I have referenced the life-altering 1995 book The Blood and the Glory by Dr. Billye Brim, in which she prayed protection over vehicles by “pleading the Blood,” as the old-timers did (see the Vehicle Prayer Sticker story) .
Not a seasoned airline traveler, I began to declare safety through the Blood of Jesus over airplane trips for myself and others. “I plead the Blood of Jesus over this plane, nose to tail, wingtip to wingtip, top to bottom, over baggage, passengers, and crew. This plane will not fall from the sky!”
The Event
By March 2020 right before the Pandemic, I probably had not flown two dozen trips in those 25 years when my husband and I returned from a conference in CA. With a changeover in Denver that night, we found ourselves in a small plane with the crew explaining that they would need to redistribute the passenger load. I was assigned a seat in the rear of the plane.
All was well until we ran into extreme turbulence with the plane pitching and heaving, all passengers and crew confined to seats.
I truly have never experienced such unreasoning, immediate panic. “They are going to have to land this plane,” I thought wildly, then realizing that I could not see lights below and we might well be over the Rocky Mountains.
Realizing that one is panicking and conquering that blind emotion are two different things. Of course, I had covered the flight with the Blood more than once. Now I began my supplications, my entreaties, “right now prayers,” my friend calls them. I began to shamelessly beg God for help.
It came to my mind the time when the disciples, professional seamen, desperately pled Jesus in the storm in the sea of Galilee to “do something.” Now I was in a storm of air currents and waves and emotions, and I began to command with the words Jesus used, “Peace, be still.” At the same time, I “breathed” puffs of air.
Within a few minutes the plane began to quiet, and all was well. I knew that God had heard the prayers of one person if not more, and as he did those many years ago had stilled the waters.
I thanked Jesus.
Later in the flight the attendant warned that we would be experiencing turbulence again, and that we were to take our seats and fasten our belts.
Again, I frantically prayed, telling the Lord I just couldn’t go through that terror again. (He is patient and perhaps indulgent with his children, isn’t he, with our desperate, irrational pleas?)
Strangely, with passengers and crew belted in, the turbulent air currents never materialized. I knew that it didn’t “just not happen,” and I thanked Jesus for his kindness and praised the Blood.
In the years since 1995 I have applied the Blood over the flights of many friends, family, and loved ones. How wonderful to symbolize faith in God with this shield symbol and at the same time to identify luggage as it comes down the turnstile. This sticker a symbol of faith in the Blood of Jesus and his power to protect us and our luggage, for you and your friends, especially those who fly routinely.
The Greater Lesson
As I wrote this account of the power of the blood over a flight, I realized that God had an additional lesson to teach me. Do you recall the WWJD sign of the late 90s, “What Would Jesus Do?” In my panic over the heaving and pitching airplane, I remembered the account of Jesus commanding the sea to calm down, and I did the same thing. The greater lesson is that if we will do what Jesus would do, we will get what Jesus would get.
So yes, I did what Jesus did, and I got what Jesus got.