Dear God, show us the road
that you have chosen for us,
and give us the courage
to walk down it... Amen

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

When God says...

When God Says, “Pssst!”

Inbox from Tracy - a kind thank you for sharing.

by Gloria Copeland

Did you know your children are in your heart? It’s true. You carry your children in your heart the same way God carries you in His heart.
You can feel what’s going on with them even when they’re on the other side of the world. If they’re hurt, if they’re lonely, if they’re toying with sin and getting off track—when things are wrong or things are right, you can feel it.
I remember once when Ken and I were in Australia. We were flying from one city to another and suddenly thoughts of our son, John, flooded my heart. John was a teenager at the time and he was all boy. He rode everything with wheels—cars, trucks, motorcycles, dune buggies. And it seemed he was always turning something over.
That day on the plane, I was concerned about him. I knew how much the devil would like to sneak in and steal his life, and I was concerned that John’s misadventures could give the devil the opportunity to do it.
But the Holy Spirit broke in on my thoughts. He spoke to Ken and said, My mercy hovers over John. When Ken relayed those words to me, all my fears vanished.
My mercy hovers over John. I’ll never forget that promise. As I’ve prayed for John throughout the years, that wonderful word from God would often rise up and remind me that John’s life was secure. It would assure me that God would keep him and hold him steady until the day he got things straight in his life.
My mercy hovers over your child. That is a wonderful word from God. If God will do that for my child, He will do it for yours. The covenant God has made with you in the blood of Jesus extends to your children and your children’s children. Psalm 103:17 says, “But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children.”
Our grandchildren are covered in our covenant with God. Everything God gives to me, He’ll give to them. All the protection that I have, He passes on to my family.
If you’re a believer and you’re willing to trust God for the deliverance and salvation of your children, you will not be disappointed.
Study Zechariah 10:7-9. There God tells us about the outpouring of the Spirit of God in the last days—the days we’re living in. He says:

And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the Lord. I will hiss for them [your children], and gather them; for I have redeemed them.... And I will sow them among the people: and they shall remember me in far countries; and they shall live with their children, and turn again.
You may not even know where your children are right now. They may be in another city or another country. It doesn’t matter. This scripture says when you rejoice in the Lord—not when you’re depressed or worried or afraid, but when you trust God so totally that you’re filled up with joy—then your children will see it and turn.
“I will hiss for them.” What does that mean? It means God will signal for them. He’ll say, Pssst! Come here! And they’ll come running.
Let me tell you something. God knows how to get somebody’s attention. He knows how to signal for the ones His people are praying for. Kenneth’s mother prayed for me and then one day God said, Pssst, Gloria! I heard Him and was born again.
I didn’t know much about God before that time. I knew there was a God, but had no real knowledge about Him. Yet He still knew how to get my attention. He called and here I am today preaching His Word!
He’ll do the same thing for your child. It doesn’t matter what kind of wickedness that child has fallen into, God can still reach him. I know a man who pastors a great church in Sacramento, Calif. His name is Phil Goudeaux.
He used to be part of the militant black power movement. In fact, he was in charge of security for the Black Panthers.
He didn’t know God and he didn’t want to know God. But one day when he was in college, a young white fellow came over to his lunch table and started telling him about Jesus. This Black Panther leader couldn’t believe it. The nerve of this guy! He tried to get rid of him. He threatened him and even tried to hit him...but he couldn’t.
For weeks this little white fellow followed this big “bad” black guy around talking to him about Jesus. Finally, the Black Panther prayed with the fellow just to get him off his back. After that he tried to forget about it...but he couldn’t. Two weeks later, all by himself, he made Jesus Christ the Lord of his life.
God knows how to get somebody’s attention! He’ll knock them over and speak to them right out loud if He needs to. He proved that in the life of a man named Saul. Years after that man was saved, he wrote, “...I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12).
God apprehended Paul one day on the road to Damascus. According to the dictionary, to apprehend means to “capture or arrest”. God captured Paul’s attention. The last thing he wanted to be was a follower of Jesus. He was a declared enemy of Jesus. But God was able to apprehend him anyway.
Don’t you worry. God knows exactly how to apprehend your children. And when the time comes, He’ll do it. After all, you weren’t in your prayer closet when He found you!
But until then, you must stand fast in faith for them. No matter what they get into, no matter how far off the track they seem to be, just keep saying what the Bible says about them. Keep your eyes focused on the covenant mercy of God and not on the symptoms of ungodliness that you see in their lives.
Don’t ever give up on your child. If you’ve grown weak and discouraged lately, it’s time for you to get that fire back in your bones. Dig into the Word of God and dig out the promises He’s given you for your children. Lay hold of those promises and don’t let go.
Learn to call things that are not as though they were (Romans 4:17). When you hear bad news about your children or you see them do something that hurts your heart, just say:
“God, I thank You that Your tender mercy hovers over my child. I thank You Lord that he is born again, filled with the Holy Ghost and obedient to You. I thank You that Your Word is in his mouth (Isaiah 59:21), that he is taught by Your Spirit and great is his peace (Isaiah 54:13). I am not moved by what I feel or what I see. I am moved by Your Word and I call it done in Jesus’ Name!”
I’m going to say it one more time: You have a covenant with God that covers your children. So rejoice! God will be faithful to you. One day your boy or your girl will be going about their business doing their own thing when suddenly—Pssst!—they’ll hear the voice of God.
When that happens, they’ll come running.
You can count on it.

God in Heaven, shield our children, whisper softly, that they may follow only you...give them mercy all the days, nights.

3 comments:

Thistlebrooms said...

Truly loved reading this Sherry...People have to be ready to 'Listen', sometimes more carefully than others for the 'Pssst'...When their ready they surly will...
Much Love to You...M

Anonymous said...

My Dear Sherry, I went to bed last night with actually a lighter feeling heart. As I read the words "My mercy hovers over your child" I glanced to the right and there on your prayer list was my son Steve, it was meant for me to listen and hear the 'Pssst'.
Love, Karen

Anonymous said...

I want to thank you for sharing this post. My only child/son will be 31 in April. I hadn't even known he was alive for sure till Dec 2007. I've seen a lot in my life and it's hard to scare me...but when I saw what had become of my son in the 16 yrs. I hadn't seen him or known about him...I saw his photo online and saw what he posts and I got sick inside and scared. How the young boy so kind and beautiful that said "I love you Mom" all through the day and many other blessed things, how did he turn into the piercings, inked, really violent graphics of skulls/death with bad words and finger gestures man of 2 girl children?! Because I lost my whole family to their wrong choices right into their deaths, I have trouble with hope of any I have loved. I prayed so long, so many years and the news just got worse and then they were gone. Now after my mother died a very very angry sad death, I received news that my son wanted $ from her estate. Just when I thought the ugliness was over, there was the lost son who caused so much pain and years later was still making those choices.
I reached out in love and as a mother but received nothing personally but online he posted terrible things threatening me. His twisted words and bad language with abusive words, just overwhelming for me and my husband.
I've known others who have angry drug using adult children but they seem to want to hide that and present only the facade to the world. I can't do that. Everyday I offer my best prayer of surrender to God's will alone. All my life with a very violent angry family torn by strife while they prayed daily....then a very bad abusive marriage that bore my only child, I left because I was being physically beaten and verbally abused. I know that it took God a lot of years to build my trust because my family who prayed and were Christians had twisted my trust in God. I had thought God did not exist or care if there was God because He let a child be so abused, all of us children, be abused by angry lost parents. What else did I know of life so of course I married badly. But I left with my son in the middle of a winter night with nowhere to go. But I did it, I saved my son and myself from more life like the one I was raised in. Then at 15 my son was suddenly gone, we thought to kidnap, but now we find in 2007 that he has been with his father and was married with children...I had never even been told they knew where he was nor did I know that I had been a grandmother. All that time lost. And still lost. I pray for only God's will in my only child's life...just as I had with my family. I don't know, haven't known what else to pray for years.
They were all lost and died lost. I can only know that my God who is a loving God is the only source of wisdom I can trust with their souls and their earth choices. Only God kept me safe when I got away from them, all the years alone. And only God had me meet my husband of 22 yrs who prays with me and is an accountable man. His family had also been lost to him. We just keep going, but only with the direction of the Holy Spirit.
We don't expect anything different from our son's future or in relationship to us...but that's only because our parents, our siblings continued to make unGodly choices and refused to know us and mocked us because of our beliefs. We never were judgemental or cold, we tried over and over but all we ever received was abuse and mockery. Sad what this has done to our hope. So we would also appreciate prayers for only God's will in our lives and our son's.
After we had thought we were safe and we had been a happy family for 7 yrs together, our son, my husband his step father and I. Suddenly he made our lives like a bad Jerry Springer episode, and then we find we were grandparents online on a bad site...these things are unbearable, awful, beyond human comprehension. Our society has gotten so sick, so terribly lost.
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