On Saturday March 4th I met up with a friend at a coffee shop. We talked for a few hours, bonding over God’s goodness in our lives. We then went to the mall so she could find shoes for her birthday dress.
I mentioned that my small group leader was having a worship night and that she should come.
I won’t lie, the worship night was not my speed at all.
The music is too slow. Why are they just using a guitar and a piano? I don’t know most of these songs. Why can’t we just play songs on a speaker?
My thoughts raced with my displeasure of the way the night was turning out but I knew God had something for me there so I pulled up lyrics on my phone and toughed out the evening.
During a quiet moment, a new face to the small group, O, shared a passage of scripture. She shared that she had been battling depression and God shared that passage with her as a source of comfort. As she was speaking I tried to focus on listening but I had the urge to speak myself. Instead of running from that feeling, I settled into it and waited patiently for her to finish speaking.
I then shared that God had guided me toward a passage of scripture as well, Romans 8:1-2, as a way to help me let go of the guilt I was holding onto from a previous trauma. I felt a connection to O in that moment and I felt that I had done was God asked me to do.
Eventually it got too cold to be outside and we moved the worship night inside. O and I began a long conversation in which we shared some of our testimony, our individual struggles with mental health, and how God had been so clear in our pain. We talked until almost everyone else had left. I prayed over her, took her number and made it clear that I wanted us to stay in communication.
Then I went home.
At 3:50am I woke up to go to the bathroom. As I climbed back in bed, I thought about how tired I was and how I hated having to wake up to go to the bathroom at times.
I closed my eyes and sleep evaded me. So flipped the pillow to the cool side and rolled over. Sleep was still far from me.
“Get up.”
My eyes popped open, “God, I have church in the morning. Can this wait?”
“Get up.”
The second time I heard Him I literally rolled over and closed my eyes, pretending that I hadn’t heard Him.
“Get up.”
I knew in my heart that God wasn’t going to ask me again. So I got up, grabbed my robe and threw it on. I found the piece of paper that had personal requests on it and walked out to my living room.
I won’t lie, I was annoyed but I knew God was calling me to be obedient. I began to thank God for various things while my space heater worked on warming up my chilly living room.
I began to pray over the list when suddenly O’s name came to mind. I began to pray for her when a warmth filled me. I began to boldly pray against powers and forces of darkness in her life. I prayed like I hadn’t prayed before.
Truly, I cannot remember a time in which I had been filled with such boldness in prayer.
After I finished praying over her, I sent her a quick text at 4:05am.
“Praying for you 🫶🏼”
I continued to pray over other people that rose up in my spirit. 20 minutes later I checked my phone again to see a message from her.
At 4:09am she told me “I just woke up this minute from a tormenting nightmare and grabbed my phone to play worship music. Then I saw your text. I haven’t had a nightmare like that in a while.”
I began to shake and cry. God chose me, little ole me, to pray protection and peace over someone I had met mere hours ago. I was filled with that same warmth that filled me when I first started to pray over her and I knew … a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit. He was working in me. We also agreed that spiritual warfare is very real and we must stay vigilant and aware.
I am sharing this as a small piece of my decades long testimony of learning how to trust God. I know that God would’ve been there with her when she woke up because He promised to never leave us nor forsake us but I hate to wonder what if I had ignored God’s call and been disobedient. In fact, I don’t dwell on it much because I am thankful that He chose me in that moment and that I listened.
I have asked God to move like that again; I have asked Him to trust me with more responsibility in the kingdom. I am incredibly aware that the enemy will never stop trying to disrupt the kingdom of God until Jesus returns. I am aware that he is anti-everything because he hates everything that God created, which is everything. 1 Peter 5:8-9 NIV says ‘Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.’
The devil, the adversary, the enemy hates everything and desires to steal, kill and destroy everything. Scripture calls us to be alert and sober minded.
I created a prayer that I wanted to share with everyone. I taken to praying this over myself almost every morning.
“Dear God,
Thank You for waking me up this morning. Thank you for protecting me in my sleep.
God I need You today. Please walk with me in each moment. Lord please let love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control be my fruit today.
Your Word says that my fight is not with this world. So I must suit up. Lord let me stand firm with the belt of trust around my waist. Let me be confident with the breastplate of righteousness covering me. Let my feet be fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Let me be shielded from the flaming arrows of the evil one with my shield of faith. Protect my head and my mind with the helmet of salvation and allow my the capacity to wield the sword of the spirit. Father help Your Word to be firmly planted in my mind.
Lord I die to myself and choose to follow You this day. Please continue to transform my mind as it says in Romans.
In Jesus’ Name.
Amen
Faithfully Resilient 