Satan sucks. He has no power. And when we actually hand his evil plans over to our Father to deal with, our Father actually uses them for His Glory.
My history with drugs, was a plan to derail Gods plan for my life. It was a plan nearly 5 years in the making. However, the Lord has been healing this part of my life bit by bit.
But it’s not complete.
I would be lying if I said I was never tempted by the things going on around me in this world, or that I didn’t look back at certain nights in Vegas, or Scottsdale with fond memories. That’s how our mind copes though; we erase all the bad and just reflect on the good. We erase almost loosing a friendship due to who we become when we allow the things of this world to alter us on a chemical level. We erase the come down. We erase how depressed and anxious we actually were in those seasons, and how the substances we were using were just numbing the pain.
So, last week I shared my story at a youth drug rehab center in Chiang Mai, Thailand. And half a dozen people came to know Christ as their Savior. I TRADED, Satan, I traded. I traded your plan for my Fathers plan. And it’s having impact half way around the world. Not only is He using your stupid plan for my good, but He is using it for the good of those I get the opportunity to meet.
God is good, but he didn’t stop there. A few nights ago I experienced one of the most frustrating nights with two of the most important people in my life back home. As the emotions raged, the anger swelled, and trust came into question; I knew it was an attack. It was too ironic; the timing, the people, the feelings, all of it. But that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. After hours of talking IT out, BREAKTHROUGH came. Forgiveness fell, wisdom was shared, insights were discovered. It was beautiful, but it was painful, anything worth fighting for is. I TRADED the enemy’s plan for destruction, distrust, and hurt, for my Fathers plan of deeper restoration, deeper trust, and deeper forgiveness. I surrendered it to God, when everything in me wanted to explode, and He used it for His Glory, My Glory, and the Glory of two very important relationships.
To top off the week of seeing just how clearly and obviously God wants me to see Him work when I fully trade with Him; truly trade in the enemies plan for destruction for Gods plan of redemption… I shared another deeply personal part of my past with two strangers.
The other night a couple of my teammates and I had the best night hanging out with two random people on vacation from the UK. We talked for hours about life and people. And in their search for understanding God they had several questions that only I had experience with. And in the sharing, in the honesty, I believe they saw a glimpse of the Fathers Heart. A glimpse of His desire to meet people where they are at, in their mess, no matter how messy! Once again, I traded a toxic and evil plan to cut me down in the past, for healing, that years later God used in a new plan, a plan to bring our two new friends one step closer to Him.
Our Heavenly Father is begging us to hand over the filthy rags of our past, the rags of Satan’s plan, of our guilt and shame; for the riches of His Kingdom, of His redemption, restoration, and glory. Our God wants to use all of you! Every mistake, slip up, temptation, rock bottom, and loss. Are you ready? Are you ready to TRADE the plans of Satan that were designed to kill, steal, and destroy you? I promise our God will use it, all of it. It wont be easy, it wont feel good at first, and it will never be complete; but the high of seeing and feeling God using you, all of you, is unlike any high you’ve ever experienced.
