After I had my daughter Camila everything changed. I was overjoyed, overwhelmed and very scared. I was almost certain I would screw something up so I welcomed the Mommy Fear with open arms. My careless, free spirit soon became a very irritable, worrisome one. What changed?
Yes, I had a kid but there was something more. I started to remember all the negative things people would say. “Get ready for NO sleep”, “This will be the hardest thing you’ll do, but it’ll be worth it”, “You’re traveling with a baby?! Good Luck!”
I began to dwell on the terrible “hardships” I was about to endure and the thought of having to be responsible for a child 24/7 almost paralyzed me with fear. I put up with the fear and things began to materialize. One night, Camila had an allergic reaction to some bananas and was hardly breathing. Jonathan quickly whisked her up from the bed and began to pray. It wasn’t more than five minutes after he had prayed that Camila began to breathe normally. It was as though nothing had happened.
Did I stay by Jonathan [Evangelist Jonathan Shuttlesworth] believing in faith for our daughter? HECK NO. I was outside calling 911. It was then that I realized my faith in God needed a major tune up. Instead of resting in the peace of God knowing His promises belong to me and my children, I totally freaked out. I allowed that Mommy Fear to fester because I thought it was normal. I read articles about the so-called “healthy fears” in parenting. The truth is, the devil will creep in wherever he’s allowed. I opened the door to fear for my child and soon, it began to trickle into everything I did. My mind began to think about worst case scenarios. I could hardly sleep. I thought to be responsible meant being in fear. I was seriously wrong.
You can blame it on hormonal imbalances but deep down, the root is fear. The Bible has commanded us several times not to fear. We are not exempted as mothers. In fact, we should have stronger faith! Fear is a trait that can be easily picked up by your kids. The way you walk, talk, and act, are all affected by fear. Stop that cycle today!
Matthew 6 is one my favorite scriptures because God instructs us to not worry about a single thing. It also says in verse 33 “ Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” Seek God for guidance. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you in the way you should go. Don’t allow for that fear to take control of you a minute longer. You can be a parent and not fear. Don’t open the door to the devil. If you open that door a tiny little bit the devil will kick that thing open on your face. You’ll have a broken nose and a ton of problems. Keep it shut by staying in God’s Word. Anoint your children daily, not out of fear but in faith knowing God’s Word will prevail.
— Adalis Shuttlesworth, Revival Today, The Mommy Fear, November 3, 2016
So, the next time your child has a real allergic reaction, and dies because you prayed instead of calling 911 or using an epi-pen, will you be OK with her death?
This is real life. You don’t get points for your faith. Do the right thing and actually take care of the helpless person totally dependent on you.
She probably describes herself as ‘pro-life’.
I don’t think so.
Stupid woman! Sorry if that is harsh, but DAMN, get thee and your kid to an ER111111111111111
what oldbroad1 said!
Stupid advice. Yes it is not good to worry all the time. I know parents who are always fretting about little things and I am sure it is not healthy for the kids. But an allergic reaction is serious!
God loves to take babies lives. He has been doing it for centuries. Think of the stories of devout christians in 18th century who lost child after child. 911 works … prayer does not.
If praying actually worked, it wouldn’t matter so much….
Of course, if praying actually worked, everyone would be rich, the earth would still be able to deal with that amount of use of its resources and illnes would not exist at all. Perhaps death wouldn’t even…
Unless….hmm. If everytime someone prayed for someone else’s death or health, and someone else did the opposite, shouldn’t there be some sort of score card? It makes me wonder what the world would look like if prayers were in fact answered. All kinds of groups praying for the elimenation of other groups, and which God or prayer wins? They can’t both win, not in matters of life and death, so there would still be prayers unanswered.
Interesting: seems that prayer as solution only creates more troubles instead of less 😉
Yes Melody, I’d agree totally, there’s no logic to the concept of prayer. After all, if god’s all knowing then he knows what you want so you shouldn’t need to ask. It’s also a bit difficult to understand why he allows countless millions to die horrifically, say in gas chambers, yet magically finds the car keys you’ve been looking for all day.
One of my favourite examples of the nonsense was an anecdote related by a friend who is Catholic (he’s not really but his wife is and…). They were in church one Sunday just before a church visit to some European country. The priest, quite seriously, offered a prayer for a good exchange rate. Sounds harmless enough, but what about the Europeans travelling to the UK at the time who then suffer by the exact amount the UK people benefit. There’s no such thing as an entirely benign prayer.
No, exactly. It would often harm someone else’s chances instead. We have a saying which funnily enough also rhymes in English: “One man’s death is another man’s bread.” (in other words: a death provides for the undertaker)
I had to laugh at the priest’s suggestion though as it’s often about such small things, like car keys and exchange rates. Praying for the big things often doesn’t even happen, possibly because many people tend to know that it doesn’t actually work, somewhere in a sensible corner of their hearts.
Lady, if you want to pray, then pray. But don’t think for a second that your husbands prayers prevailed. Your child’s body recovered on its own. You may not be so lucky the next time. Next time pray and take the child to the hospital. Go to an allergist, save yourself some heartache, get some testing done. It may have been an allergic reaction this time. Next time it could be anaphylactic shock.
So does your child still eat bananas?
You say you don’t have fear now but you do anoint out of faith. Why not simple faith? Why add a work to it? I suspect you are full of fear.
Sometimes the ignorance and stupidity are so profound that it literally stops MY breathing for a moment or two. This is one of those times.
If this baby has another allergic reaction and dies of suffocation, are these parents ready to spend the rest of their lives in prison? Will they really launch the “I was praying and couldn’t call 911” defense? The Twinkie defense was better.
Do they have other children that they’re prepared to lose custody of if said baby is rescued, and CPS and the police find out what “parenting” means to them?
All I can say is, I attended 3 fundagelical churches in 6 years, and NONE of them would have approved of this. Not one encouraged people to forego medical care for prayer. Especially for a baby who wasn’t breathing.
The little girl was healed by God because her mother believed. What part of that don’t you understand. You all can not be believers in Jesus Christ. You surely won’t receive anything from. Those who know Him knows He hears us and heals, delivers and sets free. I have been healed from Hep C, delivered from alcohol addiction and smoking 2 and 1/2 packs of cigaretts a day sometimes. Depending on how much cheap wine I drank. Supernaturally!! God did it. One minute oppressed the next free. Glory to God. Don’t knock what you haven’t experienced. If you want you kids on drugs that give them suiciadal, kidney failure and on and on and on go ahead put your faith in man. Those of us who know our God will continue to trust and rely on Him.
Hey Vicki, since you were healed can you prove it? Do you have hospital documentation that these things happened? Because we are all a skeptical bunch and require proof. (No, we are not all atheists by any means. I’m not.)
“Those of us who know our God will continue to trust and rely on Him.” Except if you trust him to “heal” a child and that child dies, YOU have sinned. The denomination I came from at least believed that science and medical knowledge came from God. It’s pretty ignorant and wrong to allow a child to suffer that can be easily helped by medical knowledge. And it is even more ignorant as people who believe like you all will declare it was God’s will…even though said child could have been saved BY MEDICAL EXPERTS. (Doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician’s assistants et al.)
Vicki, I am happy to know that you have been able to curb aspects of excess in your life. Though I am not believer, I do prefer that addictions be controllable in some fashion, even if that means that reason goes out the window and fantasy rules.
You were harmed. Addictions are always escape from the feelings of harm done in our lives. In my life, excess religion was a big factor in the harm done and I know that you may not want to accept that and suggest that I just didn’t get it right somehow but I encourage you to try to be open to other ideas. What I am suggesting is that the problems in my family were avoided by ‘giving it to God’. The relationships issues, the emotional difficulties, the communication troubles, all of it became denial because it would become a prayer and set aside. I believe we need to face our own harm, Vicki. We need to seek professional help sometimes, especially when we are putting ourselves and/or others in imminent danger. To pray is just fine if that helps you but do not fall into the old old trap! You know, a deacon once told me the only book worth reading is the Bible. I find it very sad when people disappear like this into religious obsession.
I am alive and well that is proof enough. My husband took that medicine for hep c way back in 2012 and is still suffering with side effects (panic attacks). I have none. My eyes are so white they are blue. God is good!
I have a living relationship with Jesus. I was not able to curb aspect of excess in my life. Believe me I tried. I willed myself, did the nicorett gum, patch and hypnotism. All worked for a while, till stressful situation came up that I did not know how to deal with. I am free from addictions of any kind thanks to Jesus. It was all Him. His manifested presence came in my bedroom after I had asked Him a question regarding speaking in tongues. He broke them and from that day Nov. 5, 2001 I was free. Let me give you of another example of His love and care for those who are His (born again John 3:3-7). During that same time the Lord supernaturally delivered me from my addictions my heart was on fire for Him. I would tell anyone and everyone of His goodness. One paticular women had a troubled past. She had seemed receptive to what I was telling her. She began coming to my church with me and she loved it Suddenly though, it changed. This women had a lot of darkness in her backround and it began to manifest. She turned against me. One night after she tried to stab me with a knife at work in a stairway, I asked the Lord what was I supposed to do about this. She was crazy. I was in my bed reading my bible and talking to Him about this matter. I closed my bible with another book inside and went to sleep. As a Christian my bible was highlighted with yellow, green and pink markers for scriptures that I would memorize and hide in my heart. In the morning when I open my bible to a completely different place than where I placed the other book. All, all my highlighting was gone except for one scripture. Joshua 1:9 Have I not commaned to you be strong and couragous, for the Lord YOUR God will be with you wherever you go. The bible isn’t just a book. It is the only book that matters. John 1:1 says: In the beginning was the WORD and the WORD was with God, and the WORD was God. That was my God answering my question the night before. She never bothered me again. I could tell you other supernatural encounters with God and so can any true born again believer who walks with the Lord. Adalis knows in whom she believes. It was not a random thought to just not seek medical attention for her daughter. She knows God and she know the authority she has in Jesus Christ that he has given her to bring those things that come against us down, in His name.
I know there have been occasions when some have refused treatment for their children and it turned out badly. I don’t know why, I wonder though that if they trully knew the Lord. That was not my case, nor Adalis. The encounters I hace had with the Lord are proof of His care and love. I could never doubt that. Jesus said that He is the truth, the way and the life. John 14:6 I have found that to be true. It is not religious obseesion, it a live to God by the Spirit.
I… um… yeah…
Look, I’m glad that works for you. I really am. But it’s worth exactly nothing to the rest of us. I’ve never had a Bible behave the way you’re describing. I’ve never had a direct answer to any prayer I’ve tried — and I have tried.
So even if I assume that everything you say is true, it’s useless to me. Okay, sure: God does all these wonderful things. But apparently He only does them for certain people, which means the rest of us are basically (ahem, “fundamentally”) screwed.
Listen to what you’ve told us: “I know there have been occasions when some have refused treatment for their children and it turned out badly. I don’t know why…” Doesn’t that suggest that God isn’t as all-good or as all-loving as His PR team would have you believe? How is that a just, loving God?
Understand me when I say, I don’t actually think that’s how things work. I don’t think God is evil. I think the simpler and more accurate explanation is that God simply isn’t there. But if there is some sort of God, and He is there, then He’s got a lot to answer for. Isaiah 45:7: “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.”
Michael, you should read the rest of the story. The biggest miracle is for who so ever, and that is forgiveness of our sins. Anyone can come to Christ and He gives freedom of guilt, forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide and to comfort us. Only then can you really start to understand the Bible and prayer. God loves you and died for yours and my sins.
Bethel, I am an individual who read the Bible back in the early 1960s. I didn’t believe it then and I don’t believe it 55 years later. I have reason to suspect that I’m simply not capable of cultivating religious faith. I can’t even pretend to believe. What does your allegedly loving god intend for me and others like me?
Vicki, I was with you until the part where your bible opened by magic at another page, and the coloured marks you’d made disappeared. You see I don’t believe this happened. The rest of your story I can put down to psychology. In effect, your belief in God could quite easily have led to a placebo effect, whereby your internal certainty that God was helping enabled your mind to do just that.
However, when people start making magical and fanciful claims, then I have to wonder just what’s going on. A guy here somewhile back claimed God had cured him overnight of a broken collarbone. I called him out, saying he was either a liar or else delusional (a generous option, I thought). In your case I can add to lying or delusion that maybe, just possibly, you moved pages in your sleep, and the marked passages were elsewhere in your bible. But I don’t believe your story.
I was not going to respond to you because I thought well why should they believe me. You don’t know me from Adam. I had to wonder though that if you thought the miracle of a baby being formed in a mothers womb was magic, or the fact that the ocean knows when to stop at shoreline. How about the sun, the moon and the stars? Who placed them there? Was that magic or do you believe it was the big bang? In light of these things my testimonies can hardly compare. The bible says In John 14:21 Jesus says: 21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” Hebrews 11:6 says: 6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. There are others scriptures that say the same but those two wil suffice. I have no reason to lie. Believe me when I say I was totally blown away when that happened to me. I went to church and ran up to the Pastors wife and told her with bible in hand. She flippantly told me “Oh he does things like that for me all the time”. L.ol Like I said I have a relationship with Jesus. He wants me to know He loves me so He proves Himself to me when I by faith talk to this invisible God. He’s pleased. He also want me to continue to read His word so I can know Him deeper. Since I have been walking with Him and stepping out in faith I have layed hands on people seen them healed. Just like He said before he departed you will lay hands on the sick and they shall recover, speak in new tongues, cast out demons in my name and raise the dead. I have done all but raise the dead. How you ask? By the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Not me but through me. There is a spirit world more real than this one you are experiencing. The bible even warns me about you. In Colossians 2:8 the apostle Paul warns believers: Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. Being born again is real. You must be born again in order to experience what I am talking about. I was raised Catholic. I did not get any of that except a belief in God. I was 28 when I got born again. I wasn’t looking for religion He came looking for me. I had a 360 turn around at that time. The bible says the Holy Spirit goes into all to world to convict the world of sin, righteous and judgement. That is what happened to me. When I accepted the fact that I was a sinner and needed a savior I asked God to forgive me and invited Him into my life. Jesus paid for our sins on the cross by being beaten, whipped to shreds. He appeased the wrath of a Holy God. It was very simple I prayed He came into my life. John 14:23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. The things I experienced are what Jesus meant when He said: Mathew 6:33 Unless a man is born again He will not see the kingdom of God. You see that is why you think it is magic. 1Cor. 2:14 the person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness and cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
Vicki, what on earth is the point in quoting bible verse after verse when I regard the bible as nothing more than a set of writings based on folklore. Nothing more. There may be odd parts which contain historical fact, though very few, there may be odd bits of wisdom, and parts of it are wonderful prose. But overall it is a set of disparate and incoherent ramblings, reflecting the Bronze Age times for which they were written.
Really I’m being generous even reading your comments after you referred to ‘why does the sea stop at the shoreline?’ I’m reminded of Douglas Adams, who described the feelings of a puddle, how perfectly the ground had been made around it, enabling it to be exactly the shape it is (a very appropriate rebuttal of the idea Christians have that the world was created for them). And if you really are interested in why the universe is as it is, and there are stars in the sky, then read someone like Sean Carroll or Lawrence Krauss. Though somehow I doubt you will. Let me just say that looking at things you don’t understand and can’t answer, isn’t helped by trying to put God in the solution; God actually makes things much harder to figure.
Hi Vicki,
I notice that you are a Pentecostal Fundamentalist. You quote the long ending of Mark which the overwhelming majority of NT textual scholars (including leading Pentecostal, Gordon Fee) do not believe belonged to the now missing original manuscripts.
Given that you believe that it does, you don’t mention that you engage in snake handling. The text says “They will take up serpents”. Do you do this? The verb “to take up” in in the Greek is in the future indicative active, meaning that the disciples will actually” take up” serpents and not that a snake would latch onto them as supposedly happened with Paul as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.
Your whole theology is based on an alleged experience of the so-called Baptism in the Spirit with speaking in tongues as the so-called “sign”. “Tongues” are just gobbledegook, as they are practiced today. They were alleged to be genuine languages in the NT that were not known to the person speaking them.
A subjective certitude is not objective evidence for the existence of God. I don’t mind if people believe in God and have this inner certitude if they would admit that such certitude is not objective evidence. What I object to is when people assume that they have objective evidence and seek to foist their beliefs on others, thinking that they talk to an existing being that may actually be non-existent.
Shalom,
John Arthur
Hi John,
There are 4 different types. Tongues & interpertation which is what you are talking about. Which is one of the gift given to the body of Christ mentioned in 1Corinthia 12. Which I have personally experienced and witnessed by others. Tongues with groaning, I have also experienced this. The Holy Spirit uses you to pray for someone in a tongue which is not known to you. Romans. 8:26. Tongues for personal edification which I do alot. Not as muh as the Apostle Paul did though. For he said I speak in tongues more than you all. Jude 1:20 and last but not least What you mentioned in Acts 2. When a tongue is used to reach people of another language unknown to you. There are other scriptures to back each one of these up. You will have to do that study.
I did not mention the snakes because I would not likely partake in that unless absolutely necessary. The Apostle Paul lived in a different time. Yet if i happened to come across one while preaching the gospel I would have to act in faith and believe the Word of God as Paul did. I didn’t mention picking up a deadly snake because I probaly wouldn’t do it. Apostle Paul lived in a different time. If it came up I guess I would have to walk by faith as He did and believe the Word of God. It hasn’t failed me so far.
Hi John,
There are 4 different types. Tongues & interpertation which is what you are talking about. Which is one of the gift given to the body of Christ mentioned in 1Corinthia 12. Which I have personally experienced and witnessed by others. Tongues with groaning, I have also experienced this. The Holy Spirit uses you to pray for someone in a tongue which is not known to you. Romans. 8:26. Tongues for personal edification which I do alot. Not as muh as the Apostle Paul did though. For he said I speak in tongues more than you all. Jude 1:20 and last but not least What you mentioned in Acts 2. When a tongue is used to reach people of another language unknown to you. There are other scriptures to back each one of these up. You will have to do that study.
I did not mention the snakes because I would not likely partake in that unless absolutely necessary. The Apostle Paul lived in a different time. Yet if i happened to come across one while preaching the gospel I would have to act in faith and believe the Word of God as Paul did.
I for one do believe that miracles do happen. I have seen them here and there. And my mother,who had a three – pack- daily habit, had the smoking urge taken away completely. Yet, many other things happened that were not removed, like ke stalker ex- husband’s, for example. God is arbitrary. And he chooses when, or if he will ever heals someone. One never knows. Miracles don’t impress me. Goodness and kindness does. And there’s precious little of that !
Hi Vicki,
Romans 8:26 says nothing about tongues. In the NT, in every occurrence of “tongues” the Greek word used is glossolalia but it is not used in this passage and you are just reading it into it. Jude 1:20 the phrase “pray in the Holy Spirit” is used but it says nothing about praying in glossalia. Glossalia is speaking in languages and seems to be applied to languages that the person has never learned. This is mythology. You are fantasising about speaking in “tongues”.
If a poisonous snake bit you, you would be delusional if you did not seek urgent medical help.
Shalom,
John Arthur
How does than, the Spirit capital (S) not small(s) make inercession through you? What is praying in the Holy Spirit? You are reading the bible in your flesh and not by the Spirit. I’m done here. I do not want to debate the Word of God with anyone. He seems 1Cor. 2:14 applies here.
Hi Vicki,
In the earliest existing mss, of the NT, there is no Capital S versus small s for spirit. All the words of the NT are in capital letters. They are called uncial mss. The Greek word pneuma is in capitals whether speaking of the holy spirit or the human spirit.
Of course, I am reading the bible “in the flesh” if you mean that I am using human reason. Isn’t that what you really do, since there is no holy spirit, It’s all about your feelings when you mistakenly feel that you are being led by the holy spirit.
After all, how could any holy spirit inspire such a barbaric book as the bible where the power elite in Israel claimed that god told them to murder little children and babies and exterminate whole populations because they were alleged to be so wicked?
Shalom,
John Arthur
Jesus heals all the Time from the Time of the Bible till today. If you really don’t believe it, it’s your loss..
You are going to Miss out on his healing power.
Just ask and you will be given.
Otherwise just because you don’t believe doesn’t make it any less of the truth that Jesus is the healer.
For a matter of fact he healed that little girl.glory be to his name above all names.
I just asked and I was not “given.” I’ll believe it when I see it. “Just because you believe doesn’t make it any less of the truth that Jesus isn’t the healer.”
Well, when I was attending a Bapticostal Church (a Baptist Church which was Charismatic in theology and experience) a couple of people got cancer and died. They prayed earnestly and had faith that God would heal them through Jesus Christ. The congregation was praying for them, but it was all to no avail.
Vicki, please remember that we non-believers do not wish you harm and please, when you are able, attend a secular therapist to share your feelings and challenges. Do not expect Jesus to change everything all the time because that is your mind being excessive and unreasonable. Seek professional assistance and trust in yourself to find your way. Why do you think that Jesus is mutually exclusive? Why don’t you challenge yourself by using the help that is available?