At the end of training camp, leadership warned us that the time from then until the time we leave in September was going to be difficult. It was going to be difficult in the waiting but also difficult in spiritual warfare. The devil hates to see people working for Gods Kingdom and seeks to attack, confuse, distract, tempt and destroy kingdom workers (aka: all us little world racers). Now this isn’t something we’re supposed to fear – as God has already won the war, but it is something we need to be aware of and pray against!
In my own experience after training camp, I have felt the devil trying to confuse and deter me from living out my Christ mission. The devil was sneaking in lies and deceptive thoughts. It made me feel distant from God and though I still believed the truth, it became foggy. My first line of defense was to pray – prayer is AMAZING, buttttt, God also calls us to action. I felt God calling me over and over to simply just spend time with Him in his word, prayer and listening. This meant carving out more than my measly 5 minutes before bed to read my bible. For probably 3 weeks I set my alarm 45 minutes earlier than usual to spend time with the Lord, but I hit snooze every time because my bed has been extra comfy lately. But as expected, when I wasn’t acting on what God was calling me to do, nothing was changing. Finally this morning I was able to get myself out of bed early enough to have a half hour of quiet time with the Lord. I made some coffee (so I would stay awake) and sat in my screen porch with my fuzzy robe and a fuzzy blanket – and my cat of course. I was reading the book of Ephesians and honestly I wasn’t getting much out of it and was slightly frustrated. I thought “I finally carved out time to spend time with the Lord and he still isn’t meeting me here.” I started praying and just waiting on the Lord – seeking him with all my heart. Finally, in the stillness and waiting, I found God speaking to me.
God often speaks to me through pictures and visuals – probably because I doodle all the time. The pictures and visuals always have a metaphorical meaning to them, you will probably see this a bunch in my future blogs!
This time, God placed a picture of a rock/boulder and water. As usual, I drew them down in my journal and God began revealing the meaning. The rock represents Christ. The rock is big, strong, never changing and never moving. Rocks can be a refuge, a shelter, a defense and can offer shade to hide in – all of wich are true of Christ. The water represents the work of the Devil. Water is always changing, it can have massive waves or be calm. Water can be deceptive: rivers look welcoming on the surface but will pull you under with deadly currents – just like the Devil!!!
God then showed me a picture of water rushing over this big rock. The water rose so that the rock wasn’t visible anymore. Though I couldn’t see the rock beneath all the flowing water, I still knew the rock was there. I also knew that the water couldn’t be harming the rock, because the rock is stronger than the water. Instead, the water was actually refining the rock by smoothing out its rough edges and washing away dirt.
If you were able to see the metaphor in that WOO HOO!! But for those still a little confused, here’s the good part (aka: the explanation). If God is the rock and the Devil is the water, that means that sometimes we will feel like the Devil is drowning out God from our lives. BUT!! God promises that he will never leave us – thus we know that God is still there even when we can’t see him. “It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” (Deuteronomy 31:8.) He is still there being our strong, never changing refuge. God has already won the war against evil, that is why the water is unable to move or destroy the rock. Now you may be thinking, if God has already won the battle against evil, why is evil still present? That is because God uses trials to refine, teach and equip us – just as the water was smoothing and cleaning the rock.
“So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even though it is necessary for you to endure many trials for a while. These trials are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold. So if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.” (1 Peter 1:6–7)
If you remain in Christ during spiritual and physical trials – even if you loose sight of God – the trials will end and you will come out the other side more equipped to be a warrior for Christ.
