Jesus took a cancer bullet for me

I have been very hesitant posting this as I assist many believers around the world who suffer with hypochondria. But I do believe it is a subject the Lord wants more people to know about. This has been a lesson to me to learn to take more care of my body. God values our bodies as it houses the precious Holy Spirit, so we should honour it (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

A year ago I was diagnosed with precancerous cells on my cervix. I almost fell apart from fear. I was only 2 stages away from cancer.
I prayed hard for an answer and God led me to following a plant based diet. By His grace He led me to Chris Wark’s website, a Christian guy who cured his stage 3 cancer by following a plant based diet. I did not receive any advice from my doctor, this was all God-led.
So you know, I wasn’t the healthiest eater. I kind of went off meat after I had my daughter and my meals have always consisted of mostly vegetables, chicken or fish. However, wolfing down processed foods was more often than it should have been. Sodas, tons of coffee, sugar and all sorts of horrible junk poisoned my body. These are terrible pollutants to our bodies, as the Lord has shown me.
I am convinced this is linked to the vision I had a few years back of unhealthy, gluttonous eating.

I cut out coffee because even though studies have not really proved it causes cancer it looked to me that it was messing with my endocrine system which eventually leads to cervical cancer. I allowed myself a cup of decaf on the weekends. Winter without coffee is hard. Hot chocolate I made from a plant based milk with raw cacao.

I also cut out sugar and switched to xylitol. My sugar mostly came from fruit. I stayed far away from processed foods and started growing my own vegetables.
No alcohol. No sweets. No meat. If it didn’t come off a tree or out of the ground I stayed away from it as far as possible.
I drank a lot of water with lemon. Lemon is alkaline in our bodies. Cancer adores an acid system. Our bodies want and need to be mostly alkaline and fruit and veggies ensure that. Meat, coffee and processed foods are very acid, and cancer feeds off it.
I ate tons of fruit and veggies that are high in antioxidants like berries and made a concerted effort to eat the fruit seeds as well, which contain compounds that help kill cancer cells.
Women with the condition I had are found to be lacking in selenium, folate, vitamin B and most cancer patients lack plenty of vitamin C as well.

So, I juiced the following and drank it every morning:
-Dark leafy greens, like kale and swiss chard/spinach for vitamin B
-Beetroot for the folate
-Apples and carrots for the vitamin C and to add some sweetness. I drank this with chia seeds that carry a lot of antioxidants that’s needed to quench cancer cells.
-Nuts (selenium) and avocado every day- healthy fats are essential, not fattening!
I supplemented my daily diet with the following tablets:
-Vitamin B complex
-3000mg vitamin C (yes, 3000!)
-Selenium
-I3Complex (Indole-3-Carbinol) which is a cell mutator protector, off the shelves from Solal.

I had a biopsy done towards end of November and my condition is gone, I’m all clear! It went within 5 months!
There’s more to plant based diets than people think.
To God the glory, for His mercy in saving me from disaster and teaching me something new!
“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” Genesis 1:29
“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” Matt 6:26

Traffic Light salvation

In May last year I noticed a beggar standing on the corner by the traffic light I pass every day from work. He had never been there before. When he first greeted me, I took an instant liking to him. He is so warm, sweet and funny. As the days went by the Holy Spirit stepped in- I think Richard standing at that traffic light was the Holy Spirit’s doing. He gave me compassion and love for Richard, and I would often bring him some lunch or pack some goodies for him. We quickly became friends.

He pressed heavily on my heart to speak to Richard about the gospel. Now, this has always frightened me – I get dry mouth, stutter and totally freeze. But I’ve learned those are times when I do it in my own flesh and strength. This time I prayed for the Holy Spirit to help me and to give me boldness. I found this was the key – before I left work every day I would pray for boldness and to say whatever He wanted me to say. I was quite surprised that I was not nervous and spoke freely – I could not do that ever without praying, I would always fail. When I would fail, I would be upset and think, “this is too hard, it’s like making a sales call!” 😉

Anyway, turned out Richard once upon a time read his Bible, but got into smoking marijuana and his life went downhill from there. I knew the day had to come when I had to ask if he would like to give his heart to Jesus. Two things were hindering me – complete nerves (because even though I had more boldness than ever, this was crunch time!) and the place where he stood made it difficult to talk. We could talk as long as the traffic light stayed red!

Days passed and I would drive away from that light not having asked him that important life changing decision, always thinking, “Ok, tomorrow!” One day as I drove away, the Holy Spirit firmly said, “Do not tarry!” I had to quickly look up the definition of tarry to refresh my memory if it indeed means ‘to wait’, and it does. Oops 😦

I decided I had better be obedient in case something happened to Richard! The next time I saw him, I found a spot to pull over and led him to salvation. He was so sweet, he did it with a huge smile on his face! And surprisingly said, “You know, the Bible says when two are gathered together, He is here with us. So God is here with us now!” I said, “Yes amen! And welcome to the Kingdom my buddy!”

This important lesson I will take with me always – to 1) pray for God-given opportunities to lead someone to salvation and not waste them and 2) always pray that the Holy Spirit gives me boldness in that day and leads me 100% in both words and actions.
I have not seen Richard for four months, but before that he told me that he had just gotten a part-time job! Isn’t that wonderful, how God already started working in his life!
Your Kingdom came, Your will was done 🙂

 

God is First Class!

Toward the end of last year the private Christian school I applied my child to requested that all kids come in for a school readiness assessment for first grade.
I was not concerned about the assessment because I had regular talks with her teacher about her work and popped in to look at her school books from time to time to make sure she was not struggling with anything, to which she wasn’t. The teacher always gave good feedback and was not concerned about any areas in her schoolwork.

To my horror, three weeks after the assessment the report told me she was not ready for First Grade at all and had to repeat Grade R! Panic galore, as this did not make any sense at all. I immediately made an appointment with the Educational Psychologist and she took me through the assessment Jordan completed. It was like I was looking at another child’s work! I explained that this was the opposite of the work she produced in class. To cut a long story short the Psychologist said she could ‘push her through’ but did not think it was wise, and I did not want to be a biased parent and decided that if it was her opinion to let Jordan repeat then so be it. I did not want bias to jeopardize anything in her future. I was told I was a “very wise mommy.”
A few days later, Jordan’s school was just as shocked as I was and were adamant that making her repeat would be a bad thing because 1) it was not necessary as she was right on par where a 6 year old should be and 2) repeating the work would be too easy for her and she would get bored and ‘turn bratty.’

Now I was confused. How do I make such a decision when I have 2 sets of professionals telling me different stories?
I took it to the Lord and it went along these lines, “Father, I just don’t know now! There’s no way I can make this decision. You know Jordan better than I and the teachers do- if You think Jordan should start 1^st grade, please let the Psychologist know! I’m asking You to make this decision for me, so I’m going to leave it in Your hands. I’m not sure how I will know what Your decision is, but I trust You. I will obey whatever You say.”

I didn’t think much about it and about three weeks later I get a call from the Educational Psychologist at work. She said, “Caddie I’m calling because I can’t stop thinking about Jordan. Something is bugging me about her. There’s just something nudging me about this assessment and I think I need to reassess her…”
Whoa! I had to do everything on the phone to not giggle at how wonderfully the Holy Spirit was answering my prayer! I thanked Him for those nudges and bugs! Jordan ended up passing the second assessment with flying colours! She has started First Grade so well and is ahead in reading.

The devil only comes to kill, steal and destroy (John 10:10) and I guess his hope was to steal a whole year away of Jordan’s life for nothing! I suppose it being a Christian school never tickled his fancy either.  God on the other hand, wants to give Jordan, like all of us, a future and a hope (Jer 29:11). Leave all your important decisions in the hands of our Almighty God. He is First Grade, First Class and knows exactly what He’s doing!

Bent Bows

“For look! The wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow on the string, that they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalms 11:2-3

Satan’s hindrances to God’s plans and purposes in your life can be extremely frustrating but it is almost an encouragement too, because you know you’re on the right track.
Since the beginning of February I had been getting very strange heart palpitations, jumps and flutters that I’ve never experienced before. I had terrible shortness of breath, even when sitting still, and excruciating back pain, especially when I ate. The shortness of breath was making me dizzy too.

I had x-rays on my lungs and all sorts of heart tests done. From the lung x-ray, my Doctor told me I was all clear but had a nurse walk in to tell me that I “have pleural thickening on my lungs which basically means it is affecting my heart and my heart will grow too big for its cavity and I will be on medication for the rest of my life.” I’ve never been exposed to elements or situations that will cause pleural thickening anyway! I didn’t pray though, I ran out of there crying like a baby! Sigh. The only thing I managed to do was rebuke and renounce the words she spoke over me. When I calmed down I only managed to tell God “just use this for Your glory.”
But then I thought, “Oh no, what about the fast for the country? What if I can’t participate now?” Cut a long story short, all my tests came back 100% clear, and another Doctor I saw was quite irritated with the report the nurse gave me and basically said she was talking rubbish! So what’s that about?

Then, everything was working against me to get to church one Sunday after all that, which was the same Sunday that kicked off the 40 day fast for the country. My car decided it wanted the battery to pack up last week Friday, which means I had to send it in for a service. Not having a car was not a worry as I use my husband’s if I need it. But lo and behold, a client decided to call my husband Saturday night asking him to come into his workplace for assistance early Sunday morning! Which NEVER happens! Ever! Now what? My parents were away for the weekend, I needed a car to get to church! I refused to miss church for the world so I prayed; and my friend, sick in bed, rebuked Satan’s hold over this in Jesus name too. Ten minutes after that my husband pulled into the driveway much earlier than expected and said the client called him on the way and cancelled him having to come in! Hallelujah! I grabbed the keys and off I went to church! If Satan got his way I would have missed out on something God wanted to show me during praise and worship about South Africa, which will be my next post…

Satan may be bending his arrow toward you right now, but when he drags you back with difficulties, it means God is counterattacking by trying to launch you into something great! Keep focus. Keep aiming.

“He bends His bow and makes it ready.” Psalms 2:12

The Adventures of Fly Exterminations

Hello! I have not dropped off from the face of the earth! I have missed you! But I have been so busy – it’s almost like at the turn of 2014 God said “Ready? Set? Go!”

In my last post I had discussed about what calling God had possibly been stirring in your heart to do for Him in His Kingdom. I hadn’t mentioned mine yet.
For three years He has laid on my heart to start a national day of fasting and prayer. But you know the old tale, “Me? Nah. I’m imagining things. I’m a nobody and to do something of a national magnitude? Pfft! Move on!”  But the burning desire got greater and I have started it. And now it’s like He has pulled me by the hand and said, “Come. Lets’ do this!”

He has so many plans and is already moving in a great way. He has led me to pull South African Christians together for 40 days of fasting for the country before our elections in May. He has already sent me warriors to join in – each person fasts for a day in that 40 day run. Why 40? It comes back to old Beelzebub. The Pharisees in Matthew 12 were accusing Jesus of being Beelzebub whose demonic name literally means “lord of the flies”. To ensure that an infestation of flies is properly exterminated, you have to spray pesticides for 40 consecutive days. If you don’t spray for the full forty days, you only destroy the existing generation, but the next generation breeds on! So, if we enter into 40 days of fasting and prayer for the country before the elections, we are going to break the bondages over our lives here, as well as for our next generation!

And He’s already working – that South African version of Haman I told you about is already facing charges of fraud which is highly minimising his chances of running politically! Praise God!
I have also just been featured on a South African Christian website here.

So things are moving fast. Please keep me in your prayers that I always follow His direction and don’t go off on my own tangent. Waiting to hear about all your 2014 God-driven adventures!

Go out in a blaze of thunder!

Johannesburg is well known for its awesome and mighty thunderstorms, and they’re beautiful. But lately, it has just been out of control. The wind was so bad the other night that it ripped this street light in two!

 

All this weird weather got me thinking about the fiery personalities in the Bible. In the Garden of Eden God would “walk in the cool of the day” (Genesis 3:8). The Hebrew word for cool is ruwach which means heavenly wind, a breath of air, but also impatience and anger. So God entered the garden on a breath of heavenly wind, but angry and impatient with what had just transpired! Talk about traveling in style!

James and John were known as the sons of thunder. It delights me that two human beings were given a nickname by God Himself! This nickname, Boanerges, referred to their fiery zeal which was much like a thunderstorm. Turbulent. Stormy. As destructive as these guys could be, I like them, because they loved Jesus so much yet were so ‘human’.
Imagine being so full of zeal for God that the Lord Himself gives you a nickname. How incredible! I often wonder that if Jesus had to give me a nickname, what it would be.
James and John are the prime example that shows us that Jesus does not see what we are, but He sees the best we can become. John eventually received the nickname “Apostle of love”.

This leads me to the point of this post. What has God been stirring in your heart to do for Him in the Kingdom? What fire has He lit in you that you can do with so much zeal and impact, that He may secretly have His own nickname for you?
He has stirred something inside of me for three years to implement on a national level and I have finally started it. I feel a rumbling in the heavenlies lately. Big things are coming – and I must be part of it! No greater Orchestrator has the world seen than God Himself! I want to go out with such a fiery zeal in doing the Lord’s work that He can’t help but want to give me a nickname of my own. Breathed on me from His own lips- I am excited! 

I would love to hear, if you can share, what the Lord has been leading you to do. Let’s pray for discernment so that we may know without a doubt what impact we can make from this day on. Suit up and ride a wind called Ruwach- the whole of Heaven is watching!

The Latest Fashion Trend

I’m not sure how many of you watched the memorial service for Nelson Mandela. If you did, you might have caught the entire country cheering for Obama but booing our President when he came on to speak. He has single-handedly destroyed this country and stolen from his people. We are angry. I get it. Yet when I saw the booing, the Holy Spirit rolled over so much compassion on me for him that my heart was so sore. Now this was new to me – I’m the first big mouth to complain about the corruption and uselessness of our government, and I must admit, I find it challenging to pray for them. But that day, I found myself wanting to give him a hug.

Anyway, I had posted a status to Facebook about how heart sore the whole incident made me. I got attacked left right and center, as well as from Christians! Everyone was so mad, and as equally unimpressed that I said I had prayed for him that night!
We know very well that we need to put on Christ every day, but this situation really showed me the fruit it bears when we wear the proper clothing, and how people can truly see Jesus when we portray His character. I love when His Word is brought to life – it’s then that we learn a true lesson!

Later on in the afternoon, a lovely lady who had disagreed with me earlier about the status came on to say,

“I’m actually really moved by ur comment Caddie, I’ve been biting on it all afternoon. You know the heart you’re portraying is the heart of Jesus. You have a godly heart, I love that! I take my hat off to u madam!”

After she said that, the comments that were coming in like a speeding train, simmered down to silence. One small status that I thought would not gain any attention, got 26 haters, but a ray of Light was able to pierce through to one reader. She laid aside the weight of all the wrongs Zuma has done and Jesus became her centre! The 26 haters were all worth it for that one person.

If we could portray Christ, even once per day in a small way, we would allow 365 people to see Him in a year. That’s 3650 among just 10 of us! And how many souls saved in that number?

So, I’m going to dress for success! Let us shine brightly – there’s not much time left!

 

Giddy Gird-yup!

“Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” 1 Peter 1:13

The term “gird your loins” was used in the Roman Era meaning to pull up and tie the lower flowing robes between their legs to increase their mobility in battle. I can just imagine loose flowing garments, getting wrapped around your legs, tripping you and getting in the way. Not productive.

My assistant and I come across a lot of cattiness and gossip against us in our department. We are the only Christians in the department, but I’m not sure why we are the target of such ongoing spitefulness. We anoint our office and pray against it; it stops for a week or so and then starts up again. It’s actually very exhausting.

Last week one of the ladies tried pulling a stunt against my assistant and I guess I had enough of it and answered her quite sarcastically. Sigh. It ended the matter, but not the proper response to Christian suffering!
That night during my prayer time I prayed about it, and as I was telling God that I don’t understand why they are like that toward us and I’m tired of it all, He said “Just lay aside every weight.” I continued praying and He said again, “Just lay aside every weight!” So I opened my Bible to meditate on the Scripture, and was unsurprisingly, very convicted! So much so that I now saw the perpetrator as the victim and me as the dragon!

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” Hebrews 12:1

It’s almost like, “Yeah, it happens. But just let it go, man.” It’s just not worth allowing things of this world to set us back in our relationship with Him. It is a weight, a ball and chain. We can’t move effectively when we are weighed down. We are going to end up confessing it as sin anyway, so why waste our time doing it in the first place?

The loose garments needed to be girded with a belt. Our belt today is Truth. We have to be so tightly wound by God’s truth so that the things of this world don’t become a hindrance or snare in our walk with Him. Or else it makes us a lukewarm bath. Not very pleasant to be in.

 Pull yourself together!

To gird is also to prepare you for action. It should be no surprise to me that I’m going to face these sorts of things. I need to be ready and not war back with a sword of sarcasm. Just as Jesus faced hostility, those who believe in Him will sometimes have to endure divine discipline for the sake of holiness.

My personal task is to pinch myself before reacting and say, “is what you’re about to say or do Truth? Will it render an effective service for the Lord?”

As heavy as these sorts of trials are, God will use them to perfect me. He knows my mouth is too quick. I’m tightening up my worldly mouth to be replaced with dependence on, and confidence in, my God to handle these situations.

Richter Scale 9 Obedience

Have you ever had God told you to do something that you thought was strange? I will never forget a story I was told of a woman who was riding the bus and God told her to go into a specific store, go to the back and stand on her head. After doubting having heard from God and quite unwilling to do something so weird, she eventually did it. As soon as she stood on her head a shop assistant burst into tears and told her that he was suicidal. He told God he was going to kill himself that day unless God proved He existed by making someone stand on their head!

The story of Jericho is fascinating to me and when I was younger had always wondered why He chose the method of marching around the walls to bring them down. In my young mind if I found some of His ways odd or unexplainable, I now see them as beautiful; ways that spring out of magnificent thoughts that are way above our own.

The Israelites were told to march around the city 13 times – once, for 6 days and then seven times on the seventh day. Isn’t it interesting that six represents man and how we are incomplete without God? We will never be able to do anything in our own strength. They would never have won that war without Him.
Seven is the number of spiritual perfection and completion – only God could have brought them through to completion. This perfect win would not have been possible if they had not obeyed!
Thirteen represents apostasy, depravity and rebellion –does it not paint a wonderful picture of thousands of obedient feet stomping down and breaking up that rebellion under our Seismologist’s watchful eye?

Thankfully the Israelites obeyed and carried out God’s commands exactly – little did they know that the site of the ancient city of Jericho sits directly on top of a very large fault associated with the Jordan Rift Valley!

Our obedience has the ability to be earth shattering!

So, a funny thing happened on the way to admissions…

My daughter recently turned five and I registered her into two private Christian schools in the area when she was two.

So now that admission assessments are being carried out, I have been praying for God’s will on which school He wants her to go to. I have laid it in His hands, because even though both are Christian, does not necessarily mean He wills her to go to a particular one. Especially the one I have my heart set on, as my church is based there. I have not been hearing too many good things about the one I really want her to go to, for various reasons, but I can’t take advice from man, and I have asked the Lord to make the decision for me.

However, I frankly told Him that I was a little concerned how I was going to know what His decision is. Both are excellent schools, so how would I know? If I get a peace about one school, I was worried it was just my favouritism toward that school and not from God. So I asked Him something outrageous – that He should deny Jordan’s entrance to the school if that was not the school He wanted her to go to.

After the assessment I got an email from the school saying they cannot accept her yet because they feel she needs to go to a Speech Therapist! I laughed! Of all things! This is a child who is extremely shy (which I think prompted their ‘finding’) yet uses words like ‘fascinating’ and ‘impossible’ and articulates extremely well for her age. I took her to a speech therapist just in case. I don’t want to be a biased parent. Turns out she scored within a seven year old range and I asked the therapist to email the report to the school.

So I said to the Lord, “Lord, if that was Your doing, she’s passed the test, so now what?”
The school emailed me a week later saying she will only be accepted into the school if she goes for speech therapy! Hah- after those scores, they’ve STILL made her acceptance conditional! My heart was so set on this school, but I no longer have a peace about it.
Well I asked for it- for her application to be rejected if it was not His will! It makes me wonder – if I never sought His will at all, I would have fought tooth and nail to get her into that particular school! Yet, here God shows up in the way He knows how – faithful.
I will continue to pray that His perfect will is done in this situation. I don’t need to know His reason, just His choice.
Blessed be the name of the Lord!

A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. Proverbs 16:9