Brunch 2026: Wounds

 (As always please excuse any issues with formatting)

I have to tell you that this was not my original message. I was going to speak about how Christ is our true north, our fixed and sure constant. Well Wednesday night at about 10:30 I was scrolling through Facebook looking for silly dog videos to fall asleep to and the Lord brought true north to my mind and encouraged me to look it up.

I thought he was going to show me something really cool to include in the teaching. But what he showed me was that my teaching was based on the belief that true north was a constant fixed point. It is not. They have since discovered that the earth is spinning very slowly, which in turn affects true north.

I prayed and was like what do I do now?  Do I just share what I was going to share hoping you’d never find out the truth about true north? No. I didn’t want you to think that Christ was anything but our sure fixed Lord.

So to avoid confusion I started looking through old retreats on my laptop (thank God I brought my laptop) I could share and I found one from 2005. Not one I would normally share at a brunch but the more I read through it, the more I felt the Lord say to share it. so because I only had two days to read this over and adjust it please forgive if I depend on my notes even more than usual. Sh what am I going to share?

So our topic today is wounds.

I remember when the Lord began to speak to my heart about this. I was sitting on my deck back in Vermont, just hanging out with the Lord, enjoying the sun and his presence.

I wasn’t thinking about anything in particular, certainly nothing noteworthy, when all of a sudden his spirit impressed these words in my heart and set them in my mind. It was so clear: the wound that leads to death and the wound that leads to life. Weird right?

I was somewhat startled, but knew that it was important, so I went inside and wrote them down.

Throughout the years, I had been burdened by this idea because I knew that if I really understood the significance of what the Lord said about wounds, that my mind and my life would be transformed.

Remember this was way back in 2005. How many years ago was that? 21?

When I read over my notes I could see how the Lord has taken what he showed me back then and has transformed, transfigured my life.

Even at the time I knew deep in my heart that I had lived most of my life as one of the walking wounded and not in a good way. My wounds had compromised my spiritual health.

Whenever the topic of wounds comes up, it’s bound to get messy. It’s kind of like being in an operating room. Organs exposed, machines pumping, weird noises, infection being drained, and the blood, there is always blood in any operating room.

As Christians we must remember the blood. For us the blood is not an icky topic, it is the mediating agent of our healing.

So what do I mean by a wound? In the natural sense, it is a hurt or injury to a person by some type of violence rather than a disease.

In Scripture, a wound is translated as a blow, a split, a rut. It means to burn, to dash, smash, afflict, to starve, and to crush. What lovely images. Have another scone.

It is anywhere from a slight wound caused by a lapse or a slip to an injurious wound caused by a deviation or a turning aside.

 

When I refer to a wound today I am referring to any injury or hurt that has compromised the integrity, the wholeness of our emotions, our hearts and our spirits.

I’d like to look at the nature of two particular wounds, the effect these wounds have had on us and of course, the remedy and provision for these wounds.

I know that we are all at different stages of wound acknowledgment and wound repair, so I don’t want anyone to feel pressure or condemnation, but just allow the Holy Spirit to minister to you where you are at.

A long, long time ago in a beautiful paradise-like setting a violent wound was inflicted upon the human race. It was a death wound that would not only sever the relationship between God and man, but would lead to physical and emotional death as well.

This primary wound is original sin. We need to look back to the garden to understand the nature of all wounds because this is where it all started.

This was a spiritual wound that had physical and emotional implications and repercussions. So what was the legacy passed down to us? What flowed out of this wound into human history?

After sin entered the world, we begin to see its effect on human behavior. You see wounds not only inflict pain and affect behavior, they create need.

The first garden behavior after sin entered the world that reflected a need was when man created his own covering. (Gen. 3:7)

Why did he do this? Because of his nakedness, his shame, his inadequacies, his needs.

Now when I say Mankind remember I’m including us, too. This particular wound created the need to be covered.

The next thing that Adam and Eve did was in their shame they hid from God.

This tendency of all of us to run from God and hide whenever sin is present creates the need for revelation, transparency and for clarity.

Like a game of hide and seek, we close our eyes, but when we hide we become a kind of fugitive, giving up our freedom, hiding away creates a self-imposed prison. It creates the need to be set free.

It’s interesting that in the Middle Ages there was a prison, a small 4x4 room called the little ease where a prisoner could not even stand up and was left there to be forgotten.

I personally lived quite a few years in a self-imposed little ease and the growth and posture of my soul was stunted and malformed until the Lord released the stiffness that my wounds had created and He set me free.

The last consequence of sin was that man blamed. After the first wound was inflicted on the human race defensiveness entered the world along with victimization and self-sufficiency. This created the need for righteous perception and Holy Spirit conviction.

In this first wound we also see deception about God’s will, his nature and his purpose being unleashed into the world. Satan lied about God, twisted his word, planted doubt about God’s love in the collective subconscious of the world.

Now because the enemy knows what works, we need to be aware of these original deceptions and the effects this primary wound has on us.

Why? Because it has always been and still is the essence of the battle between the flesh and the spirit and is the undercurrent of our wounds.  What started in the Garden, tempts and hinders us still.

1.    First, Satan’s purpose is to destroy man’s rightful place and relationship with God. He will try to destroy your relationship and interfere with your spiritual growth. In this the need for a mediator was created.

2.    Next, Satan will always distort not only God’s word, but his character as well. He will tell you that God doesn’t understand, he doesn’t care, that he didn’t mean what he said. In this the need for a written standard was created. The Bible.

3.    Third, Man’s and women’s relationship carries this primary taint of dysfunction and animosity. Man will have a tendency to blame woman and woman will have a tendency to blame others. This creates the need for a change in how we relate to each other, to have peace brought into those relationships.

4.    When we sin, we will want to run and hide from God. In this the need to be found was created.

5.    Satan took God’s word out of context of his love and distorted his divine purpose for mankind. Man was now lost to his original destiny. Because of this the need for a savior was created.

6.    Last, while in the midst of temptation if we are not grounded, our perception of right and wrong will be affected. In this the need for holy discernment was created.

We need to be aware of the severity of the first wound. We died. Spiritually, and eventually physically. Col. 2:13 says we were dead in our sins and in the uncircumcision of our sinful natures. KJ says it more strongly: “and you being a corpse in your sins and unregenerated nature of your humanness.” Doesn’t get any worse than being a corpse. Without intervention, there is no hope for emotional, spiritual and very often physical health.

Here we are the walking wounded, just surviving. So what do we do? We allow God to perform Holy Spirit surgery. Put on the paddles of Holy Spirit power and revive the corpse. To open up those infected places, clean out our wounds, and cover them for healing.

So why is it necessary to get so messy? To dig deep. Ask hard questions about the health of our inner man? Because we live in messy times. The world is a very wounded place. The pain that surrounds us is getting more intense every day, in the lives of those around us and in our own lives.

We are surrounded by wounds caused by hate, by fear, by intimidation, by injustice, by physical, emotional, mental and spiritual sickness.

There is a plague and as Christians standing and living in the middle of it, we are not immune. We are affected by it and sad to say in many cases, we are the cause of it. The church in America is sick.

Living a compromised and ineffective life only adds to the world’s pain. This is not to condemn but to give you a message of hope. Because as Dr. Phil says we cannot change what we do not acknowledge.

The Lord desires us to be whole, to be healthy so that we can bring health to others. We are children of the great physician. We have been forgiven, we have been cleansed, and we have been covered with the balm of Gilead.

What is this balm? Jer. 8:22 the prophet asks the question: is there no balm in Gilead? The people of Israel were sick, sick of heart, sick of spirit.

Matthew Henry, wrote. “Is there no balm in Gilead? No medicine proper for a sick and dying kingdom? Is there no physician there? No skillful hand to apply the medicine? Yes, there certainly is. God is able to heal…The blood of Christ is our balm of Gilead, his spirit is the physician, both sufficient, all sufficient.”

So what do we do? We look to another wound.

1 Peter 2:24: “He bore our sins in his body, so we might die to sin and live for righteousness. By his wounds we have been healed.”

Unlike the first wound, these wounds were physical wounds that had spiritual implications and repercussions. When Christ was wounded for our transgressions, he carried the weight of the first wound, making it possible for us to receive healing and to be reconciled to God.

In the book, Healing for Damaged Emotions, David Seamands writes:

“Thank God he doesn’t leave us alone; we are not abandoned to our paltry resources to somehow struggle through all this mess, to live defeated lives. No! For our wounded Healer, our High Priest, Jesus Christ, is ‘touched with the feelings of our infirmities.’ Jesus, the Son of God, identified with us humans when He became the Son of Man. He not only knows our infirmities, but also our feelings. He understands the pain of rejection, the anxiety of separation, the terror of loneliness and abandonment, the dark clouds of depression. These infirmities, these cripplings and weaknesses, he knows, he understands, he feels. He is our wounded healer.”

Jesus: the healing provision for our wounds. Think about it. Who came to Jesus? Not the well, but the sick, the lame and the dying.

Mathew 15:30- it literally means “great crowds came to him, bringing the lame and limping, the blind, those who did not permit light to pass through, and those who were inflated with self-conceit, those who were dumb and blunted, those who were maimed in feet and hands; those who were crippled, handicapped by bodily injury, disabled and moving in a circle, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus’ feet, and he healed them, he waited upon them, and cherished them.”

In Is. 61:1-3 we are told about the ministry of healing that the Savior would have. He has given us freedom, release, and health.

     In the song by Bob Bennet “Man of the Tombs” he sings: “In only a moment, and with only a word, the evil departs like a thundering herd.”  Jesus heals with just a word

We know that Christ’s sacrifice made provision for the first wound of original sin. Jesus took our infirmities and carried our sorrows.

Heb. 4:15 “For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.”

The provision has been made, we have access to the great physician through his blood, through his sacrifice.

So here we are at a brunch, most of us are saved, hopefully filled with the spirit and I’m talking about wounds. What wounds? I’m as healthy as the next person. Don’t tell me I’m wounded. Aren’t we new creations in Christ?

However, unless we have intentionally allowed Christ into our inner man and allowed him continuous access, chances are we still carry the weight of at least some of our old wounds.

So how do we heal? If we look at the natural stages of the healing process there are some interesting spiritual parallels.

In the natural, there are three stages to the healing process:

1.    defensive

2.    reconstructive

3.    and maturation

Now I’m not going to go deep into the medical applications because it’s too weighty and well, I don’t have a medical background to understand it. So I’d like to share my insights on these three stages of natural healing from a spiritual perspective.

     First, the defensive stage. When I think of the word defensive, I think of something that is designed to protect or guard. To defend. If I am a healthy Christian, when I am wounded, my spirit should naturally begin the healing process.

          If I have taken on the full armor of God, the shield of faith, the belt of truth and so on, then it follows that when I am wounded, my holy defenses engage and begin to fortify me.

If I am responding in a healthy way when wounded, my hurts will drive me deeper in Christ for him to heal the need that the wound created. How will I know if I’ve responded in this way? Look at my behavior and my attitude.

But say I’m wounded before I became a Christian and had no armor, no healthy defenses or if I’m a new believer? Then I will use whatever self-defenses I have. I will become defensive in the worse sense of the word.

For the Christian who has accessed the full range of the Father’s protective arsenal, this phase of the healing process can be a positive and empowering experience.

How many times have you heard that if you cover a wound with a bandage it will heal faster? It will keep out bacteria that can infect the wound. The covering of God does the same for our emotional wounds. But for those who are unable or unwilling to rely on the Lord’s defenses for healing, this phase may be the beginning of a stronghold.

Remember one of the meanings for wound is rut. Hard to get out of a rut once we’re in it.

Also the Lord reminded me that it is very important for the success of this first stage of healing to have proper cleansing of the wound or it may become infected.

     What cleanses us and allows God’s healing process to flow unhindered? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

The second phase of healing: reconstructive. I like the sound of that. Sounds positive. Reconstruct: when something is restored or rebuilt.

In the natural, it is when the tissues of a wound begin to repair themselves.

In the spiritual, it is a time of the healing process for the Lord to rebuild the breech, to reconstitute us, to reform and put us together again. An opportunity to revive us.

If we have allowed him access to our wound, this phase will be a time of strengthening and of purposeful restructuring. Building on a firm foundation to the glory of God in our lives.

The reconstruction phase may not be fun. I remember a time when I fell off by bike and badly scraped both of my palms on the sidewalk.

They became very infected and when I went to the doctor you know what he did? No, he didn’t just put a bandage over the wound, because if he did, the infection would have gotten worse. No, he had to scrape away the infected tissue before he could cleanse and bandage the wound. Did that hurt? Unbelievably so. But it was necessary.

When we allow the Lord to scrape away what has infected us it can be a time when we can lean ever closer to God’s healing embrace and be repaired. It may not have been pleasant but it was necessary.

The last phase of the healing process is called maturation. A maturing phase.

In the natural, the maturation phase can last for a year or longer, depending on the size of the wound and whether it was initially closed or left open.

To be mature in the Lord, to understand that the Lord can take a horrific wound and use it not only for his glory but for our spiritual growth as well.

Paul writes in Colossians 4:12: that he desires them to stand firm in all of the will of God, mature and fully assured. Mature here literally means the conclusion of. Maturity the last phase of spiritual healing.

Spiritual maturation is when we are willing to fully integrate the healing power of God, accepting healing and everything that goes along with it and become one of the wounded healers.

We may still bear the scar of our wounds (being in very good company), but we have allowed them to be:

-        refined in the fire

-        purified and

-        laid down before the throne of grace

-        buried in the tomb

-        drenched in the blood, and

-        subjected to the resurrection power of Jesus Christ

In the healing process for wounds this will be the natural last stage. But what if this phase is reached without the Lord? What happens?

This person’s wound will have taken root and become part of who they are, how they react. Those unhealed wounds will affect their attitudes, their behavior, their mind-set and perspective.

Those unhealed wounds will also influence their life choices and their willingness to accept the consequence for those choices.

As our healing passes through these phases, we need to lay ourselves before the Lord.

The cry of the wounded heart says: “heal, mend and cure me O Lord and I will be healed.” (Jer. 17:14)

As a patient, our posture is to cry out for help to the only One who can truly help. Think about going to the doctor’s office: would you go to the people sitting in the waiting room to be healed of a serious wound? How about to the nurse behind the desk? Some people won’t even go to a physician assistant because they feel that they’re not quite as qualified.

But we do things like that all the time with our wounds. We carry the depth of our wounds to others for healing. We expect others to supply the healing balm needed to become whole and healthy.

We will always be disappointed. We may get some temporary relief, but there will be no permanent healing and certainly no maturing.

But we have been delivered; we have access to the great physician. To stand healed is much more than having a healthy physical body.

In Ez. 33:6 we are told that the Lord will bring health and healing to his people.

What do these words literally mean? It means He will bring abundant peace and security and cleanse from our sins. That is true health. And it takes a healthy Christian to bring health to others: Heb. 12:12-13: “Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.”

It is only when we are open to healing we can strengthen others’ the feeble hands and steady their knees that give way. We cannot give what we do not have.

For it to be authentic it needs to be more than just doctrine. It needs to be the very living word of God that has poured itself into our inner man and changed and healed us.

Out of the first wound flowed death, destruction, a legacy of secondary wounds that lead to dysfunction and defeat. Out of Christ’s wounds flow freedom, health and life.

He heals blindness, our lack of sight and vision, our garden game of hide and seek.

He heals our deafness, our inability to hear and listen.

He heals our crippled and damaged bodies and emotions.

He heals our wounded, afflicted souls.

He heals the weak, he heals the transitory

He heals the inconsistent

He heals the unidentified weaknesses that plague us.

He heals our restlessness

He died for us

He was raised for us

He is coming back for us

We are his pearl of great price

He enables us and restores us

He opens our eyes

He frees our chains

He heals our wounds.

 

I’d like to end with something the Lord showed me this morning:

Psalm 30: 2,11:

“O Lord my God I called on you for help and you healed me. O Lord you brought me up from the grave. You spared me from going down into the pit…You turned my wailing into dancing. You removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy that me heart may sing to you and not be silent. O Lord my God I will give you thanks for ever.”

Let’s pray

Father, you are the great physician. Lord, we offer up our lives to your now. Our scattered disconnected wounded lives.

Reach your hand deep down into our inner places and release the chains we have wrapped around ourselves, open the eyes that we have kept covered, restore the years that the locus have eaten.

Father, the work is just beginning. The door is cracked and we see your light streaming into our dark places.

Continue to reveal, continue to convict, continue to encourage.

Grant voice to our silent wounds.

We stand in your grace and ask all in your name. Amen.

 

(Please excuse the wonky formatting. Couldn't seem to fix it)

What's the Point? Finding Purpose in a Fallen World

Saturday Morning

Saturday Morning

 

A few months after that last retreat I was talking with the Lord about some of the things I shared and He laid this on my heart, “The journey continues.”

At the time I really had no idea what that meant except I sensed it had something to do with digging deeper into how the Lord will strengthen and prepare us for the days ahead,

so when Nancy asked me to share this year I was excited to say yes. Excited and yet a bit apprehensive.

You know when someone asks you to do something and you’re feeling kind of on top of things, you feel I can do this. I got this.

Well, not so much for me at the time. Ever had a really bad head cold? It’s like you’re living in a grey, dense cloud that surrounds your brain. You can’t think and even when you try to nothing makes sense.

Well, that was me except I had a spiritual head cold. I felt isolated by my chronic pain, even making it difficult to go to church.

But the worst part is I felt dull to the sound of His voice.  Ever feel like that?

I had slowly turned inward, even questioning what the point of all this struggle was.

 I felt miserable but more than that I felt useless. But thanks be to God. He never leaves us without hope and is always ready to pull us out of the fog.

So what has the Lord been teaching me through this difficult time? That the remedy for a spiritual head cold is to:

·       Get plenty of rest in His peace,

·       Drink in plenty of the living water of His Spirit so as not to become spiritually dehydrated. What does that mean?

It’s when you become so dry that you feel on the verge of cracking apart when trials come.

·       And lastly, to daily take in a big dose of His Word.

As I began to focus on this prescription and take my eyes off of myself, He began to clear away the haze and as He did, He placed three words on my heart for this weekend, kind of just popped in there one day as I was praying: ever had that happen?

Just a side note here. Whenever the Lord places something on your heart, no matter how small or random, don’t disregard it.

Write it down. Meditate on it. and most importantly, measure it against Scripture.

The words were posture, position and purpose. I remember thinking, “Um. What?”

But I wrote them down anyway not knowing at the time how significant they really were.

So let’s get right into it.

First, let’s look at posture. I know this might seem weird to think about posture in a spiritual retreat but that was one of the words the Lord laid on my heart, so here goes.

Posture means not only how you carry yourself, your physical bearing it also means your attitude, a kind of an internal posture.

The world is watching us. What do they see as we go through our day?

How we handle problems, interact with difficult people. How does what we do measure up with what we say and what we believe?

Well, do you remember when you were little your parents told you to stand up straight, don’t slouch?

There was something to that because poor physical posture can lead to serious health problems.

Did you know there’s something called tech neck?

Looking down at your phone or IPad for extended periods of time can lead to a condition characterized by neck pain and stiffness. 

This is because tilting your head forward to view a screen puts extra strain on the neck and shoulder muscles. 

Over time, this can cause muscle fatigue, pain, and potentially lead to more serious issues like headaches, jaw pain, and even spinal degeneration.

When I read about the dangers of staying in one posture for extended periods of time,

I started thinking about how, as daughters of the King, we’re not called to live our lives frozen in place like a statue.

In order to be spiritually healthy, we’re told to go about our days in a variety of external and internal postures that glorify God. What are some of those?

How about as we walk? Deuteronomy 10:12 says to walk in all His ways; because walk means not only to put one foot in front of the other, but to move with purpose, to lead, bring, and to carry.

Is the way we carry ourselves reflective of how God would have us walk through our days? Psalm 37:23-24: "The Lord delights in the way of the man whose steps he has made firm, though he stumble he will not fall for the Lord upholds him with His hand."

How about as you stand? Is your stance one of rigid impatience, you know with your arms crossed in front of you, tapping your foot or is your stance one that is straight and firm with a calm purpose.

Jer.6:16 says, “Stand at the crossroads and look.” Stand literally means to not only take one’s stand, be in a standing attitude, but to become a servant and to see.

Standing in grace allows us to pause and ask for the ancient paths, to ask where the good way is, and as we walk in it, we will find rest for our souls.

So how important is having a healthy spiritual posture for your relationship with the Lord? Very important.

Because if we’re not mindful of our posture, we might fall into a negative frame of mind: a posture of fear.

We’re living in perilous times and without realizing it we might unintentionally pull in around ourselves to perhaps cower instead of assuming let’s say a posture of praise,

lifting up our hands in worship, allowing His blood that was shed for us to flow through us.

Right now, lift up your arms as if you are worshiping. How does that feel? All throughout Scripture we’re told to lift up holy hands in prayer.

Did you know that when you do this, blood will flow to your heart and any swelling you have will literally go down; your breathing will get deeper; your lymphatic system will begin to work better.

This is really important because the lymphatic system is part of the immune system.

This simple movement of raising your hands carries even more significance in the spiritual realm.

Lifting your hands to God was never just a simple gesture. It was an intentional sign of surrender.

As we lift our hands in praise to our Heavenly Father we are surrendering, we are saying, “Take me I’m yours. Do as you will.”

Isn’t it amazing how God weaves together the physical with the spiritual?

So are you stiff today? Been sitting in one place too long? Are you exhausted? Been running around too much?

Been looking down at all your worldly troubles and not up to see His miraculous plan in motion?

I looked up some recommendations if you develop tech neck from looking down for long periods of time and found that there are spiritual benefits.                                                       

 

T    The first thing they recommend when you get tech neck is to:    

 

·              Adjust your posture: 

           In Mark 11, it says: ““That's why I urge you to pray for absolutely everything, ranging

          from small to large. Include everything as you embrace this God-life, and you'll get

          God's everything. And when you assume the posture of prayer, remember that it's not all

         asking. If you have anything against someone, forgive—only then will your heavenly

         Father be inclined to also wipe your slate clean of sins."

         Assuming a posture of prayer doesn’t necessarily refer to whether you’re on your knees

          or on your face before God. 

          It refers to being open to God and being pliable to His leading. It means you’re ready to

          receive and ready to let go. 

          

        Next,

·        T      Take breaks: Spiritually speaking, we need to take time out of our busy days to be

             with the Lord. Meditate on His Word. Sit in His presence. Wait on Him. 

we t   We take coffee breaks and work breaks. well, it's time to take a spiritual break and get

 awa        away with the Lord. You say you don’t have time?

 

      Well, if Jesus, who only had three years to fulfill His mission could take time out of His

     day to get alone with His Father and pray, so can we.

    

        What’s important is not where we take breaks but why we do; it’s the attitude of the

      heart that matters.

 

    

L      Lastly, to eliminate tech neck?

    

·        S     Strengthen and stretch:

      

      How do we strengthen ourselves if we have spiritual tech neck?

 

Fi   First, we need to know where our strength comes from.

      Isaiah. 58:11 says that “The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a

     sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered

      garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”

         Stop trying to be strong all on your own. It’s the Lord who makes us strong as we

       stop looking down focused on the things in this crazy world and begin to look up into

      His blessed face.

 

2 Samuel 2 says to: “Strengthen your resolve and do what must be done.”   If you’re

      someone who has difficulty following through, finishing what you started, take it to the

      One who can form in you a holy habit of staying the course.    

      Allow the Lord to strengthen your resolve and make you steadfast and committed. And

      my favorite is Isaiah 35: 3-4: “Energize the limp hands, strengthen the rubbery knees.

     Tell fearful souls, ‘Courage! Take heart! God is here, right here, on his way to put things

      right and redress all wrongs. He’s on his way! He’ll save you!’” 

      Are your knees rubbery, weak from fear? We live in a world of ever increasing

     earthquakes, floods, fires and erupting volcanoes. It’s begun to look like something out of a 1950s Godzilla movie.   

       We need to maintain a confident posture because if we don’t how will we be a light and a hope to those who don’t know the Lord? 

    Remember we can be concerned about what we see happening in the world but being

     paralyzed with fear?  Never. Why? 

      Because God, the creator of the universe, the One who has made a way to salvation,

       holds us in the palm of His hands. He desires to prepare a courageous Bride willing and able to stand to the end. I looked up strengthen in the original and it not only means to be courageous and brave, it also means to be alert. I never thought about being alert as part of

     being strong. Being alert and vigilant and ready to act is imperative as a Christian.

      Did you know there is something called an alert circle? An “alert circle” is a protective

     behavior observed in elephant herds, particularly when facing a perceived threat. It

      involves the adult elephants forming a circle around the younger members of the herd,

 n   facing outward, to shield them from potential danger. This behavior was recently

    observed at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park during a 5.2 magnitude earthquake. If you go to YouTube you can watch it. Very cool seeing animals following the instinct that their

      Creator put inside them. When we’ve been strengthened, we can then turn to those who

      are younger in the Lord to surround them in a spiritual alert circle covering them in

      prayer and in turn teaching them to do the same. How tragic is it if we don’t heed the Lord’s call to be strong, not just for us but for others as well. 

      And then to further alleviate tech neck we’re told to stretch. I like that. Spiritual

      stretching.

 

In Ex. 9:22 God told Moses to “Stretch his hands to the skies…” Stretch and make room

      for God to act and deliver. Psalm 3:5-6 “I stretch myself out. I sleep. Then I’m up

       again—rested, tall and steady. How wonderful does it feel to have a good stretch?

       Psalm 143:6 literally means:

“I stretch forth my hands unto you, I am broken into pieces: my soul, my self, my life, my appetite, my desire and emotion, my passion thirsts after you, as a thirsty land.”

Stretch forth, and allow the Lord to break into pieces that which is binding you. When we’re stiff or feel at an impasse, when we don’t know what our posture as a child of God should be, we only have to look to Jesus to gain complete understanding.  So what was Jesus’ posture?

In(Philippians 2:6–7) “...though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself...”

The Son postures Himself in obedience and love toward the Father and in self-giving toward the world.

In our spiritual lives, posture reflects how we approach God and others: with humility, trust, and a heart inclined to serve.

What is the posture of your heart?

I had to ask myself before I moved on to the next word, what I am learning about my spiritual posture. This has to be personal.

To be completely honest, I realized that my posture of choice had been one where I felt most comfortable, not the one that stretched me and strengthened me the most.

No wonder I often felt frozen in place, repeating the same things, the same doubts, the same fears over and over again

It’s like being stuck in a rut, unable to move forward.

Rut. You don’t hear that word very often anymore unless it refers to ruts in the road.

But do any of you remember playing records on a record player? Remember how annoying it was when your favorite record got stuck in one place?

What happens when the record skips?

It gets into a rut on the vinyl and doesn’t move forward, just stays in the same place and worse it distorts the sound.

I looked up ways to fix a rut in a record and found spiritual applications.

It says to first clean the record, then you can apply a variety of measures to correct the problem.

It gave a few suggestions such as using a needle to realign the grooves. Says you need a magnifying glass because ruts are usually hard to see.

How to realign a spiritual rut?

First, we need to ask the Lord to cleanse our hearts and minds.

Then we need to allow the Holy Spirit to perform a kind of spiritual surgery on us to go deep into our grooved and rutted lives to correct the problem because very often we don’t see where we’re stuck.

Remember, ruts can be hard to see.

We need to be willing to confess, to repent when needed, and allow Him to clean out what has caused us to get stuck in the first place.

The site said the best approach for dealing with a record with a deep rut is to prevent it in the first place through proper handling and storage techniques.

How do we prevent spiritual, emotional, behavioral ruts from interrupting the smooth sounds of the Lord speaking through our lives?

Through proper and daily careful handling of our spiritual lives.

Be careful with your spirit. What do you expose yourself to?

How about storage? What do you store in your heart? Your mind? Could those unhealthy things—those feelings of worthlessness, those judgments forged in anger, what we put away in our hearts and minds and souls keep us from living a life without distortion?

So what am I learning since doing this study on posture?

First, that I need to take seriously my need to go to the Lord for readjustment.

I go to a chiropractor to get adjusted to keep my back healthy.

In the same way, I need to daily have the Lord adjust my spiritual posture so I can know how to walk in grace, how to run to His throne, and to how to stand straight and firm without becoming stiff and stagnant.

And most importantly, whenever I’m suffering from spiritual tech neck, when I’m stalled from looking down at my problems,  to pray and look up to Jesus who is the embodiment of a posture of willingness, trust and obedience.

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The next word the Lord gave me was position.

What does position mean for us today?

Position not only refers to where we are or where we need to be:

As  2 Chronicles 20:17 says,

“You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you…”

…but position also tells us who we are as Christians:

Ephesians 2:6 tells us that we are already citizens of this spiritual Kingdom and are seated with Him in heavenly places.

I know there are times we don’t feel like we’re seated in heavenly places. In all honesty, there are times we feel we’re far from it.

But the truth is we’re daughters of the King of Kings who have been raised up and out of whatever tries to hold us down.

It is our position in Christ that allows us to not just live and thrive in this temporary, physical world but in the spiritual world as well.

When we’re born of the Spirit, born again, God has given us a gift that goes beyond the natural. We have a Comforter who makes it possible to draw supernatural wisdom, prophetic words, and gifts of the Spirit into our lives. 

We are spiritual beings designed to live from the unseen depths of God and His Kingdom.

But how do we discover the joy of living in those unseen depths?

By going someplace we’ve maybe never gone before with the Lord—out into the deep.

What does going out into the deep with God mean?

It means that we get to a point where it’s not business as usual. That we go from religion to relationship, from keeping everything on the surface with God to allowing Him into our inner man, into our soul where we often hide our deepest fears, thoughts and doubts.  

Eph. 3:16-19: “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Being filled with the fullness of God. Isn’t that something you desire in your life?

Before we knew the Lord, the only world we knew consisted of what we could touch and see and feel-the physical world.

But now we have been made a new creation in Christ who can live and thrive in both in the natural world and the spiritual world.

Now, I want you to imagine you hear the Lord calling you to go deeper in your Christian walk, to maybe a place you haven’t thought much about.

God desires you to allow Him to take you to a position of intimacy where the things of this world fall away, a place where it’s just you and Him.

Unfortunately, some people prefer to stay on the surface of their Christian lives and not dive into the deep with God. They prefer to rely on what they do by their own strength, keeping God at a respectable distance.

To them it’s safer that way. They might compartmentalize God…He goes into the religious box, and I can still live my life the way I want to.

But the Spirit’s voice will always call us on to a place of unnatural depth because it is there we must totally depend on the supernatural sustaining power of God to understand the things of the Spirit,

and it is only in that state of total dependence will we be able to form a complete

and intimate relationship with the Father, living a full life in that glorious position as a child of the King. What can’t survive in the deep with God? Your old man. Your carnal self.

In Eph. 4 we’re told:

“Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it!

And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.”

A life renewed from the inside out, reproducing God’s character in us.

Eph. 4:22-24 speaks about putting off the old self and putting on the new self.

As we put off our old man and put on the new self, we are also able to assume another posture--one of adoration that enables us to go beyond our circumstances.

Worshipping when we are in pain, worshipping when we lose loved ones, lose jobs, lose those things that we all too often lean on for security. Praying, meditating, listening and worshipping gives us the strength to remain vibrant and fruitful even when the pressures and challenges of the natural world try to make us ineffective.

Do you ever get confused or unsettled? If so, run to your Father for understanding and peace.

Jesus warned us that in this world we will have confusion and trials but what are we to do? We are to rest and trust because He has overcome the world.

From my son:

"Position is more than geography-it speaks to identity (who we are in Christ) it speaks to inheritance (we have been made children of God) and it speaks to source (our position flows from the Father to the Son to the Holy Spirit and to us).

Always remember that this position is not earned; it’s bestowed.

To know your position is to live from the deep assurance that you’re already accepted, chosen, and loved by the Father."

So what have am I learning about my position in the Lord?

First, that I all too often forget who I am in Him. I’ve learned that my forgetfulness is a sin because it minimizes the cost of what it took to place me in the position as a daughter of the King.

I am learning that when I begin to feel out of sorts, feeling just too weak to be of any value to the Lord that I need to stop trying to spiritually thrive on my own and lean into God’s strength and allow the Spirit to breathe His life back into me. Kind of a holy CPR.

I am learning that my position is something that should be protected because where does the enemy seem to attack us the most? He tries to undermine who we are with devious reminders of what we were before.

All too often the enemy of our souls tries to distort this blessed position telling us we are worthless. We are nothing. We are insignificant. 

When these words begin to drift into your mind what should you do?

Remember who you are, that the price Jesus paid places you in a heavenly position that corrects the distorted picture that enemy tries to paint.

I am, we are, beloved daughters who, because of Jesus’ position, are privileged to be able to stand with Him on that day.

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And the last word the Lord shared with me? Purpose. This is a big one.

What is my purpose? Why am I here? These are questions we’ve all asked at one time or another.

Why is it so important to understand your purpose?

I saw a video where someone asked ChatGPT this question: if you were the devil how would you destroy men in the 21^st century? Chat responded with: I’d start by removing their sense of purpose.

John Eldridge said that as Christians, even though we live in a love story it is set in a world at war.

And because of this, there are times when something can roll in like a poison,

perhaps a feeling of being disheartened, even a feeling of contempt for our callings.

When this happens we have to be careful not to make an agreement with those feelings. “You’re right. I can’t … I don’t know how to…then it’s a short trip to “I won’t…”

It’s a kind of death to your flourishing.

If this is happening to you, you need to ask, “What is poisoning my purpose?”

This is important because we need to be faithful to the purposes God has given us.

But what are those?

First let’s go broad. As a collective church we are to glorify God, worship our Father. To testify. To share. To love and reach out to a hurting world.

But when I thought about my individual purpose I felt a bit lost with understanding what that was.

Over the years our lives change. What we were able to do ten-twenty years ago we’re maybe longer able to do.

But God has been showing me that His purpose for me is not defined or restricted by my age or my physical capabilities.

When our hearts are right with God, we are smack dab in the middle of His purpose for us.

Know what He showed me about my purpose?

Last week it was giving an 87 year old a ride to the eye doctor and emotionally supporting her as she received a needle in her eye.

These past few years it’s been to use my creativity to honor God. 

To daily commune with my Savior, to read His Word and be ready to share.

Do we think about these everyday things as a purpose?  

When you became a Christian you were invited to participate in God’s ongoing work of love, justice, and renewal.

Because your purpose is not merely functional (what we do) but deeply relational (who we are) we live out a holy purpose, not as some spiritual to do list but a day to day relationship driven by intimacy and love.

From the book, Living Stones, the author wrote: “What purpose does God have for my life? What does he have for yours?

As much as we would each like to think that it is to do grandiose things for His kingdom in all likelihood God has a shorter list for us. Maybe only one thing.

The real challenge is to not let my own spiritual ambitions no matter how lofty or well-intentioned blind me to the one purpose God might have in my life. When life nicks us up, we can take one of two attitudes.

We can either be so overwhelmed with grief that we are no longer of any use in the kingdom or we can use our dents and dings as aides in making the remaining part of our journey straighter and truer than a life without blemishes could hope to be.

A life lived inside of God’s will is free from risk because our end is secured.

There needs to be no fear in living out and pursuing God’s will for your life. He’s got it.”

One day I was watching a Joni Erekson video at a time when I was entertaining my pain way too much.

I was so taken with and convicted by what she said, that I wrote it down. I’d like to share some of this with you.

She said, “After nearly 55 years in a wheelchair there is one Bible verse that really describes me. 2 Cor. 6:10: sorrowful yet always rejoicing.

That’s right, even in my most happy moments believe me there was always an  accompanying sorrow. Part of my inside sadness is related to my constant pain.

She continued, “The other part is more sweet and even joyful. Given the way that that same pain has stretched my soul’s capacity for Jesus is the way Christians who suffer live. Come on and admit it.

Even in your most glad moments the mingling of sorrow never goes away. And to be honest I would never wish it away because that coexistence of sorrow and joy is one of the best ways I can describe my nearness to Jesus.

Being sorrowful yet always rejoicing is for me a kind of litmus test telling me this joy that you are experiencing it’s not frivolous.

It’s not superficial so be grateful, be glad in that. And to be sorrowful yet always rejoicing makes your faith and mind wonderfully conspicuous to others.”

Have you ever thought about your pain, whether it's physical or emotional, stretching your soul so that your faith becomes wonderfully conspicuous to others?

Know what the Lord said to me when I prayed about my purpose? I think He may be saying the same things to some of you, too.

He said, “You coming to me, you loving me, you desiring to share me with others, you worshipping, you leaning in deep even when everything hurts—you are my living purpose.”

 “You living out your relationship with Me is the overall purpose I have for you. Yes, there are specifics to purpose—some teach, some evangelize, some take in orphans. Leave the specifics to me to reveal to you at the appropriate time.

Do not run after purpose. You will find it in me when you seek Me with your whole heart, your whole mind, and your whole soul. You might be surprised at what I show you, and what I open up for you.”

But as we seek the Lord, there can be times when we become doubtful, times we’re afraid to step out into the purposes the Lord has for us because we are either fearful of falling short or fearful of the cost.

In Lynne Rienstra’s book Sacred Refuge she speaks to this and encourages us. She wrote, “Jesus may be saying something like this to you…”

“Beloved I know your heart. I see the fear that has crept unnoticed into your mind. It steals your peace and causes you to hole up in your own small world as a safe place to ride out the current cultural storm.

But I tell you now, it is time to leave behind your fears and insecurities. All you see is your inadequacy, but I have designed you as a life-giver.

This is your original purpose, now fully redeemed and empowered by me. I have created you to shelter and protect others.

Your deepest desire, though you hardly dare admit it, is to arise as a life-giving change maker in these darkening days. I know your knees are knocking. I see your hand shaking as you take up the sword of the Spirit, daughter.

You are fighting the voice that attacks you even now: “Who do you think you are? Are you really ready to take on this fight? Go back to your distracted and drowsy existence before things get ugly.

Here is your response to the lies that voice speaks. Remember exactly who you are in me. Rehearse it: “I am a blood-bought child of the King of kings. As his beloved daughter, I now put on the whole armor of God. “

So how does posture, position and purpose affect our everyday life with the Lord?

My son shared some things with me that bear sharing with you. He said,

“This framework of posture, position and purpose is a living echo of the Trinity reverberating through your soul. It is how heaven breathes through a human life.

Let this revelation dismantle shallow religion. Let it crack the shell of performance. It’s not about what we do. It’s about who we are because of who He is.

Let it awaken you to the terrifying beauty of being a participant in the inner life of God. You are not just following God—you are indwelt by Him.

You do not simply observe the Trinity—you are being drawn into their holy orbit, caught in the gravity of perfect love.

When your posture mirrors the Son’s humility, you are no longer striving for control—you are liberated into divine surrender.

When you live from your position in the Father’s love, you are no longer an orphan scrambling for worth—you are anchored in eternal belonging.

And when your purpose aligns with the Spirit’s mission, you are no longer wandering—you are ignited with heavenly fire.”

After all is said and done what is the Lord speaking to your heart? 

 That we need to exchange our rut-stained past for the steady, smooth sound of a life set free to walk, to run, and to stand in His grace.

That we can stop believing and living like we are damaged goods and live like the redeemed, renewed daughters that He died to make us.

And that He has equipped us to live triumphantly in this natural world and the spiritual world, drawing breath from the depth of His grand love.

Each morning, ask not “What do I need to do?” but rather,

“Father, remind me who I am.” (your Position)

“Jesus, shape my heart again.” (your Posture)

“Holy Spirit, set me loose in your purpose.”

Let’s pray.

 

                                                    Saturday Night

We’re doing something a bit different this evening with the small groups. Instead of having some questions to discuss in your groups before prayer, we’re going to focus on the prayer.

Nancy asked me to do just a small teaching to help prepare us for prayer.

I was a bit stumped at first about how to do this. When I prayed for direction, I found myself coming back again and again to the question, “What’s the point?” Can you tell I was having a bit of a crisis that day?

But I realized that if we’re not confident that there’s actually an answer to that question, not just about the retreat topic but to most everything else, it’s really hard to look ahead with confidence .

So I’d like to briefly share with you how God answered the question “What the point?” for me. I pray you will be inspired to discover the point for yourselves as you go into prayer this evening.

So—what is the point of looking at posture?

Because if we don't go to the Lord to question Him about our posture, to have Him tell us what the point is, we're likely to slouch our way through our walks with Him. There's a danger here because if that's what we do we're likely to turn around and blame Him for the pain we fell. The danger is if we don't know how or why we need to assume the humble and obedient posture of our Savior we're likely to become just another proud, religious and arrogant person who wants themselves to be the point.  

This might seem harsh but there's a lot at stake.

And so what’s the point of looking at position?

The point is that we desperately need to learn what it means to come to the throne with humble assurance.

As we approach God with a humble heart, we are assured He will accept us, hear us, and hold us close.

1 Corinthians 8:1-3 says, “We sometimes tend to think we know all we need to know to answer these kinds of questions—but sometimes our humble hearts can help us more than our proud minds. We never really know enough until we recognize that God alone knows it all.”

If we don’t know what the point is to understanding our position in Christ we will wilt under the pressures of this world and misunderstand how to seek His refreshment and His power.

And lastly, what’s the point of looking at purpose?

Because without understanding how a godly purpose differs from an ungodly one, we’re like a glove without a hand..

 I saw a video on Facebook that spoke about a glove being made in the image of a hand. By itself the glove has no purpose.

But once a hand slips into the glove it is now able to fulfill its purpose.

Without God filling us, we are just like that lifeless, floppy glove.

Because when you’ve got impossible decisions to make, when the bottom falls out of your relationships, when you’re facing impossible odds with your health, your job, your finances, or your family

You need to allow the Lord to fill out your life with His will and His purposes.

He has given you everything you need to be a hope and a light to the world.

Ask the Lord to show you how to use your gifts, how to take a step out and share with those around you.

No matter how hesitant or how insecure we might be, the Lord desires you to share your gifts with whoever He puts in your path.

So, what’s the point?

Did anyone ever see the 1971 cartoon The Point narrated by Ringo Starr?

The Point tells the tale of a boy named Oblio, the lone round-headed person in a kingdom where everything is pointy, including the citizens.

Oblio, and his dog Arrow, are banished to the Pointless Forest and must find their way back to the kingdom.

 The tale starts with a song that begins with asking some very important questions.  

 The first question is: “Are you sleeping?”

So are we sleeping? Eph. 5:14 says, “Wake up from your sleep, Climb out of your coffins; Christ will show you the light! So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times!”

We cannot fall asleep because our God never sleeps.

Psalms 121:3-4 “He won't let you stumble, your Guardian God won't fall asleep. Not on your life! Israel's Guardian will never doze or sleep.”

The next question is: “Can you hear me?”

Can we hear the Lord speaking to us through Scripture and through His Spirit? If not, who or what are we listening to?

And the last question of the song is:  “Do you know if I am by your side?”

Do we really know, really believe He’s not just beside us but dwelling within us?

As we assume a godly posture, a holy position and a sanctified purpose we give God the glory, we give Him honor, and we give Him praise.

So as you go into your prayer groups, be assured that there is an answer to the question, “What’s the point?”

And as we lift our voices up to the Lord let’s be reminded that He is the answer to all our questions because when it comes down to it? He is the ultimate point of everything.

                                                         Sunday Morning

This morning, I’d like to briefly continue looking at position, posture and purpose. I know, I know. You’re thinking, isn’t she done yet?

But this time I want us to consider how they come to play out in the desert temptations of Jesus. You might ask, “Really? Isn’t that a stretch?”

Well, I thought the same thing until my son shared what the Lord had spoken to him about how these three words were related to the temptation of Jesus.

As we get ready to leave the retreat today it’s important to understand this connection because all too often we’re sidelined by these same kinds of temptations and need to be equipped to answer the enemy’s attacks in the coming days.

Because you see, the enemy’s tactics haven’t changed since the garden. He’s still taking God’s Word and distorting it.

Did you ever wonder why each time Satan tempted Jesus he responded with Scripture?

Remember in Matthew 4 right after Jesus was baptized, he was led by the Spirit to a lonely, desolate, and uninhabited place to be tempted, to have His faith and virtue tested, and His character enticed to sin.

Isn’t it just like the enemy to attack us when we’re alone and vulnerable?

The first temptation struck directly at and challenged Jesus’ position as the beloved Son of God.

Barely had the Father's voice affirmed Jesus at the Jordan – “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” – than the tempter arrived with the challenge,

“If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

This wasn’t merely an appeal to physical hunger after forty days of fasting;

It was a direct attempt to provoke Jesus into proving His divine identity through what was essentially a display of self-sufficiency.

He was trying to undermine Jesus’ position of absolute trust in His Father’s will.

How does the enemy strike at us, especially when we’re weak and vulnerable?

Ever have the enemy attack your position as a child of God as he whispers in your ear, “If you are a daughter of the King, why don’t you just take matters into your own hands?

Stop waiting for God to meet your needs. Just do it yourself, in your time, the way you want to. You can still your own hunger.” What does scripture say? Ps. 17:14: "You still the hunger of those you cherish."

By twisting God's Word the enemy tempts us to take control of our situations and supply our own needs and sever reliance on the Father’s active provision.

If Jesus had taken it upon himself to turn stones into bread by His own initiative He would have chosen comfort and control over resting in His position of trust and submission to His Father’s will. 

How did Jesus reply? “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God,”

These words powerfully showed that Jesus’ position as the Son of God was rooted, not in miraculous self-provision, not even in proving His divinity, which he could have easily done, but in unwavering obedience and absolute trust in the Father’s sustaining Word.

We are also called to this kind of obedience and trust.

When we’re tested, when we’re hungry, when we’re without

are we tempted to take matters into our own hands rather than wait on the Lord to provide?

If we do, we’re choosing control and comfort over humble submission.

And I don’t know about you, but I would much rather put my faith in God’s hands instead of my own frail, and at times, unstable hands and trust He’s more than able to provide.

The second Temptation: This temptation challenges posture and was aimed directly at Jesus’ posture – how He stood in the face of temptation.

Satan brought him to the pinnacle of the Temple, a place of public display and spiritual presumption, and dared Him to make a spectacular leap, even quoting Scripture back at Him:

“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down… for it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

This was a temptation not to prove Jesus’ power as we might think, but to force God’s hand, demanding a miraculous display that would bypass the long, difficult path of faithful obedience and quiet submission that Jesus came to walk.

It would have bypassed the Cross.

This challenge sought to distort Jesus’ posture from one of perfect confidence into one of demanding manipulation, testing God rather than revering Him.

It suggested that true sonship entitled Him to immediate, public vindication and protection without the need to patiently trust in the Father’s chosen, often hidden, ways.

Do we ever find ourselves in a place where we want immediate vindication for something?

Have you ever felt the enemy say to you, “If you are a daughter of the King, go ahead make a spectacle to show the world. After all, you were right and they were wrong. God would want you to…”

Or has he ever thrown a Scripture at you, taken it out of context to fit what you want, not what God wants?

Are we familiar enough with the Word to be able to answer the enemy’s lies with the truth of God’s Word?

Jesus answers with, “Again it is written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test,’”

His response demonstrated that a genuine child of God is defined by a posture of patient obedience, waiting for God to lead, rather than attempting to force His hand.

In these coming days as the attacks on Christians intensify be mindful of the temptation to take matters into our own hands as we demand vindication rather than trusting and waiting on God’s timing and methods.

“Vengeance is mine” says the Lord; it’s not ours. Psalm 37:8 says, "Refrain from anger and turn from wrath. Do not fret; it will lead to evil." 

Jesus’ posture of utter dependence would ultimately lead Him to the Cross, where perfect submission brought about ultimate victory. Oh, think about what it would have cost us if Jesus had not been obedient.

What is the cost when we’re not obedient?

The last Temptation 3: challenges purpose

The final temptation was a grand assault on Jesus’ ultimate purpose:

What was that? His Messiahship and the establishment of God’s Kingdom.

Displaying all the kingdoms of the world in their earthly glory, the enemy offered a tempting shortcut: immediate universal dominion, if only Jesus would bow down and worship him.

Satan is all about short cuts, isn’t he?

Satan wanted Jesus to compromise with evil and worldly power,

bypassing the Father's divinely appointed path of suffering and sacrificial love.

To accept this offer would have been to replace the purpose of bringing true, spiritual freedom with a lie, ultimately undermining the very nature of the God Jesus came to reveal.

Can you imagine how the demons trembled when Jesus spoke, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only,’”

Whenever we’re tempted to bypass God’s will of humble service to rather choose some grand spectacle of service, shout out the words, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

Jesus would establish His Kingdom, not through the devil’s offer of worldly power, but through the Cross.

We have a Lord who understands how we’re tempted, but He’s given us examples of how to maintain a humble posture,

how to stand firm in a godly position and how to choose our Father’s will for our lives and live out the purpose He has for us.

So as we go into a time of testimony remember it’s not a time to prove we have every answer to all of our questions, but a time to share how the Lord might be bringing us up and out, in and through whatever is currently before us.

And remember we have nothing to fear because as Mylon LeFever wrote in the song, Warrior::

“Come on home to the Father. Come on home to the Son. Come on home the battles over. Christ has won.”