Not all storms are preceded by calm … think the miracles of mass feeding, Elijah after calling fire from heaven etc
A high raised by a demonstration of God’s undeniable power, is an invitation for spiritual attack from God’s enemy. This must NOT deter us!
Twenty years ago, my counsellor once remarked,
‘When you stand up and out, as well as speaking up and out, you effectively put a target on your back’.
As a navigator of serial, near back-to-back storms in recent years, I have learned much that cannot be learned in the calm. Upon reaching my fiftieth which I wasn’t always confident of reaching, I chose to use my jubilee party to celebrate the God who brought me through every storm. God has used these storms to update my internal software at the deepest level by changing man-made beliefs, for God’s truths and by making my weak places strong. It gave me enormous joy to celebrate this God with the amazing FAMILY who have brought me through.
As a visual person, seeing and sharing with so many of the family God has surrounded me with (plus a few relative unknowns) during these seasons of storms, made a super-sized, super-strength deposit in my love-bank. My true family members were touched by the power and presence of God’s love in the room. Those who arrived wobbly, left feeling strengthened. And I was lifted high on wings of joy, love and gratitude.
This high was short-lived … the inevitable spiritual attack started just one short week later.
While this was intended for harm to drag me down to the level of those responsible, who also wished to exert control over me, the God who CONVERTS all harm to good, utilised this INTEL, for my learning, growth and deeper healing.
When we fly so high, shout so loud, or rejoice with so many, about the goodness of God, we invite ‘gifts’ from those unwilling to rejoice with, or for us. These ‘gifts’ are precious in so far as we do not receive them, from those who see, hear, understand and love us.
Those who launch such attacks or are complicit in them, highlight themselves as not being our people. There is nothing to be gained by speaking to those who refuse to see or hear us. And there is everything to be gained by walking away, closing the door, bolting it firmly, praying them in to God’s care and leaving them with others who belong only in your past.
While such attacks are shocking, especially when launched by those you overlooked the ‘off-signs’ for, and invested in emotionally anyway, it does signal that the storm sender/permitter deemed you ready for it and designed it to remove those not coming forward with you.
Either way, storm-training, trains us to recognise that every storm contains key INTEL. When we know that John 16:33 is a guaranteed, repeating life-long theme (!), we can meet it as the gift of growth that it is.
Irrespective of source, the storm HIGHLIGHTS in NEON FLASHING LIGHTS, where our WEAK SPOTS are. This is profoundly helpful when partnering with the God who turns our weaknesses in to strengths. What may otherwise remain off the radar is swiftly put on it via the attention-grabbing-presence of pain, when we are attacked in the weak spot! What a good-gift giving God we have!!
In addition to signposting us to our weak spots so God can help us strengthen them, the storm also shows us what conditions evoke our INNER THOMAS. Or the doubter within; whether doubts about us, others, or God himself. By putting these on the map, under the super illuminating light of the Almighty, we can clearly see the lies that underpin the doubts. When we bring the enemy lies before the truth giving God, they dissipate.
These attacks also alert us to where we have allowed, or even invited, harm in – this is critical as it points us to the essential repair work we must undertake to prevent harm entering via whatever breaks in the boundary wall, allowed our attackers in.
Furthermore, we are invited to partner with God in identifying our God-given-gifts along with their need for God-ordained-protection from those who see them, but have self-serving motives.
On a deeper level, an attack-based-storm can make invisible beliefs become visible eg ‘if you are kind, open, trusting and giving, others will treat you in the same vein.’ God’s truth is that we must be as wise as a serpent and as pure as doves. We must wake up and wise up, for wolves have no limits when it comes to their penchant for fancy dress; the more deceptive and unexpected the disguise, the greater the power to damage.
In summary, God allows the storm and those who attack us. He uses it to show us how to protect ourselves better to prepare us for future spiritual battles. These are guaranteed when we step out, stand up and speak out for God.
To summarise, THE GIFTS OF THE STORM …
- Highlight who will not be coming with us wherever God leads
- Exposes what evokes our inner Thomas so we can seek, see and double down on the deity giving truths that replace doubts, as well as building endurance and stretching our storm coping capacity.
- Signpost the gaps in the boundary wall that allowed these people in so we can prevent their access in future by repairing the walls & using what they have taught us about how to recognise what such people look, sound and feel like.
- Gives us the opportunity to name our God-given-gifts & recognise the need to protect them from those with insincere motives/unaddressed envy/unacknowledged losses/pain
- Insist we trade beliefs based on the lies of the enemy, irrespective of whether containing a partial truth, for God’s unshakeable full truths
Most storms shake us so hard we learn new truths about ourselves, our God and the at-times duplicitous nature of the human species!
Storms also train us to practice remaining connected to the constant source of calm that is Jesus Christ, living within us, DURING THE STORM! We learn resilience, endurance and faith building through every attack/battle/storm.
The way we RESPOND to storms and/or attacks, determines whether they become growth givers on steroids, or something that beats us down and sucks the life from us. If only temporarily.
When we trust in God and call upon His name, storms show us experientially that God is stronger than every attempt/power of the enemy, to lie to, or about us, to steal our shine or commitment to speaking of and sharing the goodness of God, or to destroy our focus by attempting to distract, drag us down or de-rail us.
The truth about God is that he really IS … ABLE TO FIGHT HIS OWN BATTLES! And does so much better without our assistance/interference!
God has the power to give and keep giving us LIFE TO THE FULL despite every attempt of the enemy to LIE, STEAL AND DESTROY our GOD-GIVEN fullness of life.
This storm has taught me to NEVER STOP STEPPING OUT, or SPEAKING OUT about the GOODNESS of GOD who helps me GROW through every STORM he allows me to go through. INSTEAD, to always trust that He really is ABLE to FIGHT his OWN BATTLES without my ‘help’ and to protect me in the process!!!
Praising the God who allows, reigns within, and after, every storm … now, always and forever! Tis great to be on God’s WINNING TEAM!
And to give thanks for those who gave the ‘gifts’ of learning and those who supported me to accept the growth, truth and learning within!