Satan is alive and well on planet earth. That is the title of a book written by Hal Lindsey. And it’s an absolute truth. If you are a Christian, you should know this. I’ve had my battles with the enemy.

In case you don’t know, I am from Alaska. I grew up there, and for a very brief time, dragged my Californian husband up there to live for three years. After three years we moved back to California because as my husband said, “It’s cold up there.” While we lived there, I had a job that entailed me traveling to little villages surrounding the town where I’m from.

There was one particular village that I had to go to that I think was controlled by the enemy. It was a village my pastor talked about growing up. You see our old pastor came up to Alaska to plant churches. And that’s what he did. He would start in a village, build a church there, and once it got on it’s feet, he would move on to another village. He started in this one particular village, but got nowhere. He moved on. Eventually, he got to the town where I am from. I grew up under his preaching. When I got to high school he decided to go back to that village and try and start a church there. I believe he got nowhere again.

I had heard tales about this village. People there were very closed to the gospel. Well this village was going to have a conference and they invited me and several of my co-workers to fly up there and stay for the weekend.

As we got within miles of the village, a heaviness overtook me. All of a sudden, I felt anxious and hopeless. It was a panicked feeling. As we flew through the air, closer and closer to the village, the panicked feeling got stronger and stronger. I couldn’t pray. My mind was muddled and I just couldn’t pray in my head. This feeling was overwhelming me.

We landed okay and we got off the plane. Those panicky feelings stuck with me like dark clouds surrounding me. I couldn’t shake them. Again, I tried to pray. My mind remained muddled. I couldn’t form a prayer in my head. It was like I was completely confused. I kept thinking, I need to pray, but I couldn’t. In my head, I would start a prayer and it was like the words just floated out of my ears. I truly couldn’t pray. The feeling of hopelessness stuck with me like a thick glue to my heart and brain. I continued to feel overwhelmed and hopeless. What was wrong with me? The whole weekend I felt this way. I had a feeling that I wanted to leave this village so badly. If I never came back again, it would be too soon.

The conference ended and I couldn’t wait to get back on the plane and fly away. I wanted to go home so badly. As our plane lifted, we were speeding through the air away, far away from the village. Within miles AWAY from the village, something snapped within me. The feelings of hopelessness lifted. My mind was clear again. The feelings of panic and being overwhelmed also went away. I could pray. A lightness filled me. I felt whole again.

Years later, I was studying the book of Daniel in Bible study. In Daniel 10:12-13 an angel comes to Daniel but says he is late in coming because the Prince of Persia delayed him. Then Michael came to help him. Something clicked when I read that passage. There are demon gate keepers of towns. Either God has that place or the enemy does. I thought of this village. There was definitely a demonic influence over that town. As a Christian, I could feel it physically and spiritually. If I could have seen the demons, I think I would have been blown away by the multitudes of them.

I was caught off guard going into that village. I didn’t expect that demonic presence. If I knew, I would have had people praying for me. That would have been my protection. But I didn’t.

I’m not saying that the enemy is stronger than God. Certainly not! God defeated the enemy at the cross! God gave us tools for this spiritual battle we fight.

…”because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.” 1 John 4:4

We aren’t alone. I was caught off guard. We are living in the last days. I think the battle is heating up. We just need to be aware as Christians, so we aren’t caught off guard like I was. Be aware and fight the good fight.

A few years  back, I was sitting in my living room, working on my Bible study lesson. All of a sudden, a thought came into my mind: call your sister-in-law. Well that was strange. Why do I need to call my sister-in-law? I put the thought out of my mind and continued working on my study. The thought came to me again: call your sister-in-law. I thought about it for a few seconds. Then I started making excuses as to why I shouldn’t call my sister-in-law. It was early in the morning, she was probably busy getting the kids ready for school. I would be a distraction. What would I say to her? I’m calling because a voice in my head said to call you? Yeah, that doesn’t sound crazy. The voice in my head persisted: call your sister-in-law. Okay, fine, I’ll call my sister-in-law.

When I called my sister-in-law, her voice sounded stressed. She said, immediately, that she was so glad I called. My phone call had just diffused some chaotic situation that was going on right then, and she needed a distraction. She kept thanking me. I was amazed. The voice in my head was looking out for my sister-in-law. I felt whole. God just used me to help out someone else. Wow! That felt really, really good. I had a “holy high” the rest of the day. A simple act of calling my sister-in-law, left her diffused and me content.

When we become Christians, God doesn’t just leave us to try and muddle through this world without any help. He, in fact, equips us with everything we need to protect us and guide us. But there in one “piece of equipment” many Christians don’t take advantage of. The Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit is actually a person that comes to live inside the believer. The Holy Spirit, the third person of the trinity, comes to live inside the Christian. Think about what that means. Think of the power through the Holy Spirit living inside every Christian.

You know the phrase, “It came straight from the horse’s mouth?” It refers to the idea that when you get a piece of information, it’s accurate, because “it came straight from the horse’s mouth.” You can believe it. Well when the Holy Spirit speaks to you, “it’s coming straight from the horse’s mouth,” God is speaking directly to you. The Holy Spirit IS God. A Christian is completely connected with the only all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful Creator of the Universe through the Holy Spirit indwelling every believer. Whoa! That is amazing. Just think on that.

When the Holy Spirit spoke to me to call my sister-in-law, He was coming from the reference point that He was directly connected to God the Father who DID know all and see all. He knew my sister-in-law’s stress. She was probably praying too. Then God spoke to my head to tell me to call her.

But in being aware of the Holy Spirit, don’t waste time, like I did arguing with Him. I think that’s what a lot of us do. We argue with Him, so we don’t hear His voice. We pooh-pooh it off like I was doing, and miss those chances for “holy highs.” What kind of world would we live in, if we didn’t pooh-pooh it all off. If we didn’t argue in our head. To quote a song, “What a wonderful world that would be.” Every Christian has the potential for amazing things, if we would just allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us, and follow what He says.

As a Christian, we do hear voices in our head. But that is a good thing. That voice is most likely the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our connection to God. When God said, “Be still and know that I am God,” He was probably telling us to be quiet so we can hear the voice of God. He was helping us to harness that great power working in every believer’s life. If we are still, we can hear His voice. If we are not, we miss those amazing opportunities for God to use us.

A few years back, I was talking to one of my ladies in my Bible study. She was being coy with me and wanted to discuss something. She had emailed me, saying she couldn’t come to the Christmas Tea.

“Did you get my email regarding the tea…I can’t come?” she said.

“Yes, I did,” I said.

“You know that I can’t come to the tea?” she said.

“Yes, that’s what you said.”

She was baiting me. She wanted to tell me the reason she wasn’t coming to the tea. I took the bait.

“So why can’t you come to the tea?” I asked.

A satisfied sigh came over the phone. She said she DID NOT celebrate Christmas. She said it was a pagan holiday. She went into a long explanation about Christmas being a pagan holiday. How we don’t know when Jesus was born. She said she is mindful of idolatry and she doesn’t want any part of idolatry in her life. Christmas was idolatry.

I felt skewered after talking to her. I felt drained and icky. I began to question myself. I was a Christian and I celebrated Christmas. I really liked Christmas. Was I being a heathen? Was I dishonoring the Lord with my celebration of Christmas? I’ve been a Christian for a long time, could I be so off base as to celebrate a pagan holiday? Yikes.

She had so much angst about Christmas. She acted like Christmas was evil. Christians really only have two holidays: Christmas and Easter. Why are we tossing out Christmas?

In the Bible it tells us:

“Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day,” Col 2:16

Boy did I feel judged after talking to her. I felt judged the whole time she sat in my Bible study group. It was the things she said, especially. She acted like she had special knowledge about the Bible that the rest of us heathens did not have. She would not use Jesus’ name. She would only call God, Father. She would try and interpret the New Testament with Hebrew. Yet the New Testament was written in Greek. It was never written in Hebrew. She would constantly refer to Jewish festivals and celebrations. But not Christmas, of course. That was a pagan holiday. I knew something was off with her, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. What did she believe?

By the end of the year I had figured it out. That is a whole other story. Bottom line, she was into what is called, Hebrew Roots. Right off, Hebrew Roots sounds fairly safe. Our Judeo-Christian roots do come from Jewish history. But Hebrew Roots is far from safe. Hebrew Roots is a false religion that seeks to snare the Christian. Hebrew Roots throws Jesus under the bus and wants you to embrace everything Jewish: holidays, celebrations, eating of Kosher food, etc. The huge problem with it, is that they HAVE thrown Jesus under the bus. They rarely talk about Jesus Christ. That’s why no Christmas. Christmas celebrates Jesus Christ’s birth. Why would you want to celebrate the birth of a Messiah, when you really don’t believe in the Messiah?

Now they seduce the Christian by saying you can have a deeper relationship and understanding of God by embracing the Hebrew Roots. But that is just a rouse.

“Many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many,” Matt. 24:11

We live in the last days. We need to keep our eyes open and stay awake. I firmly believe that Hebrew Roots is just one of many false religions coming out right now. In my research of Hebrew Roots, I found an excellent website that educates one in all things Hebrew Roots- http://joyfullygrowingingrace.wordpress.com/

Because we live in the last days and perilous times, we need to alert each other to the dangers that are out there. http://joyfullygrowingingrace.wordpress.com/ does a really great job in educating Christians about the dangers of Hebrew Roots.

Here are some tips about Hebrew Roots. If you have friends or family who start doing some of the following things, investigate. It could be no problem at all. And then, it could be a huge problem. Just be wary.

• They begin to go to church on Saturday saying it is the real Sabbath.
• They stop using the name of Jesus and call Him Yeshua.
• They start eating kosher food.
• They start hating on Christmas and Easter and start posting articles on Facebook on how bad these holidays are.
• They began to celebrate Jewish holidays.

Now these aren’t bad in themselves, they are simply signs that your friends or family members might be getting swayed by Hebrew Roots. We are in the last days. Be wary dear sister. Like the picture I posted with this piece, Hebrew Roots tries to reflect our faith, but it’s not the real thing.

 

 

 

I am terrified of failure. I have been trying to fight my procrastination, so I’ve been looking inward to see why I procrastinate. It’s not a good place to be, looking inward, so I don’t plan to stay here long. I just wanted to know why I procrastinate. First, I thought it was fear of success. But that didn’t make any sense. I thought about it for awhile and came to the conclusion that I’m afraid of failure. Terrified of it. If I don’t do something, then I can’t fail. Isn’t that logical?

The problem with my fear of failure is that I am a parent. You see, kids grow up and they don’t wait for you to get your act together. They just keep on getting older whether you have your act together or not. This is an awful fact if you are like me and terrified of failure. You see, before I had kids I was a perfect parent. I would look around me and see kids and their parents and know exactly what was wrong with them. My kids were never going to act that way, do that, think that, etc. I was perfect…until I had kids of my own.

So I have my first child and I realize immediately, I am not perfect. I realize immediately, that I can’t do and be everything for this kid. I would go to bed at night and hear the soft tick, tick, tick of the clock and time marching on ahead of me whether I was ready or not. My newborn quickly became a rolly 6 month old. The 6 month old quickly became a wobbly toddler. The wobbly toddler quickly became a 5 year old. The 5 year old quickly became an elementary student. Hold on! But these children don’t wait. They keep getting older and more mature. Now they are teenagers with opinions. I feel like I can’t keep up. My fear of failure looms over me. What can I do? How will I cope?

“And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness,” 2 Corinthians 12:9

Well…that’s a verse! God’s telling me NOT to be perfect! He’s telling me that my imperfections and failings are GREAT for Him? Well, okay then! I’ll just move on over and let Jesus take the wheel (I know, I know, I hate that song too but it makes a good point). Have you seen those signs around that say, “Keep Calm…I’ve got this?” Well that’s the paraphrased version of that verse. God is saying, “Keep Calm…I’ve got this.”

Think about that verse. God is not just saying He’s got this. He’s saying His power (and that’s a lot of power) is perfected in our weakness. In our weakness, He gets to show His stuff. He gets to be who He is: all powerful, all knowing, the first and the last, the Great I AM, our Savior, our Salvation. All we have to be is weak. All we have to be is imperfect, a failure… Well I can manage that. I have no problem being weak.

When God puts it that way…I don’t have to be afraid of failure. My failure perfects His power. What a load He takes off my imperfect shoulders. My act doesn’t have to be together. So my children have zoomed through to their teenage years. I never had my act together. But that’s a really good thing. God had my back the whole time. Every time I have failed. Every time I’ve been imperfect (which is most of the time), God moved in and His power was perfected. Trust me, I’ve given Him countless opportunities to perfect His power.

So if you are like me and afraid of failure, don’t be scared anymore. Your failure is God’s time to shine. Remember this verse. Read the whole chapter. It’s very encouraging. And it doesn’t just apply to parenting, it applies to everything you do in life. Give God that chance to shine. He’s telling you “Keep Calm…I’ve got this.”

I love Easter! He is risen! The tomb is empty! Our whole faith is based on that one, simple, powerful fact! The tomb is empty! I want to hang on to Easter a little longer. Here’s one of my favorite Easter songs! Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OEqavkJGCE