Since moving to the desert I have had a plethora of experiences with rattle snakes.
It started with my oldest daughter dreaming that I had gotten bit between my index finger and thumb on my right hand...a few days later she kills her first rattle snake...
(Side bar...she LOVES killing them and wants to collect enough skins to make something, this is the same girl who recently walked the corridors of one of our lands greatest courts praying in tongues! She had the Cyrus anointing of "access" working for her)...
But to be honest I sort of dismissed her dream...
About a month later my third daughter has a dream (not knowing what Leahbeth had dreamed) in it both of us got bit by a rattle snake, but this time it was my left hand between the index finger and thumb (but the exact same place on her right hand)...
Within a few days I kill my first rattle snake...
Last week I have a dream where a friend of mine has a bruise on his heel, the Lord says "I want him to crush the serpents head, but it was your words that bruised him"...
So I email him and repent...turns out the night before he had torn his Achilles tendon playing softball and was on his way to the Doctor when he read my email...
So I go out for a prayer walk, to repent some more and its then that I kill my second rattle snake...
With only my sandal...really...it looked like a really fat stick on the side of the path...I had been doing spiritual warfare after repenting and walked past it...when I realized what it was...so I went back with no fear just a lot of adrenalin and beat the smithereens out of it with my sandal...
So last night I have a dream...in it I have mowed 1/5 of my yard and all the snakes have moved into the other 4/5's...2 rattle snakes pair off in front of me but they remind me of cobra's because they are rising up and taunting me...I shoot a gun at one of them and miss and they both slither off into the tall grass...
So I go to a coffee shop (really no pun intended here) to talk to the Police...there is a group of them sitting at the table, I explain my situation and tell them I will need to be shooting my gun off in the city limits, they say "We understand, if anyone asks you, we were never here"...meaning in a round about way it was ok for me to kill the snakes with my pistol even in city limits, but they could not authorize it themselves...
So I go on a prayer walk tonite...and yes I have NOT been to the boot store yet...so I am in sandals...AGAIN...yikes!
And yes you guessed it I encounter not 1 but 2 very large rattle snakes...
One after I crossed a bridge...a young woman was frozen in front of me with her little dog and a huge snake crossing the path between us...I waited until it had gone off the path and stood between her and the snake so she could pass...the snake was pretty upset and I have a recording of its rattle warning us to stay away...
So yeah...I'm pumped up a bit and continue walking, praying trying to refocus on praise and I walk about a 100 yards and just feel the tug to look behind me...sure enough about 20 feet from where I just passed another very large rattle snake was crossing the path...going the same direction (both were going South, but curl up facing the path<North>)
About 25 feet further past that was a young girl maybe 10 or 11 walking the path following me, not paying attention listening to her iPod not even looking ahead...I yell at her to stop and run back to where the snake is, stooping to show her what she was about to encounter...again I stand between her and the snake and invite her to pass behind me so she is safe and I "encourage" her to turn off the iPod and look where she is going.
Both of these snakes curled up right off the edge of the path (which is actually paved, and two lanes for bikes and pedestrians) both snakes pointing their fang side to the path....
Anyway I spent the rest of the walk warning people and rehearsing all the verses I knew about serpents, trying to get back to worship and adoration since that was the main purpose in the first place...
I thought about Paul shaking off the serpent into the fire...and wondered what gave him such a relaxed approach? What was it that made Paul so sure the venom would not affect him...I felt the Lord say..
"Paul's anti-venom was his mission" he knew he could not die outside of Rome, because he had a mission to accomplish...
I have been dealing with generational sin, cleansing the family lineage in my prayer times...I told a friend of mine it seems like all I ever do in prayer anymore is repent...
But I am not complaining, we could all do a lot worse than repent...it IS part of the foundation of our life in Christ and when you build on a foundation it becomes a part of the building even if it is "under" the more visible parts.
I love repentance it is one of the greatest gifts God will ever give you...without it you never even enter the kingdom...
So yeah my prayer life is a lot of repenting and always will be if I'm honest.
I think there are all sorts of parallels to draw from the space between the "fore-finger" and the thumb, between the 1/5 and the 4/5 parts of my yard, between the snake in front of me and the one behind me...
1/5 of my kids are male...4/5's are female...
4/5's of my kids are married, 1/5are not...
Courtney had also had a dream where we were looking for my son, he had gone missing, so we were walking up this hill and all these snakes were coming towards us, she and her sisters didn't know what to do and I said "Pick them up and throw them" and as I showed them the snakes all turned into sticks behind me...
Yes there is cleansing of the generations that needs to happen, yes there are things on the time line and after the bridges that needs attention, but ultimately...I need to get the the place Paul was and allow the mission to take my focus rather than some snake bite...
At some point all this inner healing and Sozo's and healing the land and removing curse from time needs to be shaken off into the fire of the Holy Spirit and my focus needs to be on getting to Rome to tell a certain King, he is not Lord, Jesus is...
Until then...I will keep on repenting, shaking off the things that are poison and try to attach to who I am...but I also think I will go buy some boots...
