Ahhhhhh the beautiful storms of life!!! I say beautiful because every time I'm hit with a storm, I have a choice to either succumb to what I see, or rise in faith and declare what the Master has already spoken! We see in our above scripture that Jesus made a declaration to his disciples by saying "let’s go across to the other side." After Jesus made his declaration/confession, He went to sleep! Let’s dissect that for a bit. When God gives us a promise opposition will rise. Depending upon the size of the promise, will depend on the opposition you encounter. Opposition is absolutely necessary in our lives because it is used to strengthen us, refine us, and perfect our faith. It's not God sending the opposition, I believe it’s simply a principle, like gravity, that is in place to grow us! I want to be very careful as I communicate this because there are at times, evil things that happen to us that God had nothing to do with, however God will heal us and as a benefit of that healing He will strengthen us, if we allow Him to. In this blog, I'm specifically referring to promises God has given us for our lives and opposition rises shortly after we receive those promises.
Many times the promises God gives you personally, come in the form of desires He has placed in your heart. For example, when I was a little girl, about 7 years old actually, God put a desire in my heart to travel from city to city via a bus, singing and talking about Jesus. Here I am, at 42 years old, and still desiring that same thing! So, what had to happen from 7 years old to whenever this takes place, because it will? It's called training and preparation! The opposition in my life for many years was my not choosing to be abandoned to Jesus Christ because the world looked like it had so much more to offer. Oh, I went my own way for soooooo long! I was an innocent 7 year old that basically lost my innocence at the age of 10 through sexual abuse, and later being raped at the age of 13. This led me to a life of sexual promiscuity, later landing me in the adult entertainment industry, into prostitution! Then, an unplanned pregnancy was my wake-up call! That was the catalyst for me to come back to Christ. When I came back to Christ, the relationship was different with Him. I basically was this cocky 23 year old that got in God's face and said "prove yourself!" Guess what? He did! He did so in a way that He not only won my respect (see I was taught that God allowed all those horrible things to happen to me - which later I discovered was NOT the case), but He won my heart completely!!!! And while there are times that I stray a bit, He doesn't let me go far because I'm so crazy in love with Him that I miss the connection with Him! I can't be without Him!!! I'm so incredibly interdependent upon Him that my life is meaningless when He is left out of any equation. It doesn't take me long to run back to His arms and His safety!
This leads me to share with you what God showed me through this latest whitewater rafting trip. I knew my heart needed an adventure with God. I needed to get away from pouring myself out to others, and get poured into by God. Many times you see how Jesus left the multitudes to get away with His Father. This is hugely important in our lives! You cannot minister to people out of your reserve for any length of time, because you need to minister to others out of your overflow, so your life doesn't get out of balance! I could tell I had gotten to the point of running on "empty" because I had been just pouring myself out with huge hope that healing would begin to take root in the people I was ministering to. God sent some super strong forces to hold me up because He and I were partnering together to plant some massive seeds, and then God pulled the plug and said "enough." God knows my heart and knows I will pour out until I'm exhausted because I just want so much for others to "get Him" and "get His heart" for them!! Oh, man if I could just let others into my heart and just be me for five minutes to just experience God's massive love that burns inside of me. I guess they would understand why I'm so radically and recklessly abandoned to Him! He took my broken life years ago and began creating something beautiful! He took the storms of my life that could have destroyed me and caused me to have supernatural strength because of them! He turned everything around and infused life into my heart!
So as I took to the water on the Ocoee River in Copperhill, TN., I knew God was going to show me some incredible truths and inject them like a shot of adrenaline into my heart! I had my daughter and her girlfriend with me which made it an even better experience for me, because I always try to teach my daughter the things of God using stories as Jesus did. I was able to share with her, Sara, and our 2 guides, what I'm about to share with you.
Our two guides were "Matt & Matt." The one Matt was incredibly skilled on the river and the other Matt was "in training" (isn't God cool to set this particular adventure up that way!) Matt was guiding Matt by giving him navigational instructions. Matt knew the riverbed, and the other Matt was learning the riverbed. We all know that rocks cause rapids. There are many points on the river where you have to navigate between certain rock beds so you don't get hung up in the shallow water. We hit a few rocks that got our raft stuck, but Matt was doing an amazing job!! Can I ask you a question, what rocks are getting you stuck in life? I know I discovered a few in my own life. One of them is trying to do God's job! LOL - I'm a High D personality, so many times God has to remind me that He's the one leading this thing! I laugh at God's humor! In our above scripture, Jesus shows us how it’s done. He went to sleep in the storm because He had full confidence and trust in His Father to get them to the other side. I was reminded that I didn't want to be like the disciples in our scripture by "freaking" out and questioning where the heck God was in the storms of my life. He's there and fully aware! Even more so than I!
There were points on the river where we got to relax. We even got to stop at a huge rock and they turned a raft over on this huge rock and made it a slide! We all got to slide down the raft into the water and just have a blast!! Only those who have been schooled on the river knew that this point was safe to stop and play! Again, skillful navigation! As we continued on our journey, the rapids were increasing in difficulty, but our guides were instructing us when to sink those oars deep or when to get down in the center rather than sitting on the side of the raft. They were instructing us when to back paddle and what way we needed to turn in order to hit the rapids just right so as not to be tossed out or get stuck in a hydraulic. We needed to listen carefully and do exactly what our skilled navigators instructed to have the best adventure!
The first big rapid we hit was "Double Trouble!" My daughter said she wanted to "Ride the Bull!" My motherly "protector" engaged and God quickly told me to relax because He wanted to give her an amazing adventure with Him. See, when you "Ride the Bull" (picture above) you sit on the front of the raft and hit the rapid hard. You can easily be bounced out of the raft if you don't balance your body weight just right. You have to literally work with the rapid and not against it. I was so scared she was going to get bounced out. God said, relax, I got this! LOL! Mikayla did amazing!! She loved it and had the time of her life. As we entered other rapids, God was showing me that the bigger our calling, the longer the training. Each rapid gets more difficult and every rapid we face requires us to use the training we've received up until that point to navigate through the difficulty. When we continually engage our training, we become skilled navigators in this life!
The last rapid was called "Powerhouse" and guess who got to "Ride the Bull?" Yours truly! This rapid was huge and few stay in the raft. I was going for it!! I listened intently to my instruction. I climbed on the front of the raft knowing I didn't have my oar to keep me in, I was depending on getting through this by using my body weight and using the water as my ally rather than my enemy. See, the storms of your life are not the enemy; they are actually your ally! We must encounter obstacles to gain strength, which in turn gives us the tenacity to continue, the perseverance to rise above, and the ability to overcome! God designed us to overcome! Are you letting the storms of life toss you out of the raft? Or, are you looking at the storms to train you to become a skillful navigator? When I went through "Powerhouse," I rocked it!! I took the bull by the horns I guess you could say and I went through that rapid flawlessly! My guides were super impressed. As I shared this story with my team on this raft, they all listened intently and I was able to speak of God in a parable by using what they knew best! As I shared, God downloaded this to my spirit, He said, "I've prepared you to be a "Powerhouse" for Me, and set the captives free! I've trained you to be a "Skilled Navigator!"
How is God training you? What obstacles in your life can actually bring greatness to your life?
Skillfully Trained,
TDahl
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