Testimony

And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony… ~ Revelation 12:11 NKJV

For the past several weeks, life’s been testing us: Brad’s been sick, the girls have been waking me most nights, Savannah’s been fighting getting dressed, Elizabeth’s been chewing the binding off our books, and to top it all off, I’ve been seeing lightning flashes in my field of vision. Concerning the latter, I consulted a friend who told me to get it checked out. Fortunately, the optometrist didn’t see anything, but was concerned about the lightning and sent me to a retinal specialist. I was calm upon leaving the optometrist’s office, but became anxious when the time came to see the specialist.

After numbing and dilating my eyes, they had me watch a video explaining retinal tearing and detachment. The fear and anxiety were high! But I said, “No! I don’t have a spirit of fear. I have a spirit of a sound mind!” I was OK in the exam room until the doctor said he needed to push on my eyes with a Q-Tip. The right eye hurt so badly. I jumped at the pain, every muscle tightening. But when he switched to the left eye, something amazing happened: I heard a choir of angels singing boldly, “Oh praise the Name of the Lord our God. Oh praise His Name, forevermore. For endless days, we will sing Your praise. Oh Lord, oh Lord, our God!” It was so powerful and triumphant that I hardly noticed as the doctor pushed on my left eye. He said there’s nothing wrong with my eyes—he thinks (maybe) something to do with migraines, but he’s not sure and wants to check my eyes again in a month.

This was such a huge praise experience, I just HAD to share it with you! Revelations reminds us that our enemy is overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of OUR testimony. My prayer is that this testimony encourages and helps you remember that we will overcome!

©Heather Potts 2017

Yet Praise

But I will hope continually,
And will praise You yet more and more.

~ Psalm 71:14 NKJV

The enemy’s hope in beating us down is to feed into our fears and get us to question God’s faithfulness. Once we begin to question Him, the enemy again comes after us in hopes that we’ll doubt that God will come through this time. And once we begin to doubt, the enemy condemns us for doubting. And he tries to get us into an endless cycle of fear, doubt, and condemnation.

There are days of victory and triumph, but then there are seasons of testing, trial, and refinement. In those seasons, that’s when the enemy peppers us with his seeds of doubt and fear, in hopes we’ll say, “Though God came through before, I don’t see Him moving this time…Can He really get us out of this situation?” Our family has been under heavy fire for a full year and some days it’s all we can do to come before our Father and say, “We need You!” But when we do, His Spirit encourages us and we can say, “I’ll yet praise You.”

Yet is used to emphasize a comparative: Though what’s desired is not what’s seen, I’ll yet, moreover, still do this.

Yet I still dare to hope
when I remember this:

The faithful love of the LORD never ends!

His mercies never cease.

Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.

I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance;
therefore, I will hope in him!”

~ Lamentations 3:21-24 NLT

Though it’s been a hard road and one I definitely would not have chosen, I have seen more miracles and an outpouring of God’s faithfulness and blessings this past year than I think I’ve seen in my whole life.

If you’re finding it hard to breathe, press in to Father God and ask Him to encourage your heart. And when the enemy comes knocking tell him, “Though what’s happening hurts, I will praise my God yet more and more because His faithful love never ends!”

©Heather Potts 2016

Threat Terminated

So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he went in to her. And the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. ~ Ruth 4:13 NASB

Did you ever consider that the attacks against you aren’t about you at all?

The enemy knew what Ruth’s descendants were called to, so he positioned his attack against Ruth. Ruth was a Moabitess and he assumed if he could take away everything, she’d crumble and go back to what was familiar. But the hand of God was strong on her and even when her mother-in-law begged Ruth to leave, Ruth refused. Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law, became bitter when her husband and both of her sons died. In her despair, Naomi felt it would be better to be alone, but Ruth wouldn’t leave. Ruth’s decision would forever change her life and the lives of countless others.

Last August, God told me to attend our church’s weekly morning prayer meetings, where we pray over our community.  At one of the meetings, God gave me a vision of our children—not just my girls, but the whole community of children who are currently being raised up—reaching out to, loving on, caring for, encouraging, healing, and helping those who were lost, hurting, and in need of a Savior. Then Holy Spirit said to me, “It starts with you.” He said my girls have a calling on their lives, but their journey will be strengthened as my marriage and walk with God are strengthened.

The next generation needs us to fight the fight before them, pray for them, and cling to God and His calling for our lives. If Ruth had not stuck with Naomi, had not gone to work in Boaz’s field, she and Boaz would not have met, married, and become great-grandparents to David… The enemy knows God’s plans for our lives and it makes him afraid. So he hunts, attacks, wounds, and keeps coming after us all in an attempt to keep us and future generations from fulfilling God’s plan.

If you are under fire and it feels like the hits just keep coming, one after another, declare as David did: “When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, in God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me,” (Psalm 56:3-4 NASB).

©Heather Potts 2016