My friend reached out to me in May and said she believed God told her to give this book to me.

As far as I know, she had no idea what I have been facing this year.

I have read "Insanity of Obedience" by the same author years ago. 

I have been slowly picking this book up and reading it over the course of the last few months. I wasn't sure exactly what He was highlighting in asking her to give it to me...until TODAY. Page 160. The story of Dmitri who went to prison for 17 years for his faith.

He was the only believer in a prison of 1500 men. He did two things to stand firm.

1. Worshipped

2. Wrote out scripture and song whenever he could find paper.

We are in the first fruits of persecution in America, we need to take a hold of this. Worship and the Word. 

Then page 175.

"In some cases, when a pastor was imprisoned for standing by his convictions and continuing to preach the gospel, local governmental authorities appointed another, more cooperative minister to fill the pulpit and lead the congregation."

My kinda ladies.

How did they learn to live and die like they did? time and time again, I heard the same words: "We learned it from our mothers, our grandmothers, our great-grandmothers. We learned it from our fathers, our grandfathers and our great-grandfathers."

In one case, the author asks why don't you record all these stories...to the ones who have been persecuted. They responded that persecution is normal...it's like the sun rising every day. 

Thank you for your obedience in giving me this book.

I needed to remind myself of what the Bible says about persecution and what is normal for people who usually experience it. It's just a way of life.

If I am being persecuted, that should be a good sign I am actually standing for truth.

"You can only grow in jail with what you take to jail with you.

You can only grow in persecution what you take into it."

I took away from this to not demand that your persecution be punished. Rather than pray your persecution ceases, pray that you will be obedient and faithful through it. With persecution, you know the cause is that people are coming to know Christ, so we don't want to stop sharing so we don't get persecuted. Satan desires to keep believers quiet, to diminish or silence our witness and to stop us from bringing others to Christ.

The author is often asked if he thinks persecution is coming to America. (copyright of book is 2013)

His response is "Why would satan want to wake us up when he has already shut us up?...He would likely conclude it's better to let us sleep."

That answer alone gets me riled up. TT can't shut up and is wide awake.

The warfare follows those in the arena. Persecution has started in America.