Been to the Rodeo lately? Yee Haw!!!

There are so many myths and questions out there about intercession. What is it? How does it work? When do you pray? When do you intercede? Does it work?

When I was a new Christian I had so many things I worried about. My husband left us. He took all of our things and had them shipped to his next duty station. I had the two kids and no car in a town with no public transportation. I hadn’t worked while we were married so minimum wage was going to be it for me. I was fighting fear which was getting worse and worse daily. I finally ended up so scared of everything that I was afraid to leave the house. I would leave the house, try to buy groceries and panic. I would end up having to go home. I would panic when I tried to go out the front door. 

I found the scripture:

II Timothy 1:17 KJV For God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

This scripture totally changed my life. Every time I realized I was afraid I would quote this scripture to myself until I was past the fear and back into the “sound mind” realm.

Worry is a type of fear. If I wasn’t fighting fear I worried. Then I found this scripture:

Matthew 6:34 NIV Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Boy was that an understatement. I had already made a deal with God that I would believe the Bible in its entirety until I found an error and then I would give up the whole thing.  (Hasn’t happened so far and not going to happen) so I knew I had to stop worrying. Then I found this verse:

II Corinthians 10:5 NIV We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

When I found that scripture I asked God how to do that. Have you ever tried to take every thought captive? About 90 seconds into it I was totally exhausted. There had to be a key to this, so I asked. “God how does this work?” 

I immediately had a vision of a rodeo. The horse was in the chute. That unmistakable sound of the chute opening was loud in my ears. That sound of wood on wood. The whosh of the chute opening, I could smell the dust, the leather, the sweat, the horses and it brought back every rodeo I have ever been to. I saw the horse jump out of the chute and head for the calf at break neck speed. I saw the rider start the lasso into motion. That dance of horse, rider, the arm twirling with the lasso enlarging as it twirled and swooshing forward to the calf and sliding around its neck. The horse stopped, the rope grew taught while the rider was off the horse and running towards the calf who was down. The dust was rising in a cloud. The sun hot. The rider moved in a glide, rope in his gloved hands, reaching for the calf. The 3 legs wrapped in seconds. The rider’s hands up in the air—done. Very few seconds had passed. My heart pounded. 

What did this mean God? I love the rodeo and appreciated the vision but had no idea what it meant. In His tender way of instruction I heard the explanation:

“When a thought takes off I want you to race after it, be ready. Capture and conquer it. Eventually it will become more automatic.”

My ever so spiritual response was, “How?”

He went into more detail, “When a thought is running away with you I will sound the chute. You take off after that thought and capture it.”

“Ok," I responded. Maybe I should interject here that my relationship with God is just like that--simple, open, straightforward. Why pretend to be something I am not--He already knows me.

After that, as I learned to take my thoughts captive, I would hear the sound of the chute and immediately go after my errant thought. When I caught the thought I would compare it to the Word of God. If it was not in agreement with the scriptures then it was not truth and I would discard it. This is not a short process. Still working on it though I hear the chute less and less often.

Getting these thoughts, fears, worries under control were essential in allowing me to grow, to learn who I was in Christ and to understand He loved me before and after I was saved and I NEVER had to work for it. He just does.

Knowing that love has set me free to love others and intercede for them. Are you dealing with what He shows you or are you “working” for that love? Are you fighting for others to walk in the freedom He has for them?

Been to the rodeo lately?