Hebrews 4:12 - For the word of God is LIVING AND ACTIVE and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and ABLE TO JUDGE THE THOUGHTS AND INTENTIONS OF THE HEART.

I have been counseling a lovely young lady who turned to Jesus when her love relationship with an unsaved young man began to go sour. Up until recently she had been dealing with her ex-boyfriend but he just kept getting harder and harder for her to be with. This is because he is an admitted alcoholic and a pot addict who keeps elevating the use of those drugs more and more in his life over his relationship with her. 

However, whenever he decided to stay sober, they would have the greatest of times together so this led her to keep at it with him for so long in hopes that he would overcome his addictions. He paid lip service to wanting to do so but his confessions just did not turn into actions.

Well, one night it all came to a head when she was given a ride by one of her male friends to his house to see him. When he let her in, she could tell that he was quite high. When he asked her how she got there she told him that this nice fellow had brought her there. He reacted to this news with insane jealousy and began to yell at her and to push her around. He didn’t strike her, he just yelled at her and exerted his superior strength over her to dominate her and to shove her here and there.

So in fear she grabbed her bottle of mace and sprayed it at him. He screamed from the effects of it and fled to the bathroom to clean it off. Then she called the police to report the incident and to seek their protection from his rage. When they arrived and assessed the situation they sided with her and asked her if she wanted him arrested. She said no because by then he had calmed down and somewhat sobered up. Then she left his place.

The next day he e-mailed her that he was ending their relationship permanently because he did not feel safe around her anymore! He then told all of their mutual friends that the two of them had had a fight and that she had maced him and that he had called the police on her but he did not have her arrested because he felt sorry for her! This of course was a total lie and a reversal of the true facts of the matter. Unfortunately, it was believed by most of their mutual friends so they began to shun her even to the point of becoming rather hostile towards her. None of these so called friends even asked her to tell them her side of the story. They just abandoned and in so doing, they shamed her.

So we discussed how she, like Jesus, was being falsely accused and crucified emotionally by the devil through her ex and them. We saw him as being in the devilish tag team spirits of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, wherein the seemingly nice Dr. Jekyll spirit was being used by Satan to entice her with their great times together into a place wherein the obviously evil Mr. Hyde could come forth to “gaslight” her (this term comes from the movie “Gaslight” in which these 2 personalities in a man are depicted as emotionally and physically tormenting a naive young lady until he died). We saw this brutal, lying, “gaslighting” spirit as exactly that which Satan was employing through her seemingly nice boyfriend to conceal his evils (when he was high) from their friends and to deflect them from seeing his evils by falsely accusing her.

Well, after months of the emotional pain that she had been suffering from all of their adversity towards her, she confided to me that she was wearing out and at times she felt that the situation was utterly hopeless. She told me how she wanted vindication and she also wanted her very nice boyfriend to overcome his addictions and come back to her without this split personality. To this I felt moved to advise her to just keep her focus upon Jesus and Jesus alone so that like Peter who focused his attention upon Him and was able to miraculously walk over a storm in his life, with Him she would be able to walk over this storm in hers too.

A couple of days later the Lord led me to this living and active passage for her in His word…

Hebrews 12:1b - 3 - ….let us run with ENDURANCE the race that is set  before us, fixing our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him ENDURED the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider Him who has ENDURED such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Truly, this passage was living and active in her life, was it not? I see it as being so alive and focused upon her current circumstances that it could have been written just for her! I also see it as a special exhortation from God to her for her to continue to endure the evil that is happening through all of them towards her personally. Then, in His own good time, He will take her into the vision that He gave her of a joyous life with a husband of His choosing (either this man saved or someone better)! This thought is also backed up in the following verse….

Habakkuk 2:3 - “For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail.

THOUGH IT TARRIES, WAIT FOR IT; For it will certainly come, it will not delay.

And IMHO, in this passage as well….

Isaiah 51:22 - 23 - Thus says your Lord, the Lord, even your God, Who contends for His people,“Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of reeling, the chalice of My anger; You will never drink it again!!!

“Instead, I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, who have said to you, ‘Lie down that we may walk over you.’ You have even made your back like the ground And like the street for those who walk over it.”