The Most Important Line
Are you wondering… what’s all this business about lines? Has Donna gone off the deep end? I’d completely understand if you were scratching your head a bit over all this whirl about lines, lines, lines.
For that reason —— I’ve chosen to bring some clarity this week and write about the most important of all lines; to go ahead and let you know where we’re going, and hope you’ll keep traveling with me. I had originally thought this would be the conclusion, the “grand finale”, the last installment of writing about l-i-n-e-s. However, each week as I’ve written, the words have gushed out and not according to my outline. Imagine that…. (I hope your smiling). So often that’s exactly how our great God does things. He swipes our “plan” to the side and offers us a chance to do it His way. What a gift it is when He offers His way.
The most important line in life dear one ——— is profoundly more paramount than the line between light and dark, right and wrong, or even life and death. Yet even though it is the most intensely important line beyond all lines in the universe ——— it is also the most ignored, overlooked, and forgotten. It is the line of battle between all that is good and all that is evil. It is the hottest, fiercest war and it’s fought day and night, 24/7. It’s real beyond belief and wildly violent. It’s life and death, but not just concerning heartbeats and breathing lungs. This battle’s outcome determines eternity for souls; souls our Father longs to rescue, care for, save, and hold in His arms. This is THE LINE my heart has been meditating on for months….years. In the silence He steadily whispers in my heart:
“The battle rages, focus on the line, hold the line. I, God, am fighting at that line, commanding untold numbers of angels. You do not battle satan, I DO, but daughter, you must resist his schemes, hold the line and move forward when I tell you to. You must own your part of the line with a focus that reflects My heart.”
He has opened my eyes to see with clarity, there is a line — a line that matters most. It matters to His heart and it will effect eternal outcomes for all hearts. He, GOD, loves the very souls that are on the wrong side of this line. He loves the souls on the right side of the line too —— He rejoices, truly rejoices, over every soul safely found on the Heaven-bound side of the battle line. But, oh, how He longs for the souls on the dark side, the hell-bound side of the battle line. Souls that don’t know HIM. Souls that have rejected Him. Souls that deny, ignore, belittle, and protest Him —— He loves them. That fact makes my knees feel both weak and strengthened.
This line of battle is ever in focus for our Lord. It’s the axis of life, the center stage of all confusion, and the place where the enemy never walks away from. No white flag flies there. Even though the enemy of God knows he has been completely defeated, he will-not-give-up. In his fury and flurry he is determined to derail and destroy as many souls as he can. He wants to confuse the focus, blur our ability to see, and distract us, by any means possible, to keep us from putting our faithful, obedient toe on the line and h-o-l-d-i-n-g our position. He began this line of warfare in the Garden of Eden when God gave the first boundary line. The enemy, satan, could not stop God from creating, forming life, bringing beauty from void, or alleviating aloneness. Oh but when that first boundary was placed in the garden, the enemy declared the boundary line as his battle-line and the gift to Adam was swept up in the whirl of deceit.
The enemy deals in distractions, deceit, destruction, and death.
Distraction from what matters most.
Deceit over what is actually true and good.
Destruction of anything that pleases God.
Death to everything that brings life.
When I look at the world around me, at the challenges people face and the pain they endure, I can become so distracted over the problems, I lose sight of the line of battle. That line where the enemy is busy destroying and lying, deceiving and confusing.
Conversely, when I look at the world of opulence and indulgence, I can become both distracted and disgusted over the unnecessary ways people misplace their energy and focus. Either way, through challenges or indulgence, pain or opulence, distraction is at work to keep us focused on this or that rather than on the real line that matters most of all for all eternity!
Years ago, by complete guidance of my Father, I stepped away from the influences of social media. It was a struggle for me; I loved being able to stay connected to others online. But after several very strange experiences and a very clear directive that I needed to put all my focus on what was in front of me rather than the haze in the distance —— I obeyed. I am not saying I believe social media is evil or wrong…. I’m simply certain it was wrong for me. It had the capacity to draw my attention, hours on end, and it began causing me to feel “connected” to friends far away in such a way that I was less connected with those right in front of me. It was a wildly distracting tool being used against my heart of obedience. Then came the day when a Kenyan student shared with me that someone had hacked into my account, was using my profile page, and sending pornographic material implying it was “my side job”. Oh what a lie from the pit of hell itself!! That was the day I came off social media.
Since that day, I’ve been able to focus and serve with more intentionality. I’ve gotten very accustomed to a simplicity of life —— with fewer intrusive distractions. With compassion I recognize the overwhelming distractions people are bombarded with. Other things that draw their attention and keep them from remembering, seeing, and focusing on —— the battle line. This line that is profoundly present between good and evil, light and dark, salvation and eternal death, GOD and satan.
Can you recognize the downward spiral of humanity as so many important lines have become blurred? It’s inconceivable to me that we now have a group of people called “influencers” who have risen out of nowhere, with few qualifications and fewer years of experience —— and their top goals are attention and money. They pursue “followers” who listen to them; the more followers the more money they make. All this whirl of voices has risen to a wild cacophony of n-o-i-s-e. What a dark-worldly scheme to keep minds from the most Truthful, Qualified, Loving INFLUENCER.
Some people have evolved in this blur to the point that they believe anyone who does not comply with their way of thinking, is out.
Remember in elementary school, when you wanted to play with friends, but then the loud, bully (who turns out was the most insecure of us all) would push you around and ridicule you because you weren’t dressed the right way, or your hair wasn’t cool, or you walked funny, or ……
No one ever really understood how the bully had obsequious toadies following them around and backing them up. But it’s happening again.
Bully influencers are loud, they want to impress us with their “followers”, they want to imply how we should dress, how we should look, what we should do, etc. —— can you see it dear ones? And while it might not be influencing you —— it is influencing some, especially the young. God help us.
All this influencing and cultural-social-pressure is d-i-s-t-r-a-c-t-i-n-g us from really focusing on what matters most. It keeps us from seeing the lines that have been so blurred by smudged eraser marks. This group says this, that group says that ——neither really knows the truth. None are truly focused on what is good and right and honorable. For if they were, they would be running to the Father and remembering what matters most. They would choose HIS INFLUENCE.
There are souls.
Souls stuck in dark places.
Lives that can not find their way through the blur.
Lives with no hope of heaven on a crash course to hell.
God is at work with HIS great toe on the line between good and evil looking to and fro for any who are serious about helping those in darkness find their way to the light.
We people are debating over opinions, some even bullying others with their influenced attitudes ——— while the real battle line is raging and eternal destinies are being set.
This battle line offers a way out from places of pain, unleashed by the darkness.
This battle line offers guidance with the light of truth.
This battle line must be held so lives can be saved.
This battle line brings clarity —— like walking out of the fog and into the sunshine.
This battle line must be held so starving souls can cross over, be fed, and grow in good ways.
This battle line has no time for people’s opinions. It focuses on the truth. For “the truth sets us free” (John 8:32).
If you ask yourself, “What and who influences me most?”, what do you see?
Who influences you? Is their goal beneficial for you? themselves? God’s Kingdom work? Does their influence make you better at the Line between good and evil?
What would happen to your relationship if you disagreed with their opinion? Would they respect that you have a God-given right to think differently?
Can you listen to them AND focus on the most important line in the universe in ways that could make an eternal difference for others? If yes —— then may God bless that relationship. Oh but if the bone-honest answer to that last question is no —— then I pray you will find the strength to re-focus, re-align your heart, and step up to the line that matters most.
It will matter more than you ever imagined possible... it will impact eternity.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:12 | ESV
