Heavenly Magazine

I feel like someone should talk about the battle.  You know the one.  Yes, that one. Oh wait…not that one…..I’m talking about Your Battle!

It seems as though I wake every day in search for beauty;  praying, seeking to find the glory of God.  However, I don’t always share about the battle.  Today it’s time…to talk about the Battle.

Charles Finney said, “If you have the Spirit of God (in you), you must make up your mind to accept experiencing opposition, both in the church and in the world.”

He also said, “You must expect very frequent and agonizing conflicts with Satan.”

I agree sometimes the church can over talk Satan.  Maybe give him too much credit. And then we can also not speak of Him at all which makes us dull and unaware of his schemes and motives which leaves us vulnerable to attack and theft.   However much we talk about him right or wrong, the Bible is clear.  We are to put on the full armor of God because we do not fight against flesh and blood but of the principalities of darkness.

So…the Battle.  We are all in one, and we are all in one at all times. The Good news is the war has already been won.  We ARE victorious.  This gives us the advantage to fight with beauty and grace although it doesn’t always look beautiful and graceful.

More good news… “The Joy of the Lord is our Strength.” I love how He gives us Joy as our strength.  …just sit on that for a moment.  If you are fighting from a place of ..what’s the opposite of Joy…saddness?..then that’s not giving you the power you need to win.

He does desire Joy for us on this earth.  So we can fight with Joy as our strength.  We do not have to be sluggards and bitter, tired and beat down.  We can fight from place of JOY because we ARE victorious.  Those are good words! Hold them close.

A little while back at a Bible study, the leader called me out.  She set me apart during the class and spoke a Word over me.  Her Words filled a void, answered a longing question and prompted me to embrace the one thing I had been oppressing in myself.   (Gotta love it when the Church does what it is suppose to do…speak encouragement, affirmation and edify one another.) That Word she spoke over me, still to this day rings like a sounding board in me when I struggle in the fight of life…. “Ferocity“.   I know it’s who I am.  I knew it the moment she spoke it.  Finally, it was all starting to make sense.  I know it’s how God fashioned me.  I know it is part of my character for a reason, however it can become a thorn in my day when I need to be gentle and slow to anger…so goes the battle…

I open the link and begin to  read….someone is  sharing something deep. It’s fresh in the light after years of being hidden, a sort of tragedy of life and choice, an opening  of self for others to witness the moment, their moment when their life was cut and shattered.  It reminds me of my moment… fear black and thick like tar and everywhere. The scene where innocence was spilled, their innocence, my innocence and in that moment after years of scraping to find out the truth without even knowing there was truth, feeling all alone, nothing but a shell of a human body holding only a tape recorder playing over and over the verses of reproach and retaliation… lies written as prose and poetry trying to make a rhythm that was never written for me but someone had decided needed to be played in my presence and tried to put my name on it.  Then in that moment with the darkness and the stench of my own choices… There… who knew?  I was given the same amount of Grace and Salvation as all the others.  He wasn’t counting my mistakes, He wasn’t holding out on me…He was however plowing the pit before me so I could find Him.
It is an intense, time stand still, breaking of yoke and bondage, life giving and earth shattering tell all of a moment when life was forever brought back…..I read these tragic stories of heart and soul, feeling like I’m there with them in the depths before the light comes to warm us and seeing that first gasp of air brought deep into the lungs, eyes wide wondering if it will be enough to sustain…if there will be enough time to take another gasp before the thickness comes back.

 

I feel stretched. you see I don’t have one tragic detail or choice but many. My muse wasn’t just drugs, sex, abortions, rebellion, betrayal and years of wasted time..it was all of those things and probably more. But the scarlet secret hidden behind vulnerability and abandonment of the fear of man is that it doesn’t matter the list how short or long, magnitude of or deceptive level of wrong, what matters is the transformation and testimony that gives glory to Jesus. You see the breath is important…it is used to speak of it….all of it.  So I will continue to share ALL that He did for me and ALL the mess I got myself into because hiding it even one part steals from the beauty of the air and the breath that was brought down from way up high just for me…my story, His story, our story.  It matters.  They all matter.  Keep on telling them, in your way, in your words. No fear of man.  No record players.  Only dirty hearts saved with clean hands, beating again…..with our surname engraved with the blood of the one who died for us, in The Book of Life, forever more.

“Above all else GUARD your heart….”Proverbs 4:23

Little by little the enemy seeps in and steals our weapons without us even realizing it.

Little by little we can begin to compromise our standards until we look back and realize how far away we’ve stepped from our sure footing.

Little by little we can begin to lean in, blend in and flow with the culture around us.

Little by little we are loosing our way, the Way.

It’s easy to do!  It’s easy to want to please those around us.  It’s easy to try and be polite, but it’s the fear of man that leads us into the land where men make their own rules and foundations are built on sinking sand.  Then before you know it, you’re struggling to breath.

We must gather back together and realign as a strong, fortified unit; as a family.  This begins first in our marriage and then it trickles down to our children as they witness first hand the solid structure in truth and unity.

“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together inunity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robe. It is as if the dew of Hermon (the tallest mountain in the region, noted for it’s abundant precipitation) were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.” Psalm 133:1-3

We must look to our husbands/wives, the Bible, spirit-filled leaders, and God himself to reaffirm what it looks like (The Vision) to be who God has called us to be.  We will need from time to time reinforcements and reminders because we will be goingagainst the grain.  We will be ruffling feathers.  We will be walking on territory that others will stand and block but with the voice of God we must continue on.

Little by little we get fueled up and suited up, armed and stronger than before, to go back out and set things right.

Little by little we start stepping back into alignment with the True voice of God and thus bringing our homes and family back into alignment with victory, purpose, vision and JOY.

Little by little we blaze a new path and tare down strongholds and iniquities, allowing The Vision of God to resurface and ultimately prevail.

Proverbs 2:2 Turn your ears to wisdom.

Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish.

Habakkuk 2:2-3 Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak and it will not lie. Thought it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come.

A Parenting side note:  YOU influence your children.  Do not rest that mantle (a covering given by God) on anyone else. Do not allow anyone else to take it from you.  It is yours to carry, uphold and reinforce.  Wear it well.  It was made for YOU.

“Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home, and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Deuteronomy 11:19

That mantle is yours to respect and honor.  Do not diminish the calling.  Do not waste the mantle.  For without it,  your children may never fully develop into their calling and gifting.  Do we understand our role as parents or are we falling prey to the theft and destruction found in wayward influences?  Oh the power of the diligent pursuit of the child’s heart by the parent.  We get one chance.

Stand up, Stand firm and do not compromise the vision God has shown YOU.  Write it down, read it, allow it to sustain you through thick and thin. Hold on and do not give up!  Lay claim to your flock and continue onward and upward.  In Jesus name!

 

About the Author – A Ready Writer I am, always with pen in hand and looking beyond to find the beauty that lies in the in between, unforeseen and redeemed…..

I Love All Things Beautiful!!  At heart, I’m an artist, a writer, a photographer, a lover and builder, a seeker and a hunter.  I love how Beauty can change us, mold us, prepare us, speak to us as if it’s speaking an intimate language.
I love the way God uses color, richness, softness, light and creativity to display His glory on this Earth.  I love texture, nature and lighting.  I love the anticipation of an empty space waiting for Beauty to arrive. I am drawn to the simplicity of beauty and the depth of beauty that can be found in the unexpected.  I love the placement of beautiful things within a
beautiful setting.  I love to see old things redeemed into beautiful new pieces that can house  joy and light with purpose and function.

All this to say, I Love beauty, look for beauty in the midst of every day and
am moved by beauty all because I know the authentic Beauty that can only be found in Jesus.  Come along on the journey and allow yourself to be drawn into the beauty that is Jesus.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1