From creation forward, God told His us how life would work. He desired to bless and have a relationship with us and set out the following ground rules. ‘Obey, and you will be blessed.  Disobey, and you will be led into captivity.’ There are myriads of examples throughout Scripture that prove this to be true.  

When the nation of Israel worshipped God and followed His precepts, He blessed them, protected them from their enemies, and made them prosperous.  But when they disobeyed, when they chose to worship idols and do every kind of abominable thing, His hand of protection and blessing was withdrawn.  They were carried away as slaves and became acquainted with famine and all other effects of the Fall.  Today, God’s Word still stands and the same rules apply.

Imagine with me that each of us lives within the perimeter of a white-picket fence line.  We are blessed and protected when we follow God and live holy lives.  The white picket fence looks brand new.  It’s pristine.  All the timbers are upright, painted, and sturdy. But when we choose to sin, when there are longstanding patterns of disobedience, that pristine white fence deteriorates into disrepair, like a fence that borders an abandoned property.  Timbers are on the ground, or bent and broken.  The gate is smashed in.  Enemies walk in. 

Personalized Prayer Mapping is about doing boundary-line assessment so that there can be fence repair.  King David said The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. Psalm 16:5-6   How true this was before his sin with Bathsheba, but how his life was ravaged after disobedience.  

If a child of God loves Jesus and knows a life of confession of repentance, his boundary line is secure.  But many of God’s children have more timbers on the ground than are standing.  The enemy is a wolf on the prowl, an intruder, and a strategic planner, and he easily gets through the fence.  

Joyce Carol Oates said, “We human beings are the species that clamors to be lied to.”  How true.  We are lulled into a sense of false well-being by an enemy who wants us to believe that everything is fine.  But he fears the child of God who knows that repentance and forgiveness through the blood of Jesus closes any access and secures the boundary line.   Footholds and strongholds are history.  It’s time for the Bride of Christ to purify for the coming of the Bridegroom.  May we not be found sleeping with the enemy.