Welcome back my friends and family!

This journey continues on—Thank God!

There’s a wonderful quote from one of my favorite historic leaders–Winston Churchill. He stated this famous quote back when he and England’s backs were against the wall. He said, “If you’re going through Hell, keep going”!

My sentiments exactly. For those of you going through any type of Hell whether its a health issue, a relationship challenge, or a financial tsunami never give up and never give in!! I don’t care what it is your mental attitude to all challenges is critical to what outcome you can expect. The mind and tongue are powerful things. The Bible talks about the power of the tongue. In Proverbs 18:21, the Bible says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof”. To me, this means that whatever we speak out loud moves from our mouth to our heart, then on to the brain. If we speak negative things we can expect negative results. Conversely, if we speak out loud positive, life giving words it works just the opposite. Typically, positive fruit will be sown and enter into our heart and mind. I cannot express to you how critically important and essential this type of “word speak” is to a persons life. In fact, each one of us should be speaking life over our family—spouses, children, grandchildren, siblings, etc. It’s especially critical when we are dealing with heavy things in our lives as I mentioned earlier in this text. Another great quote from Sir Winston is the following one that I shall never forget—“This is the lesson: never give in. Never give in, never, never, never, never—in NOTHING, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the ENEMY”!

In my case the enemy is more than flesh and blood. It is the Prince of Persia (Satan) and his angelic evil minions. If you think this is foolish and ridiculous then you have been blinded by the enemy. The Bible talks about a battle. We are in a battle of good vs. evil, of principalities that we cannot see of the Spirit world. You can bet that Satan and his minions want you and me to fail in everything we do. The Bible talks about this spirit battle in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”. You see the devil comes to “kill, steal, and destroy”. His only mission is to keep Christians (especially) from being fruitful. In sickness, Satan wants us to give up and give in so that we cannot be a testimony to the wonderful life in Jesus Christ. It’s his sole mission in life—kill, steal, destroy in any way shape and form. He wants us to blame whatever terrible thing that has happened in life on God.  But, in my humble opinion, that is the wrong tree to bark up.  In my case, it’s this SUCKY CANCER! But through the grace and power of God and the Holy Spirit I WILL NOT YIELD TO HIS DESTRUCTION. I will trust in the Lord with all my heart and not lean on my own understanding, in all my ways I will acknowledge Him so that he will direct my path.  

Yes.  This takes blind faith.  But what is faith that you can see?  Not faith.  In 2 Corinthians the Bible says, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” It doesn’t take a ton of faith to believe in something we can touch, feel, and see.  But it does take faith to believe in something we cannot see.  You see, faith is like the wind you cannot see it but you can feel it and hear it in a strong breeze on our face.  Or, in the rustling of leaves due to the wind.  We can see the results of wind in the tree tops above as they sway too and fro on a windy day.  We can’t see the wind itself, but we know its there because of the effects it has on objects all around us.

Just as there are 9 fruits of the Spirit in Galatians, there are 9 gifts of the Spirit.  They are as follows:

But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.” (1 Corinthians 12:7-11)

So what does this all mean to you and me?  It means we have great HOPE in the Lord Jesus.  It’s mean he will never leave us nor forsake us.  Once you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior the Holy Spirit (The Advocate) indwells you.  You have the power of the resurrection in your life.  This is what sustains me daily.  To know that the greatest power of the Universe is on my team.  A teammate I can talk to in prayer and walk daily with Him through scripture, His word.  What a blessings!!

Update:  I had stem cell therapy about 10 weeks ago.  So far I really haven’t felt the positive impact of it but I believe (in faith) that it is working to strengthen my immune system. I haven’t had any scans because I need to wait 12 weeks until I introduce yet another round of scans.  As I mentioned in my last blog pain is a constant companion.  However, I do not take opioids.  They make me sick and nauseated.  So, I went through the states process to be able to use medical cannabis.  It has been a Godsend because it helps me sleep, alleviates pain, and makes me hungry which is a HUGE plus as I have lost 25 lbs since stage IV came around.  I would imagine that I will be getting scans sometime late June so I’ll be able to give you a more specific update in a few weeks.

For now, my favorite Bible scripture (among various healing promises) is found in Psalm 118:17, “I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done.”  I speak this verse out-loud with confidence many times each day—positive speak.

Stay tuned as I will be back at the key board to bring you further updates very soon.

As always, if you would like prayer, to talk about the Lord or just touch base don’t hesitate to contact me either by email or phone listed below.

So long for now, but not farewell!!

All my love and prayers!

Craig Giles, aka Papa G.  tcgiles@hotmail.com.  612-804-5630.