Thank you for the growing presence of Your Holy Spirit - You are renewing me, restoring me, quickening me moment by moment now! The desert finally appears to be behind me now - this is no mirage - this is finally the outskirts of Your fertile valley where I can take root in good soil with the likelihood of bearing some good fruit. Yes the time of barrenness is behind me now, thanks to You my Lord; now the weeds have been choked out! Hallelujah! Now the latter rain has begun to fall, now the fire has removed the seed of the tare. . .

Now I fear nothing, and trust nothing but You! You never let me go so far that Your hand could not reach me; with a rod of iron You drove me from the moth eaten, blight infested wasteland - into a desert no less! I was all but abandoned there to die. Like a leper my brethren forsook me; while the world came near to mock my despair - "where is this god for whom you choose to die? Where is this victory of which you did so proudly boast?" They brought me their "cure", soon my vision was all but gone. . . despair, despair, and the painful memories of what once was - all too much to take. Running from the Lord, running to the Lord, running from the world, then letting it envelope me all over again. . . I never thought that by casting the strong demon out, that the onslaught of the "seven more powerful" would be so overwhelming. . . if You had been there - if I had not drove You away - You would have been my Champion. But the fact remains that I allowed the poison of blasphemy and the foulness of abominations to enter my mind and spirit; pride, self, and a trust in man brought me to the brink of death (spiritual and physical)!

Then by Your mercy, fire rained down upon me and drove the demons away, burnt up the wood, hay, and stubble by which my house was constructed. . . thank God the Foundation could not be shaken, yet all the stones laid up by man crumbled to dust! You then spoke to my dry bones and breathed the Spirit back into me; You restored my life! Hallowed be Your name, mighty God! How wondrous is Thy wisdom, and endless Thy mercy, and what a precious requirement is Thy grace. . . forever and ever You are worthy to be praised!