Gareth (our son who is in Central Asia doing some ministry with his team from YWAM DTS Creative Arts School Norway) posted this morning...
Listened to a cow get mauled
by a leopard at 2 am this morning. #nopicturetohashtag
from Wendi:
This could not have been very
enjoyable to hear. I wrote Gareth that I was so thrilled it did not happen to
him. Praise Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
Then I got to thinking, Satan
is like a roaring lion seeking those he may devour in any way he can (he and
his minions). How many of us have put ourselves out in his line of sight by
choosing to step out of what Father wants for us? How many of us are doing the
will of Father and yet still being mauled by our enemies?
Friends, we live in a world
that was not created to be this way. It was created to be a world of constant
communion with Father. God in His infinite love and mercy willingly created us
to have a will of our own. We are not robots that He can program us and make us
choose the right things every day (though often I have prayed "In THIS
situation until I have complete victory, please make me a robot because it is
so hard to keep choosing or start choosing to do what is right."). We are
His children and it is our choice whether we come to Him minute by minute,
second by second, seeking His aide.
Right now, I am thinking,
though it is gruesome, of how it must have sounded at the initial attack and
during the leopard attack until the cow was dead. This really grieves me, not
for the cow, per se, but for us. It grieves me because I know what I sound like
or look like when the enemy of my soul comes up and rips pieces from my life
when my hope and trust are and are not fully in Father. Sometimes I willingly
put myself out there for the enemy to mutilate. Why? Good question! The answer
to this always comes back to the answer 'because I wanted to'.
What are the areas of our
lives that have been mauled or mutilated by the enemy? The statement Gareth
wrote above paints a picture or two in mind and brings sounds in my ears that will
not be easy to erase. In our lives are we hearing or aware of sounds of distress,
pain, agony, being bashed, battered, beaten, beaten up, bludgeoned, clawed, flagellating, flailing, handled roughly, hitting,
hurting, ill-treatment, knocked about, lacerated, lashed, let have it, maltreated,
molested, mugged, muscled, pelted, pounded, pummeled, roughed up, skinned,
surprised (and not in a good way), trampled, whipped, worked over, thrashed,
thrashed about, thrashed around and more?
Stop right now. Let’s get
really personal. Take a listen to your surroundings. Take a look around at your
surroundings - What does it sound like or look like when the enemy comes and
mauls you? Are you able to use any of these words to describe it: faint-hearted, frightened, frozen, have cold
feet, horrified, intimidated, nervous, panic-stricken, perplexed, perturbed,
petrified, rattled, run scared, scared, scared stiff, scared to death, shocked,
spooked, startled, stunned, suspicious, terrified, terror-stricken, timid,
timorous, trembling, upset, worried?
Now let's look around us in
the natural and in the spirit when looking at others. Do any friends come to
mind that the enemy of their soul has mauled or is mauling? Are we making
allowances (not excuses) for them as they process through their mauling? Are we
coming along side of them and praying for them before their mauling? Are we
coming along side of them while they are mauled by praying, encouraging,
loving, and doing all we can to help them through the mauling and healing
process so as not to allow them to ‘die’ a spiritual death? Oh, that Father
would open our eyes and fill us with His compassion for His people and those
who have yet to be His children. Oh, that we would receive from Father this
compassion and then be obedient to His call to minister to the needs of those
around us.
There are so many
Christians and non-Christians alike hurting in this world. Today and every day
may my prayer be “Father, help us to see
clearly what You see and to hear You speak to us how to help these, Your
precious ones, out of the mauling and into healing. Send us to those who have
been mauled, are now being mauled, and will be mauled. Speak clearly and
plainly to us. Holy Spirit, draw us to Father’s heart and to the heart of
others.
Father, in the areas of our hearts that have
been, are being and will be mauled, help us to prepare and overcome the enemies
of our souls and our flesh. Help us also to receive the comfort and help from
Holy Spirit and others You bring into our lives.”
When I think of gruesome
mauling in the physical, I think of animals and people. Animals that maul other
animals, animals that attack people and people attacked by people, whether
through human trafficking, rape, robbery, drunkenness, and more. These people
truly understand mauling. No one deserves to be mauled like this in the
physical realm.
In the spiritual realm the
only one(s) that need to be mauled is the enemy of our souls. We can maul our
enemies as we pray and seek Father's face for others, our nation, the nations, and
ourselves. We need the mindset in the spiritual realm upon our enemy and his
tactics to be willing to maul to death all of his works, tricks, words,
thoughts, and plans he sends our way. It is not our power but it is the power
of God in us to wreak havoc on our enemy. What say you? Are you in or out? Let’s
pull down heaven (Matthew 6 when Jesus said to pray like this 'even as it is in
heaven, so bring it to the earth') against our enemies and pull down heaven
upon our lives, the lives of God's people and the lives of those who do not
know Him. Amen, so be it.
Posts
