Perspective on Powerlessness
Phyllis was born into a pseudo-Christian cult. She learned well, very early on, the foundational rules of all cults:
-The leader is always right.
-The leader is always right.
-The leader is always right.
She also learned that her parents could hit harder and run faster than she could.
And after she agreed to be friends with the dark creature that used to torment her at night, she learned that the dark side specializes in double dealing, and her friendship only made things worse.
She made some bad choices as a wrong response to the pain that was thrust on her, and life became acutely painful.
Eventually she decided to take a look in the direction of God, so she read the Bible through, and got nothing out of it.
At that point, the demons upped their attacks on her, punctuating each problem she faced with the word “powerless!”
She sought counseling and it was ineffective. The critters screamed and shouted and celebrated in front of her about how powerless she was to get out of their grip.
When she asked me about the problem of powerlessness, I challenged her on the fact of the matter.
I agreed with the demons wholeheartedly that there ARE a bunch of areas where she is powerless. For example, there are some toxic people in her life and I don’t have a shred of hope that she can bring healing to them and make them incarnated paradigms of perfection, dripping with all nine of the fruit of the Spirit.
She is powerless there, at least for now.
Score one for the devil.
There are some pretty heavy consequences from her past life that look as though they will go on for a number of years yet.
She appears to be pretty powerless to change that time line.
Score two for the devil.
The list goes on.
Score more for the devil.
BUT I challenged her on three points.
One is that there are areas of her life where she is changing. I listed five long-term problems where she had found some keys and has in fact grown out of those problems. Measurable, verifiable, sustained change.
She is NOT powerless in those five!
Score five for the power of God.
Second, I pointed out that her design has not changed since its inception. She has been lied to about who she is. The devil has stomped all over some of the finer points of her design. She has been ignorant of her design for decades.
Now, God is opening her eyes to see herself through His eyes, and her design is becoming evident, plus she is rapidly unpacking her design.
In the long and sometimes cruel night watches, she has had fun reminding the tormenters that THEY were absolutely powerless to change God’s design in her, and no amount of sin against her or her sin has changed it. She still has her treasure and always will.
And they will ALWAYS be powerless to extract God’s gifts from her.
Score 1,000 for the King and the Kingdom.
Third, there is absolutely no question that God has intruded Himself into her life and is pursuing her and showing her love. She is somewhat surprised at the love gifts, but is absolutely clear that it is love. God loves her. God loves her in spite of her. God loves her more than she loves herself. God is using some of the most amazing supernatural power to show her love in her key of music, and it happens day after day.
He has not seen fit to heal everything that needs to be healed in spirit, soul and body, but He sure is manifesting His love for her in palpable ways, regularly.
So she also has the monumental delight of rubbing it into the critters that in spite of all the bad stuff she did, they have never managed to make God stop loving her. AND they are totally incapable of blocking God’s demonstrations of His love for her.
In spite of all of the wounds from authority figures and all the reasons to distrust them, God effortlessly hacks her firewalls and makes her feel loved.
And they are powerless to stop Him.
They can’t stop His love.
They can’t stop His acts.
They can’t stop her emotional responses of awe to His unspeakable love acts.
They are crazy bad, hopelessly, impossibly, irreparably powerless.
And she knows it.
And loves it.
And makes sure they know about it.
Score 15,000,000,000,000 for the Lord of Love.
So yeah. There are some AREAS where she still EXPERIENCES powerlessness.
True facts.
But SHE is not powerless anymore.
And never will be again.
And that distinction has turned the savagely stinging wasps into irritating mosquitos.
They are still on the list for extermination, but it is a different game these days.
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Comments
powerlessness
By : Cyndi On July 13th 2020Powerlessness is awful. Especially when we know we are made for dominion with Jesus. When we know He is our strength, help, upholder with His victorious right hand. But, as long as we can know that it is a process, that it is in the fire that we get to know Him better, that there WILL be a testimony of His faithfullness on the other side, it is possible to just put one foot in front of the other, and keep going. Phyllis, you go, girl. Thank you for the testimony of your grit and tenacity.
perspective and revelation...
By : Mitchell On March 8th 2019Nothing can change our perspective more deeply than revelation... when God reveals His love to us One on one.
That is a real game changer! Beautiful!
Overruled!!
By : Emilie Bell On January 7th 2019I so love this victory, and truth she was able to discover!! The picture of a gavel being brought down by the Judge, and the resounding "OVERRULED" being pronounced on the critters, her past, and her bad decisions floated through my mind as I read!
Beautiful!
By : Adela On January 5th 2019So much power comes from the acknowledgement that you are LOVED by The Most High God! Inspiring story! Thank you :)
Nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ
By : Soo Fee On January 4th 2019I bless Phyllis and everyone with Romans 8:35-39
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
A life that is a treasure
By : Elouise van der Merwe On January 4th 2019I bless Phyllis with the Blessing of James ( from Blessing Your End Of Life)
I bless her with knowing that “her life is a treasure in the Hand of the Lord of Lords, The Almighty God.”
Her LIFE is a TREASURE!
Leveraging Power
By : Gordon Haggerty On January 3rd 2019I love the picture you’ve painted. And that the only real power the devil has over us is the lie. The power of the truth is like a solvent that softens the lie and causes is to lose its grip.
I also like the picture of a hydraulic tractor. The power of the Holy Spirit is like the tractor, and when we are seated in Him, exercising our will is like tweaking a lever that unleashes the power of the tractor, magnifying our actions thousands of times. Draining the swamp by hand can be messy and dangerous. But when we have access to bulldozers and massive pumps, it’s a whole different picure!
God’s truth is that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. (2 Co. 10:4)
We win!
He restores power.
By : Robin Lawrimore Lewis On January 3rd 2019After you've been in a powerless situation and believed it, when God begins to bring you out, you want to dress in armor, take up the Sword, and stomp around on the enemy for the lies he used against you. Then you want to help free and restore power to others! I was ever only as powerless as I believed myself to be. Now I believe differently. As long as I "ascribed power" to others or to wrong beliefs, I was depleting myself of the power God wanted me to walk in. When I began seeing and ascribing power to where it belongs - to the God of gods - He began restoring my power.
Amen and amen! Hail the King!
Hard, challenging and victorius
By : Gernot On January 3rd 2019I love this story. His love burns through all Satan has to bring on. HIS love is the answer, due it`s no cotton-wool. But in the end, it creates eternal winners.