At the writing of this blog post I have currently been sick and battling sickness for over half a week. While that might not sound like a long time to some I am not accustomed to being sick, nor do I believe I should even be able to get sick. What at first was the beginnings of a sore throat grew into the entire left side of my neck, muscles and all, being inflamed, and multiple sores blossoming in the back left of my mouth. In fact, it was bad enough that I called off work two days in a row, and if you ask my wife I must have REALLY not felt good, as I usually go to work even when not feeling well.
I am just now turning the corner, with the throat soreness largely resolved and the neck inflammation down a little bit, although the sores are possibly the most troublesome and slow-to-heal at this point. But as you didn’t come here to hear me lament about sickness, let me explain why I share all this: It’s about perspective.
Because of the immense pain I feel every time I chew, swallow, or drink anything I have occasionally blended a protein shake to drink with as little mouth movement as possible, but for the most part I have been fast
ing. This might be annoying to some, but I was reminded this evening that God had asked me this past week to fast this week anyway. And while I don’t for a moment believe God inflicted me with disease to get me to fast (as I have fasted many times without needing a sickness to make me do it), I am reminded that God works all things in my life for good–both your good and mine, so as He has made me mindful that He is having me fast for a reason, I can become more purposeful about it. But there is more.
Having spent the past 2 days largely wasting my life in fun yet somewhat unproductive ways on Clan Wars and a few other game apps, I have been putting off some of my more habitual spiritual practices, including listening to the Bible via mp3 and reading and listening to other spiritually-enlightening media. This evening, after having all of my Clan Wars builders tied up for the rest of the evening, the grandkids in bed, and my wife sitting next to me also playing a game, I finally broke down and opened up Kindle on my phone. First I read a chapter more in a really lame book I am convincing myself to keep reading possibly as a stall-tactic, when I finally could take the bad writing no longer and opened up another book, “The Veil” by Blake Healy. This book is about practically engaging seeing in the spirit, but the message is communicated in an easy-to-digest format with engaging stories of some of Blake’s visionary experiences, many of which are both down-to-earth and highly revelatory at the same time.
In the chapter I was reading he mentioned at one point that he chose to look in the spirit and then shared what he saw. This made me turn my focus a bit more heavenward and so I began by looking the situation up in a book about emotional healing that my wife and I often use as a reference, and found something that fit the sores but nothing else fit. Holy Spirit quietly spoke to me and said “It’s an attack, not something from within you.” I then looked with spiritual sight at the illness, wounds, and inflammation on my neck. What I saw was a dark octopus-like being, about the size of a basketball with tentacles, head, and all, most of which were latched in, on, and around the left side of my neck and head. I proceeded to pull it off of me, which at first made my throat hurt even more. I continued to work on it for another minute or so and the soreness in the throat dissipated somewhat. Looking further I removed some other items and beings that I saw as well.
To be fair, at the moment my mouth still hurts and my throat is not perfect, but I know that the work that I did was effective at least in a measure, and my body should have an easier time healing itself with some of the negative spiritual elements removed.
Why am I telling you all this? At each step along the way I chose to change my perspective, whether about fasting or about choosing to put down the earthly and natural mindset and engage spiritual thinking. Certainly I have prayed as have others over the past few days, but I hadn’t committed to altering my thinking in the process. I am reminded through this set of circumstances that it doesn’t matter what the situation is — we are co-creators made in God’s image and on a moment-by-moment basis alter reality with our thoughts and beliefs. To change that reality yet again requires us to change our perspective — to think at a higher level than the one that created the problem.
As we change our perspective in even little ways, we build a momentum that over time drastically alters the course of our lives. I encourage you today to take a moment and change your thoughts. Think bigger. Think higher. Think as if there were no limitations holding you back. Think boldly and think life-giving. For with the measure you use it will be measured to you and it will be a good measure, pressed-down, shaken together, and running over that will be poured out into your life. The transformation begins now.
