Windows of Hope

The Beach at Torremolino - Edward Seago (painting available for sale from The Taylor Gallery in London)

Edward Seago (1910-1974) was one of England’s finest landscape artists of the 20th Century. His ability to portray magnificent clouds in endless variations of atmosphere and color was one of the hallmarks of Seago's finest masterpieces.

“Ill health caused Seago to spend much of his childhood in bed and he grew to accept these bouts of sickness as an ordinary event. However, they were probably the main factor in moulding his life. The heart defect which denied him ordinary boyhood activities, and kept him on his back for long periods, meant that he had to overcome boredom, and this he did by painting. Also, unlike other boys of his own age who were confined to a schoolroom, Seago was able to stay out of doors exposed to the delights of the ever changing skies above him. These skies provided him with a constant source of interest and challenge. The intense knowledge gained as he sketched the unending cloud formations of Norfolk, England from his garden chair made him a true artist. What had begun as a childhood diversion ended as a life’s work. It is possible, that had he not had a permanent heart problem, Seago might never have become an artist, but might have turned to a more active, strenuous profession.” (Quote from the book ‘Edward Seago: The Vintage Years’ by Ron Ranson).

This idea is repeated in Hosea 2:14-15 “I will make the Valley of Achor or Troubling to be for her a door of hope and expectation”. Mike Murdock says it this way:

• The problem closest to you is your door out of trouble
• Something you already have can create anything else you will ever want
• Something in your hand can create anything you want in your future.

Nothing can take God by surprise. He has surveyed our entire life and the preparations are complete. When He instructed Moses to take His people out of Israel, he said to Moses “What is in your hand”. The seed for a thing is in itself. (Genesis 1:11). God has already provided every resource we need to fulfil our purpose and destiny. Every provision has been made for the appointed task. We just need to reach out and access it. Just as Edward Seago did. He painted. His paintings are considered investment art and reach extremely high prices to this day, decades after he has passed on.

Radical Prayer

There is a secret in life that if we are able to do it, will unlock treasure in our lives. I have a friend who manages to put in many hours of training for triathlons beyond a normal working day. If we have a desire to achieve greatness in some area, we will set aside the time, energy and training required to make it a reality. I know that it is possible. I have not stopped thinking about this since I first read this testimony from Jaeson Ma on Prayer~

From Jaeson's website:

In November of last year I spoke at one of the largest churches in the world in South Korea. After I had spoken my first session from the pulpit, the Sr. Pastor rebuked me personally by saying, “Young man you don’t pray enough!” I was convicted when hearing this, although I do pray 1-2 hours a day, I knew the Sr. Pastor was challenging me to go beyond my norm. He then said, “If you pray 1 hour a day you can survive. 2 hours a day you can have a ministry. 6 hours a day God can use you to change a country. 8 hours a day and God can use to shake the nations!” After he said this, he made me promise him I would pray 6 hours a day when I returned back home to America. I did my best, but to no avail. I’ll be honest I haven’t been praying 6 hours a day since that challenge from the Sr. Pastor Yoon.

A few weeks after I returned from South Korea with this personal challenge to pray 6-8 hours a day I had a prophetic dream. In the dream the same Sr. Pastor walks up to me. He says to me, “Young man do you know the key to how I started this great church and ministry? The key is that I actually have a full time day job. I work 8 hours a day at another occupation while leading this great ministry.” I said, “How is it possible that you can work at another occupation 8 hours a day and still run this incredible ministry?” What is your occupation? Pastor Yoon then said to me, “My day time occupation is that I am a farmer. I sow and plant seeds 8 hours a day!” The dream ends.

When I woke up from this dream I knew the clear meaning and interpretation. This Sr. Pastor’s key to having such a great church and fruitful ministry was that he sowed seeds of prayer 8 hours a day. The occupation and priority of prayer was his ministry and the key to his success in obeying God by living a dedicated and disciplined lifestyle of radical prayer. Again, I was convicted about this and begin to ask the Holy Spirit to confirm my path to a disciplined life of 8 hours of prayer a day.

Rare and Beautiful Treasures

I furnished my first home by turning scriptures into decrees:

By wisdom a house is built,
and through understanding it is established;
through knowledge its rooms are filled
with rare and beautiful treasures. (Proverbs 24:3-4) NIV

Daily, and several times a day I would say, thank you God that my house is built through wisdom and established through understanding, I thank you that through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures. I have expensive tastes. Within 6 months, my home was filled with the most beautiful furniture and fittings, of a level that I would not have been able to afford in the natural through income I was receiving at the time. God opened the way miraculously for these things to happen. 

God seems to be reminding me once again to speak the Word of God over the circumstances that seem contrary to what the Word of God says or those situations which appear to be in contradiction to the Promises of God for my life.

(As it is written, I have made you the father of many nations in the sight of God in Whom he believed,) Who gives life to the dead and speaks of the nonexistent things that He has foretold and promised as if they already existed. Romans 4:17 TAB 

We are made in the image of God. So we do as He does. He created the earth with His words. We CREATE (or destroy) with our words. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life]. Proverbs 18:21 TAB 

Amen

God’s Secrets

God loves to share his Secrets with us. Today I thought it would be good to meditate on what the Word says about God's secret’s..

• The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but the things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all of the words of this law.
• Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, fenced in and hidden, which you do not know-do not distinguish and recognize, have knowledge of and understand. 
• And that He would show you the secrets of wisdom! For He is manifold in understanding! 
• The secret [of the sweet, satisfying companionship] of the Lord have they who fear (revere and worship) Him, and He will show them His covenant and reveal to them its [deep, inner] meaning.
• HE WHO dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty [Whose power no foe can withstand].
• And I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, Who calls you by your name.
• He reveals the deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him!
• Daniel answered the king, The [mysterious] secret which the king has demanded neither the wise men, enchanters, magicians, nor astrologers can show the king, But there is a God in heaven Who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what it is that shall be in the latter days (at the end of days). Your dream and the visions in your head upon your bed are these: As for you, O king, as you were lying upon your bed thoughts came into your mind about what should come to pass hereafter, and He Who reveals secrets was making known to you what shall come to pass.
• The king answered Daniel, Of a truth your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a Revealer of secret mysteries, seeing that you could reveal this secret mystery!
• Surely the Lord God will do nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets.
• To you it has been given to know the secrets and mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
• He said to them, To you it has been given to [come progressively to] know (to recognize and understand more strongly and clearly) the mysteries and secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that, [though] looking, they may not see; and hearing, they may not comprehend.
• What eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man, [all that] God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him [who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed]. Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit, for the [Holy] Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God [the divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man's scrutiny]. 

References (The Amplified Bible used above):

Deuteronomy 29:29

Jeremiah 33:3

Job 11:6

Psalm 25:14

Psalm 91:1

Isaiah 45:3

Daniel 2:22

Daniel 2:27-29

Daniel 2:47

Amos 3:7

Matthew 13:11

Luke 8:10

1 Corinthians 2:9-10