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Topic: Hunger (11/08/04)
TITLE: Beyond The Supernatural Powers Of God By Cyndy McNaul-Nelson 11/14/04 |
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Mom showed me the way of salvation, when I related to her the dream. Asking Him to help me, I apologized to Jesus. I received my first Bible at the age of eight. As a slow reader, I persevered through the Old King James Version of life’s instructions. One afternoon while reading, I heard God say, “Cyndy, you will grow up to do mighty things for me.”
Wow! Imagine that. Me, doing something great for God! I must tell Mother. “Cyndy-Button, God can use you any way He sees fit. But remember you aren’t very good in school, so I doubt that you’ll be going to college. God will probably use you like He has me. You will marry, have lots of children and raise them to love God.”
I was 19 years old, when I felt God tell me I would marry a young youth pastor I’d met during my stint as camp nurse. He told me often that God was going to use me greatly. I held those thoughts close, until he drowned the following summer. I must have misunderstood what God was saying, concluding that God was disinterested with whom I married.
After two abusive marriages, I heard God saying that I would marry Tim. We met at a singles prayer group. Hearing that before, I blocked out the still small voice. I was working part-time at a convenience store while attending nurses training to update my license, where he stopped to see if I was going to prayer time. I nodded.
“Has God been talking to you, Cyndy?”
I frowned. “Yes.”
“What’s He been saying to you?”
“I don’t want to talk about it!”
“That’s okay. He’s been talking to me, too.”
Even though I yearned for a happy marriage, I was perfectly content to be single if God so called. There was a need for caregivers to those dying in the AIDS community. Leading each patient to the Lord, as they breathed their last was fulfillment enough for me.
Tim invited me to a revival featuring two older ministers from Sri Lanka. They had led Tim to the Lord and mentored him, a year before I met him. Tim spoke of the depth of their faith, the miracles and stories of God’s supernatural power in their lives. He was amazed at their gift of prophecy and how God conversed with them. This was new to him and Tim’s heart was hungry for God.
During prayer time after the service, these quiet people of Tamil heritage called both Tim and I to the forefront. The senior of the two prayed over us and prophesied. To each of us, he spoke of seeing the hurt and pain in our lives. He said he saw us losing much of what we possessed to former abusive spouses. The two of us would become one and do great things for the Lord’s kingdom, while God restored what the enemy had stolen.
As we sat through the pastoral counseling of our Tamil mentor, we spent much time in fasting and prayer. We lay prostrate before the Lord at the altar. During a particular prayer session, God showed up. We only saw the robes around His feet, as He walked back and forth in front of us. There was the sweet aroma of flowers in the sanctuary, where only silk arrangements sat. We married within two weeks.
Knowing that God hadn’t brought us together to just live happily ever after, Tim and I sought more of God through fasting and prayer for a month to determine the course our lives would take. I began hungering for God’s manifesting power in my life. But how much more of God was there to experience, from what I’d been extremely privileged to have already known?
I voiced my question to our humble mentor from Sri Lanka. “Cyndy,” he spoke in a soft teaching tone. “Are you so close to God that people are healed by your shadow, as you pass by them?”
“Oh. I’ve a long way to go before that happens.” My shoulders slumped and my head bowed, as I knew God was about to impart rigorous training, which was sparked by a hunger for more of Him in my life.