Chapter 89  Epilogue: He Sets Prisoners Free

One day in Germany Barbara said to me, “You certainly are easier to live with NOW than you used to be!”   “That’s because of my ongoing revival,” I said.

That little conversation made me think more about what the Lord was doing in my life. It was clear that many of the sins and wrong attitudes that had for years dictated my responses, especially my emotional ones, were much less prominent in my life now.

My anger, my fear of man, my touchiness, my laziness, my anxiety, my impatience had all greatly diminished. Looking back, I could see the progression. It was like a “J” curve.

A “J” curve is a graph where there is minute, incremental growth for a long time, and then it turns a corner and  rises upward in an almost straight line.  A graph of the increase of the world population is a “J” curve.

The explosive growth of knowledge in the 20^th century is another “J curve.”

In my spiritual life there had been slow and steady growth as I consistently sought the Lord in my quiet time, prayer time, memorization of Scripture and meditation on Scripture. I did not see a lot of big surges, but the trajectory was continually upward.

Then, starting with my personal revival in the fall of 2006, my spiritual life began to turn a corner, rising sharply upward at an increasing rate of speed. The Lord was using all the groundwork of the previous forty years of my life to build this upward turn. With this turn of events, it became easier to stand against sin, to praise when I didn’t feel like it, to trust God when things were going wrong, to let go, hold on and rise above, to train my emotions to follow Truth.

Along with “easier” came “harder.” The challenges became greater, with more opportunities to offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving (Psalm 50:23). Where grace increases, so do the opportunities to use it. I expect this upward trajectory to continue as I intentionally cooperate with God in keeping the “vivacious cycle” going: worshiping to nurture my “first love” for Jesus, which leads to an ongoing revival, which then brings opportunities to make more worldview shifts.

This is like freedom on steroids—freedom to serve Him, to be a blessing to others, to lead the way to giving greater glory to God. It is, I believe, the life that God wants for all of us. It is what He is leading us toward through His discipline: “…we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!”  (Hebrews 12:9).

He wants us to really live, and to do so in His power. He is eager for us to see the things that prevent us from doing so. He wants to shine the light of His presence and Truth on the path before us so we can see what sins are causing us to stumble over and over again. To do this He disciplines us with the consequences of our poor choices, our faulty thinking, our stubborn selfishness. Then, when He has our attention, He can lead us out of our self-imposed darkness into the Light of His Love.

It all starts with meeting with Him every day. When we awake, He is there, waiting for us, desiring to spend time with us.  The question is, are we willing to do that?  To spend time in worship, in confession, in whole-heartedly reading His Word, in tenaciously praying? And then obeying what we know to be true?

This is where the trajectory of your spiritual life starts to rise. And my life story tells you where it goes: upward and onward with Him into ever-increasing freedom, joy and usefulness.

Psalm 21:8 “Your hand will lay hold on all your enemies; your right hand will seize your foes.”

[You, Lord God, did just that in the resurrection of Christ, defeating the devil, death, and destruction. And you will continue to act in righteous justice against those who oppose you, every one of them: Satan and his forces of demons, and all human beings who join him in rebellion against your Word, your Truth and your Character.]

Psalm 21:9 “At the time of your appearing you will make them like a fiery furnace. In his wrath the LORD will swallow them up, and his fire will consume them.”

[You will appear again, Lord Jesus–this is a certainty–and in your righteous wrath deal with those who oppose you and in doing so they also oppose all that is good. But you will do this only  after giving every one of your human enemies the chance to believe, to respond to the light they have received (Rom. 1:19-20). Your judgment will be just. But only those who have accepted your gracious offer of salvation, whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life will escape this judgment (Rev.20:15).]

Psalm 21:10-12, “You will destroy their descendants from the earth, their posterity from mankind. Though they plot evil against you and devise wicked schemes, they cannot succeed; for you will make them turn their backs when you aim at them with drawn bow.”

We know that will grieve your heart to do this, Lord, for it says in 1 Timothy 2:4 that you our good God, “wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” And yet, you are just and must eliminate all evil so there will be no sin, no evil, no harm in Heaven. What a gracious God you are. May we rest in you, the final Victor knowing that we will share in that victory.

Psalm 21:6 “Surely you have granted him eternal blessings”

[You granted David the blessing of being an ancestor of Jesus, and along with that, eternal life. You granted Jesus the blessing of the Resurrection and now He lives forever to intercede for those who believe in Him. And You grant us a rich, everlasting relationship with you, from which flow further blessings into our lives: grace, goodness, power, protection and wisdom, to name a few—all a foretaste of what we will have in eternity.]

“and made him glad with the joy of your presence.”

[To exult in your powerful and pure presence, Lord God, is to have joy! You, Heavenly Father, restored David’s relationship with you after his adultery. And in the Resurrection, you restored the fabric of the Trinity, which was torn when you turned away from Jesus as He became sin for us on the cross. Now in the God-head there is no end to your joyful, pristine relationships–the Father, Son and Holy Spirit’s rich unity–and your joy of being in the presence of each other.

And you also brought us into your presence, into your family, into your embrace when you made us your children, giving us gladness. Jesus, after his discourse in John 15 said, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

This is His desire for us. Let us live in the light of that wonder! Like the stone wall sheltering the little dogwood tree in this picture, God shelters us in goodness]

Well, today was a good opportunity to trust God and see Him work swiftly and just in time.

On the way home from church our car suddenly began to buck and snort and lost power (picture below). I was able to nurse it to the high point on our road and then shut the engine off, coasting the next mile home, only having to start the motor for the last hundred yards to pull us up the last little slope.

When we pulled into the driveway, our homeless friend who lives with us was just coming out of the door and came right over to look at the car. He determined that the water pump had frozen and the serpentine belt had come off after getting sprayed with antifreeze.

He went right to work on it, determined what we needed and went over to the auto parts store and got what was needed. While he was gone, we had lunch and laid down for a nap. When I woke up, I went out to see how our friend was doing. He had it all together except for getting the new serpentine belt on, which turned out to be quite a task. In the end working together we were able to get it on, start the car up, put  more antifreeze in and test it. It ran fine!

It was now 5:30, just before we wanted to leave for our Sunday evening small group meeting. Perfect timing all around! And I didn’t even have to ask our friend for help, he just plunged right in and got it done. Multiple God sightings in one big event. God is faithful to provide for us when we are helpless. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

Today was quite an eventful day for us. We had a yard sale and spent from 9 to 4 working on that, with much success, selling the majority of what we had for sale.r

But the much greater thing is what happened after the yard sale. We have a new homeless man, D, staying temporarily in our tower. He has a tumultuous and terrible background, “raised” by a mother on drugs and alcohol, he ran away from home at 14, lived on the streets or crashed at friends’ homes. He got into drugs and alcohol, too. Married at 40, having waited for the right spouse, his turned  out to be a nightmare for him.

A month ago he was preparing to commit suicide when his dog (pitbull) jumped in his lap, licking his face and wouldn’t get down. That brought him to his senses. Since life at home was unbearable he left and is staying in our tower. He has been in great turmoil with his wife hounding him with texts; yesterday she threw all his clothes out onto the lawn and he had to go collect them before the big thunderstorm last night.

He came to me early this evening in tears. He said he almost did himself in last night, but had a desire to talk with his mother and called her. She, it turns out, has come to the Lord (!!), has had a total change in her life, has been drug  and alcohol free for five years. He said he was amazed.  He has been struggling with unbelief and I’ve been praying that God would show Himself to D—and this was it!

We had a long talk and in the end he prayed to accept Jesus as his Lord. There was an immediate change, his despair evaporated, he smiled and he asked me to disciple him, “Show me how to go forward,” he asked. Rarely have I been the “midwife” in a spiritual birth, but the Lord gave me the joy of delivering a new brother for the Kingdom.

Please pray with me for D that he will move forward in his new faith, be able to shake the chains that have held him so long and stand against the attacks of the devil. Thank you