Have you ever asked God to send someone to you who is in need, so that you can help them? Ever asked him to show you those who need special prayer? Anyone who has any time under their belt with God knows that the answer often comes in ways that we don't expect, can't recognize and often don't want to embrace.
God sometimes directs to us a person who needs special prayer, but who presents in a disappointing, frustrating or even fearful way.
In other words, he will often allow circumstances in which our fleshly focus will be the offense that a person causes. We then have a choice to allow the anger, frustration or fear to reign and flourish, or we can step back into the Spirit and pray the prayer that God desires for the person. We can then reestablish our faith in God's authority in our lives, and how He protects us through his Holy Spirit and his mighty army of angels.
A young, female stranger in a green hoodie had knocked on our door twice, before I could answer. When I peeked out, she was looking in our mailbox, which was in the yard near the porch. I opened the door, demanding to know what she was doing, and she brushed it off as nothing. I demanded more answers to more questions, including that she must know it is against the law to open mailboxes. She agreed to some of my statements and gave questionable answers to others. At times her attitude seemed to border on belligerence, though I was not yelling or verbally abusing her.
Wanting her to know that she could not take advantage of me, but not wanting to be abusive, I told her strongly that she needed to leave, which she nervously did. I watched her pick up her backpack and jacket from the sidewalk and walk away. I knew that at any time there were many drifters moving through this area. Faith aside, for safety's sake and in respect of our neighbors, we could not invite any of them to stop at our house, when we otherwise would have wanted to help. This is one of the reasons that I told her firmly that she needed to leave, to discourage her from returning. Also she was trying to con me and seeking to steal from our mailbox.The best thing to do was to get her off of our property, and I did not feel led of the Spirit to report it to the police.
Naturally (the keyword is naturally, or fleshly), after she left I was infuriated by a feeling of helplessness. How could we protect our property from wanderers? It is on a busy 3-lane street and not facing another house. The 2 houses to the left and right diagonally across the street, and the 1 to the side are all facing away and either privacy-fenced or blocked by foliage. To the right was an old, private cemetery. What had seemed like a blessing in privacy was beginning to feel like a liability in safety.
The frustration mounted and then my intercessory prayer spirit kicked in as I thought to pray for this deceitful trespasser.
I have been growing in my ability to look past the person and try to see a need. So I prayed for her. Then I began to think of how God sometimes will test us by sending a person who seems to be a threat, but for whom he wants us to pray a special prayer. God knows where that person is mentally, emotionally and spiritually. God know what he is about to do in that person's heart. God knows when it is time, or almost time. So I went back to my prayer room.
I prayed a 2nd prayer for her, more detailed and more fervent. Then I prayed for myself and our property, reestablishing God's power and authority over his property. How were we going to protect our mail from now on? It was already an ongoing issue to monitor the outgoing and incoming mail, and the arrival of packages. Today though it seemed as if we were being attacked and that the way was being opened for us to be assaulted by trespassers. Isn't that the way that the flesh operates? It breeds never-ending fear and anxiety. I prayed again, and reestablished my belief that God has an army of angels dispatched to protect us and this property from assault. I reasserted that whatever he allows is for a reason and will be recycled for our good.
Why does God sometimes allow us to be tested in this way? Well, it's often twofold. He'll send someone into our mist who now needs a special prayer about something or another. God knows where the person is at, and all that we need to do is pray what we feel, and allow the Holy Spirit to take it from there. Then, God allows to come with the person some annoying or frustrating circumstance so that we can see what we are made of. He already knows where we are at in our walk with him. He also knows where we think we are. The adverse circumstance helps us to see where we are, and to reach up a little higher.
So he often allows a two-fold circumstance so that we can become more adept at choosing to allow his power to work.
It is in a circumstance of adversity that his power will most strongly work for us. It's when we don't feel like it, or are suffering too much, or are too afraid or frustrated, or feel violated when we have a choice to take his power, which we've been claiming and asking for more of everyday, and apply it. It is a choice. We can feel that we are at the mercy of evil, and allow that dreaded fear to take over and multiply, or we can step from our flesh back into our reborn spirit, rise up and invite the power of God that we have been boasting about to take over.
Do I know for sure that God was in this invasion, that it was him who allowed the stranger to enter our property, try to steal from our mailbox and become belligerent and shifty when questioned? No, I don't know for sure. But, I choose to believe that it was God and that he is in control, and that his purpose is to bless her and me through the experience. The only other option is to believe that it was not him and that he is not in control, and that we are at the mercy of anyone who walks by. Go with God. It's as simple as that.
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