And There Came A Lion

By Beryl Spencer

•AND THERE CAME A LION
The trouble with Christians is they expect your God to take them out of trouble. I was offended at the words, but deep inside I knew this was true. My limited understanding of Christianity was that God would rescue me from all trouble. My method wasn't working for me and this comment provoked me to find what was real. So my journey began. I loved the writings of Paul, who seemed to be the tough, challenging, questioning person who personified what I felt at times. Paul spoke about open doors with many adversaries.

I understood that! He trusted God's Word to him implicitly, accepting that punishment and imprisonment awaited him. So in everyday life I put God's Word to practice and I found it to be true and powerful. I consumed stories of great leaders from the Bible and studied the strategies of army leaders. Paul teaches us in Ephesians to put on the amour of God, but I couldn't just play dress-up.

The Word must be authenticated. Paul speaks of swords and spears, missiles the enemy hurls to destroy us. I studied missiles in modern warfare. That brought further illumination of the Word. I learned about the US Army NMD (National Missile Defense) system and found that I too, had my own (PMD) Personal Missile Defense system - the tested Word and the Spirit-positioned to disarm any missile the enemy cared to hurl at me. And There Came a Lion is an action packed journey through enemy territory. It can change your life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Beryl Spencer
• Release date: May 20, 2017
• ISBN: 9780994596871

Beryl Spencer

Beryl Spencer Beryl has lived on the land most of her life and only lived away while completing her Nursing and working at a regional Hospital. Beryl and her husband live on the grazing property settled by the Spencer family in 1868 and have been happily married for 51 years. Beryl believes that marriage is a journey, firstly of commitment, then of living, loving and learning together. From grazing the family diversified into Commercial and small business where Beryl worked with her husband, and later assumed the role of managing the Farming and business interests. Their 4 children were raise on the property, Live and Let Live and there they also fostered 8 abused children and Beryl lead a youth group and worked with marginalised youth for many years. Beryl is Nanna to 11 grandchildren. Working with State and Federal Governments has been an opportunity to develop broad stakeholder networks. Beryl developed skills in facilitation & counselling and mentoring working in community to strengthen Communities and small businesses. Beryl’s strongly believes the ethos that strong families are an integral part of strong, resilient communities. Beryl’s has held various mentoring roles, and worked with a broad demography across communities. More recently Beryl focused on the needs of victims of child abuse and domestic violence, and the need for advocacy for changes in Legislation to underpin the safety of families and especially children. Her contacts within Governments have assisted Beryl to advocate and have Legislation amended 2009. This role of Advocacy became a place for Beryl to further hone her writing and expression skills as she compiled many submissions to Governments from her passion to protect children from abuse, particularly in the family home. Through the years, Beryl has loved to write and have stories and articles published. This desire to express ideas and passion started as a young when Beryl loved to write composition as school and received awards for her efforts. While the busy years of raising a family and caring for farm business didn’t allow much time for Beryl to pursue her love of writing, reading books and learning, she still made time to journal life experience and the truths she was learning. Beryl also is a speaker at meetings for Christian women, for Government and at Conferences (mostly rural) and has home published many booklets that became learning tools for her audiences. Now that the children are adults, Beryl has been able to follow her passion as Christian Author and advocate. 2014 saw the release of Beryl’s Book “AND There Came a Lion” through Westbow Press in US. This was a re-write of this book, firstly published in 1991. Beryl’s life was not always easy and at a very early age she experiences sexual abuse and later violent rape. Beryl felt rejected by those she ought to have been able to trust. What followed were teenage years of conflict and confusion, always trying to follow the Lord, and failing so many times. How could God allow this to happen? Beryl was chained in her mind to the events of the past and shame dictated her life- the enemy constantly trying to convince her that her life was worth nothing. The day came when Beryl made a life changing decision: she would no longer allow her past to define her future. Beryl’s latest book, “Torn Between 2 Loves” was recently released. Beryl’s passion in writing is to bring God’s word to life in a way that ordinary people will understand, and to express that the Word is real in today’s world and never changes. As Christians, we must live authentic lives. The lost are searching for reality. Jesus is so real. Life is full of chaos, challenges, and unexpected happenings, but in the midst of that there is joy and laughter for all who will allow Jesus to be the real Person in their lives.

Book preview

And There Came a Lion

Acknowledgements:

To the many special teachers and leaders I have known and had the privilege of learning from. These were not only personal acquaintances but many I learned to know and love through the pages of their books. One of these was Pastor Paul E. Grant,( now with his Lord) my Bible instructor for some years. Paul challenged me to study and seek truth from the Word of God.

To my dear older sister Elizabeth and husband Nev, my faithful prayer warriors, and Rev Joan Morton (now with her Lord) who taught me the tough love of leadership, thank you.

To my dear husband Ray, and 4 adult children, Toni, Floyde, Jamie and Jodie: We loved and learned through many wonderful and testing years of sickness and challenges of living on a cattle property through ‘drought and flooding rain’.

Thank you for your love and patience. This book was inspired as we walked the ‘tuff stuff" together and learned the reality, of faith.

Contents

Introduction

1. Faith Grounded

2. Peter’s Lion That Was Not a Lion

3. Samson Meets a Lion

4. Daniel in the Lions’ Den

5. A Lamb, a Lion, and a Giant

6. Preparing for Battle

7. The Truth Will Make You Free

8. Righteousness: A Condition for Victory

9. Peace: The Umpire of the Soul

10. Put On Faith as Your Shield

11. The Helmet of Salvation: God’s Protection

12. The Sword of the Spirit: The Word of God

13. Prayer and Supplication

14. Facing the Giant

15. Concluding Thoughts

More Scriptures on Faith

Introduction

Faith that shuts the lion’s mouth is more than a hope it won’t bite. Much of what I had heard concerning faith and the popular Say it and you have it concept didn’t ring true for me, so this axiom stirred a desire in me for answers to questions I had about faith.

Much I had heard was simply religious talk and a fair amount of emotional hype that didn’t stack up for me. In my search for the answers my heart desired, I read many Scriptures that only challenged me further to find the truth and reality of faith through God’s Word. This book is the result of my searching for and the Spirit’s guidance to the answers.

I wanted to find the reality of God’s Word for everyday life; I wanted Him to be my answer in the midst of everything happening in my family. So my journey began in God’s Word; I studied the lives of many great men of God but also great world leaders.

As my family faced difficult times together and seemingly endless years of sickness, God became my source, and I found the difficulties were simply doors to the reality of God I so desired. No longer was I crying out, Take me out of this! Well, not as frequently anyway. My cry became, Show me Your ways in this, Lord. I still slipped and fell many times, but I increasingly developed a relationship with my God and started learning the reality of faith.

Faith that shuts the lion’s mouth is birthed by the Holy Spirit, grounded in the living Word of God, and launched through the life of the true believer. This is the difference between true faith and presumption.

On the other hand, presumption may be motivated in the realm of thought, the sensual, and may be the source of religious but unreal and flowery statements of little substance.

Presumption goes out against the lion unprotected and foolishly hopes that this wild animal won’t bite! Faith has its ears tuned to the Word of God, believes its truth, and acts on it. True faith is grounded in the unfailing Word of God.

We read in Scriptures of a lion or lions when referring to Satan, our Enemy. Peter wrote, He is like a lion. (1Peter 5:8 Amplified) Satan, the deceiver, often acts up and roars in a showy demonstration to incite fear. He is our Enemy who comes against us to rob, steal, and destroy the inner life of Christians and slow them on their journeys toward spiritual maturity.

In the book of Revelation, John revealed the true Lion of Judah, the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, our Savior. The faith that comes as a gift for salvation will develop to its full potential only if we put it to use. Just as a sword must be drawn from its sheath and an arrow from its quiver, we need to take faith from the Bible.

Faith grows exceedingly in life’s difficulties. As faith develops, no longer will there be just a careless swatting the air with our swords and hoping we may hit the Enemy; rather, we will learn ways to bring quick and sure defeat to the Enemy’s attempts to harm them.

Peter said,

Now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations; that the trial of your faith, being much more precious that gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. (Peter 1:6 and 7, KJV)

If need be, you are in heaviness. In other words, these trials are necessary to our development, our growing up in Christ, and God means them for our good.

James warned us, Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed (James 1:14, KJV). Temptation is an attempt to steal the God personality developing in born-again Christians; it is part of their growth and development. Temptation is common to man (1 Corinthians 10:13, KJV); every Christian is tempted, and Jesus Himself was tempted but never yielded to sin (Hebrews 4:25, KJV). The temptation is not always to commit sin but rather to move from God’s values and thus spoil our inner lives. It is an attempt to get our eyes off Jesus. When we realize our God value and the purpose of Satan’s attacks, he will lose his ability to move us from our position in God by Jesus Christ. Paul expressed in Acts But none of these things move me; neither do I esteem my life dear to myself. (Acts 20:24, KJV) Paul’s temptations and trials did not move him; rather, they were simply part of the journey that stripped him of self-importance.

As we look at the lives of some of the great men of the Old Testament, we will discover that faith is the victory in facing the lions of trouble and trial and making every circumstance a testimony. We overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. When God leads us into a new experience in Him or directs us to some new purpose or vision, Satan will often come as a lion to distract us, to disrupt our progress, to rob, steal, and destroy.

Daniel’s life is an example of the faithful Christian life founded in prayer and grounded in the Word of God but still subject to the attacks of the Enemy. Knowledge of God does not prevent these encounters with Satan, but it does give us the ability to stand in them. Satan hates us learning and experiencing God’s life growing in us. David learned faithfulness as a shepherd; his life was a progression of faith. The Psalms are full of David’s faith battles; he was anointed by God as a boy to later be the king, yet he spent many years in the wilderness battling lust, depression, and failure. David later killed Goliath, but much of his training came earlier, as he cared for sheep. David could never wear Saul’s armor as he prepared to battle the giant; it didn’t fit. We cannot use another’s experience, helpful though it may be in learning; we must experience experience ourselves for it to become our personal testimony. We must put on our own armor, so we will study the putting on armor in detail in Ephesians 6.

Jesus prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail. Satan has desired to have you, to sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for you that your faith fail not (Luke 22:31–32, KJV). Even Jesus, who could have taken the heat off Peter, didn’t because of the value of the God life developing in Peter, who would profit from the trial of his faith. As gold is the most precious among metals, so is a Christian’s faith among faiths. The trial of our faith is more precious than the assaying of gold. Gold does not increase and multiply in the fire, but faith is established and multiplied by the affliction of trials and temptations. Even gold will one day perish, but our faith is an eternal glory through Jesus Christ. It is the development of the God content, the substance in us that is eternally glorious. The God of all grace, who hath called us to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after that we have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish and strengthen, and settle you (Peter 5:10 Amplified).

In Luke, Jesus asked, When the Son of man comes, will He find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:18, KJV) Have we learned true faith, faith that will sustain us in the days prior to Jesus’ return? My prayer for the reader is that this venture in the walk of faith, which covers but a small portion of this vast subject, will be an encouragement to explore and find the treasures and the veracity of God’s Word.

In life, we tend not to search unless we have a need. When we desire a deeper walk, we may feel amazed when we plunge into circumstances that will cause us to throw ourselves into God’s arms, where we will find a solid foundation. My prayer is that readers will find that the treasure of God’s Word is the source of all power