As for me and my household...

Over the past few months, my world has been opened to some different versions of the Christian faith. These are experiences with people who are walking a unique, but not altogether different, faith journey than I am entirely comfortable with. They are walking a path lined by an understanding of the Holy Spirit that includes things like healings, miracles, prophecies, visions, and heavenly languages. They use words like "supernaturnal", "signs" and "wonders" as though they things are everyday experiences. They are pressing in on intimacy with God. Things that I am not readily familiar with, however. Rather, my association with these things causes me to think of Jesus walking the earth in ancient Israel, or of some extreme religious group in the mountains. Regardless, the recent exposures to these things of the Spirit are bringing into question how I have compartmentalized and marginalized the Godly things that I don't entirely understand. I  believe that Jesus healed people and performed miracles, but that was a long time ago. And I can believe that the Holy Spirit exists today but I am unsure of how He is working in these radical ways. Honestly, I have difficulty believing in these things since I have yet to witness an amazing healing, vision, or prophecy. And for whatever reason, this part of my faith is being pushed upon and opened up. Questions are flying around in my mind and now I am curious. Who is this Holy Spirit, really? Who is this God? And what about these crazy things that Christ and his apostles said and did, and what does mean to me?

I've just finished a book by John Eldredge called Waking the Dead which speaks of being freed and awakened to what God has called us to.  There is much more to the book, but in it, Eldredge speaks of   of an existing war and that we all have a role to play in this war. And whether we see it or agree to it, we live in a world at war, spiritually. This war is seen in the metaphorical and physical. Things are not as they should be. We are surrounded by a constant barrage of attacks to anything truly good and pure; anything of God. We are surrounded by death, disease, hatred, greed, self-absorption, self-indulgence, poverty, famine, divorce, genocide, sexual indulgence and exploitation, lies, deceit, grudges, and arrogance. At some level, we all serve something other than God. We all carry a crutch that makes us weaker that we were meant to be and that holds us back. So many of us are imprisoned to a life dictated to us by the enemy. We honor contracts that control us. We make deals with the enemy of what to believe. And we believe what we are fed. Those imprisoned either don't know that they are locked, and pose no threat to the enemy (ignorance is bliss), some are in the process of escaping the prison, and some are free. But once we find freedom from the prison we must fight for our survival, the survival of those on the outside, and for those still in chains. Even though we know that in the end God wins, the enemy will wage war tooth and nail till the end and we must stay strong.  "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full" - John 10:10.

So, how do we stay free? How do we fight? What is the call?  What is the responsibility to fight? What is this life to the full stuff? How far do I press into God and His Spirit for guidance?  I feel that my life with the Lord includes great risk. If they killed John the Baptist, Jesus, and his disciples, then I am following in the footsteps of some poor odds. Jesus himself said that there would be persecution and hatred for following him. So how do we overcome? How do we fight a spiritual enemy for the heart and souls of one another?

I find prayer to be starting point for all things. Time with God. It is a place where I hope to fight for my heart and the heart of others in chains. For those who have bought into the lies of the enemy: That religion is a set of rules. That pornography is fulfilling. That loneliness is better than risking your heart. That money is king? That divorce is better than salvaging a battered marriage? That a lifetime of grudges and anger is better than forgiving and walking away from past mistakes. That serving the self is better than serving others. That pride is better that humility.  That money will fill the emptiness inside. That popularity and money are more important than morals and integrity.

My prayer is for the heart, that our hearts will be sustained through the storms of life.  For myself, that I would not turn my face away from God as I experience the evils in this life, such as men have a tendency to do. And I pray that this heart would be able to believe that God still heals miraculously. That there is a language beyond what is spoken on earth. That God is revealing Himself through mysteries such as visions and things to come. That words of prophecy and encouragement spoken over someone will hold an eternal power. And that God uses His people to carry out these things on earth. I trust that God has good in store for us and that we are His. I pray that I would forgive much just as I have been forgiven much. That my life would speak of the supernatural even when I don't quite understand. I want my faith and my belief in God to be defined by who God is, who Jesus is, who the Spirit is, and what the Bible says about it all. I refuse to allow the religious, the legalistics, the fakes, and the enemy to define for me who God is. "But as for me and my household,  we will serve the Lord" - Joshua 24:15