I’m aware of all of the ramifications of using the word enlightenment, but I choose to use it here in the context of its purest meaning: what was once dark, or hidden, unknown, not understood, has now become light, or clear, known, understood. That concept came to mind right away as I read the following testimony by “Lahebeth” which she posted on her blog at OakTreeIdea (which is an excellent site by the way). Unfortunately, they don’t have a permalink feature for their blog posts yet (why?!?!), so the previous link just goes to her main blog page. I encourage you to drop by and give her a hearty hello!

I’ll quote some choice passages from what she wrote below. She’s been chronicling her spiritual journey, with all of its painful struggles, for a while now, so I was amazed and ecstatic that God has worked so powerfully in her life to bring her to this point. Side note: I want to thank her personally for giving me permission to reprint this.

“Awaken, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Ephesians 5:14 NASB

“For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7 NKJV

 
A person is told a lie about themselves. They agree with that lie and begin to tell it to themselves. In time they truly believe that lie as if it were true and act and live as if it were.

It is the same as a person trapped inside a prison cell that is unlocked. They sit in the dirt and do not get up and open the door because they believe it is locked. They believe they can not get out and therefore they stay in their prison.

Both those people were me. “Awaken, O sleeper, rise from the dead…” My prison walls were not built by the abuse and pain I have endured in the past- they were built by the lies that I chose to believe as truth. Lies that I was worthless, unlovable, never going to be good enough or do good enough. Even lies rooted so deeply in me that though I said I trusted God and loved Him- my life showed that I really did not believe Him trustworthy, that I did not believe I mattered to Him, even…that perhaps God wasn’t as good as He said He was. Lord, forgive me for that sin of believing those lies and doubting You and Your goodness.

At one point in my young life, the Devil made those accusations against me and God and I chose to believe them. I “exchanged the truth of God for a lie”. I had the head knowledge of scripture and the Holy Trinity- God, Jesus, and Spirit- but because that head knowledge was in conflict with what my heart believed, I dismissed that knowledge. I pretended to be faithful and love God and part of my heart really did and really wanted to, but my heart was divided. I believed those lies. And I was “asleep” to the whole thing, in complete denial.

But then I was “sifted as wheat” in my pursuit of healing from the pain inside me. Satan and his emisaries attacked me, tormented me, tried to destroy me using myself as their primary weapon. But…”what Satan meant for evil, God means for good” (Also, Romans 8:28). In the course of my sifting, the lies were exposed…over the course of 2 years…especially over the past 2 weeks…and ultimately this weekend.

She goes on to say:

I think the most important thing I have done is take my eyes off my circumstances and my past and put them back on God, like Peter walking on the water with Jesus (Matthew 14:22-33). Reading scripture has been so important, because I have been taking in God’s Truth and replacing those lies with that truth. God led me to sit down with my journal and bible and read Romans, recording every truth He shows me. It is like I am looking at scripture through new eyes! He is teaching me so much- about who He really created me to be and who I REALLY AM- especially in the light of Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension. And now I am choosing to believe what God says, believe His Word- Truth.

Allow me to sum all this revelation down into one experience: This Sunday the sermon and the small group lesson I listened to went along exactly with what God has been doing in my life. And as I was sitting there listening to the sermon Sunday morning and praying- I saw something… There was a heart encased in stone. A light shone on the heart like a white lazer beam and the stone around the heart began to crack and light began to shine through the cracks. Then the stone exploded and was blown away and what was left there was the heart- shining pure and white. It was my heart.

She finishes by saying:

And so this picture of my heart spoke to me tremendously as symbolism. God’s Truth (white light) has exposed and destroyed the lies I have believed (stone encasing the heart). And what is left is my heart- pure, good, and full of His spirit, Truth, and light. Don’t get me wrong, my flesh is still sinful in nature, but my heart is good because the Holy Spirit resides in there.

I do know that I am now free of the bondage of those lies and the strongholds created in their belief. I am cautious to say that I am completely free and healed of everything because I still live in a sinful world at war against God and the “glory of God in me”. But I will say that I believe I am AWAKENED and sleep no more upon that prison floor. However instead of, or at least along with, shouting it from the rooftops- I would prefer for that evidence to be seen as a change in my life and behavior. So far…I can see a difference and I pray you do/will to.

“You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13 I am a witness to the truth of this verse. I sought God with all my heart and I found Him. He awakened me from my slumber and freed my heart from its prison. Glory be to God in the Highest!

Isn’t that a beautiful word for us? May the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit shine the light of truth in our hearts and our minds everyday as we seek earnestly for the Kingdom of God.

Glory be to God in the Highest!