(Excerpt from book To All My Sisters in the Struggle)
When I went off to college I left all the pain behind. God began to heal my broken heart. I had new friends of like faith. But I still didn’t have a man to love me. However, this
began to bother me less than it had before. I guess it’s because I was actively seeking the things of God. I was preoccupied.
Some time later a guy came to campus who showed interest in me. I was reluctant but the more he pushed, the more I fell for him. And I fell hard. I had no idea that as I left school for the summer to fulfill God’s mandate to witness in a different area of the country that he would find interest in a girl at my church.
When I arrived back to school the first thing I saw was him with her. They were smiling, blushing. “He didn’t do that with me! What the heck! No wonder he didn’t answer my calls that summer. I ran up my mom’s phone bill and this is why!” The rejection continued. But it was all for my good. He ended up getting a girl pregnant and she had to leave school. And this was a girl who I was proud of, on fire for God, a young prophetess in the making. You see, the Enemy doesn’t care anything about your gift, as long as He can get you to turn away from God, He has you. But I was protected.
Even though the pain of the breakups eventually made me break down, God protected me from a lot of bad decisions and men. Thank You God. See that’s why I love Him so much! Who else is willing to protect you from danger like that? And live up to that protection. He doesn’t just say He will, He does it.
You may even be thinking now, “Natalie, you don’t understand, I lost my mother when I was ten years old.” Or, “My father was shot in cold blood right before my eyes, and he wasn’t in any gang. He never did anyone any harm.”
To you I will say this. God still would not allow you to be tested in that area of your life if He didn’t equip you with the strength to be able to overcome it. Remember, He put your gifts in you from before the womb. You may say as I did, “Well He got the wrong one because I can’t handle it. This is too much for me to bear.” At that time comes your upgrade. You put on the whole armor of God. You let Jesus and the Holy Spirit take control of your body, mind, and soul so that they can get you through it. You have maxed out your strength.
It’s time to go to the next level. Just like in a video game, with the next level you have more gifts to access, stronger firepower. Where on the previous level it was called
“firepower,” on this level it is called “mega firepower.” The weapons increase. They increase for a reason. Yes, you do have a bigger and tougher fight on your hands, but you also have more weapons and gifts/tools to fight the Enemy with.
You couldn’t fly on the previous level, but on this one, you have the ability to fly if you grab hold of the right gift. You are now on a new level. You have new struggles. You are on a new level. You have new weapons. You can still overcome it, you just won’t know until you start accessing those new weapons and using them. Just because you haven’t done it before, does not mean you cannot do it now.
Part 1 | (Part 2)