My Second Encounter With Premature Death, and Blessing of Stillness #WhateverTheLatestOneIs

March 21, 2002….

There are some days I would as soon forget, but then I remember, it is not about forgetting the days that forge us, but being removed from the trauma and redeeming the pain that came with those days. And this day was no exception.

This event, during my Senior year of college, followed another, June 1, 2001, in which I hit a drunk pedestrian, and in which he died.

And I still remember faces and incidents from both days, for the first was during Pentecost Weekend and I had just made the decision to drive south to spend time with a close friend who was going to become my new roommate, as June 2 was his birthday.

I do not remember much of the birthday, but I do remember the blood on the road, the moment when I laid hands on him, and asked the King for a miracle, and standing up because the Sheriff’s Deputies wanted me to take a blood test, and I remembered nearly passing out and the feel of being….mauled by something.

It was the spirit of premature death….

And in the first, it came about because someone wandered out in traffic in front of me.

In the second, I made the mistake of U-turning when a number of cars were behind me.

And in one motion, The Box (the name of my 1980 Toyota Corolla), was t-boned and totalled, and I should have been dead or seriously injured.

And I just had some bruising to my calcaneus (heel bone). That’s it. And a sore and pinched left foot.

This coming after a gospel choir concert in which my ex-pastor and his wife were present….

And I learned, the King allows Father-filtered pain simply because He is working through situations to grow us to know His love and connecting with Him in the middle of the furnace and the crucible.

A crucible for silver, and a furnace for the gold.

And these are the only ways the gold and the silver emerge purified, in the midst of the fire and in the presence of the flux.

And thus, began a multi-part story in which the L-rd began exposing me to how spiritual leaders can engage with witches in order to work nasty things against the King’s kids.

And I am not grateful for the damage and the suffering and loss, but I am grateful for the King being with me in the midst of the tragic circumstances to show me how to build and how to fight.

And this is another lesson in sonship.

Gang, the hard stuff is going to come.

But I can still repeat the refrain of the King through Isaiah the Teacher.

  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,

and the flame shall not consume you.

Isaiah 43:2

He is not going to allow all of you to be overtaken, gang. There is still a core center piece at the root of you that, no matter how divided, traumatized, wounded, or overthrown you are, the enemy is INCAPABLE of violating or overthrowing.

So, spirit, I bless you,

I bless you with the courage to see and to hear Him, as you rest in Him, as the hard things come.

I bless you with fearless understanding and love.

I bless you with the place of stillness following the destruction and the beating waves, and the pounding waters, and the burning furance. I bless you to allow Him to pour his balm and oil and wine into your wounds.

There is a balm in Gilead. And that balm is a mercy to your afflicted spirit and soul.

There is a love for you even when heartache happens.

I bless you to know even as you are fully known.

I bless you to know you are being fought for by Love and Life Himself, even in the midst of when death seems to be poured out on you from every angle.

I bless you when you are being covered by predators, to know the Christ Himself is THERE to show you how to push back against the ANTI-Christs.

I bless you with skill, savvy, and truth, and wisdom, and eternal and unfailing lovingkindness.

Spirit, at your core, THEY WILL NOT OVERTAKE YOU.

I bless your confidence in Him to grow.

I bless you, not with shrewd strategies of avoidance, but with real and tender and bold LOVE and the EMBRACE of the Bridegroom when you feel hammered.

I bless you to not stop, even as you must embrace moments of stillness. I bless you with the cup of cold water from the One Who Feeds You Hand To Mouth With Ravens and Corvids, precious Elijah….

I bless you spirit with this reality in the name of Yeshua….

Amein.