Ok, in learning the ways of God, sometimes His methods and techniques just don’t make sense!  No seriously, the natural mind does not receive the things of God.  This is why we must keep our spirit man focused and open to how and what God is saying.

I am taking note of an awesome thought that was planted in my mind by the Spirit of God this morning as I was having a conversation with my husband.  The thought comes from Psalms 119:71:  “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Your statues”

The natural mind would ask:  how is it a good thing to be afflicted?  David answered by saying that when we suffer affliction, we learn something in the struggle. We learn to pay attention to the decrees, statutes, and will of God.  I remember this past August, I went through a terrible 6 weeks of awful pain due to discs in my back.  It was by far one of the worst times in my life.  The nerve pain I experienced not just in the back area, but the hip, thigh, leg and foot was just awful.  Worse than giving birth!!!!  I will never forget  it.  There was a certain artist that had a new album, and as I listened to the listing of songs on the ITunes website, I remember being ministered to by almost every song on the album.  As I listened to the songs more and more, the Spirit of the Lord began to show me the theme and which songs from the album to use in my youth group’s annual praise dance celebration which we typically have in February each year.  Even though I could not dance at that time, I was shown a vision of it all!  My team ministered these pieces on last Sunday and it was phenominal!  So you see, even though I was suffering, I learned to listen to the Spirit and receive revelation.  Not only did I receive my theme, some of the choreography, and song selections for the annual event, I also received other revelation from some of the songs that dealt with my response to affliction.  I learned to trust God on a totally different level.  God is requiring our trust.  Sometimes we have to go through affliction to learn or re-learn this concept.