Doubled Vision - Week 20 & 21

Because so much has happened, I can’t believe it’s only been two weeks since we last engaged. I spent the first seven days of these past fourteen, carrying on in normal adoration, thanking God for His goodness. With only two short letters and the usual request for growth of His Spirit in me, I dedicated time to the Lord, but still had ample opportunity for more. I had conversations of our Father, learned more about His Word, and heard things that brought joy to my spirit. I got to catch up with friends, while discovering more about others, opening my eyes to the hurt of reality.

In these first seven days, I asked God to forgive me for my divided attention, to let me experience more of His involvement, and bring me to a place where I could just be in Him. A place to be in His kind, gentle, warming, confident, telling, and powerful love. I asked Him to strengthen existing bonds and create bountiful new ones. I asked Him for specific space in work because I felt that I needed it, but got a response to suggest that I don’t. All of these things that I asked of our Lord, were just a portion of the many on my heart. They are just a glimpse into the things I talk to God about and a mention to the additional discussed in private for others and myself. Though those first seven days seem so distant now, this past week is still a very present reality.

Jesus not only brought me to a place where I would experience more of His involvement, but He also made that place just as I requested. He once again showed me how kind and powerful He is. He showed me how telling He is when we take the time to listen and in the process I believe He was strengthening bonds. This past week, I devoted much of my time to prayer. For almost seven days straight, every thought was given to Jesus as my heart cried out to Him in the storm of a victory. My mind grew tired as I focused intently on His kingdom and my body grew faint in the battle of prayer. When I wasn’t asking for His healing deliverance, I was adoring Him for the mysterious ways He works. The audible prayers that flowed from my lips were a gift in themselves as I saw just how alive the Holy Spirit is. Exhaustedly (but thankfully) committed to Christ and the trust in His conquest, God showered my family in His good graces while others joined in for support.

The answered prayers we were gifted with this past week were not done by my petitions alone. They were not done by a single faith but by the faith of many. May their lives be blesssed for the time they gave. I’m blown away by the way God wonderfully places people in our life to call upon in times of need and in this time our calls were blessed with an army of love. I got to witness a body of people (His church) come together in aid for their sister in Christ. I saw answered prayers in just the request for more and even found strangers willing to take time for intercession. People who had never met me a day in their life prayed for me as I stopped for gas on the way out of town. We joined hands in circle, right there in the middle of the station, in front of the passer bys and others fueling up, giving thanks to Jesus for what we knew He was already going to do. I didn’t tell them what was going on, I didn’t need to. I believe God sent Jose and Lisa to me as angels of comfort. Lisa, though extremely nervous, jumped right into prayer. God’s voice flowed so freely from her mouth and I could tell by the end of her beautifully timed appeals that even she was amazed at what God had done through her. Hallelujia indeed!

I am so thankful for those two and the timing of God. The way He orchestrates a series of events to bring about a bigger trust in Him. The way He continues to show us just how much He cares about the individual hearts of His children and the way He stops at nothing to give Himself to us. He will relentlessly pursue us until we have no other choice but to recognize the love that He has and the truth of who He is. The truth of what He’s done. It saddens me to think just how hard some people fight to resist the abundant joy that is found in Jesus. How many loop holes they try to find in an explanation for the unexplainable and the rationalizations they try to provide for His mysterious miracles. God tells us in His Word that His ways are too big for us to understand and His love is too great to comprehend, but I don’t need His Word to tell me that. I’ve seen and felt it first hand.

Some may think I’m foolish, some may think I’m naïve, but others who share in this Truth encourage me to stay persistent. The way God moves and the love that He continues to reveal provides me with a strength to give Him everything He has given me. My life. One that I know is not my own. Though He created me uniquely for the good works of His kingdom I still struggle with the works of this world. I am still heartbroken by the warfare of our cultures and the warfare of our souls. I am grieved by the lost and sometimes embarassed by the way ‘believers’ go about sharing His love. However, all this helps me to see to constant need I have for Jesus and the continuous process of surrender. All this helps me to boast about what I’ve found in Christ and the reality of Him being the way, the truth, and the life. All this reassures the promise to give us whatever we need when we seek Him first and all of this be for His glory. Yes Lord! It’s in these things that I trust and it’s in these things that I pray. All praise be to You and the will of Your Salvation. Forever and ever, Amen!