my wings are made of faith

My Familiar Friend

Thursday night I was able to reconnect with a friend from 20 years ago in another town.  Once we had seen one another and hugged, they told me that some had stood back and just watched to see what my reaction would be in getting to hug her again after all these years. I told someone that, back then, if I turned to the right out my drive, one of my best friends lived across the road, and if I turned to the left, my other best friend lived across the road, and now, here she is.  We reminisced and as we spent time together, my heart was warmed as she became familiar to me once again, not only as a friend but in the nuances of things I would only know if I spent a lot of time with her – things that would help me know her even if she looked a lot different, which she didn’t. Memories drifted back to me of her facial expressions and how she adjusted her clothes, the way she punctuated her sentences, the way she lifted one eyebrow, the smile that never seemed to fade, the great way she could tell a story, how we all loved to gather at her house for food, the organized way she kept her household going, the giving heart she had for absolutely everyone.  I could go on and on, because it was like seeing a sister after a long absence.

Some of my favorite memories of living in that place as our children grew up include her and her children.  Some of my life lessons were learned in her living room.  I was always welcome there, and I knew how lucky I was to count her among my friends. It was such a joy to see her again.

As I told you all on Wednesday, my beloved Father-in-law passed into the spiritual realm, and dumped his dilapidated old worn out body to put on his new glorified one. Then he also went to a place where he was able to meet with old friends, and family members whom he hadn’t seen for a while.  I’ll just bet you there were Angels who stood back while the meetings took place, watching to see the looks on His face as they were joyously reunited.  I wonder how differently they all might have looked in their new bodies, but because the scriptures say that, in God’s world, we will be known as we were known, the nuances will be the same.  We like to make sweet imaginations about that heavenly reconnection, because it gives us some peace, but they are just that.  Our earthly imaginations trying to wrap our minds around something we can’t even imagine. 

But there is one someone, whom he had never met in person, whom he got to know here on earth.  Someone, whom he loved, about whom he rejoiced to get to see.  And when they met, Millard knew him.  Of course I am speaking of Jesus.  And actually, I believe this loving man met our Lord face to face at 9:15 am Tuesday morning.  Every nuance of Jesus’ voice, of the loving way he encouraged Millard’s giving spirit, and of His total acceptance of all His children - became real to Millard at that moment.  It was for him like reuniting with an old friend.

Memories from God's Perspective

 
My husband (boyfirend) and I in the sixties, the day after our Seniors Banquet, held by our church for a place to go instead of Prom.  We were standing in front of a rose bush that I had babied since it was a stem. And I was in my favorite dress, one I loved more than my "Prom Dress."  Sixties Hair LOL

In a post from Max Lucado’s daily thoughts, for Aug. 24, he wrote the following:

“Present Tense - By Max Lucado

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”  Hebrews 13:8 NLT

The present-tense Christ. He never says, “I was.” We do. We do because “we were.” We were younger, faster, prettier. Prone to be people of the past tense, we reminisce. Not God. Unwavering in strength, he need never say, “I was.” Heaven has no rear view mirrors . . .

Can God be more God? No. He does not change. He is the “I am” God. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” “

 I am a person who looks back a lot.  I have had a need for healing of my memories, and in looking back I find myself faced with two situations.  I can live in the memories and be sad – for the extremes of the bad times and the memories of the hurts that still hurt me, and sad that I am not younger, faster, prettier, thinner, etc. Or I can look into the past seeking the glad memories to help them out weigh the sad ones, while always allowing that thing from the past to bolster my now, while, at the same time, seek healing for the memories that still hurt.  Memories are like wounds if they are bad ones.  And they must heal. I said  MUST HEAL.

Bad memories must be dealt with. Stuffing them into the past to stay is not what Mr. Lucado is talking about in the comment above. He is helping us remember that God was in our past and when we were hurt, we were not alone. God knows what hurt us. But He wants us to have a resurrection attitude –realizing that we can be free from the past and healed of the pain.  But looking to a future with Him as well.  For me, when intense pain was a part of a long period of my life, the past was my life. It was hard to break free from that stronghold.  I became hurt with God.  I found myself in what seemed like a pattern of living hurt over and over, as if something I was doing was causing my hurt, and as if loving and serving God meant I had to continue to be hurt.  That was true to the extent that I was in a pattern, but there was an escape. 

Thinking about your memories is only the surface result for what can happen to a person living out of the past.  The mind can actually develop a pattern to respond to every situation in life the same way as it did when hurt.  So when someone else hurts you, you will react as if that person hurt you again, and also the next time someone hurts you. It is subconscious, and you often don’t realize it. You are actually LIVNG IN THE PAST. When you do, you may not know how to get out of the pattern.  Max Lucado is soooo right when he says God is the “I  AM.”  Because living in the present does not have to be a reflection of what you lived in your past. God wants healing for our past pains and traumas.

I know how the Lord chose to heal me, and the mental scars as well.  For someone else he may chose a different path to healing, but seeking healing from my past was the best thing I ever did for the prospect of living a better today and a better future.  And now, I love to reminisce about the lovely things in my past, because they bring me joy, and help me remember that God has always been there.  Yet, the one thing I still bring into check, while looking back, is to not fall into the pattern of saying I was prettier, thinner, faster, whatever’er, because whatever I have today, is still better than what is gone, as long as I know Christ is still there.  And of course we all know that our Future is only brighter looking to live it walking in His presence.

If someone reading this has trauma to heal from way back in their past, Pray: “Lord heal my hurts, Heal my memories.”  And hang on for the ride of your life.  It was not easy for me and it may not be easy for you.  Unlike a roller coaster, it was not a ride I want to take again, because my memories suddenly were as clear as if they were happening all over again.  However, it is a ride I would not turn down. NO. NO. Never! Unlike a surgery that you might say, “If I knew what this was going to be like, I would have never agreed to it,” I would recommend to anyone to seek God for the chance to revisit bad memories and find healing from the pain. For what God was able to do was to rewrite those memories, so that I always see Him there in power, in control and bringing me through. 

For example, my worst memory haunted me in my sleep sometimes. I could see the face of the person who hurt me, glaring at me showing his power over me, proud of his power and frightening me.  I could see the evil one in his eyes.  And I remember how frozen with fear I was.  He laughed a haunting laugh back then.  How did God heal my memory? The day the Lord healed my hurt, he gave me a new memory.  Now when I remember that night, I see the evil one afraid of the Spirit in me, and I see him draw back, knowing that the Spirit in me is greater than any evil thing the world can throw at me. Now, I sometimes remember fear in his eyes, and forget the evil laugh. Yes, I had to live through the experience, but I don’t have to continue to live in the experience, because God healed my hurt, and my fear.  I actually, look back now with joy, and I look back less often.  Just as God would have it.  God is willing to give us new memories, not just today, but by healing the ones in the past.

He is the God of Yesterday, Today and Forever.  If ever God says in the Scriptures to look back, He often is saying, “do you not remember how I …?”  He wants us to not see the past as “everything was better then”, nor as “I was such a victim then that I still am.” God wants us to be able to disconnect from carrying the weight of the past, so that we may move freely in the present.  Not that we should live so much for the future dreams and hopes that we forget to live, LIVE, in the present.  Today is the Day we Live.

One final note: when I was a child, I experienced a lot of trauma.  Yet as a child, I was always happy.  I cried for a short time, and I came into the present with a good happy outlook on my life.  I loved living. It was only when I became an adult married to a man who hated to see me cry, (so much so that he put a stop to it,) that I lost that child-like ability to move on.  I knew when I was losing it too. I felt as if I were losing life itself, and I was right.  It was only in the healing of my memories, coming to a point of freedom from repeating the pattern, and living apart from the subconscious repetition of that cycle which develops from living out of memories, that I was renewed to that childlike place. I no longer react to new hurt the same old way every time.

Heaven doesn’t lack the ability to see the past.  Heaven just doesn’t drive looking in the rear view mirror.  Therefore, no need for rear view mirrors. LOL

 Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them?

No man puts a piece of new cloth into an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up takes from the garment and the tear is made worse.

Neither do men put new wine into old bottles, else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish. But they put new wine into new bottles and both are preserved.         St Matthew 9:15-17

Lord, Thank you for healing from memories that draw us into the old ways of life. Thank you that each step we take is new, and to be lived as if it were new.  And thank you that you are able to change our past memories so that we may have power over the pain, frustrations or wishful thinking that holds us to a past.  Help me accept this day as a gift, and cherish it. Renew my mind.  Heal the one out there who reads this and wishes for healing from the past. Loving you today. Amen

PS. In the picture above there were trash cans behind the rose bush. The bush was so enormous that it needed pruning so the trash collectors could get to the can. Behind that big smile was a young woman who had covered her pain, by growing a rose bush that kept not only the trash collector from gathering my trash, but kept me from putting the trash in the cans.  My favorite picture is also my most revealing.

 

Are We Soldiers or Do We Just Dress the Part

At the Vatican, there is a unit of soldiers who have for hundreds of years, protected the Popes. They are called the Suisse Guard.  Their uniform still conforms to what was worn when soldiers only had swords, shields, bows and arrows, and cat of nines on chains as basic weapons.  But the narrator on the History Channel who was telling about them in recent airings, said to not be fooled by the costume like appearance.  These are the best of the best, trained in the Suisse Army as sharp shooters, snipers and experts in the use of all the best weaponry.  You see they know that it isn’t their uniform with which they fight. 

Granted the military today which fights in deserts, chooses a uniform that helps them blend into the desert. Uniforms of recent past wars, needed to camouflage the soldiers in forested circumstances, and would be shades of green. If you are a soldier, you know you will be dressed in a uniform of some kind. So it is with Christians.  We have probably all heard about dressing in our spiritual armor. Most of us sang the song, “I’m In the Lord’s Army” since we were children, followed by the sermon about how to dress in the spiritual armor.

 Military, Police, FBI, CIA, DEA, Border Patrol, and security agencies of all kinds are trained to use the weapons that will be most effective in the situations where their services are needed.  But how effective would they be in an actual situation, which called for their active defense, if they went in with only their uniforms and intensive training? No weapons or ammo, just uniforms, armor and training. They could stand ready for months, years, and look really ready if they were not asked to prove themselves.  It would be difficult to know if they were actually prepared or not at all prepared, if there were no proving grounds.  What if the time came, that we needed them, and they went rushing in with only their uniforms and training, shouting, “We are ready, bring it on?” 

They would be slaughtered.  Cause the other side would care nothing at all about how big a show they could put on marching, or doing dress maneuvers.  They could even be carrying weapons, but without the ammo and the ability to use it, showing up would be to no avail.  

So it is with Christian battles.  We must have our training:  scriptures, a few exercises along the way, Christian teachers, and people wise in the ways of the enemy sharing the enemy’s secrets with us.  We need our whole armor.  We must dress in uniform, the proper attire to protect us as we enter the task, whether it is war or just security.  But when we come up against Satan’s worst attacks, if we don’t actually use the tools that God gave us, Satan’s army will demonstrate the powers they yield, thinking they can scare us into shut down or flee mode.  In the Psychological circles it is called, fight or flight. With Satan we tend to be all flight.

 What are our tools? - Two significant ones.  Aside from protecting our mind and body with the armor, we must go in with weapon and ammo at the ready.

1. The Holy Spirit is the weapon we bear. Like a cowboy with his holster always buckled on, or a thief who tucks his knife into his shoe, the Holy Spirit is closer than any weapon we could choose. Always ready, always handy, always available.  Always. 
2. Our ammunition is the blood of Jesus. The fact that Jesus shed His blood is powerful enough.  Nothing added. It is the bullet that packs the ultimate punch, which shuts Evil down.

 On a couple of occasions in the Old Testament, God chose only 2 men, or whittled the great armies down to smaller and smaller groups to go to battle for the Israelites.  God had pleasure in showing us David who faced his attackers alone, with total reliance on God.  When the Israelites walked around and around Jericho, God fought their battle for them.  They did not go in wielding uniforms or armor or weapons, because God wants to make the point that anytime we do battle with spiritual beings, it is never our battle to fight.  It is never "we" who are able to bring the enemy down.  However, God will use us to be the David through which He makes the Goliaths fall. 

We must always stand before the scariest, monsters in our lives, (and I am talking people here, who threaten or seek to destroy us or our loved ones,) knowing our scriptures, knowing our enemy, dressed in the full armor.  Those are the basics of belonging to the “army,” being a soldier, etc.  But you never defeat the enemy until you use your weapons:

Go into battle, boldly saying, “Greater is He that is in me, than *he that is in the world" -*small letter, he.  See who is on your side. Who goes before you in power? Whose power is greatest? By whose authority do you do battle? Who is your leader? Do you believe He is greater?    Who is trying to make the biggest boom, to scare you…? Satan’s Angels will do the scariest things!!! -Sneaky, malicious things that cause fear.  Ask yourself, who is the liar? Who silently stands by with the most powerful weapons? The Spirit. Cause he is carrying the deadliest weapon on earth.  The Blood of Jesus, which was shed in our stead.

 If God can be for us, who can be against us?  Trust the Blood to hold the most authority of anything in your arsenal.  There is no weapon more powerful. Claim it. Use it in prayer to subdue the enemy. Use the verse Greater is He, to remind us who is most powerful, who stands in the gap, who is keeping us.  It is to keep our mind stationary on the truth, and not be fooled by a power less than the Almighty God, just because it is making he most noise.  Claim the blood, quote the scripture, *bind the evil, tell it where to go. And it must obey. Then ask God to heal the memories and help you not to yield to the fear again.

 USE YOUR WEAPONS.  Don’t expect to dress like a soldier but never use the weapons if you find yourself in the heat of battle.  Nothing but proper use of your weapons will do you any good.  Put a stop to the evil one making power plays in your life. 

The following is a cute song about the trickster on the prowl, by Fernando Ortega. Full of symbolism and truth.  Beware, it opens loudly, and it immediately aludes to how we get so involved in enjoying life that we sometimes aren't aware of the predator.  Cats who haven't come in for safety, want nothing more than to come in to safety when they find the prowler is near by. I hope you enjoy it, and take it with a grain of salt.

WHEN THE COYOTE COMES - by Fernando Ortega.

 

I also found the Fire Power Ministries' SCHOOL OF DELIVERANCE to be interesting.  In a way the list of things she says to repeat to yourself seems over the top, but her point is to renew your mind to turn automatically to your assurance the blood is the most valuable tool of warfare we have. I especially like #25 on her list. She gives 57 ways to say to ourselves...God took care of everything on the cross, and the worst evils come under submission to Christ's best gift - His Blood. Overkill, or the best weapon when you are alone and afraid? If you ever need it, you will know for sure.

The most joyful way I know to remind myself of this truth, is the old song: Power In The Blood. (by Lewis Jones, 1899.) The chorus says - "There is power, power, wonder working power,  in the blood, of the Lamb. There is power, power, wonder working power, in the precious blood of the Lamb."   Sometimes our pastor would have us sing  every verse and then repeat the chorus 2 or 3 times. He also had us sing it doubling the number of times we said Power quickly: "There is pow'r, pow'r, pow'r pow'r, wonder working power...etc." Why?  To get it into our heads. To make us think of it first when we come up against the darkest battles in life. To help give us confidence, and help us remember we are walking containers for the all powerful. And if Satan makes you feel like you are not... just bring up the blood.   Use it like a weapon!

It is not a magic wand, a cute game, or mere symbolism. Jesus isn't a cartoon super hero. His power is real Power!!!!!

I personally believe that it is very important that we get to the place that we trust in this power to the point that we can do like Jesus did - and quietly, one time speak the Word, and insist that the evil ones obey. No scary stuff, just quiet submission to the blood's real power. When we bind them with that power, and say you can't come back to bring more worse than yourselves, because I include them in the power of the blood, then we are finally using our faith, believing that Christ died for a purpose. We are making a better, simpler, healthier, happier life full of the good gifts of God. The repititions are only for us.  To bolster our faith, to combat our fears. They have no more power over evil than speaking it once in faith.

Father I claim that Blood, over this post and all who would read it. And to their family members and friends. Grant us faith to allow you to be all powerful in every aspect of our lives. Help us use the weapons you gave us wisely.  AMEN

*"...Peter, upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it, and I will give thee the keys to the kingdom of heaven ...whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shalt be bound in heaven...." Matthew 16:17-19. 

(ck out the old testament ministry of binding things with a scarlet cord which is the fore shadowing of binding that which would harm us with the blood. Use a concordance, and follow the scriptures. )

 

An Alien Sighting

Recently I was chatting with two Godly women and one said, “Sometimes I feel so alone in my walk with the Lord.”  Those words really struck a note with me because I can relate to feeling like an alien on earth trying to maneuver through this life and figuring out how to walk like a Christian woman should.  

 You see, when I accepted Christ ten years ago at the age of 28, I began the process of retraining my thoughts and actions.  There was so much to alter after 28 years of destructive thought patterns.  Along with that, some of my friends from the earlier part of my life quietly walked away from our friendship because of the changes they saw in my life.  While I now remember that season as a growing time because I learned how to be comforted by the presence of the Lord, it was very hard to experience.

 As I study the life of Jesus, I recognize that His life was that of an alien on earth.  He was born the most perfect-imperfect birth to a virgin in a stable.    Jesus lived a simple life but always went against the popular ideas in words and actions.  He was criticized by religious leaders and hung out with sinners yet He was without sin.  Even Jesus’s death was brutal, but He didn’t call out or fight back.

 The author of Psalm 119 verse 19 says, 

“I am a stranger here on earth....”  

 I Peter 2:11-12 says, 

“Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.  Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”

 I read a prophetic word this morning In Small Straws in a Soft Wind by Marsha Burns that said:

Many of you, My people, are approaching a turning point in which there will be a decided departure from what has been your accepted normal. When you are faced with change, I will give you the grace and guidance to move forward in strength and the power of My Spirit if you will trust Me. At this time you must be willing to let go of what was in order to grasp what is to be, says the Lord. Press on to obtain the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus.

Christians are not supposed to necessarily fit in here on earth.  When we are chasing after God, we should expect that people will see us as weird, strange, or “Jesus freaks.”   We will do things differently than the world in all aspects of our lives and could very possibly be persecuted for it.  The good news is that when we, aliens, are taken to our leader, we will hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

My Prayer:  Oh Lord, today I lift up those who feel alone here on earth because of their faith.  I pray for the encouragement of the Holy Spirit as we continue with our work.  Thank you, Heavenly Father, for assuring us of the victory.  Jesus, we thank you for your sacrifice and for bearing the burdens of our sins on the cross.  Strengthen us as we press into you, Lord.  We look forward to the prize of heaven one day.  In Jesus name!

 Scripture to tuck into your heart today:

" Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

                                                    ~Matthew 5:10