even greater things
I’ve seen God do some incredible things through me in my lifetime.
He used a poem I wrote as a nine-year-old girl to bring my separated parents back together.
On my mission trips as a teenager, He spoke through my faltering words to lead people to salvation.
I’ve stepped out in faith for eleventh-hour financial provision, and had money miraculously show up at the last minute.
In my early years of living in Africa, I rubbed cataracts out of a woman’s eyes.
I saw a man’s leg grow out six inches as I prayed over him.
I pulled a lame man to his feet and watched him take his first steps.
I get goosebumps just thinking about the amazing things God has done. And I feel humbled that He’s chosen to use me.
But it all feels like ancient history.
It’s been a very long time since God’s done something supernatural through me.
But I know it’s not because He’s changed.
I think somewhere along the line, I stopped believing Him for the miraculous.
My faith grew dim.
I got “busy”.
And I stopped actively trusting.
But I want my faith back. I want to trust Him for the miraculous again.
I want to trust Him for even greater things.
That feels like a huge risk right now. My battle-weary heart is scared to hope, to believe.
But every mighty move of God in my life has required an act of faith.
And, Lord knows, I need Him to move mightily.
Not just through me, but in me.
So I’m asking Him to strengthen my faith and fill me with the assurance that He is trustworthy.
Whether He ever does another miracle through my hands or not, I want to live with heart-risking trust that He can.
@nateonamission says:
AMEN Alece. I want to have that faith. I have some huge decisions to make this year, and events to plan that are waaaayyy over my head. I know that He is faithful.
excerpt from fave song right now: Glory Of It All | David Crowder Band
We will NEVER be the SAME …. oh, the glory of it all, is you came here for the rescue of us all … redemption for us all so that we may live. oh, the glory of it all. Things will never be the same. Everything is going to CHANGE.
Everything is going to change. I can’t wait to seem Him change my life because I’m letting him affect the decisions I make. He is going to do GREATER things in your life because you had the faith of a mustard seed.
Thanks for making me think tonight. Got lots on the brain down here in Mexico.
@gritandglory says:
love that song by DCB. and praying for both of us to have strengthened faith.
Has He presented you with seemingly impossible circumstances for this very reason? That He wants your faith back even more than you do? Step on out of the boat, sister, He’s waiting for you.
@gritandglory says:
wow. your words rocked me, rainer. thank you.
I love your writing Alece – your heart shines through. Praying Colossians 1:9-12 for you!
@gritandglory says:
i LOVE that passage! thank you for praying those words over me!
@Melissa_Rae says:
Nothing we dream or imagine can be bigger than what God’s will is for us! I’m believing with you that He can and will do great things through your willingness to be used! Thanks for spurring me on to greater faith as well.
@kedamak says:
Thanks for sharing Alece. I too understand being afraid to hope, to believe but I continue to strive to trust Him in the face of my doubts. Like the father whose son needed healing and said to Jesus, I believe but help me not to doubt. I want to stay filled with the assurance that He is indeed faithful and trustworthy. Thank you for so candidly sharing your heart and challenging me to not get comfortable but to keep believing for the seemingly impossible
@bajanpoet says:
I feel the Spirit of the Lord resonate within me reading that post, Alece.
If you’ve been in my neck of the woods for any length of time, you would see how God has used prayer over the Internet to perform the miraculous….
And I feel led to pray for you.
So as we pray (coz I’m sure I’m not the only one that will…)
First, remember what you said – “… it’s not because HE’S changed…”
And know that you are LOVED – by Him – and by US.
Father I lift Alece to you right now. I feel the presence of the Lord stir me as I read the honest cry of this heart that has been beaten down and beaten up by circumstances, by other people’s choices, by her own. I ask that YOU be the God that ANSWERS BY FIRE to her! I have just read an email on the Elijah List that speaks to the God of fire.. .and in my own prayer for someone else recently the Lord spoke to us and said, “I am the Fire – I AM!” My Lord and my God… I ask for the FIRE OF GOD to be released onto this one… I know that she said, “Whether He ever does another miracle through my hands or not, I want to live with heart-risking trust that He can.” BUT my prayer is not only that she knows that you CAN … but I pray for the mighty rushing wind of the SPIRIT OF GOD to come over her and – IN SPITE OF HERSELF, her situations, her battle scars… LET HER HEAR THE WIND OF THE SPIRIT.. REFILL HER WITH ANTICIPATION OF YOUR POWERFUL HAND ON HERS.
I release in FAITH – BE FILLED, WITH THE POWERFUL SPIRIT that has not CHANGED, NOR MOVED. The word says that the gifts and callings OF GOD ARE WITHOUT REPENTANCE, or (NIV) are IRREVOCABLE. SO I speak into her spirit: ALECE – the LORD CALLS YOU FORTH AGAIN. Miracles have been and continue to be your portion. IN JESUS NAME we stand against doubt and fear, anxiety and condemnation, all self-pity and all spirits of heaviness… We activate the gifts of faith, through the supernatural power of God’s LOVE.
THANK YOU JESUS CHRIST!
AMEN
@gritandglory says:
amen! thank you, robert!
@Nomadstacey says:
That’s a hard reality: that He hasn’t changed but that we change. Hard to face the fact that our faith and our ‘junk’ can affect how He uses us. That makes me squirm. Thank you for this reminder, for this truth. I’m glad you are fighting through and wanting your faith back instead of apathetically accepting the change. I love hearing how God has used you in the past and am so thankful that His power and His faithfulness was brought to others through you. How incredible, Alece! Thanking Him for His acts of love today.
@bahava says:
“heart-risking trust that He can” yikes and amen! Here’s to standing on His word that NOTHING is impossible with Him…
So true!! I laugh at how quick my faith wavers…He is so quick to remind me of the miraculous that He has done in adn through me..but wow..we are so quick to lose that! Good thing He is faithful to us and reminds us!
@PrudyChick says:
Even if you never see with your eyes supernatural miracles again, your work in Africa is working miracles in the lives of the people there.
@coloraturajoy says:
me too…
Alece,
I believe that the first requirement ALWAYS before God gives something of himself in the lives of his children is to ASK. He wants us to feel that desire, and then he happily moves in to satisfy. Your longing is the first step back from the dry dusty desert you’ve been inhabiting. Here are some quotes from Isaiah 43 (Complete Jewish Bible translation) : “Here is what Adonai says: ….’Stop dwelling on past events and brooding over times gone by: I am doing something new; it’s springing up–can’t you see it? I am making a road in the desert, rivers in the wasteland.;” and from the next chapter: “For I will pour water on the THIRSTY land and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit …and my blessing…”
Blessings to you, Alece. I pray God speedily answers your desire with fulfillment.
hmmm. I recently have been going through a personal inventory of all God has done using me as ainsturmant in the past… Many of those moments on the soil of Africa….. And I am tired of it being in the PAST!! Thanks Sista!
@gritandglory says:
some of our moments overlap on the beautiful soil of africa. i love that.
This has given me a lot to think about. Praying you see it again.
I have thought and thought about what to say, but am not getting a lot.
I think I’m just…… wow. How I want to see what you’re talking about – for you and for the ones touched by His power.
Lord, I believe. Help me with my unbelief.
@gritandglory says:
that last line is such the residual prayer of my heart. (it laces the post i already have written for tomorrow…)
Oh I am so with you sweet Alece. I am so with you. Battling to keep my eyes focused and my “knower” knowing as our season drags on. I say drags and God reminds me, it is His timing and not mine. So I repent for my impatience and will myself to stand KNOWING it’s going to be glorious at the end. I cannot wait for God to do the miraculous again … with you (and I pray that all the time for you) and with me.
Love you!
Hi Alece!
I started following your blog through my lovely friends, Katie Pozzuoli & Jessica Ellis— this is good stuff! The firsthand knowledge of what God can do is an amazing testament to His power. Particularly, for my husband and myself, we were both unemployed for the first 6 months of our marriage— and it got rough. It’s hard to explain: I knew God would continue to provide for us, but I didn’t think that it would be “today”. However, reflecting on what He’s done for us in the past, and for others, like yourself, it’s refreshing to know that God is unchanging. He’s still at work, and I can still join him. It’s convicting to know that I need to step it up. The assurance of his faithfulness is sometimes impossible for me to fathom, but I’ll be praying for that with you, and for you as well.
-Aubree
@gritandglory says:
so glad you jumped in on the conversation, aubree! (and high-fives to katie and jessie for passing me along!)
i need to remind myself of His past faithfulness to trust Him for His continued faithfulness. active faith. living trust. i backburner all this far too often. i need to be more intentional in my walk.
His will be done…
Holy crap. I am so totally humbled and in awe of how God has moved in your life and through you and around you and in the lives of those you mentioned. Praise the Holy One. Yay and all Glory to the Father and Son. Thank you for sharing those amazing words of encouragement and Honor to the God of Gods and Lord of Lords. I am lost and spinning to think of such things and how they can even be possible, but I know them to be true because we do serve a mighty and Holy God. Wow.
I do want to continue in partnership with you in your plight – to find your ground…your solid footing. Please tell me how to pray for you.
I love you.
@hannahruthie says:
The things you talk about, I have only dreamt about. How awesome are the things that God has already done, and He will do even greater things! Hear-risking trust/faith is scary. I long for the day when I have that kind of faith, but I feel so lazy. I don’t want to be lazy either. I want to be wholeheartedly persevering in desiring God and pursuing real faith.
Thanks for this encouragement!
@jclayville says:
i forget God’s miracles in my life all the time.
Since Brian and I got married, we kept a journal of prayer requests and would go back to check them off when they had been answered. We did this BECAUSE we forget.
Even doing this… we forget.
I need help.
I love this post! I have read it twice and cried each time! Then I read it to my husband and cried some more! It’s a beautiful thing to see another heart mirror what is going on in my own heart. I’ve been in a similar place in my walk. I too and asking for renewed faith in the supernatural and miraculous that is the natural for our God! He is beginning to reveal Himself to me in some big ways and I pray He will stir up the gift of Faith in you. It’s still there! He will fan that flame and bring renewed faith in who He is and who you are in Him!
Wow. Read this earlier and again just now. It is hard to trust Him when it seems like such a risk, but it is worth it. Thanks for writing this. It is encouraging.
Wow…this is an amazing post. Thank you for sharing your heart in this way! My husband and I were just talking about stuff like this last night and it was so great to be encouraged by your writing today :-)
@gritandglory says:
it is SO awesome to hear stuff like that! thanks, heidi!
O how I loved reading this. I’ve never seen the miraculous in front of my very eyes. To read what you wrote encouraged me because you are a real person, not some wacko that’s exaggerating. I mean I believe God uses us, I’ve just never experienced anything to that degree… and I’m jealous for it. I just prayed that God will strengthen your faith [and mine too] and I’m taking Him at His word in Matthew 18:19.
@gritandglory says:
i’m not a wacko, i promise! ;) (but i bet even the wackos say that… hmmm…)
thank you for praying for me. love you, linda!
I have been behind on my blog reading, but I am now catching up…and crying…and being filled with faith…and being renewed.
Ok wow. Wow. Super-wow.
Jeremiah 33.3 – just read it this morning… call to me and I will answer you and show you GREAT and UNSEARCHABLE things which you do not know.
God is so good !!
@gritandglory says:
i LOVE that passage!
I believe He will do exactly what you are believing Him for… and more…. He is just an awesome God like that.
HUGS
@AbbyL says:
For several years, I have been reminding college students that God loves to do things we think are impossible. I believed what I said but have recently begun to live it in a new way. When what God has clearly promised appears impossible (or at least highly unlikely), when my closest friends and my own brain do not understand, I remind myself of Luke 1:37 and Psalm 112:6-7. I am working on memorizing the latter right now, “Such a [woman] will not be overthrown by evil circumstances. God’s constant care of [her] will make a deep impression on all who see it. [She] does not fear bad news, nor live in dread of what may happen. For [she] is settled in [her] mind that Jehovah will take care of [her].”
@gritandglory says:
wow. such a great passage to me memorizing. i love that!
Thank you for inspiring me in my heart-risking trust! Thank you for challenging me in my faith!
@gritandglory says:
your words are such an encouragement to me.
I am just coming to the place where I believe that miracles like the ones you described do happen. And as I have begun to believe, I’m also asking God to use me as a vessel of His mercy and grace.
Powerful post. Praying for God to multiply faith for you and everyone who reads this post.
@tamhodge says:
at the risk of this having already been said…i’ll say it still…
oh my friend…physical miracles and spiritual miracles are two different things.
i believe you are in a season where He is using you in the spiritual realm. i think, i know, spiritual miracles are happening through your story. through your pain. through your anguish. through your raw heart. through your fingers as you lay it all out, with Him-for Him, for us.
miracles are happening, alece. make no mistake. you may not see them…but He does.
@gritandglory says:
i needed to hear that, tam. thank you for bolstering my faith.
@traceepersiko says:
Ever since I have known you this verse echos in my heart for you. Seriously, you have done and seen things I still dream and read about! If I was being most honest, I already see that happening so fast and so great in you. Just you. You have his favor all over your life. Trust me it’s so very visible.
I think I get stuck on the same small faith and amazement of Jesus telling me he saw me under the fig tree. He smiles at the thought of us knowing so much more.
I know that it may not be a physical miracle, but what you are doing with grit church is one. How you are renewing and growing the face and identity of thrive has been awesome. That has been another. All your small world connections of blog readers, coffees you had with passionate ppl, dreamcations, provisions, people believing in you so much. No small thing.
I hope you can see, a different kind of see, all your greater things.
@gritandglory says:
i love how you call it “grit church”. and i’m grateful that you always point out my “greater things”. thank you for helping me see…
@mandythompson says:
Wish you could be at church this weekend… Jay is preaching through Psalm 13 – feeling forgotten.
PS: God often works when we don’t know it. If His Holy Spirit is still in you (I say this knowing full-well the theological hand-slap I deserve) then He’s still working in you. Rest, friend. Most of it is the miracle of your OWN heart. You want the miracle? go look in the mirror (um. But ignore the braces thing…)
@gritandglory says:
oooooh. i bet it was good. just that phrase “feeling forgotten” gets me…
are the messages available via podcast??
@mandythompson says:
Kinda. We have the online feed. I *think* you can watch/listen here:
http://sermon.net/thechapel
It’s the 2-28-10 service
Lemme know if you can’t get the vid feed to work as well.
xxoo
me