Confusing "Separation" and Feeling "Spiritually Drained"

There was a young woman who loved the Lord who recently spent some time away from home. She was able to spend time with friends she had not spent time with for a long while, a couple whom she had not even seen for two years! After hearing some of the struggles they were facing, and knowing what it was to face struggles herself, she shared with them some of the magnificent things that her wonderful Savior was teaching her at the time. She also shared with them Biblical teachings and knowledge she had gained in the past, and some of the ways the Lord had blessed and sustained her through past trials. She related with exuberance that the Lord loved those girls and that if they found their worth and fulfillment in Him, they would not need to be searching for it elsewhere, and continually meet with disappointment and pain. Her worldview was strengthened, and although she encountered a bit of culture shock, she had poured encouragement into her friends by the grace of God and the Power of His Spirit.

The Lord blessed her with phenomenal things from His Word during this time, as well, which kept her going—fed her fuel with fire and kept it blazing—gave her a reason to share that hope within her!

But when she returned home, and expected that fire to continue, she was discouraged to find it quite the opposite! :-( In fact, she felt as though the Lord had put up a wall between Himself and she and she was very disheartened. Was there something wrong with her house that hindered her from intimacy with her Lord, even though she did her best to irradiate what might? She hadn’t changed at all since she had come home—in fact, she tried to spend time with the Lord in a more similar way then she had during her vacation, but to no avail. It even came to the point where she subconsciously thought, “What’s the use?” and battled with depression. There was a sudden weight on her heart—

 

And she didn’t know why

:-(

She wondered if perhaps the Lord had been giving her a taste of His magnificence while she was away, in blessing her time with Him, only to remove those blessings when she arrived back home as if to say, “Here—you know how wonderful fellowship with me can be. Now that you are back home, in your own native environment, where everything is so much harder to practice and live out, how bad do you want it?”

But she knew better. That seemed like something her earthly father would say is against the nature of God. God doesn’t tease or taunt.

But she also remembered, that after His great victory on Mount Caramel, the prophet Elijah also suffered with depression and discouragement. Queen Jezebel threatened to kill him and he ran off into the desert and asked the Lord to take his life, he was in such despair!

Even though he’d just come out of a major spiritual victory, a mountaintop, if you will, he suddenly felt plunged into darkness! :-( It was as though, after this hard and wonderful work, Elijah was spiritually drained.

This young woman also remembered that it was after a forty-day fast in the wilderness—another spiritual victory—that the Lord Jesus Himself was intensely tempted and attacked by the devil.

Perhaps, she reasoned, this is what was happening to her. Or perhaps, yet another plausible explanation, the devil saw the damage she was doing to his kingdom, the joy she was finding in his greatest Enemy, and was all over finding a way to prevent ‘anymore of that’ at all costs!

Is this you today, dear sister?!?!?!? 

If it is, please! Do NOT loose heart! Pray that God would bind satan and his demons in the name of Jesus and keep them away from you! Persevere! Get into the Word one more time, and even if it doesn’t feel as if you glean anything, you still spent time with Jesus and tried your best.

“…Nothing ‘jumps’ out. Is it then unprofitable? No, because it does help even if we can not feel it. It is like taking potatoes and holding them under running water. Even though a lot of dirt may not come off, they still are cleansed to a degree. So I should just continue reading. It was cleanse my heart and make it good soil for growing fruit.”

{Taken from The Family Daughter, page 103 Emphasis mine }

I love that illustration and find encouragement from it! :-) Also, get alone with Jesus, and even if you do not feel like putting forth the effort to pray, even if it doesn’t seem worth it, or if you don’t feel as if you have anything to say to Him—talk to Him anyway!! Be brutally honest. He can handle it. (read that once as well LOL- here is the link to where: Lessons Learned in the Valley MOHL

And please, dear sister!

TAKE HEART!!!!!

Omisoul—Jesus totally and completely LOVES YOU!!!

Be ENCOURAGED

by how God handled the situation with Jesus and Elijah. The Bible says that angels ministered unto them! (Mark 1:13) (1 Kings 19:5-8) And before you say, “yeah, well Jesus was perfect! Of course God would send angels to minister unto Him in His moment of need,” remember that while Jesus was sinless—Elijah was not!! :-D (James 5:17-18) I know the context isn’t quite the same, but God is not going to leave you comfortless! (Psalm 23:4) (Isaiah 43:1) (Isaiah 51:12) (Hebrews 2:18)

Remember, you are a Daughter of the King of Kings, and you are enlisted in His army! You are a Princess Warrior! You are of infinite value and worth to Christ and His kingdom! If you are simply trying to live for Him and keep Christ at the center of your life, guess what?! Satan does not like you! If you are on fire for Christ- if you are living for Him—satan is going to do all he can to make sure that fire is stamped out! >=(

So, by the mighty, all-powerful grace of GOD DO NOT LET satan DO THIS!!!!! Persevere! Fight the good fight of faith! The King has adorned you with perfect armor—put it to use in a way that glorifies Him and defeats the enemy! (Ephesians 6:10-18) Pray for the help of the angels!

“Prayer is often a contest between demons who hinder, and angels who minister.” ~~Evangelist/Preacher Tom Harmon

(And I can almost promise you, taking time to seriously just pray will probably eliminate that “separating wall” feeling you have in your heart!♥)

Walk by God’s grace and finally, rest in His comprehension-surpassing peace! (2 Corinthians 1:2) (Philippians 4:6-7)

If you want, I will pray for you!

Press on, dear sisters! I know you may feel as though you are, but take heart, because, YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

~~Love Katie

PS. I actually felt the Lord lay this on my heart today. Often when I do a blogpost, it is because God has given me something that thrills and excites me, but today, it was different. I didn’t really desire to write this, but I felt I should. So I began.

And guess what?

I was adding the finishing lines on it, when suddenly, Microsoft Word decided to glitch. A blip popped up on my screen informing me that “Microsoft Word has stopped working”, and before I realized what I’d done, I clicked the only button—“close”—on the blip and lost the entire, basically finished blogpost.

Yep. Can anyone say “confirmation”? :-D :-D :-D

By God’s grace, I immediately reopened the program to find that 3/4^th of it was “recovered”, but I still had to rewrite the last few paragraphs.

If you needed this today, if you feel like the young woman in the story, BE ENCOURAGED, sweet sister! God made sure you got this today!!!!! He loves you!

{Pictures via Rachel and Google Images! :-) }