Hi My Precious Family, SUM, Church without Walls,

Lynn, here. Since Ann is on a break, (bless her with healing and health Jesus), I will update you on our interesting journey.

Today, Mike is 14 days out from his transplant. His blood counts are very low, and he is tired.... a lot. But he remains positive and hasn't endured all the terrible possibilities that were outlined for us before we arrived. It's truly miraculous. The doctors are pleasantly surprised at his progress and lack of complications.

This is because YOU prayed. There are people as far away as the Philippines who are praying for some guy in a hospital in California. I'm blown away at the many prayers that have arrived and the encouragement that has come from my church here at SUM. I'm deeply thankful for even a few words you have whispered for me and Mike.

THANK YOU.

I'll admit, it has been rough for me personally, these past few weeks. I have really struggled but a few days ago, the Lord lifted me up and I'm doing better coping with all that must be managed and handled, and now remotely. It seems life, which is already challenging, becomes even harder (managing life remotely now). Last week my daily Bible started on the first chapter of Job. I've never really related to that story until this week.

However, the Lord has given me some promises. I prayed on the day Mike was admitted to the hospital back in April

He revealed the end from the beginning and I KNOW, that I know, in my knower..... IT WILL HAPPEN. So, I wait for October 6th. And this promise came with a sign that God said would happen on June 6th. AND indeed, it did happen. So, I'll wait and when I see how and what God is going to do, I'll share it with you.

I expect Mike to be released from the hospital next week. And then we hang out here in Palo Alto for two months. There is so much to be resolved, but I cling to the hem of His robe.

I also am so aware that a great number of you are walking through very difficult stuff. My heart aches for you. I have prayed for many of you. I feel the compassion of our good Father as He watches us tough it out. I'm convinced we are on the precipice of a great move in our world. God has those who love him and are sold out for His Kingdom, in His strong and loving hands.

So, for now we pray for one another. I would love to pray for you. I actually need new prayer focus. So, please leave me your prayer requests in the comments. 

I adore you, my SUM family. STAND UP STRAIGHT. We have the TRUTH. Don't waver in what is real and powerful. 

BELEIVE! PERSEVER! PRAY! Then we shall see the miracles. I know I'm in for a ton in a few months. So are you.

Blessings and Hugs, Lynn

Ann here!

Oh dear, I said I'd write today but I've ended up coming down sick, ugh. So we'll have a few days of quiet on the blog until I'm better. Back soon!

Love, 

Ann

My friends, Ann here.

Ok, so I've got this funny quirk. I do believe it's a quirk God gave me, but sometimes I think God gives us some crazy quirks. Do you have one, I wonder?

Anyway... Mine's this:

I take especially careful note of the things that happen in my days, and I record my life.

I've got this living document on which I have tracked all the key spiritual things that have happened to me since my birth in 1975! Yep, it is a little long. And by 'living document', I mean I am continually updating it.

On the document, I have written a summary of the things God said to me on certain dates, things I asked God, world events, and other notable events in my life. If I have a dream or vision, I record it. I have tried to keep it as precise as possible, so that it reads as a nice summary. And every morning, I read through a part of that document (i.e., a part of my life) and ask God about certain things that happened.

COVID was on there too, and what an interesting time that was to look back on. Yep, the years 2019 - 2022 make for interesting reading.

What were you doing there, Lord?

Why did I meet that person?

Wow, that was you, Lord! I asked you a question, and I can see now that you answered it for me over the subsequent days.

Hindsight is a helpful thing. Sometimes, in the past, I can see that I did hear God's voice, but I was too quick to interpret it. The correct interpretation was far different to what I thought. Indeed, often we just don't know what God is saying until we can look back in hindsight, or until he has revealed more. Sometimes it will take years or decades to understand what God was doing.

Other times I have noticed I was right about something. Those situations give me a quiet confidence in the Holy Spirit.

Another thing I can clearly see is that God has opened seasons for me and closed them. Once, for example, I moved into volunteering my work hours to a small church I was attending; but a year later I strongly felt God wanted me to move out of it. As I look at that situation, I can see that God did move me in and out. It was just a crazily short season that had its purpose. 

My friends, our life storyline with God becomes our war chest. It gives us confidence in him and makes us understand our identity in his eyes. All of this, in fact, makes me feel that I can't wait to be an old lady sitting in a rocking chair with decades of storyline behind me. My life story is my belt of truth (Ephesians 6:14). It will feed me and sustain me when I'm old .... 

Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.

(Psalm 139:16-18, NIV)

Anyway, this post was way different to what I meant to write, LOL. But this topic leads nicely into the next one I'm going to write, so I will be back again on Wednesday with more.

My friends, do you have moments of hindsight you look back on, where you understand what God was doing?

Loads of love

Ann

My friends

You never know just HOW God will speak to one of your kids!

Something cool just happened in my world:

My son, Travis, who is now a young adult, hasn't been to church with me for quite a few years. He went for a while when he was younger, but there came a point where it was his choice. He was about 14 at the time.

(Parents of teens get to that point sometimes).

He has always been an intellectually curious boy - In particular, he likes science and engineering, and he thoroughly enjoys watching factual videos on YouTube that have given him a great general knowledge.

He's often talked to me about things like space rockets, volcanoes, science experiments, and such like. I grin at him and love the fact he's got that strength. That's my son.

Anyway: Here's what happened this week.

I found out -- to my surprise -- that he has been watching a YouTube channel called Expedition Bible ! On this channel, an archeologist describes how different aspects of the Bible are supported by archeological findings. These videos are well researched, presented in a thoughtful and captivating way, and there are videos on all sorts of things, including:

• Sodom and Gomorrah
• Jesus' tomb
• Nineveh
• Pharoahs in Biblical times
• Moab
• King David
• The Canaanites

... And more!

This week I started to watch the channel myself, and -- WOW -- I'm afraid I have sunk into a binge-watching state, and today will not be going out anywhere. No, instead I will be drinking tea all day and watching this channel. Yes, my friends, today's post is even a little late because I have been busy watching Expedition Bible this morning instead of getting my post up quickly LOL.

In all seriousness, though:

What I most love about this is that I did nothing to make my son go near this topic. Well, not much: It would have helped that over the years he's seen how much I love God and reading the Bible. In that way, he was not brought up rejecting the Bible, so he would have an open heart to start with. But with this channel, he went there off his own bat. And I believe God led him there: God knows how my boy's brain works -- well, God made him so -- and God found him a channel that was the perfect way to reach him and crack open the Word for him.

It's so cool!

SUMites, I believe that God will find similar ways to speak to all of our children. We just might have to be patient.

As a final note, this morning, I sent Travis a WhatsApp saying "Expedition Bible!! Where have I been all my life?! I love it!!!"

He wrote back saying "Good to hear. I've watched pretty much all of them by now."

So I thank God.

My friends, why don't we share in the comments any stories we have of times where God has touched our family members in unexpected ways?

Loads of love to you today

Ann

Dear SUMites, following on from last week's posts, here's part three of our series on handling a demonized family member. For those who missed it here are part one and part two.

Hello my Sumite Sisters,

My name is Evie, and I have been following this ministry since 2015. I became a Christian after I married. My faith was not received well by my husband, my family or his family, and 26 years later, it still isn’t.  There has been a lot of ups and downs, confusion, and lack of trust. 

I grew up in a very dysfunctional family. Emotional, physical, and sexual abuse took place, and I have real trust issues. I was searching for the love and affection my soul desperately desired, but I was searching for it in all the wrong places. I believed I was too broken, too dirty for God to possibly love me.

In 2001, I accepted Christ as my Savior.  My healing has been a long process, and it is one that is ongoing.  I didn’t receive His love right away. I believed it for others, but it was hard for me to accept for myself. I desired God's love, but it was a battle. I listened to the enemies lies and still felt the effects of the trauma I endured as a child, but also the dysfunction of my family in the present.  

Through a lot of prayer and counsel with Lynn, I found strength through God to forgive, not because they deserved it, but because it was what Jesus did for me. It is a daily process, but since I have chosen to bring my pain and emotions to the throne of grace and ask God to help me forgive, I am overcoming the trauma, the anger, rejection, and resentment that had a hold over me.

I have a lot of heart work to do and am only beginning to grasp the depth of Christ and His love and grace for me.  And I am asking God, my true Father, to show me how He sees me, and how He loves me, and He has.  I am able to receive the blessings the Holy Spirit bestows on me daily, throughout the day, and that has changed my heart in a powerful way.  

I’m starting to receive the identity Christ has given me, and to stop listening to the lies of the enemy, by whatever means he uses to snare me.  Whether it be my flesh, his lies, or the worlds lies. I am rebuking them in the name of Jesus. And asking God to show me His truth, and I’m learning to be still and to listen for His voice.

It is a daily battle, but I know He has me, and He is guiding me one step at a time. The hard shell around my heart is breaking, and I am not hiding in shame, self-hatred, or the other lies anymore. I have asked God to help me to be the Evie, He designed me to be, to show me how, and He is doing that. I don’t have to explain myself or hide because of my shame anymore. I can be proud of who I am, because I am a child of God, and He knows everything about me, and He loves me. He will not leave me or forsake me, and that is truth.

That is not just truth for me, that is truth for each of us, that is willing to believe His truths and promises.  

God has been very fun and kind to me, as He reveals who I am. Helping me to use the voice I have been so afraid to use for pretty much my entire life. Showing me, I have a witty sense of humor and really love color.  That I am compassionate and love to serve others. In a few months I will be 60 years old, and I have finally realized I have a lot of love to offer, because He is in me, and He is love and God knows just the people He wants me to bless, to bring His light too, and I am grateful to Him that He is patient, kind and true to His word. He really loves me and you.

Blessings, Your SUMite Sister in Christ, Evie

Eve Moran, I have been married for 26 years. Both of our second marriage. Together we have five children, two each from our previous marriages and one daughter together. We have three grandchildren. I love the Lord, and I love being a wife, mom and grandmother! I volunteer with the children’s ministry and my church and love to watch the young children learn about Jesus. I enjoy cooking, the outdoors, painting and reading the Word. 

Hello my friends

We're continuing with the topic of how to handle a demonized family member. For part one click here.

I promised that I was going to upload a video on this topic, but I've decided to first share with you the eight key points that are in my video, and let you mull them over before we continue.

Ok, here we go:

Eight keys to handling a demonized family member --

1. Forgive them, repeatedly and deliberately 
2. Identify what spirit is at work, with God's help, and become determined not to bow to that spirit
3. 'Strengthen yourself in the Lord' before you spend time with them
4. Think of clear and practical ways in which you can show them love
5. Don't try to reason with them
6. Instead fight this thing actively in your prayer closet, and use spiritual warfare activities
7. Take authority over the thing coming near you and impacting you. 
8. Understand your sphere of authority vs. the person's free will, and play the long-game

Ok, that's what we'll talk about in the video, and I'll post it next week. Some of the above points may already be very clear to you, but others you may wonder about and would like to hear more on. 

Anyway, more next week! And, in the meantime, we have a guest post from one of our SUMites on Friday which I'm greatly looking forward to. See you on Friday, and much love to you all,

Ann

My friends

Today I want to turn to a topic that is a little edgy. I wonder if some of you will read this and find you have a situation like this in your own life.

Ok, let's go --

Sometimes there will be a situation where a family member -- either in your home, or extended family -- is strongly under the influence of demonic activity. I'm using use the term 'demonized'. I don't necessarily mean demon possessed, but they are under the influence. They have let something in from a demonic source that they're enjoying or battling with, and it has got its claws into them quite severely and it is permeating their behavior.

In such a case, that person can be extremely difficult to spend time with and, as a Christian, you see it for what it is. But how can you handle it?

Examples of this might be:

• A family member who is deeply narcissistic
• A family member who is in the throes of addiction
• A strong alignment with rebellious trends in today's society, e.g., Atheism, or sexual sin
• A deep desire to control or manipulate others, often stemming from rejection from their early life.
• Or, a religious spirit that is making them downright nasty.

I could go on. 

When it's a family member, the problem is that you can't lightly detach from their company like you could if it was, say, a colleague, boss or friend.

As a Christian, if it is something you have discerned, there is then the question of how you love that person while also containing/limiting what their issue is doing to you. In some cases you might be asking 'Do I stay in relationship with this person, or are there some acts of separation I need to take?' There is also the question of how much you can take authority over this particular thing, that is, the demon(s).

Do you help them get free? Can you help them get free? 

How do you guard and protect your own heart?

So what I want to do next time is share some video teaching I recorded a year ago, How to handle a demonized family member, and we can chat about it some more.

Ok, over to you: Do you have any questions about this area? Do you have a situation like this in your own life?

Love to you all

Ann

My friends

One of the beautiful things about running this ministry is that we get constant encouragements from God as we go along.

From a personal point of view, he will often send me a confirmation of what I have just written about, as if to say, "Keep going, my hand is on this ministry." A quirky 'coincidence' will often happen, or a testimony will come through, or a dream, a word or a picture from the Holy Spirit.

In ministry you need this. If you didn't have that from God it would become too difficult to keep going - You need the quiet confidence in your heart.

Well, with the 'house' series it happened again. God gave me a little nod.

What happened was this: A couple of days ago, after writing my last post, which I knew would be the last in the series, I was sitting in my living room and I looked up towards the front window. For the first time since I'd been in this particular house where we're staying, I noticed the curtains. They were lace curtains. Well, blow me down, I realized then that embroidered in them were houses!

Here is a photo. Take a close look. There are many houses on the curtains, like the SUM community. And not only that, I'll be here for a month, so I will be spending that time now looking at these curtains and thinking about you all.

My friends, let's believe that God was right there in that series with us, nodding, and cheering us on as we build and fashion our unique spiritual houses. Let's believe, also, that the power of us doing this together, will lead to good for our respective homes (i.e. families).

I'll finish by listing off the Proverbs we have covered in this series:

It is better to live on a corner of the roof than to share the house with a nagging wife (Proverbs 21:9, CJB)

The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down (Proverbs 14:1, NIV)

Better a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened calf and hatred with it (Proverbs 15:17, ESV)

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)

All the best as you care for your homes, SUMites!

With love,

Ann

Photo courtesy of Pexels and Magda Ehlers

Hello, Ian from sunny Sydney here with a short post today.

I listened to these words the other day and they were a great reminder of God’s immense love for every one of us:

Listen! My beloved!
    Look! Here he comes,
leaping across the mountains,
    bounding over the hills.
My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.
    Look! There he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
    peering through the lattice. (Song of Solomon 2:8-9 NIVUK)

God is described as a gazelle, leaping and bounding, all to catch a glimpse of us.

I encourage you to personalise these verses. Picture God in his excitement to see/find you, is doing whatever he needs to do to see you. Yes! You!

That is how much He loves and adores you.

Rest in this re-assurance, especially if now He might be feeling distant from you. He’s not. He’s in your heart.

Go well, my friends.

Hi Family,

Friday begins preparation treatment for my husband's Bone Marrow Transplant. The two weeks following are the critical weeks as his immune system is missing. Pray he is protected from infections of all kinds (viral, bacterial and fungus). At about the two-week mark, the transplant cells will have found their way into his marrow and begin to produce new blood, white and red cells. 

I've been pondering this amazing procedure with the Lord. Literally, Mike will receive an entirely new blood system! So new, in fact, he will be required to have all his childhood vaccinations once again. I've been praying about his new blood, his new life, what this means to the Lord and the spiritual implications of a new blood system. I'm expectant to learn and discover something divine and holy through this experience.

I've been praying for the donor. A person who offers, for free, to endure a process that harvests T-cells for a stranger in another country. I pray abundant blessings and favor upon him. This donor is an exceptional match to Mike. Mike's physician was very encouraging regarding the final outcome, the unlikelihood of rejection, and that this procedure (praying) leads to a complete cure. 

I believe. 

It's been a weird and challenging road since April 26th. But even in the unknown, I hold the Father's hand. I truly believe this. It's going to be okay. The Lord has uniquely revealed to me the end from the beginning. Although, I don't know or have details. I just rest in assurances..... It's all going to be okay. 

My dear friend, a lifetime of faith has led me to hold the Father's hand and remain in peace and hope most of the time. I've had a few melt downs, but I am secure as the chaos storm roils below my view, as I am seated in heavenly realms with Christ. This faith is also your faith. I don't know what you are facing, but I do know this.

His faithful love endures forever. Cling to His hand. Share your needs with him. Ask, seek, knock. He will direct your path and there is beauty in the madness. We find love in the moments of pain. We experience the divine and supernatural in the midst of the broken.

I adore you. Thank you for walking this journey with me. I'll try to post here again after his procedure. Blessings and hugs, Lynn

My friends, while travelling I've ended up staying in quite a few houses of different shapes, sizes and flavors. It sure has had me reflecting. 

Bryce and I have now landed on the island of Gozo, which is part of Malta. It is not too far from Libya and Tunisia. This means it has a middle eastern flavor. 

The house we are staying in, for a month, is a wee stone house. Built in 1430, the owner believes it might be the oldest house on Gozo. It is like a little cave inside. Limestone dust falls on us while we're inside the house, trying to stay cool. And it has a rooftop that I go and sit on in the morning to read my Bible. 

Here is the view from the roof top.

It is like living in Biblical times!

Not only that, but I am literally living and breathing this 'House' series in Proverbs, as I stay in these different places. Now, for example, I am literally sitting on a rooftop every morning, and here we've just looked at this verse:

It is better to live on a corner of the roof than to share the house with a nagging wife (Proverbs 21:9, CJB).

Here's that verse in a few translations:

It is better to live in a small corner on the roof than to share the house with a woman who is always arguing (ERV).

It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop [on the flat oriental roof, exposed to all kinds of weather] than in a house shared with a nagging, quarrelsome, and faultfinding woman (AMPC).

So, I thought we could look at this verse again --

It's funny that it's a woman who's mentioned here, not a man. Is this scripture talking about a particular propensity that women have? Is it that we talk more, therefore we have a particular propensity to verbalize things in a negative way? 

In our spiritually mismatched marriages, it is tempting to be argumentative, I guess. And us women, because we care so much about our homes -- we're the life and soul of our homes -- can be tempted to be controlling. When it comes to our faith difference, perhaps it is tempting to be negative, critical, fault-finding, and to talk about it with others as well.

The wise woman builds her house,
    but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down (Proverbs 14:1, NIV).

Negative words spoken about our spouse or children to others literally tears our house down. They are curse words spoken by our mouths that have power. 

They will cause the walls to crumble like the limestone dust that disintegrates. 

My friends, we'll do differently to this! In the SUM community we work together to grow in this area: We aim that our words spoken over our homes be like torrents of life, and that they build our families up. We don't always do this perfectly, but we try. And we want our spiritual houses to be long-standing like this wee house here.

We aim to be people of peace within our homes. We aim for our homes to be an oasis of peace. A place where the Spirit of God is felt.

Lord, let us not be quarrelsome or fault-finding to our families. Guard our tongues. Let us build our houses, not tear them down. And, finally, let our houses be long-standing, lasting for generations.

Do you have any thoughts about quarrelsomeness or fault-finding in marriage, or in a family setting?

What strategies do you have for being less quarrelsome?

What do you do if it's your spouse who is prone to be quarrelsome?

Sending love to you all,

Ann