Alex runs frantically. He is trapped, he’s hurt his friend, and he has run away to a barren, rocky place. He’s forgotten how big he is, and the foosa know that in his current state they can creep up on him. But Marty his friend has not forgotten him, despite being hurt and runs after him. He speaks out truth, but Alex is lost in his misery, until the foosa start to attack Marty. “A little help here!” Marty yells and Alex rises up. Together they defeat the foosa, and establish a victory on the island and more importantly within themselves. The foosa know they will be whooped if they ever try that again.

Alex had to rise up in the truth his friend declared over him.

A similar scenario plays out in Piglets Big Movie. The beginning shows scenes of calamity and catastrophe and little things Piglet does are the reason no one is seriously injured. But his friends can’t see it, until Piglet disappears for a while and they go on a journey to find him and remember all the amazing things he did, and later find him and affirm him in these truths. At the end of the movie he has to rise up in the truth that he is valuable and once again saves his friends lives.

We need friends around us that speak life, encourage, and prophesy God’s truth over us, and yet at some point we have to make it our own.

From studying the early church where they were all encouraged to prophesy and bring hymns and psalms, I wonder whether prophesying over each other regularly was something that they all did?

I have a friend who turns every gathering we have into a holy moment of encouragement and prophecy and recently another friend who had never experienced that came to my daughter’s birthday party…I feel that level of encouragement should be a regular part of church life, along side with being accountable to others through deep relationship.

Sometimes we can run from church to church hoping that a certain prayer will cause a breakthrough in our situation, our mindset, etc and I’ve certainly seen this take place. It is wonderful to have people stand with us and pray with us, and other times we need to establish a truth in our lives through time with God and in His Word.

Lisa Bevere shares about this in two of her early books, Out of Control and Loving It, and Be Angry But Don’t Blow It. She was seeking deliverance for anger after throwing multiple things at her husband and nearly slamming her toddler into the wall, and God spoke to her and led her to the Scripture in Isaiah 52

1Awake, awake, clothe yourself with strength, O Zion! Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, holy city! For the uncircumcised and unclean will no longer enter you. 2Shake off your dust! Rise up and sit on your throne, O Jerusalem. Remove the chains from your neck, O captive Daughter of Zion.…

She built a stronghold of Scripture in her heart around who God said she is.

We can see deliverance, one cup of tea, and one Bible passage at a time.

FREE COMPASSION PRINTABLE

Another friend of mine shared a story with me, of how her parents used to scream at each other in the evenings while she was trying to study for her Grade 12 exams until they eventually got a divorce, but it left her afraid of the dark and would always need a light on, even after she was married and had a child. But she kept reading God’s Word and one night God gave her a dream of picking a sword and defeating a monster hiding under the car in their garage and as she spoke out God’s Word over herself it defeated the fear and she no longer needed the light on.

As famous tennis player, Margaret Court says in her book Train Your Brain, we can create positive strongholds of God’s Word in our hearts.

We build these strongholds by searching out what God has to say about a matter, and we speak those words over our lives as a weapon against the enemy and we surround ourselves with people who will say what God has to say about us, in truth and encouragement, and sometimes with a kind rebuke.

Written for Five Minute Friday – Word Prompt Defeat