Adventure, part 2.....

On that initial visit to Montana, when I was in crisis, when I got to one particular town, I bound the principalities and powers that hovered over it. It was a nice town. It just had those characteristics of some small towns in Montana – immobilized, afraid, no change for a long time, lack of resources.

I had this enormous peace entering it, knowing that I had dealt with the enemy, and I was still in crisis. I hung out at a bar to get to know the locals (well, Jesus did it!)

Later, when I embarked on my real adventure, and with no mania, I passed through that town. It was Sunday and a pastor invited me to his church that morning. I was visiting with the pastor after the service and he confided in me: “I have just started seeing God really move in this town, since the end of 2003.” That was when I had come and bound the principalities.

I’m not saying anything, but I’m just sayin’ – you never know…..

I didn’t say anything to the pastor.

That was when I was on my way to camp out in western Montana. I had put my house on interest only, had put it up for sale and was living off the equity. Don’t try this at home. I knew that I would get my house sold in time to pay it off, and I did. I got it sold before housing prices plummeted. I got a good price and just in time. They had just told me I couldn’t live off my credit anymore.

I trusted God every step of the way.

In western Montana, I found an area west of Bozeman that was spiritually “light” and naturally beautiful and just camped out there for most of the summer, enjoying the locals.

I was off medication.

I kept returning home to take care of the house, sometimes having to do more repairs and decorating to improve it for selling, then set out again, heading for another part of the United States, traveling everywhere with my two cats.

We went to the Grand Canyon, where my one cat, Tubby attracted so much attention as I walked him on a leash that people were oogling him instead of looking at the Grand Canyon!

At one point we went to Mexico, briefly, where I got lost coming back. God helped me find my way back without knowing Spanish.

I visited family and friends I hadn’t seen in twenty years!

In Arizona I was camping out alone, because it was January, and discovered at 3:00 AM that I had accidentally pitched my tent over a sprinkler that went off. God wanted me to have a cold shower!

The desert winds also blew everything so my tent and my belongings practically blew away!

There was a sign at an Arizona rest area that warned against “Serpents and Scorpions” and I thought about that verse that says “nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

In Arizona I also met a lady who invited me to stay at her place in Phoenix, which was beautiful! It was next to an orange orchard and had a pool. She was nice and an opportunity to share my faith.

Whenever I returned to Minneapolis, the heavy principalities over it were so evident, and I would brace myself. But I began to see it as a challenge to embrace.

My adventure came to an abrupt end when I had another manic episode! I was completely off medication and not using wisdom. I wasn’t having a solid quiet time with God every day, getting into the Word. I wasn’t in a constant fellowship with believers. Duh!

Those are the Basic Maintenance 101 for every Christian. I was relying on prophetic “knowing” and not on other ways of knowing. Besides, that kind of prophetic knowing may just as well be shut off.

When I got manic, I was promptly sent back home, to Minneapolis. Since then, I’ve been operating just fine without thinking much about the powers that be, and that’s just fine with me!