Y’all might think I’m a stickler but I will die on the hill that kids do not need phones until at least 12-13 and no smart phones until high school or later. The normalization of young kids w smart phones is part of what’s wrong with kids today
Lord,
if You have to disappoint me to protect me from myself …then disappoint me.
I’d rather cry over Your “no” than celebrate a “yes” You never ordained.
Please protect me, God, even when it hurts. I trust You more than I trust my desires.
There is a side of the Christian journey many people are not prepared for…
You begin to pray more seriously than ever before…
You start fasting, seeking God, separating yourself from certain habits…
You even give your life fully to Christ…
And instead of things getting easier…
it feels like everything begins to fight you.
Doors that used to open easily start closing.
Battles you never noticed before suddenly become intense.
You even visit a prayer center expecting relief… but when you come back, the pressure increases.
And deep within you, a question rises:
“God… why now?”
Let me tell you something most people won’t say clearly:
This is where warfare begins.
Before you got serious with God, you were not disrupting anything.
You were not confronting systems.
You were not breaking patterns.
But the moment you decided to align your life with God, you made a declaration in the spirit:
“I am no longer available for darkness.”
And that decision… comes with a response.
The Bible already warned us in Ephesians 6:12 that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, and spiritual forces.
That means some battles are not about people…
They are reactions from the spiritual realm to your growth, alignment, and awakening.
Understand this deeply:
The enemy does not waste time on what he already controls.
He fights what is trying to escape.
So when your prayer life becomes consistent…
When your hunger for God increases…
When you begin to say “no” to sin and “yes” to righteousness…
You are no longer passive.
You become a threat.
And let’s talk about something many avoid…
There are patterns, covenants, and altars—some ancient, some inherited—that may have had influence over your life or bloodline.
When you come into Christ and begin to walk in light, you are not just changing your lifestyle…
You are breaking agreements.
And not every system lets go quietly.
But listen carefully:
Resistance is not a sign that you are losing.
It is often proof that you are confronting something real.
This is where many believers make a costly mistake…
When things become hard, they withdraw.
They reduce prayer.
They become discouraged.
They start thinking, “Maybe this path is not working…”
But that is exactly what the enemy hopes for.
Because the moment you stop pressing, you lose momentum.
Hear this truth and let it settle in your spirit:
When warfare increases, your response must be to intensify—not retreat.
Pray more, not less.
Seek God deeper, not casually.
Stand stronger, not weaker.
Because prayer is not just a religious activity…
It is:
A weapon
A covering
A system of alignment
A way of enforcing heaven’s authority on earth
Even Jesus walked this path.
Right after His encounter and affirmation, He was led into a season of testing (see Matthew 4).
So if your experience feels like: “I encountered God… and then everything became intense…”
You are not strange.
You are walking a pattern of spiritual growth.
Let me encourage your heart:
Do not interpret battles as God’s absence.
Do not interpret pressure as punishment.
Do not interpret resistance as failure.
Sometimes, what you are experiencing is not destruction…
It is construction.
God is building:
Your endurance
Your discernment
Your authority
Your capacity to stand
There are dimensions of victory you cannot step into casually.
They require:
Consistency
Discipline
Depth in prayer
A strong foundation in the Word
And never forget this:
Darkness only reacts when light shows up.
So if your life is provoking resistance, it means something in you is shining.
This is not the time to go back.
This is not the time to compromise.
This is not the time to give up.
This is the time to:
Stay on your knees
Stay in the Word
Today, I’m going to give you ten years of therapy in two minutes.
I'm a brain surgeon, and I'm gonna show you how to make rapid progress in healing the wounds you’ve been carrying; the ones from childhood, from broken relationships, from things said that can’t be unsaid, and from things done that can’t be undone. Let's scrub in and get it done.
Here's a Fact: Your Wound Lives in Your Brain, But Your Healing Lives in Your Mind
When something hurts you, your brain stores it. The sights, the sounds, the sting of the words, the shape of the moment. That storage is real and physical.
But here’s where the hope of healing lies: your brain doesn’t get the final vote on what that memory means to you. Your mind does. And your mind is not the same thing as your brain.
Neuroscience nugget: Emotional memories get encoded in circuits involving the amygdala and hippocampus, but each time you recall a memory, it becomes temporarily unstable and gets rewritten via a process called reconsolidation. That means every time you revisit a wound, you have a fresh chance to change how it’s stored.
Self-Brain Surgery Procedure: The next time an old wound surfaces, don’t just relive it. Instead, reframe it while it’s “open.” Ask: What is the truest, most redemptive way to understand this moment now? Speak that new understanding out loud before you let the memory close back up.
Scripture: “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3, NIV
This is self-brain surgery. Hard and holy work.
Follow me to connect neuroscience and scripture every day. Save this to help when you need to heal. Share it with a friend who's hurting.
Click the link in my bio to learn more about The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery, my NYT bestselling book.
#selfbrainsurgery #neuroscience #neuroplasticity #grief #healing