Sword

 Very little has happened in my life over the past weeks and months which means that it's harder to find things to talk about in the blog.  Of course it's not that God has stopped talking 😃 it's just that there are fewer obvious things for me to notice about what He is doing in my day and I find Im having to listen much harder than ever during this Lent.

But on Wednesday something very special happened.  With an 8 yr old called Jonah.

Jonah is the son of Kenny and Caroline, and Kenny ( as many of you will know) is a friend of mine who suffered a massive bleed on his brain about a month ago and has subsequently developed epileptic seizures and has been incredibly unwell.  Many have been praying for Kenny over these past few weeks and God has answered prayers amazingly.  But he has a long way to go before he is back to normal - doctors are saying it could take up to three years for the bleed in his brain to dissipate.  A few days ago I woke up and the image in my head as I opened my eyes was of me on the doorstep of Kenny and Caroline's house presenting Jonah with my sword.

Sometime in the 1990s I was on a ministry trip to Poland when God gave me a sword.  It was an ' imaginary' sword, but it was so real that for weeks I found my right hand gripped as though holding it.  I transferred it from hand to hand if I needed to do something with my right hand.  I set it down on the table to eat, and picked it up again when I'd finished.  It really was the most peculiar thing.  And what was more strange was that I really didn't have much idea what it was all about.  I knew it had something to do with me being a warrior and doing battle with the enemy when praying for certain situations.  But I really felt that I didn't know what I was supposed to do with it.  A few memorable things happened with the sword over the course of that mission trip and several months thereafter, but after some time it seemed to fade from me, only returning occasionally when the spirit of God was particularly present or when I was in some sort of intercessory prayer setting.   I do remember being eight months pregnant with a baby ( possibly Sam) and having the urge to take up my sword and do a sort of mad warrior dance round a circle of people who were praying for Ireland.  Bonkers.  But then you know me...... 😂  

Fast forward 20 years and I had completely forgotten about the sword.  Im not quite sure when it disappeared but I hadn't thought about it for a long time until I woke up dreaming about it.  I wondered just how I might go about explaining to an eight year old that God wanted me to give him an invisible spiritual sword - but I reckoned that if God wanted that to happen He would make it clear to Jonah what it was all about.   On Wednesday morning I headed over to Kenny's house . Kenny had only just got out of hospital having been readmitted because his seizures were uncontrolled and relentless.  They had doubled his medication and told him that he couldn't go home until he had had at least 24 hours seizure free.   The new dose seemed to be working and by the time I visited he had been seizure free for three days.  Not only that but his speech had stopped slurring.  All in all he was on good form.  He and Caroline thought I was there to visit them 😄

Jonah listened quietly as I told him about my sword and explained that I thought God wanted me to give it to him.  Then I gave it to him and he took it from me.  Then he went off to play his computer games and I sat and chatted to his parents.  We had a great time. I prayed for Kenny and off I went. As I left I had a sense that this wee family is in a massive battle because God has big plans for them.  They are significant people with huge hearts and a calling on their lives.  The enemy hates this and right now seems to be determined to try to thwart the purposes of God in their lives.  So I suppose I wasnt surprised when yesterday I had a message from Kenny to say the seizures had started again.

Jonah has had to watch his Dad suffering a debilitating stroke and then taking violent seizures which are very frightening to witness.  He was there yesterday when his Dad started convulsing again.  With great presence of mind Caroline said to Jonah ' Remember the sword Caz gave you? Why don't you use that to pray for Dad.?'  And he did. Apparently he started swinging it over Kenny's head and praying.  When I heard that I felt both humbled and amazed.   

Two thoughts - 

1) Every gift of God is to be passed on to the next generation. As we have inherited from others so we are to deposit into those coming up behind us

2) If we don't use what we have been given God will take it from us and give it to someone who will use it.  

and maybe another thought - that our children are never too young to grasp the simplicity of the truth that God wants to use them, bless them and answer their prayers.

My sword was a legacy of the amazing days of the Toronto Blessing and Im not sure that I ever really learned enough about it or practiced using it sufficiently to get really good at setting people free or inflicting mortal wounds on the enemy.  But tomorrow is another day.  Perhaps how it's time to dust off the weaponry again and have another go .  What I really need is a mentor to show me what to do.  Perhaps an 8 year old will be my teacher 😊