The Firewall that Works

We often find ourselves in headspaces that lead us into the wilderness of unsurety. Have you ever been there? I have! They create feelings of unresolved stress, anxiety, fogginess, and insecurity. They wear away our focus and distract us from the path we may have desired to experience in a day’s time. Do you set your day in the mornings? Me, not always, and I find myself in those deserted places in my mind mentioned above, sometimes through an entire day. Why? Because I am not always intentional about establishing my day even after spending time in devotion. What does that tell me? It tells me that I am compartmentalizing my worlds and often spending time saying and not listening.

Prayer is our way of communing with God to receive from Him and not just give to Him. Yes, we are to adore Him, praise Him, offer up thanksgiving to Him, repent and petition to Him but we must also sit in silence and wait on Him. This takes time and sometimes to no avail because we have built so many walls to protect ourselves that we have literally blocked Him out, even from within. The crazy thing about this is that we put up these walls of isolation as we are triggered by memories of unreconciled experiences. They are built with a negative network that isolates us from help making us self-imposed prisoners. How do we change this? The same way we started it – by building walls; not just any walls though – but a firewall.

A firewall is a system with a unique design that inhibits or prevents the spread of fire (anything left unchecked that is destructive). It is a network that is designed to block unauthorized access while permitting outward communication. It monitors and filters incoming and outgoing network traffic based on a previously established set of security policies. It is a barrier that sits between a private internal network and the public internet. Likewise, Holy Spirit functions in much the same way, protecting us and monitoring our mental traffic for our good. Also, like with a firewall, the Holy Spirit can be overridden and even disabled when we choose not to heed His counsel

which reminds us that ultimately, we are the ones in charge of using our choices to make wise decisions. We can adhere to the firewall and allow Him to work for us or disregard it and be subject to the vulnerability of various attacks.

Once we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, we must download updates and the like by spending time in the presence of the Lord, building a relationship with Him so that we fortify our trust in His wall of protection.

Being transformed by the entire renewal of our minds is a process of replacements which include replacing our self-defense walls with the firewall of the Holy Spirit. Jeremiah said it was like fire shut up in his bones! Lol! (okay, okay, I’m always up for a little humor). The Holy Spirit of God that lives on the inside of us will assist with filtering the inward and outward traffic within our mind and leads and guides us on how to effectively respond in any given situation as we learn to lean on Him by allowing Him to do His job on the inside of us.