For those of you who truly know the inner workings of my
heart, you can appreciate what it is I am about to say. And for those of you
who are not familiar with my personality understand, I tend to convey no
nonsense messages intertwined with the up most of love.
Each one of us has probably heard the phrase “time heals all
wounds” at some point in our lives. However, when your wounds have remained
unprocessed and unsealed, this very statement could not be further from the
truth. The biggest obstacle to overcome is pain, whether speaking past or
present tense. One thing however is for certain. Unprocessed pain will prevent
you from fulfilling your God given purpose, and that my friends is what the
enemy desires most! Do not for one second
underestimate Satan’s ability to deceive you. Paul warns of this very same
concept while preaching to the church in Corinth. It breaks my heart when I sit
in counsel with a fellow sister in Christ and during the times of her deepest,
darkest, unprocessed pain she feels lost and alone. I cannot help but to see it in her eyes,
and feel it in her voice. Without fail, my initial question remains “When
do you take the time to listen?” It saddens me to realize that the majority of
the time this answer goes unspoken.
The problem is we ARE listening, but unfortunately to the
WRONG voice. Author Jimmy Evans in his book titled “When Life Hurts” makes the
following statement. “It’s no accident that the first recorded utterance from
Satan in the Bible begins with Satan questioning the words of God, because
that’s where the devil always begins. Satan can’t implant his own thoughts in
our minds until he first causes us to question God’s thoughts. The two ideas
CANNOT coexist.” The same voice that
spoke to Eve in the garden, twisting God’s words and confusing her mind, speaks
to you and I in the midst of our pain. When you allow for pain to remain
unprocessed while wallowing in your own misery, you not only can guarantee Satan
will knock at your door, you might as well hand deliver him the invitation
yourself.
God tells us in scripture "...........I will never leave you nor
forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5) Friends, please understand something. God has given us
complete access to not only know His voice, but also the ability to discern it.
There is not a self-help book in this world that will quench the thirst of a
soul quite that of scripture. When the enemy offers his whispers it is so easy
to listen because we have not taken the necessary time to challenge the
negative against the light of what God tells us is true.
Peter was an ultimate
example of this very point. In Matthew 16:21-28 Peter had just been given the
best news he would ever hear yet, he wasn’t able to receive it. He just
couldn’t fathom that through the deepest pain Christ would ever endure, that it
could actually be a design of God’s even greater plan for all of humanity. This
was a man who had walked side by side with Christ for the past three years,
been a witness to numerous miracles, yet STILL questioned the words that Jesus
spoke. And you know why……..because Satan’s ultimate goal was to keep Peter from
fulfilling his purpose and accepting the destiny that God had in store for him.
Satan saw the fear in Peter’s heart as Jesus explained to the disciples for the first time here that He had to die and carry the sins of the world. Satan used this pain against Peter. Jesus’ very
response in verse 23 was “Get away from me Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You
are seeing things merely from a human point of view, and not from God’s.” Jesus was not implying that Peter was in fact the
enemy, but He knew the whispers upon Peter’s heart were not divine.
The enemy will continue to use your pain to disarm and
defeat you until you decide to deal with it. You must fight this battle suited
in the armor of the Holy Spirit. You can surely opt to remain wallowing within
the whispers and the lies, we all have the free will to do so. Or, you can
allow for even your deepest pain to ignite the purposes of your life which God
has solely intended for good. If you are not active in the word the outcome is
clear……you will provide a barrier between you and Christ, and that my friends
is NOT His design. To know God is to first know Jesus. John 14:6 reminds us of
Jesus’ words “I
am the way and the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except
through me.”
My prayer for all of you today is that you will STOP listening
to the lies, STOP listening to the deceit the enemy has to offer and START
listening to what God is speaking, even in the gentlest of whispers. In order
to accomplish this, you must make an effort to know Him. Remember, even Elijah
encountered God in a whisper as recorded in 1 Kings 19:11-12. The ultimate gift
God gave us derived out of the deepest pain Christ was called to endure.
What makes you think
God cannot accomplish victory through yours?
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