Behold The Lamb

"Behold the Lamb of God !" - 




A story of Jesus healing and visiting our granddaughter Hannah.






Is. 11: 6 - And a little child shall lead them.




Mark 10: 15- "Assuredly, I (Jesus) say to you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it."








On Sunday, October 11, 2015, we had service at our Church like any other Sunday. I've learned to open my spiritual ears to hear what the Lord is saying in each service. Many times the Lord changes my husband's sermon, and a different topic or focus comes out after worship. Usually when this happens, it is to prepare us to walk out that word during the upcoming week. It takes on a more prophetic meaning. 




On this day my husband kept exhorting the church to "Behold the Lamb." He said it numerous times and it wasn't the sermon he had prepared. I took note of the significance of that phrase, and found the scripture it referred to. I knew the Lord was speaking to us as a family as well as a church family, and needed to pay attention to its meaning.




John 1: 29 - The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "BEHOLD! THE LAMB OF GOD" who takes away the sin of the world!




We have a family tradition of going upstate apple picking and hiking in the Catskill Mountains every fall. We were packed and ready to go after service.




We went to pick up our son John, his wife Vanessa, and Hannah our granddaughter. We were meeting the rest of our kids upstate. Upon arriving at their house, it was evident that Hannah was not feeling well and was in no condition to travel. She was ashen white, crying, and weak.




My husband and I went upstate to meet our other children. Johnny and Nessa decided to stay home and take Hannah to the doctor. Thank God they did.




Little did any of us realize how severe the situation was. Hannah was very anemic. Her hemoglobin count went down to 3.5. It is now at 13.4 which is above normal!




As soon as we finished apple picking with our other children, Grace, David and their friends, we received an emergency phone call about Hannah. Hannah was rushed by ambulance to the hospital. My husband and I cut short our trip and rushed back home to pray for our granddaughter and family in the hospital. We prayed, had our church pray, called Rhema and Ken Copeland Ministries to pray as well. We knew we were entering a battle for Hannah's life.




We made the declaration that Hannah will live and not die and declare the works (praises) of God!




Ps. 118:17 - I shall not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord. 




After making those declarations of the Word of God over Hannah, then came the fight of faith in pulling down every stronghold of thought and imagination to the contrary. The Word truly brings hope which is an anchor to the soul.




Heb. 6: 19 - This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil.




Before getting answers to the questions about what was happening with Hannah, and what caused her blood count to plummet, we had to plant our feet firmly on the Word and declare what God says about her first! We couldn't say what we saw, because it didn't look good. We had to say what we believed in the Word of God. 




The doctors themselves were baffled as to why all her blood counts and iron counts were all out of whack. Getting to the root cause was an intense journey. We prayed daily for the wisdom of God and had to pull down all speculations of what it looked like in the natural.




I remember when our firstborn son Johnny was in a struggle for his life when battling asthma as a child. He had a particularly bad attack when my husband and I were not home. While away, the Holy Spirit kept checking us to go back home. We had a babysitter watching Johnny and our other son David. The babysitter did a great job in staying calm and doing all the right things. There were no cell phones back then to notify us of an emergency, and we were not near a phone. We raced home to find Johnny asleep on the couch but struggling to breathe. He had broken capillaries in his face from trying to catch his breath. I knew by looking at him and his strained breathing that it wasn't good. My husband wanted to let him sleep. If he awoke and needed more help we would rush him to the hospital.




I had to pray many times into the morning in overcoming horrible mental images and suggestions from the enemy about his future. This particular episode, however, was fierce and the most intense I had ever faced. I knew I was confronting a spirit of death. I prayed in the Spirit for many hours and had to pull down every imagination and lie contrary to the Word of God. About 3 am, I sensed a release in my spirit, and it was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. The storm had passed in the spirit realm, and I knew he was going to be fine. At the same moment, Johnny woke up and I asked how he was doing? He said he was fine and went right back to sleep. In the natural his breathing was still strained even after taking his medicine, but the grip on him was broken. We all knew it. That was the last deadly attack he ever had. Thank God for the power of the Holy Spirit who warns us, helps us and teaches us what to do during times of intense confrontation against forces of darkness.




2 Cor. 10: 4 - 5 - For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, vs. 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.




The thoughts and arguments coming against my mind was an attack against my son's calling. Only by praying in the Spirit and listening and declaring what God said in His Word about my son, helped to bring supernatural deliverance over the spirit of death! Now, Johnny leads worship at our church, he's a professional trumpet player, which needs a strong set of lungs, and a High School music teacher. 




Well, this fight for Hannah's life reminded me of that time when fighting for my son's life. Hannah had been teething and when in pain and wanted to drink more and more milk. When she drank too much milk, she would throw it up, depleting any nutrient absorption. It became a cycle of pain relief for her to keep drinking milk rather than solid food which hurt her mouth. Little did any of us realize that drinking too much milk could actually harm a person by causing anemia, which left uncorrected, could cause death. 




It doesn't happen in all children, but in Hannah's case, her drinking too much milk blocked the absorption of iron and nutrients. This caused her hemoglobin count to plummet, her iron stores to be depleted, which elevated her white blood count to compensate for all the losses. Even her heart had to work harder. Thank God that in the midst of turning this around for Hannah, the Lord was present every step of the way, touching Hannah, and giving all of us His Word to help us through.




Of course the doctors had to rule out everything before coming to any conclusions. This was a tough process, because we needed wisdom to hear what was happening in Hannah's body but at the same time pray for all her blood count numbers to turn around supernaturally. 




We as pray-ers need to know exactly what to pray and ask for. We can't bury our heads in the sand and hope that the tests and trials of life will just go away. No, every conflict in life requires that we face it, confront the issues at hand, overcome it by hearing what God says about it, and then do what He tells us to do.




While Hannah was in the hospital she needed a blood transfusion to bring her blood count back up. For a toddler close to two years old, this can be tough on their bodies in excepting foreign blood. We prayed as a family and had our worship music playing from church. A new song about the mighty name of Jesus came on. I remembered how my husband kept telling the church earlier that day to "Behold the Lamb." That phrase came forward in my spirit, I took note of it and realized it was for such a time as this!




Heb. 12: 2 - looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.




Not only did Jesus, the lamb of God, take away the sin of the world, he conquered death and all the sickness and disease that goes along with it.




Heb. 2: 14 - 15 - ... that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, vs. 15 and RELEASE those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.




One of the evenings when Hannah was in the hospital I asked the Lord what specifically to pray for? The Holy Spirit led me to pray for her belly. I learned that the place of an attack, is an attack against the person's calling or assignment in life. I realized that out of our bellies shall flow rivers of living water. The belly represents the place where the Holy Spirit resides in believers. Hannah is going to be used mightily by the Holy Spirit, and is already very sensitive to the spiritual realm. I prayed that her belly both naturally and spiritually will receive the proper nutrients, hold on to them, and be assimilated correctly into her body.




Little did I realize that this prayer would be answered directly by Jesus himself visiting and touching Hannah in the hospital.




Hannah was released from the hospital after two days. In the weeks following, her hemoglobin blood counts rose faster than the doctors said, and her white blood cell count, which was highly elevated, began to decrease and normalize. Her iron stores were on the rise as well. It was a supernatural turn around! 




A couple of weeks later, Johnny, Vanessa and Hannah were home watching a show. It was called, It's Supernatural with Sid Roth. On this program they were interviewing Gary Wood, who was supernaturally touched and healed by Jesus after dying in an accident. Hannah was crying to watch one of her children's shows. All of a sudden she became quiet while watching the re-enactment of Jesus touching Gary Wood in the hospital. Hannah recognized Jesus on the TV and said, "Jeez!" She then sat down between her parents, listened attentively, and kissed both of them. Unusual for a toddler. 




Noticing the change in Hannah's countenance, Vanessa asked Hannah if Jesus visited her in the hospital? In her cute little two year old vocabulary, Hannah said, "Yes, JEEZ, BELLY, HANNAH!" (Hannah calls Jesus, Jeez) 




Hannah described exactly where Jesus touched her to bring a healing. This was a confirmation to what the Lord instructed me to pray for weeks earlier. 




I also remembered a prophesy given by Jerry Savelle at the beginning of 2015, at a Believers Convention with Kenneth Copeland. I'll just summarize it here and give the headline, for the sake of space and time.








Jesus demonstrated His love to our granddaughter by touching her, healing her, and visiting her in the hospital. This was enough to make anyone cry and shout for joy, but there's more.




At Christmas time our family went to see our town Christmas parade. We also went to see our son Johnny play Christmas Carols in a band the same night. To the side of the band was the town Manger. Our town has a tradition of taking the baby Jesus out of the Manger until Christmas Day. 




Hannah was drawn to the Manger because one of her favorite toys in the whole world is her fisher price Mary person, from her own Manger set. Throughout her entire ordeal in the hospital and even at home recovering, she held on to her little Mary as a source of comfort. It's her little pal and friend that Hannah shares everything with, and I mean everything! Hannah takes Mary everywhere she goes, even to the doctors appointments.




It was so adorable watching Hannah looking at the Manger during the Christmas Carols and parade. We had to take some pictures of it. No one else seemed to be as interested in the Manger as Hannah. She stared to the left of where baby Jesus should have been. 




When I got home and looked at the picture more closely, I began to see the image of Christ's face to the left behind one of the shepherds. Even though the traditional baby Jesus was removed, our Jesus was still there! Hannah was "Beholding the Lamb," as He was beholding her and all of us. Jesus was MANIFESTING Himself in an unusual way. This MANIFESTATION was a DEMONSTRATION of the love of Jesus in a simple but profound way that could be so easily missed! 




Many times we can be so busy that we don't slow down enough to notice when God may be trying to speak to us or show us something.




I am so glad that I was able to notice a blessed demonstration of Jesus love through manifesting Himself in the picture with Hannah. It so blessed me that I made it our Christmas card for 2015. (It's the picture at the top of this blog)




Jesus took the time to love and show Himself to our little Hannah, who was in such a time of need. I love how He loves us all so uniquely. Jesus is amazing!




There was another parable that I found to be interesting in the midst of all the trials in the fall. The doctors had to schedule Hannah's milk use within certain time frames. Her milk use had to decrease to a certain amount of ounces per day, and only given an hour after eating solid foods. This allows for vitamin, iron and nutrient absorption.




I have been studying about spiritual maturity the last couple of months. I have been going over the scriptures referring to those that partake only of milk to being babes, and those that eat meat, likened to those becoming mature.




Heb. 5: 13 - 14 - For everyone who partakes ONLY of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. Vs. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, (mature) that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.




It takes the wisdom of God to hear the parables of
life. We must have ears to hear what the Lord is speaking to us individually and corporately.




I never knew that drinking too much milk and not eating enough solids at the right time can actually cause anemia. Milk can block the absorption of iron and nutrients causing anemia. If left untreated, severe anemia can cause premature death!




In the midst of this trial I learned to keep looking to Jesus no matter what the circumstances looked like (Behold the Lamb). I also learned that in order to go on to maturity we need to receive the meat of the Word (truth) and not just milk alone.




Hannah, like all of us, can crave milk as a pain reliever. Milk is creamy, smooth and comforting. It's fine in its place and dosage. Milk is to our bodies, as wanting to hear nice comforting words is to our soul. If all we feed on however, is the milk of what our ears want to hear in being comforted, and we refuse the meat of truth, then we too will become anemic, spiritually speaking.




God in His goodness wants us all to grow up and come into full measure of maturity in Christ. He doesn't want any of us suffering from spiritual anemia or worse, pre-mature death. 




Our development can only take place when we stay rooted in the Word of God, grounded by love in our families, and planted in the Church that God has called us to.




Eph. 4: 11- 16 - And He (Christ) Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying (building up) of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect (mature) man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. 14. That we should no longer be CHILDREN, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of DOCTRINE, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the TRUTH in LOVE, may GROW UP in all things into Him who is the head - Christ. 16 from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its SHARE, causes the GROWTH of the body for the edifying of itself in LOVE.