Blindsided

Every so often something catches us off guard. We don't see it coming.

I'm watching movies for a while now that have inspired me. I mentioned Chariots of Fire in a blog a few days ago. Today it's been sitting with me for 48 hours since I re-watched The Blind Side, Michael Oher's inspirational story of loss to adoption to excellence in American Football and success both on and off the field.

I've not been up to watching The Pursuit of Happyness yet - a bit close to the knuckle for now - but Blind Side really caught my attention again.

I don't understand the game, but I get the reference to what Christ does for us in the message.

As we move through life, He's got our back. He watches us, caring for and protecting us as far as we will allow Him to. And that's the crucial part.

We can hinder how far He can shield us.

It's a harsh Truth, but we see it in Scripture when Jesus visits His home town and can do very little there because of the people's lack of faith. It's the familiarity of the zone with Jesus.

When I first got onto the concept of Jesus healing today I saw a lot start to happen. Firstly my own leg was healed from a bad injury following a fall, then I began to see people healed when I prayed for them. But then a strange thing happened. I began to hear - from others who believed it's God's Will to heal and the atonement purchased that with Jesus's blood - that it didn't always work. Although I didn't want to believe it, I suddenly began to see healings become less frequent, until one day they stopped being immediate. My sinking had become too much, and I was operating in fear and doubt - antifaith.

I got blindsided by the concept of doubt.overwhelming my faith. I'd been so focussed in on strengthening my faith that I had no idea what my doubts could do. The scale of things balance out one thing against the other. And as I've found, a little doubt can go a long way towards destroying faith. As the doubt side got heavier it outweighed my faith very quickly, and that doubt was picked up by the people I prayed for. Their faith was undermined, and we saw delayed responses at best.

Jesse Duplantis, a man I have tremendous respect for, posted a twitter comment yesterday reminding us not to throw our pearls in front of pearl stomping people. It hit me hard as I'd not remembered this scripture.

We need to remember to hold our thoughts close and be aware of who we are speaking to. Our Vision can be eroded by fear which the enemy is only too keen to do. How many ministries that can change the World have been halted by the undermining of the vision by blind-side attacks from the enemy? Probably more than we can count.

My vision for Eagle's Wing Ministries is a simple one, get God's Word out to people. That's the Mission. But the details of how to do it I've only shared with a few people who I trust and who are going to not stomp the pearl into the ground.

Your Vision may be just as simple, or it could be a lot more complex. Most visions grow as they reach a certain level. There's an organic feel to the Kingdom which puts us either into growth or decline. Very few ministries tick over at a set level for long. It's not practical. Growth or stagnation. And stagnation tends to lead to demise and death. It's hard to recover a stagnant body of water. It can't heal thirst as it will make us sick, not help us grow.

The key is to allow Jesus to run with us. Pace ourselves at His lead and avoid running ahead or lagging behind. Keep our blind-side protected at all costs.

And then we will finish the game in His Victory.