Short prose
One of two things happens as they pass by. Either they start rationalizing or they start crying.
We try to reason with those who start rationalizing. When that doesn’t work, we get rough. When that doesn’t work, our hearts break.
All we do for those who cry is let God wipe away their tears.
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Denise offers the prompt word “pass” for this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
I just finished attending a two-week long session in February of the River School of Healing made available by Revival Ministries International (RMI) centered at Tampa Bay, Florida. If you are looking for a never-the-same-again transformation experience I highly recommend this.
I don’t have any life-threatening issue affecting me, but I know people who do. I wanted to know what healing meant in a biblical context. That is, I wanted to experience healing as a Christian. And I wanted to be confident I was doing the right thing should I recommend this school to my relatives and friends.
About the School
Although pre-registration is required, the sessions are free. They do accept donations to RMI during the last hour of the last day of the session, but only if the Holy Spirit tells you to do so. Participants themselves are responsible for transportation, food and lodging. A new two-week session starts every two weeks.
Being near the RMI campus there are opportunities to participate in other events such as The Stand every evening except Saturday from 7 pm to about 10:30 pm and Sunday services at The River Church. The instructors, PJ and DNA, of the healing school, led Night 1334 of The Stand.
Finally, this school of healing is NOT a medical school. If you are seeking that kind of training you will need to look elsewhere. The Bible is the only focus in the teaching and even that is from a believing, Holy Spirit led, Christian perspective.
The Two Bookends of the Session
In the classroom many Bible verses appeared on the monitors. The aim of the instructors was to revive us by getting us to receive those verses into our hearts so we could respond with our own words. This blog post is an example of such a response.
There were two verses that acted as bookends. Here is the first one:
Proverbs 17:22
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.
That verse should make sense to everyone even to those reading this who aren’t smiling. So, receive it. Don’t take offense. Don’t just think, but receive. Then respond with joy coming out of your mouth. Be that person people want to be around because they know, whatever comes out of your mouth, that you don’t hate them. You might even, and probably do, love them.
The alternative is dry bones. The alternative is death.
Everyone knows this. So, why isn’t everyone merry and healthy? I don’t know of any meaningful justification for such deep rejoicing that does not involve the death and resurrection of Jesus, but no one is going to smile based merely on a theological justification for doing so. Every Christian with a frown on his face, or even a dumb stare, proves that point. They have the doctrine, that is, they have the logical propositions, but they clearly don’t have the heartfelt joy.
Nor do I know of any power whether that comes from some New Age meditation technique or some mind over matter gymnastics that opens the floodgates of rejoicing except what comes from the Holy Spirit. Without the death and resurrection of Jesus which makes you a child of God, a child of the Father, and without the power of the Holy Spirit within you there is only fake rejoicing.
We fake a merry heart through our various addictions and ideologies, but they lead to broken spirits which dry our bones. If you’re smiling right now with true joy that you can feel from your heart, treasure it as a supernatural miracle. Many have no clue what I’m talking about nor what you’re experiencing. It is the pearl without price.
Mark 16:18
…they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
This second bookend relates healing specifically to believers in Jesus. Believing Christians have the authority to lay hands on the sick in the name of Jesus with the expectation that the sick will recover.
It is important to keep in mind that this assumes those who are sick want to recover. This healing is not a magic trick nor is it a mechanical procedure. It does not go against the wills of those who are sick.
There are many people who feel so unloved that they want to die. They need to know that they are loved. There are some who don’t want to lose their disability benefits. They need to lose their fears. And there are some who just plain enjoy what they’re addicted to (sugar, porn, anger, dubious “highs”). They need to grow up.
Let’s exclude those classes of people who want to be sick (unless they choose to repent). The rest shall recover.
Testimony
When we think of healing in terms of having the authority to lay hands on someone and of recovery as a sign, testimonies become the way those signs are made known to others. So, if we’re sick and we honestly want to recover, we should be ready to give our testimonies. It is our joyful response to what we have received in our hearts.
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And that’s it!
That’s my testimony of how my view of the world changed in two weeks at The River School of Healing. I had a sick view going in without even knowing it, but I am seeing more clearly today. Thank you, Jesus! Hallelujah!
Joe thought and thought about what to write as a six sentence story, but nothing came to mind and so he asked his wife if she had any ideas but his wife had better things to do and gave him a look and so he asked his daughter if she had any ideas for a six sentence story, but his daughter was practicing becoming a teenager and so he got nothing from her but another look and so he asked his son if he had any ideas for a six sentence story and just then his son spoke his first word saying, “Dada”, which annoyed his wife who hoped at least one of their children would have the heart to say, “Mama”, first and so Joe decided to come up with an idea on his own, but nothing came to mind.
“What did you think of my six sentence story?” Joe asked his family.
“That’s only one sentence,” his wife said.
“It sounded like twenty sentences to me,” his daughter said.
“I didn’t understand a word of it,” his son said.
So he posted it.
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Denise offers the prompt word “heart” for this week’s Six Sentence Story.
Although Jeremy and his wife, Martha, welcomed everyone to the warehouse they converted into a chapel, there were signs telling newcomers before they entered to first write the names of any demons they planned on keeping outside on the wall of the building facing the street. Martha waited by the wall for any who were foolish enough to want to keep a demon.
Those who slipped past Martha ran into Jeremy wearing a T-shirt that read: I specialize in scaring the HELL out of stuff. When he asked them if they’d like to get rid of their demons they didn’t completely understand what they were being asked to do, but to be polite and figuring they didn’t have any demons, except maybe little ones, said, “Sure, Pastor, go for it.”
So, in the name of Jesus and in a loud voice, Jeremy rebuked in detail god-awful lists of demonic addictions and disabling stupidities that burned convicting blushes on their cheeks. He then said, “Your demons are gone and you’ve been forgiven for the time you’ve wasted playing games with them, but it’s up to you to decide whether you’ll run after them or stay here to rejoice with thanksgiving.”
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Denise offers the prompt word “game” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
Revelation 21:27
And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
To Gideon’s credit after the Lord’s victory over the Midianite raiders he had no desire to lord it over the Israelites as king. To his discredit he did take some of the gold plundered from the Midianites which helped him attract enough women to sire seventy sons.
Although no Baal could get its hands on him, Gideon’s own greed set his family up for a fall after his death when one of his many sons, Abimelech, a bloodthirsty Nimrod wannabe, decided to craft for himself a kingdom. Abimelech made sure there was no resistance from Gideon’s other sons by slaying all of them at Ophrah except for Jotham, the youngest, who escaped to curse him from Mount Gerizim.
Abimelech’s adventures evolved shamefully until a woman fleeing into the tower at Thebez dropped a piece of millstone upon his head as he tried to burn to death those in the tower. His armorbearer, at his own command, killed him so no one could say that a woman brought about his death, but we all know what happened.
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Denise offers the prompt word “craft” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
Judges 9:53-54
53 And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech’s head, and all to brake his skull.
54 Then he called hastily unto the young man his armourbearer, and said unto him, Draw thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A women slew him. And his young man thrust him through, and he died.
The map below centered on Abimelech’s mother’s home, Shechem, comes from the BibleMapper Blog. Ophrah where Abimelech slayed his brothers is northwest of Beth-shan just off this map. Abimelech died at Thebez after making a mess at Shechem.
The Shepherd’s voice, the sheep all know.
The goats aren’t sure which way to go.
The tares are bundled quickly so
the harvest can begin.
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Ronovan Hestor offers the inspiration “promises” for this week’s Ovi Poetry Challenge. Also posted on Poet’s Corner.
John 10:27
27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
Matthew 13:24-30
24 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?
28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
The rebellion against the Midianites began when Gideon ignited the dry Asherah pole to burn the sacrifice to the Lord. The wind blew across the Israelites with the strength of a Holy Spirit revival.
As a result Gideon gained access to a force of 32,000 men to battle the 135,000 Midianites camped in the valley below. The Midianites watched the incoming storm of Gideon’s army build up against them to the point of having nightmares that the pickings this year would come at the cost of their own lives.
On the Israelite side the Lord wanted to make sure they did not think of Him as some two-bit Baal who relied solely on their natural strengths to get things done. He told Gideon to reduce his forces to 10,000 men and then to 300 which meant at that level only the Lord could win this battle.
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Denise offers the prompt word “access” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
To find out what really happened, see Judges 6-7.
After the service Steve approached the ministers. He told them he wanted to see people the way the Lord saw them. No one would be worth redeeming, including himself, if the Lord saw people as irreparably damaged and grave-bound as he saw them.
They prayed for him, but his head would not acknowledge even the slightest kick of sympathy toward anyone.
It took time for Steve to receive the blessing he sought. When he did the dam of darkness exploded through the love of God.
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Denise offers the prompt word “kick” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
“I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love.” Henry Ward (found on worship leader Toni Bogart Syvrud’s contact card)
Ezekiel 22:30
And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
Revelation 13:16-17
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
When I woke up this morning the dots were connected between these verses. If I’ve got this wrong let me know in the comments.
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Those with the mark of the beast show their support of the beast when they speak or through the things they do, because through their words or actions their support is visible to all just as if it were written on their foreheads or on their outstretched right hands. Those who stand in the gap refuse through their words and actions (indeed, even their unspoken thoughts) to be an advertisement for the beast.
We have a choice: either stand in the gap or take the mark.
Although this has been going on for thousands of years, it is hard to avoid today in the market place of ideas and in the physical things we buy and sell.
We can still repent and change sides. That mark is not a permanent tattoo. Although it is visible to all, it may be difficult to discern just what one is advertising and what one needs to repent of. If anyone is in doubt about what is true, remember what Jesus said and ask the Holy Spirit for help.
John 14:6
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
When we make sure we are standing in the gap,
we have rejected the mark.
When we reject the mark,
we become an offense which puts us in the gap.
Blessings to you!
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Also posted on Substack.
Many Israelites, including Gideon’s own father, Joash, built an altar to the Canaanite sun god, Baal, near which they erected a wooden pole to the fertility goddess, Asherah. Gideon’s assignment was to destroy the altar his father built replacing it with an altar to the Lord upon which he would sacrifice the bull from his family’s stock of cattle that was as old as the seven-year Midianite oppression which the Baal couldn’t stop using the Asherah pole as dry firewood.
The next morning the men of the city were horrified to see what Gideon had done. They demanded that Joash bring Gideon to them so they could kill him for desecrating Baal’s hiding place. Abandoning his own idolatry to the point of rebelling against it, Joash told them to let that incompetent Baal avenge itself.
And that’s how Gideon became known as Jerubbaal, the man on whom Baal would have to take revenge all by its lonesome (which it could never have done).
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Denise offers the prompt work “stock” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
To read what really happened to Gideon (Jerubbaal), see Judges 6. In trying to make sense of the significance of what Gideon had done I was particularly influenced by the commentaries BibleHub offered and the Got Questions article on Baal.
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 