PRAY WITHOUT CEASING
This blog post happened minutes before this post happened. These two posts give you a glimpse of how I try to interact with God and live out 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “pray without ceasing”.
However, I am still trying to figure it out. I have by no means perfected this process, but I am learning and always going after MORE of what He has for me. It is the BEST journey of my life and I look forward to talking to Jesus EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
FAMILY FUN
Valley Fair is an amusement park close to our home. It has family friendly activities every fall during daytime hours. Right before sunset, it turns into a scary event that is not fit for our young children. As a family, we roll through the fall festivities to trick or treat, go on rides, eat yummy fair food, and enjoy each other as a family.
My husband Kevin was getting ready to leave and sit in the car with our two youngest kids while my oldest, McKenna and I, went on one more ride. I figured we had about 30 min left before the night time prowlers came out. However, this last ride broke down and the wait was a bit longer than I had anticipated.
AFTER THE RIDE
We got off the ride with 5 minutes to spare. Not sure how long it would take us to exit the park, I told Mckenna to walk quickly. If I was to see a scary figure I would tell her to close her eyes so she would not have to see it.
We were half way through the park when I saw the first one. She quickly closed her eyes and hand in hand we walked swiftly past without incident.
The next one we saw we were not so lucky.
She closed her eyes and without warning the scary person ran up to her and yelled, “BOOO!” in her face.
I was FURIOUS!
Valley Scare was to start at 7pm. They warn fair goers that the scary figures come out 30 min prior. It was not 6:30 yet and she was a young child who had her eyes closed. This person had no regard for her or me.
She became stiff and jumped at the site of anyone who looked unfamiliar.
WE LEFT THE PARK
We were able to leave the park quickly and without incident after that, but I did not want the last thing she remembered about our fun day together to be how scared she was. I wanted to try a prayer strategy I learned that I had used on myself and friends to get through a difficult time.
It’s called “Presenting Jesus.”
You ask Jesus to show you where He was for a particular moment in time. It can be a good or a bad memory.
PRESENTING JESUS
As we were walking through the Valley Fair parking lot, lots of people were passing by us in multiple directions. I stopped walking in the middle of the crowd, put her face in my hands, looked her directly in the eyes and asked her how she was doing.
She was a little shaken.
I asked her if she would like to talk to Jesus about what she had experienced back there.
She said, “yes.”
I told her to repeat after me. “Jesus, where were you when that person came up to me and said, “Boo!?”
She asked Jesus and told me that she saw a vision in her mind of Jesus standing right in front of her. As the person came up to say, “Boo!” she said that He did not say it to her, the person said it to Jesus.
“Ask Jesus if you need to be scared of what happened.”
“He said no.”
“Ask Him why you do not need to be afraid.”
“Because He was with me and protected me.”
“Ask Him if there is anything else He wants you to know about this.”
“He said He loves me.”
“Does that make you feel better about what happened?”
“Yes.”
Her body began to relax as we thanked Jesus for showing her what happened in the spirit as He was with her. Her fear disappeared. He is able to cast out ALL FEAR. 1 John 4:18. Jesus is PERFECT LOVE!
We continued to hold hands and skipped all the way to the car.
McKenna shared what happened with the rest of our family as if it was no big deal.
I was SO THANKFUL Jesus was able to show her His character as protector.
“But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.” 2 Thessalonians 3:3
The Bible came alive to her that day because Jesus showed up and taught her about Him and His love.
THANK YOU, JESUS!
WHAT HAPPENED
When you ask Jesus to show you where He was in a memory, you are not changing the memory in any way because Jesus is with you ALL. THE. TIME.
“I will be with you always even unto the end of the world.”
Matthew 28:20
When you are asking to see Jesus, you are asking to see in the spirit realm.
There is a spiritual realm that is talked about in the Bible that many of us do not see with our natural eyes. Jesus can open our eyes to it in different ways.
He can show it to us with our natural eyes like Elisha’s servant was able to see. I fully believe Elisha could see it as well.
“And Elisha prayed,
“Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”
2 Kings 6:17
He can show us in a dream, like he did with Jacob where he showed him angels ascending and descending from heaven.
“He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.”
Genesis 29:12
He could show us in a vision like He did for Ezekiel in Ezekiel 1:1 “…the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.”
When you ask Jesus to show you where He was, you are asking Him to open your eyes to see Him.
(I share another blog post about this very thing here. I was scared and wanted to see Jesus with me. Seeing Him changed how I viewed what I was going through)
When you see Jesus, it changes the emotions that are connected to the memory. He ALWAYS brings peace, hope, love, etc into the memory. EVERY. SINGLE.TIME. The other parts do not change, but how you react to the memory does, and in McKenna’s case, His Perfect love cast out her fear (1 John 4:18).
Jesus is PERFECT LOVE and he pushed out the fear in McKenna’s memory and it allowed for her not to be scared of that incident anymore.
He has done it for my daughter, for MANY of my friends, for me, and He can do it for you. All you have to do is ask.
CONNECT
Have you experienced this before? Share your story with me or write a comment below. Your testimony could bring someone closer to Jesus.
Expect God To Move!