Thirteen years ago today, Charles Hunter Williams, our first grandchild, was born. It is like I am in a dream and expect to wake up and find out that he is still a baby. What happened to those years? As a toddler Hunter was a heart winning, precious, chubby, deep dimpled boy. He has always been a serious deep thinker who catches every detail and has to connect the dots. He is very smart and has an impressive memory. He remembers things you wish he would forget sometimes. However, when he would get tickled he had a laugh that was like music to my ears. Often he would get tickled at something his baby sister would say or do and would laugh so hard that he got the hic-ups.

I tried my best to teach him how to say Nana before any other name, but he beat me. Every time I told him to say Nana and pointed to myself he would just get this sparkle in his eyes and a smirk on his face and nothing would come out of his mouth. The harder I tried the more it became a game to him. He learned Mom, Dad, PawPaw but no Nana. One day my niece came in and he called her by name. “Well, that’s it I proclaimed. I am going to cut you out of my will and leave everything to Brittany and you will have to ask her to swim in her pool.” It was only a bluff(I love him too much to be serious) but it worked. A little while later he came out with my pool shoes and said “here Nana”. My heart leaped…he knows my name.

Hunter is now a very handsome young man that all the girls swoon over even our young neighbors here in SC. His long eye lashes would make any girl envious. He is tender hearted ,very polite and has asked Jesus into his heart. He is a grandson to be proud of and that we are. We love him so much.

This blog by John Paul Jackson was emailed to me by a friend. Over a month ago the Lord spoke to us to get our house ready for sale. Where are we going, you might ask. Good question. He has not shared that with us yet. This article has come at just the right time and I wanted to share it with you since I know we are not alone in this transition.

Sometimes, transition requires us to go someplace or do something so undefined that we are clueless to the next step we are to take. Much like Abraham in Genesis we have to go someplace that we don’t know. In the midst of the journey, it is easy to feel lost and perhaps alone. Once in a while we know what the end goal might be, but we don’t know where it is or how to get there. Just imagine that God told you to pack your bags, gather your belongings and go — just go.

We might be justified in asking, “Where do I go?” But God simply replies, “Go!” So we press again, “Okay, but at least tell me what direction to go. North, south, east or west?” Again God simply says, “Go!” We answer, “O Lord, please tell me so at least I can tell my family where we are going and my friends won’t think I loony.” Once again we hear that heavenly voice: “They’re going to think that no matter what you tell them — go!”

ABRAHAM’S JOURNEY: FINDING YOUR PROMISED LAND
Little do we know how important that first step of faith is. One day, we will transition from being dependent on others to being the leader of others, all because of this first step. But we don’t know that today. We just know that we want to obey God, and He said to GO! So we do it.

However, how do we balance obedience and responsibility? We have a family and responsibilities. Abraham even had livestock that somehow must be fed. Since we don’t know the path, we end up doing as Abraham did and let the livestock follow the grass trail — we simply try to handle each day as it comes. We don’t know the destination or how to get there, so every day the flock moves slowly, in seemingly random ways.

Months go by like this; the herd meanders from one pasture to the next, and we have not heard from God in a long time. In fact He has not spoken since we heard Him say, “GO.” Our friends are now looking at us with querying eyes, and even we are wondering, Was it just a dream?

To make matters worse, some family members lose faith in us and our ability to hear God speak. Some of those in our charge decide they can do better by themselves and run off to find their own destiny, as Lot did. In many ways, we don’t blame them, because the reality is we still don’t know where we are going! At least we’re surviving, and the grass trail before us continues to be plentiful.

A few more weeks go by, and we are pretty much at the lowest point of our journey. We start to tell our family that we’re rethinking our options, weighing their advice, waiting on God — but, deep inside, we are trying to decide if this is worth it. In a conundrum, we climb one, last mountain to look for the next pasture and tired on multiple levels we slump on a boulder to rest — exhausted, weary and oppressed. What are we going to do?

Then it happens. Without warning, we hear His voice again. “Lift your eyes up — now! Look to the north, south, east and west! All the land you see is yours. This is the land to which I told you to go. I will bless you here. Not only that, but I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. And all your descendants will inherit this land.”

Overcome with emotion, our eyes fill with tears, and we collapse on the boulder and openly weep. We now understand that He had been guiding us all the time — but why didn’t it seem like it?

This is the agony and the awe of transition. We know we are called to do something, but we are totally incapable of getting ourselves there. Sometimes it seems even the beasts of the field know more than we do. Yet, we eventually arrive at our destinies. Looking back, we see God’s hand was quite active, but we recognized little of it while on the journey.

THE THREE-PART SECRET OF TRANSITION
Herein lies the secret to transition that Abraham discovered. This is why God changed Abram’s name. All three parts of this secret synergize with one another and must be consummated before we will achieve God’s purpose for our lives. Without the three parts in place, our understanding will not be complete and our destinies will not be reached.

Part One
The first part of the secret is simply this: Where God guides He provides. In Abraham’s case, God grew the grass that the livestock ate. God knew that the livestock would follow the food source and that Abraham would follow his livestock to the Promised Land.

Part Two
The second part of the secret is this: What God births He protects. This allows us to know that beyond a shadow of doubt, God has directed us to do what we are doing. We will need this confidence and this faith on multiple occasions before we reach the end of the journey. If the Lord told us to go, we will get there.

Part Three
Finally, the last part is realizing that if we expect God to guide only through the overt and the obvious, we will be blind to most of His guidance. God wanted Abraham to know that all of creation will be used by God to help him on his journey. As the apostle Paul wrote, “We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen” (2 Corinthians 4:18). In other words, God causes the grass to grow even when we do not hear Him speaking; He leads even when we don’t realize we’re being led. (Can I hear an amen?)

When grasped, and trusted, these three facets of the Secret of Transition will become huge anchors that will allow many other divine elements to come to light and help you reach the purpose for which God created you – here lies the zenith of delight.

Blessings,
John Paul

Exodus 12 1-4 ¹Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, ²“This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. ³Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: “On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. ⁴And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb.

vs 13¹³Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

Several months ago when I was reading this scripture the portion that says “a lamb for a household” really stuck in my spirit. With this scripture I began to realize God’s plan for our families to be saved. Salvation includes deliverance, prosperity, healing, protection, victory. It is victory over darkness and death in every aspect.

The passover lamb whose blood protected the Israelites from the plague and death and brought them out of Egypt(slavery) was a picture of what the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, would do and now has done for all who believe. The blood of lambs and goats had to be continually offered but the blood sacrifice of Jesus was a completed work. When we accept Jesus, the lamb of God, as our savior then we take a place of authority to bring salvation to our household.

Psalm 68:6 says God places the solitary in families. There are different interpretations as to what this means, but I personally believe he strategically chooses a tender hearted individual in a family who will respond to the wooing of the Holy Spirit to redeem a whole family. It is like being God’s 007 agent. Acts 16:31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved–you and your household.” The NIV says he sets the lonely in families. If you are that person whom God has chosen then you know it can be a lonely place.

Exodus says the lamb is for the house of his father. That is your generational bloodline–moms, dads, grandparents, sons, daughters, grandchildren, sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews,aunts, uncles and cousins. It even says that you can bring along you neighbors. We as believers have the authority to intercede and claim salvation which includes healing or protection from the plague for all in our household and our neighbors. That does not mean that you can make the decision for the individual, they must accept the Lord on their own. What it does mean is that your decision, your prayers and your appropriating the blood covenant to them binds the work of the enemy in their life, pushes back the darkness and deception and gives them full opportunity to know the truth and be set free from the deception of satan. It is like making them an offer they can not refuse. Without this intervention the deception and darkness would be too blinding for them to hear truth or see the way.

If you are that solitary life and your family has hurt you or rejected you or ignored you don’t let the enemy use that to give them up to him. God reached down and chose you to bring your family into the Kingdom. You are His secret agent and you have the host of heaven standing with you.

Psalms 33:16 No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. 17 A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. 18 But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, 19 to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. 20 We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. 21 In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. 22 May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you.

Last year when I was on the Summer Of Love tour across country God placed an angel of mercy into my path named Jennifer. We first met in the kitchen of the place we stayed in Nashville, TN. and with each stop along the way I felt our relationship grew stronger. I really believe she was a divine appointment.

Jennifer and her three children and another young man came on the trip from California pulling a trailer packed full to assist in feeding the SOL group. Believe me that was a monumental task with an unbelievably small budget. She worked to the point of exhaustion many times.

I drove a friend’s car from Nashville to Albuquerque, NM while he drove a big rig for the group and then he retrieved it in order to go pick his wife up at the airport in Phoenix. So my destiny was to get on one of the hot worn out buses to drive through the desert to Sedona. I was so dreading it and praying for God’s grace. Jennifer came to my rescue and invited me to ride with her since her oldest, Kyle, wanted to ride on the bus with his friends. I can’t tell you what a relief that was to me.

We arrived at the pitch black ball field where we were to set up tent late that night. That was a trip in itself but she and her family helped me get my tent up by flashlight even when she was exhausted unto tears. I did not know that we were in rattlesnake territory at that point and now as I write this and think of our wandering around in the dark I shiver. I hate snakes, and rattlesnakes…oh, my word.

Jennifer and her family left the tour at the end of our scheduled time in Sedona to head back home for a wedding. Her plan was to pick back up in LA. The group’s next stop was San Diego and I was there only one day and I had just about an hour before put my tent up in a dust field when my cell phone rang. I heard Jennifer’s voice say that she was on her way to San Diego to pick Kyle up and wanted to know if I wanted to come home with her for a break. Well, that was a no brainer for me.

She and her husband Larry and their family took this worn out old women into their home and treated me like they had known me for years. As I told her yesterday she is a very unselfish generous person. There long term plan was to move to Moravian Falls, NC where they already had land to build. Her plan was much shorter than Larry’s at that point. However, before I left their home for San Francisco out of the blue Larry got a call requesting he fly to Charlotte for an interview for a job here. He flew into Charlotte the day I arrived back here from Redding, CA. Well a wind of change hit their lives, suddenly. They made him an offer he could not refuse.

They sold their home and pulled up stakes and arrived in NC I think while we were in San Diego responding with the Red Cross to the wildfires. They have been here 9 months and we have not been able to reconnect for some reason. When you move to a new territory the adjustment is huge. You go through grief for those relationships left behind while you are a sojourner in a strange land. It is bad enough when you are a southerner moving to another southern area, but when you cross that cultural line it is like moving to a foreign country. You don’t even speak the same language.

Also when the move is God directed you add an additional battle. If God is moving you then you move right into spiritual warfare. Don’t think the enemy of your soul is going to be exited about your arrival. He moves in to try to abort God’s purpose. It is a hard transition especially when God does not reveal to you His purpose for the move. That is where faith comes into play. Once you obey and move without knowing where He is leading then He directs you step by step. The word says He orders your steps. I have seen the faithfulness and protection of God to defeat the enemy and bring forth His plan.

A few days ago I got a call from Jennifer and she came over for lunch yesterday. It was like there had not been a 9 month interval in our relationship. What a joy for me. I have found that is the way relationships go that are divine appointments. You always seem to just pick up where you left off. I pray for divine appointments in my life and others because I know their value. It is like finding a precious jewel.

****ADDITIONAL COMMENT:

After publishing this entry on the blog I received an email from another dear friend that I made on the SOL tour, Denise who lives in Pensacola, Fl with her husband Thomas and beautiful son Joshua. I wanted to share her comments also: “I was so happy to see Jennifer in the picture. Tears well up…to remember how nice she was to us. She is such a kind lady. She was always trying to relieve the burdens…she never caused any! She always thought of Joshua and the children on the Sol tour and got them special treats. This meant a lot to me, being that we at that time were not able to afford to get Joshua any toys. I remember one night at Motts Theater she had bought Joshua a stick that lit up in the night….he was so excited! She tried to make it fun for the children. We got to give other sticks that light up that night to other kids and what a blessing that was.
I pray that they are all doing great.
I remember one day she let Thomas and I ride in her vehicle in San Francisco and was telling us how the lady in San Francisco had donated so much food. Another time, in Wichita she picked us up (there was quite a few there doing a laundry trip) from a laundry mat, when someone forgot us and left us there for hours. We all crammed into her vehicle…I thought for a moment I was back in Japan…more people can fit into a vehicle than you think! Anyway, I, as you, have quite fond memories of her. I haven’t spoken or seen her in a long time, since the Sol tour, and it is good to know that she is doing good.”

You know sometimes we feel like we are not doing anything of value for the Kingdom of God and we just don’t realize how an act of compassion or kindness is changing the lives of those to whom we extend our hand. Moses….what’s in your hand.

I can’t tell you how much I am enjoying the new tech world. The enemy has invaded the internet just like he has everything he can in this world, but it is an awesome avenue for the Lord to be revealed to the utter most parts of the world. Through podcasts I can view church services across the nation, get wonderful balanced teaching from one of my favorite prophetic teachers who lives in Australia and listen to a Christian talk show that I am now addicted to from Fort Smith, AR. Also web-streaming has made it possible to watch in the comfort of your living room live conferences and revivals held anywhere in the world.

I now have this handy attachment that I got from our local apple store that I can connect my laptop to the TV and Chuck and I can watch what is on the web on the TV and the sound is run through the Bose speakers. It is soon going to get to where we won’t need a satellite or cable, just internet. All we need is sports events to be available on the internet and bye bye Direct TV. I just need some way of recording these things because they are coming so fast I can’t watch them all.

Friday night I got an email from a production ministry that they were offering free web-streaming of the conference they were taping in MN. The speakers were Dutch Sheets, Chuck Pierce and others. This is the second time that they provided me a way to get a word in due season free. Dutch Sheets was the speaker that night and he proclaimed five things that God had given him for America.

The second thing was very significant to me. It was that God was going to unravel the cords of confusion. He said that there had been a spirit of confusion over this nation and he felt it came from our involvement in Iraq…Babylon. He said it had cause Bush and his cabinet and other government officials to be confused and it was now invading the body of Christ. It is operating in the economic and political realm. What happens in the next few months will determine the next 7 years. He said it is a spiritual thing…a principality that has come against this nation. But God was about to unravel the confusion. It looks like those that are for God are confused and they are but God is about to confuse those who oppose Him.

Here are the 5 things that the Lord told Dutch Sheets about America:

1. He is going to outsmart the crafty one…..Gen 3:1
2. He will unravel the cords of confusion….1Kings 18
3. He will Bless from or out of the curses…where there has been disobedience and curses somehow God in His mercy is going to reverse it…Joshua 8 & Deuteronomy 27-28
4. It will rain in dry places…..Isaiah 41:18
5. God is going to surprise with a visitation(says that it will be in Sept-suddenly)…Acts 2

Chuck Pierce got up and said between Sept 17-26 that God was going to Jar and rearrange…jarring the false altars that have been built up.

Yes, Great things are coming soon.

By Tom Davis
We pick out the scriptures we like, as if we were dining at a five-star buffet. We conveniently ignore the scriptures that talk about caring for the poor, giving away material possessions, and loving money. Scriptures like:

• Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world.” (James 1:26-27)

• Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? (James 2:15-17)

• “If you have two coats, give one away,” [Jesus] said. “Do the same with your food.” (Luke 3:11)

When Christians care about their political views or their bank account more than they care about the millions of people who die in the world because they don’t have five dollars to buy the medicine that would cure them, something has gone drastically wrong.

These kinds of Christians s**k.

What can we do to stop s**king? I think the answer is relatively simple. It’s found in the Bible: “Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22).

Give away material possessions to those in need, love the unlovely, take care of the widow and orphan. This is not rocket science. It just takes a heart committed to doing the things God said to do.

Christians, listen up: People are tired of being criticized, judged, and listening to the lip service we are so great at giving. Instead, why don’t we commit to making the changes we can make?

Christianity needs a renewal of the principles that made it great. It needs to be more like Jesus—compassionate, self-sacrificial, unconditionally loving, and caring for those who are most in need.

That kind of lifestyle allowed twelve men to change the world. It will help you change yours, too.

By Tom Davis

Each Sunday, millions of Christians in America gather to worship the God who commands us to “love our neighbor as ourselves.” We belt out praises to the God who tells us that “pure and undefiled religion is caring for widows and orphans in their distress.” We kneel in pious prayer before the Almighty God of the universe who describes Himself as loving, gracious, merciful, and generous.

Isaiah 30:18 Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!

I guess healing has been a passion of mine since I was young. As far back as I can remember I wanted to be a nurse and completed that goal after getting married and having two children. As the years have gone by my hatred for disease has grown stronger and having lost a child at birth and raising a child with physical challenges I especially have a compassion in that area.

I took my youngest son on a bus to a Katherine Kuhlman meeting with a burning desire for my son to be touched by God’s healing power. We made the long trip back overwhelmed by disappointment, but not hopelessness. I have gone to many of Benny Hinn’s meetings and observed mothers in that same position and watched them wheel their children with twisted bodies back home and my heart broke for them.

Just the other night I saw a young man on the stage at Lakeland that was so twisted you wonder how he could live. Man could do nothing to change his body, but one touch from the creator of the universe our compassionate Lord is all he needs.

I have cried out to the Lord for years to move us into the position of power that these captives would be set free. You know the enemy has been out to destroy a generation and has done so through abortion, abuse,disease, deception etc. But a day is coming and I believe soon when the Kingdom of God will prevail. Katherine Kuhlman proclaimed that a day was coming that all would be healed. Jesus said we would do greater works than he.

You know I really have no patience with the “heretic hunters” that have openly attacked the healing revival in Lakeland. Where is the compassion? Do they not see the desperate people who need a touch from God? Some of these people will die unless they are healed. Do they not feel His presence and sense the hunger that is drawing so many people across the globe? So what if it does not fit your idea of what a revival should look like. The nerve of God to not ask your opinion. I know it is not perfect because God uses imperfect man. Why not embrace the good, pray for the desperate ones and let God work out the rest. Jesus was moved by compassion and healed their diseases. Where is our compassion?

Jesus, son of David, do not pass us by!!!

John 15: 1-8 1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

About 41 years ago at our first house in Jackson, MS Chuck decided to do as he heard you should do and cut back this really pretty plant(not sure what it was called) that we had in the front yard. It was some type of ornamental grass plant and had these fluffy shoots that came out of the center. It had grown really tall, but it does not look good in the winter. Well the man took an ax to the plant and murdered it. It was accidental homicide but I have not let him live it down. Every time he goes to cut back a plant I gasp.

The end of last year our neigbor decided to get rid of the blooming vine and trellis that she had off her patio. Chuck offered to diq it up for her and she gave him the plant and trellis. This spring it started growing and blooming. One day I walked out and the thing was cut to the ground because he did not think it looked good enough and did not have enough blooms. I was horrified. I could not believe that he cut it down when it was growing and blooming. Well, I did as every wife is bound to do I fussed. Weeks went by with no sign of growth and I fussed again.

Suddenly the vine started shooting up again and just this week blooms started to appear. Only this time it was not a few blooms it was many many pretty flowers. As I looked outside my patio today the Lord reminded me of this scripture in John. I’ve heard Joyce Meyer say “your pruned if you do and your pruned if you don’t.” We all expect if we don’t bear fruit that we will be pruned, but there are times that even when we have fruit in our lives the Lord comes along and cuts us to the ground. It is not to be cruel or judgemental or to destroy us, it is so that we will produce more fruit. Once that season is over our fruit will abound and we will be a prettier plant in God’s garden.