Archive for » August, 2010 «

30
Aug
How to Deal With the Accuser Living in Your Head

Do you ever have one of those days when you feel like there is a little voice in your head telling you what a poor example you are of the human race? Be assured that the little voice is not you. It may sound like you, but it is not. That voice is actually thoughts being thrown into your mind by someone known as the Accuser—and he is out to destroy your life. Here are some facts about the Accuser and some tips on how to deal with him.

How to know you are being condemned by the Accuser

You will feel one or more of the following emotions: depressed, discouraged, guilty, shamed, inadequate, a failure, hopeless, stupid, unloved, disliked, rejected, blamed, useless, lonely, discarded or condemned.

You will think thoughts along the lines of the following: “I’m a failure.” “This will never change.” “I’m a jerk.” “There is no hope for me.” “No one likes me.” “It’s not worth it.” “Why me?”

He is not flesh and blood! 

The Accuser is not human. He is a type of spirit, and he has been around for a very long time. He goes by the names of Satan, Devil, Accuser, Adversary, Angel of Light, Father of Lies, Lucifer, Serpent and many more that describe his character and activities (see Ephesians 6:12).

The Accuser does what his name implies—he accuses. “For the accuser of our brothers is cast down, who accused them before our God day and night . . . .” (Revelation 12:10 NIV).

What to do when the Accuser assaults you

1. Don’t agree with him! Recognize who is speaking. Even if the voice sounds like your own voice, don’t believe it!

2. Put on your spiritual armor and use your spiritual weapon (see Ephesians 6:13–18).

3. Apply the finished work of Christ through repentance if you have sinned (see 1 John 1:9).

4. Remind the enemy that the Lamb’s blood identifies you as sinless. “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death” (Revelation 12:11 NIV).

5. Then speak your testimony to the enemy. “Yep, everything you say was once true, but in Christ that is no longer who I am” (see Revelation 12:11 above).

6. Reaffirm your total commitment to Christ and expect a little more practice in laying down your life (see Revelation 12:11 above).

7. Rebuke the enemy! You’ve been given authority—now use it! Just say something along the lines of, “Accuser, I rebuke you. You have no power over me. I have been bought with the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and he now owns me and has authority over my life. You have no authority to accuse me of anything. Take your accusations about me, and tell them to Jesus. Stop criticizing God’s property”  (see James 4:7).  

Dealing with the Accuser can be an ongoing battle when we first realize who is attacking us. But the more we practice the above steps, the more we find freedom from mental torment and the tendency to believe the lies of the enemy.

What suggestions can you add that would help in dealing with the Accuser? Please leave your input in the comment link below. We would love to hear from you.

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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Category: Brain overhaul, Prayer, Spiritual Warfare  Tags: , , , , , , ,
27
Aug
Honoring the Life God Has Given You

Recently I visited my cousin Polly and stepped into the spacious bathroom that once belonged to Grandma Chris. Close by was Grandpa Ivan’s bathroom—connected by a little room where the toilet reigned. The scent of lavender was gone, but since Polly lives in this old adobe ranch house, she has maintained the rustic, yet rich, feel of the 50 year old place.

Grandma’s bathroom caught my attention because it instantly brought back memories of how Grandma honored herself and the life she had been given. This bathroom was totally hers. One of my favorite memories is taking a bubble bath with lavender soap and scrubbing my nails with her little nail brush. I haven’t seen one of those nail brushes in years, but there was always one at Grandma’s, and you always scrubbed your nails while taking a lavender bubble bath. 

I’ve thought a lot about honor after having celebrated 35 years of ministry in the same church and honoring the lives of my parents as each transitioned from earth to Home. We tend to honor other people with appropriate cards and gifts at certain times of the year and especially at their death. But how often do we take the time to honor ourselves and the life God has given us?

I’m not talking about excuses for self indulgence or vanities, but simple, honest ways of honoring the special gifts that God has placed within the life we each live and the person we have become. When we honor something about ourselves, we are saying, “This is good about me and my life. I’m going to take care of it, treasure it, and enjoy it. Thank you, Lord, for creating me.”

I honor who I am by getting my hair cut and colored. I’ve always been a red head and have decided that I will follow my mother’s lead and get my hair done on a regular basis. My mother never missed her weekly appointment with the hair dresser until the week she died. She was the softest, sweetest, little old silver haired woman I’ve ever known.

So, being thankful for the head of hair I have, I keep a regular monthly appointment with my awesome hair stylist, Kris. In this way, I honor the God who gave me something special—my hair. (And yes, I do know that someday I will have to switch to gray, but that time has not yet come.)

My husband, Tom, heads to the gym three times a week. Sometimes he swims. Often he endures the treadmill and weights. This ritual is one of his ways to honor the life God has given him.

How do you honor who you are and the life God has given you? What is there about your life that says, “This is good about me. I’m going to take care of it, treasure it, and enjoy it”? What will your grandchildren remember about the way you honored the person God created you to be and the life you lived as a result?

Your thoughts, answers, comments and lavender soap are encouraged. Leave the former in the comment section below and save the lavender soap for my next birthday. 

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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Category: Daily, Personal growth, Spirit Rituals  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
25
Aug
Warning: Stress Can Steal Your Sanity

I used to blame my painful stress levels on external events and obligations piling up on my desk. I now know that the stress causing my blood pressure to rise is my internal reaction to such events.

My internal stress is caused by:

1. My self-imposed sense of obligation to complete assigned, assumed, or volunteered for tasks.

2. My inability to say, “I’m not able to do that,” because my dad always told me I could do anything I set my mind to.

3. My failure to set boundaries on my work—I enjoy what I do and I’m pretty good at it.

4. My need for the feeling of accomplishment that comes with projects completed.

Even the discouraging events in my life that cause stress, such as the decline and death of my parents or the struggles my kids and friends go through, pull out more than compassion in me:

I carry a sense of obligation to fix a situation so another will be free of pain.

I’m internally a teacher, so I tend to teach others how to handle life rather than let them experience life.

I want to control my external world—my world gets uncomfortable when the messes of others collide with my world.

I don’t think this is a pride issue as much as it is one of obligation—self obligation. Most of my stress comes from self-imposed obligations and it is mostly internal.

Here’s what I have been learning over the past few years:

1. I need to be honest and practical about what I can and can’t do within the boundaries of my work hours and then live within those boundaries. Working overtime steals time from other important things in my life.

2. I don’t have to be available to others, even family, 24/7.

3. I need to be content with things left undone.

4. I need to let others live in their pain without feeling obligated to relieve the pain.

5. I need to remember that just because someone wants to put an obligation on me, I don’t have to pick it up.

6. I need to remember that I can’t control my external world, only my internal world.

7. I need to spend more quiet time with the Lord at the beginning and ending of each day.

In reading over the above list, I realized that Jesus practiced all of these things. No one ever experienced such external stress as Jesus. Yet Jesus never experienced worry, anxiety, burnout or other symptoms of internal stress. Spending time with him and reading the Scriptures can teach me more than anything else about dealing with stress.

What have you learned about external and internal stress and how do you handle your internal stress load?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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Category: At work, Personal growth  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
23
Aug
Blood, Guts, and Authenticity

Around 1,000 years ago, Viking Leif Ericson landed on the east coast of North America and began a colony called Vineland. Although the Vikings were fierce warriors, they had a difficult time with the Native Americans.

The Vikings were confused by the Indians and believed that they were often demons in disguise. The problem of distinguishing a real Indian from a demon was simple: Authenticity was established by blood. A real Indian would bleed when stabbed while a demon would disappear.

We can verify a Christian with a similar test of authenticity. When a Christian is “stabbed,” he bleeds love. This is especially true when wounded by other believers. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34–35 niv).

Love is the core of Christianity. Everything we do must represent the love demonstrated by God towards us. This means that we should be genuine in our relationships. No masks, facades, or pretenses. We are to be authentic with each other.

Authenticity contains the idea of humility and honesty in how we present ourselves and how we respond to others. We are to be people experiencing the ongoing transformation of God’s Spirit, Word, and truth conforming us into His image.

Blood and guts questions:
  1. How does the aspect of bleeding love differ from the way we have been trained by our culture to respond to “stabbings”?
  2. What emotions and attitudes bleed out of you when stabbed emotionally by another? How would the people you live and work with answer this question about you?
  3. How can you authentically bleed love when your attacker needs to be confronted?

I invite you to leave your knives, swords, guns, answers, comments, and insights in the blue comment link below.

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

This post is reprinted from my book, “Help, I’m Stuck With These People For the Rest of Eternity!”

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Category: Personal growth, Relationships, The Backward Kingdom  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
20
Aug
4 Tips on How to Get to Know the God of the Possible

Someone once said that a rut is simply a grave with both ends knocked out. Many of us end up in such ruts when we get trapped in old habit patterns and ways of thinking. Then we wonder why our lives seem boring or hopeless.

In their book, The Art of Possibility, Rosamund and Benjamine Zander state, “Every problem, everything hindering us from pursuing our dream only appears unsolvable inside a particular frame or point of view. Enlarge the box, or create another frame around the data, and problems vanish, while new opportunities appear.”

Most of us have lived with our view of God for so long that we find it hard to enlarge our “God box.” Yet God is the creator of the universe, and He continues to create. He is the God of possibilities and promise. His perspective of our life and the possibilities before us is so much bigger than what we currently perceive. So how do we climb out of our box-like grave rut and see the vastness of the possibilities set before us by our living God?

Here are 4 tips:

1.  Read again the stories of the Bible and the God of the Bible. Note the “ruts” people found themselves in and how new possibilities opened up before them when they focused their eyes on God instead of the sides of their ruts.

2.  Change your expectations and look for possibilities in places you previously ignored. The Zanders tell the story of four young men who sat by the bedside of their dying father.

“The old man, with his last breath, tells them there is a huge treasure buried in the family fields. The sons crowd around him crying, ‘Where, where?’ but it is too late. The day after the funeral and for many days to come, the young men go out with their picks and shovels and turn the soil, digging deeply into the ground from one end of each field to the other. They find nothing and, bitterly disappointed, abandon the search. The next season the farm has its best harvest ever.”

3. Replace your negative thinking and self talk with the promises of God found throughout the Bible. Pray those promises back to the God who gave them.

4. Commit your dreams and problems to the Lord. “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen” (Ephesians 3:19-21).

What have you discovered about the God of the possible? I’d love to hear your comments. (Click on the blue comment link at the bottom of this post.)

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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18
Aug
5 Secrets to Understanding the Opposite Sex

I think Elayne Boosler had it right when she said, “When women are depressed they either eat or go shopping. Men invade another country. It’s a whole different way of thinking.”

Half of the people that live on this planet are wired differently than the other half. For example, a wife wants her husband to compassionately listen to her latest frustration. The husband wants her to get to the point so he can give his wife the solution to her problem. Unfortunately, her sharing is the point, the solution isn’t, and her husband is sleeping on the couch—again!

A mother attempts a meaningful conversation with a son who interprets her effort as invading his space. A daughter feels her father doesn’t have time to listen to her innermost thoughts while the dad thinks he is doing pretty well to listen to her during halftime of the football game.

These differences also show up in other relationships where the sexes have to converse. A man can interpret a woman employer as bossy and domineering when she sees herself as confidently overseeing the details of the business. A male soccer coach wants to take his young team to view a professional soccer game, yet he has to convince a soccer mom that the trip will be safe and they will be home on time. She apparently has a funny feeling about the security of the trip. He thinks she’s nuts.

God made us different for a purpose, because it is only together that we reflect Him and His image. Remember, God made Adam and Eve in His image—male and female together. In order to fully represent the image of God through communication we need to seek to understand how the other sex communicates.

Ellen Tien conducted an interview with 25 couples and found some genuine differences in the way men and women behave and perceive events. See if you can relate to these differences:

1. Men consolidate while women diversify

2. Men want to get going while women want to get ready

3. Men care about what things do while women care about how things look

4. Men go for the big picture while women cherish the details

5. Men rely on information while women depend on intuition 

What communication differences between men and women can you add to this list? Have you found that honoring these differences allow a place for the Spirit Holy to manifest himself in your communications?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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Category: Brain overhaul, Relationships  Tags: , , , , ,
16
Aug
Holy As the Day is Spent

Carrie Newcomer’s Holy As the Day is Spent stands as one of my all time favorite songs. It speaks to the everyday holy moments of “folding sheets like folding hands, to pray as only laundry can.” May your week be full of the Holy enmeshed in the daily.

If you received this post via a RSS reader or by email and cannot view the video, please stop by the Holy in the Daily blog to enjoy it.

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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Category: At work, Celtic Christianity, Daily, Daily chores, Monday's Moment Videos, Quiet moments  Tags: , , , ,
13
Aug
The Importance of Doing Nothing

Sometimes the most important thing you can do is nothing. As the great theologian Winnie the Pooh said, “Don’t underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.”

I rediscovered the importance of doing nothing on my summer vacation–long days with no agenda, no obligations, and few phones. Endless hours included time to crochet and read mindless novels that provided mental rest and laughter. Lovely dinners cooked with simple food and glorious sunsets added beauty to the atmosphere of doing nothing.

This was not as easy as it sounds for a girl who is very project and goal oriented. I never touched the little projects and books I had brought along with the thought I’d have time to work on my website or study for a retreat message. Every time I looked at them I heard the Lord say, “No.” So nothing of “value” was done during vacation except:

1. I rested–both physically and mentally.

2. I had a great time with my husband who was also suffering from work withdraw.

3. I found my creative juices slowly regenerating.

4. I let the world be bigger than what I could control.

5. I discovered that not caring about some things is a very important discipline.

6. I learned that it takes several days to really get into the practice of doing nothing.

Since Tom and I take Fridays as our Sabbath, the practice of doing nothing is an ongoing discipline–a spiritual discipline that provides a place and time to connect with God and each other. How do you work the spiritual discipline of doing nothing into your life?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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Category: Quiet moments, Spiritual Practices  Tags: , , , , ,
11
Aug
Unexpected Encounters With the Holy

I walked along the rugged shoreline of Shell Beach today, remembering a time long ago when I was young and often came to these cliffs to play my flute. I recorded one such memory in my book, Intercessors, God’s End-time Vanguard. I reprint it here as a reminder that finding the Holy in the daily often comes when we least expect it.

“Years ago, when I was in college, my roommate, Pam, and I went to the beach for some quiet time. It was late at night and Pam decided to go for a walk. I sat down by the cliff and listened to the waves breaking over the rocks below. Pulling out my flute, I began to play songs of worship and songs from my spirit. This had become a way of expressing my heart in prayer to the Lord and I often felt His presence closest during these times of musical intercession. Suddenly there appeared a woman in front of me walking out of the fog by the edge of the cliff. I probably jumped three feet but calmed down when I realized she was crying.

Sobbing she explained that her life had no meaning and no hope. She had come to the edge of the cliff intending to jump onto the rocks below. As she contemplated her final decision she heard music floating up through the fog. Feeling compelled to follow the sound she ended up weeping in front of me. Not knowing what else to do, I led her to the Lord! Pam arrived in time to answer more of her questions about Jesus and together we took her home.”

Most of my encounters with the Lord are not so dramatic, but an occasional in-you-face experience does reinforce his authority and activity in my life. Do you have a story of an unexpected encounter with the Holy in the course of your day? I’d love to hear about it. My comment section is a blue link at the bottom of this post.

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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Category: Prayer, worship  Tags: , , , , ,
09
Aug
Is Your Home a Thin Place?

I live in a typical American small town with my house located in what used to be a rural part of our community. This house is situated so that large picture windows overlook oak covered hills off of our back deck, which is an extension of our living room. Highway 101 is my immediate neighbor across the street. During the weeks of the popular California Mid State Fair, just up the highway from us, the traffic noise can last until 2:00 in the morning.

This seems an odd location for a girl raised on a ranch—on one side I view the hills and quiet meadows, and on the other side, I view a steady parade of big rigs, RVs, and lots of cars. Obviously, I spend more time on the back deck than on the front porch. Yet, this is where God has placed me to live the life he has given me, and for that I am grateful.

This is the house where I have raised our six children, battled my private demons, and is the main spot of earth where God has shaped me. I can be fully human here—the good, bad, and ugly in me all meet here with the God who became human. This house has become my “thin place”—a sacred place where heaven and earth connect.

I think for a house to become such a place, a thin place, there has to the element of “real”—raw living that faces the struggles of life not with strength, but with the grace of God that teaches and molds us into his image—one living, eternal cell at a time.

Maybe becoming a thin place includes living in one location long enough to have the “real” permeate the foundations, walls, and rafters of the house. I’m not sure about that, but I wonder. Anyway, I’m glad walls can’t talk.

There have been many times in the past when I have wanted to move away—leave the bad memories along with the good—if it would help take pain away. But pain signals the need for healing and bad memories can become landmarks of the work of God in my life if I’m willing to go through the pain rather than escape it. This house has seen a lot of laughter, but a lot of pain and healing too. The laughter over shadows the pain and leaves a residue of joy.

Is your home a thin place? Has the element of “real” carried you through the painful times to where heaven and earth connect? Does your house contain the decorations of the Spirit obtained through time and struggle? Has your house become a home—a habitation for the God who became human?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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