The Garden Miracle: Part 2 of 2

The next day came and went without the garden being watered.  I was saddened that all the beautiful vegetables would rot and die.  As I reminisced, I recalled Jim often picked vegetables and told me to give them to this person or that one.  It was then I realized Jim himself picked the vegetables. I was only allowed to go in there when he told me to. The garden was HIS garden, and I needed his permission to enter it.

My heart was broken.  All this was my fault.  What shall I do?  I called my daughter, Paulette and told her the story.  After listening, she told me to go up into the garden and pray.

“Mom, speak life into that garden, everytime you look out at it call it fruitful and abundant…never call it dry and dying. Speak God’s Word over it everyday. Even though you are looking at a dried up garden, call it a fruitful garden…call those things that be not as though they were.” (Romans 4:17 & 2 Corinthians 4:18)

I quickly hung up the phone, grabbed my Bible and ran up to the garden. I flung open the gate and hurried along the path that divided the garden from left to the right.  I placed my Bible on the parched soil.  I said to myself, this feels like the Sahara Desert.  I then read the scriptures slowly out loud.

I prayed, “Lord, I’m not looking at this dry soil, but I’m looking to You.  Your Word brings life to the non-existent, so I call this garden as though it were alive.”

I stayed a while, prayed some more thanking the Lord for taking care of the garden and slowly and thoughtfully made my way back to the house.

The garden was not watered any more nor did I ever bring it up to Jim. The weather was hot and dry and there wasn’t a raindrop in sight. A week or more went by, no rain.  All the plants were withering and the leaves were turning yellow.

Days would pass as I looked up at the garden, quietly and waiting. Not  being able to see through the 30” mesh wired fence any longer, I assumed the withering continued beyond my view.

Then it happened!  I awoke one morning and Jim was at the front of the house working on his car. He no longer went out the back door.  In fact he completely ignored the garden. That day I decided to visit  the garden to see what damage occurred. As I was walking up to the gate I noticed something red, surprised I hurried my steps to investigate what was going on.  There to my surprise the garden was in full bloom. I screamed and screamed,  laughed and cried. Every plant full grown and beautiful – all the squash, eggplants, string beans, zucchini, peppers and tomatoes.  It was true.  I was awe stricken.

I ran to call Jim and he came back to the garden with me to look. I saw a beautiful smile come on his face.  He and I went into the garden to examine the plants.

He said, “We can pick this, and this, and this!”

I smiled and nodded in agreement…just like a good “wife” secretly thanking God on the inside for this miracle.

The fruit was gathered and shared with the Friday night bible study for all to see and share the miracle of the garden.  There were bags and bags of beautiful, healthy, large ,and extremely tasty vegetables. Jim also apologized for his behavior realizing that the way he acted was foolish and wrong. I explained to him then why I had picked the zucchini and he was so happy that one of his prize zucchinis had put a smile on the face of woman who was in desperate need of a little happiness.

                                                          THE MIRACLE

That is what happened…a miracle!  It started with simple faith in God. Honey believed God’s Word when she spoke it, as she relied on Him to perform His Word – her miracle.  God always desires to show Himself strong, and does, when He is depended on. When you “say” all of what you believe, by speaking His Word from your heart to Him in faith, you can believe in the One who is able and never fails. 1 John 5: 10 says when we pray according to His Word He hears us, and if He hears us we have the result that we ask.  Knowing we are heard builds confidence and settles the matter. That is astounding and true!

The power to change circumstances lies in God’s Word as He and His Word are one.  There, we are on the same page as He is. Our agreement with Him, by His Word, brings the reality of our expectation to earth where we live and enjoy the victory. Instead of remaining self condemned, guilty or angry while observing circumstances, we can look to the answer, the Word of God and receive victory.

The Word of God is eternal (2 Cor 4:18) and is the power of God (Romans 1:16) when believed in our hearts.  When spoken in faith, (2 Corinthians 4:13) expecting results, change occurs. By keeping our focus on Jesus, (Isaiah 26:3 ) who is the Word of God, (John 1:14) our belief remains at ‘rest’ (Hebrews 4) as our faith is in Him for His faith to work. The faith of Jesus is all the faith we will ever need.  It’s called the “God kind of faith” (Mark 11:23)  This ‘rest’ is our inheritance.  In this case the “fruitful garden” represented our results

Please read, The post “The Word @ Work” which is coming soon, to understand establishing a simple foundation of believing.