The Unnatural Nautral

Special Note: This is a reprint of my earlier

post,"THE UNNATURAL NATURAL" This reprint is

done at the urging of the Holy Spirit for all those

effected by the event in  Newtown, Connecticut 

Sandy Hook Elementary School. I pray this

article helps.

 

THE UNNATURAL NATURAL

Richard L. Spangler

 

  A few years ago I lost three family members in three months, my youngest brother Sidney on December 23, 2009, my brother Jon (a year younger than me) on March 2, 2010 and my mother-in-law Eloise March 21, 2010. To say the least I was reeling under the weight of grief. I cried out to the Lord, “Help, I need something to get me through this.”

  I heard the Lord say, “You are dealing with an unnatural natural.” To that I replied, “Lord I don’t need riddles I need an answer.” (Thank God He loves me and is patience with me.)

 At this point, I heard again, “You are dealing with an unnatural natural.” It was then I began to think about what was being said. Death is a natural part of our physical existence. Everything in the physical universe eventually dies but our spirits are eternal. We live forever.

This then is the conflict we experience in dealing with the death a love one, a friend or a pet. Our spirits realize that this is not natural; we are not suppose to die, we were created to live forever by God. We were never meant to experience separation from God, our family, and friends and even our pets.

Remember, before the fall of man there was no death in the universe so animals were eternal also. When man sinned, he brought death into the entire universe.

 God put eternity in our hearts, Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NKJV)
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He Has put eternity in their hearts,.

  This makes death hard for us to deal with, whether sudden or a prolonged illness before death, it is still unnatural to our spirits.  Our spirits are screaming from deep inside us, “This is not right! This is not supposed to happen! ” Yet it does.The unnatural separation occurs and we are left with a sense of lost and aloneness. It does not matter what people say or what we know, we still feel the unnaturalness of the loss and the grief that goes with it.

 Thank God, that He gives each of us  time to come to terms with this unnatural event.  The Bible says, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3 NKJV).

Jesus quotes the Prophet Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound” (Luke 4:18 NKJV). 

 

 God is here with us. He holds hand, wraps us in His loving arms and will even pick us up and carry us through the valley of death. He also lets us know that for the believer this separation is temporary, “For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.  For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord(1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 NKJV).

  Even in the darkness hours of our lives, there is hope for us that believe in Jesus Christ. We know that the unnatural separation of death is only temporary and we will again be with our love ones and friends, if they have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord and received forgiveness from sin.

  Those that do not know Christ do not have this hope. They only the darkness of confusion and grief caused the unnatural separation of death.  If you want this hope please pray this prayer.

Dear Lord Jesus,

  I know I am a sinner and need Your forgiveness. I believe you died on the cross for my sins and rose from the grave to give me life. I know you are the only way to God. So now I want to quit disobeying you and start living for You. Please foegive me, change my life and show mw how to know You. In Jesus' Name Amen.

Contact me or call the CBN Prayer Center 1-800-759-0700 and talk with a Prayer Partner let them know you prayed this prayer and ask them for the New Day. Then, once you know Christ, ask Him to save your family and friends. He will use you to lead them to Him.

 

P.S. If you need help in dealing with grief also contact the CBN Prayer Center or myself. Praying for us all. Richard

                 ©COPYRIGHT 2012 RICHARD L SPANGLER

 

 

 

 

Craving God

^{CRAVING GOD}

^{Richard L Spangler}

   ^{Recently I had a craving for some of my homemade chili but it was still in the 80’s outside, and not the weather for chili. My wife couldn’t believe I was cooking chili on such a warm day. But, when you have a craving for something it does not matter, it’s the only thing that will satisfy you. At about the same time, I felt a strong urging of the Holy Spirit to revisit 2 Chronicles 7:14. At this point I had not made the connection with the craving for chili and the urging to revisit an oft quoted verse of scripture.  You may ask, “What does craving chili on a warm day have to do with craving God?  Where are you going with this?”}

  ^{Many believers are wondering what happened to 2 Chronicles 7:14. Many believers pray, repent and yet ask, “Why isn’t our land healed?”}

   ^{Our nation is divided. The same balance of power between remains and the nation is in an almost 50/50 split. The economy is still in trouble, with no clear solutions.  So what happened?}

  ^{First, I believe many prayed their political beliefs, believing that God could only be on their side. Joshua learned in Joshua 5:13-15, that Lord is on neither side. We therefore need to make sure we are on the Lord’s side, not a particular political party. The leaders of both political are guilty of giving lip service to God when it is good for them to do so. God knows it and so should we.}

   ^{Second, and most importantly we missed a key part of the scripture in 2 Chronicle 7:14 and that is to ‘seek my face”. To get a better understanding of this phrase, I looked at several different translations. They all said the same way except the Amplified.}

^{2 Chronicles 7:14 in the Amplified: “If My people, who are called My name shall humble themselves, pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity My Face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from Heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.”}  

 ^{The word crave stands out in a powerful way to me. According to Webster’s Dictionary crave is defined as, to ask for earnestly: beg, demand. to want greatly: need, to yearn for: to have a strong or inward desire} 

 Some Synonyms:ACHE (FOR), COVET,DESIRE,HUNGER (FOR),LONG(FOR),LUST (FOR OR AFTER),THRIST(FOR)

 Then the verse says, “and require of necessity” again using Webster’s Dictionary: Require means: a: to claim or ask for by right and authority b: to demand as necessary or essential. Necessity means: the state of being in need: requirement, an urgent need.

So here we have God saying that we need to beg, and demand with a strong inward desire for His face. We are to ask for by the right and authority he gives us as his people.

  The church as a whole is not craving God, we are not seeking Him. Many have taken on the attitude of, “What I have in God is good enough.” or “The next move of God is coming and all I have to do is wait on it.” There is no drive, no passion, no craving to know God in an intimate relationship, let alone to seek His face.

Every great move of God started with God’s people seeking to know him more. We need to go beyond just seeking God, and to crave Him.  We must get to the point in our life where nothing else will satisfy us. Many talk about this but very few actually do this.

  This means making our relationship with God our number one priority. Make the sacrifice, turn off the computer, the I-Pad, TV and dare I say it, the cell phone. We need to stir ourselves up, until nothing else with satisfy us, making our face to face relationship with Him essential to our very existence. We need to beg, and demand as our right, as children of God, to see our Father face to face. 

  Some may say that we cannot ask or enter into God presence in such a matter. But the Word of God says we can. In Hebrews 4:14-16 we can enter fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near the Throne of God (AMP). The Message Bible puts it this way: "So let's walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give,Take the mercy,accept the help."

 

The good news is God wants and desires this type of relationship with his children. God created man to be in relationship with Him. Adam and Eve had such a wonderful relationship with God that they knew the sound of his walking. Abraham had a relationship where could not talk to God but could reason with him face to face. Moses had face to face talks with God at the Tent of Meeting in the wilderness. The Apostle Paul received a personal teaching from the Lord. The Apostle John in Revelation saw the Lord.  

    You too can have this type of face to face with the Lord but you must crave it above anything else. It is when the children of God, crave his face that God will hear from heaven and heal their land.

 What does craving chili have to do with craving God? Nothing except that God used it to stir me to write about craving a face to face relationship with Him. I may never look at a bowl of chili the same way again. By the way the chili was great.

 

©COPYRIGHT 2012 RICHARD L SPANGLER