When I wrote my Funeral post, I knew I needed to get away from the computer and go out and actually experience Jesus in real life. I even considered getting away from this blog and my computer for a while, in order to keep my eyes on the ball.
Well, I have been out, even though Jesus keeps inspiring me to put more things on social media and this blog. I am also spending more and more time with Him, and telling Him, "My time is Your time." His guidance is getting clearer and clearer every day. Thank you, Jesus!
By the way, "praying in tongues" is amazingly effective, and so it should be. God ordained it for us to communicate directly with Him and the demons hate it because they can't understand what you and God are saying to each other. Sorry, guys! 👿 As an engineer, I've had to get past my analytical instincts and just do it on faith. The blessings and revelations are amazing! If you aren't doing this, you are not getting the full benefit of what you have been given, provided you have the Holy Spirit. Another word of advice: Use it or lose it. Just sayin'. (See below for update1.)
Last year, I planted some zucchini and spaghetti squashes in my "square foot garden," and we had quite a harvest. I blogged about it at the time, but it is one of the posts I deleted after Jacksonville. This year, I decided to germinate all of the seeds I had left over and plant them in various open spaces in our perennial border gardens. I wasn't sure how much would actually grow, but I gave it a shot. I wanted our garden to "bear good fruit," rather than just look pretty. I also left some store-bought pumpkins to over-winter in the garden, in hopes they would do something, too.
Before we left for Jacksonville, none of the seeds I planted had come up, but while we were gone the weather got hot and almost all of the zucchini and spaghetti-squash seeds sprouted. I pruned out all but the best-performing plants, and the remaining ones have taken off. I have lots and lots of zucchini squashes, as I had hoped, and I am giving most of them away to my neighbors, as I had planned. We also have some spaghetti squashes coming along, but they take longer to develop and ripen. Several orange pumpkins are visible from our living room window.
One family blessed us with a loaf of zucchini bread they made from the squash they received. It was very kind and sweet of them. Thank you, Jesus! I know I have become known as "the zucchini man," and it has all been great fun. I have talked and laughed with people I would never have met, and my "analytical/engineer" personality is being stretched to make me more like Jesus. Hallelujah!
Three days ago, Jesus told me through the Holy Spirit to go on a zucchini run, and to go to a particular house I had not yet visited. My wife and I did not consider the owner to be "a person of peace," but Jesus wanted me to go there. I eventually made it before dark, after stopping at some other homes first. (Yeah, I think I was dragging my feet.) Here is what I put on Facebook later, when I got home:
So, I was out delivering free zucchini squashes to my neighbors this evening, and Holy Spirit wanted me to go to a particular house where I had not delivered before. When I got there, my neighbor volunteered that they had pain in various parts of their body, and I thought, "Yay! I'm going to get to pray and God is going to do something great!" So, I told them I had recently prayed for some people, and they got healed, and asked if they would like me to do it for them. They said yes, so I asked them to pick which thing they wanted me to pray for. They said, "My feet." They sat down on their front step, and I gently held their feet and prayed. They stood up and said they were better. I said, "On a scale of 1 - 10, what was the pain before?" "Ten," they said. "What is it now?" "Three." "Let's try it again." "What about now?" "It's gone, but the heels still hurt." "Well, I wasn't touching them. Let's try one more time." "How is it now?" "It's gone. Wow." I prayed for some other things, with some, but not complete, success, but they said they know where I live and we can do it some more. (There were visitors inside the house.) They said God does things in his own timing. Yes, yes he does. It topped off an amazing day. All glory to God. Thank you, Jesus!God is good.
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UPDATE February 08, 2020...
1My understanding of "unknown languages" ("tongues") has changed as I continue to learn about these things. Some of my later posts touch on and discuss that topic. You may want to read: Spiritual Weapons and Tactics, Apprentice of Jesus and Holy Spirit.