April 26, 2004

"The Battle of the Mind"

In 2Cor 10:4-5 we read, "The weapons of our warfare are not merely human.  They possess God's power for the destruction of strongholds.  We demolish sophistries and every proud pretension that raises itself against the knowledge of God; we likewise bring every thought into captivity to make it obedient to Christ."  Bringing every thought into captivity cuts right through our daydreaming.  I mention daydreaming because that used to be a vice of mine.  In grade school, they would mark on my report cards, "Your little girl dreams too much.  She sits in class and dreams."  Well, when I grew up, I found out that God does, too.  But daydreaming can mean our thoughts can just go all over the place.  Our thoughts need to be taken captive. They need to be brought to God. 

We may ask, "Why does Satan attack the mind?  Why is the mind his number one battleground?"  One of the reasons (and I'm sure there's more than what I'm going to share) is that the way we think definitely affects the way we act.  In the cloister I had a superior who used to tell us, "I can't hear a word you're saying because your actions are shouting."  I never have forgotten that.  Our actions pretty much come out of what we believe and what we're thinking at the moment.  If we're angry, we are probably having angry thoughts, which may lead to angry actions.  We'll act out what we believe.  We'll act out what we're experiencing at the time. 

Jesus said, "Satan is a liar" (see Jn 8:44 ).  He is a deceiver.  So if our actions are based on the thoughts that Satan has placed in our minds, then we can be acting out of untruths.  We can chart our own course, you might say, right into the enemy's camp.  This is frightening.  We can actually sail right in there with him leading us through our thought life through untruths.  Maybe we don't even know they are lies. 

Satan works against the mind and causes wrong attitudes.  He causes us to have erroneous motives.  Often it's not so much what we do; it's the reason behind what we're doing.  These reasons may not be pleasing to God, particularly if they've been inspired by the enemy.  The enemy can put almost anything into our minds if they are not guarded.  He can put jealousy, suspicion, unforgiveness, nursing grudges, distress, anger, hatred, rebellion, fear, all kinds of fear, and discouragement into our minds and keep maintaining them.

We know from Revelation 12:17 that Satan has taken up "his position by the shore of the sea."  He's not planted on rock like we are.  He's on sand and sand moves.  It shifts.  So if we are basing our thought life on what Satan is feeding us, things that are not true, on his false premises, then our lives will have actions that will be false as well.  In fact, our decisions will not be based on truth. Our actions will not be based on truth.  We'll be going a completely different way.  We will not be on the rock.  We will be on this moving sand, and we may start entertaining thoughts that are not of God.  (continued on May 17, 2004)

Excerpt from Powers and Principalities Conference, "Sword of Truth: offensive prayer," Omaha, NE, 2003.

April 19, 2004

"Concealment"

Years ago when I first began to get acquainted with the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, I was very aware of how much Ignatius brought out that the enemy will always lurk in concealment, even in the tiniest concealment.

In the cloister, I was the only one who knew how to drive, so that was how I would get out of the cloister.  A driver's license can do a lot of things.  One day I was driving some sisters home and I wanted to make a phone call.  I had about twenty-five cents.  They didn't give us much money when we went out because they were expecting us to return directly after our appointment.  I was very, very tempted to put in a phone call to my spiritual director because God was starting to give me this call, but I didn't want to manifest it to my immediate superior yet.  I felt that it needed to be tested and presented first to my spiritual director who knew me very well.  I didn't want to ask permission to use the telephone in the cloister.  I had these few coins with me and the temptation was to use it to call Omaha.  But I remembered that Ignatius said that concealment is an environment where Satan is.  So I didn't call Omaha, and I had such peace when I could turn in the little coin purse with all twenty-five cents.  You know, you feel good.  You're in the light.  So concealment can be little or it can be big, but take care not to let concealment be within, particularly once you are aware of it.

Jesus said, "Take care, then, that your light is not darkness" (Lk 11:35).  What in the world does He mean, "Take care that your light is not darkness"?  The light that is we received at Baptism, the light of God that we receive whenever we receive Communion, the light of grace is within us.  Yet if we harbor sin, then Satan has a legal access into that light.  He can bring darkness in that light and make that his domain.  Wherever there is an area of darkness, even in the midst of the light, the enemy can dwell.  So Jesus is warning us, "Take care that your light is not darkness."  Satan and his cohorts can traffic in any area of darkness, even any darkness that still exists in Christians' hearts.  Many times people think, "I can't have Satan within me.  I'm baptized.  I'm baptized in the Holy Spirit.  I'm a daily communicant.  I can't have a stronghold within me.  There can't be darkness within me."  These thoughts can be very deceptive.  Jesus is telling us something else.  St. Paul said, "Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil" (Eph 6:11).  Darkness and concealment are definitely some of the devil's tactics. But when light shines in our darkness, he'll go.  Satan cannot stand the light.

Excerpt from Powers and Principalities Conference, "Sword of Light: defensive prayer," Omaha, NE, 2003.

April 12, 2004

"Of the Lamb"

The Lord put it on my heart to share a little bit about the Lamb because we're very specifically Intercessors of the Lamb.  There are other intercessors, but we are not just intercessors.  We're intercessors of the Lamb.  I think that if we don't realize that, we can have a problem with intercession because "of the Lamb" makes all the difference in the world.  It is different because of the level of intercession, the retaliation that we get, and the victimhood that we're called to.

In the early years when this name was decided on, it was interesting that the non-Catholics grasped its meaning right away because they had a concept of the Lamb.  It was the Catholics who really didn't understand.  Maybe that's one of the reasons the Lord wanted us to take the Lamb.  Being a Protestant for so many years myself, I'm very comfortable with the Lamb symbolism, and so I moved very easily into that.  But I really didn't understand the depths of the Lamb at that time myself.

When God started putting this name on our hearts, we arrived very quickly at the conclusion that it was going to be "Intercessors."  There were many Scriptures that came and many things that happened to confirm it, but we didn't know Intercessors of what.  Then I started to hear things about the Lamb, the Lamb, the Lamb.  You know how God starts repeating Himself so we understand.  Almost everything that I heard at the prayer meetings had to do with the Lamb. 

Finally I asked the Lord, "Can You give me a Scripture that I'm not familiar with so I'd know this name is really from You?"  There were many Scriptures that I was already familiar with about the Lamb of God.  But He gave me a Scripture that confirmed that we were to go with the Lamb.  The Scripture He gave me was, "In prayer you call upon a Father who judges each one justly on the basis of his actions.  Since this is so, conduct yourselves reverently during your sojourn in a strange land.  Realize that you were delivered from the futile way of life your fathers handed on to you, not by any diminishable sum of silver or gold, but by Christ's blood beyond all price: the blood of a spotless, unblemished lamb chosen before the world's foundation and revealed for your sake in these last days" (1Pt 1:17-20).  It was very anointed for me.  "Who through Him believe in God who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory so that your faith and hope are in God."  So there it was-our whole redemption in the Blood of the unblemished Lamb.  This Lamb was known before the foundation of the world, but revealed in the final time for you.  So here we are, following the Lamb wheresoever He goes (see Rev 14:4) and hopefully bringing this revelation to the rest of the world that doesn't yet know who He is. 

It is important for intercessors to know their identity because we've all had many experiences.  This isn't anything new, but when we intercede and get transferences, it helps us to know-it's the Lamb who is alive within us.  We witness to the Lamb, and so we witness to His spirituality.  We witness to His mission.  We live it out.  So if there is rejection, we might say, "Why me?" but the Lamb might say, "Why not you?"  If we find that we are involved in fighting sin (and it might be our own), maybe this is the way that we have to go so that we can understand the burden and consequences of sin.  It certainly brings forth a great deal of compassion and a desire to be free ourselves and to set others free as well.

As we enter more fully into the mystery of this charism, knowing our identity is very healing.  It keeps us going.  It keeps us saying, "Amen," "So be it," and "Yes, Lord" because it's the Lamb.  Intercessors of the Lamb are burden-bearers.  There's no doubt about it, and the whole reason of the Lamb is for victimhood.

Excerpt from "Formation on Rule," Omaha, NE, 2003.

April 5, 2004

"Invitation to Change"

God is inviting us to change.  Each day He is inviting us to change.  John the Baptist had a beautiful prayer.  He said, "He must increase, while I must decrease" (Jn 3:30).  One translation that I love says, "God must increase, I must disappear."  This is what He is really telling us.  We need to disappear into God; we need to become truly transformed into the Lord. 

Transforming union isn't an option.  I used to think that it was just for the saints to become those flaming swords, to get into the seventh mansion that Teresa of Avila talked about.  But transforming union is for everyone.  All of us are called to be taken over by Jesus.  It's not enough just to follow Him.  We have to let Him totally take over our entire being so that He lives and moves in us.

There's a beautiful story of Jesus walking along the road.  There was a crowd and this little man, Zacchaeus, wanted to see Jesus.  So Zacchaeus climbed a sycamore tree.  Jesus, being Jesus, stopped and saw him up there.  Zacchaeus was little, and so are we.  We're just little people, but hopefully we also want to see Jesus.  Jesus said, "Zacchaeus, hurry down, I mean to stay at your house today" (Lk 19:5).  That's a beautiful way to begin prayer.  "Hurry down.  I want to be within you.  I want to be in your house.  So come down.  Come within."  It's a wonderful way to come into a deeper friendship with the Lord and let Him spend each day in our house, breaking bread and sharing His heart with us. 

After Jesus' beautiful invitation to Zacchaeus, the next thing that happens is that sin comes up.  Sin will always come up with the Lord if we're going to take Him seriously.  However, it's not the first thing that Jesus talks about.  The first thing for Jesus is to establish the relationship.  He knows that we're not going to change if we don't really fall in love with Him, but we will change when we know Someone worthwhile to change for.  So He always establishes the relationship with us first.  So after establishing the relationship with Zacchaeus, it got around to what he was doing.  Zacchaeus came into a beautiful repentance.  Well, God is calling us there, too.  He wants this beautiful relationship with us, but He also wants us to look at our sin.  He wants us to look at our sin in His light and through His eyes.  We're not really going to look at sin until we feel loved and secure enough in His love to look at it.

Adam and Eve hid from God the moment they sinned.  They wrapped themselves in those fig leaves.  We, believe it or not, will do the same thing.  Unconsciously, and sometimes consciously, we'll try to hide our sins from God.  We will constantly put things on the back burner pretending that they don't really make any difference.  We may think, "God probably doesn't see it.  God doesn't really care.  It's just little anyway."  In this way, we can distance ourselves from God until He comes and says to us, like He said to Adam and Eve, "Where are you?" (Gn 3:9)   God knew where they were, but He wanted them to respond.  So He comes to us and says, "Where are you?  Let Me see your heart.  Let Me see your pain.  Let me see your sin."  Through the years, I have found out that God can handle sin.  He can handle rejection.  He can handle pain.  He can handle it all.  This is why He came. 

One time He gave me an image of myself on a pony as a little girl about two years old.  I fell off the pony into a mud pile.  In the image He said, "Can you get out of that mud pile by yourself?"  "No."  And so He reached down and pulled me out of the mud pile.  "You can't even get back on your pony by yourself."  So He put me on the pony.  "Can you do anything by yourself without Me?"  "No."  So God comes to us when we're in the mud puddles, when we're in sin.  St. Peter tells us that our enemy is constantly going about like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1Pt 5:8).  Satan lives in sin.  Satan loves sin.  It's almost like he's the father of sin.  So wherever there is sin in our lives, we're giving Satan a legal platform to enter.  So prayer warriors, intercessors, really have to take a closer look to see, "Am I getting rid of the sin, Lord?  Am I getting rid of the sin that You want me to get rid of? Are my open doors getting closed?"  The enemy that lurks closest to us is usually the enemy within ourselves.  We need to take a closer look at that.

Excerpt from "Stir into Flame the Gift of God: Healing," Saugherties, NY, 2002.