BLOOM IN THE DESERT!

The Lord Jesus said to Ananias about the Apostle Paul at the beginning of his ministry:

“Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim My name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for My name.” (Ac 9:15, 16).

This applies to all who desire to follow Jesus. The word ‘suffer’ here is experiential pain, not just imagination. There is a cross that kills the flesh; not all at once, but little by little, daily…

For every drop of the revelation of God’s name, I had to suffer; so that I should desire to know it desperately…The knowledge of God’s name is for them that pay the price. The door of God’s intimate treasures is never found by them that just pass by…

I had to be sick, really sick, with no desire to go to see a doctor…for me to press on to know who Jehovah Rapha is, how He operates and delivers and heals…in the quietness of my spirit, there came a knowing…that my sickness is not ‘a sickness’, not a dead end… but a pathway, a road…who could have believed that…a pain that could not go away, forcing me to come closer to the throne and receive a testimony, not just healing, but so much more…

The healing baptized me…never the same, much more hungry to know the Healer and not just His touch of the moment…I became the apprentice to Jehovah Rapha…what a privilege…how can I ever describe in words the class rooms in the clouds…the surgery on top of the mountain…all my friends dwell in the same atmosphere and they too have lost the desire to be ordinary…

The first test expected by Jehovah Rapha is to praise Him in all situations, not because I feel like praising, not because my pain is gone, not because I know what else to do…but just because the praise belongs to Him and can never be retained by man of idols…so if you look for healing, praise God with all the strength you have…do not imitate others, do not compare with others…just go on and think of God, think of His power and glory and willingness to touch and heal you… the presence of the infirmity, of the sickness, of the pain, is just the pulpit from where the praise must go up to the Owner…

Like a miracle flower in the desert, no water, no shade, but still blooms by the power within, I will rejoice and praise God, my Savior, my Lord and yes, my Healer!

“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines; though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food; though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls… Yet! I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in God my Savior!” (Habakkuk 3:17, 18)

 M y name is Silvia Lia Leigh. I was born in Romania almost sixty years ago. I grew up in a loving family of four. My parents were teachers in the school which I attended with my younger sister; Adica. We did not go to church at all. The only contact I had with religion was at Christmas when the priest of the church in town will come to visit people and wish them happy holidays. He will come dressed in a long black dress, ringing a little bell in his hand and accompanied by his younger assistant. My father warned us to run inside when we saw them because as teachers, they were not allowed to invite religious people inside the home. I remember how afraid I was of his black dress, bell, and mysterious chant. Sometimes, my father will ‘feel sorry’ for the priest, as he was ringing the bell outside the door, standing in the heavy snow. He would quickly make a gift of homemade bread, salami, cake, and wine, and then go outside after switching off the front light to give it to him. Only the stars were witness of their meeting. All we heard behind the door were many words of gratitude and blessings ‘in the name of Isus’ (Jesus). Adica and I thought it was funny. I thought that my father was very bold to go outside and embrace the strange looking man. Stranger still was the feeling left behind that Isus sent him to greet us at Christmas. We would never remember the visit or the words until the next year again at Christmas.

Many years passed before my father told me that he was once in the seminary with the desire to be a priest. But the communist take-over after the war closed down almost all bible schools and changed them into colleges of education. My father was forced to choose, and this is how he had to let go of his dream to serve God, and instead became a history teacher. The priest that came every Christmas to our door was one of his colleagues in the seminary. He was one of the very few who chose to continue with his calling in ministry and eventually became a priest. Life separated them, and the cold winter Christmas Eve, was the only time when they could give a quick hug with many painful apologies from one, and a flood of blessings from another.

That is all I knew about God and His servants until I came to Nigeria. While in medical school in Romania I met my husband Richmond, a Nigerian. After graduation, we moved to Nigeria to start a practice in 1980. We became successful as medical practitioners. We had money, fame, and everything man could desire. What else could one possibly want? Nothing! Or so I thought. In 1986 I had a crisis conversion and I met Jesus Christ. I had never seen a Bible before then. In January of the same year, I became very depressed. I saw nothing good in my achievements. I lost my desire to live. In the midst of my despair, for the very first time in my life, I prayed: “Dear God, if You exist, then come down from heaven and change my heart. I am tired to doubting You. I can’t wait forever for the answer to this prayer. I give You one month’s notice to come down from heaven and change my heart. If you come, I promise to be your friend forever. In Jesus name I pray, amen!” I did not know the meaning of the name of Jesus but I heard people pray like that so I guessed it was the appropriate end to a prayer. Immediately I knew that something ‘good’ had happened to me. Not certain of what, but the sense of destiny came down and enveloped my soul. I felt life entering my veins. In exactly 28 days the Holy Spirit came down on me and filled my soul. I became a child of God, never to be the same again.

He that came to me was the same Isus that sent the strange looking priest every Christmas Eve. A few months before my beloved father died, he made peace with God. God’s ways are strange to the unbeliever but perfect and lovely for His own. All glory goes to God.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Heb 13:8)

Naaman was a general in the Syrian army, ‘a mighty man of valor. But he was a leper’ (2Kg 5). He was a pagan but God’s eye was on him for salvation. The source of his military success in the Assyrian army was Jehovah. Syria as a nation was the enemy of Israel. They attacked God’s people and occupied their land. They killed many and some were carried away as slaves.
(When God told Jonah to go and preach to them he ran in the opposite direction. Jonah could not imagine that God will show mercy to the Syrians. This is just to know how much the Jews hated their violent and wicked neighbors.)
Among the prisoners of war there was a young Jewish woman who became the maid to the wife of Naaman. Maybe the general killed her parents but he had pity on her and brought her home to his wife. She could have been bitter against her master or even against God. But she was surely a woman of God who prayed and found God in ‘her prison’ circumstances. She suggests that Naaman goes to Israel to see Prophet Elisha who will heal him from his deadly, incurable leprosy. This sister had true faith in Jehovah Rapha, the God of her people. She recommended the prophet Elisha by faith, because up to this moment he did not heal any of leprosy. O, the blessing this girl was to Elisha who possibly needed a confirmation to start his healing ministry.
Naaman does what any sinner will do. He took with him a letter of recommendation from his king. He also loaded his chariot with gold, money and gifts. All sinners think that they can bribe God or buy His favor… Rejected by the King of Israel as a trouble maker, Naaman went to see the prophet. Elisha did not even greet him or ‘personally’ pray for him as he expected. He just sent a message that he should go to the River Jordan, dip seven times in its muddy waters, and he shall be clean.
It was such a simple message…even children understand that! But to Naaman, like with all sinners, the word of grace, the message of the Cross is total foolishness and it is to be rejected as ‘a waste of time’. Naaman becomes angry thinking that he was deceived by his forced humiliation. This is the turning point in this story. Naaman almost missed his miracle! But a wise soldier in his entourage advises him to simply obey the word of the prophet, like a child obeys his father. He grudgingly went, did just that, and was healed and saved. Immediately Naaman freely testifies: ‘Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel!’
This story encourages us to listen to the voice of God, even if we do not like ‘the package’ from where it comes. The house maid, the prophet and the wise soldier, God used all these people to direct Naaman to humility and obedience. These are found only at the cross of Christ. The ‘dirty’ river Jordan stands for Christ crucified. If you are baptized in His death, if you share in His shame and rejection, then you shall live! You shall be healed!
This is the conclusion: It is not enough to have a need. It is not enough to pray for healing. Obey God and obey His prophets! Obedience leads to the supernatural, to life, to miracles. Jesus said that there were many leprous people in Israel but they were not healed because of religious pride or unbelief (Lk 4:27).
May your suffering bring you closer to God!
May pride not deceive you to miss your miracle!
May unbelief not deceive you to miss your miracle!
BE HEALED IN JESUS NAME!
(in the picture is me being baptised in the River Jordan, in Israel)<img src="http://fatherscall

“But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.” (Is 40:31)
The eagle is a royal bird. One of the cherubs around the throne of God has the face of an eagle. Eagles inspire us!
Eagles know how to be lonely and they know how to rejoice as families. Eagles flock together. They never mix with other birds. We pray for discernment and be careful with the people we call friends. Just as light cannot mix with darkness, as a believer do not be intimate with an unbeliever.
Eagles do not eat dead things; only the vultures do.
We take the Holy Communion, the Body and the Blood of Christ, the Living God.
Eagles mate for life. But they test each other before commitment. The female takes a twig up in the air and drops it. The interested male will go and catch it and return it to her. Then she flies higher and drops it again. The male is to go and faithfully catch it each time. Any male that gets tired of cooperating, working or playing with her, will be rejected.
A righteous person is prudent and prayerful when choosing the life partner. Be friends, be co-laborers in God’s vineyard, study the other ministry before you even consider a marriage candidate. Can you pray together? Can you repent together? Can you rejoice together? Test before commitment into marriage!
During winter, some eagles have to migrate to other places. If they have to leave the nest, the eagles migrate alone, for safety purposes. But in spring time, they come back from different places to the same nest. They openly rejoice to find each other again. They fly together, hunt together, just for the pure pleasure to reconciliation. The lesson here is that both husband and wife need to be strong individually, to withstand pressures of loneliness in ministry and life in general. The period of separation may be hours or days, but there is always a rejoicing, a coming back together, ever sweeter.
In old age, the eagle goes away to a lonely spot and plucks al his feathers by himself. Then he patiently waits for them to grow back again. That is a lonely and vulnerable place to be. But the new feathers are stronger than the old ones and he comes back to his nest with renewed power and zeal for life.
The Cross is not just history. Unbelievers totally ignore its call. As a believer, you are supposed to know its power intimately, to trust God for seasons of hiding and for the power to push you higher than even before. This power of resurrection is the sure and unique stamp of the true child of God!
In the scripture above, all the words are plural. You have to imagine many eagles helping one another to fly higher than ever before. This is the power of the encouragement in the Body of Christ. If you are discouraged, look at another believer, and rise from self-pity! If you are bored with the Bible, admire the hunger for righteousness in another and get up to pay the price for it! If you are afraid of your environment, see other believers who face worst temptations than you and still stand to confront the enemy! If you are in doubt, imitate other believers who persevere unto the end, focused and faithful!
You are an eagle, not a chicken! Look for other eagles! God’s eagles!
The marathon race is hard. Many start but few finish it. The champions tell you that it is easy to start, then hardest in the middle of it. But if you persevere, then suddenly the joy of receiving the crown will ignite a new, strange power in you, the secret deposit of the Holy Spirit within. I have experienced it. I witness to the glory and the never ending reserves of Christ in me, the hope of Glory! There is point when you can confidently say: No more weariness, no more fainting!
So, rise up like the eagles, on the wings of prayer and praise!
I’ll see you up there, my friend!

A true historical revival is when the Holy Spirit comes down on a big territory and changes the history of that land. Peace may or may not follow revival but many souls are saved radically. Revival is not an evangelistic crusade. It is purely the work of God. Men can pray for it, but revival proves that God is sovereign in the affairs of men.
Revival is primarily the coming back to life of a believer. The people who benefit the most are the backsliders. They were dead is sins and rebellion. A dead believer is someone who goes to church, is faithful in activities but he is inwardly dead to spiritual things. The primary condition when praying for revival is hunger for more of God!
God shows Ezekiel a valley filled with dead bones (Ezekiel 37: 1-14). A valley is the lowest space between two mountains. One represents the past successes and the next mountain represents the future success. The first thing that ignites prayer for revival is the true vision of our spiritual condition. If God does not show you the dry bones in the valley you will never be interested the pray for resurrection life, for revival. Opened eyes are the first step for revival prayer. You need a vision of the need of God. Revival is more caught than it is thought. The bones are many, dead, dry (the environment around them is dry) and scattered. Like broken dreams in the valley of disappointment, these bones are useless for anything at all. Then the command from God, Jehovah Adonai comes: “Prophesy over these bones, that they may live!” The prophetic anointing will increase and will be established more and more in 2013. More believers will refuse to be intimidated by the death, dryness and confusion of their situation. They will pray, praise and also prophesy. God will use their prophetic statements to produce life in the most hopeless situations. There shall me a moving, a strange, new noise of coming together. Each bone will find its place in the body in proper alignment. None will be missing. None will be dislocated. The rib will find its owner and marriages approved in heaven will be signs following revival. The end result will be a mighty trained miraculous army who will change the face of the earth. Following their Commander wherever He goes, they will occupy the land for the King of the Universe and will bring glory to Him on earth. Their reward will be paid on earth and in heaven. They shall live and be settled each in his own land. And they shall know that Jehovah Adonai has spoken! Revival is coming soon!
“You land of Warri, Nigeria; you shall live and give glory to God. There shall be no more violence in the land. There shall be peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Many souls will be saved. The wicked shall run away for lack of opportunities to deceive, for from the least to the greatest, they shall know the Lord!”
Amen!

Spiritual pain comes suddenly, not always defined, never controlled by me…. This pain reminds me of the surgery room, but the odor is not of disinfectant, but the fragrance of Christ…I look in His eyes and I can bear all things…
I can never mistake this pain for another…. It is too delicate for human hands to produce… It is too deep for human words to dig… It is too lonely for human beings to visit.
Men can trouble me outside the fire of pain, but never in the furnace…The place is too hot for mocking and even my enemies have to surrender to the Cross I carry…
Sometimes a picture, an ungrateful word, an ignoring of the Spirit…and the grief manifests…cannot be explained, no song can describe, no prayer in English can translate…I slowly find a place where I can just be, grateful to have the house by myself…I become one with the gift of pain…fire and gold…one hour, two…even before the labor is over, I am able to praise God for the genesis of yet another miracle of life… It is finished…I am now another, purged and complete, glory to God…
“From now on, don’t let anyone trouble me with these things. For I bear on my body the scars that show I belong to Jesus” (Gal 6:17, NLT)

Without oxen a stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a large harvest (PV 14:4, NLT)
If you insist that your house is always clean, then do not pray to have children. Labor has its own debris. The women that sell fish smell like fish. But I admire them; they are not lazy and they provide a good income for their home.
An ox smells bad and makes the place dirty. But the ox is strong enough to carry loads and that’s good business (Ps 144:14).An ox is better than a horse in many ways. The horse eats only special type of grass. But the ox eats what the horse has rejected and rarely gets sick. It goes working for longer hours and it is much more faithful and emotionally stable than a horse. The horns can be used and the meat is good to eat.
When I was much younger I used to apologize when visitors come to my house, saying that it is not clean enough. Then I will go and visit others who have no children and their houses look ‘perfect’. Over the years I learned that it is much better to pay the price for life. If you insist that your church should always be clean, then it may end up empty too. If you desire revival and pray for it, there shall be manifestations from unclean spirits to distract, confuse and make the place look ‘dirty’. But all these are not good reasons to quench the Holy Spirit.
The labor room in the hospital never looks totally clean. In the same way, revival can be messy sometimes. I now chose a less than ‘perfect’ house but with life, anointing, power and riches in it.

This should be the third ‘Saturday class’ that starts so slow…people looking tired and discouraged…passive and unhappy…the praise could not ‘pass the ceiling’…I felt that there was opposition, like religious spirits that wanted entertainment, or ‘church as usual’, or prayers for praying sake and nothing more…I felt that the religious spirits wanted to hijack the meeting…
It is rare that I stop all activities during a prayer meeting, but this time there was no other solution. It is like we started to sing with the wrong key and all people were struggling to sing…I told everybody to stop all things, the music, the worship team…to sit down on the chairs and just pray for mercy…We told God that without Him we can never move forward, that His presence cannot be replaced by anything and by anybody…we just pleaded for mercy…we asked for forgiveness in case we took His presence for granted…then slowly, the anointing descended and the fire, the passion was kindled once more…in less than thirty minutes, suddenly all people stood up and praised God with dancing and clapping and shouting…the difference in atmosphere was so great, it looked like the first group of people was replaced with another…even the children sensed the presence of God and were jumping and singing all over the sanctuary…
The song we sang again and again was this:
“I waka, waka, I saw no one, I searched, I searched: I saw no one, I turned around and still no one, There is no one like You Lord! There is no one like Jesus!”
“O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid; O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years! In the midst of the years make it known. In wrath remember mercy!” (Habakkuk 3:2)

I don’t want to preach a whole sermon on tithe to you. But in times like these, when the thieves increase in the land, I cannot avoid bringing it to notice.
These are some points about the tithe (I have practiced these over the years and I testify that they are true):
1. Tithe is a command from God the Father. God’s commands are to be obeyed. Period! Jesus did not cancel the tithe.
2. Tithe is the FIRST 10% of your increase (not of capital). It is the first, not any 10%. This is for us to remember that God is first!
3. Tithe is to be paid to the local church where the spiritual food is given to you. Occasionally the Holy Spirit may direct you to divide the tithe. Part of it may be given outside your local church, to a ministry that has consistently blessed you with the ministry of the Word. Obey the leading of the Holy Spirit!
4. Tithe is to be paid first, of all; then any other offerings is above the tithe. If you don’t pay the tithe, God will not receive your offerings, no matter how big the offering is. Without the tithe, your offerings are a waste.
5. Paying the tithe is a form of worship and it pleases God because of obedience.
6. God promises to bless the remaining 90% of your increase by preventing the devil from devouring it (there shall be no loss, no stealing, no unnecessary bills from hospital, accidents… etc.)
7. Paying my tithe has brought to me a peculiar joy that I am a responsible child of God. I have NEVER regretted paying my tithe.
“Test Me in this – says the Lord Almighty- if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it!” (Mal 3:10)

This is the story of the royal wedding feast. The King is God the Father. The Son is Jesus. The servants sent with the call to come to the banquet of grace are the prophets, the apostles, the evangelists, the missionaries. The call is that of grace to salvation.
Come to the intimate fellowship of grace and unspeakable joy with the King of kings! This invitation is once in a life time opportunity to meet with your God in charge of your destiny. Failure to respond here means total failure in life.
The servants meet only rejection. The only explanation for this negativity is that sin is madness. The servants are sent to other dignitaries, kings and rulers. Most of them ignore the call for the sake of involvement in the ordinary life. They chose to be ‘local champions’ in their farms and businesses. Under pressure, some insult the servants and others kill them so that they may have ‘peace’. All the prophets of the Old Testament up including John the Baptist died at the hands of the religious Jews.
The King is angry at the rejection and the disgrace of His grace. God is gracious, kind, patient and longsuffering with the sinners. But His Spirit will ‘not strive forever with man’. He will avenge the blood of His servants and kill the unbelievers with fire. These were ‘not worthy’ of the praise, the fellowship, the reward and promotion the King had in mind to bestow on them inside His palace. For the sake of ‘akara’ business they lost an eternal crown.
Then the second invitation comes to the rest humanity. The Gentiles like you and me we are invited to partake of Christ. It is the call of grace, the unmerited favor of God to both ‘the good and the bad’. The glory of a king is seen in his many subjects around him, giving him all the praise. A prince without servants is disgraced (PV 14:28). The refusal of the first group of people was so that the king and his son will be lonely, disgraced and sad at a time of rejoicing. But the King can make even the stones to praise him. The wedding hall has to be filled with guests. And so it was…
Later the king comes in to see the guests. Do you know that God comes down to see and inspect the heart of each person gathered in His presence? The guest list is in His hand.
He discovered a stranger who was not dressed with the garment of imputed righteousness of the Son. He came on his own. He wanted to go to heaven but he did not want to see Jesus in heaven. But heaven belongs to Jesus and no stranger can stroll inside unnoticed. He was punished, tied hand and foot and thrown outside in the utter darkness, as far from the light as possible.
The call of God is to search the hearts and motives towards the King and His Son. Examine your heart: is the passion for Jesus real inside? Then each whisper calling you will give you hope and strength to answer yes. What is your attitude when coming to church, doing ministry? Is it hard? Is it boring? It is to be pure joy. God’s calling is a privilege.
‘Many are called (for testing and approval) but few are chosen (for eternal life and blessed rewards)’ (Mt 22:1-14)