My #WarriorBoots Weekend

If you read my last post, you know I high-tailed it out of here last weekend, and not without a fight, to a retreat in North Carolina. But you likely don’t know how it came to be [and why in the world] would I fly all the way to NC for a short weekend retreat?

I’ve known of our hostess, Lisa Whittle, since my first trip to She Speaks in 2008, where I picked up one of her books. I had also heard her speak at Allume in 2013. But it wasn’t until this past year when I really engaged with her as she is writing her newest book, “Put Your Warrior Boots On” due out next summer.


She’d post a thought on Facebook, and I’d “clap” with a hearty click of the “Love button.” After several posts crossed my feed, I felt led to pray for her as she writes, and I told her so. That might be why I received an invitation. πŸ™‚

Put Your Warrior Boots on is a clarion call to be PREPARED, PUMPED & PRESENT in the spiritual battle that we who follow the Lord are {IN} whether we are acknowledging it or not.

When I was a fairly new Believer, I led a Bible study on Spiritual warfare and we practiced what we learned. A year or two later, Dale and I and our two little people moved to a new community. Shortly after we moved and found a new church, the pastor, whom we had come to love, was asked to leave by the elders of the church. It was a painful time which resulted in a prolonged spiritual drought at our little Alliance Church.


Before the breaking up of the church, there was a Wednesday evening prayer meeting which was discontinued. For many years, there was no corporate prayer.


I clearly recall walking through my house one day, and the surprising thought struck me, “No one practices spiritual warfare here.”


And soon after, I found myself in a pit of anxiety and depression; for months I was isolated and spiritually impoverished. I’d lost all the light I had formerly taught on; I’d forgotten who I was and how to stand. You might say, I left my armor on the dressing room floor and found myself alone in a foxhole.


Thankfully God is faithful and used it to refine me and actually teach me more about the schemes of the enemy. I needed to fall so that He could stand me up stronger in Him. I needed to come to the end of my self-reliance, and gaging my value on performance.


I needed to know that there was nothing within me that could bring me to God, that only He could rescue me out of the pit.


As I began to ‘recover’ what had been lost, to gain back my understanding of the spiritual battle, I realized that many more are passive than actively standing in their warrior boots, and I have been on mission ever since to strengthen and encourage my sisters and brothers. I’m blessed to invest.


Hence, the reason I’m drawn to Lisa’s current work.

Declaration 4) I WILL RISE UP & STAND FIRM
“Love is the strongest fighter. Love compells us to rise up and fight. The Christian self-help culture has to stop. [We need to put on our Warrior Boots and fight in the power of the Holy Spirit.]
Instead of our flesh responding to what is against us, we need to respond to the things that are against God.” ~Lisa Whittle [paraphrased because my notes are not verbatim.]

I am one who takes a broad view on the world and seek to do so through the lens of scripture. I literally scope out the current landscape; I watch. Thanks to social media and the internet window on the world, I am able to see.


I catch wind of what God is doing “broadly” and follow suit, or find myself in the flow “accidentally.”


Last year, many pastors and teachers wrote, taught and preached on Revelation and on Heaven. [I was involved in studies on both of those topics and wrote “A Holy Beautiful Fear”]


And with the movie, War Room coming out recently, plus the rich Armor of God study by Priscilla Shirer, it seems clear to me what God is up to with His Bride.



Restoration [Isaiah 56:7,] Purification [Ephesians 5:26-27,] and Fortification [Ephesians 6:10.]


Have you been noticing it too?


And Lisa Whittle, faith-filled daughter of a faithful pastor, has been gifted to share her hard-won wisdom in this book. You can sign up here for a FREE 10 day Bible Study delivered to your inbox, and I heard you’ll even get a few videos of her teaching.


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