A Prequel Post to the Annual Autumn 31 Days Linkup …and An Invite

A 31-Day Color Tour Invite for You…

Words I remember hearing my mom say at her dad’s funeral suddenly echo lingeringly now… like the long whistle of a train, hissing steamily into my ear…

“I feel like an orphan,” she is speaking woefully into the chapel. Her mom, her sister, her beloved daddy, all gone on ahead. Even with us at her side, she seems a bit lost, the lone daughter left holding a rose. This is what it is like to lose all (or most of) your immediate family, I think then.

Today, those words are trying to insinuate themselves into my own reality… for my sister and I stand in mom’s place now…and for a time, I allow what seems reality to settle. As if it’s a somewhat bitter flavor on my tongue I’m trying to decipher. The definition of orphan: Bereft, left behind…

“You are selling your birthright by accepting and speaking out that thought,” the Holy Spirit gently interrupts.

“Huh? Wha-at?” I question, stupefied.

“Adam and Eve spoke the serpent’s lie over themselves, by forgetting My Word,” He explains, “and gave up My Plan. I created them to speak LIFE into the world. But they abandoned My Truth for insidious words of death, Satan’s great lie in a doubt-filled question –‘Did God really say that?’”

Tenderly, He leads me to read about Abraham, the only man of true faith who spoke out God’s promises while simultaneously keeping silent about how impossible things looked like to his eyes… (I never saw that before. Abraham knew his body was ‘dead,’ yet he did not allow himself to speak that out. He declared His God mighty and able to keep His Word!)

He shows me how He sent Jesus to restore us to His original plan for dominion over words of death, to bring us into the covenant of blessing He gave Abraham (Galatians 3:13). How He poured out His Life’s blood in covenant over all who will call Him Lord to give us back this dominion… but…

…still His children are daily, hourly choosing what only LOOKS to be real as their reality, speaking out what the devil whispers into their hearts, not understanding they are calling death into life with the words they speak. (“I will never get over this. Everything bad is bound to happen to me… Nothing will ever change this person or situation…”)

“But, don’t we have to face reality sometimes, God?” I wonder.

“Do you define ‘reality’ as what you see, or what you’ve seen in the past?  Or is My reality greater? Faith is declaring as true what you do not yet see,” He reminds. “I want you to say ‘no’ to every negative by declaring what I have told you is True.

“Take each thought captive by replacing it with My Truth. The enemy is vanquished, but you must declare My promises so he will flee. Otherwise, he keeps you under his chains that I have broken off you.  Then, you may mistake those chains for Me, when it is really a door opened to his paralyzing lie…keeping my children from living in My Victory…

“Do not even give place to the lies he tries to overcome you with. Then you will allow Me to bring forth Light, Life and Healing…in and through you…”

Pondering, I am reminded then of an article I once wrote about singing God’s Word over those we are interceding in prayer for (Sing God’s Heart Into Someone’s Life) – the power of the Holy Spirit in His very Words to take what seems real and transform it in His Light.

I’ve seen how He uses Word-based prayers… but how easily we slip into everyday talk that denies God is who He says He is… never realizing…!

I feel like an orphan….

No, my Father is with me. I am loved with an everlasting love.

But I am bereft… left behind…

No, my God has promised to never leave me.

He has brought me into the Family of God…

Another memory slips into my thoughts… of a fun old Doris Day movie based on the premise of her agreeing to say ‘no’ to every question she’s asked for a certain time period – to be rewarded with great bounty if she does. No, No, Nannette… is the musical refrain…

And a theme that has been rolling around my thoughts lately for my 31-days-of-Autumn linkup suddenly takes fuller shape…

A 31-Day Autumn Harvest of our words from seeds we plant…

We’ll begin with devotional posts about words we say about ourselves and how God is longing for us to live more truly  in the freedom and victory of His Promise won for us.

Like, No, no Nannette, saying ‘no’ to those negating thoughts we catch ourselves expressing – Nothing good will ever happen to me.  And restoring what God says in His word about us as the Truth we choose to believe…  Blessings are overtaking me. I am surrounded by His Favor and walking in His anointing…

My pen and ink drawing above of this train reminds me of a fall trip I took with my parents there in Canada several years ago (that could even be them, walking beside the train 🙂 )…  and so, I am inviting you to come along with on THIS color tour.  Your free ticket awaits! 

Will you join me beginning October 1st?  🙂

Let’s dig into the words God sings over us, and spend time meditating on a specific one each day. 

If it takes 21 days to form a habit, how much greater in 31!  

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Have you been fighting some negative self-talk lately?  If you feel like sharing, I’d love to pray about that with you – let us look together for His Word over that falsehood… 

© Pam Depoyan

• Pen & Ink Home Portrait shown above: mine, under my copyright  (please do not copy without permission. See my copyright info button on the sidebar.    )
• Vintage Good Housekeeping cover

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