Mind, Heart, Supernatural Miracles & Restoration.

     So to be totally 100% honest with both myself and whoever may be reading this post- there are times where it's really hard to wrap my mind around the supernatural part of God. My spirit literally comes alive with the miracles and testimonies of God doing crazy things, and I always think “oh I would give anything to see this, or be a part of this!” But, on the other hand, when I do see these things happen, I go from a state of shock- to a battle with my mind saying to me: Did that really just happen?? There MUST be an explanation for this. But I know in my heart it really is a miracle from God.

     I've noticed in my relationship with God, my mind gets in the way too much. I think recently God's really shown me so much in His word, where I use to read the word “heart” and interpret it as the word “mind”. But it's my heart that God speaks to (and when I say my heart I mean my spirit, which He speaks to through His Spirit), and this can be through thoughts, impressions, the Bible, journaling, ect. But when I take my mind and try to figure something out on my own, I often find I completely cut God out of the situation. 

     Before coming to iDestiny, I would see on their facebook page where they would post photos of people sticking coins to the wall through the power of God. Again, just being honest, this kind of scared me... but I was already accepted and God confirmed again and again and again that I was suppose to go to this school. Part of me thought 'God wouldn't stick coins to the wall... why would God do that??' But I guess when I think about it, there is so many crazy things that God does in the Bible, that just doesn't fit in any kind of box I could possibly try to put Him in. I think sometimes when we try to fit God or Jesus or the Spirit into our 'culture' this just makes Him laugh. But that's just my thought. :)

     Well, my first week here, Timo (our teacher) mentioned the coin thing that happened at the last school. I think he even phrased it like “why would God stick coins to the wall- yet in our last school our students had coins stuck all over the walls!” (probably not his exact words, but it was just a casual mention of this as he walked out of the room. This immediately sparked the attention of one of the students who grabbed a coin and ran to the wall because he had to see this for himself.
So he prayed....

....stuck the coin to the wall...

....Let go....

....AND....

...the coin fell.

     But, he didn't give up. I honestly didn't believe with my head, or my heart, that the coin was going to stay. And I watched this guy try over and over again... each time the coin fell. Finally, it looked like he was going to give up- he placed the coin on the wall, and didn't even hold it there- or pray this time... his body language looked as if it were his last attempt and he had already given up. He turned to walk away as he took his hand off the coin. He took two steps and realized, the coin didn't fall. I think we were all completely shocked. It just stayed up on the wall.

    I couldn't stop laughing- I think I just didn’t know what to do because of what I just witnessed... so I just laughed and laughed and couldn't stop. Everyone in the room was in shock- and others joined in with trying to put coins on the wall. But the guy who originally tried over and over fell to His knees, because he had just witnessed a miracle.

(first coin that stuck after many attempts)

     Where before, I would have said- 'God wouldn't do that'... I now can say, after watching the whole thing, I saw a guy with such faith in God, try over and over again to see if God would grant his wish for this small little miracle. And why would God do this? God saw this students heart... and to me, why wouldn't God do something like this for one of His children? If you are reading this, I know it may sound completely crazy... and you really don't have to agree with, or believe what I'm saying. It really won't offend me. :)
     After the 'shock' wore off, we were all trying to stick coins to the wall. I tried, and failed, but I noticed that the guy who originally stuck the first coin to the wall, he is the one who usually gets the coins to stick the most. After a few more coins stuck to the wall, my mind began to tell me- oh it's just because the wall is sticky... but after feeling the wall, I knew there was no way.. even if I licked a coin and pushed it to the wall with a lot of force- it wouldn't stick. Even still- there was a small metal part on a door- in my heart I said 'if it sticks to the metal, then it's definitely God.' Sure enough, the coin stuck to the metal.

(first coin that stayed on the metal)

     A few days later we went into the boys house, and saw coins all over the walls. One of the guys told us they have been there for days without falling. Even still to this day, when we go into their house, there are coins all over the walls. 

     But- this blog wasn't to write about coins... it was to show the battle between my heart and my mind on the supernatural side of God. But today, God did something so supernatural in my life... something I've always wanted Him to do (because I loose a lot of things)... and again I was so shocked when it happened I fell over on the counter laughing because I didn't know how else to respond to the miracle.

     Let me start the story with a story from a sermon I heard by Bill Johnson a few months ago. He was telling many testimonies of people who had had things that were lost restored to them supernaturally. Most of the time, the people would cry out to God, saying “Lord, I want my _____ back!” The stories ranged from knives, wallets, briefcases, rings... ect. In most of the testimonies, the lost items lost appear right in front of them.

     When I heard these testimonies, I thought, 'oh how cool it would be for that to happen to me, since I'm so good at loosing things'. Since then I have lost many things, and many times I have cried out to God “God, please give me back my ______”. As I ask I remember all the testimonies I've heard about God restoring lost items (I've heard a lot more since I listened to that one sermon). Although none of them never appeared before me, I usually ended up finding them.

     Well, three days ago I lost my keys. These keys were to my house, and my bike chain. This made it very difficult because I can't go anywhere alone since I always have to have someone with me to lock my bike to theirs, or have them let me into the house. I remember the last time I had my keys, I had my backpack full of groceries, and when leaving the grocery store I unlocked my bike chain, and tried to drop the keys into this backpack that was so full it couldn't close all the way. In my head I thought 'these keys are going to get lost'... But I didn't listen. Sure enough when I got home the keys were not in the backpack.

I looked through the backpack for 2 days... and even looked all over our house- but no keys. This morning, I just couldn't believe the keys were really officially lost... I needed those keys because I really couldn't afford to buy a new bike lock! My heart was aching and I began to have those 'why me' thoughts. I turned my whole backpack inside out, completely empty... nothing. I went downstairs and told my roommate, 'well... my keys are definitely gone.' I was putting my shoes on as I said this and we were about to leave out the kitchen door. My room mate said “Jesus, please give Camille her keys back.' And I smiled and said, “God, I just want my keys!!” 

     As I stood up to leave I asked my roommate, “have u ever heard Bill Johnson's stories about the lost items being returned?” She hadn't but started to tell me of a story from someone in their church who had lost luggage in the airport, when she stopped mid-sentence, picked up something sitting right on the counter and asked “Camille, are these your keys?” In her hand, were my keys. I couldn't even answer her because I was laughing so hard from shock. I know my keys were not on that counter before- I had just made my breakfast on that counter, and the night before we had 9 people in our house and we all cooked together in that kitchen... the day before that I had looked everywhere in the house... those keys were not there, and especially not sitting right on the counter!!!

When I got to school I told my other roommates about the keys. First, asking if they had found them, and they said no. My head still has a hard time wrapping around the whole story, but I know God returned my keys to me that fell out of my backpack on my way home from the store 3 days ago. If you are reading this, trust me, I know how hard it is to believe something like this- and I promise I'm not trying to sell this story to you- I won't be offended at all if you don't believe in it... it happened to me and my mind still has a hard time believing it, because it keeps trying to make sense of it all... 

But that's the fun thing about miracles... they don't really make sense. :)