Beyond Ourselves
STORY TIME!
A few years ago, while living in Modesto, CA I had to go to the pharmacy. Not a super exciting beginning to a story is it? Well let me add a few more details.
Modesto is an area that is perpetually in a health crisis. The air quality is the worst in the country and allergies and asthma cases are among the highest also. When the flu season would hit, entire schools would close down in order to control it. My family has never been so sick as we were for the 4 years we lived in Modesto. Because of the health problems in the area, seeing a doctor was next to impossible, and a trip to the ER would be a minimum of a 7 hour wait unless you were bleeding to death. My kids didn't have a pediatrician because to see one was a 4 - 6 month wait. With just this minimal amount of info, you can imagine what going to a pharmacy was like. Add to that that Modesto didn't have the kind of pharmacies that we have; Walgreens and Bartell drugstores, they had pharmacy "centers" that, at any given time, had 75 plus people waiting around for prescriptions. These pharmacies were packed with people wheezing and coughing and miserable; crying babies, flustered moms....you get the picture.
So one day, I had to actually GO to the pharmacy. In keeping with Modesto health problems, I had broken out all over my lips and mouth with blisters. Isn't that a lovely mental picture for you? I felt pretty miserable, so I got a babysitter for my 2 hour trip to the pharmacy. After circling the lot for almost a half an hour, I got a parking spot and got in line....one of 12 or so lines, all with 15 or more people in line; and that was just to put IN your prescription. At this point in my life, I had made this personal determination; I had vowed to God, to the best of my ability, to be led by the Holy Spirit. I had determined that I would do my best to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and OBEY His promptings. Easy to say, HARD to do.
So there I am, gorgeous blister mouth, standing in line. In front of me is an elderly woman, and in front of her is a woman in her 40s with a large neck brace, a halo screwed into her skull and she is obviously in great pain. I overheard her talking to the person in front of her in line. I couldn't hear everything, but I got the general picture; she had been in a terrible accident, had broken her neck and was sentenced to life long pain and complete immobility of her neck. She was saying how much she longed to be able to lift or turn her head. She was there for more heavy pain meds. And then there it was, that stirring inside of me. If you have ever felt led by God to do something, say something, share something, you recognize that feeling or stirring inside of you. The Holy Spirit was leading me to pray for this woman; and the argument begins.
"This isn't you God, I just feel bad for her...."
"God, I have a mouth full of blisters...I may frighten her, plus it HURTS to even talk!"
"God, this room has almost 100 people in it, I would embarrass me and HER."
Etc etc.
But the Holy Spirit continued to nudge; or maybe insist is a better word. I have this profound fear of disobeying God, so I began to feel absolutely sick to my stomach at the thought of NOT praying for this woman. I bet you are feeling queasy just reading this!
So I GOT OUT OF LINE and approached the woman. She was nearing the counter for her pain meds, so I made it quick. I told her that though she didn't know me, and I didn't know her, I wondered if there was anything I could pray for her for? DUH, she was wearing a halo! She just stared at me. I told her that I believed God wanted me to pray for her, that she would be able to move her neck. She just stared. Then I got as bold as I could, I mean, what is the worst that could happen right? (just my personal humiliation, but since I was already out in public with blisters all over my mouth what did I have to lose?) I asked her if she would follow me to the lobby area so I could pray for her. The woman honestly just stared, and then followed me to the lobby area at the back of the room. I gently placed my hands on her, and I don't remember what I prayed exactly, but I know that it had something to do with God revealing His love for her, healing her, relieving her pain and allowing her to move her neck. After I said Amen, she jerked her head up and looked at me. I asked her if she felt any better, to which she promptly shook her head "no" and then "maybe a little" and then she sort of limped her way out the front door.
I'll be honest. I really thought that if God was leading me to pray for that woman, it was because He was going to heal her. I mean, I pictured this woman shrieking as the power of God came on her and jumping up and down, tearing off the brace and yelling "I'm healed!" "God is real!" and all pandemonium breaking lose. But there I was, left standing alone with 100 people staring at me and a weird hush over the place. And yet something just kept nagging at my thoughts, something HAD happened, I KNEW it. And then it hit me! she had jerked her head UP! and she had shook her head "no!" Dear God! She had moved her neck, with a neck brace on at that! A smile crept over my face as I made my way back to the line.
In front of me, was the same elderly woman I had been behind earlier. Immediately, she turned and grabbed my hands, "Did you just PRAY for that woman?" She asked. After a split second of being stunned I nodded. "Can you pray for me too?" she asked desperately. Now I don't know what that woman's church background was, but I prayed for her, right there in line that God Himself would visit her, heal her and show His love for her. The whole time my head is spinning, when I finally make it to the counter. As I am turning in my prescription, the woman working at the pharmacy says "excuse me, but did I see you PRAYING for that woman?" and then SHE asked for prayer TOO! So I reached my hands over the counter, grabbed hers and prayed God's love all over her too.
As she wiped away her tears and thanked me, I went to go wait against a wall for my prescription to be filled and all I could think was "man it is fun to be led by the Spirit."
John 16:12 says "The Spirit of truth..will guide you..." and Romans 8:14 says "All who are led by the Spirit are children of God."
Before we can develop fruit of the Spirit, we must surrender to the Spirit, and to surrender, we must be willing to obey and follow. The Holy Spirit has many responsibilities in the life of the believer; He guides and directs, gives wisdom, liberty, strength, power, anointing, understanding, access to the Father, love from the Father, gifts, He intercedes for us and through us, He "seals" us, He convicts us, He washes and renews us, He baptizes us, He lives in us, and He fills us. All of that is incredible, but we can still resist Him.
Acts 7:51 says "you stiff necked people...you always resist the Holy Spirit." I Thessalonians 5:19 says "Do not quench the Holy Spirit." Quench here means "preventing the Holy Spirit from exerting His full influence." Other translations of that verse say "Do not put out the Spirit's fire" or "Do not stifle the Holy Spirit." That word stifle says it all for me, that there is something inside of me alive and working (the Holy Spirit) and I have to work to keep it quiet and under control; my control that is. Deep inside of me, I desire to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. I desire to do the ordinary things, like go to the pharmacy, and have God do the extraordinary by using me to share His love with people in line in front of me! It is so easy, but it is so hard. For every one time I have a story like the one above, I have a dozen or more for the times I sensed that stirring and put it off, or resisted, until it went away, or the opportunity was missed. And then all I am left with is regret. I know you probably know that feeling too.
Ultimately it comes down to a battle between our "flesh" (our own desires and pleasures) vs. the Spirit that wants to work in and through us. Our flesh says that we have to earn our way. Our flesh desires the things of the world, gets jealous of others, and tears others down. And our flesh gets caught up in all kinds of sin. The Holy Spirit inside of us, with our cooperation, loves others, puts their needs before ours, brings about godly fruit, helps us serve others and extend grace and forgivness to others in order to restore them. Galatians 5:17 says "the sinful nature is contrary to the Spirit" isn't that the truth? It is the Holy Spirit who makes it possible for us to live beyond ourselves. So how do we yield ourselves to the Spirit of God and live beyond ourselves?
It takes practice. Just as it takes time to build up resistance TO the Holy Spirit, it also takes time to yield ourselves. I am all about being pracitcal, so I am going to give you a very practical question and a very practical challenge. Before I do, will you pause just a moment and think of what is to be gained? How exciting and fulfilling would your life be if you even had one story like the one above to share per year? What about one per month or per week? Obviously I have yieldedness issues too, because I can't think of an extraoridnary story from this past month, let alone this week, but that is part of my problem; it doesn't always have to be extraordinary! Me having a purpose beyond just doing laundry and dishes and shuttling my kids around, that is what keeps me going! To lay hands on people, to speak life into people, to see people find Jesus, find hope and find healing, I can't think of anything else more fulfilling! Don't you just yearn to know God so intimately that you know His voice, sense His leading and find joy in obeying Him? Don't you just long to have a purpose that is bigger than what we can see; to live beyond ourselves?
For those of you whose spirit is leaping inside of them, I give you two very practical things to try. THIS WEEK, say a simple prayer each day where you ask God to make you sensitive to how he may lead you, then PAY ATTENTION! As you feel drawn to someone, or someone comes to your mind or your heart be ready with a simple question. All you have to do is ask "Hey, is there anything I can pray for you about?" Pretty much everyone has SOMETHING you can pray for, and there you are, smack in the middle of an opportunity to be used. For my shy-er friends out there, start off with people you know and practice on people who you have a relationship with already. For those who are ready for a challenge, take the opportunity to ask the question of people you are intimidated by, complete strangers even! I have prayed for people on the grass seed aisle of the home improvement store, and just asked that God would make His love for them real. You can do this!
Along with asking the question is THE CHALLENGE. The challenge for this week (and the weeks to follow) is to pray for the Holy Spirit to lead, pay attention, ask the question and then PRAY IMMEDIATELY. All of us have found ourselves in the position where we tell someone "I'll be praying for you" How about add to that statement, "and let's go ahead and pray right now too." Over the phone, in Costco, at work, you can do this! Think how full of life and purpose you and I will be if we choose to live beyond ourselves.
For this week:
I know we will have some amazing stories of following the Holy Spirit. Please, post them here, we will inspire and spur each other on if we do! You don't have to give every detail, but share what the Holy Spirit is doing through you!
Choose a portion of Scripture to memorize and post it. It NEVER fails, whatever I am memorizing is what I end up quoting to people, or over people when God causes our paths to cross. I am currently beginning to memorize all of the book of Haggai (calm down, it's only 2 chapters).
So post your Spirit "leadings" and post what you will begin to memorize.
Let's live beyond ourselves, I am so excited!
A few years ago, while living in Modesto, CA I had to go to the pharmacy. Not a super exciting beginning to a story is it? Well let me add a few more details.
Modesto is an area that is perpetually in a health crisis. The air quality is the worst in the country and allergies and asthma cases are among the highest also. When the flu season would hit, entire schools would close down in order to control it. My family has never been so sick as we were for the 4 years we lived in Modesto. Because of the health problems in the area, seeing a doctor was next to impossible, and a trip to the ER would be a minimum of a 7 hour wait unless you were bleeding to death. My kids didn't have a pediatrician because to see one was a 4 - 6 month wait. With just this minimal amount of info, you can imagine what going to a pharmacy was like. Add to that that Modesto didn't have the kind of pharmacies that we have; Walgreens and Bartell drugstores, they had pharmacy "centers" that, at any given time, had 75 plus people waiting around for prescriptions. These pharmacies were packed with people wheezing and coughing and miserable; crying babies, flustered moms....you get the picture.
So one day, I had to actually GO to the pharmacy. In keeping with Modesto health problems, I had broken out all over my lips and mouth with blisters. Isn't that a lovely mental picture for you? I felt pretty miserable, so I got a babysitter for my 2 hour trip to the pharmacy. After circling the lot for almost a half an hour, I got a parking spot and got in line....one of 12 or so lines, all with 15 or more people in line; and that was just to put IN your prescription. At this point in my life, I had made this personal determination; I had vowed to God, to the best of my ability, to be led by the Holy Spirit. I had determined that I would do my best to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and OBEY His promptings. Easy to say, HARD to do.
So there I am, gorgeous blister mouth, standing in line. In front of me is an elderly woman, and in front of her is a woman in her 40s with a large neck brace, a halo screwed into her skull and she is obviously in great pain. I overheard her talking to the person in front of her in line. I couldn't hear everything, but I got the general picture; she had been in a terrible accident, had broken her neck and was sentenced to life long pain and complete immobility of her neck. She was saying how much she longed to be able to lift or turn her head. She was there for more heavy pain meds. And then there it was, that stirring inside of me. If you have ever felt led by God to do something, say something, share something, you recognize that feeling or stirring inside of you. The Holy Spirit was leading me to pray for this woman; and the argument begins.
"This isn't you God, I just feel bad for her...."
"God, I have a mouth full of blisters...I may frighten her, plus it HURTS to even talk!"
"God, this room has almost 100 people in it, I would embarrass me and HER."
Etc etc.
But the Holy Spirit continued to nudge; or maybe insist is a better word. I have this profound fear of disobeying God, so I began to feel absolutely sick to my stomach at the thought of NOT praying for this woman. I bet you are feeling queasy just reading this!
So I GOT OUT OF LINE and approached the woman. She was nearing the counter for her pain meds, so I made it quick. I told her that though she didn't know me, and I didn't know her, I wondered if there was anything I could pray for her for? DUH, she was wearing a halo! She just stared at me. I told her that I believed God wanted me to pray for her, that she would be able to move her neck. She just stared. Then I got as bold as I could, I mean, what is the worst that could happen right? (just my personal humiliation, but since I was already out in public with blisters all over my mouth what did I have to lose?) I asked her if she would follow me to the lobby area so I could pray for her. The woman honestly just stared, and then followed me to the lobby area at the back of the room. I gently placed my hands on her, and I don't remember what I prayed exactly, but I know that it had something to do with God revealing His love for her, healing her, relieving her pain and allowing her to move her neck. After I said Amen, she jerked her head up and looked at me. I asked her if she felt any better, to which she promptly shook her head "no" and then "maybe a little" and then she sort of limped her way out the front door.
I'll be honest. I really thought that if God was leading me to pray for that woman, it was because He was going to heal her. I mean, I pictured this woman shrieking as the power of God came on her and jumping up and down, tearing off the brace and yelling "I'm healed!" "God is real!" and all pandemonium breaking lose. But there I was, left standing alone with 100 people staring at me and a weird hush over the place. And yet something just kept nagging at my thoughts, something HAD happened, I KNEW it. And then it hit me! she had jerked her head UP! and she had shook her head "no!" Dear God! She had moved her neck, with a neck brace on at that! A smile crept over my face as I made my way back to the line.
In front of me, was the same elderly woman I had been behind earlier. Immediately, she turned and grabbed my hands, "Did you just PRAY for that woman?" She asked. After a split second of being stunned I nodded. "Can you pray for me too?" she asked desperately. Now I don't know what that woman's church background was, but I prayed for her, right there in line that God Himself would visit her, heal her and show His love for her. The whole time my head is spinning, when I finally make it to the counter. As I am turning in my prescription, the woman working at the pharmacy says "excuse me, but did I see you PRAYING for that woman?" and then SHE asked for prayer TOO! So I reached my hands over the counter, grabbed hers and prayed God's love all over her too.
As she wiped away her tears and thanked me, I went to go wait against a wall for my prescription to be filled and all I could think was "man it is fun to be led by the Spirit."
John 16:12 says "The Spirit of truth..will guide you..." and Romans 8:14 says "All who are led by the Spirit are children of God."
Before we can develop fruit of the Spirit, we must surrender to the Spirit, and to surrender, we must be willing to obey and follow. The Holy Spirit has many responsibilities in the life of the believer; He guides and directs, gives wisdom, liberty, strength, power, anointing, understanding, access to the Father, love from the Father, gifts, He intercedes for us and through us, He "seals" us, He convicts us, He washes and renews us, He baptizes us, He lives in us, and He fills us. All of that is incredible, but we can still resist Him.
Acts 7:51 says "you stiff necked people...you always resist the Holy Spirit." I Thessalonians 5:19 says "Do not quench the Holy Spirit." Quench here means "preventing the Holy Spirit from exerting His full influence." Other translations of that verse say "Do not put out the Spirit's fire" or "Do not stifle the Holy Spirit." That word stifle says it all for me, that there is something inside of me alive and working (the Holy Spirit) and I have to work to keep it quiet and under control; my control that is. Deep inside of me, I desire to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. I desire to do the ordinary things, like go to the pharmacy, and have God do the extraordinary by using me to share His love with people in line in front of me! It is so easy, but it is so hard. For every one time I have a story like the one above, I have a dozen or more for the times I sensed that stirring and put it off, or resisted, until it went away, or the opportunity was missed. And then all I am left with is regret. I know you probably know that feeling too.
Ultimately it comes down to a battle between our "flesh" (our own desires and pleasures) vs. the Spirit that wants to work in and through us. Our flesh says that we have to earn our way. Our flesh desires the things of the world, gets jealous of others, and tears others down. And our flesh gets caught up in all kinds of sin. The Holy Spirit inside of us, with our cooperation, loves others, puts their needs before ours, brings about godly fruit, helps us serve others and extend grace and forgivness to others in order to restore them. Galatians 5:17 says "the sinful nature is contrary to the Spirit" isn't that the truth? It is the Holy Spirit who makes it possible for us to live beyond ourselves. So how do we yield ourselves to the Spirit of God and live beyond ourselves?
It takes practice. Just as it takes time to build up resistance TO the Holy Spirit, it also takes time to yield ourselves. I am all about being pracitcal, so I am going to give you a very practical question and a very practical challenge. Before I do, will you pause just a moment and think of what is to be gained? How exciting and fulfilling would your life be if you even had one story like the one above to share per year? What about one per month or per week? Obviously I have yieldedness issues too, because I can't think of an extraoridnary story from this past month, let alone this week, but that is part of my problem; it doesn't always have to be extraordinary! Me having a purpose beyond just doing laundry and dishes and shuttling my kids around, that is what keeps me going! To lay hands on people, to speak life into people, to see people find Jesus, find hope and find healing, I can't think of anything else more fulfilling! Don't you just yearn to know God so intimately that you know His voice, sense His leading and find joy in obeying Him? Don't you just long to have a purpose that is bigger than what we can see; to live beyond ourselves?
For those of you whose spirit is leaping inside of them, I give you two very practical things to try. THIS WEEK, say a simple prayer each day where you ask God to make you sensitive to how he may lead you, then PAY ATTENTION! As you feel drawn to someone, or someone comes to your mind or your heart be ready with a simple question. All you have to do is ask "Hey, is there anything I can pray for you about?" Pretty much everyone has SOMETHING you can pray for, and there you are, smack in the middle of an opportunity to be used. For my shy-er friends out there, start off with people you know and practice on people who you have a relationship with already. For those who are ready for a challenge, take the opportunity to ask the question of people you are intimidated by, complete strangers even! I have prayed for people on the grass seed aisle of the home improvement store, and just asked that God would make His love for them real. You can do this!
Along with asking the question is THE CHALLENGE. The challenge for this week (and the weeks to follow) is to pray for the Holy Spirit to lead, pay attention, ask the question and then PRAY IMMEDIATELY. All of us have found ourselves in the position where we tell someone "I'll be praying for you" How about add to that statement, "and let's go ahead and pray right now too." Over the phone, in Costco, at work, you can do this! Think how full of life and purpose you and I will be if we choose to live beyond ourselves.
For this week:
I know we will have some amazing stories of following the Holy Spirit. Please, post them here, we will inspire and spur each other on if we do! You don't have to give every detail, but share what the Holy Spirit is doing through you!
Choose a portion of Scripture to memorize and post it. It NEVER fails, whatever I am memorizing is what I end up quoting to people, or over people when God causes our paths to cross. I am currently beginning to memorize all of the book of Haggai (calm down, it's only 2 chapters).
So post your Spirit "leadings" and post what you will begin to memorize.
Let's live beyond ourselves, I am so excited!
posted by Di Beals | 10:43 AM
2 Comments:
WOW! I was excited and spurred by your story. God has done some very similair experiences in my life, but I was touched deeply by your story. Thanks for sharing. I will try to post some experiences too.
What an inspiration, Di! I was actually in tears reading this. So many times I've had that feeling of "I should say something" or "I should do something" followed by "surely not me...what could I possibly contribute?" Wow! We really are supposed to follow that voice! :) I think I'm finally understanding that as I've gone through this year. Some folks have commented on how I've handled myself through this divorce, and here I was thinking that people didn't pay attention to me...They pay attention more than we think!
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