Rachel Hauck: On Worship and Warfare

Discovering your identity and authority in Jesus.

Warfare is about your authority in Christ; worship is about your surrender to Him. The two work in perfect harmony to bring you into a full relationship with Jesus, walking and working in His power, yet surrendering yourself at His feet.

It’s a beautiful thing.

We’ll explore the awesome blend of power and surrender here in this column. How can you see both at work in your life at the same time? What roles do warfare and worship have in the life of a teenager? How can YOU move in God’s power? What does that even mean?

Let’s figure it out together on the 2nd Saturday of each month!

Ready? Let’s just go for it!

About rachel

I believe I’ve always written. If not in my journals or stories, in my heart. I was constantly taking note of the sights and sounds around me, the emotion of a moment: dinner with friends, the last night in college before graduation, racing through an airport to catch a flight to Australia, talking about Jesus with my translator in the back of a cab as we drove across Madrid. Now, my days are spent mining those life experiences and emotions so I can share them with you through the eyes and ears of my characters and the places they live.

In ’92, I married my best friend, Tony, and spent over eighteen years in youth ministry with him. A year later, I started my first novel, an epic WWII story that eventually found some light as a sub plot in my book Love Starts With Elle.

With the help and cheering of writing friends, my first book was published in 2004, the same year I left the corporate world to write full time. Since then I’ve become an award winning, best selling author of twelve novels with more to come. It’s my desire for you find hope and escape in my stories, and inhale a bit of the fragrance of Jesus’s love.

Blessings from my heart to yours.

On Teen Worship & Warfare: Prayer Is Our Way Out, Our Way In

Let me begin by clarifying one simple thing: prayer is cool. It’s about the coolest, most effective thing we can do this side of heaven.

Yeah, it’s a bit of work. And hard sometimes. Dry. Dare I say boring on occasion? But so are many other cool things in life.

How many of you play a sport? Or a musical instrument? It’s work, right? Drills, repetition and practices are not knock-your-socks-off exciting. It’s the same-ole, same-ole. It’s doing the same move, the same scales over and over.

To be good at anything, even video games, you have to practice. You have to give yourself to the “thing” you love so much.

Good grades requires study. The top level on a Play Station or favorite video game requires persistence, playing day in and day out.

To stay in shape or build muscle you have to be disciplined.

Everything good and worthwhile in life requires devotion, discipline and above all, desire.

So why do we think sitting down to pray should be easy? Simple? Why do we think prayer should just “come to us” like a ray of light in the midst of our busy lives? Why does it seem anti-Christian to block off a time each day or every other to pray?… continue reading

On Teen Worship & Warfare: Watch your Words

On a Friday night after two and a half hours of worship and intercession, I was face down on the stage floor, listening.

The sanctuary had gone quiet. Those who stayed the extra hour to press in had also settled down, waiting.

I didn’t feel anything extraordinary. Just me, refreshed and confident in my Lord. Would He speak? I wasn’t sure.

Then I heard this in my spirit.

“Don’t ever tell me again you stink as a writer.”

Huh?

I’d never told God I “stink” as a writer. I’d told my writing partner. My husband. A few others who might have caught me on a bad day but to the Lord?

Never.

Then it hit me.

Jesus tells a story in Matthew 25. About a king judging his servants. He says, “Hey, I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in. I was naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.”

But the servants were like, “Huh, when did we visit YOU Lord in prison, when did we give YOU food, water and clothes?”

Look how Jesus answers, “You did it to my friends and brothers, even the little guy who wasn’t very popular or cool, you did it to Me.”

Telling my friend I “stunk” as a writer was the same as telling it to Jesus, the One who called and gifted me to write.… continue reading

On teen Worship & Warfare: Lock the Back Door, Too

When I was a kid, my mom would holler after me as I dashed outside to play, “Shut the door, Rachel.”

Anyone else get that? No? Just me?

Well, anyway, I recently attended a beach writer’s retreat and at the end of our week, the first wave of retreaters headed to the airport at 4:00 a.m.

I, was wisely, still in bed.

But I could hear them loading up, making sure they had everything. They seemed particularly interested in making sure the front door was locked.

“Is the door locked?”

“Yeah, I think.”

“Check it again.”

“It’s locked.”

“Just make sure.”

“Okay, yes, it’s locked. Let’s go.”

An hour later, I had to crawl out of bed to head home. As another retreat staffer and I made one last pass through the house before leaving, I turned the knob on the back door.

Whatdaya know. It opened. Not locked at all.

The gate to the side yard stood ajar and the path to the trash had no barriers at all. I could see through to the neighbor’s small beach cottage. The early travelers worked so hard to make sure the front door was locked but completely forgot about the back door. And the side gate.… continue reading

Rachel Hauck: On Worship and Warfare

This is a test post. The first post in this column will go live on March 10th, and will post on the 2nd Saturday of each month. So be sure to check back!… continue reading

Some books by rachel, click to purchase

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