| My husband and I are both health care providers, and he says there are only two things that will make a person jump up and move: the sight of blood and the stab of pain. When we feel pain – physical, emotional, mental or spiritual – what do we do? |
Do we run to the phone, or to the Throne?
As health care providers my colleagues and I were certified in emergency care and CPR. The decisions we made in the first few seconds of a crisis could mean the difference between life and death. Ironically, when we practiced CPR, we were always on our knees. When life crises come, we need to drop to our knees, pull out our spiritual arsenal and go to work.
Going to our knees, pouring our hearts out before the Lord is the privilege of anyone who intercedes. John 15:13 tells us, “greater love has no on than this, that on lay down his life for his friends.” When we stop what we are doing and go to our knees to pray for a friend, family member, church or country, we are doing a kind of laying down our lives. We are giving our breath to another, kind of like spiritual CPR.
It is my opinion that the church’s greatest sin is not taking advantage of what Christ’s death has done for us. We accept teenage rebellion as just a stage everyone goes through. We accept mental illness as something people have. No, sisters, no! This is not God’s perfect will for our lives. Yes, we live in a fallen world but didn’t Christ come to set the captives free? The answer to that would be, YES! Didn’t Christ say that he came to give life and give life more abundantly? Again, that would be, YES!
We are not taking the territory that His suffering and death provided. Rise up, church, and pray. The land is ours for the taking if we are willing to do the work that His gift provides. Satan knows Christ defeated him, and he is working mightily to kill, steal and destroy us, or at the very least, hide this truth from our eyes.
Rise up Church and fight!
Paradoxically, our fight begins on our knees. Then with patience and diligence, we wait on our God to cut through the stronghold of the enemy. No unilateral moves here, ladies!
Though we are mighty in spirit, we are tender in heart. Many times in my life I have cut through the stronghold of the enemy, bring my sorrow, using the sword of the Spirit, blinded by a river of tears. On our knees, we pray with tears flowing from sorrow. Many times I have cried so hard that I have gone through a whole box of tissues, my sleeves, and the back of my husband’s shirt. We have to feel sorry for the first person to hug us after all that!
Did you know that a pearl is pretty much made of oyster mucus, nice word for snot? An oyster feels pain as a grain of sand cuts into its tender, heart-like tissue, and it coats the sand daily. When purchasing pearls, I never knew I was paying so much for something that seems so gross! You and I both know that when we get to the point of having the ugly cry going on, the snot glows. As our mucus flows and we come before the throne, covering our sorrows in prayer, something greater than our sorrows is being formed. Our grain of sand is becoming a pearl of great value.
As we war with the enemy over the territory that is already ours, we allow Christ to create a testimony of what Christ has done in our lives. Then by the end of our lives we will have a String of Pearls, each one a testimony of what God has done in our lives.
This is excerpt from my book String of Pearls
Linking today with On Your Heart Tuesday, To Love Honor and Vacuum, Getting Down with Jesus, Word filled Wednesday,
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“…our fight begins on our knees.”
Amen! So true!
Amen, Joe, Thank you for stopping by and commenting. Happy Fourth of July to you!
Great word!!
I love the correlation you’ve made between John 15:13 and prayer. Those moments of time we give as we are in prayer for others, is giving our lives up for them in that moment. Beautiful…..and YES, I truly understand that the grit of life makes us lustrous. I’ve not seen your book before, I think I need to read it……we seem to have common veins of thinking!
How very cool that your icon is a pearl. I know you get it! I hope you will enjoy the book. ~Di
You said things so clearly and accurately. While walking today… which is MY prayer time, –worshiping, praising, lifting people and needs to the Lord … I thought so often of how important it is to restrict the enemy in the lives of people who simply do not know better/more. I’m a bit on the more intense side, and I now that annoys some people, but I was a fighter as a kid and now I’m a fighter in the spirit and for The Spirit. [Sure would love to talk to you; I think we have a lot in common. Oh, well… the day may come.] Thank you very much!
Oh sweet Joanne, I would love for us to talk sometime. maybe God will arrange that for us. Let keep it in prayer. ~Di
Battling over territory that’s already ours… how true!! I’m thankful for the strength to fight another day, and hoping all those mucus layers are honoring to Him.
Thanks, Di!
I hope we can meet in Charlotte. Please tell me how to contact you when I am close. ~Di