Listen can you hear the birds this morning? The winter has past. The time for singing of birds has come!
Our son is getting a flight home today. He is staying near the bus station. He heard the birds singing as daylight was rising. He has company for his morning travel.
Neuroscientists have done research on the nervous system. More and more people are suffering from mental stress. There is too much news and information coming at us from the media. Many of us can’t cope.
The resulting distress drives us to the doctor who suggests medication to help bring peace. Or perhaps drive us to drink or other forms of self medication.
The scientists have found that bird song has a calming effect on our nerves. Listening to the birds brings healing to our mind.
Listen for a bird singing these mornings, whether you live in the city or country. A blackbird lives in a small hedge in the front of my daughter’s house in Belfast.
Listening and seeing the birds brought healing to me when I lived in Portaferry. I have written a book called “Look at the Birds.”
The gulls have reared their young and have gone fishing in the Irish Sea. They are doing what they were born to do.
There are threats from our neighbours. They want to cover over our chimney so the gulls won’t nest there next year. What excitement we would miss.
The behaviour of the mother gull to defend her young has spoken to me this summer. She stood watch over her young for hours, days and weeks until they were fully grown.
She dived down to anyone whom she thought was a threat. As parents do we fiercely attack anything or person that may attack our young? We have spent hours, days, nights, months and years caring for our young; keeping watch, feeding and helping them do what they were born to do.
In the my experience growing up in the country in Ireland, extended family and community helped each other. There were Godly values we adhered to.
Nowadays having a big family is frowned upon. The world offers pills and abortions to get rid of children you didn’t plan for. Doctors get paid extra to sterilise and remove wombs. The parents are left to rear their family themselves. Self control is needed to look after our young. One can’t be selfish. Is there anyone to help?
Children are for life not just as cuddly babies. They turn into rebellious teenagers who can’t wait to be adult and get away from the ones who reared them. No wonder some parents are perplexed and in despair.
I take hope in the Word of God. It tells me your work will be rewarded. God who made the heavens and the earth said he would care for me.
Isaiah 45 v 12 I am the one who made the earth and created people to live in it. With my hand I stretched out the heavens. All the millions of stars are at my command. 46 v 3 I created you and cared for you before you were born. I will be your God throughout your lifetime until your hair is white with age.
It is so good to trust in the God who made the heavens and the earth . Even the birds of the air speak to us about him.
I continue to distribute my book “Look at the Birds”. If you haven’t got a copy download from Kindle Amazon.co.uk If you are a mobile phone person, having a copy on kindle is easy to access when you have a minute to spare. I can quickly read a book on kindle.
I am encouraged after reading from Job yesterday.
Job 12 v 7
Ask the animals and they will teach you. Ask the birds of the sky and they will tell you. Speak to the earth and it will instruct you. Let the fish of the sea speak to you. For the life of every living thing is in His (The Lord) hand.
Two dolphin have been swimming in Strangford Lough these last few months. They appear near the ferry on the Strangford side.
Their appearance is attracting many visitors. The dolphin are responding to all the attention. They jump and twirl in the water.
My son told me he has noticed the dolphin are attracted by music he plays in his vehicle. My grandchildren are delighted. They get to swim with the dolphins nearby in Strangford Lough.
A Sea Gull and two chicks have been on our chimney stack for some weeks now. We have got used to the mother’s calls and flurries overhead when we go to our car. I hear the whistles of her young from my workshop window.
Last week when I returned from shopping, in my neighbours front path a young sea gull was sheltering. It had mottled feathers, a sharp black beak and black feet. It tried to walk away balanced by his broad wings. But it limped. One of its legs was injured. Our neighbour asked advice from the RSPB. There was no answer. Her son lifted the bird and returned it to the mother out his skylight window.
I was visiting my elderly neighbour, Elizabeth on Sunday. I brought her a bunch of sweet pea. I heard she had family visiting on Monday. Brendan has grown sweet pea in our garden after he heard that Elizabeth’s father used to bring her sweet pea every week.
Next day she called Brendan and I to see her display of sweet pea on her piano. She was overwhelmed by the bunch of flowers. She said yesterday was the 72 anniversary of her father’s funeral which left from her home. We did not know that.
While sitting in her living room I heard noises coming from her blocked up fireplace. Elizabeth said she heard a few noises but thought it was movement from our living room. We thought a baby seagull may be behind there.
Her visitor was arriving any minute. What was an eighty three year old lady to do with a bird in her front room fireplace? It was closed up for fifty years! She didn’t relish the thought of soot all over her carpet or a black seabird flying round her room if released.
She waited to ring RSPB after her relatives left. She made a phone call, was through to an answering machine , advising her to beware of bird flu if you touch a seagull. They were noone to help. The machine operated voice advised her to call the RSPA. Again no help .
Next morning Brendan and I came to the rescue. Bird flu or not that bird needed rescued now from the trap. How long was it there? Was it still alive? Psalm 91 v 3 says the Lord releases us from the fowler’s snare. The bird would die if we didn’t help it.
How often does one get trapped in life with no one to help . We can face death. We need to rescue people from traps they can’t get free from.
Brendan opened the cover and there was a timid young chick! I reached down and held it. It had no strength to fly out of my hands. A little bird came to the very room where Elizabeth plays her piano to worship God.
We released it onto the roof again . Seagulls gathered overhead when they saw the young bird! It was lost but now was found.
It’s Sunday morning again. My neighbour Elizabeth who is eighty two years old, has just finished playing Worship music in her front room. I can listen and join with her in Spirit next door.
She played the organ for many years in a large church down town in Belfast. She lead the congregation in Worship to Our Heavenly Father every Sunday for many years till her retirement.
Her front room is her Cathedral and I am her congregation.
Back in December Elizabeth had a few setbacks. She strained her shoulders as she stretched to do some housework. The doctors diagnosed arthritis. She took prescribed medication.
Her hands and wrists were so sore she stopped playing her music. The piano fell silent. I visited her and encouraged her. She asked me to pray.
To add to her difficulties she fell when out walking. She fractured her left hand finger and was bruised all over. She had a lonely Christmas, without her usual invite out for Christmas Day.
Elizabeth is a fighter. She is an overcomer. She trusts in God who has been her companion all her days. She is healed from all pain. She is playing her piano again. Elizabeth is like the snowdrop that appears again after dark days.
Her praises to God ring out in my street in Belfast. As a Chorus goes “God’s not dead, no He is alive.” The big Churches may be closed down but Praise is still happening in Elizabeth’s front room.
Happy New Year to all my readers. Everyone wants to win the lottery. Everyone would not refuse money. I am offering you today something that is better than fine gold and it is free.
I’ve started reading from my daily Bible again. A little bit of scripture every day. Why not start the New Year with reading from the scripture. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
I have studied at university but I didn’t find out the truth about how to live on the earth with others. I studied about history, nature and gained much knowledge. My first essay was on the Origin of Man. My teachers were denying the truth that God created man and woman and that they were created in God’s image. They tried to tell me we evolved from apes!
I am on day five of reading the Bible. There is so much basic truth for life on the first chapters of the bible. God spoke to me when I read Genises 1 forty six years ago. I learnt that God who created the heavens and the earth made me in his image and told me to increase and multiply. God blessed me with fourteen children and twenty five grandchildren since I read that word. I received faith when I read those words.
I can assure you that if you pick up a bible and start reading it God will speak to you through the words you read. You can start anywhere. Your mind will be renewed.
Our countries in the west are proud of their universities. They are sources of knowledge. Poorer countries are envious and would love the opportunity to go there. But our centres of learning fill us with more knowledge. God told Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of good and evil. They disobeyed. We are descendants of Adam and Eve. We are full of the knowledge of good and evil. We are gods in our own mind. We feel we don’t need to submit to anyone. We know what is good and evil.
When I open Facebook I see advertisements for how to live better, loose weight, look younger, heal yourself, eat this, don’t eat that. The best way to live is by doing it according to God’s will and not our own. Not by might, not by power but by His Holy Spirit.
One can live on the earth but if we don’t submit to the One who is God of gods and Lord of lords we will not have eternal life. Read the Bible and you will get to know the truth.
Study the Bible. From the mother at home, the factory worker, the prisoner to the lorry driver you can listen or read the Bible as you work. There are so many ways of accessing the bible, radio, cds, pod casts etc.
I found much of the truth I know about child rearing and healing from reading the Bible, a little every day. Start your new career today by reading the Bible for yourself in this New Year. I’m giving you a gift that is better than fine gold.
There is a chorus that goes “All over the world the Spirit is moving”. I say Amen to that.
Brendan and I are just back from a mission to Slovakia. We were well received in the Conference and other small groups we were invited to.
Brendan majored on teaching on how to receive the Holy Spirit with speaking in the language God gives. He says if it was good enough for Mary, Jesus mother and Peter and the other apostles why not receive like they did. It’s a big shock for some to know that Mary spoke in tongues. I majored on deliverance and healing.
The Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost to give the disciples Power to be witnesses for Jesus. The church was born.
The devil has power. He said to Jesus in the wilderness when he took Jesus to a high place “If you bow down and worship me I will give you all these kingdoms. ” Jesus replied you must worship God alone so get out of here.
When Jesus was crucified on the cross and died He defeated Satan. He broke the power of death and hell and sin to save the whole world from the power of Satan. People don’t know they are under the power of Satan if they don’t believe and obey Jesus.
Jesus told his mother, family and his disciples to wait in Jerusalem to receive power from on high. The Holy Spirit came and gave them power to cast out demons, heal the sick and raise the dead.
The Holy Spirit is described in Ezekiel 47 and Revelation 22 as the river that flows from the temple. Wherever the water flows everything shall live. There will be no curse. Salty water becomes fresh with fish living in it. Trees grow on each side of the river bearing fruit. The leaves do not wither but are for healing the nations.
If you want to live, be healed, bear fruit and catch fish get planted beside the river of God and let your roots grow deep. Pray in the Spirit at all times and you will not sin or get sick and you can do the work Jesus gave you to do.
Your work may be being a father, a mother, a schoolgirl or boy, farmer, pensioner, doctor, lawyer, servant etc. You will have power to do it well.
Here is a testimony about what the living God has done for a family in Slovakia.
I was invited to speak about having fourteen children and how God healed me of Cancer to children in a school in Trnava, Slovakia. The children were aged from fourteen years to eighteen years old.
It was a bit formidable at first standing before a crowd of children and their teachers. I remembered that over the years I had to interact with my own teenage boys and girls just like the audience before me.
When I told them I had fourteen children I got their attention. I went on to tell them about my family, my children just like them, praying for me to be healed of cancer. Jesus said to pray to the Father in his name and the Father would answer their prayers.
“Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. (John 16:23 NIV)
I encouraged them to help and pray for their parents just like my children did for me. I blessed the school children and gave them a copy of my book Staying Alive.
Six young people stayed behind and asked me to pray for them. One of the young ladies began to cry. She told me her mother was going into hospital the next day for an operation for Cancer. I prayed for her mother and asked the Father in Jesus name to heal her just as he had healed me.
Two months later I received an email from the young lady. She told me her mother was pregnant and the doctors could not believe it. When one has cancer and undergoes treatment one of the side effects is infertility. The doctors warned her there could be abnormality with the child. A healthy strong baby boy was born some months later.
The mother went for tests to check for cancer later. She got the all clear. The doctors were amazed. This mother is enjoying life with her new baby boy. Jesus promises to give us life and give it more abundantly.
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10:10 KJV)
I tell this story to give Glory to God who is healing people today. Jesus, when he was on Earth healed people of all diseases. As God has comforted me and my family, he wants to do the same for others.
Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; (2 Corinthians 1:3 KJV) who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. (2 Corinthians 1:4 NIV)
People often ask why I quote the scriptures. I believe the scriptures are the inspired word of God and I repeat what God says. I give testiment to the fulfilment of what God has said. His word promises that he will answer our prayers to heal and he does. It is not in my power this lady was healed. It was through the power of the name of Jesus.
What God, the Creator of the Universe has done for me and this lady from Trnava, he can do for you.
It was a beautiful warm morning. Brendan and I went for a drive to Newcastle Co Down on Sunday last. We stopped at Dundrum market along the way. I remembered many days bringing our children there, walking around the stall holders and stopping for a chat. We ended the morning with sausages and chips. It was good to be back. Corona virus closed down the market for two years.
I met a man later in the day called Gordon. Brendan told him I was healed of cancer twelve years ago. He responded to say he had cancer eleven years ago. I wanted to hear more.
He was in hospital for tests. The doctor told him he had third stage throat cancer. He had a tumour the size of a walnut. The doctors said it was too difficult to operate. When Gordon heard what the doctors said he didn’t panic. He began to consider his situation. He wasn’t ready to die. He wanted to live but the doctor’s forecast was grim.
Gordon had been a preacher of the gospel in his youth. In his work place he found young men would come to him for advice. He would always be there to listen to their troubles and encourage them over their difficulties . He would nudge them towards Jesus.
Now he was in trouble. In Psalm 91 God’s Word promises He will be with you in trouble. With long life will I satisfy you. God reached down to Gordon in his hour of distress.
In the next weeks the tumour grew to the size of an orange. The doctors decided to operate even though there was a risk of interfering with important arteries to the brain. They removed the tumour.
Gordon showed me a photo taken after the operation. There were two long lines of staples across the side of his neck like the photo below. I looked for the scars. His wounds had healed and were barely visible. He endured further treatments in hospital. He had the will to live. Eleven years on he is healed of cancer. Because Gordon helped others in their troubles God reached down and helped him in his trouble.
I thought of the scripture, By his stripes you are healed. Jesus shed his blood from his wounds so our wounds can be healed. If we believe in the great physician we will be healed.
Gordon continues to have a listening ear to young men. He doesn’t condemn but helps each one practically and perhaps says a quiet prayer for them. God is faithful. As we live for Him he cares for us.
God not only died to forgive our sins, he heals and restores our lives. He helps us to live again despite despair and hardship. There is no other God who is merciful. He is worthy to be praised. Amen.
You can find me on Google map. We had someone visit us recently. Before she came she checked out our address on google map . When she arrived she kept looking up at a neighbour’s chimney. She said where is the tree? On google map she had noticed a small sapling growing out of a chimney. You’ll be pleased to say it was removed earlier in the year. The whole chimney had to be dismantled and rebuilt at great expense to the owner.
Back to this morning. I having coffee in my local Cafe Nero’s. Outside the window two lorries parked up. Men unloaded disbatches of boxes of alcohol to the neighbouring shop, an off licence. Plenty of bottles of wine, cans of larger and spirits. The shop is restocking its supplies for the holiday weekend.
Many people are thirsty. Will the alcoholic drinks quench their thirst? No they don’t. Next day one can awake and be thirsty again. Jesus said to the woman at the well He would give her water she would never thirst again. What is this water?
The Holy Spirit is the water Jesus promised. Believe in Jesus and receive this water that will quench your thirsty soul. The water will bring healing, restoration, refreshing and new life. It doesn’t bring a hangover or pain or guilt.
What is so special about this weekend. Do you know? To me it is very special. I am reminded of the One who came from heaven to live and show me that God is my Father. He died for me on the cross, rose from the dead and sent the Holy Spirit to help me and comfort me and lead me into truth. He raised me from nearly dying of cancer and I am alive.
Healed of Cancer. Angela McCauley 