Welcome to another week of our Everyday Jesus link-up. Be sure to link-up below this post, comment on your neighbor’s blog and share with your friends… Because Jesus is everywhere, every day!
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Not-so-newsflash: Satan is a big, dumb jerkface.
It is no secret that the enemy of our soul is not only a jerkface, but is a jerkface that DOES NOT FIGHT FAIR.
How do I know this? Because I have recently lived through round eleventy billion fighting this punk.
Not too long ago, I was in probably the third roughest faith-storm of my life. Awesome new acts of faith were underway, while simultaneously things appeared to be falling apart at the seams. New ministry endeavors, heart-hurting ministry needs, health issues with our family back in Kansas, just ALL THE THINGS were going crazy. Swirling, twirling, heartbreaking yet Jesus-filled stuff.
Unlike previous storms, I was drawing nearer to God instead of pulling away.
And that really, REALLY ticked Satan off. So apparently, he was determined to take me out. Using his unfair fighting tactics, he hit me below the belt where it really hurt, a place I was already weak– my sleep habits.
I would say I am normally a mediocre sleeper. Add in the fact that I am the parent of a toddler and wife of an infantryman who is sometimes coming/going at all times of night and that drops me to below average with my sleeping.
And then when Satan rocks the anti-sleeping boat? #ICantEven
Long story still long, I hadn’t slept well in over a month. It was affecting my ability to eat right, work out, parent with grace and see things from God’s perspective. I was grasping for the Lord but my breaking point was coming.
I swallowed my pride and reached outside of my tiny circle of close prayer warrior friends and asked for prayer from my “at large” Facebook friends and other community. (But only after I had ugly cried all over my husband. Snot included.)
There were dozens and dozens of people praying for my sleep, for victory over Satan and for courage to cling to Jesus everyday.
That night I slept for 11 hours. Soundly.
I woke up feeling victorious! Right before I awoke, God gave me a vision in a dream. I was face to face with the biggest snake of my life. He was some kind of bull snake python cross– one that killed victims by strangulation, yet tried to intimidate them by acting like a rattle snake, only he possessed no true venom. He was wreaking havoc on my family around me.
This huge reptile was slithering around my feet and I raised a garden shovel with no fear– complete God confidence– and brought it down on him.
The. Snake. Was. Dead.
I awoke and celebrated with my husband, knowing that the “snake” was really Satan– God had renewed victory in my heart.
This victory didn’t stop there.
The next night, I slept well again. Another vision appeared before I awoke. This time, there were mice. Everywhere. And my job was to eliminate them. Set mousetraps. Whatever it would take to get rid of those rodents.
As I drowsily came to, I asked the Lord: “God, what is the deal with the mice? What does this mean for me?”
He replied: “Daughter, you must kill the mice that feed the snake.”
Friends, did you HEAR that?!?! We must kill everything that feeds the snake!!!!!! If the snake has nothing to feed on, it cannot survive.
So I have been setting mousetraps in my spirit. I am on a quest of extermination to rid the “mice” in my soul: anxiety, fear, worry, need to control, doubt and lack of trust.
What “mice” do you need eliminate? In what other ways can we stop feeding the snake? I would love to hear feedback on this rodent revelation– join in and leave a comment below.
Let’s commit as a community of believers to set the mousetraps in our soul as we find Jesus in our everyday. Because He said it Himself…
We have to stop feeding the snake.
Seeking a Rodent-free soul,
“Jesus said, “I know. I saw Satan fall, a bolt of lightning out of the sky. See what I’ve given you? Safe passage as you walk on snakes and scorpions, and protection from every assault of the Enemy. No one can put a hand on you. All the same, the great triumph is not in your authority over evil, but in God’s authority over you and presence with you.” ~Luke 10:18-19 MSG
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