Bad Posture

How's your posture?

Mine is pretty terrible. My kids are constantly reminding me to sit up straight, so it's definitely something I'm trying to work on.

However, until recently, I never gave a thought to my spiritual posture, and as it turns out, that could use some help, too. 

My daughter, Destiny, and I went to a Women's Tea at our church, and they played an older, recorded simulcast Women of Faith's Unwrap the Bible. Lisa Harper was the second speaker, and she talked about the healing of the woman in Luke 13 who was bent over double.

Lisa said we, too, are often bent over double. Jesus has already healed us, but we continue to stay bent over, listening to the lies of the enemy...stuck...defeated.

The entire time she spoke my heart was filled with an urge to share this message with a friend of mine, a sweet friend who struggles to accept God's love and grace in her life...who struggles to stand up straight and open her arms to Jesus.

When I got home, I HAD to send her the message. I felt the Holy Spirit's hand pushing me, so much so that I felt like I couldn't even eat lunch until I sent her the message.

It said this:

I have a word to you from God. We had a women's tea today at church today and they played videos by Lisa Harper and Christine Caine. God spoke to me and told me to pass it to you.... 

Like the woman in Luke 13:10, you are still bent. You are saved, but sometimes you are still bent and doubled over in a posture that can only see the floor. You are focusing on your wickedness (aka foolishness) and thinking maybe you're destined to stay there, but this is false humility and it's a lie - you are concentrating on your badness instead of God's great goodness. 

None of us is worthy. Not one...by ourselves. The ONLY thing that makes us worthy is our GOD and the sacrifice HE made in sending His son to save us. That means you are MIGHTY worthy because we serve a MIGHTY God.  

He formed you in your mother's womb and He knew every day of your life before you were born. He KNEW you would have problems as a teen and doubt your own value and try to find it everywhere that was wrong. He knew you would find HIM, and He KNEW you would struggle with ever feeling like He could love you, much less like you. 

But I'm here to tell you HE LOVES YOU and has loved you from the beginning of time itself. So now it's time to take the REAL posture of a child of God, which is not bent over looking at your feet, but is STRONG and STEADY and STANDING WITH THE ARMOR OF GOD COVERING YOU LIKE THE SOLDIER YOU ARE. 

The enemy has been defeated already my friend...it's time to claim the victory you already have and stop giving credence to the lies of the one who wants nothing more than to devour your joy in Christ Jesus. 

I'm writing this for you instead of calling you because I want you to read it over and over and over until you FEEL it deep within and you open your arms wide open to the sky and say: PRAISE GOD!! I AM CLEAN! I AM HEALED! I AM WORTHY BECAUSE I AM YOURS. 

I love you sooooooo much!!

I sent her the message, and felt SO blessed to have been used by the Holy Spirit! However, when that wore off, I realized my sweet friend wasn't the only one bent...SO AM I!

As a divorced and remarried woman who, with my husband, has recently started a marriage ministry, I often feel the ache of an unhealthy spiritual posture. Searing pain sears my consciousness as the enemy tosses the names of my past at me:

Failure

Stupid

Adulteress

Dirty

Fool 

I take the blows, and instead of taking up my armor, I crouch and crumble, bent double under the weight of my past.

But that's not how our God works. He is full of GRACE and LOVE, and the only time he wants us bent is in reverence to HIM.

Then, He wants us to look up, embrace Him, and accept the beautiful, amazing grace His son's sacrifice gave us.

So today, I'm working on standing up straight...and so should you. Take up your armor.

Put on your helmet of salvation, and make sure it covers your ears nice and tight so you can't hear the lies of the Deceiver.

Walk bravely out into this wide-world with feet shod with the peace of Jesus Christ, which surpasses ALL understanding (Philippians 4:6-7).

Take up your sword of Truth, which is God's word, and accept that now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).

Warriors who have donned their armor cannot stoop. They stand straight..ready to do battle, ready to take orders from their leader.

So today, let's take up that armor; put it on; stand up straight and say: 

PRAISE GOD!! I AM CLEAN! I AM HEALED! I AM WORTHY BECAUSE I AM YOURS.