Touched with Instructions

By Eyana Adah McMillan

GET TOUCHED WITH INSTRUCTIONS AND OBEY THE LORD'S WAY TO VICTORY

The Lords touch is more than an emotional moment experienced during a worship service or private devotional time.
So why does the Lord touch us?
In Touched With Instructions, we will learn the Lords answers to this question.
We'll be led on a journey through the Bible and our lives to discover the purposes, changes and assignments that come with the Lord's touches. We'll learn about the victory of obedience and the devastation of disobedience.
We'll gain insight into how the Lord's instructions help us discern deception and overcome failures. And we'll see how the Lord grants instruction blessings to effective leaders who remain His humble students.
Awaiting us are instructions that will challenge, correct and revive us. Well have times of prayer, repentance and praise as we surrender ourselves to the Lords touches of compassion, encouragement, forgiveness and love.

Our instruction topics include:
Going for a Victory Walk through Enemy Situations
The Blessing of Being Second
Boot Camp for the Ears
Homework for the Tongue
Accepting Rejection
Write Right
Outnumbered but Not Overpowered
Final Victory
Intimately Touching the Lord

The Lords touch is just the beginning. There are lessons to learn and directions to receive. So lets get started and get Touched With Instructions!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 10, 2011
• ISBN: 9781449709853

Eyana Adah McMillan

Eyana Adah McMillan is a member of Tabernacle Deliverance Church of God in Christ in York, Pa., where she teaches Sunday school and Bible study. She is an evangelist ordained by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Jurisdiction COGIC. She is a reporter with The York Dispatch.

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Copyright © 2011 Eyana Adah McMillan

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture quotes were taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-0989-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-0990-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-0985-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010941850

Printed in the United States of America

WestBow Press rev. date: 05/26/2011

Praise, Dedication, and Thank You

To God be the glory for calling me to write this book. May He be praised for all He has done to release this book so we may continue to learn and grow in Him. Thank you, Lord, for Your love, encouragement, instruction, correction, and guidance in leading me through this work.

I dedicate this book to my parents, Elder Leighton E. and Evangelist Dr. Deborah M. McMillan. Thank you for loving and raising me and for making sacrifices for my benefit. You are truly examples of how we are to live holy, committed, and obedient lives that please the Lord.

I say a special thank you to my brothers, Nate Pritchard, Leighton McMillan Jr., Brandon McMillan, and Jonathan McMillan, for encouraging and challenging me and for making me laugh. You are truly my brothers in the Lord. Brandon, God bless you for the artwork you did for the book cover.

I also thank my pastor, Elder Charles S. Johnson Jr., and his wife—and my spiritual mentor—Evangelist Geraldine Jeanette Johnson, for the prayers, support, and confirmations you ministered to me as the Lord led you. Thank you, fellow members of Tabernacle Deliverance Church of God in Christ, for all your prayers and support.

Thank you, Evangelist Adrienne Banks, for allowing the Lord to use you to mentor me through the challenging times of writing. You are indeed precious and powerful in the Lord, and I admire the passion you have for Him. I also thank Sister Connie Beattie, who told me years ago that the Lord would use me to write books for Him.

I honor the memories of my grandparents, Deacon Horace and Mother Emma McMillan, and the Reverend Irvin and Minister Margaret Kittrell. They showed me how to love the Lord and instructed me to let the Lord have His way in my life.

Thank you, readers, for making the investment and taking the time to receive instructions the Lord has presented in this book. May the Lord deeply touch your lives and enrich you with His wisdom.

The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility (Prov. 15:33).

About the Cover Art

The artwork’s title is Touched.

Brandon K. McMillan, brother of the author, did this work.

It depicts an angel instructing the apostle Peter on how to escape prison and a ruler’s execution plan.

Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison. And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands. And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me (Acts 12:5-8).

Contents

Praise, Dedication, and Thank You

About the Cover Art

Introduction:

Touched With Instructions

Chapter 1 Touched to Get Out

Chapter 2 Touched with Bands:

Learning from Ezekiel’s Experience

Chapter 3 Instructions for Provision

Chapter 4 Instructions for Two

Part I: God Is Two Powerful

Chapter 5 Instructions for Two

Part II: Dreams and Extremes

Chapter 6 Instructions for Two

Part III: What God Will Do in a Second

Chapter 7 Instructions for Two

Part IV: Quite a Pair

Chapter 8 Instructions for Two

Part V: A Word to the Ones

Chapter 9 Instructions for Our Ears

Chapter 10 Instructions for Hearing the Healer

Chapter 11 Tongues Touched with Instructions

Chapter 12 Touched to Speak

Chapter 13 Instructions for Speaking to the Weary

Chapter 14 Instructions for Forgiving Our Tongues

Chapter 15 Instructions for Instructors

Part I: Accepting Rejection

Chapter 16 Instructions for Instructors

Part II: From Humble Students to Powerful Leaders

Chapter 17 Instructions for Instructors

Part III: Beautiful Ministry

Chapter 18 Battle Instructions

Part I: Strategies, Sins, and Wins

Chapter 19 Battle Instructions

Part II: The Word Versus the Letter

Chapter 20 Battle Instructions

Part III: Outnumbered But Not Overpowered

Chapter 21 Battle Instructions

Part IV: Final Victory

Chapter 22 Touched with Intimacy

A Touching Relationship with the Lord

Endnotes

Introduction:

Touched With Instructions

Don’t waste God’s touch.

His touches are more than emotional experiences that cause us to shed a few tears or make us feel some type of wonderful peacefulness we never had before.

With His touches come creation, healing, freedom—and instruction.

We can deepen our relationship with the Lord by going beyond just knowing that He touched us. The Lord encourages us to seek Him to understand why He touches us and what to do with His touches.

Throughout the Bible, we see that exchanges of touch between Heaven and humankind came with instructions.

The Book of Genesis shows us how God created the heavens and the earth. He then touched the ground to form a man named Adam and instructed him to have dominion over the earth.

Genesis 32 details the wrestling experience Jacob had with an angel of the Lord. At the end of this all-night bout, the angel touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint (Gen. 32:25). The angel told the wrestling Jacob to let go, but Jacob wanted to be blessed first.

Before Jacob received any blessing, he received instruction about his identity. In past years, Jacob had done some underhanded things against his family members, including conning his blind father into believing that he (Jacob) was Esau, his twin brother. By doing so, Jacob deceitfully obtained Esau’s inheritance.

The angel informed him that he was no longer Jacob—meaning trickster, con artist, or supplanter—but Israel, a prince who has power with God and with man, and hast prevailed (Gen. 32:28).

Daniel 9 also notes the connection between touch and instruction. Daniel was praying for Israel, confessing the nation’s sins while seeking God’s forgiveness and help.

Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. And he informed me, and talked with me and said, ‘O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding’ (Dan. 9:21–22).

The angel Gabriel goes on to instruct Daniel on God’s plans for the nation.

The Lord so values the touch-instruction connection that He responds when we reach out to Him in faith.

Consider the powerful example found in Mark 5:24–34.

Jesus was in Capernaum, thronged by a crowd of people. Among them was a woman who suffered from a devastating illness for twelve years. She crawled through the people, desperate to reach Jesus. She stretched out her hand.

For she said, If I may but touch his clothes, I shall be whole (Mark 5:28).

When she touched the garment, Jesus felt virtue, or power, go out of him. In verse 30, He turned around and asked, Who touched my clothes?

When the woman revealed herself and her situation, Jesus addressed the woman, repeating back to her the be whole instructions that came with her touch.

And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace and be whole of thy plague (Mark 5:34).

Mark 1:40–42 shows us how a man with leprosy experienced the compassionate touch of Christ, who disregarded societal rules to have no contact with people suffering from the often-contagious disease:

And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him and he was cleansed.

We will revisit these healing experiences as we continue learning about being touched with instructions. At that time, we will discover several nuggets of wisdom in the leprous man’s interaction with Jesus.

We also will learn the blessings of touching Jesus while developing an intimate relationship with Him. By examining several biblical examples, we’ll grasp how powerful touch and instruction can be, as function is revealed to creation, identities are changed, skills and understanding are imparted, wholeness and peace are granted, and the ostracized are cleansed and restored.

As the Lord leads us through this book, we will have moments of prayer, praise, repentance, and rededication.

We are now ready to continue our Touched With Instructions teaching by studying Apostle Peter’s miraculous rescue detailed in Acts 12:1–11. We will see how God used connection and direction to deliver this apostle from prison and a death sentence.

Remember, God does not waste touches. Neither should we.

CHAPTER 1

Touched to Get Out

Peter was just hours away from an execution planned by King Herod, who thought that killing the apostle would stop the church’s momentum. Herod had beheaded James, the first of Jesus’ twelve disciples to be martyred. Acts 12:5 shows the church was praying without ceasing for Peter. God’s answer was to send an angel equipped with instructions designed to rescue the apostle. Thus, Peter would have to obey the Lord’s way out of captivity and out of Herod’s death sentence.

When we are stuck in difficult situations, we can ask pastors, prayer partners, and loved ones to keep us in prayer. However, we must follow Peter’s example of adhering to God’s instructions concerning our circumstances. The church can pray for us, but not obey for us.

In Acts 12:6, we see that Peter is sleeping in prison. Suddenly, an angel appears and a bright light shines in the cell. The angel strikes the sleeping apostle on the side, ordering him to prepare for escape (verse 7). Peter’s miraculous exit begins as shackles fall from his hands and feet.

This is the part where we get excited about Peter’s experience and about our own touching encounters with the Lord.

Jesus touched me.

I saw the light!

The chains just fell off me, and I felt the burdens being lifted. I feel so free.

That’s great.

However, consider this: Peter received a touch from the kingdom, but he was still in prison. His execution schedule was still in effect. Thus, it is possible to be touched and not be free.

There are people who go to church, get touched, and feel good. However, they are still in captivity to habits. They are rude at restaurants and impatient in food store lines. They engage in road rage while driving cars displaying Jesus loves you bumper stickers.

Are we the ones who felt the chains fall off but are yet wounding and shackling people exposed to our character flaws?

Let us be honest. Some of us claim the Lord has touched us. However, we are still proud, selfish, disobedient, and unfaithful in Bible study and prayer. We still generate excuses for ungodly behaviors, saying, Please be patient with me; God is not through with me yet.

By the way we’re behaving, it doesn’t seem like God got started.

Many of us are having incredible church experiences. We’re having a good time clapping, waving our hands, celebrating great preaching, crying out to God, and worshipping with other believers. However, we don’t realize we’re having church in jail.

Satan—who operated through Herod in attempts to stop the works of Peter and the early church—is still determined to destroy God’s people today. He does not mind that people have moments of spiritual bliss, as long as they are in the place he put them when he arrives to destroy them.

Remember, Satan was once Lucifer, an angel of light who experienced the magnificence of heaven and the glory of God’s presence. Wanting the heavenly throne, he fought against God and lost. Furthermore, Satan has seen God’s miracles on the earth. Demons believe in God and tremble (James 2:19). With Satan and his fellow fallen angels having such a history with God and His wrath, they may not be all that impressed with much of our super-great worship services.

The enemy is watching what we do after those services. How we live outside the church building will show him whether we are still in prison. Obeying God’s instruction will deliver us from the enemy’s destruction. Like Peter, we can obey the Lord’s way out of Satan’s hands and plans.

This is why the Lord is showing us the importance of seeking Him to understand why He touches us. We need more than the emotion of these touching experiences. We need the information. What does the Lord want us to do?

While preparing to hear sermons, we can ask the Lord to help us get beyond the excitement of sermon delivery, so we can focus on the instructions He releases in those moments.

We don’t want to be the first ones celebrating great sermons or weeping during wonderful, spiritually-awakening moments, only to be the last ones to show up at Sunday school or Bible study—or not show up at all.

Peter’s experience shows us how the Lord prepares people to hear and do His instructions. Let us see how the Lord’s touch and instructions get Peter out.

A Time to Rest and a Time to Move

When facing enormous challenges, some people think the best thing to do is to rest in the Lord and let Him take care of everything. They believe He will bring them out somehow.

If God wants us to rest, He will give us rest. However, the Lord might have a plan that requires action on our part. Like the old congregational song says, When the Lord gets ready, you got to move!

Snoring when the enemy arrives doesn’t prove we have reached some mature level of faith in believing that God will deliver us; getting up and obeying God’s instructions does. In other words, we have to participate in our deliverance.

Peter’s participation began with waking up. The Lord had decided the apostle needed to get up, get instructions, and get out.

What to Put On So You Can Move On

And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me (Acts 12:8).

Peter had to get dressed and then put on his shoes and coat.

Like this apostle, many of us have been touched to wake up and get out of our captive places. The time has come for us to experience the manifestation of God’s deliverance. We must get dressed for our deliverance experiences.

Just as the angel told Peter what to put on, the Lord will show us what we need to proceed. What is the Lord instructing us to put on or add to our characters, behaviors, or spiritual development as He prepares us to follow Him to deliverance?

Let us meditate on and obey His instructions given in these Scriptures:

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1:5–8).

Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness (perfect bond of unity). And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful (Col. 3:12–15).

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil … Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit (Eph. 6:11, 13–18).

Going for a Victory Walk Through Enemy Situations

Peter was awakened, raised up, and clothed for his deliverance. He had an angel for his guide. However, the apostle was still in jail surrounded by enemy forces. He would have to walk past wards of prison guards to get out (Acts 12:10).

What do you do when the only way out is