Last week we closed by saying that each of you could easily remember one of the “worst” times that happened to you personally and then ask Him to also remind you how He miraculously, amazingly caused “all things to work together for GOOD—because you loved God—because you were called and TRUSTED His purpose.”
Did you simply stop to absorb this wisdom? I hope so because there’s more to absorb this week as I share how very real Perceived Danger can be, feeling it to the point we react as if it were real.
Let me share this story that He used to help me understand this principle and learn this living lesson. Just after finishing work today, I stood up to leave and looked out my window and noticed an alligator. I have to say I never will get used to seeing an alligator that’s virtually in my backyard but it reminded me of something that I pondered as I sat outside eating my lunch. Something that happened a few days earlier when I was in my pool.
Remember I’m in a vacation rental resort. So while here, I have a backyard pool that is entirely screened in and overlooks a lake. In Florida, there are a lot of man-made lakes in order to absorb and catch all of the rainwater during the summer months, so it’s not too uncommon for homes to have a lake. So I was in my pool, resting my arms up on the side, gazing out over the lake, thanking Him for this paradise, when all of a sudden, I could just see the spikes and knew it was an alligator. And, this alligator was swimming right towards me. Immediately I started to tell myself, “Oh my gosh, get out of the water fast!” That’s because I perceive this danger, but this wasn’t a danger to me at all.
I was not in the same body of water! I’m safely inside a pool surrounded by His favor (definitely this is His favor me living here) but I had this sensation, this perceived danger. Even though I honestly wanted to get out, I sensed He wanted me to stay put. So I stayed where I was and watched it swimming towards me. The closer it got, the more I really was sensing, really feeling that danger as it was looking right at me! But I was safe, perfectly safe, absolutely perfectly safe.
Then as I watched it swim into a drainage pipe (which I guess is how they go from one lake to the other, not traveling across the ground) I began talking to Him about it. Instantly He took me all the way back many years before my ministry started. Well, correction, I suppose my ministry was in the process of being birthed (much like many of you are birthing).
On this day I’d also perceived danger. I was driving back home to our shabby condo (where, by the way, my four older children say is where their fondest childhood memories are). I was driving with my mother and my four children were buckled in the back, when I saw a car pulling out of the very short dead-end street to our condo. As I passed this car, I saw my earthly husband driving and sitting next to him was the other woman! Of course, I immediately perceived danger, wondering what this meant. I turned to look at my mother who was just as shocked. We stared at each other for a second, but neither knew what to say. So I turned down the street and saw my earthly husband’s car. Then I assumed he’d left his car and gone off with the other woman (but her perceived proximity to my home and children rattled me). Dear brides, when I went inside, I was even more shocked—there he was—my EH. I had perceived what I could swear (to this day) is what I saw with my own eyes and my mother even confirmed it! Nevertheless, it wasn’t any danger at all. What I felt, what I sensed, what I believed was perceived, but never posing any real threat to me or my children.
This living lesson today can be summed up by stating that we never should look with our physical eyes, nor how we feel because even when we perceive some sort of danger, it very often is not a threat to us at all. Now that’s not to say that if we sense His leading us away from danger, and we know from experience that it IS HIM who is leading us to go somewhere or do something that we ignore it.
The truth is, when I sensed and felt like I wanted to run from the perceived danger, I didn’t feel it was the Lord leading me out of the pool. It was entirely due to the fear I was feeling. The perceived fear we feel when we hear or watch the news and all that’s happening around the world. The perceived fear we feel when we are ill or discover an abnormality in or on our body. The perceived fear we feel, even the lies we hear in our head or from a trusted doctor, that this can’t be anything but cancer, surely it’s fatal.
It’s the truth that sets us free. The truth is that there was never an alligator in my pool nor was my EH in a car with the OW driving away from my home and sanctuary for my children. Nor was anyone out to harm me when the truck followed me down the dirt road that you read about in The Source of Your Strength. And the only way to know the truth, despite what you perceive, is to make sure, more than ever before, that we are walking so closely with our Heavenly Husband, that we can sense Him turning us one way or the other or to remain right where we are. Only when we are this close can we navigate up, down, around, through and over potholes—actually leaping over landmines.
Dear bride, cherish and protect the Abundant Life you’re living as His bride and don’t allow the enemy to get the better of you with perceived danger not suited for us as His brides.
Unleashing the TRUTH