Weekly Encouragement

 Paul and Pauline Sightings as They Rise in this Season

By: Hannah S. Hunter

 II Corinthians 4:8-12 (NLT)8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. 11 Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. 12 So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.

As a critical care nurse, you can tell who the sickest and most enduring patients are by the thickness of their charts. Sometimes you had to send to the archives to get the complete picture. You knew this hospital stay was not their first rodeo. That is how I feel when I read about the sufferings of Paul. Frankly I vote no with a thank you added on. Politely and kindly we decline GOD’s offer to enter a similar pattern of Paul’s life.

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Then we fall in love with GOD, JESUS, and the HOLY SPIRIT. The love affair begins like any love affair. You love their faces, their touch, their voices, and you hang on their every word. It is a honeymoon that defies description. Your mind is constantly flooded with thoughts and images of them. Other things fade and lose appeal.

The bride will always be the bride, but somewhere the wedding gown is traded for the armor and weapons needed to walk with this ONE called the LORD of heavens armies. Because now we are entering HIS vision and purposes for the healing, dominion, and restoration of nations to their rightful place. By now we are in way too deep to turn tail and run.

As we are promoted through the ranks, we become familiar with not just taking orders but giving them to many for the purpose of bringing salvation, freedom, and release masses to songs of deliverance.

Somewhere in this process for some of us our homes are swapped for temporary dwellings. We enter cultures where nothing is familiar not even the language. Yet HE sends us signs and messages in the most unlikely places to let us know we are pleasing HIM in our obedience. We sit in wonderment of how we got to this arena where we war but are spectators as it is the spirit realm that is really duking it out. As we pray the battle undulates to the tune of our intercession and worship.

Just last night I was awake for all the night watches. I had just returned from a powerful mission full of many supernatural encounters. The team was compromised of college students now graduated and working at jobs, raising families, or in ministry in the church. As I was mulling over all that was spoken and done, I realized some of them were on the campus when I encountered the arch angel of Kenya. I was reminded that Michael slew 185,000 Assyrians in one fight.

GOD loves to show us things we desire to know. So I asked him in the night, “LORD what is the name of the arch angel over Kenya?” HE said, “Shekina.” I asked HIM please spell it so when power comes on I can look it up. A Jewish name for divine presence. I know we see Shekinah in the bible, but HE was specific in the spelling. Shekina in Kiswhili is secured. I leaped in my spirt to know the country I am assigned to is secured. We hold tightly to HIM.

In the months and years watch Africa as she rises to her rightful place and watch Kenya. Mungu Akubariki. Bwana Asifiwe!