Now until the Next

“We may be traversing the unknown, but when we are doing it with a very known God who graciously delights in making all things known, we can make peace with the tiny bits which we don’t yet know.”

When we don’t lose the purpose of the ‘now’ to the promise of the ‘next,’ we can be assured that we are walking in the light. We know we are walking in a way that honours the ways and the wisdom of the Lord above our own. We know we are seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness first and foremost, so that the less important things of life may be added to us and that too, abundantly.

God is a loving Father who delights in giving us the desires of our heart. No, that does not mean that He gives us whatever we want. Rather, it means that He gives us what TO want. But for that divine exchange to happen between our agenda and His desires, it is vital that we make spending time with Him our top priority. It is where we get to know the One who does know all things. And as we start to know Him better, we start to know ourselves a lot better too.

It is walking in the tension of that which we know and that which inspires our trust that makes the Cross in our lives. It is being able to walk in the light of the revelation that we do have on one hand, and trusting God with the mystery of the unknown on the other that forms the substratum of our faith. We cherish what we do know and we trust God with what we don’t know as we continue to seek to know Him more and more, the very Person and Presence of Jesus.

The Promise Maker and the Promise Keeper is always above the Promise itself. All the promises of God are in Christ Jesus, ‘Yes and Amen.’ God is not a man that He should lie. He is faithful to keep His covenant and well able to perform and perfect the fullness of that which He has spoken concerning our lives. But my journey has seen my perception of God go from perhaps viewing Him as a vending machine to stepping into the light of the truth that He is a most gracious Father that I have the privilege of not only being in relationship with, but also to be transformed into the likeness of, as we journey hand-in-hand.

It is in the journey that we are set free and transformed from one degree of glory to the next. It is in the journey that we develop our spiritual muscles of faith, trust and surrender. It is in the journey that the walls of shame, anger and bitterness come tumbling down; enabling us to step into the light, love and life of Christ. It is in the journey that our weakness is exposed so that our vulnerability can meet His strength. It is in the journey that amid the chaos and confusion of the world that surrounds us, we learn to stand on the integrity of who we are and whose we are. It is in the journey that we have the opportunity to deepen our intimacy and enrich our relationship with our most Perfect Father.

The journey is where we learn to walk on water with our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and the perfector of our faith. We start to learn things about ourselves that we never knew, and as we lean in to learn more from what He so willingly reveals, we start to learn more and more about this wonderful Person we are called to do life with.

Prayer goes from what once felt like a business transaction to a joyful communion with my Creator, Maker and Redeemer. Promises become our love language and faith is developed to see signs, wonders and miracles that attest to the great power of our Great God. Healing and wholeness take on a new meaning as priorities are shifted and recalibrated. Worship is revealed as our highest call as ‘beholding and becoming’ is established as the norm. Hearts are softened and minds are renewed as we learn to step into our truest identity as sons and daughters of The King of Glory.

Nothing remains the same as we continue to walk in step with a never changing God. He is the only thing that remains constant – the same; yesterday, today and forevermore. Experiencing Him is savouring a slice of Heaven on Earth till the echo in our hearts collides with the intention in His, and the only cry remains,

On Earth as it is in Heaven.

Now until the next.

The Beauty of the wilderness

“Heavenly perspectives saturated in Truth possess the power to heal.”

The wilderness is never a place we go looking for. It’s usually a season of the soul that we find ourselves in perhaps wondering how we got there in the first place. We can find ourselves “thrust into it” or “led into it.” I don’t think that it matters really.

For what truly matters is that we are able to accurately discern the purpose for our wilderness season and pray for eyes to see the beauty of it. In my experience, it’s usually in the wilderness that God does His deepest, grandest work. On the other side of wilderness, by virtue of divine design, there always is the Promised Land. However, the degree to which we can sustain the blessing of the Lord in the land that He promises to give us depends on our willingness to let Him do a deep work in us in the wilderness season where He uses time as a tool in His Hands to access us and reveal areas in our lives that are in desperate need of His loving, redemptive touch. The Word of God puts it this way,

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.” (Hosea 2:14, ESV)

It’s in the wilderness that we learn the truth that the wonder of following His breath will always leave us in wonder. He teaches us as our loving Father that man does not live on bread alone, but on every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We start to learn the importance of developing a deeper intimacy with the Lord; a sacred, tender, purely pristine space that lets us come undone in His Presence, with a vulnerability that though seems scary at times, is really what we need to get comfortable with, simply because we know that through it all; we are deeply, deeply loved.

What I’m learning is the truth that the extent to which we allow ourselves to come before the Lord with our most authentic selves, shedding the false weight of pretences and performance, is the extent to which we can experience the depth of His Love; as well as the healing and freedom that it inspires. It’s in the shedding of the shackles of bitterness, unforgiveness, resentment; and the shame that inevitably accompanies this territory threatening to hold us hostage to the facts of what once happened as opposed to the Truth of God’s Word over our lives that declares we are healed, whole and set free by the blood of Jesus, that we start to walk in the freedom that Christ purchased for us at Calvary. Pastor Bill Johnson puts it beautifully when he says that there is always a gap between that which is in our account and that which is in our possession. Standing on the promises of God bridges the gap as we slowly but surely, start to enter into the light of who we really are in Christ.

We really are the righteousness of God in Christ and we really can do all things that we are called to through Christ who strengthens us. We really are much loved children of God whose Father dotes on them and is constantly thinking of them. We really are the temple of the Holy Spirit and greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. We really do have access to a future through Christ that is more glorious than is possible for us to perhaps comprehend.

We really do.

But my experience testifies that for us to come to a place of agreement with the Truth of who we are IN Christ and what we have access to THROUGH Christ, we have to be willing to get alone with the Father. We need to take time to sit at His Feet, like Mary did when Jesus came visiting her. We need to lay all the hurts and offences that we have been carrying in the delicate soil of our hearts as a result of the traumatic experiences in our past, at the feet of Jesus and let Him love us back to life again till we know deep down beyond a shadow of doubt that we really are the absolute delight of His Heart.

The wilderness is where, I believe, the Lord encounters us and declares,

“I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:49)

It’s here that He heals our broken hearts and binds up our wounds. It’s here that He renews our minds and restores our hope. It’s here that He dismantles the lies of the enemy and reveals the Truth that is able to save our souls and set us free. It’s here that He prepares us for what He has prepared for us. It’s here that He does a deep and gentle work in us so that in His perfect timing, He can manifest the fullness of that which He has spoken. It’s here that He refines our character and purifies the motives of our hearts. It’s here that we are met by Love and marked by Love.

Friends, it’s in the wilderness that we learn to lock eyes with the One whose eyes are like flames of fire till we start to truly become like the One we behold. It’s where our hearts begin to burn again with a new found passion and strength that serves as a womb for the rest of our divine destiny to be birthed and eventually, played out.

There is beauty in the wilderness. There is purpose in the pain. There is meaning in the melodrama and there is fruitfulness in the seemingly barren.

But it’s upto us to want to have eyes to see and ears to hear.

I pray we do.

Faith works by Love

“Because nothing can diminish Your Love for me, nothing can erode my faith in You.”

✝️💖

Content in Christ

If You’re done with it, I am too.
If You’ve moved on, I have too.
If You’ve closed the books, I have too.
If You’re writing something new, I am too.

Because when it’s all said and done,
I only want to be where You are too.

Signed in surrender,
Your Beloved.

🧡

Help is on the way

“When I fully trust in you, help is on the way.
I jump for joy and burst forth with ecstatic, passionate praise!
I will sing songs of what you mean to me!
You will be the inner strength of all your people,
the mighty protector of all,
the saving strength for all your anointed ones.
Keep protecting and cherishing your chosen ones;
in you they will never fall.
Like a shepherd going before us, keep leading us forward,
forever carrying us in your arms!”

(Psalm 28:7-9, The Passion Translation)

❤️

Music credits: Amanda Lindsey Cook

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