Night Watches – Part Two of My Sister’s Healing

Requiring care 24 hours of the day, my sister Jayne, came to live with us after being in ICU for a week.  When released from the hospital, her sugar levels were over 400, her speech slurred, her gait peculiar, her strength non-existent.

Her job was to rest, recover, release.   While in the hospital, Satan came to taunt her in the dark hours of night.  Those hours were redeemed, taken back by God and it was now the Holy Spirit who came to her in the quiet of the night watches. 

On several occasions she awoke at 3 am, receiving comfort and sensing the Holy Spirit speaking to her heart.  On the first occasion, the message was clear:

1.       I am your Heavenly Father and I am to be the master of your life.  You can’t serve me and everyone else, but must seek to follow my desires for your life. Listen to me, follow my path.  Do it my way and in my timing.

Simple, yet difficult; especially if you have been a people pleaser your whole life.  Then another night and another 3 am stirring:

2.       Your only job is to take care of yourself.  Tend to your spiritual, emotional and physical needs.  You cannot help others if you don’t take care of yourself. 

We worked diligently and repeatedly on the truth that she had value just in being, rather than in her “doing.”  Walking to the dinner table was often the feat of the day.  Each day was a reminder that just her presence was an encouragement to others.  Tears would flow as she began to grasp the validity of her value in being.  And then another message:

3.        Surrender your loved ones and their situations to me.  I will do battle with them and for them.

A falsehood uncovered.  As a mother and wife, she wasn’t responsible for the choices of others.  She could let go; she was released from a mission that wasn’t hers to begin with.  Then yet another 3 am message:

4.        Be content with where you are at. 

Stripped of everything worldly by which we judge ourselves, the directive was to be still.  The cloud by day, the fire by night, had settled over our home as to where she was to be and is to be for this undetermined season. 

We wait; with great expectations.  Wherever you may find yourself, be still and know that he is God.