Making A Cell Smart

Making A Cell Smart

11/20/16

This concept is a noble one that could bring unending changes to our lives for if this goal can be achieved human beings can sustain a real fighting chance of survival against almost every known physical insult.  This goal probably has been in the hearts of countless medical personnel ever since medicine was created.  But we must remember that it is not only the physical cell that needs to be smart nor does it need to be forgotten exactly what a cell represents when it comes to the heart of God.  It is the heart of God that the cell receives life and it is our choice to know this healing or not.  The consequences of ignorance will be the same but it is our responsibility to configure the eternal differently than the physical and the only way we can do this is to live through the Word of God.  This begs us to understand exactly which cell is most important to God.

I have to admit it has been a tad difficult for me to grasp the concept of God showing me things to write about.  I have never been the best at writing and even now the way God shows me to write would not be considered “professional” but it is completed through His means and ways and I dare not change them for I have tried once and was immediately told otherwise.  It should have dawned on me that God was changing my life and molding me into the person that He wants me to be while beginning a new path for my life at the same time.  This article also places me into a weird position because the subject of it can be considered to be of a selfish nature but in truth, it is what the Church needs to understand about God, His Word, and Kingdom and what God has directed my life towards advancing all three of those commands.  I have no idea what my final mission shall be nor do I know where it shall take me but I do know that God has clearly stated His plan for my life and through this plan He shall bless those who listen, understand and take heed those words for a great change is coming to this nation and the world and we shall need His understanding and wisdom to survive this onslaught.

When my freshman year in high school rolled around it was inevitable that I would receive the “what do you want to be when you grow up” speech by my school counselors and my parents.  Sure enough, both of those days arrived and I had to make up my mind of which direction I wanted to travel.  It was not a difficult choice for ever since I was a kid I had been enthralled with the medical field.  I was looking at my mother’s nursing school books when I was a kid and began understanding them when I hit my junior high school days.  When my senior year I enrolled in a program called HOSA which allowed me to spend a few weeks in each department of the hospital and that is where my love for the laboratory began.

My love for this field took me along an interesting journey that included a short stint in a local hospital in southeast Texas, then to the military and finally at another small hospital located in a community in western Colorado.  I have been in this small community for over 24 years now and I still love the opportunities that it brings each day that passes. I love learning about the people of the community that I encounter along with all of the challenges my profession itself offers.   I have been in our Oncology center for approximately 5 of these 24 years and I am thrilled to be able to provide an excellent level of service, along with my coworkers to these people in need.

To keep my mind active, I attended some classes when I first began my tenure here in Colorado and through these classes, my scientific mind was stimulated with many courses of information that provided a constant stimulation of knowledge which fueled my desires to be in the medical field.  For a long time, I worked the evening shift at my hospital I loved it and it was this experience that provided me with many opportunities to learn about people and the conditions that they present to their medical providers.  During this time period, I had no idea that while my eyes were seeing these people come and go that God was waiting for the right time to interject His plan for my life, and it was through my eyesight and heart that He was interjecting this plan of His.  One day, one of my professors asked my class about their futures and how would we apply what we learned in his class to this goal of ours.  To be honest, I really never expected to have another “what do you want to be when you grow up” speech again but there it was and once again the question hit me hard and went straight into my heart. 

I pondered this question for some time and one evening as I was working at the hospital the answer was dropped into my heart.  The answer to this question was actually another question but a question if answered could change the entire world as we know it.  Healthcare has always been a huge issue around the world and as long as humans inhabit this planet it shall always be a subject of life itself.  Even though I was told by many that if I went into the medical field I would basically have a job no matter where I went, and while that statement is correct I never had that statement as the sole reasoning for my presence in this field.  I wanted people to understand that there is an alternative to false and hurtful existence and it was through this foundation of my beliefs that God was already in the works and had His plan activated in my life.

The answer to the question that I had received in class was as follows: how does one make a cell smart?  Cells are fascinating creations for each organ and each organ’s contents has individual cells when placed together allow that specific organ to function as it is required by the body.  Everyone knows that cells on your skin contain the necessary elements to ward off infections that our outward bodies face each second of every day of our lives.  Also, each cell of the liver has a specific duty so that the liver can function as the body’s blood filter, and that the spleen’s job is to gather all of the peripheral blood cells in the body and then figure out if they are old and need “retiring”.  All other cells within their specific organs have these types of functions and are needed in order to sustain life which seems like a simple enough process doesn’t it, but only if reality worked this smoothly.  But what if someone could make a cell smart enough to be able to protect itself from the dangers that can invade it or harm it?  It was this setup question and statement of my own that put this process into motion.

While cells have their innate responsibilities they also have limitations that they cannot deal with on a constant basis.  Cells can only function according to what they have been programmed to complete.  This means that when certain conditions arise and infiltrations of bacteria, viruses, and other harmful insults approach the cell, many times it cannot differentiate the good from bad and allows harmful substances to enter and then wreak havoc to the cell that has become infected.  This havoc usually requires the cell to die and thus lose its battle against the life it was created to defend.  It is this quest that my heart jumped towards and from the moment that this idea came into my heart as I was working that evening I have never stopped trying my best to achieve this goal.  In no way am I calling a cell dumb but wouldn’t it make sense if every cell in our body would function at its top level at all times without harmful invasions?  I mean, to think that the cell could recognize a harmful ingredient before it attacks and be able to destroy it before any harm comes.  This would be the perfect living condition for any cell and would automatically extend the organ’s life status immensely and exponentially.

Over the decades now this concept of making a cell smart has always been the burning desire that lived in my heart.  I had the notion that my life would be totally enveloped with this concept and help whoever may know more about ideas that they may have not thought about or engineer thoughts and processes that would extenuate others in coordinating this procedure.  I have always left this concept on the physical level and as long as I have had this desire it has never left my heart.  I would ponder this goal for days at a time sometimes and then somehow it would be placed in the back of my mind and only after an extended period of time would it reappear again.  My point being that this thought of making the cells in a body reach a point, somehow to ensure their “smartness” could be programmed into their DNA so that their existence would continually enhance so that we may live healthier and thus longer.  I never protruded to anyone as a mad scientist nor did I wish to create an artificial being in order to fulfill this goal.  My heart was pure and only interested in helping people engage life to their fullest, but what I did not realize was that God had other plans for this goal of mine and that I had no idea that this goal was going to be taken to another level, one that has eternal markings and not physical ones.

I have carried this burden in my heart for decades now and as I said above the desire to find the mechanism that would allow the cell recognition would be revolutionary no matter which condition a person suffered with.  I am not saying God cannot create a human mind and heart to end this cellular struggle, but the greatest challenge to this process is for the scientist themselves to get out of the womb first and have a fighting chance to complete such a task.  I was lucky enough to escape this process and up until last summer, I really believed that God was leading me in the physical cell recognition process even though He had already woven these messages into my life.

If you have read my articles that God has given me over the past few years you will understand that when I first began this process my words were choppy, sentences simple with the content of these messages quite small.  These patterns reflected how I viewed writing when I was in school and college for I absolutely despised to write so much so that I could not even keep a pen pal when I was younger.  For those who have read my articles will also remember that I come from a minister’s home and was raised in church all my life.  You will also recall that I have not always been faithful to God and the call He has over my life and you will also know that quite some time back I did return to God and He has run with my heart ever since.  The restoration process has been wonderful and painful at the same time because I had no clue of how deep the world penetrates a life when you give it just an inch.  God is good all the time, and all the time God is good!

A good portion of the things that God shares with me about His Word and the plan for my life comes in the parking lot as I am crossing it headed to the other building, direction and building do not matter for God works on each path.  I have no idea why He chooses this time to share things with me but I cannot accurately say how many topics have been given to me over the years while my legs walk this path.  On the other hand, I do get the fact that when I am walking this path my mind is clear and focused and I am away from my laboratory and have few distractions around me, so this would seem to be a good opportunity for God to grab my attention.  Whatever the reasoning God has I refuse to argue with the burning bush and accept what He has to say to my heart.

One summer day last year I was making this cross parking lot trip many times for the day was a busy one when God spoke to my heart and asked me about cells.  He asked me my mission and while I found it a bit odd to repeat this to Him I did anyway.  I gently spoke in return that it was my desire that I make a cell smart, and after I spoke those words nothing else was said to me on that parking lot crossing.  God had never just dropped a statement or question in that manner to me and just left it, so I knew that our conversation was not over and more was coming but I had no clue about what God was going to be saying to me.  Naturally, I thought that it was going to be another title for a topic for me to write about but I had no idea it was going to be a life-changing moment, defining commission, and ordination put together.  As stated before it was a busy day at the Oncology center and my mind was pulled in several directions as each hour passed but while I was trekking back and forth from building to building my heart found peace and contentment.

On the next trip across the parking lot God asked me my opinion about cells and what they meant so I replied that they were the basic unit of function that made up the organs that provided our bodies the ability to sustain life; then nothing else for that trip, again I knew that there would be more coming.  On the return trip to my building God asked me another question and it was this question that started the process of a new direction for my life.  His question was this: “who are you?”  I found that to be a strange question but understood it so I gently responded to Him and said that I was just a boy and a servant to Him.  Once again, after my answer, there was nothing else for that trip.  By now I was getting a tad nervous about my trips across the parking lot for God was consistently talking each time and I did not know where His words were leading.

Since it was a busy and steady day I knew that I was going to be making more trips across to the other building and since God had already been speaking to me on the previous two trips I figured that more statements and questions would follow.  Sure enough, on the next trip, God asked me a question that began His drive to the point that He was showing me.  He asked me: “who is the Church?”  This was an easy question for me and at that moment it seemed like the question was not directed at me, I answered it quite quickly and confidently.  I said it was the people, them and me.  He replied: “correct”.  This pattern of questions and answers continued for the next few trips, it was through this process that God reinforced to my spirit that He is a continuous and complete God in all terms and existence.  He had started something and was going to finish it whether I was “busy” or not.  Not even at this point did I figure out what God was driving at, but it would not be too much longer until I would be stopped in my tracks.

Continuing, God then asked me another question concerning the Church by asking: “who is the body of Christ?”  That too was an easy one for me to answer and once again I quickly responded with the following: “we are and I am.”  Little did I know that through these “easy” questions God was setting me up perfectly to change my life because the method in which He was completing His task for my life I could never deny that I was not told or shown, for it was His questions and my answers that set into motion the change of direction in my life; which, “change of direction” is not an accurate statement because I have known for a long time that I was set apart for some reason to advance His Kingdom.  It is through this pattern of explanation from God is how He speaks to us concerning His Word as well for if we truly desire to know Him and what His Word states, He will build upon each bit of information He has given previously; it is a beautiful gift.

On the next trip, God tightened His tactics a bit and made it a bit more personal when He asked: “what makes up a body?”  Through my blinded and unknowingly mind, this was an easy question for me because it also lined up with the pattern of what I wanted to study all these years and my answer to God was: “cells”.  Cells and molecules are what I look at and result their presence each day so naturally, I was prone to answer in this manner.  I was proud of myself for being able to answer all of these questions and to be honest, it was this pride that God used to humble me and to show me exactly what His plan for my life had been, was and is.  I still had no idea of what God was leading up to either, another example of how we really need to listen to God to achieve the entire picture of His mission and our purpose in life.

God then dropped a bombshell when He asked me this question: “if My Church is the Body of Christ and it is a group that is supposed to function together, then what is an individual?”  At this point when God asked me this question, I had just walked out of the main building and by the time I answered it I was at the base of the ambulance entrance of the Emergency Department.  I had to look both ways as I was crossing an entrance to the hospital and as I reached the center of this crossing something major came to my head.  It was a steady and complete thought that had no hesitations or jitters while it was passing through my head into my heart.  I know this process is hard to explain but that is exactly what it did.  The passage of words that came to me literally stopped me in my tracks as I was standing in the middle of this crossing.  

At that second I did not realize that where I was standing I would have been a prime target for any driver of a car who was not paying close attention to run me over and end my life; that thought did occur to me later, however.  This was in the summer time and very hot outdoors but as this passage finished and I had the opportunity to process it I had cold chills running up and down my spine and I literally shook with a sensation of being cold.  God told me the following: “you want to make a cell smart, then make the cells of My Church smart so that they make function as one unit for My Kingdom”.  I was frozen solid in a position and it was not until I realized where I was standing that my legs could move once again.  I turned my head in both directions before I took a step and then proceeded to walk to my destination.

It was this statement by God to me that placed my purpose for His Kingdom into perspective and made His life to the world a direct measurement.  I have stated many times over my life that I have no idea why God would choose such a clown as me to create an advancement of His Kingdom.  I know that through some of the things that I have done in my life I only deserve to be destroyed so thoroughly by God that my matter of existence could never be recognized again.  But I live through the faith of Jesus Christ that I am able to walk into the presence of God and to hear His voice instructing me about what to say to His children who are crying out for help.  It is these hurting people that God has called me to represent and to teach.  I know that it will be a battle for they have no clue as to who holds their future and who is currently holding on to the present.  There are two forces that are vying for their eternal position and unless they hear the truth about God and what His Word says about them, they shall never understand the truth that our enemy holds from them.

My drive and passion for the medical field still holds a strong place in my heart and it is this drive that God allowed me to develop all these years so that my brain and heart would know exactly how to approach a dying world.  I am willing to do whatever is necessary in order to advance God’s Kingdom, including leaving the medical field that I cherish so much, but God has not told me to leave it and I have no idea if He ever will either but I shall answer His call if and when He deems.  I cannot argue the fact that God has His hand on my life and guides me each day and as I now learn the added direction that God has for my life I can see clearly the mission that He has set before me.  

I have often wondered why God put me into the medical profession in the manner in which He ordained.  Throughout my medical profession, those thoughts haunted me but with the knowledge I have now about my mission for His Kingdom, the answers to those questions have been answered.  As I also look back I fully understand that if God had shared this information with me back some months or years previous I would have rejected it completely; thus, proving that God knows and sees every aspect of your life even before we experience it.  In no way am I trying to boost my position or status in Christ in any manner for I am still a boy and, to be honest, this entire process totally scares me and I can only proceed in faith and humbleness through God.

It is obvious that God has a plan and a specific purpose for your life in His Kingdom.  It is also obvious that our enemy will do his best to stall this purpose and even end your existence on earth so that God’s Kingdom cannot be advanced.  Church it is my duty to inform you that you are living in sin and you need to repent and allow God to restore your place as the only true embassy for the dying world.  Every stance you take with the world shall only lead to your further destruction along with the destruction of the world.  The course has already been plotted for the world but God is offering you a bit more time to change your heart and to repent, for even as in the days of the Israelites both the just and the unjust were included in every act of God.  God needs a perfect bride to call His Church and for His Son to eternally seek.  This body cannot come together unless each cell is perfectly willing to work as a single organ, system, and body for God and His Kingdom.

What fascinates me the most is that God and all of His wisdom and regality wishes to make His heart known to a single cell such as myself and to you.  You as an individual are just as vital as the entire body of Christ for without your presence His will cannot be complete.  When we place this truth in our hearts we will open up so many freedoms and liberties that God’s Kingdom could not be held back if attacked by any force against it.  Wait a minute, I have heard that phrase spoken before, oh yeah, Matthew 16:18.  God asks us to stop and to think about our lives and what they mean to Him, our enemy wants us to keep our focus on what our lives mean to us which is a stark contrast to how important we know the truth.

My mission in life has stayed the course but with some spiritual changes towards tactics.  Many will not accept these facts and truths from God for He has shown me this as well, but for the ones who do their lives shall forever be changed for the glory of God and for the advancement of His Kingdom.  Please do not misunderstand God in any way, He loves His Church like no other and He wants nothing less for her to be sharp and prepared for her Groom.  But the only way that this is possible is for her to spotless and adorned in His Word which means that her hands and feet must be dirty and marked with battle scars for this means that she understands what it means to fight for eternity and the advancement of her Groom’s Kingdom; this is the perfect dress for Jesus’ Bride.

When cells become smart, they provide an extraordinary challenge to the forces around them.  No longer are they the vulnerable prey that an enemy wishes to overtake.  Cells that are smart know how to defend themselves and know what the battle objectives are before the enemy reaches its attacking point.  They know who their commander is and have the willingness to understand His orders when they are given.  Smart cells know who their enemy is and know how he attacks.  They act in faith and defend in truth with the armor and correct weapons to complete their tasks.  They shall never be unprepared for their eyes are fixed on their mission and heart set into motion through their desires.  This is what a smart cell knows and this is what God desires for His children and Church.  One may not realize the worth of a single cell but God understands how vital you are to His body and Kingdom and He wants us to understand what our Created status actually is.  You are royalty and need to understand your purpose as such.

DLB