Battle Cry
Blog and song By Kristen Hicks
I love when the Father sets things up a certain way that sometimes we aren’t even aware of. For example, the Lord has really been pressing on my heart for a couple weeks now that the next song I should share should be this one: “Battle Cry.” So I recorded it last night with my brother, Matthew, knowing I was supposed to have it ready to share today. The interesting thing is that today, on my 3 days of breaking away from normal life, I would experience some good ole’ fashioned warfare.
The Lord has really placed it within me, that during these three days away, I am supposed to dream again. This is super hard for me, actually. I used to be a huge dreamer. Like I’m talking, when I was younger I had a big ole’ notebook and the cover page read “My Big Dream.” HA! It’s ok I’m laughing with you! 🙂 I would put things in there about things I wanted to do when I got older, what I wanted my wedding to be like, what I wanted to do as a career, literally everything I desired and dreamed of was in that book.
What I wasn’t prepared for was the moment that the Lord asked me to give Him all my dreams. I was in high school when He asked me that. Reluctantly, over the next several years, I began to give Him, little by little, everything I had dreamed up. He even asked me to give Him the things, I felt, we had dreamed up together, He and I.
I was so confused, and I felt like my life had absolutely no purpose at all. I even began to feel like the things I had desired were wrong and selfish, or that they were impractical or irrational. Until one day, kinda recently actually, I literally woke up, and it was as if they were all back within me.
It shocked me at first. I started taking them before the Lord and laying them down again. What was funny is as soon as I would lay them down, I began to feel all twisty inside. I literally thought something was wrong with me. I kept trying to whip my heart into shape, by telling myself, “No, you have got to die to this, completely.” Finally, when that wasn’t working (shocker), I began to bring them before the Lord, and I asked Him if they were from Him or if they were from the enemy as a pon of distraction.
With every single area, He began to show me and confirm to me that He had given them back to me. He kinda got onto me actually, very gently, and told me, “Stop trying to die to things, I’m trying to resurrect.” 😉 Then that’s when He started to tell me He wanted me to begin to dream again. Only this time, I would dream up every area with Him.
The funny thing is, none of my dreams were wrong, at least at their core. They were all things that the Lord had placed inside of me since I was little. They were not exactly the same as what was in my “Big Dream” notebook, but they were similar. What I have learned about the Father, is that He takes our dreams VERY seriously. They are no joke to Him. Therefore, He asks us to give them to Him not only for safe keeping, but to teach us how to surrender.
I have sang this song “Battle Cry” in several different seasons of my life. But today, as I was dreaming up with God in every single area of my life, I noticed something. The enemy was right there also, trying to plant seeds of doubt, of anxiety, lies of unworthiness, and of fear. It got so bad at one point, that I just wanted to stop. But then I realized what was happening and I pushed through. I just kept writing and kept dreaming with God.
So, what I learned today, is that God not only kept my dreams safe from the enemy and taught me how to surrender, but He also taught me something VERY important for this process. He taught me how to fight for them. He taught me that it has never been about what I can do or not do. Meaning fighting for my dreams has nothing to do with the strength and will power that I can muster up within myself. It’s also not about who I know, or who I can connect with to make them happen. It’s about knowing Him. Knowing what He capable of. Knowing that with Him, there truly is nothing impossible, irrational, or impractical. Knowing that the best way to fight for things and fight against the enemy is to look AT HIM (The Lord) and surrender your life back to Him. Allowing Him to fight FOR you!!! This is worship actually! And worshipping an all-powerful, all-knowing, Creator is our true “Battle Cry.”