The good, acceptable and perfect Will of God

“Because what is pleasing to You satisfies my soul.”

I have been walking in the Truth of this revelation for some time now. In my walk with Christ, I’ve come to realize that whenever I try to bypass His process for my plans, I always end up miserable. I’ve also realized that even when I steer of course, He is always Faithful to woo me back into His arms and reveal the truth of the season I find myself in. I’ve come to realize that even though the season maybe painful, challenging or unexpected; the more we yield our will to His, the more we are able to experience the joy that comes from being in the center of His Will. I’ve realized that where God calls you, He sustains you. He is responsible for the outcome, our part is to walk it out by faith and in love.

When The Holy Spirit comes to make His dwelling in our midst, we are given a new nature. This new nature best manifests itself when led by the Spirit, and not flesh. This is when we can sense God birthing HIS desires in our hearts, in order that we may work in a loving and trusting partnership to see His Plans and Purposes burst forth in the Earth, and that too, in and through OUR lives! What a privilege!

It is precisely because of this co-laboring role that we have in The Kingdom that whenever we see a loved one healed, a child restored, a marriage redeemed, a business prosper, a family reunite as a result of our persistent prayers that we sense an indescribable joy in our souls, perhaps a reflection of what Heaven must be feeling : sheer delight!

However, this happens ONLY when we heed the call of God on our lives. If we go on to make plans that are for the sole purpose of our temporal comfort and convenience, overlooking the needs of those God has placed in our environment, will we ever be able to experience such soul satiety?

I’m guessing not.

It is thus, safe to surmise that when God asks us to walk in step with The Spirit, we can rest in the assurance that even though we don’t quite know what the future holds, we know who holds the future. We may not see the outcome, but we can choose to walk in obedience. We may not have it all figured out yet, but we can challenge ourselves to discover the joy along each step of the adventure we have signed up for. We may not be able to see the impact of those tiny things we do in secret, but Jesus said that what we do in secret will be rewarded by Our Father openly.

As I unearth my soul for more answers, I feel God impressing upon me that He is perhaps most pleased with faith expressing itself through love.

The Bible says that without faith, it is impossible to please God. For everything He will ever call us to, we will need to exercise faith in order to see it to fruition. We will need to press past our fears and insecurities, and choose to do it anyway. We will need to have more faith in what HE says than what the enemy does. We will need to believe that no matter how impossible our circumstances, we serve a God who says,

“…not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit.”

Something we can put our faith in?

But again. What good is faith if not coupled with love? 1 Corinthians 13 says,

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,but do not have love, I gain nothing.”

So I heard Him tenderly whisper,

“faith expressing itself through love.”

To put it simply, let love be the seat of motivation, and faith be the vehicle that sees the promise to full manifestation. Let us love without agendas or boundaries, trusting that when we do what we can do, He will ALWAYS do what ONLY He can do. Even when that child does not seem to turn around and that marriage seems stagnant, let us continue to press, pray and praise. Let it not affect how we love, because love is not what we do. It is who we are.

After all, agape love coupled with unrelenting faith is a lethal weapon in the hands of Our Master. I write all this because I know what it is when God asks you to believe Him for something you perhaps had no faith for. But as we allow His Spirit to diligently work within us, in time, we will surprise ourselves with our God-given ability to believe for signs, wonders and miracles we once deemed impossible. We will see His Goodness in the land of the living. We will witness and testify that with man, this is impossible but not with God. With God, all things are possible.

And because they are, we can freely abandon ourselves to His careful hand and give Him unrestrained access to birth and cultivate within us those desires that are good for us, and are pleasing to Him; desires which will require us to morph into a hybrid of pure love and undaunted faith; but having taken such form, can rest in the assurance that we have signed up to savor the taste of joy and satisfaction of soul that comes ONLY when we choose to pursue that which keeps us close to His Bosom.

Safe to confess then,

“Because what is pleasing to You satisfies my soul.”


Purpose

“When you encounter Jesus, your Purpose is not just redefined, it is revealed.”

When I first heard of Jesus, I was a person with my own plans and goals for the future, that quite honestly were very self-centred. My thought life focused solely on myself, with little to no thought on how my life was impacting those around and about me.

All I obsessed about was how could I make myself happy, prosperous and successful? While I believe there is nothing wrong with such ambitions, but with equal vehemence I also believe that the motivations for them make all the difference.

My motivation was one word – self.

But I thank God that He found me, pursued me, schooled me, shaped me, and loved me enough to course correct me. Through the course of several years, He has brought me to the infallibility of a sacred Bible verse,

“Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

This Word came to me with such magnitude that I knew He was doing a deeper work in me. As Christ followers, we know this talks of His crucifixion, but I think He is more interested in having us focus on the implications it has in our lives on a day-to-day basis.

Our roles in the world may come packaged as parents, poets, officials or attorneys. It doesn’t really matter as long as they are in alignment with our God-given gifts and talents. What matters is how we use them.

If we have truly encountered Christ and received even the faintest revelation of His Love for us, it will provoke but one response: how can we bring forth this love from the depths of our being in a way that it touches and transforms, heals and mends, repairs and restores the world around us with such gravity that it will never be the same again?

For such a response to bear fruit, I believe it needs two key things: the willingness to die to self and the resolve to put others first. It works simultaneously. The more we lay aside our own agendas, the more room we have for the people God has placed in our lives. The more we allow His Spirit to transform and conform us to His image, the easier it gets and the more natural the response. The more we engage, the more we transform.

And THAT, my friends, is our Purpose. Let me share from 1 John 3:16;

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.”

It is for Love that Christ died, and to carry out that love in our world today is our Purpose, a mandate carried out within the context of the roles we are given to play. Where there is discord, we sow peace. Where there is conflict, we build bridges. Where there is despair, we speak life. Where there is hurt, we call forth healing.

And we get to do this in and through the roles God has assigned us. As children, parents, professionals, artists, school teachers or home makers, we may feel that there is nothing spectacular about these so-called “ordinary” roles. But the Truth, I’ve discovered, is this : a life is glorious only to the extent Christ is revealed in and through it.

And the best way I know He wants to be revealed?

Is as Love.

Suffice to say, our roles may be ordinary but our Purpose is anything but.

Selah.

The Source

“Affirmations may come from outside, but instructions will always come from within.”

As I continue to walk with God, I have reached a point where I realize that what He has downloaded from Heaven is the Truth of the times and seasons I find myself in. The signs, wonders and miracles are wonderful confirmations, but I believe it is imperative to have received our instruction FIRST from Him through The Spirit He has put on the inside of us, and let the affirmations in our respective environments be just that. Affirmations that validate what we sense and eventually, come to a place of conviction about that which God has spoken.

We serve a God who always speaks to us a Word concerning our well being in every facet of our life; our health, our families, our work, our relationships, our finances, our marriages. This is why it is vital that when at times we find ourselves confused, dazed, puzzled, lost or even in transition; that we need to run, as Joyce Meyers says, to the Throne, and not the phone. Don’t get me wrong. I am a big believer in the power of Godly wisdom and counsel that comes through His chosen vessels in our lives, a belief that is, in fact, even a Biblical Truth. Let me share,

“For lack of guidance a nation falls, but many advisers make victory sure.”

Clearly, relationships are our greatest resource, and the right ones will always point us to The Source. Our God. We cannot substitute our relationship with God for anything else. It is in the context of a thriving relationship with Our Savior through the power of The Holy Spirit that we are positioned to receive instruction that has the potential to alter the course of the rest of our lives. His thoughts are higher, His ways are beyond understanding. So, when we do seek Him for a Word of direction, more often than not, it will be something which we may have overlooked, but can never hide from The One who loves us more than we can fathom. He may not always give us the instruction we are looking for, and on the contrary, He may just speak concerning that which you had no intentions to address. But God.

It’s just like Him to work through the issues of our heart, mind and soul in order that we may be well positioned to receive all that He has prepared for us.

It is these gaping holes in our lives which we tend to avoid that God engages us in; for when addressed, healed and restored; it is these very parameters which will prove to be bridges and not barriers to our Destiny, blessings not curses, life not death. In our natural strength, we may feel there is no way. THAT is why we need faith. Because Our God promises us something,

“I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”

Hence, we need not run away from heeding His instruction. Rather, let us pray for the courage to embrace a challenge that only a Father who knows the potential of His Child can pose.

I remember Oprah sharing on one of the episodes that cover things like if you could turn back time, what would you say to the younger version of you. Amongst many other things, what really hit home with me is the following disclosure,

“Manage to hold on to your belief in God, and more importantly, God’s belief in you.”

Yes. He trusts us. He loves us. He inspires us. He challenges us. He molds us. He holds us.

With such a Loving Father leading us on, cliched as it may sound, let prayer be our FIRST response, and not our last resort. Let Him speak to us, and let His Voice be the loudest, even though it’s usually a still, small whisper. Let His Word really be a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path. Let His Spirit sweep through our inmost being with such revelation knowledge that doubt, apprehension, and hesitation have to flee; leaving us empowered to follow through with what he has spoken in as undaunted a way as possible.

When thus positioned; we will realize that the signs, wonders and miracles that are being sent from The Heaven’s above are a confirmation to an instruction that we have received not from a resource, but from THE SOURCE.

Amen.

Constant One

“Our stories may be different, but Our God is the same.”

In our walk with Christ, it is easy to succumb to the temptation of comparing not just our lives, but also our testimonies. It is easy to see someone else’s prayer answered and miracle made manifest, and instead of rejoicing with them, fall prey to the lie of self pity. It is easy to get distracted by what is happening in the lives of others while God is calling us to focus on our own. It is easy to get carried away by the success of others while undermining our own. And if I may take it a step further? It is sometimes easier to believe for others as opposed to ourselves.

We know that God can do it. The question remains, “WILL He do it? And will He do it for me?”

I am here to tell you that the Promises of God in Christ Jesus are for whomsoever will. If He can do something for someone, He can very well do it for you. But this will also require us to examine our prayer life with the Truth contained in the following Bible verse,

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His Will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him.”

The question is simple. Is our will in alignment with His?

Are we believing for dreams and desires fulfilled only so we can enjoy a greater degree of comfort and convenience, or have we dared to dig deeper? Have we dared to ask for blessings so that WE can be a blessing? Have we dared to ask for tools and strategies to innovate and create that which will extend the reach of His Kingdom on The Earth, impacting multitudes upon multitudes? Have we dared to exercise the discipline needed to ask for divine alignments for divine assignments? Have we dared to pray for resources and relationships that will accomplish The Will of God in our lifetime?

Have we?

I know I always haven’t, but am open to learning and growing. I have been guilty of thinking that because someone was raised a particular way, in a specific environment, had a Master’s Degree, a consistent job, got the right spouse at the right time and so on and so forth; that God was able to move mightily. But I received course correction.

It is not that circumstances were lined up a certain way that God was able to do it. God was able to line up the circumstances in a way that would enable Him to do it.

My aha moment, no doubt.

Friends, God is not so much interested in our circumstances as He is in the spiritual condition of our hearts. I believe this calls for a check. Are we operating in faith or unbelief? Circumstances can crumble and change in a heartbeat, but the reason we usually have to walk it out is because He is testing to see whether we have our basics right. Are we elevating facts over Truth, and circumstances over God? Are we ruminating obsessively over questions like, “But how God?,” as opposed to decreeing and declaring The Truth that what is impossible with man is possible with God, and with God, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.

I have come to realize that it is on purpose that God does a different work in each and every one of our lives, which is why it is futile to compare. We are all uniquely made and wired in a way that cannot be replicated ever again. THIS is why God will expose us to testimonies of miracles around us, not to shame us, but to provoke us to the possibility of what I like to call, “better.” However, our journey to “better” will require us to seek Him in our own unique, personal, one-on-one, intimate relationship with Him. Seeking Him will not give us a formula or a magic recipe to make things happen, because something more miraculous is ordained, which is a tethering of our soul to Our Savior over our lust for favorable circumstances. Herein is proven the veracity of God’s instruction to us,

“Seek ye first The Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Suffice to say the more we seek Him, the more we find out who we truly are , a revelation of which can accurately shape our dreams and desires in accordance with His.

Rest assured that the outcome is in Trustworthy Hands.

So, the next time you see your friend receive a promotion at work, your co-worker get married or your neighbor’s child turn to God; rejoice with them and to thine own heart, simply say;

“Our stories maybe different, but Our God is the same.”



Identity

“No matter what you do, nothing will diminish my Love for you.”

Caught on a performance treadmill, He stilled me. Yes, He did. In the midst of all my endeavors, He whispered, “Rest in me.”

Ever since a little girl, I have been quite an achiever. It’s a proud statement, but I also humbly admit that the motivations were anything but right. Always wanting to be numero uno in everything, I invariably pushed myself too hard. Striving to excel in order that I may prove myself worthy of love was the seat of my inspiration. If you’ve been reading my blog posts for a bit, you may have realized that I have since encountered my Saving Grace – Jesus.

In my walk with Him, He has touched upon many areas of my life, always bringing greater healing, wholeness and restoration. One of these areas is Identity. It would be an understatement to say that in a world that constantly strives to build Identity, it was a soul saving Truth to realize that it is my relationship with my Savior that gives me Identity. Due to the atoning work of The Cross, I am forever loved, affirmed, chosen, valued and esteemed. I can never earn The Father’s Love. I have nothing to measure up to and nothing to prove anymore. I no longer have to work in order to gain acceptance, or win approval, or seek validation. I belong to The Great, “I Am,” and can therefore rest in who He calls me – Daughter.

The relational journey I have embarked upon since has left me forever transformed. Let me explain.

Because HE is Love, I am loved.

Because HE is a Savior, I am saved.

Because HE is a Redeemer, I am redeemed.

Because HE is a Healer, I am healed.

Because HE is forgiveness, I am forgiven.

Because HE is Freedom, I am set free.

The part that really wrecks me though is this. No matter what I do or don’t do, nothing can change His Love for me. This changes EVERYTHING. It changes the very reason why I do what I do. Instead of striving, I now seek and surrender. Instead of letting fear shape my decisions, I let hope in. Instead of allowing others’ opinions to affect me, I let The Word define me. Instead of hiding in shame, I now shine forth as the light He has called me to be. Instead of dwelling on past regrets, I now understand what Scripture means when it says,

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Simply put, I am learning to run, not away, but towards Him. Even on my darkest night and even in the deepest pit, He has loved me the same as He would if I were on the mountaintop. He is Constant, and in Him, there is no shadow of turning. He is the Father of Love.

Let us pray.

Father,

as I come to a close here, let it mark a new beginning in the lives of all Your Sons and Daughters. Let this serve as a reminder to our inner man that it is not the world that gives us our worth and value, it is You who does; and because it is You, we can live light and free, casting aside every weight and sin that would dare try and hinder the race set before us. I pray we learn to operate FROM Identity, and not for Identity. I pray that we experience more encounters with You and fresh revelations of Your Love that is pure refreshment to the soul, leaving us empowered to be agents that bring out the God colors in the world you have set us in.

I pray all this in the precious Name of Your Son, Jesus,

In Jesus’ Mighty Name,

Amen.


Why not?

“I don’t want to fill my life with my plans. I want You to fill my life with Your Purpose.”

Unless you come like a child, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Jesus said. I think, sometimes we get it a bit twisted. Let me explain.

At times, we may come to Him just like a child, presenting what “we” feel we need or want in order to live blessed lives. Some of our plans could have been concocted in our own strength using our own wisdom and strategy. I don’t know about you, but I sure am guilty of it! In His economy, I think this is more on the lines of being childish, not child-like. When The Bible says that He gives us the desires of His Heart, it doesn’t mean He is Santa Claus! It simply means that when we come into His Presence with child-like faith, wonder and awe; and present ourselves as clay abandoned in the trustworthy hands of The Potter, it gives Our Maker and Molder something to work with.

Trust.

It’s a valuable commodity in The Kingdom of God. It is something we all know the world may exploit, but not Our Father. Jesus is Someone who will NEVER force His Way into anyone’s life. He is a Gentleman. So, when we show that we truly trust Him and give Him what He desires the most, which is our hearts, guess what happens? He gives us the desires of His. It’s a beautiful Divine Exchange really.

So, what is the point of prayer, you may be tempted to ask?

I believe that is a loaded question I’m perhaps not fully qualified to answer. But what I DO know is this. Prayer is the very thing that enables us to align our will with His. Prayer is what gives us the strength to exchange our temporal plans for His Eternal Purposes. Prayer is when Our Father has access to our inmost being in order to birth dreams and desires that are good for us and pleasing to Him. Prayer, simply put, is when Heaven invades Earth.

Prayer is a seed we get to sow into our lives and into the lives that are connected to us, every single day. The Bible also talks of seed-time and harvest-time. So, when we are praying in accordance with His Will, with what He has spoken, with what He has revealed by His Spirit; the outcome is His responsibility and we can rest in the assurance that He who promised IS Faithful. In His Own Way and Timing, He will bring to pass that which HE has spoken. I once heard Bill Johnson say that when He speaks, He creates.

So, why settle for anything less than God’s best?

Why be content with risk free lives when He calls us to walk on water? Why be comfortable with harboring dreams that we can fulfill in the strength of our own resources and relationships, when He offers us the chance to believe for God-sized dreams that can ONLY be made manifest by relying on His Strength to produce that which brings Him all the Glory? Why be satisfied with the comfort of predictable circumstances when we can choose to embark upon the adventure that a life in Christ is supposed to look like?

Why?

Conversely, why not say a resounding, wholehearted, “YES!” to every thing that He wants to do in every season of our souls? Why not give Him every ounce of us and watch Him multiply that which in our own hands looks like nothing more than two fish and five loaves of bread, but in His, is more than sufficient? Why not believe for giants to be slayed, mountains to be moved, valleys to be scaled and ways to be made?

Why not, friends?

Why not?

I believe our hearts are already beginning to answer this one.

Amen.


The Seventh Day

“It is in the context of coming alive each day that we answer our Call.”

The magic is in the ordinary everyday. It is in waking up each day, taking in the sunshine, making your cup of coffee, reading The Bible, checking on your loved ones, and fulfilling those seemingly small, yet very significant tasks, that we begin to answer our Call. Our call to not just live, but live a Life More Abundant. What makes the difference is not “what” we do, rather “how” we do it. God loves a cheerful giver. The tasks that Our Maker has entrusted us with may seem mundane, but when added up, are monumental in their impact, not just in our lives, but also in the lives of those that are connected to us.

Breakthrough is imminent, when our daily walk with Him is consistent. However, what I do want to share is that let us live in a way that though we expect breakthroughs, we are not living FOR them. Rather, we ought to challenge ourselves to discover the joy of encountering His Presence in and through the process which will pave the way for the breakthrough. In doing so, we will find that we are actually living for HIM, seeking His Face, and not just His Hand.

I’m instantly reminded of the the way God breathed down the walls of Jericho. It is a perfect picture of how when we faithfully follow what He has spoken, even when it doesn’t make sense to our finite minds, that sets the stage for breakthroughs to come forth and miracles to manifest. But again, the magic lies in first doing the ordinary, which in this instance, looks a bit like taking laps around fortified walls of a city called Jericho for six days with armed men. Simply taking laps. Nothing spectacular or extraordinary about it. BUT, on the seventh day, look what happens;

“On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times.  The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!  The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord…”

“…When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city.  They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.”

God honors obedience. He could have given them permission to possess the land sooner than the seventh day. However, we serve a God who painstakingly labors with us, developing our spiritual muscles through the power of process. It is the process that positions us for the promise.

Friends, if you find yourselves taking laps around the same circumstances, the same prayers and the same situations; take heart! He is growing you and maturing you. He is teaching you to trust Him with every detail of your life and preparing you for expansion. He is anointing you for purposes specifically tailor made for you to fulfill. He is equipping you and empowering you. My only encouragement at this point is what The Word says,

“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart.”

You may be on your first day, your second day, or your sixth day; but as long as you keep taking those laps He is asking you to, guess what?

Your Seventh Day is just around the corner.

Selah.


The Promise

“The intangibles of life are always more important.”

Why?

Because before anything manifests in the natural, it is first conceived in The Spirit.

God-given hopes, dreams, aspirations and visions are just some of the things we can expect when endowed with the supreme gift of The Holy Spirit. A dream to see your family restored, your venture take flight, your life partner revealed, your child turn to God, your debt paid off, your ideal home discovered are just some of the things that seem to be awakened in our spirits, in and through our relationship with God. Since they have been given to us by Him, we can be fully assured that in His own timing and way, He will bring it to pass that which He has promised.

Begs the question.

In the timeline between the conception of a Holy Spirit inspired desire and the birthing thereof, what is our role as co-laborers with The Most High?

I believe it is to tap into the intangibles of life:

Faith that remains undaunted even when what we see with our natural eyes doesn’t seem to line up with what He has already spoken.

Hope that remains tethered to Eternity, the treasures He already has in store for us and the great cloud of witnesses that are constantly cheering us on.

Love that seems to never dry up, remains unyielding in its reach ad effective in its impact.

Courage that remains persistent and enables us to dig our heels in, even in the face of overwhelming odds.

Perseverance that remains inexhaustible because it it is anchored to promises that have and never will fail.

Joy that runs like a stream through our spirit even when life is a bit like a squally sea.

Peace that surpasses all understanding because we know we serve Someone who even slept in the midst of a raging storm.

Having mentioned only some, I believe that the backing of Heaven’s resources on our lives is of such an astounding magnitude that no blog post, no book, no manual can do justice to. Since we have such access to the abundance of His riches in Glory by Christ Jesus, the only thing that remains is to echo what He has already encouraged us with,

“Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.”

Having birthed which?

Will lead to yet another.

Because WE, are Children of Promise.

Amen.

The need of the hour

“It’s not about having the answers. It’s about having the love.”

When we have tasted of God’s Love, it’s only very natural to want to share it with the ones that God has placed in our lives. We want them to know that there is a Higher Name who is the Way, the Truth, the Life. There is a Person who is waiting with open arms, willing to wipe our slate clean, sort through our messes and take us Home.

But what I have realized is this. We can share and preach, but what really helps us to reach is the power of love, the kind of love that The Father has bestowed upon us, the kind of love that accepts people JUST for who they are, the kind of love that never gives up. As I write, I’m reminded of how The Word elucidates ever so eloquently,

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.Love never fails.”

Love is not a fuzzy feeling nor a fleeting emotion. Love is a lifestyle that is threaded into the very fabric of our being. It is our response to The Father whose love never quits and remains relentless in its pursuit of our hearts. It is a choice we get to make every single day.

I still remember how during one of my moments with The Lord, He impressed upon me a simple truth that I passionately want to cling to, all the days of my life. It’s very simple really,

“Love people. It will give them the faith to believe.”

This statement hit home and rattled the rib cage of my soul. As the Word says, we can have the faith that moves mountains, but if we have not love, we have nothing at all.

So true.

I have since committed to surrendering to the power of love. Still a student, I often stumble but thank God who promises us,

“He that has begun a good work in us shall complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

God can reach whoever He wants to reach, whenever He chooses to do so; but He burns for us to partner with Him in this journey so that we, ourselves, can transform and become love, thereby morphing into a potent instrument to affect those in the blast radius of our love with a message that can alter the trajectory of their Destiny. The obedience is our part, but the outcome and timing is The Father’s prerogative. What we do in the meanwhile brings to memory the wise words of Bill Johnson,

“There’s only one thing more important than the miracle. That’s your faithfulness in the midst of mystery.”

Friends, we are all living in a giant neighborhood called Earth. What our world needs to see more than anything else is an authentic display of love that is both, tenacious and tender; tenacious in the pursuit yet tender in the way. We are bound to encounter obstacles and disappointment on this journey for people aren’t perfect anymore than we, ourselves are. Circumstances may seem to suggest otherwise, but our steadfast love will sustain that which has already been set in motion.

As I hasten to a close, let me part with the undaunted words of Christine Caine,

“If people can feel our love, they will hear our words.”

Can I get an Amen?

A call

“I’m a response of Love, and to Love.”

God loves me and I love God. It’s the story of the Gospel that we are all called to live. I know He loves me because He not only created me and breathed his very life into me, but because He even gave me Jesus. Yes. He asked His one and only Son to die a gruesome death on The Cross as an atoning sacrifice of my sin and shame in order that I may have a fresh start at life, a hope for the future and life everlasting with my Father in Heaven once I’ve done my time here on Earth.

And so can you.

Our Heavenly Father does not condemn us, rather He delights in us. In all of us and every piece of us. Yes, even those pieces that you wished didn’t exist or were different. It was all a part of His Divine Plan to make you into the work of art, the masterpiece, the Designer’s Original that you are.

Allow me to reiterate that which we are all familiar with, John 3:16:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

This is pure, unadulterated, agape Love. A Love that has been given to us with no strings attached. No conditions. No prerequisites . No performance. The question then is:

What is our response to this one-of-a-kind Love?

Our only possible response can be to love Him, in turn, with all our mind, heart, soul and strength; which organically gives birth to and develops in us the capacity to even love others AS ourselves. Notice that His commandments to us and our response to Him overlap. I believe with all my heart that this is yet ANOTHER Revelation of His Love. His Love is so Divine that He will NEVER ask us to do that which he hasn’t graced us for. When He asks us to love Him, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, He has already laid the foundations to enable us to do that, so much so that it becomes a natural, spontaneous response.

From Love, to Love.

Amen.