I’m a dreamer. I have many dreams. One night I dreamt about two women and 34 turkeys! Yeah, I still don’t know what the dream meant, but I reached out to the two women I had the dream about. One of them responded by saying, “God’s been telling me to call you, but I hadn’t gotten around to it yet!” Well, that conversation preceded lunch, which marked the beginning of a new and precious friendship. Little did I know I was being bamboozled into embracing my new friend’s dog as another addition to my life despite my non-dog loving ways. (Me and said dog are now, in fact BFFs!) Friends, I present to some and introduce to others my sweet friend, who is the epitome of southern hospitality and one of the kindest, most generous people I know.

Wendy Wall grew up surrounded by a tribe of wise, God-filled women who taught her how God directs her steps and shapes her path by training her to look for God in everything from the mundane every day to life’s biggest decisions. So much so, that on her first date at an LSU football game with Sidney, Wendy realized he was the man she would marry. Now, 30 years, and one incredible adult son later, they currently reside in Houston.

In 2012, Wendy’s family moved to Angola, Africa and then Trinidad and Tobago where God taught her how live life depending on him for everything. Wendy moved home to the U.S., promptly forgot all her lessons, and her family began to flounder. To regain her footing and get back into God’s word, Wendy launched a bible study at her son’s school. The class grew from six women on Tuesday mornings to multiple studies with more than 100 women participating. This led Wendy to begin organizing and leading retreats designed to help people realize the beauty and sacredness found in a relationship with God.

A public relations executive and editor by trade, Holy Habit is Wendy’s first spiritual book. She is passionate about helping others see God in everything, letting Him direct their steps and teaching them how to depend on Him for everything. To learn more about Wendy Wall, visit her website at www.theholyhabit.com.

Which God do you serve?

We need to stay alert! 1 Peter 5:8 (NLT) says,

I must say, I love the exclamation mark in this version. In my deep grief, my guard was down. Wow! Did Satan take advantage!

My father passed away a few years ago. The grieving process, as most are, was quite brutal. My brother and I were now quite literally orphans. As we discussed the loss, my brother commented that now there was no longer anyone who had to love us. Right then at that exact moment, unbeknownst to us, I latched on to the orphan spirit.

The irony of the whole situation was that the Lord, in His beauty, grace and mercy, showed me in a vision, before my father’s passing, the beauty of the life my father was walking into. He showed me my mother’s anticipation and excitement at their reunion! He showed me my father’s cloud of witnesses rejoicing! He even showed me my dad’s “job” in heaven! I knew with all of my heart that my father was going home to be with the Lord. Yet, I latched on to the loss. We grieved hard and also re-grieved the loss of our mother. Our childhood seemed so final. We both felt adrift.

Now, today, three years later, what does that mean for me – and you? What lessons can we learn from this?

First, I did not even realize how at that moment I came into agreement with the orphan spirit. Ok, I’m going to be honest with you, I had never even heard of an orphan spirit until last week, but I opened a door to grief that is not normal.

Second, I did not recognize that by coming into agreement with this spirit, I was keeping myself from turning to God and seeing Him as my Abba Father. The human part of me felt that if I accepted Jesus’s role as my father and/or mother, I would be replacing my parents, and that felt disloyal. I had spent a lifetime trying to honor my mother and father. Unconsciously, I was rejecting a portion of God’s love for me. What I didn’t understand was that I am not replacing them. God in His sweet, sweet love was coming along side my parent’s love for me. I can have it all! God wanted to envelope my parents’ love and grow that love to include Him. He wanted to show me that His love for me is even greater than a parent’s love.

Third, what I did not realize is that this directly impacted how I hear from God. I could easily hear for others. I could easily feel God’s outpouring of love for others, yet rarely could I feel His love for me. It became difficult for me to hear God speaking to me about me. The veil became frustratingly thick. Through my spiritual education I knew there was some sort of sin here, but I couldn’t find it or name it so that I could renounce it.

Last, God showed me this open door to sin when He knew I was ready to close it. Like I said, I was frustrated with this unnamed sin. In His mercy and kindness, He did not push me through the grief process. He lovingly and patiently waited for me to be healed enough from my parents’ death to accept this mind shift in thinking about Jesus as my Abba Father. For this I am grateful. Had I acknowledged this too soon, I would have been too raw and emotional. Had I waited, this sin and feelings of self-dependence would bloom and take on a life of their own, further separating me from God as my Abba Father.

We pray to God and look to Him as a Healer, Father, Provider, Lord of hosts, King, among many others. The list is long. In fact, we have 32 names for Him, and you can review them here. My point is this. We need to make sure we are choosing all of God. It was easy for me to embrace Him as my Healer, my King, and Provider, but apparently not as my Father.

We don’t get to pick and choose which God we want to serve. When we open our hearts to all of God, His love will pour in and clean out the “orphan spirits” in our souls. So again, I ask you, and encourage you to sit with the question today: Which God do you serve? My prayer for you is for you to be able to answer all of Him.

I tell you what, this piece cut me to the quick. This is something I have also had to wrestle through. At one point, I knew God as Promise Keeper but not Father. That was a challenging revelation to work through. So, I echo Wendy’s question;

Friend, which God do you serve?

Thank you, Wendy! ☺️

Until next week, friends…

Miracles + Blessings!

Brenda

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