Have you ever noticed that as soon as you make up your mind to change something or implement a new, good habit, there seems to be an opposing force?
Take my last post...
I seem to have such passion and zeal for teaching my children to listen to the Lord's promptings in every day life, but when I actually try to sit down with them to "Pray & Listen" the first 10 minutes seem fraught with distraction. Someone's whining, someone's jumping around like a jumping bean, and someone's got a stinky 'tude (wait, that may have been me). I start scolding, then we have to pray harder. It would just be easier to not do it.
But, when we decide to push through the fog and distraction, knowing that there WILL be opposition, then we get beautiful glimpses of insights from the Lord.
My oldest wrote out what she was "seeing" from the Lord, here it is, exactly how she wrote it:
"I feel like our whole life is a big knot and we keep trying to unravel it and we keep trying and trying without the Lord and it only gets thighter and thighter and we finely ask for the Lord and He helps us and our life goes in a strate line."
My middle daughter saw a vision in her mind's eye of a big gate with lots of people trapped behind it and the Holy Spirit came and opened the gate and they were freed.
My youngest daughter usually has a difficult time paying attention to what we are doing when we are trying to listen with our hearts, but she does get dreams. She dreamt recently that there was a bad house with people in it that were being fed through a hole in a door. We were all in a good house that flew up to the sky with a parachute. The bad house called out to us and said, "I'm good now!" and then it had a family.
I love the thread that runs through all these pictures. To me the thread looks like freedom from bondage.
Back to the opposition. We have a very real opponent and unless we become aware of his schemes, tactics, strategies, we will be more easily defeated.
There are times when I really struggle to hear anything from the Lord. Here are a few things that seem to happen in me head:
1. To do lists floating in and out of thoughts.
2. Doubts that I can even hear, or clearly, at that.
3. I'm hearin' nuttin' honey.
The first on the list can be dealt with by "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;" {2 Cor. 10:5}
The second on the list can be dealt with similarily, but with one more step of recognizing who is the father of lies. When I use the Word against a lie, I come out from under it's influence. "The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.” {John 10:3-5}
I desire that last line to be true of me.
Now the third is a tricky one. When I am not hearing anything, I pause to evaluate. "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." {Ps. 139:23-24}
The amazing thing is usually I know right away what is hindering me from hearing. The Holy Spirit is sweet like that. Whether it be unbelief or unforgiveness...
Unforgiveness. Ooooooh, that's a nasty beast. I have lots to tell you about that stinker, but let's wait til January, kay?!
Here is a superb article that I have read and re-read and highlighted and underlined and re-read again. It's not really about unforgiveness, but it is about purposing to pursue our enemies. I will leave you with my favourite quote from it:
"I will tell you a solemn truth: we either pursue our enemies or our enemies will pursue us."
{Francis Frangipane}
There is no neutral ground.
~christa jean
This is us celebrating 11 years together at Cannon Beach.