Laura Harris has dedicated her life to serving her Lord and sharing what she has learned with others. Harris, formally Dr. Laura Henry Harris, and her husband, Mike, co-founded Where He Leads Me Ministries.
Residents of Adair County, Mike is a local attorney, and together they own Shoreline Communications, which operates a number of radio stations.
Laura’s latest book, “God Promised; Own the Fullness of All God Has Offered,” shares a recent spiritual journey she experienced about the need to press toward the promises God has given. Harris said the journey began when she and Mike were driving home from a conference in Dallas.
“ I started thinking about the Promised Land, and I started thinking about ‘our’ promised land and all the promises that we felt like we had from the Lord, about family members and about, just a lot of different things we felt were very important to us that we had been pressing for and praying for, for a number of years,” Harris said. “I just had this revelation of the Lord that if we did not get serious about seeing the answers to the promises God had given us, that we could reach the end of our lives and not see those things come to pass. It shook me to the core.”
This revelation led Harris on a journey that started immediately. She began to fast and seek answers on how God wanted them to receive the answers to his promises.
“You know, a lot of people think you don’t hear God's voice. Yes, you do. If you give yourself, if you apply yourself to be available,” she said. She bases how she hears and responds to God on a plan she calls CHD in reference to Luke 6:46-49–“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like:
“He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock, and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.
“But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”
From that scripture, Harris concludes, “You gotta come to the Lord, you gotta hear him, and you gotta be obedient.”
For the next month, Harris focused her prayer and study time on seeking God’s revelation about receiving the fullness of his promises. From there, she was led to compile what she had learned for a book.
With 2 Corinthians 1:20 as her key verse (For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us), she wrote about many scriptures in the Bible that are promises from God.
“God gets the glory when we get the answers to the promises,” she said. “A promise is no more than God saying something. So, if we believe what God says is true, we can take it to the bank.”
The Greek and Hebrew meaning of the word promise is announcement, Harris noted.
“Every announcement, every promise, every scripture is a yes and amen in Jesus Christ,” she said. “What I have come out of this with, is I believe God. I just believe him. I believe his scriptures.”
Harris said there are about 7,000 promises in scripture. While she obviously could not cover all of those in her book, she does offer spiritual tools on how to receive promises and explains how believers should actively pursue God’s promises.
“We are not to convince (God) to do something that he has already done. What we’re trying to do is kick the devil out of our promises. Israel had to kick all those nations out of their promised land. God gave it to them, but it was up to them to conquer it and settle it,” she said. “It’s the same thing with our promises. God had already done it, but they had to partner with him.”
As she came to what she thought was the completion of the book, she felt like God told her she needed one more chapter – a chapter she hadn’t even thought about yet.
After more prayer and study, Harris realized the chapter should focus on John 3:16, the most well-known verse of the Bible: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
“It’s the most important promise,” Harris said, adding that God revealed to her, “People believe that promise more than any others. What if they believed every promise like they believe that promise?”
“God Promised; Own the Fullness of all God Has Offered” may be purchased from Amazon or online at whereheleadsme.org. An audio version will be available soon.
By Sharon Burton
snburton@adairvoice.com
