Breaking Free - Week 10: The Display of His Splendor

It is so hard to believe that I have completed the Beth Moore study I have been working on since the end of November called "Breaking Free". A wonderful and dear woman from my church suggested it to me at a counseling session I had with her and I am so thankful that she encouraged me to do it. I have been so encouraged, challenged, and it has changed my life so much.

As I started working through this week's studies I had just begun talking with Sheila about the retreat for girls/women with strongholds and I was battling within my heart about whether this was a good idea or not. I was struggling with fears, questions, thoughts, concerns, and even with the strongholds I face because they are the ones we are desiring to reach out to. My struggles were all within my mind but they were struggles all the same.

When I came to Day 3 in this study the Lord provided me with an overwhelming sense of peace, confirmation, and encouragement. Here are some things that the Lord showed me:

In this day of study Beth Moore was looking at Israel’s time of bondage in Egypt and it got to the point where they were preparing to leave Egypt but before they left they got the riches of Egypt to go with them. They were very poor yet the Lord provided for them riches that were given to them by Egypt. She quoted Mrs. Charles E. Cowman from Streams in the Desert:

“The Gospel is so arranged and the gift of God so great that you may take the very enemies that fight you and the forces that are arrayed against you and make them steps up to the very gates of heaven and into the presence of God… God wants of every one of His children, to be more than conqueror…You know when one army is more than conqueror it is likely to drive the other from the field, to get all the ammunition, the food and supplies, and to take possession of the whole…There are spoils to be taken!
Beloved, have you got them? When you went into that terrible valley of suffering did you come out of it with spoils? When that injury struck you and you thought everything was gone, did you so trust in God that you came out richer than you went in? To be more than conqueror is to take the spoils from the enemy and appropriate them to yourself. What he had arranged for your overthrow, take and appropriate for yourself.”

The questions for us was when we got out of our Egypt did we come out with riches? “Did you give the enemy an offensive blow by allowing God to bring you out of your captivity twice the person you were when you went in?”

Later we see the Israelites using the riches they received to give back to the Lord in the building of the tabernacle. The next couple of questions really hit me hard after I thought on them:

"How can a person reinvest the plunder she/he brings out of captivity?
Have you already had an opportunity to offer your plunder (riches) to God as a reinvestment and see Him bring greater returns?"

“…you become a display of His splendor every time you take the plunder of Egypt and offer it back to God for His magnificent glory.”

When I finished this particular day I realized that the retreat that Sheila and I are going to be working on to reach out to girls/women with eating disorders, cutting, and have been hurt sexually is a way that the Lord could allow both Sheila and I to offer the riches that the Lord provided for us when we left our Egypts. I have been very nervous and scared since Sheila has said yes that she wanted to work on this with me I will be honest. It just seems so big and impossible to get this retreat together. I realize it has only been a week since the idea was discussed and there is 6 months at minimum before the retreat and I know that with God anything is impossible but the worries and fears have still been present. After this study I saw confirmation that this is His will for us, for me specifically and I really need to walk by faith.

I hope that all of you will take out the time to do this study! I has been really good and can reach out to anyone at any stage in life. You may find out about strongholds you didn't realize you had because I did. Beth Moore has a wonderful gift of laying out studies in a way that has you dealing with whatever you are dealing with as you go. The initial reason I started this study wasn't even a stronghold I was dealing with when I finished it actually it was worked through by the end of week 5 but there were other things that the Lord showed and revealed to me along the way and thankfully has given me direction and encouragement to use my experiences to reach out and bring glory to His name. My prayer is that I will bring His name honor and glory. I desire to be a vessel used for His glory.

May the Lord bless and keep you always.