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The Timelessness of God! Jennifer Lynn Joy © 2000My friend, Angela, called overflowing with excitement about a liquidation sale that was taking place at Craft Warehouse Store in downtown Portland. As the Holy Spirit had asked me to discontinue reading newspapers and secular magazines, listening to the radio, or watching TV four years earlier, I was positioned to completely trust HIM for any information HE wanted to provide. We planned to go ribbon shopping on Saturday, February 26, 2000 in the early afternoon. Often in ministry, there are financial challenges similar to the budget challenges that are faced in every day family life. Therefore, a supernatural event such as this was a blessing beyond comprehension and an overt answer to intercessory prayers. The LORD spoke to Angela that she could spend $222.22 and when I asked HE said, $50.50. There is not any way to describe the fullness of my delight, gratitude and joy at filling to overflowing a grocery cart with ribbons for Glory Rings! This was the single greatest provision of supplies the ministry had ever experienced. Faith and perseverance are twins in the Christian Faith, each intrinsically connected to the other. As you might have experienced, sometimes shopping takes a little longer than expected. In the natural realm, it was difficult to estimate how many yards of ribbons would equate to the funds available. We went forward in faith, tossing into the basket what we believed the Holy Spirit was speaking to us as HIS choices. At the check out stand - exactly! $272.72. The accuracy of GOD’s word completely undid me and so strengthened my faith. In an email to a precious friend in California I wrote the following on Monday, February 28, 2000. …we got 8000 yards of ribbon for .02 cents each (average). Some of the ribbon was .001 cent per yard. It was 50% off of 50% off of 50% off….1/8th the original cost. That was the best I have ever seen GOD provide for the ministry. Blew me away…..not to mention we were quite intoxicated under the power of the Holy Spirit. The Saturday afternoon appointment was with a future landlord in Corvallis, Oregon at 5pm. At this season in my life I was employed full-time as a Human Resource Administrator and in ministry full-time in the evenings and on weekends. Sometimes when one is employed full-time and in ministry full-time, Saturdays can become quite full for all that needs to be accomplished. This was one of those overflowing days. Upon leaving the craft store, I noticed it was 4 pm, simply not possible to make the two-hour trip (minimum) to Corvallis. Angela and I stood outside the store while I called my son, Shawn, who was living in Corvallis at the time. Shawn was a senior in Engineering at Oregon State University in addition to working at an engineering firm on the weekends and between classes. I asked him if he would meet the landlord at the potential rental house. Since I had received a prophetic word earlier that year that I was moving from Gilgal to Bethel and the address was on Bethel Street, I was fairly confident this was the house GOD had prepared for me. Unfortunately, I did not have the landlord’s phone numbers with me and I did not want to miss the opportunity to look at the house. My son responded as any engineer might and we had a brief discussion of my needing to be more accountable for my time and my expectation of him to leave work early to keep my appointment. He went out of his way to accommodate me in my Holy Spirit intoxicated state. The Portland, Oregon Metro Area has a reputation for impossible rush hour and weekend traffic, which adds at least an hour to any place one might like to go. At best, the reality was that I was looking at a three-hour drive and would be at least two hours late. Turning left on to Bethel Ave, then right on to Bethel Lane, and left on Bethel Street I arrived just a few minutes after 5pm. As I drove up, Shawn was just getting out of his little gray 1992 Jetta to meet the landlord. The expression on his face is imprinted in my memory. Quizzically looking at his watch he asked, “What are you doing here so soon?” Laughter was the only answer I could provide. Being an engineer he quickly calculated that even if I drove 100 miles per hour I could not make that kind of time. And yes, the house was the one the LORD had chosen for the next season in my life. All that I know is that GOD moved me and a little green car to keep an appointment that was important to HIM for me to keep. The LORD GOD is more powerful than I will ever comprehend. GOD has HIS ways, which continue to astound me daily. This redemption of time or transportation in time has occurred many times since. I share this particular testimony because there were witnesses at both ends of the miracle and it was so overtly an expression of GOD’s supernatural power. The following Scripture is a foundation for our ministry since 1997 when Kay made my first set of ministry cards, insisting that I was in ministry even though I was very resistant to be identified as one in ministry. “For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to generations forever and ever.” (Ephesians 3:14-21) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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