This week - I had clear orders from God. He wanted us to focus on Him - in the midst of trial.
Each song had a theme. A song of overcoming - praising in the midst of a storm - an acknowledgment that He is with us - He is holding on to us - He will NEVER let go.
When we are in the midst of trial, fear loves to come creeping our way. Fear is the opposite of faith. Fear and faith both believe in something that has not happened yet. One brings death - and more fear - the other brings life, hope and peace. Funny thing - yesterday as I was leading worship - there were a few moments where we hit "a lull" A spot - where it "felt - flat"... "like it wasn't going anywhere"
We all have them in life. Times where we "feel" nothing, or we "feel" like we are going backwards or we "feel" opposition or trouble creeping our way. Jesus said: In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties. But take heart! I've conquered the world."
Right at the moment when things hit a "lull"... a spider crawled over the top of my keyboard.Now, anyone who knows me - knows that I HATE spiders, and I mean HATE.
They have this ability to cause fear to rise within my heart. Why?.....because I let them. I let them create fear in me.
This big ugly spider crawled around my keyboard for the next 10 minutes. Every time I lifted my hands from the keys to try and push it away.. it would crawl off - only to reappear.
I had an object of fear trying to crawl all over my object of worship. It appeared right when I was at a crucial point in worship. In this moment I had to decide to partner with the "feelings" and resign myself to its effects, or to choose to press into the things He had spoken to me in preparation for the morning. It was my choice.
We all have crossroads - or intersections in our journey with God. Circumstances and roadblocks come our way- and then fear creeps up and present itself. Partnering with fear can stop us from advancing on the path that He has for us. Fear will always try to hinder us from moving forward. It brings with it two nasty friends called doubt and unbelief. Both pull us off the path that God has for us.
If we become distracted by fear - we can stop advancing and never see the future that only faith can bring us. In these moments, we must lay our feelings aside. We must advance in faith. We can't get side tracked by the things that fear brings. Fear brings distraction from His divine purposes.
Normally, a spider would completely distract me. Normally I would recoil at the sight of spider and squeal in disgust and fear. Usually it involves reactions like - jumping- yelling, screaming and a big EWWWWWWW! and a shutter. (if you don't believe me- just ask my husband)
I certainly would not want to come back to that keyboard until I was sure it was dead and gone. But I couldn't do that.... I was operating in my assignment from God, I was engaged in His kingdom activities, and I had to say NO to fear.
This spider was just an outward picture of what was actually happening in the spirit realm. God had an assignment for me. It would require faith and courage even when fears comes crawling my way.
As I stayed focused on what He told me - the spider kept crawling in and out of my sight. Right when we advanced as a body in the spiritual realm - the spider came crawling right next to my fingers. In the moment of worship that brought spiritual breakthrough - I took my index finger and with all my energy flicked it right off the keyboard - and the power behind it - smacked that spider dead! Ha!
I was an over comer!
I believe that an overcomer is one who faces fear and turns to Jesus with eyes of faith and sets their focus on the ONE who brings peace and security despite what we see with our eyes, or feel with our emotions.
What is the assignment God has before you this week - this month?
What is the fear that keeps crawling your way?
What strategies is He giving you to overcome and advance?
6 comments:
i love it! my favorite part is the part where you flicked the spider dead! so awesome! thanks for the reminder to focus on God and keep Him as the center, even when life gets crazy. <3 you Cheryl!
This is VERY timely to read...thank you!
I love you.
Holly
I find it interesting that when fear comes our way we tend to waver from our focus on God.
when this happens I always repeat in my mind I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me until the fear is either at a minimum or completely gone.
I must tell you I too am afraid of spiders big time but my literal spider is now spray painted to the outside of my garage hahaha and the spiritual spiders in my life are now being dealt with on a higher level.
Thank you for this post it reminds me that I am not alone in my fears.
Keeping focussed daily.
Hi Cheryl! Great to find you!
And that was a great post.
I had a spider on my windshield whiel driving in a strange town recently and having to follow the car in front of me who was taking me to where I was speaking.
I had to just live with it, too. If I tried to kill it, I could easily have killed myself in traffic.
But, boy, I hate spiders!
When a red light came, I smacked that little sucker dead, too!
Visit To Love, Honor and Vacuum today!
Talk about facing your fear in front of an audience - yikes!!
Great post.
Way to go you overcomer you!!!!!
Such a great post Cheryl.
Post a Comment