Why is it that we are taken aback when a wrench is thrown into the works of our lives? Even when we are doing what we believe God has told us to do AND it is obviously the right thing according to the Word of God.For several weeks I've felt the spiritual need for my husband and I to get a way for a time of prayer. We needed to seek God's guidance and get a spiritual break through. The best place in the world is the family cabin. It's quiet, serene and a perfect place to "be still and know that He is God". (not to mention 15-20 degrees cooler Praise God Hallelujah)
When we arrived I thought okay God--here we are at last. You've called us here so I'm expecting a great and mighty outpouring of wisdom. Okay--here we are. Willing and obedient. We're ready........
So we're up bright and early and ready to take our walk. In fact, we have a wonderful time sharing our hearts and talking about where we think God is taking our home church. We share what God has done in our lives over the last few weeks. Through our words we do indeed hear the voice of the Holy Spirit as we walk. We hear God say that we are to go forth and storm the gates of hell with the Word of God, that God will provide the resources that are needed to go forth with the purpose that we are called for. We know that God will gather us into His heart and His passion as we allow ourselves to be used to gather the lost and encourage the Beloved.
Matthew 16:18 (King James Version)
18And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it
Now I'm thinking Thanks God! This is great. We've got a glimpse of our next steps and away we go. We both love a good plan that we believe God is directing.
So we get back to the cabin and because this is still a work day for John, he needs to prepare for a phone appointment that he will conduct at the cabin. After his phone meeting we planned to go up to a retreat center which we are dreaming about buying to pray and worship the Lord. (Dream big I always say).
So John checks his email to verify his info for the call and what does he see but a fiery dart of the enemy, designed to negate and discourage our hearts from the path that God has shown us that very morning. I wish I could say that we didn't sway a bit--that we stood firm without doubt from the second he saw it. That we grabbed up that shield of faith and held it high against the fiery darts. Alas, even after a morning of time with God and each other, we felt ourselves sway with what felt like a trembling of the earth beneath our feet.
Ephesians 6:16
above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one
But! we knew that God was calling us to move forward--to trust Him. So with less enthusiasm than before we looked at each other and decided to continue down the path that God had set for our day. We drove to the retreat center where God blessed us with being able to actually meet the caretaker and get a short tour. We drove around the property and prayed for the impossible--that God would give us that very retreat center for His work.
Again, I wish I could say that we prayed with a huge amount of confidence but unfortunately our hearts were over shadowed by that fiery dart. We went back to the cabin and poured out our hearts to God. We poured out our disappointment and a bit of our fear. But! We declared God's righteousness and goodness. We thanked Him for his mercy, faithfulness to us and his amazing Grace. We told Him that we knew that He was still our King and that were still his kids--Kingdom kids in fact--part of the royal priesthood.
Although the drive back home wasn't filled with exuberant joy--it was filled with a knowledge that God would never leave us nor forsake us.
Today I realize that the battle with the enemy doesn't always end with an ah-ha moment or a joy filled heart. Sometimes we feel battle worn and weary. There's a reason that the Bible calls it spiritual warfare. It's a battle. We are called to persevere and stand and doing all to stand some more. Sometimes, despite how we feel or the fear that lurks on the edges of our mind, we just have to walk in obedience anyway, knowing that the Lord is our God, that we are His children and the sheep of His pasture. And we must remember that the Word of God says that joy truly comes in the morning.
