Grief Support – Ask Jerry Mercer

How is Your Breakthrough Coming?

I wrote this phrase down a few months ago, “God is the God of our breaking through, not our peeking through!”

We shouldn’t be peeking around the corner to see how things are going; we should be looking expectantly for our breakthrough, “by faith”.

Our breakthroughs come as we are following God and His leading. God will lead us to the breakthrough and His best is found on the other side of it.

We must get real with any obstacles to realize our breakthrough. We must settle our fears before we start the following process, as we will need faith in God’s Word to pursue God’s leading. Amen!

Breakthrough by definition is to have an offensive assault, moving beyond obstacles, and along the way make an important discovery.

The opposite effect is obtained by peeking through, which by definition brings up a very interesting word: Furtive—attempting to avoid notice or attention, typically because of guilt or unbelief. Wow, this would be no boldness to go to the Father to intervene on our behalf because of our lack of faith.

So the timid or sheepish would be peeking through instead of breaking through, while the persuaded one would confidently breakthrough.

Remember the old “breakout game”, and how easy it was to score once you broke through the initial wall, it multiplied immensely not just a little, right?

The God of our breakthrough has this same superseding effect when we get past the natural obstacles and trust God to see the other side of our breakthrough.

On the other side is always a “wow” moment. I use the word “wow” a lot so I thought I would take the time to define it—a) expressing astonishment or admiration. b) strong pleasure and enthusiastic approval. Yep, this is exactly how I feel about God and His provisions. Amen!

I am always expecting to see what I am looking for with my faith.

We must see the other side of our breakthrough as we pursue it, this truly pleases God. Faith pleases God. Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Amen!

In writing this blog I just noticed that we are the ones that are to do the approaching. If we are waiting for God to break us through, we could be waiting a while! It’s time for us to take that step of approaching.

A breakthrough must be pursued to have our desired outcome.

The opposite of approaching God and receiving the breakthrough would be halted by fear. Could it be we are not trusting God enough to bring us through or are we in unbelief because of our guilt and disobedience?

We must first deal with and be honest about the fear and unbelief. God knows our hearts, so to get past the peeking through we must allow God place in our hearts and by faith receive the power of God to breakout and breakthrough. Amen!

We know when our breakthrough is happening because it makes some noise! We hear things in the spirit that are breaking the fear and unbelief off and empowering us to take the other side and stay there!

When we are fighting the good fight of faith we at times will need military tactics, we need to lay and guard some perimeters, perimeters that we won’t cross and the enemy can’t. Amen!

The “armor of God” is not just for our defense. We must have the belt of truth buckled around our waist, the breastplate of righteousness in place, the Gospel of peace fitted to our feet, and the shield of faith as our great wall of protection. And finally, after we have placed the helmet of salvation on and are all dressed up we need to start wielding the sword of the spirit, which is the “Word of God”. Amen!

We use this to cast down imaginations and pull down strongholds that are preventing our breakthrough.

You see a true breakthrough will always include a victory in the battlefield of your mind!

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says, “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” Wow!

As we take those unbelieving thoughts captive and allow the Word of God to change the way we think, we become transformed and reformed by the renewing of our minds.

We then understand God’s will and we realize that He always wants us living on the other side of our breakthrough, our faith increases in Him and we understand where and how we fit!

When you can’t see through the peek hole, BREAKTHROUGH!

Our perfected life is always lived by following the God of our breakthrough. Amen!

Never peek through when the power is always present to breakthrough.

If you need a faith boost today, please leave a comment and I will prayerfully respond.

If you liked this content, please consider signing up for my newsletter to receive emails directly.

Scriptures of encouragement and content; Psalm 32:8, Isaiah 30:21, 2 Timothy 1:7, Hebrews 11:1-6, 2 Timothy 4:7, Ephesians 6:11-18, Romans 12:2, and always praise before your breakthrough:

I’ll praise before my breakthrough

Til my song becomes my triumph

I will sing because I trust You

I will bring my heart

I will lift my song

My breakthrough always comes!

To Those Who Mourn

It seems that no matter where you sit on the fence of the 2020 pandemic, we are all touched in some way.

An actual fence marks a boundary that has been placed to either keep something in or, to keep something out.

As we put up our emotional boundaries, we keep at bay our ability to mourn with those who are mourning over a significant loss at the hands of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The illusion about what the capabilities of the pandemic are, seem to strike different cords depending on your faith, race, financial abilities, and age group.

The poverty and death being caused by the pandemic seem to be overshadowed by everyone’s inherent desire to self-persevere.

Unless people are touched first hand, the pandemic either becomes political, or non-existent to a good portion of the population.

This pattern seems to be holding the same for “The Church”, and we need to bridge this gap as soon as possible.

The Apostle Paul tells us to mourn with those who mourn, right after he told us to rejoice with those who rejoice.

Both rejoicing and mourning are part of what we are going to experience in a fallen world.

As people confessing to be Christians, we should be leaders in these areas, the areas of consoling people as well as shouting with them. Amen!

Christ-ians are ambassadors of “The Christ”. As ambassadors, we have a duty to present the Kingdom of God to one another and those around us.

We have a duty to become intentional in prayer, calling prayer meetings, prayer vigils, and one on one prayer time, whatever is necessary to turn the spiritual tide.

We should stop fighting to keep the church open and start fighting for people, their lives, and livelihoods. Help the people with their finances, their hurts, and their losses. Mourning lasts way past the burial process and people need our support for the long haul.

We know that God hears the cries of His people, just look in the Psalms, where David cried out to God. God heard, and God heeded David’s prayers. Amen!

We need to draw a parallel to the Word of God to help a struggling people, whether financially or emotionally. That drawn line traces a path to hope and healing, to strength and salvation.

After all, the greatest need in the world today is salvation! Amen!

We as Christians should turn our thoughts and the thoughts of those around us toward an eternal reality.

If we constantly remember others and look to assist in their lives, and their traumatic experiences, we will see a healing that starts spreading much quicker than a vaccine.

Joy will truly come in the morning as the scripture says, “weeping may last through the night, but joy comes in the morning”. Psalm 30:5 NLT.

Let’s start acting like it’s morning! Amen! Let’s spread some joy!

Let’s reach out to people that are hurting, and first get them sustained whether it be financially or emotionally, then help them to be restored to a spiritual connection.

A connection that will cause them to have a future and a hope, and we by helping others will also help ourselves, increasing the totality of the spiritual connection.

God so loved the world that He gave us Jesus. We should so love those around us and do the same. Amen!

Come out of isolation and let the light of the Gospel be seen anew.

Start now so that we enter 2021 full of true Christianity which is; genuine love, love for one another, rejoicing in hope, being patient, contributing to the needs of others, blessing those who may not be so lovely, have joy with the joyful, weep with those who weep, live in harmony with one another, don’t be haughty, be honorable in the sight of all, and live in peace. Romans 12:9-21 paraphrased.

I will close with a prayer for all of us. “May the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, guard our hearts and our minds through Christ Jesus. Amen! Philippians 4:7

If you need a faith boost today, please leave a comment and I will prayerfully respond.

If you liked this content, please consider signing up for my newsletter to receive emails directly.

Scriptures of encouragement and content: Colossians 4:6, Galatians 6:2, Romans 12:15-16, Ephesians 1:13-14, John 3:16, and Luke 1:78-80, “Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace”. NLT translation.

Crisp Sinus Rhythm

This week’s blog is going to be a little different, a more personal, recent experience. It’s a real story in real-time that happened the day before Thanksgiving.

One thing I want to point out first and foremost is “God did it”, I told Him that I would tell everyone.

For the past few years, I have been periodically troubled with Arterial Fibrillation or AFIB. It is where your heart rate sometimes beats too fast, sometimes too slow, and sometimes just out of rhythm or skipping beats. It has been more troubling the last couple of months as it has been happening almost daily and disrupting my quality of life.

At times causes shortness of breath, fatigue, and most notably can cause blood clots that could possibly lead to a stroke.

I had a cardiologist that treated me a few years ago, and I was telling him of my new symptoms and how they were much more frequent. He would run an EKG at the office; my heart would be fine at this point, so he would send me on my way, no real response or care for the AFIB.

I also tried my regular doctor to no avail, both would tell me to stop drinking coffee, stop smoking, and stop drinking alcohol, all of which I had done some 20 plus years ago when I started serving God and trusting Him with my life.

A few weeks ago my wife started looking and found a new cardiologist. He ran an EKG and noted that I was in AFIB at that moment and that by listening to my story it sounded like the AFIB had become persistent.

He quickly wanted to get my heart back into normal sinus rhythm, so he scheduled a TEE test along with Cardioversion. The first test is a sonogram of your heart from the inside, a tube is run down your esophagus, and pictures of your heart are taken from the inside. Sounds intrusive, right? This test is to make sure that there are no blood clots in the heart before they do the Cardioversion, which is to shock your heart back into normal sinus rhythm. Both procedures require sedation and a team of nurses with the doctor to man all the necessary equipment to complete both procedures.

Upon my arrival at the hospital, I had a COVID-19 test (negative) and then proceeded to be prepped for my two procedures.

An I.V. was placed in my forearm for fluids and sedation, machines were rolled into the room for various functions, and three nurses and the doctor arrived. Meanwhile, the doctor was looking for the anesthesiologist who finally came in the room.

With all the machines hooked up and humming, the anesthesiologist gets ready to administer the sedation, everyone takes their position (there wasn’t much room for me) and we were ready to roll.

Then all of the sudden I hear the doctor say “Wait a second – the one monitor looks like he has converted to normal sinus rhythm”! “The other one still looks like AFIB but that one looks like normal sinus rhythm”.

The nurses quickly return me to my back and hook up a twelve lead EKG that monitors your heart extra close. I will never forget the words of my doctor when the reading came on the screen, “Crisp Sinus Rhythm”.

God showed up at the last second to restore my heart, even the doctor said, “I have never seen anyone convert to normal sinus rhythm at this point”. Usually, more stress causes more AFIB, not a conversion to normal sinus rhythm.

So now everyone is scurrying to unhook me from all the machines, a couple of the nurses asked the doctor if he wanted them to leave the machines hooked up in case I reverted. The doctor said, “No he has converted and all is good”!

I will pause here and tell you what I was thinking at this moment and it was, “you can’t make this stuff up”, “you can’t make this stuff up”! As I was watching and listening to everything that was unfolding, I started thanking God for interceding on my behalf. Thanking Him for answering mine, my wife’s, and my family’s prayers.

Then the doctor looked at me and said “you don’t have to have either test, just some medication to keep your heart in normal sinus rhythm”. I exclaimed “Hallelujah”!

The doctor and the team of nurses left the room with the instructions to run another twelve lead EKG in about an hour and if everything was ok, release me.

During that hour was when the fight of faith began.

All alone, in a dark room, still hooked up to the heart monitor, hearing nothing but the beep, beep, beep, with every heartbeat.

The beeps would change occasionally and when I looked at the monitor it seemed that my heart was skipping a beat at times. Every time that would happen I would say, “God gave me this (my normal sinus rhythm) and I’m keepin’ it”! This was my statement of faith for the next sixty minutes.

After about fifteen minutes a nurse came in the room, and after checking the monitor she said, “Beautiful sinus rhythm”, relief came over me and I rested momentarily.

It wasn’t long after she left that the monitor started in… strange beeps and squiggly lines, and the thought came to me again, “you are out of sinus rhythm”. Again, I fired back with my statement of faith, “God gave me this and I’m keepin’ it”, and my peace would return.

I fought this fight of faith many times during that 60 minute waiting period, and by thanking God and repeating my statement of faith, I held onto my “Crisp Sinus Rhythm”!

The nurse ran the final EKG and repeated her previous “beautiful” statement, and I was released from the hospital soon after. Praise the Lord!

My wife was out in the waiting room, because of COVID-19 she was not allowed back in the recovery area with me, although she was hearing bits and pieces of my God intervention from the doctor and intake nurses.

She was super excited to see me and hear how God had answered our prayers and to hear how He had orchestrated my miracle.

Even with masks on you could still see the joy in our eyes as they were lit up with excitement, and we praised God. I looked at her and exclaimed “you can’t make this stuff up” as we headed out to the car.

Once in the car, my wife was so excited about the goodness of God that she wanted to hear every detail right there in the parking lot. We shouted and praised God, we thanked God over and over for His goodness, we laughed and we cried with joy and relief. Glory be to God!

My wife really took hold of my statement of faith “God gave me normal sinus rhythm and I’m keepin’ it”. She reminds me of this whenever I have any symptoms that try to return. Amen! We need faithful spouses and friends to help us hold onto our miracles and the workings of God in our lives!

As I look back I see how the outcome is directly related to the life my wife and I choose to live daily. By the grace of God, we put God first every day, we read our Bible first thing, and we do not compromise the word of faith when it comes to our beliefs. We do what the Word says as much as depends on us and that is much. Amen!

By the grace of God, we obey God’s teachings throughout the Bible and do our best to trust Him in every area of our life. We endeavor to be Spirit-led and to heed the Word of God to the best of our daily abilities. Do we miss it at times, sure, but we repent and get right back in the right place with God because He is faithful.

God wants all of us to walk in; signs, wonders, and miracles. Now in this time, today! Amen!

It’s easy to look at what’s happening around you and miss what’s happening inside you. I will repeat that for affect, “we look so intently at what’s happening around us, that we miss what’s happening inside us”. Selah!

To be honest, leading up to the procedures I was only asking God to “guide the doctors’ hands”, “let me not have any adverse side effects from the medicine, etc.”. I let the things that were happening to me, dictate my prayers. But thanks be to God, He had much more available and in store for me.

I should have had the faith to ask God to intervene before I was lying on the table, but I was looking at everything around me, all of our fears stop at the point of our faith. My faith was in my doctor’s abilities and in modern medicine, which is okay…

But God being full of grace saw my heart and responded to the faith available for this situation and based the outcome on His abilities not my seemingly lack of faith. Oh, how thankful I am to have a loving, powerful, miracle-working God, who loves me and sees me through Jesus.

I am also thankful for a praying wife and praying children. God truly does listen and answer our prayers.

I will close with my opening, “God did it, and He’s marvelous in my eyes.”

If you need a faith boost today, please leave a comment and I will prayerfully respond.

If you like this content, please consider signing up for my newsletter to receive emails directly.

Scriptures of encouragement and content: Revelation 19:10, Romans 13:13, Jeremiah 8:22, Acts 3:16, Deuteronomy 10:21, and Psalm 116: 1-2, “I love the Lord because he heard my voice. He heard my cry for His help. Because He paid attention to me, I will call out to Him as long as I live”! Amen!

Faith, the Substance of My Hopes

What are you hoping for, and what kind of vision does your hope produce?

We as believers must have an earnest desire of what we are expecting our outcomes to be. Our faith builds as we examine God’s word and then start implementing it in our lives. Amen!

These building blocks of faith keep fear at bay and we stop pondering all the, “what could happen scenarios.” Then we stay with the vision God gave us out of His word and into our spirits.

God speaks in visions; His word gives us an image of our future and our future in Him gives us “High Hopes.”

When we follow God’s word for our lives as a way of living, our obedience then fuels our hopes.

And “High Hopes” produce our desired expectations, bringing our faith into realizing. Our realizing pleases God because faith pleases God. Amen!

True faith would conquer all pressure and we would not even think on the, “what could happen” scenarios. When we stay rooted and grounded in the word and the vision God gave us, we increase our belief in the truth.

True faith relieves our bondage again to fear, our hopeful expectation expels all fear. Because hope sees the future outcome of our situations, and all situations come out for our good and God’s glory!

God’s word and Spirit give us a faithful vision, a vision full of faith. And by faith, we lay hold of peace, a peace that can only be attained when we stop allowing other visons to play out in our minds.

Our mind truly is the battlefield where all our faith battles are fought. A heart full of God’s word and a strong spirit which has been fed on Godly vision will intervene in the battle of the mind and cause you to see your victorious outcome.

There is always more with us than there is with them; them being the negative pull of the devil and his cohorts. God always causes us to triumph.

We overcome in every situation when we get our vision past the battlefield of our mind, and into our hopeful outcome. God and His spirit are with us in every small situation, up to and including life-changing situations and dreams!

When we feed on the Word of God, our Word-filled inner encouragement becomes the catalyst that portrays the vision of our hopeful outcome.

God will always give us a vision of a good outcome, as we walk by faith in Him!

God is always checking our heart condition to gauge our level of faithfulness. He knows where our faith really is, and sometimes we need to cry out to Him, “Lord I believe, help me with my unbelief.” This moves us into a place of humility and allows God to release more grace to us, and with enough grace, we can do anything! Amen!

You see grace isn’t too far from faith, and our true faith causes a release of more grace, which will produce for us our hopeful vision. We must get real with ourselves to allow and enjoy all the gifts that God has to offer.

God is always standing at our call, with His arms wide open. His embrace is full of love, full of guidance, and full of wisdom giving us that warm fuzzy feeling when we know we have pleased Him.

God is always pleased with our faith abiding in Him, humbly crying out for and accepting His help, which is His grace shown to us His people.

By allowing God to direct our path, “By Faith”, we are given His light, and with His light, we see our desired outcome and avoid all the, “what could happen scenarios.”

God really wants us to have our hearts desire in every situation, in every dream. He just wants us to attain them through Him and, “By Faith.”

As we look past what we see, our desired outcome is produced by our Godly vision, and the more light we have the more vision we have, the more vision gives us the reality of what we started out hoping for.

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1.

Let your hopes fuel what you’re seeing, “get your hopes up today.”

If you need a faith boost, please leave a comment and I will prayerfully respond.

If you liked this content, please consider signing up for my newsletter to receive emails directly.

Scriptures of encouragement and content: James 1:22-25, Psalm 89:19, NIRV translation, Hebrews 11:6, Romans 8:15, 2 Kings 6:16, 1 John 5:4, Mark 9:23-24, Hebrews 4:16, Psalm 37:4, and Hebrews 11:1 in the New Living Translation, Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. Amen!