Moving mountains, one pixel at a time
From the desk of the Tiger Lily.
Today I am going to share a short tutorial with you on Faith and Prayer. The testimony of what I have experienced, seen, heard, and felt was too important not to write about, even at risk of increased spiritual attacks in response. This type of Prayer is something that all of God's Children can do, no matter where they are on Jesus' Path to their Perfection.
God Gives a measure of Faith to all of His Children. No matter how much Faith you have been initially Given, you have the ability to exercise it to increase your Faith and to make it stronger. I used to believe incorrectly that if one had Faith like a mustard seed, that they would be able to move mountains as per what Jesus Said in Matthew 17:20 (and Luke 17:6 about the sycamine tree). As many of us have heard, Faith the size of a mustard seed is extremely tiny, but mustard seeds grow into giant trees, and this is actually what Jesus was Saying about our God-Given gift of Faith-- it needs time and effort to grow, but it has the potential to move physical and metaphorical mountains in time, no matter how small it may be to start out with.
Most of us have also heard the analogy of Faith being like a muscle, and this is also true. Muscles that are not used never develop to their full potential, and conversely muscles that are exercised consistently will become increasingly more useful and will grow to the size they are meant to be.
So how do we get our mustard seeds/muscles of Faith to grow? By watering/exercising them via purposeful, will-powered Prayer. (The other component is the Light of God's Presence/Rest in His Presence.) I'm not talking about the kind of prayer people usually pray: please Bless everyone I know list, please Give me more xyz, Thank You for all You have Done and Are enumeration, etc. I'm talking about the specific, focused, zoomed-in Commanding of objects and situations in Jesus' Name to do what you Command them to do, coupled with the exertion of the willpower also given you by God.
Now for the testimony: for many years, but especially these past several months to over a year, I have been under relentless spiritual attack by evil entities and people, and it has been directed at my health. Several years ago I Prayed in Commanding things in Jesus' Name to be gone, but the pain and discomfort disappeared for only a couple of seconds. I tried again a couple of years ago and got the same result. So I mistakenly concluded it was God's Will that I undergo the suffering for His Honor and Glory and that was His way of both Answering my Prayer and Telling me so, similarly to Paul's referred-to "thorn in the flesh". I could not have been more wrong.
One night, after over a year of countless tantrums, screaming at God for not Taking this from me, being a very unwilling and begrudging sufferer, it culminated at 2am in me finally saying enough was enough. I wasn't going to take it anymore. It was time to fight back, and I was prepared to use anything and everything I could think of to make it go away. I started Commanding different body parts in Jesus' Name to be healed, for my body not being allowed to react to these causes of the suffering, and various other things of that nature. And the suffering lessened. And then it came back a few seconds later. And then I Prayed again, this time other more specific things, and saying these causes of suffering would never be allowed to make my body react like that again, adding for today and for the rest of my life so that those causes would never be allowed to cause trouble again (something I hadn't prayed initially). And the suffering lessened again. This time I kept at it for about 3 hours, not taking 'no' or only a temporary 'yes' for an answer. Eventually the suffering abated to almost nonexistent levels. I slept like a baby for the rest of that night and the next morning the level of suffering was the lowest I had known in years.
God Taught me tremendous lessons from that night and I am still learning, but this is what I have found from God's crash-course in purposeful prayer: right now my Faith is like an airbrush. If you've ever used MS Paint or any similar programs, there is an airbrush tool, and a flood fill tool. See below:
Most of us, me included, believe when we pray that we are using the flood fill tool when our proportion of Faith isn't up to the task. It's the equivalent of a 90lb shrimpy dude attempting to benchpress 300lb his first time out. Not. Gonna. Happen. The muscles of Faith aren't large enough or strong enough when coupled with our seldom-used purposeful will in prayer. You have to start smaller. Thus, the airbrush tool.
Stage 1: 1 pixel
At first it starts with small, specific things in Prayer. It's like in computer coding when you list each short command line for a very specific action. It takes a lot of specific commands to accomplish your end goal, yet with patience and persistence the goal is eventually reached. For me, it was specific parts of the body, e.g. nasal passages or left quadricep muscles or a specific stretch of the digestive system. It could even be as small as the workings of individual cells at the cellular or molecular or even the atomic/subatomic level. You simply concentrate your will, which for me was gathering it up into my Spiritual core, and then exert your will towards the object being prayed for as you pray in Commanding that specific object to do a specific task in Jesus' Name. Then you let the concentrated will go, and for me it was like that stored-up virtue/healing energy/will was released to do what it had been directed to do with the object being under the Command of the will through the name of Jesus. Visualization also helps to direct the will towards the object. I know it sounds kind of weird or like some hocus pocus, but the only thing I can tell you is that I now understand that Bible passage in Luke 8:43-48 where Jesus Asked who in that pressing crowd had touched Him, because He could Feel the healing virtue had gone out from Him.
At this stage, instead of moving entire mountains with your Prayers, you are able to manually pick up pebbles at the base of the mountain and move them from one place to another.
Stage 2: 2-10 pixels
As the prayers are Answered and the object being Commanded in the name of Jesus obeys what has been Commanded of it, that is how your Faith grows as well as your confidence. You then are ready for slightly more generalized, less specific Prayers which require a stronger and larger volume of the will, and a larger amount of virtue/power. These Prayers could be something like your entire respiratory system instead of just the lungs, or a row of plants in the garden instead of just one specific plant. Again, the more you Pray, the more experience you gain, the stronger your Faith and confidence grow in the Assurance that you are growing in the Grace and Knowledge of God, and developing into the creation He always Intended for you to be.
At this stage, you are able to use a payloader to move large, heavy rocks from one place to another.
Stage 3: greater than 10 pixels/flood fill
As your Faith grows ever larger and stronger, you will be able to Pray about and Command more difficult and more generalized objects. Eventually, you will be able to Command an entire mountain to move and it will obey you, as Jesus Said in His example. This is when your Faith has changed from airbrush to flood fill.
A few reminders:
1) Your Faith is only limited by its size and by the amount and strength effort of will/virtue you are able to expend in conjunction with your Prayers. When I first began, I became exhausted after each session of Prayer due to all of the energy I directed towards each Prayer and Command. The place where my third eye is located started hurting as well, so there may be another unknown/unspecified component involved in the expenditure of will/virtue.
Again, it takes time and effort to grow your will in order to be able to handle the larger and more difficult/complicated objects of purposeful Prayer. Patience and persistence are key.
2) You have to be willing to change your approach. Oftentimes Prayer doesn't "work" because the wrong subject is being focused on. As LC says, "You don't spray for mosquitoes when rats are the problem." In my case, initially I only Prayed about a certain cause of the suffering without taking into account it could be an entirely different cause, or even multiple points of origin. Once I was willing to expand my horizons and Pray specifically about multiple causes of the problem, most of which the Holy Ghost Brought to my mind, the suffering lessened permanently.
3) Purposeful Prayer is an everyday activity. Jesus Prayed, "Give us this day our daily bread." He didn't Pray, "Give us bread for the rest of our lives." Prayer is one of the many ways God Speaks and Interacts with us, as when you are focused on Him, the focus helps to open the lines of communication. Prayer is also meant for our benefit. Even five minutes every day will do wonders for your Faith as well as help you to be closer to Jesus. Also, each Answered Prayer increases His Honor and Glory.
4) Due to the required effort on your part, it is very easy to be deceived that it is you performing the miracles instead of God. Don't forget to Praise Him every day for the wonders He Does in your life and to constantly search your heart for signs of arrogance/pride/vanity to be rooted out, because you don't want to be taught a lesson in humility. It's very embarrassing and usually in front of other people.
5) Enmity with others not yet resolved will affect your Spiritual Life and also your effectiveness in Prayer. Start by Praying for your heart to be right before God and make sure you don't have any offenses or sins that you have not yet Repented or that you have not yet Forgiven others by giving it to God to Deal with. Psalm 139:23-24 are good verses to Pray for yourself.
6) Speaking of verses to Pray for yourself, there are many verses and Promises that you can Claim for yourself, e.g. Isaiah 53:5 for Healing ("By Jesus' stripes I am Healed!"), Matthew 19:26/Philippians 4:13 for Success in your endeavors, etc. The precious Treasures are all written there for you, and you just keep Claiming them- even if it feels strange or you don't yet fully believe- until the confidence and Assurance of fulfilled Promises come to you. "Ye have not because ye ask not." Remember patience and persistence are key. "Ask, and ye shall receive." Not just once, but keep asking, which is lost in the translation to English.
7) Most importantly, when you are Praying for other people, you need their permission to be able to Pray effectively on their behalf as well as to understand their measure of Faith or disbelief. (For example, some people only have the Faith that certain things will be able to Heal them, such as taking pills or undergoing/performing various procedures like surgery or soaking their affected body part in epsom salts. In that case, one must use what Faith is there and add one's Prayers/Commands to enhance the Healing effects of whatever their Faith will allow.) It sounds strange, yet some people don't actually want their lives to change for the better, no matter how much they pretend they do. God is a Gentleman, and He will not Force His Healing or His Blessings on the unwilling. Keep in mind, if Jesus was unable to Perform many of His Miracles due to the unbelief of others (Matthew 13:57-58, Mark 6:3-6), how much more will people's unbelief affect your Prayers for them?
I was and still am completely incredulous and humbled that this long, painful journey is how God Chose to Teach me about the power of prayer. All the things that all the evil people and other evil entities meant for evil, God meant for Good. He Turned this entire thing around from a plain of endless suffering stretched out before me to a Joyful Hope and expectation for the future.
God Bless the Good, and God Grant you your heart's desires when they are aligned with His Desires for your perfect Good, Prospering, Success, Health, Wholeness, Life, and all other Good and Perfect Gifts that He Wants to Give You, and may you be ready to Accept and Receive all of His Good Gifts for you, in Jesus' Name Amen and Amen.
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