I’m writing a book right now that’s way more spiritually charged, spiritually involved than I imagined it would be. There are a lot of beyond-your-vision battles raging, and that means a lot of Roseanna praying before writing–I so don’t want to get this stuff wrong!
And then this weekend, we had the honor of hosting visitors (a couple and a good friend of theirs) from Ohio who offered to do a faith-building and healing service at our church. These people . . . they are so genuine. So humble. They just want to teach what they’ve learned and be the instruments of the Lord. And boy, did I need a good dose of the Spirit.
Ever since a revival swept through our town two years ago, I’ve been keenly aware of how different I am when in touch with the Spirit versus when I let life get in the way. And lately . . . life has been seriously in the way. Which made me not really enjoy the details of my life. My kids were getting on my nerves, I was constantly exhausted, and I couldn’t seem to find the quiet time I needed with God. So I went to this service knowing exactly what I needed from it.
After a while my wonderful hubby took the kids down to the nursery, which let me really listen, really feel. The teaching time ended, and the prayer began. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work. Should I just charge to the front and say, “Pray with me please so I can get the kids home to bed?” No, they asked for someone with a specific issue . . . so I just closed my eyes, prayed, privately and determined to soak up the Spirit–not too hard, since he was saturating the room. And, I’ll admit it, thought, “Well, Lord, you might just have to send one of them back to me if this isn’t enough.”
Then the husband of the couple came over to me. He’d walked by several times, but this time he crouched down and asked, “Can I pray with you? I’m sensing you’re not here for healing but that you have something you need prayer for.”
!!!! I nodded as tears surged (I’m not a cry-er, FYI) and asked if he would pray for rejuvenation. That’s all I said–rejuvenation. But you could see the light go on inside him. He took my hands and prayed for rejuvenation, for rest, for exactly what I needed. And told me I needed to take the time to pray for that every morning, and pray every night for my rest to be sufficient.
Um, yes, teacher.
Seriously, ever since then . . . there’s a calm inside where irritation had been. There’s
Joy again. And I am so, so grateful that the Spirit always knows exactly what we need and meets us there. There have been times over the years when he swept over me in my dreams and I wake up like this. This time, he came while his servants were here and used them to bless me.
Now I’m praying that my words (mostly thinking of those spiritually-charged chapters I’m writing) can somehow be used to bless others. There is so much to all this stuff, so much I can never quite get a hold on.
How awesome to know I don’t have to get a hold of it all–I just have to hold his hand. He’ll show me how to handle the rest.
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Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.