This morning I woke up with two seemingly separate messages and was struggling to think of how to write them.
It wasn't until I went to grab my laptop that it became clear with no effort on my part. It's often like that: clarity following a step in the direction God has given, rather than clarity being the motivation.
Believe for better.
That was the phrase God gave me: "Believe for better." I went to bed hearing it and it was still there when I woke up.
It was a directive, a gentle but firm one full of assurance.
Last night, children, especially special needs children, were on my mind heavily. I know many are going to back to school and facing challenges after a long relaxing summer.
As a former kid who faced some of those challenges myself, I feel for the parents and children and hope you're both met with empathy and help. For the children, I hope you know that no person or label determines what you're capable of.
Parents of faith with children who have a diagnosis of one kind or another are no stranger to people's opinions and ideas. Sometimes they are well-meaning but delivered with threads of ignorance or brashness.
I heard someone praying against the"spirit of ADHD" once and wondered what that spirit might look like. Running around with headphones on listening to music, forgetting its keys on the way out of hell, who knows. If there is a spirit of ADHD it would be the easiest to defeat because all you'd have to do is dangle something shiny or give it some slime to play with and it would be off task for hours at a time.
While I do believe in and have seen how spirits affect people a lot discernment and and understanding of these things is needed. It's the difference between seeing someone with a broken bone and praying for "spirits of bone brokenness" to leave or praying for the bone to be healed. For the person to be able to get up and walk.
Sometimes when Jesus healed people He did so by telling a spirit to flee. Other times, He commanded them to stretch out their withered hand. Other times He made a poultice of seemingly strange ingredients and told them to go and wash. What all of these methods had in common was faith. The person had faith and took whatever action Jesus told them to.
The Bible calls healing, "The children's bread." It's for us today and accessed by faith. The substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things unseen.
There are also times to examine a routine, schedule, discipline, or nutrition. It comes down to discernment. Maybe you've come across people who have discouraged you. Religious people empowered with verses but no discernment can cause harm. It's even worse when there is a touch of truth, no discernment, and a scarcity of love.
I can feel the pain of someone reading this who wants to turn to people of faith, needs their faith community's support as they struggle through life with their child but are afraid of being condemned.
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:1-2
There is no condemnation in Christ.
"Believe for better," was what I heard last night and the words have echoed into this morning as school buses make their way through streets, picking up children who will face a day of doing their best. The sounds of children float through my window even as I type.
Experts may say one thing about what your child can do, how far they can go. A teacher might have another idea. Sometimes it's us as parents who in wanting to accept and love a child, doesn't want to believe for more.
But up against God, the decrees of humans are meaningless.
I am qualified to speak on such matters because I'm not an outsider looking into this world. There was a time I struggled so badly with mutism I had a card explaining that I was not being rude or dismissive- as people often think when a person is not answering them. My medical card was a lifesaver in terms of people understanding that no, I was not intending to be difficult. It made it possible to navigate life and I would carry a small notebook and pen during these times.
One day Jesus asked me to cut up the card. I know His voice. It is soft but strong, firm, loving, and not like my own. I should know by now that when He asks me something there is no reason to be afraid, but I was. I hesitated and thought about it for some time, but then I did. A short while later, my voice was released to me and since then I have not had one episode of being unable to speak and know I never will again.
So I say this all with full compassion and understanding. I am not selling false hopes. I know what it is to feel misunderstood, maligned, and alone. To wonder if healing is for you or your child. To feel invisible even by those who seem to have the keys.
But I have also seen and experienced the miraculous healing power of God through Jesus. We can love our child for who they are today and still believe for better. Hope doesn't hurt when it's placed in the unbreakable word of Jesus.
"Believe for better"
Pick an area.
Perhaps you'd like to see your fourth grader who has struggled with accidents fully potty trained. Perhaps you would like to see your third grader read with ease. Or your fifth grader make friends.
There is nothing God cannot do.
"But Jesus looked at them and said to them, 'With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.'" - Matthew 19:26
We know it is His desire to see every child live and walk in freedom as He loves children.
"But Jesus called them to Him and said, 'Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God.'" -Luke 18:19
Maybe you've resigned yourself to things being a certain way because they have always been like that. Or you're afraid to believe. Maybe you've been shamed by a person of faith and blamed for your child's struggles as was the blind man and his parents before Jesus healed him.
"Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?' Jesus answered, 'Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.'" John 9:1-3
Special needs children makes some people uncomfortable and scared to the point of saying all kinds of things.
But what if He has something for you.
I know the power of prayer and when God said, "Believe for better," I believe His desire is for parents to create a specific prayer target so that they can see for themselves that He is the God who heals.
Create one where you are. You don't have to tell anyone if you don't want to. Hold it in your heart.
Believe it so strongly, letting your mind cast down the fears and any voice that tells you it's not possible.
Why are we afraid to believe? Afraid to have faith?
We don't want to be let down. But it's when I've let the point of my prayer become so real in my mind I can feel it as if it's already here, I can feel the excitement, the joy, and newness, is when I've seen mountains move.
I know someone thinks believing for better means they are rejecting their child as they are today. Never. Because you do not love your child based on their skills or who they will be someday. You loved your child before they had a name, right?
Believing, having faith for something specific you would love to see your child walk into is not a rejection of who they are now, but a stake claimed in the unseen.
Take one area and believe for better.
Now for the second message. This morning I was praying and saw a person bend down to the ground and go to pull up a small tree root protruding from the dirt. As they did, the soft dirt around the tree moved as the root was far bigger than they realized. There was both resistance and a disruption of the terrain.
Something that has happened to me a few times when praying for a person or situation is that shortly after praying, something seemingly negative will happen: an argument, or unexpected not great news about the situation, etc.
Prayer shifts the earth. It moves things in the unseen. No matter what you see with your eyes when you begin to pray, keep praying. Do not allow yourself to be discouraged and give up. Commit yourself to your prayer point.
"For we walk by faith, not by sight." 2 Corinthians 5:7
We don't cease praying because of what we see.
Prayer disturbs the earth. At times it will begin to move things that don't want to be moved. Keep praying.
I've said it many times that I believe the prayers of a mother are one of the most powerful on earth. I think it's because of our love for our children. Love is powerful.
"And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13
Jesus was no stranger to this.
"And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick." Matthew 14:14
You already have great love for your child. Let's add faith and believe for what's possible when God is invited.
Let go of the noise, the doubt, the words of any person whose words echo in your heart contrary to who God is, let go of the pain, the fear, and let only the face of one rest in your mind, the One who heals: Jesus.
A friend of mine messaged me the following, "Anything that isn't supposed to be on me or my child is not allowed to be here. If Jesus took stripes on His back for it, I don't have to carry it."
By His stripes we are healed Isaiah 53:5b
Choose one area and believe for it. Then pray. And don't stop.
I'll be joining my prayers with yours.
Love, Bunmi
The promises of God begin and end with Yeshua, Jesus, because He is the reconciliation. If you've been walking through life on your own and want to be a child of God, you want Him by your side through it all, here's how to begin.
Comments