“Because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” Luke 1:78-79 Painted Sunday August 5 at The River Church of OC, Irvine California am service.
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We are called to intercede from a place of peace. Calamity and chaos has no chance in the face of our God, our Jesus, who is light. When we’re called to intercede for others, for territories and situations often times we are roused to action and feel the call of duty. We take on the persona of warriors, when the truth is our God is all powerful, not us. Yes, we are called to pray, to intercede for the injustices in this world, but we cannot take a stance that puts us in the center of any battle. The battle has been won by the One who calls us his children.
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“See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.” Isaiah 60:2
“You are my lamp oh Lord; the Lord turns my darkness into light.” 2 Samuel 22:29
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:5
You could find scripture after scripture that talks about how our Jesus is light in the darkness and the powers of darkness have NO power over our God.
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Recently I was called to pray for a port, Port Hueneme in California to be exact; where cargo ships come in and out of our country. Oddly, this is not the first time I have been led to pray for a port. And what I saw in my spirit stunned me. Initially, I put the vision aside thinking I must have imagined the battle I saw going on. However, when I prepared for this Sunday’s painting, the Lord showed me this was the image I was to paint. I have learned not to deviate from what He suggests I paint, no matter how trivial I may think it is, or how silly the image may seem to me. What I saw in my spirit was a sky full of calamity, essentially demonic activity and it looked very much like what is depicted on the left side of the painting above. But in the center of the vision, was the Holy Spirit and the light that shined from him was so brilliant that no darkness could pass. Not one single bit of the choas that was trying to come into that place could pass through the light of the Holy Spirit. What was so stunning to me was the speed and totality of the battle. Before I could even comprehend that this was a battle, it was already won. My point of view was from the right side of this painting. Where I stood in the spirit was in a place of peace. It was not my battle to fight. And that is the main message here. I came to know the Lord in a series of very hard circumstances, I didn’t come forward at a church alter call. It was during some of the hardest times of my life that I finally truly gave my life to Jesus out of total exhaustion from fighting this world. From that, I’ve often taken up a call to pray for others with a fight in my spirit, wanting to protect others, to help others not have to come to the Lord like I did. But the truth is, this is not my battle, it is not our battle. We partner with Jesus in a most special way and when we make the battles about ourselves, we miss the point.
It is all about Him. Thank you Jesus.
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Andrea Riley Arts 