Hi, it’s me (again). I know you just heard from me at the beginning of this week, but there’s something else that has been on my heart and I want to share it with you all. Continuing on the same note as my last message, I want to tell you about the testimony of Melissa Helser that I heard while attending the OUTCRY tour in Birmingham on Monday, April 23.
Melissa is a worship leader who joined up with Bethel Music these past few months to lead worship in arenas packed with thousands of people. In between songs in the middle of worship on Monday, Melissa asked if she could share a little bit of her testimony with us. She began to explain how for the past 20 years she has been living with a chronic illness that causes her body to hurt constantly. She shared a specific experience where she woke up one day in excruciating pain, begging God to take it away from her. After hours of laying in bed, she chose to get up and attempt to begin her day, despite the fact that her body was fighting against her.
She prayed to God that He would take this pain away so that she could move and not dread doing daily tasks many of us take for granted. She said she heard God telling her to “sing out the pain.” She continued on, telling us how she prayed back to God that she didn’t want to sing right now through the pain she was feeling and asked, again, if He would just take it away. Couldn’t He see that she was hurting? God told her a second time to sing out her pain. Melissa, frustrated, went on to pray again to Him that this pain was too great for that right now and asked for Him to just take it away from her. Again, she heard, “sing out the pain.” Choosing to follow the Spirit, Melissa flipped her hair over to blow-dry it, and she began to sing her song “Catch the Wind.”
I am strong and full of life.
I am steadfast, no compromise.
I lift my sails to the sky.
I’m gonna catch the wind, I’m gonna catch the wind.
I am bold, no fear inside.
Spread my wings, open my life.
Like an eagle, whose home is the sky.
I’m gonna catch the wind, I’m gonna catch the wind.
Melissa said she could feel the pain lifting out of her as she continued singing.
Your faithfulness will never let me down.
I’m confident I’ll see Your goodness now.
I know You hear my heart, I’m singing out.
There’s nothing that can stop Your goodness now.
As she sang, Melissa no longer felt any pain. By lifting up her voice in worship, she ceased to feel the distress she had been experiencing that day.
She went on to share with us that although she is living with this chronic illness, the only time she is never in any pain is when she is singing, dancing and moving while in worship.
The enemy is most afraid when we raise our voices.
Melissa Helser
Friends, we are not attacked because the enemy wants our house or our cars or any of the tangible things that we have. He wants our faith. By whispering lies and discouraging thoughts about how this pain is too big for our God or this situation is too hopeless, the enemy strives to have us doubt what is true and life-saving.
The enemy will shame you most in the areas God wants to use you. The enemy wants us to know shame so that we won’t do what God has called us to do. The Lord has made it clear to me what He has called me to, yet I get so anxious posting or speaking of what’s in my heart because I fear that I’m not actually capable of making a real difference or that I have people reading this and rolling their eyes at my words. But I continue to do it- I continue to drown the enemy out by raising my voice and sharing what God has put on my heart so that others may know Him and His goodness.
I share Melissa’s testimony as continued encouragement to live for the Gospel. To live for Him. To quit living in the limitations imposed by someone else. We have been given this gift that is TOO GOOD to have this loser devil talk us out of receiving it.
After Melissa and the crowd of thousands sang her song, she had us sing declarations of truth over and over again (you can watch that here).
Say, pray, sing, scream, post on your mirror, tape in your car (WHEREVER) these declarations over your life:
UNAFRAID
UNASHAMED
IMMOVABLE
UNSHAKEABLE
It’s who I am.
It’s who I am.
It’s who I am.
Happy Sunday, friends. I pray that you have the best week and declare what is true over yourselves.
