The Power of God

Patricia Pope Jackson

• Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781647731731
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

In The Power of God, Patricia Pope Jackson shares how she leads her life according to the will of God, how He helped her and her family in their time of need, and how He has used her to help others.

Patricia accepted God and committed her life to Him when she became a Christian. Since then, her spiritual journey has been filled with challenges that became learning experiences, which only added to the wisdom and strength of her faith. Over the years, there were a number of times when her life went awry because she did not immediately follow God's Word. After learning these important lessons, she made it a point to listen to God's voice through her heart and follow where He was leading her through His words, and her life has never been the same. This is her story.

chapter one

Acknowledging God

God has been a tremendous force in my life. I have learned and grown so much through the challenges I have faced in life. These challenges have made me strong and made me grow when I was a new Christian. I had to learn to acknowledge Him in all my ways so He could direct my paths. In many of my decisions, I didn’t follow that scripture, and it led me to some rough destinations! I will be sharing some details of my life to give God the glory for what He has done for me. God is a good God—even when you make your mistakes, even when you are disobedient. I will say you will pay the price, but He is right there to help you if you call on Him. He is such a great God, and His mercies are new every day. How grateful I am to have a God who loves me that much! As I grow in this spiritual walk, I’m constantly learning and growing day by day. God has left me speechless so many times with the things He has done for me in my life and the things He is still doing. I want you to know that if He has done these great things for me, He will also do them for you. God is not a respecter of persons, so come travel with me from 1998 to the present as I share with you some of the things the Lord has done in my life. I give God all the glory!

chapter two

Testimonies, Trials, and Tribulations

The Glucose Test

Where do I start? I will start with the glucose test. My husband went to his doctor to have a glucose test, related to the diabetes that seems to run in his family from generation to generation. I normally go with him to the doctor, but this time for some reason I didn’t. I believe it was because the test would take two hours, and I didn’t feel it was necessary for me to sit for that long while he was being tested. The nurse, Anita, told him after the test that if she called him, it wouldn’t be good. After I picked up Joe, he forgot to tell me what the nurse had said, so we went along our way as usual.

About one week later, I received a phone call from Nurse Anita. She asked me to tell Mr. Jackson—my husband, Joe—to call the doctor’s office. When I repeated this to my husband, he said, “Oh no! She told me that if she called it wouldn’t be good news.”

I was upstairs at the time, and I called him to come up from downstairs. You see, I knew enough of the Word, including the verse that says, “By His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5 nkjv), to know that I would never receive a “negative” doctor’s report.

I knew the Word works! I was going to confess the Word—or should I say, we were going to confess the Word—and stand in agreement because he was already healed! I told my husband, “We will not say anything to anyone, including our family members, about this, and instead we will speak the Word that says, ‘By His stripes we are healed.’”

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

—Isaiah 53:5 nkjv

He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

—Psalm 107:20 nkjv

We took that word and went into agreement with it. Joe then called Nurse Anita, but he wasn’t able to reach her so he left a message. A week went by with no call from the nurse. Joe finally called me at work and asked if he should call Nurse Anita because he had not heard from her. I told him to “call her” and receive his “good news.” I was feeling a little spiritual cockiness at that time, meaning I knew that I knew that I knew he was healed!

He called Nurse Anita, and when he asked her about her previous call, she said, “Oh, Mr. Jackson, we thought we saw something, but no, you are fine!”

I was rejoicing! God did it! Joe had been healed just like the Word had said he would be! There was no doubt in my heart and mind that Nurse Anita had seen something on that glucose test, but God removed it! As Numbers 23:19 (kjv) says, “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent.” If He said it, He will do it!

“God is not a man, that He should lie,

Nor a son of man, that He should repent.

Has He said, and will He not do?

Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”

—Numbers 23:19 nkjv

The Tip

Another experience to share in order to glorify my God took place on a Monday. At that time, I would normally work from home. I was at lunch with my husband, Joe, and we decided to get some sandwiches for lunch. For some reason, I wanted spinach dip from a certain well-known restaurant, and I just had to have it! I could not at the time tell you why I had a craving for this particular dish. Joe did not want to go into the restaurant because we already had sandwiches in our hands, but I said to him, “Please, let’s go, because I really want this .” I didn’t know at the time that God had sent me there to help a server in that particular restaurant.

The server who helped us that day—I will call her Ms. Dee—was a very polite, sweet young lady. I asked her if she knew my niece—who was my “niece” through a sister in Christ—because she worked there. Our server stated yes, and told us that she was actually training my niece. I said to Joe, “Wow, look at that! We got her trainer.”

After I enjoyed my appetizer and Joe enjoyed his meal, God put on my heart to give her a ten-dollar tip, and I obeyed. She started to cry and then told me she was hoping to make enough money in tips that day because of a situation she was facing with her mom, trying to get her back in Georgia. I was so glad to be able to help!

When she returned with the payment to process and a place to write in the tip, God told me, Give her twenty more dollars. I was like, Huh? But I did it, and she began to cry as she thanked us. I told her to give the glory to God, that I was just a vessel that He works through.

I then asked her for a doggie bag to take home the food that was left over on our plates, and when she left to get the bag for us, God spoke again: Give her twenty more dollars. I told Joe that God was telling me to give her twenty more dollars. When I did, by then she was beside herself in tears. She told us that was the exact amount she needed to pay for her mother to get back to Georgia: fifty dollars!

That, by the way, was all the money I had in my wallet. I knew then that that was why I had to go to that restaurant on that day. God wanted to use me to be a blessing to that young lady. Give God the glory!

My Agenda versus God’s Agenda

This is a situation that happened in my life in December 2011. I have a family member who really would get next to me. He wanted to live by his own rules in our house. Our rules were the same for everyone who came to our home, whether to live for a temporary period of time or to just visit and spend the night. He felt that because he was a grown man—which, mind you, he stated to us more than once he was—he could do what he wanted. He was living with me, my husband, and my son. I knew God had told me to let him live with us until his case was resolved. At the time God said this to me, it was about a year before his case would be resolved, but I did not tell anyone this, not even my husband. I knew that if I told my family, especially my mom, she would have spoken to me about doing what God said. But because of the aggravation he caused us all, I didn’t want to deal with him anymore. I had made up my mind and wanted to follow my own agenda: To me, enough was enough. He must leave and find his own place to live by December 2, 2011. That was my agenda and my ultimatum, and I was going to remind him that he was to move out by December 2.

Now, I didn’t mind helping him, but by that point, ...