Dodie Osteen is the mother of Joel Osteen, the famous pastor from Texas. I remember once Joel Osteen was talking about his mom’s terminal liver cancer. She was released from the hospital with only few weeks to live. Christmas was coming up, and Joel and his siblings knew how much she always wanted to own fancy China dishes. They were young but pooled their money together to buy her a set of fancy China dishes. However the store lacked one more setting to make a complete set. Now, Joel and his siblings had to decide at the store, “do we order the extra setting?” knowing well what the doctors have said. Back in those days, with the manufacturer being in England and the dishes made with high standards, the store said it’ll take up to six months. 

By faith, Joel and his siblings placed an order for the extra set. On Christmas Day, they gave their mom the fancy China dishes and told her the missing set will come in six months. I love this story because it’s a wonderful example of proactive faith. Their mom was eventually healed and she’s been cancer-free for over 30 years. I remember her healing came gradually and she also had to proactively demonstrate her faith. I’m sure receiving the fancy China set minus one setting, with a promise that it’s coming gave her the aspiration to fight the good fight of faith. Her kids’ proactive faith must’ve inspired her too. 

As I’m waiting for my promise that my entire household will be saved and serve the Lord with me, I believe that I’m also proactively demonstrating my faith by growing in my wisdom of the word of God, by reading books on Jewish history and understanding their religion, seeking knowledge on how to minister to them, by taking on roles to train me in leadership, by developing my writing skills, etc. I love how God knew one day that I’ll be part of this exciting movement to reach the Jewish people, and out of millions of names to choose from that I chose “Sasha” as an immigrant secular teen. With my married last name, I sound like a Russian Jew! Lol. God demonstrated proactive faith with me! 

Whatever it is that you are praying and hoping for today, I challenge you to demonstrate proactive faith. Show God and also the enemy that you mean serious business. Bringing down strongholds and fighting for your promises is a very active and adventurous process. It requires proactive faith. We don’t have to tolerably cope and live with these strongholds and curses anymore! We can rise up and break the generational chains, and never let them pass down to our children and future generations. Since I am the first one in both our families to take this commission seriously, I have much experience already and have seen the strongholds break in many places. It’s remarkable how much God did already in only six years of my cooperation. Praise God! 

If you mean serious business like me, then you must do your part. It’s not a passive thing to attack the strongholds. It’s a very active and adventurous process. I’ve learned that the only offensive weapon we have is the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Use your tongue to fight the good fight of faith. Otherwise, hold your tongue and remain silent. Because God is so merciful, He took away my social contacts for the first three years so that I can relearn how to think and speak. He did the same to Zechariah in Luke 1 when he was promised a son, John the Baptist. The angel Gabriel silenced Zechariah because he didn’t believe. Perhaps Zechariah may have negated this powerful promise with doubtful words…

Please don’t worry if you have made many mistakes speaking the wrong words. We have grace and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. Plus God’s mercies are new every morning. Please accept this comforting and encouraging message from Jesus to Jairus when he heard that it was too late and his daughter was dead. 
Luke 8:50 (NIV)
Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.”
(Replace the ending with what you want healed and restored in your blood line.)

Also, here is a link of Dodie Osteen’s story in their local magazine. May her story inspire you too!  
https://www.google.com/amp/www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/amp/Lakewood-Church-matriarch-acknowledges-miracles-7225800.php?client=safari