Sweet, precious Jesus.

Sweet, precious Jesus.

God tells us that through faith and patience, we inherit His promises. And what I have realized is simple.

Just as faith works by love, patience is closely tied to trust. The more we trust in The One who has given us His Word, the more capacity we will have to be patient in the process.

For it is in the process that God wants to develop and change us. He starts to cultivate patience as a fruit of The Holy Spirit because His primary purpose in our lives is to make us more like Christ. As we yield to the process, we start to understand that God’s ways and thoughts are truly higher. For the more we become like our sweet, precious Jesus, the more we will transform into people that are well able to not only inherit, but also inhabit the promises of our sweet, precious Jesus.

In His life here on Earth, Jesus was tried and tested by several things and several people in several ways. But He remained patient through it all, because He knew His purpose and was determined to not let anything nor anyone interfere with it. He knew fully well the joy that was set before Him; a joy that was both, sweet and precious.

That would mean us.

In moments of doubt, simply getting a grip on this Truth sets us free. It sets us free to believe and trust again, except that this time? It has only gone deeper.

A deep trust in the unchanging and unfailing faithfulness of God that is grounded in His loving kindness towards us enlarges our capacity to remain patient in the process. We learn things about our sweet, precious Jesus who is also our Potter. He loves to mold the sweet, precious clay in His hands to take it not just from one degree of glory to another, but also from one dimension to the next.

For we are the clay that He carefully sculpts through His Love in order to turn us into an astonishing masterpiece. For any piece of sculpture to be fully formed, I imagine it has to undergo the process of being spun on the potter’s wheel. Of course, it isn’t the most comfortable thing, but the end result is always worth it.

And perhaps somewhere I imagine, so it is with us.

But maybe there is a catch.

For I believe our sweet, precious Jesus is The Potter who cultivates the fruit of patience within us only so we are comfortable in the process of waiting upon Him to complete that which He has begun. We learn that He is trustworthy, and He knows what He is doing. He calls Himself the alpha and the omega. But He is also present with us every step of the way and fills the gap in between, and because He does? We can be patient.

When He laid this verse on my heart a few days back, I googled the meaning of, “sweet,” and here’s what I found:

Delightful.

The process of developing patience in the process can be painful, but the outcome is always delightful. It is delightful, from the inside out. Not only have we grown in the stature of those He calls His own, but also thrived in the process towards the culmination, which in any case, is delightful. It is delightful not only because it is a prayer answered, a promise manifested or a prophecy fulfilled; it is delightful because we too have grown. We are no longer who we used to be, but have transformed beautifully. We are ready and prepared to step into the fullness of what He had intended all along, but with a sensitivity towards The Hand that has been faithfully at work shaping us all along.

Sweet, precious Jesus.

More sweet and more precious than the process or the promise, for this is a Person whose very Presence is so sweet and so precious that words fail me.

For I know that even when words fail me, He won’t.

After all, He is our Sweet, Precious Jesus.

Selah.

Hello Freedom.

I see a young girl here. Full of a life force she can’t explain that compels her to leave the shadows behind and run towards the sunshine that beckons her to come forth. With the grace of a gazelle, she runs with the wind. She runs wholeheartedly, knowing that what lies ahead of her is far greater than what lies behind her. The Light that crowns her head knows her by name, and invites her to embrace the beauty of the green, grassy meadows that await her. It’s an invitation she lovingly accepts and with a freedom in her soul she can’t explain, she runs.

She knows that what she is running towards is unknown, but growth is more important than comfort. She unflinchingly exchanges the safety of the familiar with the adventure of the new. The new she knows may be uncharted, but is worth it. For The Light that crowns her head has told her so.

So she believes.

She believes because The Light that crowns her head is also The Love that surrounds her. He surrounds her with a fury that no darkness can penetrate. The promises He makes nothing can terminate. He goes before and He stands behind. He stands alone, so she never ever has too.

Together, they run.

They run towards lush, green pastures. Here she discovers more. She sees how tenderly this Love she believes in cares for His sheep. She takes to heart as she notices how He willingly lays down His life for His sheep in order that they may find theirs. As she gazes upon the beauty of this Love, she knows she has been forever changed.

Changed so radically that she knows she will never be the same again.

The Love she has encountered has created in her heart the capacity to say a full, “Yes,” to a journey that is sure to come with its fair share of ups and downs, but she remains undaunted. Simply because she knows beyond a shadow of doubt that The Love she runs with is stronger than anything she will ever face.

So, they continue to run together.

And as they do, she discovers more.

She discovers that this Love teaches her to move like the water and the wind. Fluid and free flowing. Whether its stones, pebbles, mountains or rocks; water easily makes its way over them or around them. An element that moves so swiftly that nothing can stop it is thus, rendered immovable. Much the same with the wind that blows with such an extravagant freedom that nothing can contain it.

And so it is with this Love that she has experienced. Nothing can stop Him, and nothing can move Him. Except our hearts. Our hearts, she understands, move Him and so she decides to joyfully give hers away.

Give it away to the Love that never gives way.

As this dawns upon her, she begins to want to become more like Him. This is where the journey begins to touch depths that she could have never even imagined nor hoped. Recalling how this Love gladly lays His life down for His sheep, she receives a revelation that moves the very core of her being. For it is evident that for His sheep to find their lives in the life that He chose to lay, He too had to first say a full, “Yes.”

A full,”Yes” to being reduced to love, and a “Yes” so full that it prompts ours too.

For as we journey with Love, we too will reach milestones where the depths of His sacrifice for us and commitment towards us touch us so deeply that we simply say, “Yes.”

Yes, to being reduced to love which leaves us more full and free than ever. More full of peace. More full of patience. More full of humility. More full of honor. More full of compassion. More full of understanding. More full of quiet strength. More full of mercy. More full of grace. More full of love as a result of being reduced to it.

It’s a paradox one can’t explain, but only experience.

An experience that leaves us so free that it borders on fantasy.

For that’s what The Cross exemplifies,

Freedom.

Having nailed the law to The Cross, Jesus has left us with only one law which is the law of love against which there is no law. Love that encases the majesty of joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control is a love that nothing can stand against, and because nothing can?

We are truly free.

So shall we run?

Wisdom whispers

I clicked this piece of majesty last evening. As marvellous as it is as a part of God’s wonderful creation, it’s branches are too thin.

That may be majesty for the tree, but it’s a revelation for me,

“Don’t spread yourself too thin.”

As a new creation in Christ, we are called to abide in Him as branches that abide in the vine. He is the vine, and we are the branches. He promises that whoever abides in Him, bears much fruit. The beauty is that it happens so organically and naturally that we seldom realise all that we have become in Him through His Spirit, and it takes The Lord to bring tender moments like these to press pause and ponder.

Ponder in wonder as we allow Him to open our eyes to the height and depth, the length and width that we’ve travelled in Him, with Him and through Him.

The broad open space in the Spirit where we explore His Heart and begin to find ourselves, all over again. It’s a space of abiding in Him where when we learn to sit at His feet; He goes to work to make us whole again, alive again, spirited again.

This natural tree may have branches that are thin yet eye catching. But as oaks of righteousness that He calls us to be, I do think it’s important to carve out time and space with Him where He takes us beyond space and time. He gives us eyes to see and ears to hear. He releases healing, wisdom, love, grace and strength. He broadens our vision for what is possible and then gently instills within us the faith to believe Him for it.

But it all happens when we can make peace with a simple yet profound word of wisdom,

“Don’t spread yourself too thin.”

We all have things to do, errands to run and dreams to accomplish. But what if it all boils down to the truth enveloped in the story of Mary and Martha when Jesus came visiting. Martha was worried with all the preparations, Mary just sat at His feet. Something Jesus affirmed saying that Mary had chosen the better portion, a portion that shall not be taken from her.

Jesus is our portion too. We need Him everyday to help us, uphold us, strengthen us, guide us and above all else, love us. When we sit at His feet, the jewels He imparts are so expansive that either the temporal things of this world seamlessly fall into place, or we do. And as we do, we find ourselves more able to steer ourselves through these temporal things in a manner that’s eternally sacred.

Why?

Because we have chosen The Better Portion too who makes all things better and perhaps in His own way whispers to us at times we least expect to hear from Him,

“Don’t spread yourself too thin.”

Selah.

An anchored adventure

I’ve learned that every scenario of life is different. It’s comes with a different set of situations and circumstances that are fashioned to propel us forward in our relational walk with The Lord. For it’s in the context of our journey with Him that true and lasting transformation occurs.

It occurs deep down on the inside of us where the Spirit of God gently touches upon the areas where God wants to upgrade our Identity in Him, making us more and more like the image of His Son,

Jesus.

One of the best descriptions of our journey with The Lord that I have had the joy of dwelling upon is as follows,

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from The Lord, who is the Spirit.”

(2 Corinthians 3:18, The Passion Translation)

We aren’t just being transformed, we are being transfigured. We are learning to partner with the person of  The Holy Spirit as He cultivates the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, within us. In every time frame, He touches upon the area that we need an upgrade in, to not only become more like our Maker, but as a result, even learn to live above the state of our situations and circumstances as surely as Christ did.

“God is not peripheral to the world. The world is peripheral to God.”

Consequently, as The Holy Spirit starts to work within us to cultivate one area at a time, all our situations and circumstances now begin to work in our favour. Abiding in Christ, we are no longer under the weight of them, for we are gliding far above them. After all, that’s what He promised us,

A life above and not beneath.

Which is why our souls hang on every word He says.

For the truth is that this life is one big grand adventure, and any adventure comes with a corresponding promise of uncertainty. However, what anchors us in the midst of this uncertainty is the absolute certainty of who God is for us, and who we are becoming as a result of being in a thriving relationship with Him.

It’s this adventure that compels us to engage with The Father’s Heart through a relational dialogue, a dialogue that downloads revelation from the Heavens above and through His Spirit, ensures that revelation is transformed into reality in order that we may not only transform but transfigure, from one degree of glory to another.

The image that The Lord led me to use for this post is one that is a pristine picture of a calm, placid sea. The horizon is clear and the sky is blue. The man with the oar looks ready for action, yet stilled by the majesty of the beauty around him.

Life in the Spirit, I imagine is much the same. The spiritual condition of our hearts when fixed on Jesus remains peaceful because He is the Prince of Peace. His peace is not because of circumstances, but despite circumstances. His peace is a gift freely given and simultaneously, a fruit that we can allow The Holy Spirit to cultivate within us, regardless of circumstances; and sometimes, because of them. The horizon in the natural can seem cloudy, but when viewed through the lens of the promises that God gives us, that same horizon now looks promising because our vision has become aligned with His and His vision is never cloudy. Its a clear and confident, “Yes” and “Amen” to the new scenery that His promise has just revealed. The skies above may look overcast, but our souls don’t have to be downcast.

Why?

Because they hang on every word He says and every promise He makes.

His promise is like an oar in our hands. Like the man in the picture above, we too hold on to it and before we start to run with it, allowing ourselves to be stilled by the majesty of the beauty of The Love that surrounds us is something we can learn from the man that I’ve talked about so much.

For in my experience, the journey between where we are now and where His promise beckons us is a space where our souls hang on every word He says and can most assuredly rest in The Love that is here to stay. His word is a sure path from the “here and now” to the “then and there.” It is given to us to empower us and equip us and invite us into a walk where when wholeheartedly partnered with, we have said, “Yes” to an adventure that will not only see us receive word upon word as rivers of living water that freely flow from His Heart to ours, eventually resulting in an extravagant confluence where we see the fulfillment of the promise that He spoke over our lives, but was made possible only because we were first humble enough to become obedient to every word He uttered and wise enough to rest in The Love that spoke the word in the first place.

The Love that says He will never leave us nor forsake us. The Love that declares that nothing can separate us from Him. The Love that goes before and stands behind. The Love that moves mountains and splits seas wide open. The Love that left Heaven behind so we could have Heaven in our midst. The Love that perhaps even a million different words written over a million light years will never be captured within, for He is way beyond.

Way beyond and still within.

Still within to help us transform and transfigure, navigate and traverse, steer and sail, fly and soar.

But before we do, He ensures that His sheep know His voice, run with His word and rest in His Love.

For The Love that we rest in will ensure that the rest is history, altering the very course of our Destiny.

All to the praise of His glory!

🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻

The wait.

“Here’s what I’ve learned through it all:
Don’t give up; don’t be impatient;
be entwined as one with the Lord.
Be brave and courageous, and never lose hope.
Yes, keep on waiting—for he will never disappoint you!”

(Psalm 27:14, The Passion Translation)

How we wait is perhaps as important as what we are waiting upon The Lord for. For waiting upon The Lord is a phase that is purely transitional.

It’s a transit point between where we once were and where we are now headed. It requires a space within us that God cultivates because He is in the business of preparing us for what He has prepared for us. What appears to be a delay is in fact, only a vehicle to affirm us of the truth that as we wait, our answers are only accruing interest. And when He does intervene with a precision probably best described as surgical, we will know what the wait was really all about. We will see for ourselves that if we could turn back time, we wouldn’t want to. Because His timing is just that perfect.

His timing is perfect because His ways that are higher than ours?

Are perfect.

And enshrined within our willingness to wait in obedience to the ways of The Lord is the pristine sound of trust.

I often say that He is a Good Good Father. I say it because He is. And in His goodness, He wants His Children to be spiritually mature enough to trust the process of change and development that is the very purpose behind the wait.

For the wait is where He establishes His nature and character in our lives, which most naturally enables us to express our trust in His naure and character, in turn. Because the truth is that where He is taking us is a place that only a sound enough revelation of who HE is, will sustain us, grow us and prosper us.

One of the things that I have heard Graham Cooke say and have taken to heart is the revelation that as we walk hand-in-hand with The Lord, there is nothing that we will walk through together which will overwhelm us simply because HE is so much bigger. So it’s okay for us to be small because HE is so big.

He knows what lies ahead and goes ahead of us to prepare the way for the joy of a manifested promise. But what if He really is more interested in teaching and enabling us to even walk with joy towards a most joyful outcome?

A joy that stems from both, the simplicity and sanctity of believing.

Believing in the faithfulness of The One who promised and believing in His power to accomplish that which He promised.

“For no word from God will ever fail.”

(Luke 1:37, NIV)

Reason enough to wait. And wait well.

Wait well as He waits upon us too.

He too waits upon us as He patiently brings us to the point of believing. He works with unmatched patience with us to not only believe the infallibility of what He has spoken to us, but even train us to travel with the peace and joy of believing.

If that’s not perseverance, I don’t know what is.

As a people being transformed and conformed to His image, we too are graced to persevere. Persevere with Him as surely as He perseveres with us. For Love always perseveres, Scripture tells us. And as a response of love to Love, it is only natural to find ourselves saying,

“You’ll change the times and seasons, but as You do, grant me the grace to persevere with You.”

Selah.

The Narrow Way

This noon found me sitting in the sun, reading from Ephesians 1. I was perhaps mid sentence somewhere when I found myself saying,

“Help me believe in You as surely as You believe in me.”

What I find absolutely gorgeous about Jesus is that He believes in us even when we don’t. He trusts us even when we don’t. He walks with us even when we don’t. He doesn’t ever give up. He doesn’t know how to. Worship leader, Kristene DiMarco says it well,

“Even when our hearts are faithless, You’re Faithful.”

I think that beautifully encapsulates the heart of The One whom we have put our hope in. He knows that He asks us to believe Him for the outrageous like only a Good Good Father does because He is confident in His ability to deliver. More often than not, it is us who need to be lovingly brought to the place where we cast every doubt or unbelief aside, and simply say,

“I believe.”

Those two simple words when uttered from the very depths of our hearts move that of The Father. He is very certain about His intentions towards us as those He cherishes at all times, and equally certain about His ability to bring those intentions to pass at the right time and in the right way. My experience tells me that the way He finds right is what we call, “the narrow way.”

For it’s in the narrow way that He brings us closer to His bosom. It’s in the narrow way that there are less distractions and more downloads. It’s in the narrow way that our eyes are on Him because His eyes already are. It’s in the narrow way that our hearts feel His. It’s in the narrow way we discover more of who He is and more of who we are in Him. It’s in the narrow way that He unshackles us and sets us free.

And it’s in the narrow way that we realise, as Christine Caine says, “what is impossible with man is possible with God and with God, all things are possible.”

God, who raised Christ Jesus from the grave and seated him at His right hand, is our Good Good Father. I strongly believe that the work of God is prompted by His Love, and it is a revelation of this Love that gives us the faith to believe.

Believe beyond borders.

For His Love for us that compelled Him to exert His Strength and raise Jesus from the dead is the very same Love that is present with us even today.

That same Love will always compel Him to move in incomprehensible ways on our behalf to fulfil His plans and purposes in and through our lives.

Plans and purposes that are revealed in, “the narrow way.”

This Way, though narrow, has been carved out for us to not just broaden our horizons, strengthen our wings but even give us the courage to soar.

For we were made to soar.

Soar into the great unknown – the great blue skies that beckon us to come forth and take flight. Whether cloudy or clear, we are not daunted anymore simply because the narrow way has prepared us to navigate well. With the vision of an eagle who flies majestically above the storm, we begin to realise just how far we have come.

All because we chose with simple, child like trust to believe in the trustworthiness of, “The Narrow Way,” who not only is The Way to the heart of our Good Good Father, but also promises to make a way for us, every time that we need Him to.

All we need to do is simply believe.

💯➕💯

Friends, this is where I have, by His Grace, reached a milestone in what began as a tiny corner to share my story and journey with Jesus. Having made 200 posts, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for each of you who have made it not only possible, but also pleasurable. Every ounce of encouragement and blessing I have received from you makes a difference to me. It matters and always will.

So, this Valentine’s Day, I’m sending much Love and Light your way because at the end of the day, when it’s all said and done, it is this Love and Light which truly matters to us and always will.

“THANK YOU!”
❤️

Valentine’s Day✨

We often place quite an emphasis on loving people well. I think that’s fantastic. It’s brilliant. It’s what the world needs.

But we can love others only to the extent that we first, have received the kind of Love that is so pure and so unconditional that it leaves our hearts more softened than ever before, our souls more renewed and our minds at peace. Fully affirmed that there is nothing we can do that will make Him love us more, and there is nothing we can do that can make Him love us less is a truth that once settled deep down on the inside of us radically changes us.

It changes the way we view Him. It changes the way we view ourselves. It changes the way we view our world.

For His Love is based on who HE is, not on who we are. This is what sets us free from the need to perform to be accepted or validated. For we are perfectly accepted in Him. We are treasured. We are precious. We are honoured in His eyes.

As we begin to experience the layers of this Love on a daily basis, our most organic response would be to love ourselves just the way He does for He calls us, “fearfully and wonderfully made.”

Yes.

That’s who we are.

With all of our kinks, quirks, flaws and idiosyncrasies – if that is who He says we are, then it settles it.

Doesn’t it?

And it settles us. It settles us so beautifully that slowly we find ourselves moved in our hearts to want to spread gentle glimmers of such love to those that are around us.

And that changes everything.

It speaks to our loved ones about their intrinsic worth and value too. It speaks to them that they are valued and cherished just the way they are. It speaks to them that they matter.

And if you really think about it, isn’t that what it’s all about?

This Valentine’s Day, I hope and pray that we foremost learn to receive the Love of God till it seeps into the deepest crevices of our souls. I hope and pray that His Love will renew the way we love ourselves. I hope and pray that as we love ourselves, we will find ourselves morph into more loving versions of ourselves that spill over into the lives of those that God has placed us in the midst of.

Because His Love changes everything.

Slowly, but surely.

Happy Valentine’s Day, friends!

❤️✨