Gruesome Mauling, it happens daily...

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.