\u201cEver thought you might be martyred???\u201d<\/a>), I was ecstatic. I had just found a secret weapon I could pull out whenever things got a bit hairy\u2026or so I thought.<\/p>\nYou see, the problem was that I decided that Philippians 2:11-12 was my very own lucky charm\u2014my rabbit\u2019s foot\u2014my genie in the bottle. I was looking at it all wrong\u2014as if I was the Big Kahuna in charge of my own deliverance; as if I didn’t need to listen for the Lord’s leading\u2014I had this “gospel wand” I could point\u2014bippety, boppety, boo.<\/p>\n
Through trial and error (mistakes!), I\u2019ve learned this: when facing trouble or disaster, lean heavily upon the Spirit of God. He always<\/em> has a way of escape;\u00a0my job is to stay hooked up with Him in childlike trust to find out what\u2014if anything\u2014He wants\u00a0me to do. When facing sudden danger, let Him lead<\/em>.<\/p>\nTale Two: The Holy Ghost to the rescue…but just not according to my<\/em> plan!<\/strong><\/p>\nOn the 4th of July, not long after God displayed His \u201cknock over\u201d power with the infamous \u201ccorduroy shirt\u201d man, three of us were returning from a city-wide fireworks display. Traffic in the park was bumper to bumper, just inching along, and we had the windows rolled down. A young man, all liquored-up and stumbling in the park, was screaming into the grid-locked traffic, “ROCK AND ROLL!!!” He and I caught eyes, and he yelled at me, “DO YOU LOVE ROCK AND ROLL?!?”<\/p>\n
I looked at him out of the passenger window, and as he approached the car, I said, “I love Jesus.”<\/p>\n
He lost his mind. Cursing, he grabbed me and attempted to pull me out of the window. Ah hah!<\/em> I thought. I get to use my secret weapon!<\/em> and I quoted Philippians 2:11-12 as he pulled and yanked at my torso, already almost half out of the car window. But\u2026instead of letting go of me as I thought would happen, he became even more <\/em>enraged and pulled even harder.<\/p>\nHmmm….this is not good<\/em>, I thought, and quietly listened to the Holy Spirit within me to hear what to do next. With the upper half of my body being wrenched out of the window, I began to pray in tongues out loud, looking him in the eyes as I did so. I don’t know who was more shocked of the two of us, because he instantly let go and jerked away in disgust.<\/p>\n“Ahhhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrgggghhhhh!” he bellowed. “You’re WEEEEIIRRD!!!!” And after he poured the rest of his beer on my head and the windshield, off he fled into the night.<\/p>\n
This situation taught me something profound\u2014God doesn\u2019t necessarily perform according to\u00a0my script!<\/p>\n
1 Corinthians 12:4-6 says, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.<\/em>” If God has a variety of gifts, ministries, and effects, would He not also undertake deliverance for us in a variety of ways? Indeed, God never changes, and Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever; but He works out His wonders in a multitude of ways. The key here is: He does<\/em> work wonders for us.<\/p>\nYour job and mine is to hold fast\u00a0to God’s Word, trust Him, ask\u00a0Him for help, listen, and then obey whatever He shows us to do.<\/p>\n
He is<\/em> trustworthy and will show Himself strong on your behalf.<\/p>\nDorothy<\/p>\n
“Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?”<\/em> Jeremiah 32:27
\n<\/span><\/p>\nIn all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.<\/em> Proverbs 3:6<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The sword of the Spirit is a powerful, offensive weapon God has given to every believer. This sword is His Word and is designed to be exercised under the direction of the Holy Spirit. Not one word or syllable of God’s Word is devoid of power, and when initiated by the leading of the Holy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prayerperspective"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6896"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6915,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6896\/revisions\/6915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}