Voices on the way to HEALED

When I was small I would sing my heart out.  Either in my bed as I wondered who wrote the songs in the back of a children’s bible that had been given to me, at the doorway into a hairbrush microphone, or in the car going down the road.  If there was music, or not, I was singing.

That was the only voice I had.  Being sexually abused was something I couldn’t voice.  Something that started before one could make memories until my teenage years.  The only way I could voice what I felt was through song.  I never used my voice to tell someone what was happening, or to confront my abusers.  But, you can be sure I used it to sing.

In the recent years of my life God has come in, and He has had me learning how to use my voice.  How to say NO when I want to, and need to.  How to sing for His glory before a group of worshipers.  How to sing a song as an offering that will bless another soul.  How to tell others what happened to me.  A trusted counselor, a group of others with similar experiences, and those who need to know that using your voice is okay.

In that process I have been writing.  Writing this blog, writing journal entries, and am now an attempt at a book that will be a very difficult journey, but a much needed one on the road to HEALED.  One that will call back to others and tell them the story of how great our Healer is.

There are many giants rising up telling me not to use my voice.  They have been since the beginning of the walk toward HEALED.  When I thought about them today the first thing that came to mind was they are booming and frightening.

Then I got to thinking about Goliath. Read the story in 1 Samuel 17. Imagine what his voice sounded like.  There he was in all his “giant-ness” and threatening to pound whomever the Israelites chose to send.  He was 11 feet tall!  Who were they gonna get?  All of them were shaking in their boots.  Goliath kept coming out in the middle of the battles and shouting at them for forty days.  His voice would boom over the armies for the last time, however.  David, had heard him and had enough.  His response was, “Who does he think he is to defy the army of the Living God?”

King Saul found out what David had said, and looked David over.  David was just a boy.  A youth who had no experience fighting in the army.  But, he had been protecting God’s sheep for a long time.  So, with just a sling shot, five little stones, and his voice David went to face Goliath.

He lifted up his voice to the giant and said, “I’m taking you down giant, today the Lord with deliver you into my hand.  I’m going to kill you and cut off your pretty little head.  Then all will know that the Lord saves, and the battle is the Lord’s.”  David slung a stone at the giant and hit him square between the eyes and the voice of the giant was not more.  Moments later to remain sure of this, he was headless too.

We have to know that there are giants that are going to rise up with booming voices and tell us we can’t, tell us we won’t, and tell us to think again.  We have to lift our voice and say, “Who are you to defy the Living God, the battle is His, and I don’t need a stone.  I have the precious cornerstone.  Christ, and in Him I already win.”  Yeah, we may be shaking in our boots, but what we say is more important than the shake in our voice.

EncouragerYou can bet that no one thought that David was gonna make it when he went up against that Philistine.  But he did.  Even when He had to encourage Himself with the Word of God.

You can bet that people will tell you that you can’t make it.  Sometimes you will have to encourage yourself, but the blessing is that there are other voices out there that shout out in the crowd that encourage us to keep going.  They are in the counselor’s office, they are writing blogs and books, they are in our communities, and in our churches telling us that God will never leave us, and there is a place called HEALED.  Behind their voice you will find the voice of a Shepherd leading you on saying;

Use your voice.  YOUR voice.  Whatever you have to say.  Whatever you can’t put into words you can put into sound.  A battle cry in My name that gives Me the glory.

The battle is the Lord’s Beloved, but you have to face the giants. Arm yourself with the voice of triumph trusting in the Lord.  When you let go of that battle cry by telling that giant who your God is then others will hear and be able to face their giants too.

Who are they to defy the army of the Living God anyway?