It all started with a prophecy session in Peru. My team was taking turns prophesying over each other, and that night it was my night in the hot seat. That night a lot of amazing things were spoken, but there was one prophecy in particular that impacted much of the next month, Nicaragua. One of the prophecies was about me comforting a little girl plagued by nightmares, and reading Psalm 91 over her. So later that night I read Psalm 91 and a lot of it struck a chord with me and really spoke to me. But I kind of just put it away, knowing that it would come up again on the race, but not sure when.
Then we went to Nicaragua. And so began the month of Psalm 91. In the span of a month Psalm 91 was brought up 8 times!
So far on the race, there has been a theme for every month that it seems that God is strengthening my character in terms of one of the Fruits of the Spirit in Galatians. I knew early on that Nicaragua was the month I was going to be working on self control. For me that meant working on my discipline. To be honest with you all, I have never really been diligent about reading the Bible. I had a hunger for God’s Word, but didn’t spend a lot of time in it. And I have a shockingly small amount of Scripture memorized. So I decided that in Nicaragua I would be making a concerted effort to read the Bible, and memorize Scripture. I won’t bore you with the details about how this looked for me, but I definitely buckled down and got deep in the Word.
So, Day 1 in Nicaragua, I asked God what Scripture I should memorize first. And all day all I could think about was Psalm 91 (appearance #1 for the month). I kept thinking that if I am going to be able to help a girl find freedom from nightmares by reading that over her, then what happens if I meet her on a day when I forgot my Bible? So I decided to memorize it. And that started a chain reaction. When you have a Scripture on your mind, you find it everywhere. It is suddenly applicable in every situation, and you see it all over the place.
During the first week at Bethel we found out that there are serious problems with the sugar cane fields and the working conditions there. Almost a third of the men in the community are sick or have died from kidney failure that they contract within 1-3 years, usually, of working in the sugar cane. So five of us spent a while praying over the land, and speaking life over it, and declaring Scripture. And of course, the Scripture that came to mind was…Psalm 91 (appearance #2). God specifically asked me to read that over the sugar cane fields.
Later that day when we were walking back to the truck to go home, the reference for Psalm 91 was spray painted on the side of a house (#3).
Whenever we arrive in a new location, the first thing we do is pray over the property, specifically for protection against spiritual attacks. About a week into our stay at El Projecto, we decided some extra prayer was necessary. We felt that there was still something lurking around that we specifically needed to pray against. And what Scripture was suggested that we all read together as we walked around the perimeter of the property? By this time I wasn’t all that surprised when one of the girls suggested Psalm 91 (#4).
A couple of days after that we had all headed into a nearby city, Chinandega, to restock on snacks, and of course Psalm 91 appears for the fifth time. I was a little surprised this time, I didn’t expect to see “Psalm 91” spray painted on the back of a car!
The sixth time this Scripture appeared was when a couple of us were praying for an elderly lady in the community, Hayde. She specifically asked us to bless her house. She prays every night before bed, and reads Scripture over her house before she goes to sleep. The Scripture she reads is…Psalm 91! In fact, when she sleeps she leaves the Bible open to that page!
By this time I was looking for Psalm 91 everywhere, and my team was also excited about how often it was appearing. So Joy was really excited when she got an encouragement email from a friend at home that included Psalm 91! She called me over to show me appearance number seven.
The eighth time this Scripture appeared this month was when we were praying for Anthony, a boy from a neighboring community who was pulled out to sea by a strong current. A squad leader, who had recently arrived and had no idea how often this was coming up, suggested that we read out Psalm 91 together.
Eight times in one month. And not one of them was the situation that was prophesied that I would use it. And to complete the circle, it came up a ninth time in another prophecy at the end of the month.
God really spoke to me a lot through Psalm 91. To me it is a promise of safety and security for those who trust in the Lord. It acknowledges that there are scary things in life, but promises that if you love and acknowledge God that He will deliver you. It is a psalm of protection.
