Last time we discovered that God's Holy Spirit was part of the Creation
of our world. He brought light in a place of desolation, bringing hope
and joy to all.
Today we will see that the Holy Spirit also made
it possible for us to be created: "The Spirit of God has made me, the
breath of the Almighty gives me life." (Job 33:4, NIV) Not only was He
part of the Creation, He is the One who made us. In other words: He
knows us intimately!
Jesus confirms this: "The Spirit gives
life." (John 6:63a, NIV) If He gives life, it means that He can bring
anyone of us back to real living! This too is confirmed in the
Scriptures: "Whoever believes in me (Jesus), as the Scriptures has said,
rivers of living water will flow from within them." (John 7:38, NIV)
What does it mean? The Bible explains it in the next verse: "By this He
(Jesus) meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to
receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had
not yet been glorified." (John 7:39, NIV)
Truly the Holy Spirit
can cause us to truly live. Bye-bye darkness. I am free! Also when
invited, He will never leave us or forsake us: "Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you. The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?" (Heb 13:5b-6, NIV)
If we live in fear, we
are missing someone very important in our lives: God's Holy Spirit.
Through Him, all fear evaporates into nothingness. After all, a life
filled with fear is no life at all: "The Spirit you received does not
make you salves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you
received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry,
"'Abba, Father.' The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we
are God's children." (Rom 8:15-16).
We will no longer have fear,
for we realize that we have been adopted as sons and daughter of the
Most High, and we will never be forsaken again. Wow! What a promise! The
Holy Spirit will be there for us all the time!
The following
testimony illustrates this very nicely: KIDNAPPED AT KNIFEPOINT YET
MIRACULOUSLY FREED.
"Over the years, I've really struggled a lot
with fear. I'm a sensitive person and things in the past have just hit
me really hard. Eighteen years ago I had breast cancer and that was
hard. Another time, we were in a near plane crash. Another time, our
little granddaughter was diagnosed with a childhood cancer called
neuroblastoma when she was three years old. As of 2012 she's l0 years
old and doing very well, but it was very hard to see her lose her hair
and go through so much trauma. Fear is a tool of the enemy, and the
devil really does use it to try to tie us up and render us ineffective
and distract us from what God's calling us to do. That's why I'm
completely trusting God to help me to overcome this fear (Which He is
doing, thank you Lord!). I cannot do this by myself; it is something
that God has to help me with.
Sometimes to come against fears, to
get victory over it, we have to confront them and that can be really
scary; especially when they are brought to your doorstep like it was
mine. About four months ago (as of early 2012) I really had to confront
this fear. A fearful situation came into our lives that was totally
unexpected.
We woke up at 4:00 in the morning to people yelling
in our bedroom. I opened my eyes and someone was standing over me, on my
side of the bed; a man totally dressed in black, except you could see
his eyes, and he had a knife in his hand. I just couldn't believe it.
I closed my eyes and I thought I was having a nightmare, and I opened
them again and he was still there, and I was utterly terrified. He
pulled out some duct tape and he was working with it while holding the
knife. He was trying to tie my ankles up and my wrists, and it was
dawning on me that he was going to take me away.
The thought of
having to leave my husband was terrifying and putting duct tape around
my ankles and getting me ready to go out of the house was tortuous. I
started kicking the man and my husband said, "Stop, Honey; he's got
a knife to your neck!" I didn't even realize it, so I calmed down.
There was another man dressed the same way with a knife over my husband.
My husband had a very peaceful demeanor through this, and I'm so
thankful that he didn't blow up or get angry and set them off any
more. They were constantly yelling and swearing at us through this whole
ordeal. I found myself getting pulled and yanked out of our house into
my own vehicle. He started putting duct tape over my eyes and my mouth,
wrists and ankles and commanding me to lay down on the back seat. To
feel so vulnerable and helpless and to be under someone's control like
that was just -- HELL.
He pulled out of the driveway in the
dark, away from my husband, our home, my safety place. I mean, it was
awful. I didn't have a clue where we were going, what he was going to
do to me, or how long this would last. He was driving with his left hand
and had his right hand over the back of his seat with the knife in his
hand, and he kept demanding that I lay down in the back seat, and if I
sat up he'd kill me, and I believed that he would. He had the knife
right to my neck.
At that point, I remembered God. I did. I
remembered to call out to God. I remembered He was there. I prayed in
the Spirit. I remembered that praying in tongues will bring me to a
place where my spirit is talking to God's Spirit without my mind
getting involved, and I just called on God. The next thing I remember
after I prayed, I remembered to plead the blood of Jesus over my body.
In the Bible it talks about the blood over the doorposts being
protection, and I realized I needed God's protection. And as I brought
God into the picture, the next thing I remember is that Proverbs 3:5 and
6 came to my mind. Then some other verses came to mind reminding me that
God is my refuge. I surrendered totally to God and His Word as the Holy
Spirit brought key scriptures to my mind. The supernatural peace of God
came into me. The situation hadn't changed, but I remembered God. The
fear factor was lessening as the God factor was going up; and the
realization that God was greater than this fear. And if He can help me
through that, He can help anyone through anything.
It wasn't
too long after that, and he stopped and pulled me out and pulled me into
what I thought was a forest. And I remember thinking: "I am NOT going to
be one of those people who are never heard from again, In Jesus'
Name!"
DUCT TAPED TO A POLE
There was a pole, and he
started to use the duct tape on my knees, and he was tying me to this
pole. He said, "There's somebody behind you and if you try to
escape, he'll kill you." I did not believe there was anyone behind
me. I just did not sense it.
I could hear him leaving, and I just
waited a little while, not very long - like maybe 15 seconds. Then I
wiggled out of the duct tape on my wrists and pulled it off of my eyes
and mouth, and I realized I was in a cornfield, and the corn was like
8 ft tall, and I looked around and there was nobody behind me, It was
still dark, and there was nobody around. I looked down and the tape was
around my knees, and I pushed it apart and honestly, it was a miracle.
The duct tape that was holding me to the pole ripped as I just put a
slight pressure on it!
I broke away from there, and ran to the
road. I thought in my heart: It's important which way I go --
straight, left, or right. I paused and felt God leading me to go
straight. Little did I know that the man had run out of duct tape, and
he had run down the road to my vehicle to get more, and he was coming
back and if I had turned left, I would have run right into him!
No one prepares themselves for this kind of situation, and I didn't
know what to do. I didn't know whether to keep running or find a
place, like I ended up doing, to hide. I just didn't know what to do.
But the thing that I remember is that I never felt so alone in my life.
I have never had a time in my life where nobody knew where I was. It was
like -- nobody.
It was dark - I was in my pajamas - I was
barefooted ... duct tape hanging all over me. I just started running.
Through the fields and hiding for awhile and praying -- then I would run
some more.
At one point, when I stopped and wondered what to do,
I noticed a line of trucks by this trucking business. There were all
these white cabs lined up, except there was only one red one. The
parking lights were on and the motor was running and I knew somebody was
in there and I ran. I was so relieved to see that the gate that should
have maybe been locked, to hold those trucks in there, was open. And I
ran in there and ran to the truck and pounded on the door and no answer.
But then pretty soon I opened the door on the driver's side and called
in there, and a man was in there and he had been sleeping, and he helped
me.
In Proverbs 3:6 where it says that: If we acknowledge Him in
all our ways He will direct our path. HE DID! He directed me to go
straight. If I would have gone left, I do not know what would have
happened.
FORGIVENESS IS A CHOICE - NOT A FEELING
The two
men who kidnapped me were caught soon thereafter and sent to prison,
along with a third person who had masterminded my abduction. Because
forgiveness is a choice and not a feeling, I have chosen to forgive
these men before God. And therefore God has miraculously removed
bitterness and resentment from me and He has freed me. I have found that
forgiveness opens the door for emotional healing. I am sad that they
have brought the penalty and consequences of this on themselves. I am
sorry that they have ruined their lives by the decisions and actions
they've made. There are a lot of people who are going through things
spiritually that I went through physically. They are bound up. They are
being held hostage. The devil does that; he doesn't play fair; he
hates us all, and God is there to rescue us all. I can testify He is
there at the most hardest times we can imagine. He's not just there
for me; He's there for everyone. This is why Jesus died, so that we
can be free. We are born to be free. We are born to be free in our
spirits. We're born to be who God created us to be. And all of this
stuff that comes at us; it is attempts by the devil to try to get us
away from the original intent God had for us, and that is to be in
relationship with Him and to just function in a way that is pleasing to
Him. He wants to be the Lord of our lives. And believe me, He is worthy
and He is able."
Written by Kathi Byker
Rob Chaffart