I had this saying on my wall both when I lived in Swaziland and in South Africa and I have it here. "When you can't see God's hand... trust His heart" 
I love it. But can I share how God has expanded my understanding of it recently? He has showed me that sometimes I don't see His hand, not because it isn't there but because my eyes are focused on the physical circumstances and not the real battle, the spiritual battle. In merely trusting His heart I have failed to get on my knees for the spiritual battle that is blinding my eyes to His hand. Ouch! That was what the movie War Room emphasized but I don't think I fully caught on.
God is so good and made this so easy for my slow mind to grasp this by using the most recent bible study I have been leading. I had decided to do Priscilla Shirer's study on Gideon. I thought it would be good for the ladies in church, many who might struggle with God being able to use them because they feel weak or unworthy. "Your weakness, God's STRENGTH". I love Priscilla Shirer and her teaching but honestly I wasn't excited with anticipation for myself. (In my prideful mind I already knew God could use someone like me because He had.) As usual, as we got into the study, God started stirring issues I needed to deal with. We learned that we are each CALLED by God and EMPOWERED by God to UNITE the people to STAND AGAINST the enemy. (This was taught with hand motions for the capitalized words.) Her second video session she said that God ARRANGES or ALLOWS EVERYTHING in our lives and He will USE IT for His glory if we let Him. To top it off the verse the groups chose (not assigned by the study) was
The key words (humble, gentle, patience, love, unity and peace) are things God pulled out each week as we progressed through the study. It was so cool how He was tieing unintentional things together! But then...... as the study came to an end and we studied how Gideon and Israel took their focus off of God and started looking through physical eyes at the circumstances and how they as a nation spiraled down and away from God, our church's physical circumstances took a nose dive. The pastor at our church for 22 years, resigned last Sunday! The congregation was/is in shock and devastated. And as we all tried to grasp the physical situation and the roller coaster of emotions I was able to see God's hand in this study. God knew about the resignation before we ever started our study and He took the time to prepare us! His heart was to prepare these groups of ladies to be united in Spirit and to spread humility, gentleness, patience and peace during this rough time where many churches fall into the trap of Satan and fight in the physical with blame, anger, frustration. Even IF (I'm not saying it was) the root of this was started with Satan's intention for division, God has allowed it because His plan for our church and for the pastor is far beyond what we could ever hope or imagine. God arranged or allowed it to happen. PERIOD. We have to trust God in the circumstances and for the future. We need to take up the battle on our knees and not with physical desire of finding out the "whys". We have to trust God that His heart, even when we go though tough times or when we will not be alongside someone we care about, IS there and that is ALL we or they need. Easier said than done, I know but I feel impressed by the Holy Spirit to remind us of it. I sometimes joke that part of the reason God called me to Africa was to separate me from those I might have been hindering their growth in their journey with God. I'm not saying that is what He is doing in this situation. I honestly do not know. But I am saying He knows and the battle will be won on our knees more than in one word we say (unless He specifically tells us to say it).
It has been awhile since I've blogged but yesterday when driving back from processing my spiritual journey with a close friend, I felt God said to blog. Maybe He is asking me to share this because someone, and not necessarily in my church, is also struggling. Struggling because Satan has thrown them either a huge curve ball like us or they are in a situation that seems to have snowballed or it feels like the turmoil will never end. I pray in Jesus Name, right now that God opens their spiritual eyes! Opens OUR spiritual eyes. That we will see that the battle is not on the physical front. It is in trusting Him above the physical. It is laying down control or the need to understand. It is the letting go and asking God what He wants us to do. I pray that even if we are seeing someone else in a spiritual battle but they can only see the physical that we will stand in that gap for them and be a mighty prayer warrior for them. Odds are the answer from God will be nothing we would have thought of ourself and might even sound as foolish or more so than Gideon's 300 going against 135,000 with only clay pots, torches and trumpets! But I pray we let go of even thinking we have some control, some logical wisdom, some need to battle in our strength. As Priscilla Shirer pointed out that Lucifer thought on those lines when he fell from heaven. I pray that we will blow the socks off of Satan with our humble, gentle, loving, peaceful, obedient unity in whatever situation we find ourselves in. I pray for a spiritual awakening of the need for our spiritual eyes to be opened. For our hearts to be flooded with spiritual truths and not the lies of what we think we see or feel. I pray that good things that we have gone too far with.... love that smothers and worries that bind us rather than trusts God, good intentions that become prideful and in our own strength and assumes rather than asks God anymore, that all of these will be let go as we take up God's weapons instead, whatever He says they are and that the outside world will be flabbergasted at how God uses next to nothing to transform a life, a relationship, a church, a nation a ______________ (you fill in the blank)!!!
Thank you for letting me share. I am excited to see how God transforms our church as we stand in the gap for the battle to be fought in the spiritual and not the physical! And if you need someone to spiritually attack in prayer with you and/or share the miracle He brings forth, please message me and I will be happy to pray and rejoice with you. God is good...ALL the time!
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