We turn away from affliction like we turn away from rain. If there is any way to seek shelter, to avoid getting caught in it, we do.

For some reason, today felt different. Just as the storm clouds moved in, I did the opposite. I mounted the trailhead. 

Maybe it's the heaviness I feel for my friend who lost one dear to their family last week. Even though I’m not in her inner circle, I want to feel her pain, to intercede on a level far beyond what I could possibly feel. I want to imitate Christ, my High Priest, One who always lives to make intercession for me. (Hebrews 7:25) And like Holy Spirit, whom the Bible describes as interceding “for us with groanings too deep for words.” (Romans 8:26 NASB)

For several years I used to go alone to the World Prayer Center weekly to pray for the nations. One day I was praying for South Sudan, focusing on a report I had read of a badly burned child tossed into a campfire by marauding soldiers. I entered a type of intercession that could only be described as holy, sobbing and wailing for his mother. I had never been to Sudan. I had no personal pain to rival what that mama had endured, and yet, I prayed as if old traumas were stirred.

I inquired of the Lord about my experience, and heard an answer I will never forget: The Sudanese mother had wept all the tears she could weep and was utterly spent. In my comfort, in my ease, yes, even being the mother of two with disabilities and feeling at the end of my own rope, I could still cry out to represent her pain before the Throne of God. Holy Spirit knew the depths of her agony, and invited me to partner with Him in expression. In doing so, I'm convinced both that young mother and I were strengthened.  

We can't manufacture these experiences with God, but we can set ourselves up for them. We set ourselves up for them by making ourselves available to God by emptying ourselves of our own concerns long enough to enter into the pain of others.

And praying.

​Really praying for those we love who are suffering more than we are. ​

Carnage. Far too much carnage.

I live in Colorado Springs, home of the Air Force Academy, Focus on the Family, and Pike’s Peak. Colorado Springs is also the town where on December 9, 2007 a gunman opened fired on my church killing two and wounding many others. Most recently, you may remember Colorado Springs for the murders at our Planned Parenthood building. 

My family has lived here for 18 years. Shortly after we moved to Colorado, on a cold winter’s day, I went around to the back of my house. I attempted to open the six foot gate leading to the space under my deck.

There was snow and ice blanketing everything, and as I tried to get the gate open, it was stuck fast. I slammed my body into it. No budge. Something appeared stuck under it. 

What was that?? It didn’t look right.

I took the long way around the house to approach the gate from the opposite direction.

Then I identified a grisly truth.

An animal had tried to evade capture by darting under my gate, a strategy that had worked for it, no doubt, many times before. But this time, there was a build up of snow and ice under the gate, severely narrowing the passageway. The animal, I believed a cat, got stuck halfway without a moment to spare. A predator grabbed its exposed parts and began pulling, stripping the skin and fur right off the cat’s hind quarters.

I felt sickened knowing that the torture must have continued for some time until the predator came up with the same idea I had. Approach the victim from the other side. The cat was then mauled and stripped from his head, all the while remaining stuck fast under my gate, pinned down to endure a gruesome death.

It took me weeks after extracting the carcass to deaden the image in my mind of this terrified, suffering cat. It was the only way to avoid perpetual weeping. As an animal lover, it was that upsetting to me.

But isn’t deadening the image just what we do when we hear about bodies being blown up in Syria, violence in France, or even our own townspeople getting gunned down in Colorado Springs, or now in San Bernardino?

The predator Satan is an authentic enemy behind every evil, far more ruthless than neighborhood coyotes who viciously attack cats. And a real response from us is nearer to the heart of God than disposing of the “carcass” in our own minds in order to move on with our lives unaffected.

This same predator is at work in the lives of people you cross paths with every day, not just in sensational atrocities which make headlines. As Christians facing our own profound challenges, we do not get a free pass from engaging with those within our spheres who have been ruthlessly attacked. Satan is not just the enemy of our souls; he is also an enemy of the abundant life our good God wishes to bestow.

​When we think of praying, what typically comes to mind is petitioning God. Our lives and the lives of those we love are filled with spiritual, emotional and practical needs. It’s not wrong to ask. Phil 4:6 (NLT) exhorts us,

​“Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.”  

Consider, however, that some of the things we may be asking for, we already have. Scripture is full of statements that are true about us as ones who have committed our lives to Christ. However, those truths may not be manifested in our lives. The disconnect isn’t with the Provider, rather, it may be with our enforcement or with our view of ourselves. 

I’ll give you a concrete example. It is easy to see the truth that humans are alpha over dogs. Yet many pet owners allow their little fur balls to rule the house. The human may feel powerless to exert rules or boundaries. There is a problem in the way the pet owner views themselves. Can you imagine Fifi’s owner petitioning God for the authority to be boss at home over their pets? They already have the authority!!  

Increasing faith impacts the measurable results of your prayers! 

• Declaring moves spiritual realities from our heads and into our hearts, impacting the way we actually live our lives. 
• Declaring announces to the forces of hell that we know who we are, and that we are enforcers of the truth. 

Have you ever taken a stand at home, declaring over your children, “I’m the mother here. And what I say, goes!”? You get the idea. You were the mother before the statement was made audibly.

​But declaring the truth of your authority and position over the troops creates greater alignment because of enforcement. 

Today when you read scripture, keep a pen handy to capture every statement that describes you and those you intercede for as believers. Declare these truths into full manifestation, shifting your realities into closer alignment with the purposes of God.

​Let’s start with Hebrews 4:16 (NLT), “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”