I Got The Real Thing By Michael Davidson

I almost feel bad sometimes talking about all the wonderful things in my life because God has blessed me so much. Sure, I’ve had my share of bad times, we all have, but its all in perception. If you dwell on all the negatives all the positives are going to pass you right on by. Let me tell you; there’s a whole lot of positives there, you just have to take time to notice them. As I’m sure everyone knows my granny broke her shoulder in November and the hospital refused to keep her because it was “just a broken bone” and a break isn’t enough to keep someone admitted in the hospital. Back story on granny: she’s had numerous strokes in the past and so she’s numb on her left side, her only “working” arm so to speak is her right arm, the one she broke. The only way to give her the care and the rehab she needed was to admit her temporarily to a nursing home. (I promise there’s a positive side, bare with me.) A couple weeks ago Keta was preaching and she had started off her sermon with some scripture about the Phillippian prisoners, it caught my attention because the weekend before when I was visiting my mamaw, whose roommate is her aunt (a born again Christian who knows the bible like the back of her hand,) and they were talking about the Phillipian jailer. For those of you unfamiliar with it, read it (Acts 16 20-34) basically in short story – the prisoners get loose and the jailer asks what must I do to be saved, his answer; Believe on the lord and you and your household will be saved. Mamaw was telling me that she had given up on asking God to heal her body instead she’s just asked him to heal her soul. Some of my relatives who attend church on Curry Branch had come to the hospital to pray for her and when we were I could feel her body shaking under my hands. She had started crying after prayer the other day; I know its only a matter of time before God saves her. I feel it. He promised me my family, and I know He’s working on her. I know her being in that small cooped up room with my aunt Sophie who spends 23 & ½ hours of the day talking about the word of God is working on her. Her broken shoulder is truly a blessing in disguise. You can call me crazy if you want to, but God works in mysterious ways, you can dwell on the negatives all you like, but there’s a silver lining in it all. I choose to focus on that.There’s more to being saved and being a Christian than believing in Jesus and believing he died for your sins. Yes, believe, but also know right from wrong and don’t do wrong. Just because you believe in Him and know he’ll forgive you, don’t take advantage of Him. Many Christians today are satisfied with being saved and that’s all there is to it. You gotta read your word among other things also, I read mine a lot. My favorite is Luke. I haven’t read my bible front to back, or even every chapter yet, but I find myself reading and re-reading Luke a lot. As I’ve testified before I can relate to that of the prodigal son, so Luke caught my attention from the start. Now I’m not saying I don’t read anything but, I’m saying I find myself reading him often and my favorite scriptures can be found there. Luke 7 36-50 is about the woman who anoints Jesus’ feet. Its probably my favorite story in the whole bible (well of what I’ve read anyway) go read it, its great. Long story short, a sinful woman wet Jesus’ feet with her tears, anointed them, kissed them, and wiped them with her hair. A pharisee said “she’s a sinner” (I’m paraphrasing) and Jesus said well here she is kissing my feet, I came to your house and you didn’t do any of this. Because of her faith He forgave the woman of her sins. Be faithful in the lord. You may have been saved once before but that’s not enough. My sister came to church with me a while back and she got saved, then she gave up. She talks to me quite often about it and she’s changed so much, you can tell just by talking to her. She’s not so down on people so much anymore, she doesn’t cuss like a sailor anymore, but it takes more than that. Don’t get your feet in the door just to track mud all through the house. Don't give up. That great feeling you felt when you got saved, keep that feeling going for the rest of your life.

God has big things in store for me & my family in 2012. A couple months ago Morgan testified that she could feel the spirit moving in her, that she could feel it in her bones. I have that feeling. A mere prayer in church lately and my insides start shaking, I feel like they’re just going to jump out of my skin. I know its only a matter of time before I get the Holy Ghost and I can’t wait for it! We’ve got some amazing women in our church, we got some amazing men too, but the women especially. I hope that one day people look at me the way I look at Vicki & Teri (and a few others too Sandy, Ruth, Connie, Jean, Pam, Sharon, Keta, there’s a whole bunch of them- oh, & remember Sue in your prayers, she needs them) I don’t have a problem in the world with these blogs, or talking to people one on one, like I’ve said before. I know I’ve spent the first part of this talking about the two people in my family who mean the most to me, but there’s things I have to work on as well, not just for them. The bible says to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. That’s my problem. I don’t know why, again its not that I’m ashamed or embarrassed, its just I buckle under pressure and I become paralyzed with fear in front of large groups. This past Sunday morning the Holy Ghost spoke at our church and said He was coming sooner than you think. For the new year an anointing was prayed upon our pastor and a few other people in the church. My pastor reached out to me and my church prayed for me, like they were praying for everyone, and I felt the spirit moving all over me. I felt like my heart was gonna jump out of my chest, I was shaking from my core. This was it, if I didn’t let up I was going to take off a shoutin! I just knew it, and what happened… I let up. I don’t know why, I didn’t want to, I just did. I beat myself up over it all day long, and I still am. I’ve never been so disappointed in myself in my entire life. Right at the end, I felt someone anointing my feet and they came right off the floor and when they did, I opened my eyes and let up. Right when it really hit me. After service was over as soon as we got in the car Brandy said “you let up, I could tell.” I guess it was pretty obvious, though. I dropped her off at her mom’s and drove home to change for church that night and take our dogs out and I cried the whole way home. I felt like I had let God down, I let my pastor down, I let myself down. If God speaks to you, listen to Him. Don’t ignore it. I did on Sunday but I know he has new mercy for me and I promise I will never do it again. Next time when you’re reading one of my blogs hopefully it will be about how I got the Holy Ghost, because I can assure you, if the opportunity comes my way again, I won’t let up. Before church started Connie was testifying she wanted God to use her. It’s a new year, and that’s my vow to myself, I’m going to let God use me and do what He wants from me. Like I said, His presence was there that morning and He said He was coming soon, don’t wait for tomorrow, tomorrow may never come.

"The only way we'll ever stand is on our knees with lifted hands"