Not to long ago I went with Jessica, Alana, Sarah, and Robert to a school for the Deaf here on the island. It was by far one of my favorite days so far on the race. The moment I walked through the gate my heart was instantly captured. But wait we have to rewind because this day almost didn’t happen. Why because I almost chose to be a deaf child.
Huh? Well what else would you a daughter who can not hear what her father is saying to her? Or what if she can’t her the Holy Spirit whisper words of encouragement? How often do we in our walks with Christ become a deaf child? The devil tries at all times to block out what the father is saying to us. Fear, language barriers, and thoughts of I can’t do that are his biggest tools used against us. We have to constantly choose everyday to fight against him. I don’t know about you, but I want to hear what my father has to say to me. So I turn to him in prayer to give me the ears to hear his voice and for the Holy Spirit to interpret the things I cannot understand.
Our team reads from a book called Jesus Calling everyday after breakfast. It has been a very prophetic book for our team and we love how it just speaks life into each and everyone of us. Before breakfast on this particular day I found out that Alana, Sarah, and Jessica were going to go with Robert to this school for the Deaf. Immediately I remembered that I know some sign language after this past year in college and I had wanted to gain more experience with working with Deaf children. It wasn’t 5 minutes after I found out that they were that I began to become under attack. I had wanted to ask if I could go with, but this voice kept telling me “Angela you hardly know Spanish what makes you think that you will know or understand Spanish Sign?� “If they had wanted you to come they would have asked.� “The Holy Spirit may deal with the gift of tongues, but honestly how could sign language be considered a tongue.� I wrestled with these thoughts all through breakfast. I would casually ask when they were leaving, what they were going to do, when they would come back, until Sarah finally said if you want to come. My reply was “Well I don’t know it sounds fun, but maybe not.� It wasn’t until I had gone done to the Rancho until I gathered up the courage to ask Jessica if she would mind if I came. Although it came out more like “I would kind of like to go with, but I don’t know yet. Would you mind if I did? I’ll let you know as soon as devotions are over.� She said she didn’t mind one bit.
Well ask for the Lord to speak to you and he will. Alana read Jesus Calling and my heart was convicted. I had to go. What did Jesus say?
“DO NOT LET any set of circumstances intimidate you. The more challenging your day, the more of My Power I place at your disposal. You seem to think that I empower you equally each day, but this is not so. Your tendency upon awakening is to assess the difficulties ahead of you measuring them against your average strength. This is an exercise in unreality. I know what each of your days will contain, and I empower you accordingly. The degree to which I strengthen you on a given day is based mainly on two variables: the difficulty of your circumstances, and your willingness to depend on Me for help. Try to view challenging days as opportunities to receive more of My Power than usual. Look to Me for all that you need, and watch to see what I will do. As your day, so shall your strength be.� (Ephesians 1:18-20, Psalm 105:4, and Deuteronomy 33:25)
As soon as the last words were read I turned to Jessica and said, “:I’m coming.� That was it. That was all that I needed. I just had to be reminded of what my Father can do for me. I needed to trust in his power more and I needed to be willing to depend on him. My day would be challenging because of the language barriers, but the Holy Spirit would help me. I was Deaf no longer.
So how did the day turn out? Keep your eyes open for part 2!
