WHAT DOES DEATH LOOK LIKE

 

JUST KEEP LIVING & TRUSTING 

EVERYWHERE THERE IS WHITE IT IS SCARRING, WHERE YOU SEE THAT KOOKS LIKE COBWEBS, THAT IS CALLED HONEYCOMBING. 6/14/23.

TESTIMONY TIME!!!

In 2013 I was diagnosed with IPF, Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. A lung disease that causes scaring and hardening of the lungs. It's called Idiopathic which means, cause unknown. They thought it might me cleaning materials, since I cleaned houses to supplement my social security.

Yet, in 2013 I, my family and church began to pray for my healing. You see this disease has only a 3 to 5 years life span. But, in 2015 I heard the Lord say "You will not have a premature death"! I believed Him.  Then 2018 came and the pulmonary doctor was shocked I was still here and appeared stable. But, I did quit working & got rid of dangerous cleaning materials in my home by December 2018.

Yet I felt what is my purpose anymore! Early January 2019 I heard the Lord say "I have cut off the source of your attack"! I didn't understand until I went to the doctor again, and was told they could no longer hear the sound of the fibrosis growing in my lungs. Then each day I would get up and hear the Lord say "Just keep on living"! Until I began to say it everyday. You see Jesus was prophesizing into my life, that I would begin to prophecy over myself. And I was doing great.

Then came October 2022, inwardly I began to cry out to God, "Take me home"! I believe part of that was knowing the anniversary of my daughter's death was coming soon. But I found myself torn wanting to die and wanting to live. In November I heard the Lord say: "You will not leave this earth one moment before I am ready for you to leave. Quit asking"! So I obeyed, my pastors prayed for me.  Yet, in December 2022 I noticed my shortness of breath had returned, the coughing had returned. Believing I had given place to the enemy to bring his evil on me; I rebuked him, yet I continued to get worse.

My energy level had dropped, I had no real appetite, but I kept on living. Went to my primary care doctor in May, he was very unhappy and concerned with what he was hearing in my lungs, sent me tests and back to seeing my pulmonary doctor. The CT SCAN was worse that the scan done in 2019, honeycombing was growing (this is end of life happening in the lungs), my breathing test revealed my lungs together were working at only 1/3 capacity.

In October my pulmonary doctor said my lungs were getting worse, and wanted me on oxygen all the time. I being me, asked where was I in this process, though I know my life is totally in God's hands, I was curious to what he would say. He explained he couldn't tell me that, but since oxygen at home only went to 5 liters and I was on 3 liters, it was time for me to get my family together and make final decisions. Would I be willing to go into the hospital and be out on a ventilator? My answer NO!

It is now November, my ability to do household activity is very limited. But I just keep doing what I can do, keeping simple things done. Strength is pretty well at Zero, but Jesus is my strength. I will keep pressing forward. I can no longer walk through grocery stores, my friends take me and I ride a buggy. I am not a great driver 😊.

Even at 3 liters of oxygen when I was up and about, I was extremely short of breath. With lung disease they do not want your oxygen dropping below 90. 

Today 11/17/2023, I went to my primary care doctor. He listened to my concerns, and answered my questions. He said my lungs were progressing and getting worse all the time. He wants me to have the best care I can have in my home, so he is putting me on Palliative Care, going to rush the post office to do front porch mail delivery. He had me walk while wearing my oxygen, and very quickly my oxygen dropped to 85, and he said turn it up to 4 liters. I go back to see him in December. 

I shared with him what I am about to share with you. First I told him the word God had given me in 2015, and in 2018. Then I said to him and you who read this: "My life and my death are in my God's hands. We all have a way and a time to die (unless our time is cut short). My time and the way I leave this earth is coming and I am okay". You see I have peace, all is well with my soul, and I have no regrets. I will finish my race here one day, but not today. I will continue to do all I am able to do each and everyday. Most likely I will give up driving by the end of December. He said that was probably a wise decision.

The reason this is important is because my oxygen doesn't circulate through my body as it should, that means there are times when my brain will be oxygen deprived and I will loose focus.

So here is my testimony, God kept me, God added years to my life, Jesus is my Healer, my Life Sustainer, He is both my Provider and my Provision, He is my Hope and I long to see Him face to face. Do I pray to die? Absolutely not, I just keep on living and continuing to do the last thing He told me to do.

What does death look like? Well it is a journey from birth to death. And even with a terminal disease you just keep on living and don't give up. It is surrendering your life completely over to Jesus Christ and trusting in Him.

Love you guys ❤️😘🥰

WHEN GOD GIVES A DREAM

 FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS 

JUST A TESTIMONY OF THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD!

I have always encouraged young people to follow their dream, especially what I call a God given dream for their lives. When God has given you a dream for the future you, don't throw it away because it just seems impossible, people laughed at you, and you just couldn't vision that for yourself. We serve a God that takes our impossible and makes it His possible, He is a faithful God and we think that dream is long gone, suddenly God will show up 45 years later and there it is that dream came to pass. Now I am not talking about our night time dreams, I am talking about that dream to become a writer, a singer, etc.

A number of years ago my pastor preached a message from Ezekiel 37, this is where the angel took the prophet Ezekiel to the valley of dry bones and said to speak to those dead bones. In the message pastor said that perhaps you have allowed your dreams to dry out and die and now it is time to speak to those dreams that they would rise back up. (That is strictly from memory, so not an exact quote). Yet, it spoke to me and I remembered my dream at 30 years old I was just a babe in Christ, and even when this message was preached I was right at 70 years old. So I just said to myself I am too old.

So what was my dream, at 30? My dream was I saw myself sharing the word of God to thousands. You laughed didn't you, that's okay I did also. Now I am not talking about being a pastor, I am talking about speaking at ladies conferences. Believe it or not in the beginning I was invited to speak at a few small groups of ladies. But God began to use me within the church to teach senior adult ladies and children, at home I would have adult Bible studies for all age women. Plus I worked in the public and had some opportunities to share Jesus, though a large portion of my working years I spend angry at God and my life and running from God instead of towards Him, and this was after I was saved for 12 years.

But seasons change, I no longer work, no place for outreach except social media, and I hear so many negative comments about how bad social media is, and I am thinking but your missing it! Your missing the opportunity to share the goodness of God. I have a passion for sharing Jesus, and as I see the condition of this world around me I have an urgency to keep sharing. On Facebook when I share about Jesus I post public, my silliness and family stuff are for only friends. Do you know why I do that? Of course you do.

Many of my friends are probably tired of hearing about these reels I have been learning to do. And this will probably be the last time I talk about them on social media, I will just post them.

I am unsure how long ago I started being drawn to reels and how to make them. About that same time my pastor had a message and in that message he said "We are in a season of learning new skills". When I got home I realized learning to do these reels was my new skill I was learning. So I continued, made mistakes, but continued to learn. About 87% have exceeded more than I could imagine into the thousands of views.

A couple have had over 8,000 views, and each day all are growing. I say this not to point to me, but to point to my Lord. What was my dream, again, I had at 30 years of age? That I would share Jesus with thousands, I am 75 years old and I am sitting here crying at the faithfulness of my God, that a dream He gave me and I gave up on would actually come to pass in a way I could never imagine 45 years later. 

My encouragement to you; it's never too late, you are never too old to follow that dream you thought was dead and buried. To be honest when I began this new technology I wasn't thinking of or even remembered that dream of mine, until two days ago and I was looking at the views on the reels and the Holy Spirit in me reminded me of what I had dismissed, so I could praise the Lord for His faithfulness even in my ignorance.

FOOTNOTE: When God is doing it He will accomplish it.

Now I have shared my story I hope all my friends take a moment to read, because you will understand me a little more.

 Oh and if you don't know Jesus in a relationship I just want to say this. Jesus Christ loves you He sees value in you, He left heaven, came to earth that by taking our sins upon Himself, He would restore our fellowship with God the Father. His Holy Spirit draws upon your heart and is calling you to come to Him in faith and repentance (repentance means; we turn from the direction and thinking we once had and we turn our direction to walk with Jesus). He calls upon you to come to Him and receive His gift of salvation and eternal life. He died and on the third He rose up out of that grave and He conquered for you, death, hell and the grave. Do You Know Him?

Be blessed everyday is a new beginning. ❤️❤️❤️

I AM ONE BLESSED WOMAN

 

JUST NEEDED TO WRITE AND SHARE MY TESTIMONY. NOTHING SPECTACULAR AND OFTEN WRITTEN SOME HERE AND THERE. BUT I NEEDED TO JUST EXPRESS MY THOUGHTS

I AM BLESSED

So many years have passed; it's hard to believe that I am now 75 years of age.

Oh I have been young, I have been so foolish, I have ran from God many times, and He continued to pursue after me. I received Jesus as my Redeemer and in anger I ran from my first love, seeking after a worldly love. Then came the day I came to my senses, and ran not from Him but to Him. OH what day, when He ran to me and wrapped His arms around me, forgiving me, and He began to prepare for the years to come.

Many times I have experienced not enough finances, yet Jesus was my Provider as well as my Provision, there have been times of great sorrow, yet Jesus never left me. I have laughed and I have cried, but Oh what a Savior I have.

There have been three life changing events that truly were God sent moments that changed me. My salvation that day in 1974, what a day that was; the day I saw Linda for who she is and I saw Jesus and what He had done for me. 

But twelve years later, I would in anger turn and run. Oh but Jesus, He let me run but never stop loving me. Ten years of running, ten years under conviction, tried to die and Jesus kept me. Then He put a young woman in my path and I saw her excitement for Jesus and I remembered what that excitement was like. And then I came back to my first love. Two life changing events.

OH but the next one was coming. Here I was praying, and I said "Did I forget anything" and I heard "You didn't praise me!" All I knew was to thank Him and that I did. But I pondered and kept those words in my heart. I understood thanking Him, I understood the singing, but what else did He want me to know! Ten more years and God sent me to clean at a church, now I saw recently He brought me there to introduce me to where He was going to bring me. I cleaned for about a year and another year would pass, and in God's timing He released me from the church I was at and sit me down one Sunday morning in April at the church He wanted to bring me to. And I heard that preacher man say, as he stood up, spread out his arms and said; "Church can't we just love on Jesus a minute". And the harmony of people around softly declaring who Jesus is. And I knew that was where I was suppose to be. And that's where I am.

Why did I need to learn how to praise Him, because I didn't know and Jesus did, what was coming, what was coming, that I would have to know "How to praise Him and not run from Him". God is good! He always prepares us for what's coming. You see like I've said before a doctor's report was coming for me, one that said "Hey you have no hope, by 2018 you will be gone"! Have you checked the year😀 it's now 2023, I'm still here. Amen

Then a daughter diagnosed with cancer one that was slowly eating her, this came in 2019, doctor's report said "Hopeless" but we are praying, we are believing, we are praising and she is still here. Some days it's rough but God still has her, He is still using her, not her time to leave this old earth. But even in my tears I'm still praising my Savior.

Oh then came 2020, and with it çame COVID, another daughter got sick, hospital, ventilator, and we prayed, we believed, we praised but her healing didn't come here, it came in heaven. But I praised the Healer of healers. Did you see how God prepared me. And the church God brought me to has stood with me, has loved me, has prayed for me and with me, has been there for me each step of the way. That's what a real church body of believers does. We love and we help, we rejoice and we weep with you, and we stay in unity because we are like-minded in our love for our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, and we are family, some of us just might be that crazy aunt but they love me even more. 😘. Jesus has worked in me and I have grown since I walked through those doors, all those years ago. 

People and church families go through times of transition, a shifting not to bring us harm, but take us out of our comfort zone, that Jesus may shape us into what He wants us to look like. That we might better serve Him in His kingdom purpose. Is transition easy absolutely not. Because we become accustomed to what we want. But when the scripture says "Pick up your cross daily and follow Jesus", this my friends is complete surrender of our wants and picking up what He wants. Whether or not it is in our personal lives or the life of our church family we still have to surrender to Jesus and simply walk in faith, knowing He has the very best for us.

I AM ONE BLESSED WOMAN! And I wouldn't change one thing that God is doing in my life right now. One day God will say "Come on home Linda", and watch me run, to see the face of my Savior. Oh what a day that will be! May I praise Him?

Jesus is the Creator, the Giver of Life, He is the Ark and Pitch that held the ark together, Oh my Jesus is the Great I Am, He was the ram caught in the thicket, He the Giver of the law and the Fulfiller of the law, our Strong Tower, our Shield and Buckler, He is the Stump that remained, He is our Kinsmen Redeemer, He is Deity taking on humanity, He is the Water, the Light, the Door of the sheep gate, the Good Shepherd, He is the Bread of Life, He is the Lamb of God and the Scapegoat, He is the Teacher, The High Priest, the Evangelist, the Apostle and the Prophet of prophets, He is our Healer, He is the Lord of lords, the King of kings, the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, He is the only One worthy to open the scroll, He is the Bridegroom of His bride, His bride is us, our time here is to prepare us to be received by our Bridegroom. Oh what a day that will be when we see Him face to face. 

Going home, but until then I will praise Him and I will continue to share the Good News, Jesus Christ came out of His great love for mankind, He was willing to lay down His life and take all our sins upon His own body, that we might be reconciled to our Heavenly Father. He's coming! But there was that day He called our name and we surrendered ourselves to Jesus and at that moment we received eternal life. Amen 

Next question, have you heard Him, do you know Him and better yet does He know you. Religion knows of Him OH but a relationship says He knows you. 

Love you thanks for just letting me talk ❤️

I AM ONE BLESSED WOMAN