies, whether healing or waiting to see a promise manifest, will be used to encourage others to press in.
My dad made the decision to have the feeding tube removed & we knew that time was now very short. A dear friend of ours came by to visit with dad, explain salvation & lead him in the sinners prayer. My dad at this point was too weak to talk or respond but just a few words. God gave me a message to share on relationships & I was able to read my message to my dad. What I didn’t realize at the time is that it was God’s love letter to my dad. Three days later I got the phone call that mom thought my dad was dying. I ran out of the house so fast that I literally ran out of my shoes. As Cody drove & prayed in tongues God gave him a song of joy & rejoicing. I called their house from the cell phone & told mom to put the phone next to dad’s ear. Mom said "I think he might already be gone". I told her I didn’t care just put the phone next to his ear.
I told dad to "call out to Jesus. Just call out on the name of Jesus the only name that can save. I love you so much daddy. Just call out to Jesus right now. Heaven is going to be so much better then any of us can imagine. I love you so much daddy I’m going to miss you."
My phone dropped the call.
When we got to the house I knelt down next to the bed & held his hand & rested my forehead on our hands & thanked God for being long suffering & taking dad home. That dads suffering was over & he was in heaven now. I thanked God for the nurse taking care of dad & that He would anoint her hands to do His work. I thanked God for dads salvation & His mercy & grace.
The nurse needed a witness while she disposed of the prescription medications. After I signed the witness paper for her. I then told her it may be inappropriate but I wanted to ask her a question. She said that would be okay. I asked her if she died today where would she be? She said in heaven with her Lord & Savior. I asked her why. She said because she believed in Jesus & had a personal relationship with Him. I said Yes & Amen. So you believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for you so that all your sins are forgiven & you may go to Heaven. And she said oh yes. I said that was awesome & that is what I wanted to hear.
As we talked I told her what I was about to share might sound awful but I knew with her being a Christian she’d understand. But that this was the most beautiful thing that could ever happen to dad because this suffering is what broke him & brought him to salvation. I didn’t see it as an awful suffering at all because this temporary suffering is nothing at all compared with a suffering in hell for all eternity. A suffering so awful that we can’t even imagine it. And if this is what it took to bring my dad to salvation, this was a beautiful thing.
The nurse said there was something she really felt she needed to share with me. She told me she’d been a nurse for 20 years and a hospice nurse for 15 and she’s seen a lot of people die. She told me that when she first got to the house dad was still alive. The phone rang & mom put the phone to my dad’s ear. She said I don’t know who was calling or what was said, but, when your mom put the phone to your dads ear is when he exhaled his last breath. But you know when a person stops breathing they aren’t dead yet, their brain is still alive & their soul is still in the room. I nodded my head yes. She said again I don’t know what they said or if it was you but your dad heard them & he broke out in goose bumps on his chest. In all the years of nursing & all the people that I’ve seen die, I’ve never had a patient to get goose bumps. Your dad heard what was said & responded. I told her that it was me. I was talking to dad & I told her what I said. She replied. There’s one more thing I want you to know. All the people that I’ve seen in the same condition as your dad have pain when they die like this. Your father was on no pain medication at all. I promise you that your dad didn’t have any pain. Your dad did not suffer at all but died peacefully. I gave her the biggest hug & cried & told her thank you so much for sharing that with me because it was confirmation.
I asked God for a sign but told Him if I didn’t get one that was okay too because I know my dad was saved. Those goose bumps were my sign. That was special for me.
As I was working on this message I went back & read my journal for the first time since my dad went home to be with the Lord. Six weeks before he died I had a dream that dad was in bed & I was standing on one side & Cody on the other. We were saying that dad was dead & I was troubled because I never heard his confession but that I knew God says that anyone that calls on the name of Jesus will be saved. As I was looking down at my dad I said to Cody, maybe dad called on the name of Jesus right before he died. Then I felt dad grab my hand & squeeze, I looked down & could see dad’s body but his spirit was holding my hand & his spirit head turned toward me, looking into my eyes he asked "What is this?" I replied "It’s your soul daddy." Then he made a noise like a laugh & closed his eyes. Now I want you to understand that was a dream I had six weeks before dad died & I forgot all about it until just now reading through my journal. How faithful is God to have given me a sign BEFORE that I would find almost a year later. You can only imagine how blessed I am right now to have read this in my journal & the striking similarity to what actually happened.
Was my dad saved as a little boy or young man, when Thomas witnessed to him, when I spoke to him on the phone? I don’t know & it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that he’s in heaven now waiting for the rest of us to join him in Glory. Yes I can say with all confidence that my daddy will probably be the first person to greet me in glory & he will tell me thank you for never giving up. And for those of you that knew my dad & witnessed to him, I thank you for never giving up. I know you’ll be blessed when he thanks you himself face to face some day.
Today I encourage you to never give up, never give in. Journal & keep track of little things & big things God does for you. Words He gives you. As you look back they will encourage you & bless you. Ask God for a sign to keep you encouraged. Those dreams God gave me I forgot about & cried when I realized what sweet prophet encouragement they were & how God planted them for me to find at the right time. He’ll do the same for you because God is no respecter of persons.
Matthew 7:7-8 - Keep on asking and it will be given you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you.
Luke 1:37 - For with God nothing is ever impossible and no word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment.
John 16:23-24 - I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, that My Father will grant you whatever you ask in My Name. Up to this time you have not asked a thing in My Name; but now ask and keep on asking and you will receive, so that your joy may be full and complete.
