Calling all Wave Walkers

The Winds of Change are Rolling: Calling All Wave Walkers

By: Susan Schiller  In the series, "Love from Papa"

Picture the disciples battling the impossible waves while Jesus calmly walks across the waves, nearly bypassing their boat,  totally unconcerned about the storms!

Why did He nearly pass them by? Perhaps because He had just demonstrated the believer's authority over nature by multiplying food resources and He EXPECTED His friends to "get it."

He expected them to know how to handle a simple crisis like hurricane-strength wind and waves nearly smashing them to the depths of the sea!

Uh, that has not been the story of my life, until recently! I had a dream, you see, which gradually shifted me from being intimidated by the least crisis to beginning to be a wave walker. It's not something that usually happens over night, at least, not for me!

I had a dream of being in such an ocean, except that the water was still, at first. I stood up in my boat and commanded the "winds of change" to come. I turned to all four directions and called for the winds to rise up and come. The water began to swell with waves. The ocean was responding to the wind. The storm was responding to prayer.

When we cry out for HELP! That initiates a chain reaction of responses. Warring angels show up. The atmosphere changes. And usually a battle commences. When you expose evil, when you separate from a wicked system, your actions create waves. It gets uncomfortable. It rocks the boats of other people who just want to float along.

All around me people were horrified and tried to get me to stop praying. Their boats were about to capsize. But I was not worried about the waves because I had already died to the world's system. We needed the wind to bring change.

That's often what happens when a victim breaks her silence. It creates waves. Waves are the evidence of change happening. Change does not come without a cost.

In the wilderness of Montana, in 2004, I needed a wind of change. My husband had just had his 9th surgery and the doctors had sent him home to be as comfortable as possible, but with no hope to return to normal life. He was in a wheelchair, at that point, and I had been doing my best to care for him 24/7, but I also needed to earn income.

We were in the mountains and I wondered how I could earn money from home. The nearest town was 30-miles away. The medical bills were piling up and it seemed there was no end in sight. Cobra insurance was over and done, so we were on our own.

Wave after wave rolled in and I was drowning! Where was my faith??

I prayed a lot. I walked a lot. In the wilderness my prayer walks took me into very solitary places, a virtual paradise on earth. But paradise has beasts, too. So I had to learn to face the bears, once a lion, and once a moose.

You have to face your fears once-by-one to overcome them. Gradually, I learned that prayer changes things, but first of all, it changed me.

God wanted to suck all the fear out of me. He wanted me to see from a different perspective, from a Love-based perspective.

What if we all begin to live this way, I pondered…

NASA has instruments that gauge the gravitational pull on the earth, and when even a small company of people gather to pray with positive energy and focus, these instruments register a CHANGE in gravitational force on the earth.

Instead of hoping THINGS get better, let's make OURSELVES better and then things will change.

Instead of groping in the dark, let's turn on the Light! God is our Light and His Word is the authority He's given us to not just survive, but to thrive.

When I lived with the Lakota family, one of the first things they taught me is the value of not owning anything. Yes, we can buy things we need, even houses and businesses. But to preserve their hearts, the Lakota regularly participated in "giveaways". Sometimes they would give away everything they owned!

Heart care… What if guarding your heart (Proverbs 4) meant giving away everything you owned? Would you have the courage to do it? Jesus once asked a wealthy man to do that very thing! He also once asked me to do the same. Twice, I've had to lay it all down. Twice, it has been restored to me.

Move in the opposite direction. Grin in the face of disaster.

Graham Cooke calls it "moving in the opposite direction". It's doing the opposite of whatever negative energy force is currently operating in your life. Threats, intimidation, mockery, belittling, slander, gaslighting, verbal abuse… all of it.

Grin, and do the opposite. Be a rebel in a Love Revolution!

The Lakota Indians taught me that God knows what each of us will need long before the foundations of the earth were laid, and he has reserved it for us. (Ephesians 1). As we walk on our path, what we need will show up, at the right time.

In God we trust. We must learn to walk with no fear for the future.

In the world's system we worry constantly over what we own. What if it's stolen, what if it's lost, what if it loses it's value…

     In God's heart we trust. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

There came a point in my life when I had to lay down my need to understand, my need to be in control, and my need to have my own home, clothes, and "things" in order to feel like me. My identity was based on all being right around me, on being understood and accepted. When the tsunami of spiritual and domestic violence shattered everything I believed in, it also ripped the tether of the world's safety net from my hands.

I was cast adrift, homeless, and it felt like I was drowning.

People can help. We do need Champions and Heros. None of us are meant to survive alone. But the hero you most need is you. The most experienced Hero cannot rescue you unless you embrace the shattering. This is a tricky point, and not everyone will make it through. We tend to cling and clutch our brokenness and don't feel safe letting other people touch our soul.

What will you choose? Will you choose life? Will you ruthlessly trust the God who made the winds of change, who allowed the predators, and who sent the tsunami? Will you believe that He is a God of both mercy and justice, and that He wants to show you His goodness? He doesn't want you to have all this pain, sweet one!

Grin in the face of disaster. Move in the opposite direction. Rise up. Listen to Heaven's conversation about you. Speak the Truth. You get whatever you choose – whatever your speak. Call for the winds of change. Let the tsunami shatter whatever needs to go. Only what is True and Beautiful remains. It's worth standing up in your boat, walking out onto the waves, and stilling the storm.

It's who you are! You were born to walk on the waves, to still the storms, and to multiply the loaves and fishes! It's your inheritance and it's up to you to claim it and to receive it. Otherwise, don't be surprised if you see Jesus walking past your boat… not because he doesn't see your great need and pity you, but because he's training you to rise up, to do what the Gospel books you've practically memorized say.

By the way, you do know I'm writing to myself, right? You understand that I'm on this journey to freedom with you, and this is just me telling my own story of what God's walking me through. As I write this, I am creating the next few chapters of my life story… participating in God's plan to groom me to grin in the face of disaster.

My Full Story     What I Believe    Contact Me

With all my love,

Sue

Susan Schiller knows how it feels to lose everything: marriage and family, church and reputation, finances and businesses, and more. Susan's upcoming, interactive memoir, "On the Way Home," tells the story of how she came to be known as "the most abused woman" her counselors had yet met and how she is learning to navigate to freedom and fullness.  

Today Susan helps people write their life stories, unearthing the treasures of their past and sowing them into their future, creating new family legacies.

Copyright © 2010 to 2017 Team Family Online, All rights reserved.   For reprint permission or for any private or commercial use, in any form of media, please contact Susan Schiller. 

Tagged as: "Love from Papa" Series, Deborah White Dove, New Family Legacy, On the Way Home