Drinking from the Cup of Eternity

 I've been in a great deal of pain lately. I'm almost ashamed to admit it after having written a recent entry on my "healing". I guess I overspoke. Or maybe I didn't and my faith and healing is being tested. Whatever the case, I feel foolish having to admit to my physical pain. I mean, I sincerely believe and stand-by what occurred a few weeks ago in California (for a detailed account click on following link:Go West Young Man) it's just that I cannot deny that the pain is back. No longer in the part of my body where it began but I believe the radiation effects have traveled elsewhere; hopefully on their way out and never to be dealt with again. I am in constant pain and my worst fears tell me this is not a good sign.

I have gone through too much and endured just as much to throw the towel in now. I am contending for my healing on a daily basis and believing God to be good to me in restoring my body to full health and vigor. Everything happens for a reason. Everything. If it were not for the tumor and resulting treatment I had to undergo, I believe with all my heart my life would not be what it is today. I feel completely enriched and stronger in my inner man because of what I had to walk through in regards to my bout with Cancer. I was able, in my weakness, to draw nearer to God and find my true identity in the process. I am a healthier (if at least in Spirit), happier man because of it. Not a day goes by I do not thank God for the experience and what I learned in the process. Life is precious. Life is good. Life is worth living when you have the right perspective and outlook. My life has but only begun. I can't lay down and die now. Not now.No way. Not an option.

I heard a few weeks ago a preacher say: " God is not a liar and every word He speaks over us to perform, He will do it. So if you have prophetic words yet to be fulfilled in your life, remind God  about it and know that you will not go home until everything spoken over you has come to pass."  I personally am waiting to say many words spoken to me and over me come to fruition. Has God spoken things to you and like me are you  still waiting to see its fulfillment? I sure am. I have prophetic words going back to the early 90's that were put on the shelf and put away because it was not yet time. Well I believe the time has finally come my friends. They are being dusted off as I write and being jumpstarted and kicked into gear by teh power of God's faithfulness.

In the meantime, I contend and wrestle with my pain. I'm trusting God for a breakthrough...someway, somehow. He is the expert in Breakthroughs so all I have to do is keep trusting and actively waiting for Him to bring the answers and solutions to my dilemmas. This pain must go. This pain will not be the end of me. This pain will not be another manifestation of a tumor lurking inside me and growing. No! I have gone through what I had to go through and drank from that bitter cup once. I will not drink from it twice. In Jesus name, I will not drink of that cup again. I have other cups to drink from; some more bitter and others sweeter but I refuse to give in to the temptation that my portion is to suffer the ravages of tumors and cancer.

These last few weeks have been tenuous to say the least. Whatever stability I thought or believed I possessed was taken from me. The challenges I have been facing these last couple of months were sent to me in order to bring me to a place of finding my strength and endurance in HIM. Opportunities to make necessary changes in my enviornment are being presented to me and I want to choose rightly. What I do today and how I proceed with things will impact my life for all of eternity. This existence is not the end all but only the beginning for the age to come. Oh, what a glorious age it will be for those who believe!

I was told  recently that  many aspects of my life are transitory. There is an eternal thread that runs through my entire life. I can trust God to station me where I can be the most effective in eternal purpose. Doors are open that no man can shut  and doors shut tight that no man can open. Everything will work out for me for my ultimate good. My job is to continue to trust Him with my life and not to give room to the fear that tries to encroach me. Pain, whether physical or emotional, has a way of bringing up the worst of fears and doubts in people but we overcome every time we meet it headlong at the gate of our souls and minds and refuse to allow it entry. Fear will not come in and set up camp. It will not come in and rob me of my faith and peace. It must go the way of everything else in my life that does not agree and fulfill God's eternal purposes for my life. As the saying goes in Spanish: "Pa' la basura!" (to the trash) with anything that dares stand in my way.

So I speak with confidence and proclaim: "Enemy, move! You are blocking my glorious view of Jesus...lover of my soul and healer of my body".

Crooked Notes by Idilio Rivera is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.