On Sunday night, some 150 people gathered @GENESIS at our '517' service to seek God together for an evening of worship and prayer. It was an incredible time together, and the Spirit of God was powerfully at work in the room.
At one point in the evening, we had just finished singing “Always” by Kristian Stanfill which says in the chorus:
O my God, He will not delay,
My refuge and strength, Always,
I will not fear, His promise is true,
My God will come through, Always, Always.
Right after we sung that, I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to share a personal experience of how these lyrics have rung true in my life.
Over the past month and a half, my family and I have experienced quite a many things that have not gone as expected. For example, just in the last 5 weeks:
Our heat went out for a week on what happened to be one of the coldest weeks in the year.
Our main sewer line got blocked and backed up into our basement several times before the problem was diagnosed properly.
After 10 years of faithful service to the PRIOR owner, our hot water heater suddenly passed away.
The minivan we purchased for our family vehicle back in September is STILL not properly registered because the dealership we bought it from has recently come under criminal investigation, and we are not able to access our title.
Our two oldest kids, Annabelle [6] and Cohen [3], have gotten sick multiple times in the last two weeks - and this is from kids who NEVER [Praise God] get sick.
Our baby, Drew [11 mo.], has recently dropped into the 1% for his weight. Because of this, he is fed around the clock, which he’s been taking full advantage of [even in the wee hours of the night]
Praise God! All the home repairs, in one way or another, have been solved. Someone even lavished AMAZING generosity on us and arranged a new hot water heater install for us!
As we’ve been experiencing these things though, Jackie and I concluded that we must be under some sort of spiritual attack. Reflecting on this, I was flipping through my journal and found an entry on December 31st, 2015 (keep in mind, this was RIGHT before the month where all of this started happening). The following are thoughts I collected regarding a devotional I had read, entitled: “How to Avoid Spiritual Infections”.
THANK GOD CONTINUALLY!
Whether the attacks are spiritual or physical, God's promise is that He will never abandon us!
STAY CLOSE TO JESUS!
Don’t love the things of this world, for they will always fail you!
REMEMBER THAT YOU HAVE THE VICTORY!
Jesus lives within you; He’s already won!
As I look back, I can clearly see that God was preparing me for these attacks. And as I read these words from December 31st even now, I can PRAISE GOD and see that in the midst of all these things, it was NOT by my own power but by the power of His Holy Spirit that my family and I have stayed close to God while maintaining joy! In the words of Paul:
“May I NEVER boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.”
Galatians 6:14
I boast in Christ. My God will not delay. He’s my refuge and strength, ALWAYS.
So whatever you may be going through, if you will remember to: thank God continually, stay close to Jesus, and remember that if Christ is in you, you have the victory, then you can overcome with joy and peace!
