In the past 24 hours God has removed the scales from my eyes and showed me some of the craziness that He’s been up to since January. Rewind back to first debrief in Nelspruit, South Africa. During one of our morning sessions our coaches, John and Joanne Cava, asked us to pair up with another person, pray for a word from the Lord for him, and then deliver it. My teammate, Brad, and I paired up and this is a paraphrased portion of what God gave him for me:
This is a year of breaking walls… Many of us are still stuck in the big lie from Satan that we should be ashamed of who we are as Christians, so we aren’t experiencing that freedom God provided for us through His death and resurrection. Learn about your freedom and begin walking in it.
Upon reading that last line a few minutes ago, God hit me with the realization that this is EXACTLY what he’s been teaching me over the past month. Freedom. My teammate and amazingly beautiful friend Reba made me see the power of the mind in achieving that freedom and not allowing myself to stagnate. I can pray and pray and pray for healing and breakthroughs, but if I’m not inviting any mental change, then it doesn’t seem like I really want it, does it? That word that Brad gave me four months ago is for such a time as this, and probably for a few more times this year.
After I received that initial breakthrough towards the end of last month, I went into debrief spiritually high and feeling like I was on top of the world. The first two days of debrief were absolute joy. I could feel the Spirit inside me and bubbling out of me; I experienced a joy and life and passion and love that I have NEVER experienced before. It was the most incredible and exhilarating feeling ever. I was spiritually strong and thought the rest of the year I’d be riding the wave of glory. Then the enemy attacked hardcore. At the time I had no idea what happened to me. The following two days I felt like my joy was stripped from me; I was back to my wallowing self, allowing every imagined snub to bring me down further and further. The next day was travel day and I had my joy back, but was it for real or was it because I love travel days on the Race?
Now then, last night as I was praying for our girls stuck in human trafficking, I started reading some of my notes from the Mark bible study our team did in Nepal. This is what I wrote for Mark 1: Jesus was tempted or tested every time something big happened or was about to happen. The enemy attacked. Suddenly it hit me, this is what I had experienced at debrief! I had been filled with overwhelming joy and passion until the enemy came to steal, kill, and destroy that joy. As seen throughout Christ’s ministry, that is the modus operandi of the enemy. Immediately after Jesus received the Holy Spirit, He was led into the desert and tempted by Satan for 40 days. The enemy attacked me because I had given him a foothold in my life. I thought I was strong, so of course he had to prove me wrong.
What’s really cool is how God had been preparing me for that moment of enlightenment. The groundwork was laid in a few key moments this past week. It began in my conversation with my prayer partner, January, a few days ago, then continued with my squad mate Rachel yesterday, and was completed later that day while journaling about debrief. God certainly is thorough.
It seems like God is showing me that He is at the center of it all. He is the originator, the explanation, the objective of these prophecies, notes, and breakthroughs. It culminates in the Father receiving unimaginable glory and praise. How, you ask? I guess we’ll find out 
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