A smile can change a persons life. I know it changed mine.
Almost 3 years ago now, I had what you would call, a nervous breakdown. It came as the result of a downward spiral in emotions that finally had to come to an end. The means may not have justified the end and I will tell you why. As I have posted in a prior blog, depression, sadness and the like is never just about us. It is very much the perversion of an intercessors gift. Let me explain...

When I lost all reasonable ability to think clearly for myself a couple weeks ago, the enemy (the devil)used that to try and convince me that this life is not worth living and I entertained the thought of suicide and was put into a psychiatric ward on a 72 hour mandatory hold, for suicide watch. As I was being held prisoner in a place that was draped in oppression, depressionand sadness, the Lord showed me things that I wouldn't have gotten an understanding of had I not been in a place full of his lost and hurting children. Not only were the people there lost in depression and mind-sets brought on by the heaviness of life, but many of them are lost in the sense of not knowing they have a Savior who loves them and died for them.

As I started to get to know a couple of my fellow house-mates in the psych ward, God began to open my heart and my spiritual eyes to something that is now burning in my heart. Many of the people that end up in institutions like that have the same spiritual gifts that I possess, which are mercy, compassion and intercession. Like one famous prophetic person pointed out, the mental hospitals are full of people who do not understand nor recognize that God wants to set them free to use their spiritual gifts. Instead the world locks them away and throws away the key to their freedom, because they do not know that we are all called to live for God, using the gifts he has bestowed upon us. The world does not understand that we are all called to carry each others burdens and release them back into the hands of our Heavenly Father. So instead, we have our fellow man under the hand of the enemy who has chosen to come, steal and destroy their lives and those around them by literally taking their minds captive.

What would it be like, to go into these mental hospitals and preach the good news of the gospelto some of the people who need it most? What kind of freedom in revival would we see as God's intercessors are set free to do what He created them to do? What would the earth look like with more of God's children who operate in God's compassion and mercy, living lives that glorify God in those gifts? Would we not see entire generations set free maybe because they would be taught that their pain is not their own and that they do not need to carry it?

Showing God's love to these captive ones could be as simple as a smile. How doI know? Because I saw it work first hand. One of the people I got to know in that hospital was an elderly woman who was as sweet as anyone I've ever met. She had been admitted for depression and when I first noticed her, she did not carry on conversations with the others like many of the other patients chose to do. Instead she would sit by herself at meal times and simply stare off into space much of the time. Well, my heart became full of compassion for her and every time I saw her I smiled genuinely at her. Over a days time, which is like a year in that place, she began to smile back and even sat next to me at meal times on her own free will. As time went on, I began to gently ask her questions and I came to know that this sweet woman was an artist and a musician like myself. She even had faith in God but the circumstances in her life were clouding over His love and truth in her life. But I know that God spoke to her in that place and it came in the form of a warm, genuine smile. Never underestimate the power of a smile, never.

I will continue in my next post about the role that music played in that place as well. But I leave you with the challenge, to follow God's command to love your neighbor as yourself, and don't be afraid to let God use the everyday things in life to do it.....such as a smile.