Phil,
I got goosebumps while reading this! Thanks for sharing it with us, it
speaks volumes to me!
Virgie and Hoshi
----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 23, 2006 8:58 PM
Subject: The Power Of The Spoken Word
> The Lord spoke something to me today that had tremendous
> meaning to me personally. It likely won't mean much to you when
> you hear it but that's ok because He said it to me and not
> necessarily to you.
>
> I was at my desk early this morning. I didn't sleep well.
> I haven't slept well for some time and for various reasons. What
> the Lord spoke to me has to do with money although the words you
> will soon hear don't seem to indicate that it has to do with
> money at all. I know it does due to recent financial stress
> under which Sandy and I have been living.
>
> Before telling you what I heard from the Lord, let me give
> you a little background. It has been nearly four years ago I
> went full time in this intercessory prayer ministry. I am not
> doing it because I want to, although I enjoy what I do more than
> any ministry work I have ever done, but I am doing it for one
> reason and one reason only. The Lord told me this was what He
> wanted me to do and he literally spoke into my thoughts and told
> me word for word what I would be doing. I began praying with a
> couple of people before I fully committed myself to a full time
> ministry. Why? I was scared to start doing it full time. Why
> was I scared to go full time although I had lost my job a few
> months earlier? I mean, what did I have to lose since I wasn't
> working any way? I believed that God likely would not financially
> provide for me and my family. This was based upon prior
> experience of ministry failure, in my way of thinking, and
> something the Lord revealed to me that I inherited from my father.
> I won't explain that part because it would take too long and you
> wouldn't believe it anyway. Don't I believe the Word of God?
> No, not all of the time and not in every situation. You don't
> either, if you are honest, that is. How do I know this? If
> there is one Christian on this planet that doesn't get caught
> worrying, doubting, sinning, feeling guilty about something, then
> I not only wish to meet that person but I can tell you two things
> about that person. One, they are dead, and two, they lied. So,
> I know where you are in Christ because everybody is in the same
> place. Like the old preacher said during the altar call, "The
> ground below the cross is level." You start waving your Bible
> around under my nose and telling me how much better you are than
> me, or you are more spiritual than somebody else, or that God
> loves you more because you are a better Christian, and I'm going
> to pray God takes you out just for pride alone. So with that out
> of the way, let me continue.
>
> A few days ago, over the weekend I think it was, Sandy and I
> were sitting out on our deck swing in the evening. We ended up,
> eventually, talking about how bad off we were financially. Not a
> good idea and certainly not a Scriptural one either. Regardless,
> we were voicing, as it were, confessing would be another way of
> putting it, our feelings. This form of confession is fine, if you
> are seeking God for the answers. If you are not doing that, you
> are out of Scriptural agreement with the Word of God and thus, the
> Holy Spirit is grieved because you are saying the opposite of what
> the Holy Spirit knows is true.
>
> So, as I said, this was the sum and substance of our
> conversation. I was thinking one way in my head but with my
> mouth, in conversation with my wife, I was saying what I knew was
> the truth. In my head, my thoughts, I was saying, "God has never
> fully watched out for me financially before. He's not providing
> for me now. If He is, He is doing a mighty poor job of it. I
> have failed financially before. God's Word works but it won't
> work for me and my finances," and you get the picture. A lot more
> was going through my mind, too, but it was all based upon my
> feelings and worries and concern that God would not come through
> for me. With my mouth, during our conversation related to our
> discouragement, I said to Sandy that I only know two things. I
> then named those two things. The first thing I named was the
> ministry God had told me to do, and that was not a ministry He was
> asking me to do or calling me to do, but one He simply said, "This
> is what you will be doing," and then in one sentence, he detailed
> the ministry. If you want to know what that is, you can find it
> on my website in my personal testimony of where I am in God. The
> second thing I stated that I knew as a fact was that God spoke to
> me four years ago this month and said to me, "This is who you are
> now." I have never disbelieved that, nor the ministry He told me
> I would be doing, to this day. I have doubted myself. I have
> doubted God would provide. I have doubted a lot of other things
> but never the two things He spoke into my heart and mind and
> spirit. So why was I worried now? I was not worried about who
> God was and what His Word said. I was worried about who I was and
> what I can't do myself. Bingo! That's where God wanted me to be;
> dead in the water and unable to navigate by myself. He does the
> steering or have we forgotten that since we got saved? I forget
> it all the time but it is truth. Not true but it is truth. I
> also keep forgetting that Noah's ark didn't have a steering wheel
> or even a rudder because Noah had never sailed a ship in his life
> and he didn't even own a compass. The ark was no ship. It was
> nothing more than a rectangular box. So, now God is moving me
> into the place where the only thing left is Him. If that's not
> where you are, then you aren't where God wants you to be. How do
> we get to that point? You don't want to hear the answer to that
> question yet so just keep reading.
>
> So, again, this morning, after getting up at about 3:30 and
> not really able to go back to sleep decently, I finally, about 7
> or 8 o'clock, sat down at my desk and looked at email. I was very
> very discouraged. I was also a little angry at God. That's
> nothing knew for me and I've finally figured out that God isn't
> afraid of me anyhow so being angry at God is a big waste of time.
> We do it anyhow but rarely will admit it even to God when we are
> convicted about our poor attitude. So, at the computer, and I
> wasn't praying and didn't feel like praying, I clearly heard the
> following words as my mind suddenly focused on our finances.
> "Some things just have to be said." It was like a lightning
> strike just detonated in my brain. My thoughts instantly flashed
> back to the words I had spoken when talking with Sandy on the deck
> swing. I had spoken exactly what God had told me even though my
> mind was locked on all the wrong unscriptural things I wanted to
> say. I'm getting goose bumps telling you this right now because
> of the spiritual impact it has had today on me. My whole mental
> focus changed and I felt the best I had felt in months; maybe
> years.
>
> I had a prayer session today that was very exciting because
> of what the Lord did for that person. It would take a book just
> to describe that one prayer session so you'll just have to take my
> word for it. Later, when I thought through what this person had
> experienced, I cried because of how spiritual deep the healing
> was. After the prayer session, I ate lunch but the bad negative
> feelings came back. Yet, the words I heard in my spirit, "Some
> things just have to be said," were solid as a rock. My spirit
> witnessed to the truth of those words and the Holy Spirit agreed
> in such a way that I could not ignore those words and what they
> meant to me personally.
>
> It was nearly 100 degrees this afternoon in Denver but I went
> out on the deck from time to time and sat in the swing. I
> struggled with my feelings and searched for any demonic influence
> trying to sidetrack me from the truth. I went on search and
> destroy missions, trying to find if I believed any lies that were
> keeping me from believing. The harder I worked at it, the worse I
> felt. I cried at times from the spiritual pain I felt.
>
> Let's back up a few weeks. One morning, a number of weeks
> ago, I came out into my office, hardly awake, and took a blank
> piece of Braille paper off my desk and reached to put it back up
> on my floor to ceiling bookshelves behind my desk. I said, in my
> thoughts to God, "I wish you would do something good for me
> today," and immediately my mind went to at least two things which
> both involved money. Suddenly, in my thoughts I heard, "I am your
> money." I knew who it was but it shocked me to hear the Lord
> speaking in such mundane words. I have never forgotten those
> words, however, and somehow I knew they fit into the picture of
> financial provisions and blessings but I couldn't figure out where
> until today.
>
> So, sitting on the deck swing one of those times this
> afternoon, I recalled what Jesus had said about Him being my
> money. I do this type of review of things the Lord has taught me
> often. That's one reason why I write about things I've heard so I
> can be reminded later if I forget. So I'm sitting in the heat,
> crying off and on out of frustration, searching for the answers,
> when I remembered Jesus said, "I'm your money." Again, I
> realized how odd that sounded coming from the Lord. I asked the
> Lord what He meant by that and my thoughts slammed so hard into
> the truth, it almost physically rocked me. Jesus said, "I am the
> bread of life." Bread is what everybody in the world, in all
> periods of time, throughout the ages, have lived on. The key word
> is, lived on. When Jesus told me "I am your money," he was
> saying, "I am your bread of life," that is, your daily life of
> provision. The two revelations locked into place like a padlock
> and they closed around what He said this morning when He said to
> me, "Some things just have to be said."
>
> "Now, from here, I could teach about faith and confession for
> a couple of hours and explain why these three things had such a
> profound effect upon me spiritually. If you carefully read Mark
> chapter 11 verses 22 through 25, you will discover that two things
> come into play when removing mountains. One thing is literally,
> what we say to the mountain. The key word here is, say, or what
> we literally confess. I can prove what I am saying from the Greek
> but I won't take the time in this message. Secondly, when we
> pray, we believe that we receive and what we have said, the key
> word is said, will come to pass. So, we must know how to pray and
> we must know what to confess because what we confess is what we
> pray and what we pray is what we receive. If we confess the
> opposite of God's eternal Word, we grieve the Holy Spirit and we
> lie and do not the truth. What we may be speaking appears true
> but God is not interested in what the world says, He is interested
> in what we say. If what we say is in agreement with His Word, it
> will be done for us from Heaven.
>
> The feeling of oppression soon began to lift and my
> frustrations that I have carried for months began to drift away.
> I'm not saying I have this down to a science but I am saying
> something happened to me today that has renewed my mind and
> thoughts to conform to the image of Christ.
>
> I likewise always remind myself of what Jesus spoke to me
> when I was searching a memory of when I was five years old which I
> posted here once. "Phil, you don't have to be perfect because I
> am." And so is His Word.
>
> Phil.
>
> He's ready when you are.
> www.SafePlaceFellowship.com
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