Camping On What’s Consecrated

Consecrated: Having been made or declared sacred.

 October gives the perfect opportunity to acknowledge all things SP00KY in life. A few years ago, my daughter and I started a fun October tradition where we bake spooky treats together, like Frankenstein cookies or mini mummy pizzas. Normally, I also try to take advantage of spooky season by having conversations about fear and faith.

 This year I happened to pick out a spider web cookie cake mix for us to bake as the spooky snack and again, my inner “teacher” was thinking on how I could incorporate a creative conversation about fear this year. I’d thought of the perfect topic to go with the treat: The Enemy’s Web of Lies!

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Oddly enough, this month has seemingly been a rather spooky season of spiritual warfare and testing for me. In the midst of my efforts to creatively stir faith into conversations, reality is that fear has raised its ugly head again in places I thought surely I’d outgrown by now!
All month I have struggled, falling head first into old temptations…entertaining fear, being taunted with lies about my identity, or situations that seemed to trigger old, familiar patterns of bitterness or insecurity. That’s a frightening place to be!

I thought to myself, What is happening that has me so incredibly enticed to return to these methods of dealing with life that I KNOW are toxic?! And why does the temptation have to feel SO appealing, as if it will really solve my problems when I should know by now, it won’t?! And why does it seem like I linger in it and play for a while before I realize what I’m doing?! Ugh. 

But God goes before me. Preparing me for what this month would hold, God jolted my spirit when reading the story of Jacob with a Bible study group. Reading this portion of scripture will help what I’m about to say make sense:

Genesis 28:10-17, NLT 

Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone to rest his head against and lay down to sleep. As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway.At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. 14 Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.”Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!”

God impressed on me that like Jacob, I should SET UP CAMP on some of His promises-ones of my choosing, and stay there. He was encouraging me to purposefully get familiar with them, stopping there to find rest in Him (the Rock). God impressed on me further that these promises- the ground I was camping on- BELONGED TO ME! His promises are my stomping grounds! Ah, consecrated concentration: Doesn’t that sound so good?!

I must admit I’d been “camping” in some places that weren’t my territory just prior to this revelation. In fact, as I prayed throughout the month, I kept seeing mental pictures of big, silky spider webs in a dark, dusty room.

Worse, God showed me “footage” of myself climbing onto the webs as if they were a bean bag chair, making a comfortable little nest in them. 😱

I sensed Him saying, “You’re welcome to hang out there, but that’s not your territory. That’s not where you belong. You’re welcome to rest on the Rock whenever you’re ready.” 

And then suddenly, I realized the webs were a trick, not a treat! Hellllp! It’s kind of “funny” how God has used what I thought was my own clever spooky idea as grounds to speak to me. 

I got this strong impression as this image came to mind that the Lord was saying, “Beware of the webs!” showing me how easy it can be to not only get caught up in webs of thinking that don’t support His promises, but how enticing it can be to make my home in what is sometimes (unfortunately) familiar. 

Googling spider webs, it amazed me what parallels I gathered spiritually (link below).

Six Surprising Facts About Spiderwebs

Like how spiders create beautifully intricate webs to carefully attract their prey, our enemy carefully designs webs that appear attractive and familiar to us so we can be trapped in webs of lies and deception, crippling our vision and distracting our thought life. 

In my life, the enemy loves to make webs look as comfy as possible, appearing as a safe space to recline and review my troubles. Has this happened for you, too? Do not be fooled-it is no safe space.

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In my life, webs have looked like…

🕸Bitter thoughts. YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE HURT. I CANT BELIEVE HOW THEY DID YOU WRONG! HOW DARE THEY. OH, AND REMEMBER THAT TIME THEY SAID _________ AND DID _________!? Fruit: anger, pride, judgment, vengeance

🕸Accusing thoughts. YOU’RE THE CULPRIT OF EVERYTHING THAT’S WRONG! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT. Fruit: shame, poor me, hiding

🕸Dishonesty. NO, YOU TOTALLY DIDN’T MEAN THAT TO BE RUDE WHEN YOU SAID IT. Fruit: deception, confusion

🕸Pressure. YOU KNOW YOU BETTER DO A, B, & C OR THEY WON’T SEE YOUR VALUE ANYMORE. Fruit: insecurity, uncertain of my place, anxious

🕸False comfort in belonging with people who fuel the fire of my insecurity or right to be mad instead of pointing me to God to find rest for my soul.  Fruit: anger, disappointment, putting my hope in other peoples’ hands instead of God’s…

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Inspect the fruit.

Just because it’s familiar doesn’t make it true. 

Just because it’s familiar doesn’t make it safe.

Just because it’s familiar doesn’t mean it belongs to you.

It’s worth stating that Satan is real. He is creepy. His army is quite crafty in inviting me to attend spider-web parties. 
But can we stop giving the enemy so much credit already? Just admit together that the story doesn’t end there?

That Jesus is greater. Period!
(John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and have it to the full.”)

Unlike the poor little insects that fly into webs with hardly any way of escape, I get to opt out of being a victim.
God said, you are not powerless! I have overcome the spiderwebs. John 16:33

I have the ultimate Hero whose power lives inside of me! God gives me the sword of the spirit (His Word) to CUT. THE. WEBS.

 Girl, pick up your weapons! [Ephesians 6]

Here’s a little truth bomb a friend said to me the other day, paraphrased:

🕸There will always be webs. There will always be triggers. It’s what you do with the cue that makes all the difference. When I sense the trigger, will I go refresh myself with God’s solid promises? Or will I blindly jump into the old familiar spirals of worry, bitterness, self sufficiency, and unrest?

I have a choice to make. Will you join me in the decision?

We can choose to hang out in the territory God has given us- the space where His promises are our pillow, and His character covers us in safety. And what’s more, we get… Him to be with us!
In the land of God’s promises, honesty is required (John 4:24) and if we’d like, we could camp where privilege of the Holy Spirit’s guidance into all truth exists.

I can’t speak on where you camp, but for me…

*🏕Freedom is mine. I do not have to stay stuck in the web. I’ve been liberated. 2 Corinthians 3:17

*🏕Provision is mine! God gives me everything (& everyone) I need. It’s what He promises me! Philippians 4:19

*🏕Power is mine. I am no victim. Greater is He that is in me than he who is in the world. Ephesians 1:19,20; 1 John 4:4

*🏕Significance…that’s mine! God says that He created me for important purpose and I don’t have to perform to prove it because He did that already. Matthew 10, Psalm 139

*🏕Rest is my property. I have permission to let go of striving. God works everything for good for those that love Him. Rest is where God’s answers are. Psalm 37:7, Isaiah 26:3

*🏕Grace belongs to me. God gives it freely-I don’t have to compensate for my sin or mistakes. I could never keep up with that anyways.(Ephesians 2, Titus 2:11-12)

*🏕Love is my territory. 2 Timothy 1:7

*🏕Clarity…mine! God’s Spirit gives me sound thinking. 2 Timothy 1:7

*🏕 Security is MY ground! God is my Rock. He is my safe place. Psalm 18:32

*🏕Attention is what I have. My creator’s infatuation is with me, in the smallest details of my life. I am noticed. Psalm 139

*🏕Humility is mine. I’m no better than anyone, yet no “worse” either. 2 Chronicles 7:14 

Last on my current promise list, but often should be first:

*🏕Forgiveness is mine. It’s mine to receive, whether others deem me worthy of it or not. I’m trusting God for it daily, and it’s also mine to give away, knowing I’ve been forgiven of much. It’s just a bonus that I don’t have to feel sunshine and butterflies about someone to extend it to them 😎Ephesians 4:32,Colossians 3:13, Proverbs 17:9

 Consider this a formal invitation to camp at God’s cabin.
Would you come with me?

 RSVP required! (He asked us to make every effort to respond to His promises 😉… 2 Peter 1:5-8)

With Love,

Payton