A few things are happening spiritually around here.

First, my roommate Jimmy and I are on a road trip to Orlando. We left Wednesday morning and arrived there Friday evening. For the most part, it’s been an uneventful drive but several cool things have happened. To start with, we began our morning with prayer on Friday. For the first time ever! Then, when traffic or delays came up he would pray about it (we were trying to arrive early enough to visit our dear friend Scott, who has been in the hospital for months now). When good things happened, he gave thanks immediately to the Lord. And Friday night, after seeing Scott, we prayed again. Not just any prayer, either. We WORSHIPPED together. Like sang and worshipped, and prayer followed that.

I have prayed with my roommate before but I”ve never seen him quite this spiritually aware.  And there’s definitely never been any pure worship. It is so cool to see the work that God is doing in his heart! I can’t wait to see what comes next.

Scott, meanwhile, is out of it. He is awake sometimes. He is unable to speak due to the hospital respirator, but he is able to mouth requests to his mother. God told me awhile ago that He wanted to heal him (of the infection and his spiritual/emotional battles), but He also wanted some serious prayer to happen, and even laying hands on him. I found it hard to facilitate that and find someone to do that in Florida while I was in New York. Now, however, I’m here in person. I’ve been in that room both days that I’ve been here and plan to be there every day that I’m here for. That is a major shift in the sort of spiritual holding pattern I’ve been feeling over him. I am ready to follow God’s lead and ready to be used. I pray that I don’t get bogged down in the emotion of it but just abide in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and allow Him to move in me and through me. Jesus take the wheel!

The other part of Scott’s situation is his girlfriend Rebekah. She has been known to lie and manipulate, and I’ve always chalked it up to internal emotional pain, insecurity, and just a broken spirit. I pity her when I think about it. And I was happy that Scott was happy. But when I heard more this week about how deep the lies go, the depth of the manipulation and vindictiveness, how badly she treats him, how scared he was of her, and how unhappy he really has been with her, it was like a punch to the stomach. Scott is my friend, and he’s Jimmy’s best friend of 35 years or so. He was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy as a young child, and has always fought the disease with everything he had. Yet now he doesn’t want to fight. Now he actually wants to die – not because of the disease, but  so that he escape the web he’s been trapped in.

I spent some time with the Lord over this one. I pray for Scott regularly, and Rebekah too. And since her behavior is so shocking, I instantly gave it to God for discernment. What brokenness could I pray for? What chains holding her down could the sword that is the Word of God break? What inner need or void was she trying to fill. Jesus guide my words and give me your heart for this girl. What Jesus told me was, it’s beyond her human brokenness now. Maybe it started out that way but it has progressed. What is gripping her now is pure evil. Evil. A quote comes to mind from the movie The Dark Knight: “because some men aren’t looking for anything logical…they can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.” And that is what her actions boil down to – lighting matches, sparking and accelerating fires, and laughing as the flames build up. She’s not beyond redemption. Those places of inner emotional pain certainly still exist. So again, I give it to Jesus.

I sense a spiritual battle is imminent. I don’t know over who or what. But I know that this isn’t any run-of-the-mill road trip. God has plans for my time here. I ask for your prayers over the whole situation – for me to say and do what God wants and truly abide in Him in this; to intercede for Rebekah and for Scott, respectively; and for God to continue moving in my roommate’s heart. Thanks and I’ll keep you posted as God leads the remainder of the trip.

God bless!

~Rebekah A