To preface this next blog and ones in the future, let me say I am an "adopted by God who is adopting children, blogging non-blogger". In other words, while I love the heart of adoption and am in the process of it, you may find blog updates regarding our process, or you may at times, see me in the raw; depending on what is going on in my life.
(Clears throat, stage lights dimmed, curtains opened and the story begins)
Bombs going off, people being torn limb from limb, grace is lost in the moment, fires are set ablaze. Debris covers the ground all around reminding the hurt of the recent terror. Welcome to the world of the human tongue!
For a while now, I have posed the question to the Lord of what it means to take a thought captive. Whether it be fact or a straight up lie from the enemy, we are called to take them captive. What does that mean? In all of this, I will be honest enough to say, I've also not had the craziest prayer life. Yeah, I've prayed for people's circumstances, my circumstances, things that were brought to my attention. The hard part for me is waiting and praying nothing while letting His Spirit intercede for me. All that to say, I've needed to grow in both areas.
As I've been asking the Lord about captivating thoughts, He has also shown me that prayer is just that.
The act of taking a terrorist captive is to put an end to his destruction. He can't make a mess if he's imprisoned. In 2 Corinthians 10:5 it reminds us saying, "Take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete." Prior to that we are reminded that our weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. Our thoughts, terrorists that they are, can destroy. Accusations, gossip, venting for comfort, facts that should only be kept between us and the Lord are nothing shy of a form of that warfare which goes much deeper than each of them on their own.
Lately, the Lord has been showing me that the second I let a thought, whether truthful or not (and I mean negative of course), out of my mouth, that captive has been freed and is now a refugee running to anyone they can find for help. Besides the obvious destruction we are allowing to go on when this happens, there are three great losses in that moment. A loss of grace extended to that being and to the hearers. Grace is the very thing NONE of us deserve that not only saves us but sustains us. I've been recently reminded that I desire grace from others, so I must call on the Spirit to help me extend, even when it's lacking on the other end. The second loss is a loss of intimacy between me and the Father in that moment. I once had a friend speak wisdom to me about her relationship between her and her husband. She had stated she is careful to not share much with anyone regarding quarrels between her and her husband because she feels like that is too intimate of a part of her life to share and she doesn't want anyone knowing her husband like she does. I thought that was so beautiful and true. I am recently finding that as I keep things between just me and the Lord (not even taking them to my husband) there is a great intimacy that dwells within those boundaries and it's also teaching me to keep quiet and ultimately trust His Spirit to move and for me to sit back and pray. Also, venting to others never changed my mind as much as praying to God for the situation and Him giving me grace to extend when I couldn't give it on my own. The third loss is that it grieves the Spirit of God when we free those captive thoughts by sharing with others. (Ephesians 4:29-30)
James 3 is a great reminder of that battle scene discribed above and I only pray the Lord would continue to work this out in me to where the battle scene stays on my knees and between me and the Father.
NUTS AND BOLTS
As I stated in my last post, the home study is being written as we speak and we are waiting to take the next step in the process because the contract we are sending in needs to travel with $6,500.00 and we do not have that yet. However, about $1,200.00 has come in (Praise the Lord!) and so that puts us down to needing $5,300.00 in order to mail that contract off and get started on the Dossier. Please continue to pray, we see the Lord providing through His church and we are encouraged by that. Thankful for your desire to follow us in this journey, supporting us through your prayers and finances! God bless you.
