Having a "Different Spirit"

One of my favorite Old Testament heroes, Caleb, was said to have a "different spirit" - 

 "But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it."

Numbers 14:24 

 
He was one of the two spies that didn't just follow the crowd {Numbers 14}.
He had a warrior's heart...{Joshua 14}
He wanted the hill country of Hebron because there were giants there {Joshua 14}
Hebron is derived from a word that means "to unite, to be joined to" {Hebron}

What can these brief snapshots teach us?

Here is what my heart says:

To be called a Christian means to follow God, and Him alone.  Sometimes "the crowd" wants to be comfortable, and I must be so tied to God, so united with Him, that He is more important to me than the will of "the crowd".  In that by itself, a warrior heart is needed!  But a warrior heart also longs to conquer the giants in the land - all of them!  A warrior heart doesn't shrink back, but takes the fight to the giants...in my own history - hiding, shrinking back, fitting in - was how I coped and survived...but God seeks to invade my history and nurture that warrior's heart!  I recognize it and follow it most of the time...but sometimes I don't, when those of my immediate family don't recognize the leading of the Spirit in me.  That's the hard place.  My warrior's heart is intact everywhere else:  the world, our church family, my friends.  But my immediate family takes a different approach.  And that is one of the giants as well!  When family can take the place of God, when family can become an idol...that is a giant that needs to be slain!  As a wife, as a mother, as a Daughter of God, I need to find the path to being a "tendor warrior" with them, and truly with everyone else as well.  Yes, to be joined to, united with, the Lord Jesus through the Holy Spirit means I am united with the ultimate "tender warrior".  Where I am struggling, when I am struggling - that could mean I have walked away from Him unawares...

Lord, forgive me for my self-sufficiency...I turn my heart back to You, and You alone.  Guard me and help me use both weakness and strength to abide in You, and enjoy the flow of life from Your in-exhaustible source!  Amen.


Another resource on the sin of "self-sufficiency" here: The One Thing That Shuts Out God

Crossed Ways

Glory moments come knocking in disguises...

I can miss this friend dressed as stranger, my eyes blind to God's ways in the ordinary...

I must lift them up to the One who helps correct the vision, the perception - lenses adjusted to see into the spirit realm, to see the multitudes at the ready to come to my aid...

Photo Source

My sweet tweener and I had gotten cross-ways with each other…as I finished combing the snags out of her beautiful curls, the gentle whispers of the Holy Spirit started filling in “the rest of the story”…then, as we shared some art time shortly after, our conversation naturally turned towards the issue that had been at the root of our little conflict – and we had such a rich, full, insightful, deep into each other’s hearts sharing time! And  I was able to speak into her what God had been telling me about her purpose and calling at the same time!

Crossed ways redeemed by Cross Ways!

Joining with Emily and other imperfects at:

How to Hold Your Heart Open When It Seems You Can't....

Last Wednesday I posted about tragedy, about crisis, about things that are so large, that they are hard to process/comprehend/hold-in-our-hearts-to-pray-about...

I talked about my emotional numbness, about the psychological disconnect that occurred during 9/11 and the recent Japanese tragedy...

We were never meant to face such challenges...we were made completely in God's image, and placed in a perfect world...we were not designed to be able to handle tragedy...

If we weren't designed to handle crisis, then how is it that our minds can become numb, that our minds can "dis-connect" or "dissociate" as a temporary survival technique?

If we weren't designed to withstand such blows...then how is it that we can function at all in the face of the multitudes of painful experiences that happens in this fallen world?   It is a miracle...

We ARE made in God's image...intellectually, emotionally, volitionally, having a spirit that seeks to re-connect with its Source...God doesn't need to "numb out", "disconnect", or "dissociate" when it comes to the things that affect our lives (and since His Presence is always with us; He is affected, too), but instead He provides what we need the most - a path back to unhindered fellowship with Him...

I talked about the nebulous "it" that is the source of my distress, more clearly defining the overwhelm, and in the naming, breaking the tragedy into - perhaps? - more manageable pieces...

I was processing, holding the people in my heart and as I did the time turned into a sort of intercessory prayer as I touched and held and came close to the burden that I now know the Lord had placed in my heart...wait a minute, when I numb out, disconnect, and dissociate from tragedy, is it true that I am also doing the same thing to the burden the Lord wants to share with me, and that I am even  dis-connecting from Him?! 

And at that time of coming closer I didn't remember that one of the names of the Lord is Jehovah-Jireh - the Lord our Providor...(and why would I?  But this is the key to holding my heart open)...

The Lord our Providor - this is how I have learned to interpret the Hebrew for years...but I have been reading "Trail to the Tree" from A Holy Experience, too, and in Day 2 we are reading the account of Abraham offering Isaac to the Lord, and in The Message Bible,  the verse reads "Abraham said, "Son, God will see to it that there is a sheep for the burnt offering.  And they kept walking together"...and verse 14 reads "Abraham named that place God-Yireh (God sees to it).  That's where we get the saying "On the mountain of God, He sees to it"..."

And her quick prayer is written "Father, You see to it, whatever "it" is."

And I am struck still...all the "it's" of my processing last week - He sees to them...He sees "it"...He sees each of pieces I need to process...and He has what I need to manage the tragedy...

I need to take off my fig leaves of numbness, diconnectedness, and dissociation; I need to not even try to sew a few of them together...but call out to Him, in my nakedness of questions and confusion and overwhelm; fear and distress...and cling to Him, His Presence...

Tragedy is an invitation to draw closer to Him and to keep my heart open to the fullness of His provision and to declare that "God will see to it"...and keep walking together...with Him.


Linking up with Emily and other imperfects at Imperfect Prose

A link for your consideration:

A book that looks at the increasing "natural" disasters in the world and places them in the context of what the Bible says... God is still in control!
Description: 92 pages - available here
Find out how God speaks through natural catastrophes.

A book that so poetically illustrates the emotion of God, and our part in joining Him in intercessory prayer...

Re-printed under the title:  Hearts Attuned to God
Available here:  canaaninthedesert.com