The Child Within

Grace to you, God’s beloved=)

I was looking through my book shelves the other day that I happen to stumble upon this tiny little book hidden in between of my other stack of books. Occasionally, I would discover really old Christian books in my house. And they are usually quite nice=)

This time, it’s written for woman in waiting. The title…“The Child Within-9 months of spiritual preparation” by Mari Hanes.

Out of my personal interested in wanting to know the journey a mum takes as she waits for the day, I felt love after completing the book. It’s just something magical about this book.Hee~ Maybe it’s the love that I felt in every mum as they carry their young. Or maybe it’s His love that I felt as I picture myself as the babe in the womb. My heart was warmth.

As I share with you my journey reading this book, I hope you’ll see His love thru it & maybe gain a little more insight on pregnancies & the life of a baby. Hee~ You may be that mum in waiting as you read this. If not, like me, you may picture yourself as the mum carrying your dream. If you wish, you could also switch & see yourself as the babe=) His Word alone will bless you.

Conception(Conceiving, Receiving)

Whether your conception was by purpose or chance, there is one question which must be settled in these first weeks. “Is the child within a part of God’s will for my life?”., “Are you a part of God’s will?”

You are not conceived outside of the fore knowledge of your heavenly Father.

“I knew you before you were formed within your mother’s womb” Jeremiah 1:5

Trust His love for you(I Jn 4:16)

Embrace His love for you in your heart & not just your mind.

The Second Month(A spiritual embryo)

Your heart sings as you go through your days. The nine months gestation period which sounded so long is now clearly a very short time in which to prepare yourself as parenthood.

Something that hit me about this stage is, a mother knows her child needs to grow because delivering an embryo is just incomplete.  Likewise, in our spiritual growth. He has promise that he will keep right on helping you grow until His task within you is finally finished. The baby feeds on milk, we likewise feed on His Word daily.

The Third Month(Free from Fear)

Obstetricians tells us that prenatal anxieties fall into three categories : 1. Fear of miscarriage/disfigurement 2. Fear of pain involved in labor 3. Fear regarding The child’s future

Just like a mum have fears about her child; we tend to go thru seasons of our lives grip by fear of what is to come. Her child’s safety lies not by her worrying more but by the bag of amniotic fluid. Maybe picture yourself as the baby.Let His peace cushion your emotions & protects you just as surely as the amniotic fluids protects the child within=)

The Lord gives peace to those who trust Him & depend on Him (Isaiah26:3)

The Fourth Month(A Study In Stability)

Special hormones are being produced and your bloodstream is filled with an entirely new chemistry. You may go through stages of feeling depressingly unattractive.

Do you see it? It is our depressive feelings that made us unattractive. Think about it. If you would put your thought and see yourself like how He sees you, being perfected in His finish work…you’ll reign as queen of life!

All who will take God’s gift of

forgiveness and acquittal are

(queens) of life because of this

One man, Jesus Christ.    

                               Romans 5:17b(TLB)

The Fifth Month(In Control)

Like most women, you probably left the obstetrician’s office following your fist pregnancy exam armed with booklets on good nutrition, strong determination to proper food, plenty of rest and daily exercise. Yet now that several months have elapsed, and when it comes to exercise you’ll probably tell yourself, “I’ll take a long walk tommorow…”

A person without self control is as defenseless as a city with broken down walls. Proverbs 25:28

“…you may be thinking, “certain areas of my life have gotten away from me & I want to get them in control”…There is an answer! Paul found it-The Holy Spirit. Your entire life can be a fortified city, the spirit will patiently rebuild your will power. Allow Him to add divine force to the strength of your determination”

The Sixth Month(The Gift of Sight)

During the sixth month, the child within previously fused eyelids are finally separated. Although the uterus is lacking in bright light, ithe baby’s eyes do begin to open I& shut and he is able to see!

Although the child within has moved all along, but during this stage the has grown to a point the mum feels life! A “quickening”. In the same way, as spiritual insight grows, there are things of power in the spiritual dimension which God can “quicken” in your understanding. Verses that seem like mere words can leap to life!

The Seventh Month(Preparing for Home)

 “Commit your work to the Lord, then it will succeed” Proverbs 16:3

The Eight Month(Refining & Reflection)

For years, scientists have tried to discover the answer to the question, “What causes labor to begin?” There are different theories. Is it a hormone produced by the mother?A hormone from the gland of the baby?Involuntary reaction from the abdomen?Doctors is still unable to pinpoint when your labor begins.

God alone knows your true due date. In His omniscience, he has specifically ordained “A time to be born”(Ecc 3:2)

Isn’t this beautiful?=)Only He knows the right time. He’s the one who also do the “finishing touches” in our lives. Like our spiritual growth, the physical growth of the child within must be “Complete, wanting nothing”

This puts a rest in my heart to know that if God knows when is the perfect timing for the baby to be born, will He not do the same for me now=)

Delivery(My Great Physician)

There are two doctors who will assist in the delivery of the child within. One is the obstetrician you have chosen. The other is the one who, Scripture names the “Great Physician”.

In Psalm 22:9, 10, David said:

“Thou art he took me out of the

womb…I Ws cast upon thee from

 the womb : thou art my God from

 my mother’s belly”(KJV)

The word “took” in the KJV is translated from the Hebrew word gazah, meaning “To pull, pictured as a skilled obstetrician assisting in the birth, gently separating the baby from the mother, and even cutting the umbilical cord.”

It’s even more beautiful in the International Children’s Bible:

“You had my mother give birth to me.

 You made me trust you

  While I was still a baby.

I have leaned on you since I was born.

You have been my God since my mother gave birth to me”

I never knew this verse existed! It’s beautiful rite?=)

Just saw this.In this verse alone, He tells us that He was there since conception till delivery. He had our mum give birth to us!Hee. As a baby we have already learn to trust in Him. From the KJV version, he was also involved in taking us out! An extra pair of hands.I didn’t know that?=)

Such relief to all mums out there!Hee~

That’s all! This looks like a short lecture on pediatrics.Hee~

Hope you’re blessed!

Grace IS with us!

Spiritual Authority

As I woke up this morning, still lying on my bed; I grab hold of the book beside me. Besides, this was also one of the newer books that I borrowed from my cg member last night. I tend to also be more favorable in reading the newer ones that I receive. The title of the book “A Woman’s Guide To Spiritual Warfare” by Quin Sherrer & Ruthane Garlock. As usual, I would randomly flip through the pages first before I start reading them from the front.

“In the Name of Jesus, you give the purse back to me,” Kay shouted as she chased a young teenager across the grocery store parking lot. “I earned that money, and you have no right to it”

As she grabbed the scared kid by the arm and jerked her purse out of his hand, he broke down crying. It was his first time to try snatching someone’s purse as he’d seen his older buddies do. But he picked the wrong young woman in this  case-or the right one, depending on how you look at it.

Kay knows she has authority in the name of Jesus, and she instinctively responded to the challenge without thinking of the possible dangers. She began sharing the gospel with the youngster, explaining that he needed to accept Jesus as Saviour, then trust God to provide him a job. He walked away visibly shaken.

“Kay, you could have gotten hurt!” Ruthanne said when she told her about the incident. Kay was a convert from the drug culture, now attending Bible school. The store that she had stopped was a known trouble spot for thievery.

“ I had just gotten paid at work, and I needed that money to pay my school bill,”she said. “No way was I going to let the devil steal from me!”

We’ve already established that our conflict is with an invisible enemy and his evil agents in the spiritual realm, who operate through individuals. We cannot use physical weapons against enemy agents, but God has given us invisible spiritual weapons, the name of Jesus. Consider this Scriptures :

“You are my King and my God,…Through you we push back our enemies; through your name we trample our foes. I do not trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory; but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame”(Ps 44:4-7)

The moment my eyes fell on this verse, I could not but say to myself,

“This verse again???”

The night before, a new comer in the cg received a vision & a word from the Lord. One of which she said she saw the word ‘boast’ in her spirit during worship. So she started looking up for the word boast & the first passage she flip to was from Ps 44:8,

  “In God we boast all the day long, and praise thy name for ever. Selah.”

When I heard it yesterday, my fast lightning mind reminded me that this was the same verse Coach Maddy message me two Thurs ago:

Ps 44:4-8: “ You are my King and my God. You COMMAND VICTORIES for your people. Only BY YOUR POWER can we push back our enemies, only IN YOUR NAME can we trample our foes. I do not trust in bow, I do not count on my sword to save me. It’s YOU who gives us VICTORY over our enemies. It is YOU who humbles those who hate us. O God we give glory to you ALL DAY LONG and CONSTANTLY PRAISE you name”

Deep in my spirit I knew that God was trying to tell me something.

So I started asking Him. And this was what he reminded me.

“Remember when your house was broken into (last week)…when your mum came home & the thief heard that she was back, they fled up (to the hole on top of my bro’s room) & your mum ran out to your neighbors house”

“Yes…”

“What could she have done?”

Immediately this thought came, “She could have shouted - In Name of Jesus?”

It’s as though a “light” has dawn on me. And I continued on with our conversation. It really did open me up to realize how small our faith is when it comes to these practical things in life to use the authority given to us.

Honestly, if I were in my mum shoes, I would run too. Wouldn’t you?Hee. Maybe if you were a guy, you might be the hero for my mum & chase after the thief=)

But when I start picturing it from a different view, it just turns out really funny. Imagine the thief as the devil, he comes in(to your life) secretly stealing away your things(your joy, your finances, your relationship…)in ways he hopes you’ll never notice him because he knows the authority you have over him. And when he thought you had noticed him, he out of fear fled & you not knowing he was afraid of you, as fearful as you are too in your situation run away from him. Hee~ Now picture Jesus in you. Do you see you-Jesus running away from the devil when they meet each other?Hee~surely not.I can’t imagine such happening. He’ll be so cool. He needs to only use the authority given to Him and be the Hero. Satan knows our authority, but hopes that we will stay ignorant. We must be as convinced of our authority as the devil is.

I remembered the first time (this being the third) the thief tried to come in. It was the day I called my mum but she wasn’t at home but somehow I felt uneasy in my spirit & I started praying in the Spirit. Half an hour later she called back to tell me that the gates & the front door were all broken but nothing was touched. I knew very well then the power of prayer. For in His Word he says,

Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

2Co 10:3  For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh:

2Co 10:4  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

It’s natural or easy for me to use this authority to cast out demon if I see someone possess by one. But it’s so easy for us to forget to use this same authority that lies in us when we are faced with challenges thinking that it’s part & parcel of life. You know the thief doesn’t come in when he knows you’re in, he sneaks in when you least expect it. The challenges that you go through are his tactics to steal away bit by bit from your life without you realizing it. Or you may not even take it as it’s from him because it doesn’t look “evil”?

But remember, His Word says, we wrestle NOT against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Take up your spiritual authority in every area of your life. Be it your studies, your family even your emotions. Speak Life-the Name of Jesus into your situation & see things turn around for your good because the devil IS afraid of you!=)

Lastly, something my friend wrote which I felt was really beautiful. Be blessed by it=)

“Just as the Lord met the people’s need in the pillar of cloud-warm fire in the night, shady cloud by the day – so also the Holy Spirit meets our needs today. All the children of Israel had to do was to follow the cloud, keep their eyes on the pillar. Why was God a pillar? A pillar implies strength, upholding a house. And that’s exactly what the next mention of the Hebrew word is – for the incorruptible wood, overlaid with gold, in the tabernacle of Moses. Look to Jesus your Lord as your pillar, and He will be the one who lifts up your house, stands between them and Egypt! Ex 14:19, 20, 24.

Grace IS with us, God’s beloved!=D