Psa 108:8

 Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine;

Ephraim is my helmet,

Judah my scepter.

Soundness

Sound mindness is a relative thing in culture, it seems. 

Looking out in the world about me, it seems that the standard for sound mindness is whatever state of mind one can maintain that results in paid bills and fed stomachs within a functioning community. 

If only just from listening to the words people around me form to speak out of their mouths, of their own free will .. I know a somewhat clearer picture . That many people functioning around me, with breath in their lungs and any anticipation for a day ahead, are only able to do so by the grace of God ... whether they know Him or not. 

Today was a very challenging day operating within the cultural paradigm of sanity first described. This paradigm requires functioning around other functioning people, much like how creatures dwell in a jungle together.  They're all part of a system that, if thriving, has some balance within the roles that its functioning parts maintain. 

But, in the jungle, who eats who is the governing role. None of this, "There's space for me to be me, and you to be you." Being a Christian largely allows me to understand what it actually going on.. when someone seems to be seriously angry that you are simply breathing around them.  Understanding is required based on the fact that I encounter this kind of person on as regular a basis as I encounter people willing to greet and smile at a stranger in passing. 

Then, being a Christian, there's the part about loving those, all together. 

What does this actually look like? 

Because of the ordeal that I endured with my family (described in my testimony post), I'm sure most of the time that strong dispositions from other people are not about me at all. If someone that I don't even know wants to go out of their way for me in some way, I blame it on Jesus. It's my Jesus me they've just seen and are responding to.  

Likewise,  if a sudden enemy seems to be sniffing out my trail. 

Comparing to the Matrix movies is the best way to describe what I'm talking about. In the Matrix, Mr. Smith had access to Neo where ever there was a body present who was plugged into the Matrix. 

The part you won't see in the Matrix movie is that Jesus outpoured His 'network' at Pentecost. 

Where ever His children are, He is. 

Talking about the Matrix... The following account actually occurred in my life, on a rural road in upper Iowa in 2018. 

I had just been in tears in my home, thinking about some of the things that have unfolded in my life the way they did. There was lots of time for quiet reflection in that little town in upper Iowa, where I'd been residing for a few years by 2018.

In the middle of that weeping moment, the promise God spoke in Rev 3:9 quickened to me --

  .... and they will learn that I have loved you.

 Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you. Rev 3:9

In that moment, I was so encouraged that I'd determined to continue toward the day's tasks 'lighting the road on fire' ... I knew it was God who'd just spoken to me, and He was with me. Who can be against me? 

I was ready to get into my vehicle and worship all the way with my worship music in the speakers and the fire that was instantly ignited in my spirit when quickening to and believing what I had just received in God's Word. 

Along my route, I would meet with the enemy's desperate response to what I'd just decided. 

On Iowa roads, everyone minds their own business. A drive along a rural Iowa road is an exercise in focus. There are mostly corn fields on either side of you and nothing in walking distance once you've made it onto a highway. Likewise, there isn't the busy street dynamic to entertain from point A to B. So, you pack your own portion of streamline resolve for a drive and you stick to it. 

For me, driving along roads in rural Iowa was a good way to get in some daydreaming. With no one around, while on a road in a flat land where sometimes you could see it pouring rain five miles from you with sun and blue skies yet directly overhead, its a great place to get the feeling that the space you're in at that moment is your own personal dimension to live. And, it was in this space that I planned to set the road ahead of me on fire with praise and worship for God who had just scooped me into His hand. 

I was quite enjoying accomplishing this, maybe perhaps there was a fire in the spirit on that road. 

And, as this was unfolding, I noticed a large semi coming up in speed to pass me on the 2-lane road that we were driving. Within a matter of seconds, the trucker would be safely ahead and I could dive back into my zone. But, the moment ahead revealed a different outcome. Instead of passing me at a speed where he should've already accomplished this, the trucker had gotten over into the lane I was in and was now driving closely behind me.  Briefly observing the surrounding area, there was nothing and no one else on the road that would've soundly influenced this decision. 

The trucker was up to trouble. 

But, this wasn't a normal day for me. So, I didn't respond normally. Only moments before, I was taking over the road in worship and having the time of my life. Like a surfer riding the crest of a wave for a length of their own record time, or a cool glass of water during a summer day in Arizona, the only acceptable option was to be able to get back to it. But, I also instantly knew that in that moment, I was encountering spiritual warfare. 

Instead of possibly being afraid for my life, I was determined to maintain my fire on the road. Translation - getting over into the opposite lane was not on my option list. Doing so for me would translate into conceding to the sorrow that I'd been weighted with before I'd gotten onto the road that day. Dimensions collided in that moment as I was determined to remain in that lane. I slowed all the way to 25 mph as the trucker was all but an inch away from my vehicle, determined to force me from the road and refusing to pass me in the lane he'd been on when initially approaching. 

The road was clear, there was no one around to see the fiasco. And, more than anything, I was livid at the boldness of my enemy. 

I made it away with my life and my vehicle in tact to be able to go straight to report the incident. No matter what happened to that trucker however, all I wanted was my moment on the road back. But, I also learned that if I hadn't been actually accomplishing something ferociously detrimental to the enemy camp on that road, I wouldn't have seen that encounter. 

Moments like the one I had on that rural road, and many others, have allowed me to resolve that this thing is not about me at all.. It's also given me to understand that this is a real war. My paradigm today includes the firm belief that if you're not making someone very frustrated as a Christian, you must not be doing Christian right. So much for niceties. 

Today, I encountered another incident square with the enemy camp .. involving a person I  am simply in regular proximity to during my day-to-day . 

Then, upon my route home, a song lyric on the radio found a place in the soft spot where bruised feelings had established a vulnerable space. Praise God for His timing. 

The lyric - 

 ... when Death was arrested, and my life began... 

Something that came out of that person's mouth, possibly cursing in nature, met with the Truth of what Jesus did on the cross ... and created a beautiful picture before me today. 

 

Death_Was Arrested from Tim Peterson

Yet processing that such hatred could come out of a seemingly functional person, the song lyric met me. I realize in preparing this post that the song is not a new one. But, I never heard it before today. 

God is perfect with timing.  

In hearing the lyric sent for me from His Heaven, my mind began operating the way God intended. I began to see the words of that song create an actual scene, Jesus taking the hand cuffs that Satan had been swinging around his ugly finger and placing them on Satan's own writs. 

God is Salvation, sound mindness. 

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.  12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.  13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.  14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,  15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.  16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;  

17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God 

Eph 6:11-17

Ephesians 6  | ESV.org