Tag: Christianity

That Your Prayers Be Not Hindered

praying hands“Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives,  when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes.  Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.  For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.   Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers. Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.  Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.  For,“Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech.  They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it.  For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”  — 1 Peter 3:1-12

 

I want to interject early on, that there is a difference between medical conditions which trigger certain behaviors, and spiritual conditions.  When someone is (or should be) under medical treatment and/or medications for such conditions, I would never advise you to stop treatment or counseling.  In fact, I beg of you to get checked out if you suspect you’re dealing with bipolar, depression, PTSD, or any other mental health issue that might make it easy for you to mistreat others.  The difference is, medication can help with a physical/mental condition–there is no shame in needing it–but if your problem is spiritual, you cannot medicate away a spiritual problem!  May all of us transparent with ourselves enough to know when sin is the root cause of our bad behavior–and may we aggressively do the work to get it out of our lives.

I also want to note that, this article can’t possibly take into account every single home’s unique issues.  I do want to, however, talk about just a few of them.  If these don’t touch on the particular problems, causes, and conditions in your own home, just know that I’m trying to touch a small area in a very broad issue.  Please, if you’re having problems, don’t just take my small blog post as an all-inclusive approach to dealing with them.  Consult with a qualified marriage counselor, pastor, mental health advisor, someone who can get into the finer points of your particular crisis.

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It’s not often that I start a devotional out with such a long passage of Scripture, but to condense this very important passage would not do any justice to the teaching topic I’m addressing this morning:  cruelty in the home, most notably, spousal abuse.

There aren’t many instances in Scripture where spousal abuse is recorded; yet, treating one’s family well–including (and especially) the husband or wife–is a recurring theme throughout the Scriptures.  It’s important to God. Being kind to one’s mate should be a given, right?  Yes, it should be.  There are some things God shouldn’t have to come right out and get elementary about, and yet…  He had to spell out that we not have sex with animals, with our parents/kids/near kin, etc.  If you think that mankind is inherently good, well, think again.  The human heart, without God shaping it and molding it, is desperately wicked.  When mapping out a plan for godly living, yes, He got very specific.  He knew there would be a few delinquents in the bunch who might come back later and say, “Well, no one ever told ME that a person’s not supposed to do that!”

A Double Life

A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.  Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:  For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.  James 1:8, 19-20

You cannot be cruel in your home and it not affect your life outside your home.  I knew of a man once whom everyone in the general public loved.  He was very charismatic, very accommodating to others.  He was the “open doors, help little old ladies across the street” kind of guy.  He was well respected in the business world and in the political realm; yet there was an elephant in the room.  When he went home at night, he left the nice-man suit in his car in the garage, and put on the monster costume.  He was a verbal abuser to his entire family, but especially to his wife.  It would eventually come out that on occasions he got physical with her, too.  She remained with him until her children were grown, reasoning within herself that it was ok, so long as he didn’t physically harm the kids.  Then, one day she and his children were well out of harm’s way, and everyone was shocked.  They couldn’t figure out what on earth would break up such a happy home.  Then, slowly, the stories begin to emerge about what was actually going on in that home.  The wife would confide, the kids would confide; eventually, what was such a carefully-guarded secret was all over the place.

If that weren’t a sad enough note to end this little story on, the man didn’t just go back to business-as-usual in his outside life.  With no one at home to take his frustrations out on, the monster costume was occasionally worn to work and out in the community under his clothes.  His stellar reputation went south, and though he was a man of means, he lost everything of true value.  Eventually even his financial prosperity proved to be tainted by the cruelty in his heart.

Abuse Isn’t Always Covert

Flip the situation and I’ll tell you of another.  I used to know a married couple that I absolutely hated running into.  They were friends of ours, and I didn’t dislike them, per se.  I was just always left deeply uncomfortable by the way the wife continually, and in every conversation, insulted her husband to us…right in front of him!  She would go on and on about foolish choices he made, and how if he’d only have listened to her, he wouldn’t have done them…or how he always did this wrong, or always failed in that area.  Her whole discussion would always seem to center on how superior she was to him in every way.  I could tell this man was resentful and deeply ashamed of what she was doing, and yet, the climate never seemed to change.  They had a rocky, on-again, off-again relationship.  It always felt good whenever we were able to finagle ourselves away from them!  Was that spousal abuse?  It absolutely was!

No Place for Abuse in a Christian Home!

Why am I sharing this in a devotional?  Because I see it, shamefully so, in Christian homes and not just in the homes of nonbelievers.  And yes, those stories abound as well of women who are abusers in the home.  Their outcomes are no better than this man’s.  And this situation I’ve shared with you is a secular story.  You’re seeing ones like it on the news nearly daily now.  There are countless big-time athletes and actors and celebrities who’ve lost their status because their abusive characters outside the workplace cause their employers to view them as a public relations risk.  No one wants to be associated with a bully or a thug, or even a jerk!  Even some of the best-looking actors in Hollywood have completely lost their heartthrob status when it came out that they were abusers of their spouses and families.

I wonder–knowing what an outspoken man Peter was–how and when he eventually came to the place in his walk with God where these teachings had lodged within his own heart!  Peter–the same man who wrote the above passage is the same hot-head who cut off the high priest’s servant’s ear in the Garden of Gethsemane.  He’s the same fellow who denied Jesus three times, and other major debacles of character.  Yet, he apparently at least eventually got the revelation that God values self-control in a man (and a woman).  Jesus even showed up at his house at one point to heal Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever, and she rose up afterwards and ministered to them.  A man who has relationship issues wouldn’t call Jesus to his home to heal one of his in-laws!  He’d probably do anything that he could to keep Jesus from entering his home, for fear that Jesus would sense a spirit of offense there.  Peter’s writings here would indicate that, at least in time, he understood the necessity of one’s horizontal relationships’ being in harmony to positively open up the VERTICAL relationship with God.

I’m not writing this devotional to try to shame men into becoming walked-on wimps, and I’m not writing it to tell women that they have no voice and should just be door mats to their husbands.  I’m writing it to urge you to get your houses in order…because how you treat your family matters to God.  You will be judged for it.  The fruitfulness of your hopes, dreams, and prayers depends on it, too.  If you don’t particularly like being successful, being thought well of, being blessed, being whole in mind and body, then just ignore everything I’ve said…BUT!  If you do want to have a blessed, prosperous life where everything doesn’t go to pieces, then you need to respect the conditions for blessing that God has set forth in His Word.

Common Excuses We Use Not to Change

  1.  It’s just the way I am.  I inherited this temper.  So lame!  This is the laziest excuse to let one’s emotions run the show.  You are right about one thing…without God’s help, you really can’t change.  And if you inherited a short fuse, stop bragging about it!  It’s not something to be proud of.  If you have anger issues or a personality trait that is endangering the welfare of your family, be man or woman enough to admit it before God and before a qualified marriage counselor.  Don’t wait until the damage is beyond repair.  You may not feel that bad about it now, but at some point in time, you will reap some painful things for the pain you inflict on others.
  2. It’s his/her fault that I lose it.  My spouse sets me off with that mouth!  While it’s true, our spouses can lend to the overall problem, it is still up to you to control your own spirit!  Temporarily distance yourself if you have to, rather than engaging so heatedly into discussions that you wind up saying and doing regretful things.  Back off.  Take a walk.  Better yet, pray and get into God’s Word.  Take the initiative to arrange for pastoral and qualified family counseling if you have these types of issues.  Whatever you do, don’t let that volcano of hate and anger spew into your home!
  3. He/she knows I really don’t mean it.  We always cool off eventually.  I can promise you this:  when you say hurtful things to your children or spouse, they play over and over like a broken record long after the argument is over.  Don’t be the cause of your family having to deal with the sin of unforgiveness through repeated abuse on your part!  Nothing good can come of you causing your spouse and kids to develop hard, callous hearts.  It will tell on you, eventually.
  4. As long as no one at work, church, school, or our community knows we have these problems, it should all work out ok.  You see, that’s the lie Satan plants to keep us satisfied that we still have it all under control.  Remember, God’s opinion ultimately is the most important, and if you are disobeying His guidelines for the way you treat others, you are sinning, PERIOD.  Just because no one else seems to be observing the problem, doesn’t mean that they aren’t already picking up on the bad vibes.  People aren’t that stupid, friend!  Your spouse and children have body language and many other non-verbal means of communicating to the world that you are not treating them well, even when they are trying to hide their embarrassing secret.
  5. I came from an abusive background and I didn’t turn out so bad. I’m not nearly as bad as my dad/mom.  Are you kidding?  The very fact that your own family is repeating the same nightmare in another generation is a serious problem.  What if your children’s relationships turn out to be even worse than your parents’, just because you failed to deal with it in your own life?  Yes, it’s serious.  Don’t grade yourself on a curve against others who you perceive are/were worse than you are.  Examine your life against God’s standard in His Word, and make whatever changes you need to make to live a life pleasing to Him!  Proverbs says that when a person’s ways please the the Lord, He makes even that person’s enemies to be at peace with him/her.  Righteousness and a truly right heart will positively, even miraculously, affect your ability to get along well with others.  It is truth.
  6. I don’t feel well.  My health issues make me moody and my family knows it.  Yes, they certainly do know it, and they resent being the brunt of your frustration.  And if you want their prayers, love, understanding, and support, you will try harder not to let your personal pain affect your treatment of them.  The best way to have someone actually on your side is not to turn him or her into an enemy by being an ogre!
  7. I’m just talking mean to him/her.  Since I’m not name-calling or using foul language, it’s not really verbal/emotional abuse.  Baloney, friend.  You are not that deceived!  If the way you are speaking and behaving is causing abnormal fears, manipulation, torment, sadness, depression, suicidal thoughts, resentment, self-hatred, depreciation, insults, you are not behaving like Jesus!  Yes, sometimes we have to address issues in our homes.  Things need discussed, resolved, debated, corrected, at times changed for the better of everyone involved.  Sometimes we must be iron sharpening iron…you may be instrumental in discipline in your home, but you are not called to be a verbal axe-wielder in your home.  You can have even serious, somber, firm discussions with others without stepping into a spirit of strife.  Weigh every action and word against how Jesus would handle what you’re handling, and if you are emotionally scarring another person, you need to stop it, NOW.

Initiating Change Through Prayer and Honest Self-Examination

There’s no way I can possibly cram all the helpful elements to enhancing our spousal relationships into this little blog post, but what I will do is this:  I have included a couple of prayers for spouses whose anger issues are jeopardizing their marriages.  I am proposing not anger management, but anger crucifixion!  It’s time to take these issues to the cross, once and for all.

I do want to say this, as we end on a positive note:  today is a new day.  We can repent and apologize for the sins of our past, and start from this day forward to make better choices. I so respect Larry and Tiz Huch, television ministers, for their very transparent testimony of how God restored their marriage after years of abusive behavior.  We need to see more testimonies like theirs of couples who’ve overcome the past, forgiven, and gone on to have happy marriages.  I want you to know that there is hope for you too–but you must be willing to fight the real enemy, the devil, for it!  God is ready to meet you right where you are, and His grace is sufficient.

Husbands – “Heavenly Father, I feel the pressure on every side to be in charge.  The hardest time I have holding it together is when I come home, because that’s where I want most to be able to be myself.  But Lord, I don’t like the man I see myself become when I’m around my family.  Forgive me for the horrible way I have let my anger leech into my homelife.  As the spiritual leader of our home, it says that I have spiritual issues of my own which need dealt with.  Lord, I don’t want to damage my children for future relationships!  I don’t want my wife to secretly despise me.  The truth is, I don’t know how to change and without Your help, I can’t change.  I ask You, in Jesus’ name, to break off any generational curses of parental and spousal abuse from my bloodline now.  Sever all negative ties between my family history and my own immediate family now.  If there is abuse in our lineage, let my family be the generation in which it is stopped.  Lord, shine the light of Your Word into my spirit man.  Chase the wickedness out of the corners of my soul where it loves to hide.  Father, if there is an indwelling of any unclean spirit in me or on me which influences me to verbally, emotionally, or physically abuse my wife and children, I resist it now.  I submit myself to You because Your Word says that if I will humble myself, submit to you, and resist the devil, he MUST flee from me!  Drive out every evil spirit that influences me to harm others and to harm myself.  Fill me up to overflowing with Your Holy Spirit and help me to recognize all open doors to evil in my life.  I go behind Your revelation of these things and I shut them, one by one.  In Jesus’ name, may every legal access the devil has to our home be deadbolted shut now and forevermore.  Father, as I repent and submit myself to Your Word, I will also repent to and before my family for the wrong things I have said and done to them.  Your Word says that anger rests in the bosom of fools.  I don’t want to be a fool.  I want to love my family the way You do, and to protect my spouse the way Christ shields and covers His Church.  If I cannot see substantial changes coming, I will be man enough to initiate marital counseling.  I will not hide our problems behind the guise of a Christian home, but I will get help and I will stop the abuse from perpetuating to another generation.  Help me to love like You love.  Thank You for forgiving me and extending Your grace and mercy over our situation now.”

Wives –  “Heavenly Father, You have heard my silent cries for help, and I know that it is not Your plan for my family to be harboring this ugly secret.  Verbal and physical abuse are not attributes of the Spirit-filled!  These ugly manifestations have no place in our home.  I look to You for wisdom to be able to be the thermostat of our home.  While it is not right for my husband to abuse me, I know that I need to recognize “triggers” that provoke outbursts.  I can’t always prevent bad moods and temper flares from occurring, but You can enable me to divert certain situations before they even occur.  Lord, forgive me for times when I nag or boss or belittle my husband.  Forgive me for sometimes not resisting the urge to push his buttons by inserting a little dig or subtle insult into discussions.  While it is wrong for him to mistreat me, it is equally wrong for me to dare him to do so.  I will set a watch upon the words of my mouth.  I will learn to give soft answers that turn away wrath, and I will set in motion a spiritual mood change in our home through praise and worship, thanksgiving, prayer, reading and speaking Your Word aloud, and through the cleansing of evil spirits from my household in intercession!  Help me to proactive in this area.  Help me to build up my husband’s spirit man and not to tear him down.  I repent of every time I have emasculated him through open insults, rebellion, and belittling him in front of others–especially our children.  Help me to have new-found respect for him, and help me to forgive.  Oh, Lord, how I need Your help there!  Cause my moods to come into harmony in ways that affect his moods more positively.  Your Word says that my lifestyle has the power to win him over to You just by the witness I live before him!  No amount of preachiness or nagging could ever influence him like seeing Your love pour out of me.  Help me to identify characteristics in my personality which might cause arguments (complaining, griping, negative words, insults, sarcasm, bossiness), and to put these things on the altar for good!  Make me that kind of woman, Father, so full of Your Holy Spirit that he cannot resist the pull toward You.  I will apologize to him for my shortcomings, and I will take the high road to reconcile whenever we have disagreements.  I will not assume that he can read my mind!  If I have concerns, I will speak gently to him about them and allow Your Holy Spirit to convict him in those areas.  Lord, I ask You in Jesus’ name to break generational curses that come into our family from my side of the bloodline.  Whether emotional disorders, addictions, abuse or being enslaved by those who abuse, or any other trap of Satan to perpetuate damage into our children, I stop it now by submitting our heritage to You!    Doors that You have made me responsible to shut, I will close.  I will set no wicked thing before my eyes, and I will not entertain the foolish advice of a broken world on how to conduct my household affairs!  I look to You, O God, and I pray that, should our marriage require counseling, that You will pair my husband and me with the right counselor(s) who can help us to heal and move forward.  And please, if remaining in our home is endangering the safety and well-being of myself and our children–if You see that my spouse is unwilling to be helped and will go on harming us–give me the discernment and courage to know when and where to flee for protection.  In Jesus’ name I ask, Amen!”

 

Thankfulness–Breaker of Hope Deferred

Proverbs 13:12 Bread.jpgtells us that postponed hope sickens the heart. How many people are suffering in their health–or even already gone to the grave–because of a state of hopelessness?

I want each of you to ponder this and begin to confess, “I choose to be happy NOW. Not later, when the right job, the right mate, the weight loss, the respect and the education and the money come. My contingency for happiness isn’t bound up in a lottery ticket mentality, where happiness might get to happen later IF per next-to-nothing chance, I get everything I hope for.”

One of Satan’s cruelest schemes is that of deferred hope, because it’s always in the future with no acquisition date stamped on it. In that setting, only fantasy occupies the mind–for anyone else’s life MUST be more interesting than one’s own, right?

Don’t let the evil one convince you that the ideal life is the one you aren’t in! He will keep you running from one relationship to another, one high to another, one futile pursuit and then another and another. You’ll live inside a fictitious story where you spend all your days, as Ecclesiastes says, chasing “vanities.” Even when you ARE running over with favor and blessing, you won’t see it because you’ll be still focused on what you don’t have yet. Without meaning to be–and without seeing it–you’ll become miserably self-centered, trapped inside the devil’s funhouse where every reflection of your life is distorted and perverted. Not good enough.

How on earth does one stop deferring hope? It is, after all, a choice! You break the cycle first by taking on the spirit of thanksgiving. As hypocritical as that might sound, you call the devil’s bluff even before you SEE your own life as a great place to be. You zero in on even the trivial, tiny things if necessary; and praise God for those instead of lamenting things which aren’t so wonderful at present. Believe me when I tell you, God knows your heart! He isn’t going to be insulted when you do this. He knows the difference between sarcasm and a true attempt to return to a spirit of thanksgiving. If your foot is hurting, thank Him that your ear isn’t.

Jesus lived in a human body too. It would’ve been much easier to live out His days as a normal, nondescript fellow with the biblical equivalent of the American Dream. The wife, kids, the dog, the picket fence. He also knew that the key to not becoming disillusioned with the burdens He bore was to remain in the place of thanksgiving. His prayers began with, “Father, I thank You that_____.”

From what many historians believe, Mary probably long outlived Joseph. As the oldest, the responsibility to support her and to raise younger siblings would have fallen to Jesus. He could’ve wrestled with “hope deferred” as He labored away, day in and day out, to put food on the table instead of being out there fulfilling His destiny. The human side of Him may have wondered, “Am I ever going to get beyond just helping my folks and on to REAL ministry?” But you know, the side of Him which connected to His Father knew that what He was doing in those preparatory days WAS real ministry! He learned compassion and selflessness while helping wipe noses and pack water. Time He spent poring over the law and the prophets, in prayer and meditation, and in the place of solitude, and in the place of serving His family well, were all investments for what would become a 3 1/2 year blitz of ministry that culminated in Him saying, “It is finished!” at the cross–not, “This is unfair, my life has been disappointing, it is UNFINISHED. I want to reinvent myself and be like the characters on my favorite TV show!”

There have been many times when, going through hard seasons, I dreamed of hopping on a plane with a new name and identity, and just starting all over again. There’ve been times when I felt like the biggest waste of potential EVER. I’ve known for some time now that when I catch myself drifting away to that place, my thankfulness is leaking out. I immediately try to switch gears and reassess. Have I listened to the world telling me all I’m not, or am I instead peering at my reflection in the Word to see me conforming to the image of Jesus?

When we say that our current state is not our IDEA of where we want to be, then we are in the place of hope deferred…and yes, it’s just an idea. Shake yourself with this hard but vital truth!  If you get every part of your “idea” of what it takes to make you happy, you still won’t be happy unless you are already choosing to have a heart of gratitude in any state.   Our mission statement may be more than “half a bubble off plumb” when placed against our actual MISSION. It’s time to take our minds off the “if only I were richer, thinner, younger, older, more educated, beautiful/handsome, then my life would be better” merry-go-round, and make today about what we actually have in our hands. Do as Jesus did concerning feeding the multitude. Ask, “what do I have in my hands?” and then hold it up, give thanks for it, bless it, and put it to use. You’re no more cheated for that allotment of resources you have than Jesus was, when He held up and gave thanks for five dinner rolls and a couple of sardines, right in front of the astonished people He was about to bless with the feast of a lifetime!

Remember–remain thankful even when it feels silly to be thankful for your little bit. It doesn’t matter what YOU have, it’s what HE has…but He will require you to present to Him what you have first. Trade your hope deferred for faith infused! He will bless you more for thankfully using what you have–your ordinary, ho-hum life in your average or below-average body, less-than-perfect teeth, short resume’, incomplete education, not-so-dream job, biological click-ticking self–than if you were to get to swap lives with any other person on earth. Bless and utilize what you have; because in so doing, you short-circuit the endless-loop of the accuser who says you have too little to ever be effective (or happy)! Stop comparing yourself to that other person who already has what you wish you did–you may think you really want IT, but mostly what you’re wanting is to shut off feeling as if you’re a disappointment. Stop it. That other person isn’t having things as perfect as you think…especially if he or she is still motivated by that same need for approval that you’re wrestling.

God will take your offering of what you have, pour the oil of anointing on it, set it ablaze with favor you couldn’t have possibly worked diligently enough to earn, and leave you speechless at what He has done with your tiny part! So, does a spirit of thankfulness REALLY do all that? Is it really the breaker of hope deferred? Yes! On the day you grasp this–take your eyes off yourself and place them upon God–you will poise yourself for the miraculous! Refocus every single day if you have to, because this is one of the most powerful tools of spiritual warfare you will ever pull out of your bag. Get this right and watch your life begin to change in a major way…and those things you don’t see changing will start mattering to you a whole lot less in light of what IS.

Emboldening Your Child in the Face of Christian Persecution

Romans 1 v 16“God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.  God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.  You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.  You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”  Matthew 5:10-16

We all try to shield our children from being bullied and from being a bully, and as well we should.  No one likes to encounter the milk money monster who waits on the curb every school morning for that one intimidated child.  And, while the clique of mean-spirited girls who pick on that one whose clothes and hair are not as nice as theirs may get some snickers of approval from other kids, they will carry the brand of a bully and a snob for the rest of their lives in the memory of that person whose life they made a living hell.  Some things may be more called-out nowadays than they used to be; but all-in-all, not much has changed across the generations.

In this society where tolerance and acceptance are being talked about night and day, there’s a new form of soft persecution going on in the Christian faith:  the pressure to avoid having to be recognized as the “outsider.”  Believers have fundamental moral codes which come from the Word of God; and cultural relevance takes a backseat when it comes to truth.   When truth is priority in a person’s life who walks among peers with only self-serving motivations, there’s bound to at some point be a dividing line.  Children are hearing so much about tolerance and acceptance (and in some ways it’s a good thing) that they’re feeling a pressure to do whatever it takes to be tolerated and accepted–including compromise in the area of their faith.   We will probably continue to see that dogma of inclusion being strengthened toward other belief systems and choked off on the side of evangelical Christianity.  It’s an unusual time, the last days…where evil is called good, and if you embrace good, you’re considered evil, closed-minded, bigoted, prudish, and a reject.

As a parent, what you do need to teach your child early-on is that it is ok to be rejected for Christ’s sake…and the best way you can enforce that in your child’s life is for him or her to see you modeling it in yours.  If you’re becoming increasingly tight-lipped about the Gospel–if you’re hiding or relaxing your faith in order to get promoted on the job or accepted in certain social circles–that’s the example your child sees and will probably follow.  Just as we teach our children the beautiful truths of God’s Word, we must also be transparent with them about the reason why Jesus wound up being crucified.  Though it was ultimately the plan of God to purchase our salvation, it was carried out at the hands of men who hated Christ’s teachings and wanted to silence Him at all costs.  As our children get a little more mature, we shouldn’t conceal from them that there have been martyrs throughout the history of our faith who bravely gave their lives rather than deny Jesus.  Don’t be afraid that your child is too young to “get” the message of the cross.  I mean, look at the things you allow him or her to watch on tv!  Even if you’re very protective about what you already low, children manage to be exposed to sex, violence, drugs, and the stark ugliness of life far sooner they should.  They know much more than we did at their age!  So in the matter of eternity?  If they can handle the movies and video games available nowadays, I think they can more than handle the truth.

Have more than one heart-to-heart with your child about boldness in his or her Christian faith!  Reassure your child that, if persecution, bullying, or exclusion should happen, he or she has nothing to be ashamed of.  Certainly, we need to defend our children when someone’s treating them unfairly; but God does reward the tenacity of His children when they refuse to compromise for the sake of popularity.  There are life lessons your child will be confronted with soon enough; and you need to have prepared him or her to trust in God for His protection and vindication.

Whenever you as a parent are pressured to allow your child to participate in events, parties, even holidays that go against your Christian conscience, please, hit your knees before you make foolish decisions.  Your child may get teased for not being allowed to go to a seance, a sexually-explicit or contraversial movie, or a party where alcohol may be being served to minors; but I promise you, you’re not doing your child any justice by violating conscience to avoid peer pressure.  If your children see you ashamed of the Gospel, they’ll have no hesitation in being ashamed of Jesus themselves.  The subject of persecution is by no means a fun one to address, but remind your children, when they experience difficult times, of the story in Acts Chapter 5, where the apostles were arrested, publicly humiliated, commanded not to use the name of Jesus (sound familiar?), even beaten for their faith, then went away rejoicing that they’d been counted worthy to suffer for the sake of Christ.  A very unpopular message in today’s world–but it’s at the heart of the very faith we embrace!

There are going to be hard times.  There may even be times when your child messes up, or gives in to peer pressure, or does as Peter did–denies Jesus three times before the rooster crows.  Strive to have an open enough relationship with him or her to talk about these things openly…and help your child quickly recover and move forward from stumblingblocks.  If our children know they can come to us and openly confess their sins, and receive forgiveness not only from Jesus but from their parents, they’ll run to that place of sanctuary called “home.”  When your child does encounter persecution for the sake of his or her faith, as a parent, be your child’s cheerleader!  Be an encourager, a praiser, and quick to show your child you’re proud of him or her for being resolute in the faith.  Reinforce that meekness isn’t weakness.  Christians don’t storm around angrily demanding that people celebrate us, not as the world does.  Teach by example.  We can share Jesus without being obnoxious or overbearing.  We can pray for others without constantly hounding them or looking down on them.  It’s very important that we be salt and light in this lost world–something our children can see and emulate.  We must remind our kids as well as ourselves that our calling is not merely to fly under the radar and escape this world undetected; we are called to shine a light to a very lost world.

We do need to teach our children the hard lessons of life concerning a bold witness, but not just so they’ll be a little tougher.  In truth, if we can’t help them remain steadfast under the relatively benign persecutions of our American culture–the shunning, the exclusion, the teasing–how can we ever expect them to be bold enough, should a swordsman ever stand over them and demand a recantation of their faith or else suffer execution?  I pray that we never see the same horrors as our Christian brothers and sisters on the other side of the globe; but that’s something we cannot guarantee we won’t encounter in our lifetimes.  We should teach our kids that they can put their trust in God to keep them safe; but we also must gradually prepare them not to be jaded by the cruel reality of the world in which we live.  There is an enemy who, 2000 years later, still vehemently opposes and despises the cross and all who call on the name of Jesus.  May our children be taught by us to remain strong, unwavering; a next generation of the faithful who may very well be the last generation before the end of days!

Bible-Based Healing Confessions Over Headaches

headacheWe don’t read a great deal in the Word about the headaches specifically, but they are certainly a part of the curse (which, incidentally, His children have been made free from, when we embrace and walk in covenant with our God). One miracle I can call to mind instantly is in II Kings Chapter 4, where Elisha raised the Shunammite woman’s son back from the dead after the child died with terrible pains in his head. Perhaps migraine, aneurism, heat stroke…we don’t know exactly what proved fatal for that boy; but we can surmise from that account that God is well-able to cure not only a headache that feels like it could kill us…but also whatever the root cause behind it might be.

Exodus 34:8 – And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. FATHER, IT’S NO WONDER WHY THE ENEMY WOULD TRY TO RATTLE ME WITH A HEADACHE. YOU PLACE GREAT VALUE ON THE HEAD. IT IS THE SEAT OF OUR SOULS, THE ORIGIN OF OUR THOUGHTS. IT’S OUR SYMBOL OF AUTHORITY. JUST AS THE PRIEST WOULD PLACE HIS HAND ON THE HEAD OF THE ANIMAL TO SACRIFICE FOR SINS OF THE PEOPLE, TO TRANSFER THE SINS TO THE ANIMAL, LORD, I KNOW THAT THE HEAD IS AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN SIN AND SALVATION FOR ME.  IT GOVERNS MY DECISION-MAKING.   PLEASE, PLACE YOUR HAND ON MY HEAD, FATHER, AND TRANSFER OUT THE CAUSE OF MY PAIN IN JESUS’ NAME. DRAW IT OUT OF ME, FOR JESUS HAS ALREADY BECOME MY SACRIFICE. I BOW MY HEAD TO YOU AND WORSHIP, EVEN WHILE I WAIT FOR THE PAIN TO SUBSIDE, I BOW THIS SEAT OF MY AUTHORITY TO YOU IN SUBMISSION. I HUMBLE MYSELF BEFORE YOU WHEN I AM WELL, AND ALSO WHEN I AM IN PAIN. THANK YOU FOR HEALING ME OF THIS HEADACHE, O LORD!

Psalms 23:5 – Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.   FATHER, THANK YOU FOR ALLOWING THE ENEMY TO WATCH AS YOU ANOINT MY HEAD WITH OIL AND CAUSE MY CUP TO RUN OVER WITH YOUR BLESSINGS!  I WILL FEEL LIKE ENJOYING THE FEAST OF YOUR GOODNESS BECAUSE MY HEAD IS ANOINTED AND ABSORBING YOUR HEALING POWER.

Psalms 140:7 – O GOD the Lord, the strength of my salvation, thou hast covered my head in the day of battle.   THANK YOU, FATHER, FOR COVERING MY HEAD IN THE DAY OF BATTLE.  TODAY THAT BATTLE WOULD CAUSE DISTRESS IN MY HEAD BY PAIN AND CONFUSION, BUT I RECEIVE STRENGTH FROM YOU AND I ALSO RECEIVE RELIEF FROM PAIN, TOO.  THE DEVIL MAY BE TRYING TO WAR AGAINST ME, BUT I AM WARRING RIGHT BACK, IN JESUS’ NAME, AND I’M COVERED!

Psalms 141:5 – Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities.   THANK YOU LORD, FOR RIGHTEOUS COUNSEL WHICH SPEAKS TRUTH INTO MY LIFE.  WHENEVER I SUBMIT TO THE AUTHORITY OF GODLY COUNSELORS AND TO YOUR WORD, IT’S AN ANOINTING OIL ON MY HEAD.  MY HEAD IS NOT BREAKING, IT’S BEING HEALED, IN JESUS’ NAME!

John 14:27 – Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. FATHER, ALTHOUGH THIS HEADACHE HAS BEEN ATTEMPTING TO ROB ME OF MY PEACE, I CLING TO YOUR PEACE, AND I FORBID EVEN SICKNESS TO TAKE IT FROM ME. I RELEASE ANY WORRY, STRESS, TENSION, AND FEAR WHICH MIGHT BE AGGRAVATING THE SYMPTOMS, AND I COMMAND PEACE TO REIGN IN MY MORTAL BODY NOW, IN JESUS’ NAME! PEACE, PERFECT LOVE, DRIVE OUT ALL FEAR AND DOUBT WHICH OPEN THE DOOR TO SICKNESS AND DISEASE. I GIVE THANKS TO YOU, LORD,  AS I FEEL THE TENSION RELAXING IN MY BACK, SHOULDERS, NECK AND HEAD. THANK YOU THAT THIS PEACE IS ALSO CALMING MY STOMACH FROM ANY NAUSEA AND MY NERVES FROM FEELING A WRECK. I AM FREE FROM THE CURSE!

Jonah 4:8 – And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. FATHER, THANK YOU FOR HEALING ME OF HEADACHES CAUSED BY BRIGHT LIGHTS, HEAT, AND BAROMETRIC PRESSURE CHANGES. THANK YOU AS WELL FOR HELPING ME TO RELEASE NEGATIVE EMOTIONS THAT OPEN ME UP TO SUFFERING. IF I AM HARBORING UNFORGIVENESS, A GRUDGE, HURT FEELINGS, HATRED, PREJUDICE, OR ANY OTHER EMOTION THAT DISPLEASES YOU, I RELEASE IT NOW AND ASK YOUR FORGIVENESS. I DON’T WANT TO GRIEVE THE HOLY SPIRIT—THAT’S EVEN WORSE TO ME THAN HAVING THE HEADACHE. PLEASE, REVEAL TO ME WHEN MY ACTIONS WARRANT REPENTANCE AND TRUE CHANGE!

1 Samuel 28:2 – And David said to Achish, Surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do. And Achish said to David, Therefore will I make thee keeper of mine head for ever. FATHER, I PUT YOU IN CHARGE OF MY HEAD TODAY. MAY YOU BE THE “KEEPER OF MY HEAD” FOREVER, BECAUSE IT IS IN THE BEST POSSIBLE CARE WHEN YOU ARE KEEPING WATCH OVER ME. THE HEADACHE DOESN’T HAVE PERMISSION TO REIGN OVER MY HEAD AND MY THOUGHTS AND EMOTIONS, BECAUSE YOU ARE IN CHARGE!

James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. LORD, I ASK YOU FOR WISDOM TO REVEAL ANY FOODS, DRINK, CHEMICALS, PRESERVATIVES, ENVIRONMENTAL CAUSES, EYESTRAIN, OR OTHER FACTORS TO ME NOW. I EMBRACE YOUR WISDOM, AND I WILL USE WHATEVER WORDS OF KNOWLEDGE YOU SEND INTO MY LIFE TO EQUIP MYSELF FOR PREVENTION OF FUTURE HEADACHES! I AM NOT THE VICTIM ANY LONGER OF MY ENVIRONMENT, BUT I AM PROACTIVE TO MAKE HEALTHY CHOICES. I THANK YOU FOR HONORING MY HEALTHY CHOICES, AND FOR SURPASSING EVEN MY DILIGENT EFFORTS WITH YOUR HEALING POWER.

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; THANK YOU, GOD, FOR PROVING OVER AND OVER AGAIN THAT I CAN TRUST YOU EVEN WHEN I DON’T HAVE A GRIP ON WHAT’S GOING ON. I DON’T FULLY UNDERSTAND WHAT OPENS THE DOOR TO SICKNESS, AND I DON’T ALWAYS FORESEE AN ATTACK OF THE ENEMY—BUT OH, FATHER, YOU DO! I TRUST YOU TO BRING THE MANIFESTATION OF THE HEALING ALREADY MADE AVAILABLE TO ME BY THE ATONEMENT.

Jonah 2:5 – The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.  THANK YOU FATHER, FOR HEALING ME FROM HEADACHES WHICH FEEL LIKE A TIGHT BAND AROUND MY HEAD.  YOU ARE PROTECTING ME FROM ANY LONG-TERM DAMAGE.  IF MY BLOOD PRESSURE IS HIGH, OR IF FLUID RETENTION OR OTHER HEALTH FACTORS ARE CAUSING MY HEAD TO HURT, I THANK YOU FOR TAKING CARE OF THOSE OTHER CONDITIONS AS WELL, WHETHER THEY BE KNOWN OR HIDDEN.

Psalm 37:5 Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. FATHER, I COMMIT MY HEALTH, MY PLANS, MY HABITS, MY AFFECTIONS, AND ALL I HAVE TO YOU. I GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO REARRANGE WHATEVER IN MY LIFE IS CAUSING ME TO HAVE SICKNESS OR COMPROMISED HEALTH. THANK YOU FOR TAKING CARE OF ME AND FOR CAUSING HEALING TO BE EVIDENT, AS I REMAIN COMMITTED ONLY TO YOU.

Mark 9:23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. JESUS, I CAN BELIEVE! YOU’VE SHOWN ME TIME AND AGAIN THROUGHOUT THE WORD THAT MY GOD CAN BE TRUSTED! ALL THINGS REALLY ARE POSSIBLE TO ME BECAUSE I CHOOSE NOT TO BE SKEPTICAL ABOUT THE ENDURING POWER OF MY HEAVENLY FATHER!

Jeremiah 32:27 Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me? FATHER, YOU ARE EVEN GOD OF MY FLESH. YOU AREN’T JUST TAKING RESIDENCE IN MY SPIRIT MAN; YOU ARE ALSO IN EVERY CELL OF MY BODY, EVERY ORGAN, EVERY BREATH, EVERY DROP OF BLOOD. NOTHING IS HIDDEN INSIDE MY BODY—NOT EVEN DISEASE—THAT YOU CANNOT DISCOVER AND ANNIHILATE IF NECESSARY. I TRUST YOU TO HEAL THIS HEADACHE AND WHATEVER IS CAUSING IT. YOU ARE MORE POWERFUL THAN ANY ASPIRIN, ANY PAIN PILL, ANY THERAPY. I TAKE THE BLOOD OF JESUS AND APPLY IT TO THE PORTALS OF MY MIND. I APPLY IT TO SINUS CAVITY, MY BRAIN, MY BRAIN STEM, MY CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM, AND ALL THE VERTEBRAE THAT MAKE UP MY SPINAL COLUMN. I RECEIVE HEALING AND ALIGNMENT IN ALL THE AFFECTED AREAS. IN JESUS’ NAME, I DECLARE THAT THERE IS NO ABNORMAL CONSTRICTION OR DILATION OF BLOOD VESSELS, NO TUMORS OR GROWTHS, NO BLOCKAGES, NO PINCHED NERVES, NO IMPINGEMENTS OR CRIMPING, OR BULGED DISKS, AND THERE IS NO MORE TENSION IN MY NECK MUSCLES. THANK YOU FOR OPENING UP MY SINUSES AND HEALING ME OF ALLERGIES. THANK YOU FOR DISSOLVING THE CAUSE OF THIS HEADACHE LIKE A SNOWBALL ON TOP OF A STOVE! IN JESUS’ NAME, I SEE THAT HEADACHE BEGIN TO MELT AND EVAPORATE. THERE IS NOTHING TOO HARD FOR YOU, O GOD!

John 16:33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” FATHER, AS YOUR CHILD I’M NOT EXEMPT FROM ATTACKS BY THE ENEMY, BUT I AM SAFE IN YOU! THIS HEADACHE IS AN ATTACK ON MY WELL-BEING AND MY HAPPINESS; BUT I WILL NOT DESPAIR. JESUS, YOU OVERCAME THE WORLD, AND I AM IN YOU. I REAP THE BENEFITS OF YOUR TAKING THE KEYS OF DEATH, HELL, AND THE GRAVE! THANK YOU THAT YOU WILL ALWAYS PROVIDE AN OUTLET FROM THE TORMENTS OF THE WICKED ONE. THIS HEADACHE TOO SHALL PASS!

Isaiah 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. THANKS, PAPA GOD, FOR PERFECT PEACE AS I RELEASE THE FRUSTRATIONS OF THE DAY INTO YOUR HANDS. MY HEAD MAY HAVE BEEN HURTING, BUT MY MIND IS FIXED FIRMLY ON YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE THE SOURCE OF MY HEALING! I TRUST YOU AND I WAIT CONFIDENTLY FOR THE HEALING TO MANIFEST, IN JESUS’ NAME.

Romans 8:17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs–heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. JESUS, WE HAVE THE PROMISE THAT IF WE SHARE IN YOUR SUFFERINGS, WE MAY ALSO SHARE IN YOUR GLORY! I DON’T KNOW THIS FOR A FACT, BUT I IMAGINE THAT NOT ONE PART OF YOUR BODY WASN’T HURTING TERRIBLY ON THE CROSS—INCLUDING YOUR HEAD. YOU SUFFERED ALL THINGS THAT WE HAVE, YET WITHOUT SIN. YOU ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO HAVE A BAD HEADACHE! YOU LOVE ME ENOUGH TO SHARE YOUR HEIRSHIP WITH ME…AND THE HEALING THAT COMES FROM BEING IN COVENANT WITH OUR FATHER. THANK YOU!

2 Corinthians 1:5-6 For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. THANK YOU FATHER, THAT YOU ARE LIBERAL IN YOUR BLESSINGS TOWARD ME. I MAY SUFFER IN THE FLESH FROM TIME TO TIME, AND I MAY HAVE PAIN IN MY BODY, BUT YOU ARE DOLING OUT MORE THAN ENOUGH COMFORT TO CONSOLE ME AS I WAIT FOR THE PAIN TO SUBSIDE. THANK YOU THAT YOU CARE FOR MY NEEDS, AND THAT YOU REWARD ME FOR PATIENTLY LOOKING TO YOU FOR MY HELP.

Psalm 71:20 You have allowed me to suffer much hardship, but you will restore me to life again and lift me up from the depths of the earth. LORD, THANK YOU FOR RESTORING ME FROM EVEN MY WORST SICKNESSES AND PAIN. I WILL NOT ALWAYS S BE HURTING LIKE I AM IN THIS MOMENT…THERE IS A REST IF I WILL CONTINUE TO CONFESS YOUR WORD AND BELIEVE. I TRUST YOU TO WORK ALL THINGS FOR MY GOOD! THIS HEADACHE HAS NO CHOICE BUT TO PASS.

Psalm 55:22 Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved. FATHER, I CAST THE BURDEN OF THIS PAIN, AS WELL AS ANY WORRIES I MAY HAVE, UPON YOU. I CLIMB INTO MY PAPA GOD’S LAP AND ALLOW YOU TO CRADLE ME AND COMFORT ME WHILE I AM IN PAIN. YOU WILL NEVER ALLOW SICKNESS AND PAIN TO PLUCK ME OUT OF YOUR HAND! THEY CANNOT SHAKE ME OUT OF YOUR PRESENCE.

Psalm 103:2-3 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases. I BLESS YOU, FATHER, FOR WHO YOU ARE AND ALL YOU’VE DONE FOR ME. THANK YOU FOR TAKING TIME TO LOVE ME AND HEAR MY CRIES FOR HELP. THANK YOU FOR FORGIVING MY WORST SINS, EVEN THE ONES I HAVE COMMITTED MORE THAN ONCE. THANK YOU FOR HEALING ALL MY DISEASES. EVEN THIS HEADACHE HAS TO GO AWAY BECAUSE YOU HEAL ALL MY DISEASE.

Psalm 34:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all. FATHER, I MAY DEAL WITH MY SHARE OF AFFLICTIONS, BUT I AM NOT CHAINED TO THEM! YOU DELIVER ME OUT OF EVERY SNARE, TRAP, ATTACK, AMBUSH; EVERY ACCIDENT, ILLNESS, ATTACK ON MY FAMILY, ATTACK ON MY CHARACTER, ATTACK ON MY FAITH. NOTHING ESCAPES YOUR WATCH OVER ME! IF THE ENEMY DARES TRY TO SLIP ONE PAST YOU, HE WILL HAVE TO WATCH IN VAIN AS YOU RESCUE ME. THANK YOU THAT NOT EVEN PHYSICAL PAIN IS BEYOND YOUR CAPABILITY TO DELIVER.

Psalm 30:2 O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you restored my health. THANK YOU, LORD, FOR PAYING ATTENTION TO MY CRIES FOR HELP! YOU DON’T DESPISE ME FOR BEING WEAK AND NEEDY, BUT YOU HAVE GREAT COMPASSION ON ME WHEN I AM HURTING. THANK YOU FOR RESTORING MY HEALTH AND FOR HOLDING MY HAND AS I WAIT FOR THE PAIN TO SUBSIDE.

Psalm 119:50 This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life. THANK YOU FATHER, THAT YOUR WORD GIVES ME LIFE. I AM NOT ONLY COMFORTED AS I BATTLE THIS HEADACHE, I HAVE THE ASSURANCE THAT IT IS ALREADY HEALED BY THE VICIOUS STRIPES JESUS BORE ON THE WAY TO CALVARY’S HILL. HE GAVE HIS LIFE, I NOW HAVE LIFE. THANK YOU FOR HEALING THIS HEADACHE AND ALL MY AFFLICTIONS!

©2015 BY LISA CRUM, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. SCRIPTURES TAKEN FROM THE KING JAMES VERSION OF THE HOLY BIBLE UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.

Prayer Confession Over Anxiety

Prayer over anxietyI am sitting down in Your presence, Papa God, spending the night with my Most High God. I am pressing in close to You–close as I can possibly get. I’m Your little shadow–right under Your wing! I say to You, “Abba, You’re my refuge. I trust in You and I’m safe!”

That’s right…and even now, I thank You for rescuing me from hidden traps, shielding me from deadly hazards. Your huge outstretched arms are protecting me— under them I AM perfectly safe; Your arms fend off all harm. YOU LOVE ME AND I’M CERTAIN OF IT!

I will fear nothing—not wild wolves in the night, not flying arrows (or bad news, or big bills, or negative doctors’ reports, or money worries, or even family drama) in the daytime. None of these things will cause me to lose my peace and not one ounce of sleep!

I’m not affected by fear of disease that prowls through the darkness, nor of disaster that erupts at high noon. When the enemy does his worst, YOU WILL DO YOUR BEST!  When he tries to flood me with despair, YOU are my floodwall of protection and YOU ARE SHUTTING THE FLOODGATE ON DESPAIR!  I am safe until the torrent subsides.

Even though others succumb all around, drop like flies right and left, no harm will even graze me. I am standing untouched, watching it all from a distance, I watch the wicked turn into corpses, watching it on tv news, yet not being a part of it. I DON’T FEAR THAT THOSE SAME THINGS WILL HAPPEN TO ME!

Yes, Papa, because You are my refuge, the High God my very own home, evil can’t get close to me, harm can’t get through the door. You’ve ordered Your angels to guard me wherever I go…and that’s just what they’re doing! Even if I would stumble, they’ll catch me; their job is to keep me from falling. Thank you, Papa God, for having my back (and all the rest of me) covered!

There may be feisty young lions and cunning serpents lying in wait on my pathway, but You’re keeping me safe. I walk safely along just as though they’re not even there…and if they try to attack, You’re empowering me to just kick them out of my path. I will treat them as the nuisance that they are and nothing more. They will not break my spirit and they will not break my stride.

Abba, You’ve said, “If you’ll hold on to Me for dear life, I’ll get you out of any trouble. I’ll give you the best of care if you’ll only get to know and trust me. Call Me and I’ll answer, be at your side in bad times; I’ll rescue you, then throw you a party. I’ll give you a long life, give you a long drink of salvation!”

Well, that’s just what I’m doing! Thank You for getting me out of trouble, for giving me the best of care as I strive to know and trust You more. Thank You for always answering when I call, for staying right with me through thick and thin. Thank You for rescuing me and then making me feel celebrated and special…because I’m Your child and I know You love me! Thank You for quality of life, a satisfied life, and a perfect salvation which will last me all of eternity.

I am taking a deep breath now and breathing in LIFE. I receive Your Holy Spirit with every breath! I am exhaling and pushing out every negative thought. I expel any thoughts that would crowd my mind from the knowledge that YOU are in control. I clear my soul of any problem that tries to look as tall and strong as my Lord Jesus! Any idea that violates my peace, any thought that would cause me to doubt that YOU are Sovereign, I arrest, handcuff, bind, toss into jail and throw away the key!
In Jesus’ name, anxiety has no more control over my life!

(Adapted into a prayer from Psalm 91:1-16 Message and KJV translations; and also from Isaiah 59:19, John 20:22 and 2 Corinthians 10:5)

Healing: Miracle for All Ages

Age hourglass“ As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now for war, both to go out and to come in.” (Caleb, at age 85 – as recorded in the book of Joshua, Chapter 14)

As many of you wait for healing to manifest in your bodies, let me dispel a myth that the enemy may be trying to circulate in your reasoning. God doesn’t grant healing based on age; healing was purchased in the Atonement, and manifests in our bodies as we exercise faith to receive it. Period. God is not like our modern healthcare system–not even a government-run healthcare system! “The system” would say that you don’t deserve a new liver because you were an alcoholic. They would say that based on your age, it’s not feasible to do heart surgery or give you a transplant. At your age, cancer treatment is beyond the acceptable practice; or dementia and clogged arteries and failing kidneys are to be accepted. You need to just accept that you are approaching end-of-life and that you aren’t as worth saving as, say, a 20-year old.

Don’t be upset with them…they’re mere humans. They are working with limited know-how, resources, and only so much money. They also have some among them who are also motivated by greed; maybe even a few who would like to play God…but not all. They operate in the carnal, natural realm. They’re good; they do a whole lot of good in their element, but their scope is limited.

But! When you approach God’s throne of grace to obtain help (and health) in your time of need, God is under no such restrictions. He will hear and answer prayer whether you have 50 more years to live or 50 more hours. When you have been satisfied with your number of days, you can transition out of a healed body into eternity instead of allowing the enemy to chisel you away to nothing.  Wouldn’t it be something to pass from a healthy body whose organs were viable enough to donate to the next recipient?  Think about that!

If no one’s ever reinforced that with you, then hear it now! It’s a real game-changer! God will continue to invest in you when you’re 95 just like He did when you were 15, because it’s impossible to waste what comes from an infinite supply. There’s not “only so much” healing to go around. And you–yes, YOU–have the same grace to walk in it as someone younger, more productive, more socially upright, and better-insured!  Don’t bow your head in shame and say, “I don’t feel right asking for healing when others are so much worse off than I am.”  Ask for yourself AND for them too!

When as an “old man” receiving the commission to lead the children of Israel out of bondage, Moses presented his terrible stuttering (and the self-conscious shyness resulting from it) to God as the reason why he wasn’t an ideal candidate. The Lord cooled his jets really quick by asking, “Did I not make men’s mouths?” The same God Who makes men’s mouths just so happens to also unclog arteries, restore sight and hearing, quicken damaged limbs, dry up cancers, and repair a diabetes-ravaged pancreas! He’s perfected making something out of nothing, and He doesn’t have to wait for someone to die to give you a transplant…wait, Jesus already did that!

Don’t listen to wicked spirits who would taunt you and say, as Job’s wife did, “Why don’t you just curse God, die, and accept it!” Rather, why not approach God’s presence today, having cleared your heart of doubt, unforgiveness, secret sins, and all hindrances…and present a claim ticket for that healing which is already been provided for you. God will not make you fill out any forms, put you on a waiting list, or ask you any health-related questions. He will not grant your request based on a limited pool of resources. Your answer is only restricted by how much you are willing to ask and believe for–so do exactly what the Word says you can do. Approach His throne boldly! Walk in your full potential, in Jesus’ name!

Bamboo Bicycles or Real Revival?

Remember watcimageshing Gilligan’s Island on tv, the episodes where Professor would rig up an invention to make their Crusoe-esque lives a little easier?  My favorite is “Gilligan-powered” ingenuity.  Gilligan is seated on a bamboo bicycle, those skinny legs pedaling furiously to generate electricity for a radio transmitter, or to agitate a paddle wheel in a washtub full of dirty laundry, etc.

In the Body of Christ, are we pedaling bamboo bicycles to generate power?  Are we mobilizing programs solely on our own strength and ambition–or even worse, based on someone else’s perceived success in harnessing revival?

We are so trend-driven when it comes to our faith, and it ought not be. It’s one thing to come away inspired by someone else’s encounter with God; but we are more than a little foolish if we think there’s some magic formula for revival, soul-winning, and restoring miracles in the Church. We saw in the 60’s and 70’s a variation of this. If Apostle so-and-so wore porkchop sideburns and he had a following, suddenly all the up-and-coming young ministers grew big goofy sideburns. They held the mic the same way he did.  Pulled their lapels wayyyy out. They parted their hair on the same side, mimicked his vocal inflections, got the walk down just-so. If the evangelist had people fall out when he laid hands on them, now all the young hopefuls wanted everyone at the altar to fall out for them too! Yep, I’ve had a couple of them try to tip me over when I didn’t fall out on my own.

I’m not trying to mock our Pentecostal heritage, not at all. I celebrate it and walk in the gifts and baptismal measure of the Holy Spirit.  Looking throughout the Bible, and throughout church history, however, it looks like every generation has had its bamboo bicycles on deserted islands where the power connection didn’t quite reach.  Perhaps it’s not so much laziness on our part, but not actually knowing that we can have our own encounter without having to do it like so-and-so’s church, like Reverend Powerhouse, or like our godly role models. We do want the fire to fall; but we are looking in the wrong direction, hoping someone else to our left or right has perfected the template–hoping some else’s proven method will save us from having to seek God’s revelation for our own prayer and fasting model.  We are trying to house the Holy Spirit in recycled plastic milk jugs instead of paying the price to become stretchable wineskins ourselves.  We will try on someone else’s armor only to find out it’s too big and bulky for our own frames.

Consider this: although God changes not, He will never make Himself known to us through a boilerplate format for the encounter. When we copy someone else’s method, even if it works for that movement and season, for us it becomes dead works. And if we don’t move with the cloud by day and the fire by night, what DID once work for us will suddenly become dead works, too. How many times has the Body of Christ failed the test when the Lord called us to follow him out of a particular season on to another level?  God is never going to share His glory with man.  Yes, once He has moved on, we are perfectly free to stay where we are; program it up, to try to keep it all going just as before.  He’ll let us.  He just won’t be the source generating the energy.  He will never prosper our attempts to bottle and patent and copyright His glory!

Not every church is going to be a Brownsville. Brownsville can’t even afford to be labeled a ‘Brownsville-style movement;’ for such a label has the potential to become a judgment against us. If we are blessed to have God’s visitation in a phenomenal, supernatural season, and He chooses to move us out of our oasis and back on the travel path again, there’s great danger in choosing to try to remain in the move that He’s finished anointing.  I believe, and I say this with fear and great respect, that even the leaders of these great awakenings which have birthed in these last few years would tell you to keep your eyes on Jesus alone, listening to His directive–and stop trying to market a particular style of worship as being the “next new thing.”  If we are blessed to be under the deluge of His outpouring, and His power should suddenly moves in a different direction; or, if we are trying furiously to bring someone else’s revival recipe to our own little corners on the globe, then we’ll just be pedaling our little bicycles like madmen, doomed to fail in our human frailty!  God’s will is that all of us have a supernatural encounter with Him; but we don’t get to define the parameters for that encounter.  He may manifest as wind in one setting, as rain in another, as fire in yet another, or He may manifest as that still small voice.  If it’s from HIM, all of it is good!  It’s HIS prerogative to define the visitation; it’s our mandate to be merely, get this, obedient.

I’ve heard some irreverent commentary even in the Body, where this or that particular movement would be rumored to be taken in error in spite of at least a timed visitation from God. Frankly, it hurts my feelings, for I believe these visitations have been very real at least as long as we have remained under God’s directive.  I don’t know each individual situation, nor do I want to; but after the rumors of mighty revival movements collapsing or “fizzling out,” suddenly a teaching emerged which warned of the dangers of strange fire.  Then the Body of Christ became scared of any manifestation of the Holy Ghost being labeled strange fire, and so we went back to having no fire.  Neither of those polar positions is God’s intent for us individually or corporately.  I’m not even sure I fully understand what constitutes “strange fire,” but I do know that if something ventures beyond Christ alone, its fruit will not and cannot remain.

I would challenge us all today to radical obedience.  Obedience, not as weighed against the methods of others; but  drowning out the popular theories of church growth, and getting somewhere alone with the Lord to hear what HE would have us do in order to release that anointing in our lives, in our churches, over our geographical areas.  Obedience to GOD, not a new 7-step bullet point program for stirring up an awakening.

Jesus scolded Peter for worrying about John getting an easier ticket to heaven than he was getting.  Jesus as much as said, “John’s encounter with me is not your business, Peter.  Follow ME.”  Peter didn’t want that place of being led where he didn’t want to go, to that untimely demise, that suffering, persecution, that upside-down cross.  If John’s encounter involves an easier burden–if it were to be perceived that John has more favor or is looked upon by the other 12 as holier–Peter is jealous for THAT encounter.  We can’t busy ourselves with what works in Australia, in Pensacola, or in the big new church on the other side of town with a coffee shop and valet parking.  Praise God for moving in such notable ways in those places; we rejoice for them!  We will buy their worship tapes, listen to the preaching on our CD’s, read the books and let the zeal for the house rub off on us, too–but our job is still to look to GOD ALONE for our own visitation, whatever that visitation should look like for us.  I can almost guarantee that it’s going to look a lot different here in the foothills of Appalachia than it does in Sydney, than it did at Mezuzah Street or at Murphy, NC.  But…if God’s the one generating the power, we won’t have to build a single program or training center to keep it going.

Obey the Lord, pure and simple.  He will not let it be said that the success of His Body comes from the neck down!  Know this:  if you obey Him only, instead of trying to power your own movement, you will never ever be in danger of deception.  You won’t have strange fire, and you won’t have no fire.  You will have HIS fire.  And you won’t have to grow sideburns or pedal a bamboo bike!  Just saying…

Secondhand Smoke

smokeCan fire be carried in the bosom without burning one’s clothes?  (Proverbs 6:27 NRSV)

I think I just now realized that the expression “hot under the collar” came from this verse of Proverbs!  Oh the challenges we face in the Twenty-First Century Church, with our 24/7 news and social media.  We have become absolutely saturated with information until it’s coming out our ears.  The Word said it would be this way in the end times…Daniel’s age-old prophecy declared that knowledge would increase.  Interesting, isn’t it, that only knowledge seems to have increased.  Our world is just as unwise as it ever was; in fact, we’ve gotten pretty stupid to have become so smart.

As believers, we must guard our souls from toxic overload, truly.  At the time Ecclesiastes was penned, the only sources of information were books (well, scrolls and tablets to be more precise) and direct word of mouth.  Yet this totally relevant-to-our-day word was given to us all those centuries ago: The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails—given by one shepherd. Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them.  Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.  (Ecclesiastes 12:11-12 NIV)  Imagine the author’s awe had he a glimpse into the age of technology!  Now, it can be fittingly added, “of being bombarded with information true and false, there is no end…and overexposure is exhausting and unhealthy!”

A couple of decades back, I remember Nettie Neace teaching in Sunday School how that the Lord had delivered her from an addiction to watching the news.  Just a young adult at the time, I couldn’t really grasp the idea of keeping news channels on all day long; but that was before the Internet!  Now all we have to do is click open our social media just to say hello to friends and family, and it’s on!  Why, we can rabbit-trail all day long, following links to a million different opinions about our world’s debauched condition.  We can shake our heads in disapproval, rant a while, and then click “share!”  It goes on and on and on, and to what end?  At the end of the day, we probably haven’t actually prayed about the people and conditions who’ve shocked us so…but we sure have been drawn in by the stories and pictures!

God spoke the words “secondhand smoke” into my spirit this morning as I pondered these things.  Just as you can become sick from breathing someone else’s cigarette smoke, you can also become physically and spiritually sick from taking in the sinful, appalling stories about others’ lifestyles.   Are you absorbing the toxins just because you won’t distance yourself from what’s polluting your soul?  Many times we don’t even realize we’re doing it…if you’ve lived with a smoker or worked in a place where you have to breathe it all day, you can begin to tune it out to where you don’t even notice it anymore.  Your lungs do, however.  When we make it a daily routine to tune in to the next episode of “As the World Churns,” we are drawing fire into our bosom; we are filling our lungs with the fumes of sin.  Proverbs warns that it will burn us!  In our own covert ways, the world’s reveling can even become a form of entertainment as we take it all in.  It may not have immediate effects, but when you allow yourself to become glued to screen, letting commentary anger you and raise your blood pressure, it is going to do cumulative damage.  I made a comparison yesterday on my Facebook status that all of this is like poking your finger in your eye, yelling “ouch!” and then poking your finger right back in your eye again!  We can make ourselves victims of these whether our views lean to the left or lean to the right–there are plenty of ploys to anger us by “the other side” or to, as my grandma would say, “get our goat!”  And there are people who sure know how to push our buttons.  We can walk right into the smoke and hang out there, or we can recognize what it’s doing to us and walk away.

Does this mean we are to be like ostriches with our heads in the sand?  No, not at all.  We need to advocate and practice balance.  Jesus told His disciples to watch and pray, lest they enter into temptation.  We should limit our time around tv, newspapers, and social media to reasonable amounts.  What you read, stop and pray about it before just going on to another and another.  The true litmus test of whether it’s worthy of your attention is this:  1.  Does it move you to pray and intercede, or does it instead cause you to rant and rave?  2. Does it have the ability to enrich your life in any way, or is it just more “fluff?”  3.  Does it rob you of peace, or does it instead give you peace?  4.  Do you read it because you are seeking answers, or do you read it because you are addicted to the rush of another shock?   5.  Does knowing about it in any way stand to benefit you?  6.  Would Jesus post it to His status if He had a social media account?  Would He share, forward, bookmark, comment on, or consider it to be worth sacrificing time spent doing good?  7.  Can you actually do anything about what you’re watching, or are you just another spectator with an opinion?

I need work, too.  I’m not that into television, but I can easily get drawn into news stories online.  I have a big heart, I can come pretty unglued by all the sinful, unjust, hateful things going on.  Most of them don’t put me in a prayerful state, I must confess.  They depress me, discourage me, disillusion me.  If that’s all I fill my soul with all day long, how can I do anything more than wallow in misery?  I have to apply the Word to what I see, and pray for the people who are so full of hurt and deception; but I also have to know when I’ve ventured beyond praying and now I’m just loitering.  The Apostle Paul gave us a great guideline to follow about what we breathe in, and there’s nothing smoggy, smoky, fumey, stinky, or dirty in a bit of it:  “Brothers and sisters, think about the things that are good and worthy of praise. Think about the things that are true and honorable and right and pure and beautiful and respected.”  (Philippians 4:8 NCV)  If ever there were a time we need to apply some First Century godly wisdom, it’s now.

Owning Our Words

OffendI know that there are a few folks in this world who are chronically offended about anything and everything, but we can never use that as an excuse to just be reckless with our words. Part of the last days’ trend will be increasing offenses. Some of it we will just have to deal with…especially in matters of truth; but I caution us as believers to weigh out our words–right down to our motives for speaking them–before we let them fly. That goes double for me!

The Word tells us that we will give account of every idle word. That’s not just telling us to clean up our language…it’s telling us to weed out whatever doesn’t bear good fruit. We can go about business as usual, and say, “Well, so-and-so just needs to grow up,” or we can choose to be better stewards of our communication. Corrupt ‪#‎communication‬ isn’t just dirty words and cursing; it’s anything that breeds confusion and opens the door for the devil to make a mess of things. We don’t have to go around fearful and reluctant to speak to people; but I’m just saying, give no place to the devil! Why should I have to qualify what I say? you may ask. Well, you can wound people and determine to just let them be wounded–that’s their problem–or you can take just a little more care in the area of reconciliation and consideration.

It’s not just a matter of being better communicators to a lost world, but it’s also a matter of being better communicators among our brothers and sisters in Christ. Leaders to leaders, leaders to followers, followers to other followers, and all of us to the world–our speech will either be fruitful or it will be like spraying Round Up on everything we work to produce. Know when tough love is needed, but know also when you just need to stake up the weak branches and pour in the oil and wine. Be honest with people if you have a problem with them; but do it in love and humility. Don’t show partiality, be clannish, or ignore the feelings of those who look up to you. If you do, you will lose them.

The Lord spoke to my heart in prayer a few months back and He told me that we are to beware of reckless offenses in the Body of Christ. The enemy is going to try to erode our unity not by big church splits, but by little offenses. Little day-to-day misunderstandings, lack of proper communication, suspicions, distrust, hurts, unforgiveness, disrespect, ignoring one another, backbiting, gossip, incorrect assumptions, “digging” at one another (does your kidding around with others ever go just a little too far?), and failure to prefer our brothers and sisters over ourselves. Even as a local body, my own church has maintained a great strength in unity over the years, and I would say, “turn up the dial even higher to safeguard against the devil’s schemes! Be ready to extinguish any spark of disunity you see trying to ignite!”  Yes, Satan will even try that strategy in the strongest of churches.

Listen to the Holy Spirit like you’ve never listened before. I believe that if we will remain humble and open to His voice, He will caution us when we are about to make a blunder. Don’t override His urging when He’s saying to you, ‘That’s not your business.’ ‘Nope, don’t go there.’ ‘You don’t know that to be a fact at all.’ ‘This is where you need to end the discussion.’ ‘Don’t be part of that conversation.’ ‘Walk away.’ ‘Apologize…I don’t care if you’re right or wrong…I am telling you to be the one to reconcile.’ ‘I don’t care if you do think it’s funny, you are giving the devil a chance to cause someone else to get hurt.’

Another reason to show sensitivity and meekness toward your brothers and sisters in Christ is this:  in doing so, you are discerning the Lord’s Body.  I wonder how many times, in ignorance, we have taken the Holy Communion after mistreating or holding a grudge against someone right in our congregation.  I don’t want to be weak or sickly…or asleep (whether it is spiritually or just plain dead!) over failing to discern the Body of Christ.  Only recently did I gain a deeper understanding of that Scripture.  I’d always assumed that it meant just not to partake of the Sacrament without repenting for our sins, asking for forgiveness if we’d wronged someone, or granting forgiveness in kind.  What if we simply have secret contempt toward another in the Body, and we nurse that contempt and allow it to take root?  Is our God not also offended by those things we mutter under our breath about others whom He created?  How important it is to Him that we love others as He does, and that we speak to them in a way that reflects His goodness!

Proverbs 18 tells us that a brother offended is harder to win than a strong city. Jesus, however, goes even farther to say that the Father doesn’t want our gifts if we bring them covered with the filth of offenses! “So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Matt 5:23-24 ESV). He doesn’t say for us to go make it right only if it was our fault, He says to go and be reconciled, period! Choke down that pride and take the high road! It may take some work to break down that wall, but you do your part and with a right heart attitude…and then come back and finish your offering to God. He will receive it gladly if it’s tied with the ribbon of reconciliation!

I have a long way to go on the highway of holiness, but one thing I never ever want to do is to cause someone else to reject Jesus because of a flaw he or she sees in my attitude. We have heard that phrase that we are “the only Bible some people will ever read” until we no longer grasp the depth of its meaning. Don’t lose your ability to be salt and light just so that you can “be yourself.” Speak as if the whole world is listening…because it is.

Skilled Laborers for Delicate Harvests

grapevineAnd this has a real advantage: I am not bound to obey anyone just because he pays my salary; yet I have freely and happily become a servant of any and all so that I can win them to Christ. When I am with the Jews I seem as one of them so that they will listen to the Gospel and I can win them to Christ. When I am with Gentiles who follow Jewish customs and ceremonies I don’t argue, even though I don’t agree, because I want to help them. When with the heathen I agree with them as much as I can, except of course that I must always do what is right as a Christian. And so, by agreeing, I can win their confidence and help them too. When I am with those whose consciences bother them easily, I don’t act as though I know it all and don’t say they are foolish; the result is that they are willing to let me help them. Yes, whatever a person is like, I try to find common ground with him so that he will let me tell him about Christ and let Christ save him.  I do this to get the Gospel to them and also for the blessing I myself receive when I see them come to Christ.  (1 Corinthians 9:19-23 NLT)
Instead of just sitting in Heaven and disapproving of our fallen condition, our Lord did something remarkable: He came here to walk with us, experience our suffering, and show us how to rise above our sinfulness. He paid the complete price for us to be able to reconcile with the Father, even in our brokenness and flawed Adamic nature! Just as God sent a representative into the human race to save all, He continues to do this on a different level today: He uses US to walk among and impact others with whom we share similar struggles or questions. That’s why we aren’t to just go around vexed and speaking with disdain about our fellow man’s wretched conditions. We are to pray that God assigns the right persons to each group of people who are walking in a particular pocket of darkness.
The Word tells us that where sin abounds, grace does much more abound (Romans 5:20). There is no segment of our society so wicked, so blind, or so hopeless that God cannot send a messenger capable of reaching them!  Perhaps you’re not as socially-versatile a person as the Apostle Paul; after all, his wide circle of influence came because he had a mighty wide background before coming to Christ.  If you are limited in those whom you can reach, or if frustration causes you to be ineffective in your witness, this message is for you–and it’s a message of GREAT HOPE.
Don’t make it your business to just stand back and curse others for their sinful behavior. Speak the truth, yes. Never compromise. But don’t use your words as weapons to just rip to shreds people who desperately need Jesus. It may not be YOUR voice that reaches them with convicting impact. If your voice isn’t capable of bearing that fruit, use it for prayer instead of for pounding! God’s already told us to pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send laborers. God intends to give all men and women a way of escape from the clutches of sin, if they’ll take it. He has already created and called special laborers to these seemingly impossible segments of the field of souls.
The ear who’s closed to most other voices? It will open when the right messenger delivers that same uncompromised truth. God will anoint that messenger with the ability to be heard . That harvest will feel connected to, loved by, and understood by the person sent to engage them. They will take seriously from him the same message that they may have scorned out of the lips of others.
God didn’t call us to be the voice of disapproval…He called us to be the light of the world! Disapproval? Oh yes, that’s totally what the lost expect of us…and we have sure given them a whopping dose of it. But…have we sprung the message on them that God loves them and that so do we? Have we demonstrated to them that Jesus died for all, and that no one is beyond His reach?  Zacchaeus could climb out of the scorn of the crowd and watch Jesus from a safe distance in that sycamore tree…but WOW…when Jesus saw him and announced (in front of the others who despised this money-grubbing little tax collector) He was going home with him!  He could handle rejection all day long, and had.  Jesus’ approval, however, totally disarmed him!
It’s OK if you have no gifting to reach every single personality type, societal group, or area of sin bondage. If you feel no compassion for, or patience, or common ground with a particular group of people who embrace something you feel strongly against, then do this: step back enough to where you can see objectively and begin to just pray for them. Don’t shun them, just don’t try to engage in a verbal dispute over the lifestyles they’re living. Show the love of God and only speak what will actually bear fruit. At that same time, begin to pray IN EARNEST for someone to come into their paths who has that gifting, and keep praying until God sends His chosen laborer into that particular harvest field.
Let me explain. Having dealt with loved ones who were in deep bondage to addiction from the early days of my childhood, I am not the best person to engage someone wrestling with a drug or alcohol problem. When I encounter a person who’s high or drunk, I still get that feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach from old memories I’d just as soon not resurrect. So, instead of being gifted at reaching that person on a genuine level ground, I am too preoccupied with fighting my own bad memories to really be the most effective witness–one whose message will be received. Probably the person himself/herself even feels the vibes coming from me of someone who’d like to just escape this situation as soon as possible! Someone else can step into that role, however, and completely dominate the spirit of addiction. A peace can settle in and a common ground be established where the addicted person feels understood and loved, rather than dreaded. In that setting, God has great leeway to build a bridge to rescue the perishing! In my element, there are others I can more effectively reach…and as I remain faithful in doing what I CAN, God will increase my areas of influence.
Sometimes God will even send someone into that harvest area who isn’t so close to the problem. If the really-bound person is your family member, your frustration about the situation may be too strong to allow you objectivity. That person may be completely unreceptive to your pleas. Trust God to send the perfect influence into that person’s path. It’s ok if the right messenger isn’t YOU! Your obligation is to continue in love and intercession…and God can sometimes do His most effective rescue blitzes through a third-party intervention.  There’ll be time for reconciliation between you and your loved one later, once Christ reigns in his or her life, too.  Let go and let God.
Instead of me just spewing disapproval of the lifestyles of those in bondage (and causing them to completely shutdown from any chance to receive what I have to say about the love of God), I need to intercede for ones I don’t positively impact, and let God put the perfect spokesperson into their paths. He will. And He will hold me accountable to touch others…those with whom I have a particular rapport! There’s a special group of people for whom God will grace me with reachability; and I am to work in that area of the field with my whole heart. So are you.
In short, that old saying does ring true: Don’t curse the darkness, but instead light a candle. If your testimony of hope and the love of God can’t come across as just that (instead of a closed fist), then you might not be called to that person in the area of “getting down to the nitty gritty.” What you might not be able to with interaction on a horizontal level, you can do on a vertical level! Be careful not to wound the lost sheep…they still need rescued!