Northern Farmer

Monday evening and the wind is howling outside, temperature is plummeting fast and tomorrows supposed to be a cold one. But today was one of the most beautiful days this October around here before the wind switched in late afternoon. But that’s history. I was going to post last evening but we went visiting instead. And anybody that’s ever read anything around here knows that I like visiting. Pretty long trip too, six miles, almost out of my range!

Around here though visiting the saints, fellow believers in Christ, is not only a social thing, it really lifts a person up. Talking about faith, encouraging each other, and just some general down home visiting, country stuff. When a person has burdens on them, visiting can destroy that yoke. And it happens every time! I’ve noticed that healing comes faster when amongst the believers. I was thinking about that today, when the power of God is present in a house, things happen. But it only makes sense, every believer carries an anointing, the perpetual propulsion of the power of God, and when they get together and are in one accord things happen.

But in visiting my favorite thing is once in a while some of the old stories of faith and the power of God. There sure are some good ones with one of my favorite time periods being pre television days, the simpler days before this modern society tore up the homes and made faith a luke warm thing in many homes. Back when faith was a way of life, not a sideline or a social status symbol to show folks in the community how important we are. Not just a Sunday thing. No, it was life! And being around people where that way of life is coming back can really lift a person up.

One of my favorite stories, true story is from around eighty years ago or so from out in the rural areas, in the hills and hollers, when things were really rural. Back then folks were starting to get the Holy Ghost, filled with the Spirit, and it wasn’t looked at to kindly by many folks. But this one lady back then, she was married to one heck of an ornery husband, in fact folks knew that he had murdered people in his past, one mean cuss. Well, her two daughters had gotten filled with the Spirit some time before and got the heck out of that house, but the mamma, she was just a praying to get filled with the Spirit, hungry for it. There was some holiness meetings being held just down the road and she wanted to go in the worst way, being drawn to it by the Spirit. But her husband said ”Woman, if’n you go down to that there holiness meeting I’m gonna kill you”, and he meant it. Meaner than a rattler! But one evening when he was a bit drunk and fell off to sleep that lady, she just had to go down to the meeting, even with that threat on her. She went on down and was a praying and a praising but then had to get on back to their shack, and on the way home the Holy Ghost just took over and she was a whoopin and a singing. Now the folks down at the meeting knew that that snake of a husband would kill her, sure as heck and they followed along back a ways and were a praying and praying for her. When she got home her husband was waiting at the door with a loaded pistol and said, “Woman, you done did it and now your gonna get it!” That lady went down on her knees and cried, begging for mercy, “Please don’t kill me!”, but that husband put that old pistol right up to her head and pulled the trigger, the gun barked out but the wife was unhurt. He pulled the trigger again at point blank range and she didn’t go down. The church folks were praying up a storm all the while, and he shot the remaining four shots into her head and she wasn’t even fazed except for some minor powder burns, but she didn’t even have any ringing in her ears. The husband started shaking and fell flat down on his face, crying and became born again and a new man that very moment. He went on to become a powerful preacher in the hills with a loving wife by his side. And this story is true, I left out family names, but what a testimony!

It’s the old stories like that one that really showed what folks would go through back in days gone by to follow Jesus. It lifts a person up hearing some of them old stories and builds up faith. And today the miracles and wonders continue to happen everywhere Jesus is called Lord. Ain’t no different then back during the book of Acts, no different than eighty years ago, no different at all.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 30th, 2006 at 8:17 pm and is filed under Northern Farmer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.