"I will not keep silent because of Zion, and I will not keep still because of Jerusalem, until her righteousness shines like a bright light and her salvation, like a flaming torch." (Isaiah 62:1)
This is the Will of God for my life – 2 fish & 5 loaves of bread.
Maybe its true spiritually, but God doesn’t demarcate between the natural and spiritual like we do. It’s all one realm for He permeates all things, and uses the natural only to testify to the things of the Spirit.
So as I hobbled into the kitchen for my dinner, Mom had kept such a beautiful tray on display, friends.
2 fish & 5 loaves of bread.
(+ some excellently rich chocolate pastry, egg and mushroom soup π°ππ³π)
Sooo good!
This is where I discern Truth – for this must be the Will of God for my life!
ππ
I had a gorgeous meal. For I not only relished what God had laid out in front of me, but also the Who it was that did.
I took many small bites as I ate today. I savoured the taste and took in the smell of this sumptuous meal. I looked up and thanked God. I saw Jesus face-to-face, smiled and then broke bread. We had communion.
Blessed, broken and given.
2 fish & 5 loaves of bread served to takeΒ me straight into the Heart of God.
And I kid you not. As I took time to commune with Jesus, the already sweet bread became that much sweeter and softer, and I knew that Heaven had just touched earth.
I learnt something more too.
I realised that sometimes all we have to do is be willing to open up our eyes to the miracle of the 2 fish & 5 loaves of bread that are right out in front of us. The tiny blessings, the slivers of grace ..
.. where we know He didn’t have to do it, but He did.
In the weeks leading upto this season, I have had the Lord connect to me at precisely 00:00 in the night. This encounter was initiated each night for three consecutive days in a row as I was in worship. I prayed for revelation, friends; and the Lord finally took me to the Cinderella story on the third night.
Awe struck at the King of glory speaking through not just the pages of Scripture, but even a fairy tale; I couldn’t possibly have kept this secret to myself. So here I am, spilling the beans.
What are You saying, Lord?
I found myself seeking Him. Obviously, I was both amused and curious.
The Lord soon after started showing me different aspects of the Cinderella story through Heaven’s perspective. And what has really been etched out in me as a result is the stunning revelation that the Church has crossed over into ‘The Cinderella Hour.’
The midnight hour.
What do I mean?
Let me give this a fair shot, friends.
The Transition and Transformation
Going over the Cinderella story, I realised that it was precisely at the midnight hour -the stroke of midnight – that she was compelled to leave behind the pretense and the facade of the counterfeit reality where she had morphed from the cinders’ girl that she really was into a beautiful princess to appear attractive to the Prince at the city ball. It was a reality that was fake because it was not her true reality.
Evaluating the sense of purification and refinement that the Church as the family of God has been going through, I knew the Lord had me onto something.
We dig. We discover.
So as I dove into the revelation that the Lord was leading me into, what dawned on me was the truth of our own journey of growth and metamorphosis in the seasons past.
What we have had to navigate our way through in the past 18 months or so has been anything but a cake walk. On the contrary, it has felt more like a steep incline, with dangers and toils strategically placed for us on every nook and cranny.
We have all as a result, found ourselves seeking and discovering God for ourselves. The sense of the pre-eminence of Christ in all things has escalated, and anything that would stand in the way has been torn down.
What sought to threaten us has time and time again, been thwarted by the intervening hand of God, and we have through it all, continued to see Him work all things together for our good and His great glory.
In a time where the sense of isolation has been pervasive, we have managed to find our sense of completion, wholeness and security in Christ only – our true home, our firm anchor and our safe refuge.
False constructs of identity imposed upon us by society, culture and the world have been demolished, thereby setting us free to enter into our truest identity as children of God.
Consequently, we have found ourselves transformed into the knowledge of what it really means to be sons and daughters of the King of glory. We have been compelled to trust Him at a whole new level, and He has not disappointed us.
Hope never will – Christ in us, the Hope of glory.
I write all this to say that what I believe the Lord is lovingly revealing is – us.
Yes.
The Revealing
I believe what God is doing is revealing His sons and daughters who having been through hell, fire and storm; have been found not only ‘still standing,’ but successfully having emerged as the ‘shining ones,’ taking on the likeness of their Father more and more, with each passing challenge.
Forgiveness, trust, surrender, humility, wisdom and love have all been tempered and forged into us and we have now hit ‘The Cinderella Hour.’
‘The Cinderella Hour’ is when we begin to truly behold and become the Lion and the Lamb. We know what the battle really is, and we fight accordingly. The Word of God informs us that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. Our family, friends, co-workers and siblings are notour enemy. The Enemy is our enemy, and therefore we are fighting for our brethren, not against them.
If anything at all, our loved ones are our mission.
The Mission
Our mission is to reach, to love and serve, and to impact our world with the passion of Christ and the love of God. And as Children of God being made into the likeness of His image, this revelation beckons yet another question.
How did the Lord love and serve when He walked the earth in the Person of Jesus?
Like I said earlier – we dig, we discover.
Digging deeper with a shovel in hand, I unearthed some beautiful truth about how He did it. Led into the passage of Scripture where Jesus washes his disciples’ feet, I was deeply touched by the tenderness of the Lord’s compassion and the source of his motivation.
“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciplesβ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.”
(John 13:3-5)
A revelation about the Truth of his identity as the Son of God whose Father had put all things under his power, and that he was returning to the realm of glory to be seated at the right hand of God, provoked but one response from Jesus –
He bent down to wash His disciples’ feet.
He washed them all, despite the knowledge that one would betray Him (Judas) and yet another would deny Him (Peter). He went the distance to show them the full extent of His love for them, and did not consider washing their feet too menial or lowly a task. Rather, I believe that Jesus saw it as His mission – to love and serve all whom He was sent to, and therefore, lead with the heart of a servant-king.
As the Sovereign King, He came as the Servant-King.
Pastor Bill Johnson says something that resonates very deeply with the sentiment hidden within this revelation,
“True significance in Christ is never tarnished by servanthood. Rather, it is revealed through servanthood.”
And somewhere I learn the same from Cinderella.
Diving into her story brought forth much gold, friends.
The Reward of the Faithful
Cinderella truly personifies a heart of servanthood during her stay with her evil step mother and step sisters. She remained submitted to the call of God on her life with a pure heart and a clean conscience.
As a result, Cinderella’s humility + obedience + endurance was richly rewarded by God who not only delivered her post the Cinderella hour, causing the Prince from the city ball to find her, locate her and marry her; but also exalted her to a position where Cinderella, on the other side of forgiveness, was instrumental in finding suitable grooms and partners for her step-sisters.
“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
(Matthew 23:12)
There is so much revelation here, friends. But one thing that really stood out to me was this:
The destiny of Cinderella was never thwarted because of seasons of hardship in her life. The opposite is true rather. For in the hands of God, her persecution only served as a platform for her promotion.
In fact, what the enemy meant to disqualify her became the very thing that God used to not only qualify her, but also promote her and enable her to enjoy the fruition of a hope-filled future.
How much more is that true for us then?
Reflecting back on the past 18 months and simultaneously preparing our hearts for what the Lord will do next is an interesting intersection indeed.
Though we may have been through more than we thought we even had the capacity to endure, we made it. God has brought us safely through. We are still standing and going farther with the Lord than we had originally aspired for. That’s Good News!
We have not come this far for nothing. Some of the greatest moves of God, I believe, are right out ahead of us. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, and we who are the Light of the world cannot be hidden – we must be revealed.
And this is where the story gets good.
For the unveiling of Jesus Christ will never be complete without the revealing of His Sons & Daughters. It’s what it means to be the family of God and the household of God. It’s what speaks to our legitimacy as His children. It’s what happens when both, the Bridegroom and the Bride are partnering and preparing together.
Clothed in the glory-garments of righteousness and fully immersed in the consciousness of our truest identity as Sons & Daughters of the King of glory with Heaven as our home, I believe, we have been positioned to be released into the earth to effectively love and serve those that we have been called to.
For such a time as this.
P.S:
I have been writing for nearly 2 years now friends, and this has been the first Prophetic Word that the Lord has given me to share. It is not only a personal revelation for me this season and beyond, but I do believe that it carries some very weighty revelations and truths for all of us as the Body of Christ. I do hope and pray that the Holy Spirit will give you insight as you journey on and not only light up your path, but also light up your world.
For you are the Light of the world and a city on a hill cannot be hidden.
With the advent of social media, I have noticed that comparison seems to be quite a game of the enemy to rob us not only of our joy, but also of our power.
We look at the look of one another’s lives, and seem to believe the lie that everyone has it better off than us. They are more talented, more gifted, more resourced, more qualified. Therefore, God can use them.
Nothing could be further from the Truth.
For Scripture tells us that who God calls, God qualifies. It is His responsibility to give us everything we need to fulfill our destiny – the right opportunities, connections and resources. And He is not only responsible, He is Faithful.
So what’s the issue?
I think it has to do with us having the right heart.
Broken vessels
God isn’t necessarily looking for the most skilled or qualified people to use for His glory. He can and does use all, but just because we feel that we don’t have all our ducks in a row, God can’t use us – is a lie.
For the Truth is that God works with broken vessels so that whatever is done in them, through them and around them testifies to the power of God at work in their lives, and therefore, brings Him all the glory.
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”
(2 Corinthians 4:7)
So what I am learing is that our power is not in our gift mix or our skill set. It is in fact, in the anointing of the Spirit of God on our lives.
For it is the anointing that breaks the yoke.
It is NOT our gifting or talent that breaks the yoke. It is NOT the size of our platform or the number of our followers that breaks the yoke. It is NOT the processing or the packaging of our resources that breaks the yoke.
Those things are of value, but only with the right perspective. For without the anointing of the Spirit of God, even those things would be void of power.
For the Truth is that it is only and only the ANOINTING of the Spirit of God that can break the yokes off of peoples’ lives and set the captives free. For wherever the Spiritof the Living God is, there is liberty.
(2 Corinthians 3:17)
There is therefore, no need for us to compare or contrast ourselves with others. No need to want what others have and in so doing, not only devalue ourselves, what our Father is able to do with our lives, but also dilute the anointing on our lives – the potency and the power of that which is being cultivated on the inside of us.
Comparison and presenting the counterfeit have always been a snare of the enemy to distract us from the Truth of our real worth, value and mission.
TRUTH: We are of matchless worth.
The Great Deception
Creating a counterfeit version of ourselves, when God is mad about us just the way we are can perhaps be best described as The Great Deception. It started way back in the Garden of Eden, and it still carries on.
Allow me to recount the events. The enemy of our souls found a way to deceive Eve into eating the forbidden fruit because she really did not have a sound enough revelation of who she was as an image bearer of God, in the first place. Tempting her to eat the forbidden fruit, the enemy’s dialogue with Eve is something I strongly encourage you to take note of.
“‘You will not certainly die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.'”
(Genesis 3:4, emphasis added)
Notice what he says.
He tries to convince Eve to eat the forbidden fruit so that her eyes would be opened and she would become like God.
But wait a minute.
Didn’t she know that she was made in the image of God and therefore, was already like God?
“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
(Genesis 1:27)
There was no need for Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in order to become like God because as His image bearer in the earth, she already was.
She had nothing to prove to anyone.
She was free.
God had designed her to be free, but she chose to relinquish that freedom by attaching the affections of her heart to the inferior.
The Great Deception – is what I call it.
The Good News
But the Good News for us is that we can learn from this so that we do not have to fall prey to his schemes and tactics.
Will he try to tempt us, deceive us and distract us into things like comparison and performance?
Absolutely.
Do we have authority over him though? Can we choose better?
Absolutely.
Friends, I am learning that God cannot bless a pretend version of who we are, but only the authentic, the original, the masterpiece of His design and make.
That is something He can work with, something He can anoint, something He can endorse, something He can sanctify, something He can wield for His glory.
This is where I believe God desires a right heart – one where the posture of the heart is surrendered before the Lord and the affections of the heart are anchored in the Lord.
We are not talking here of perfection or performance, but rather of the power and beauty of an authentic, submitted and intimate connection with the Father. We are talking of what God can and will do with a life that is whole-heartedly yielded to His will. He is not looking for our perfection, but rather for our availability.
He is longing for us to come to Him just the way we are and trust Him with our broken pieces. He invites us to move past the point of our pain and dare to believe Him to do what only He can do.
There is power in authenticity.
Whatever is authentic, will be anointed.
For when we embrace our authenticity and dare vulnerability, power is released through our lives because it carries the sound of freedom. And the Gospel says that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free and he whom the Son sets free?
Is Free indeed.
Unlocking our authenticity is unlocking our anointing as there is power in our freedom.
And the Good News is that we have permission to embrace it.
“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”
(James 5:16, NKJV)
I have slowly allowed myself, friends to develop the habit of praying instead of fretting.
My natural bent, I admit, would be to worry. But having walked with the Lord thus far has enabled me to realise that because He is with me, I have no reason to worry or be anxious anymore.
No legit reason whatesoever.
Now does that mean that I don’t get anxious?
Absolutely not. Of course, I do.
But I have no reason anymore to stay that way.
I can instead, pray.
Prayer, quite simply, is close connection and communion with God. It is a chance to engage in a relational dialogue with the Father and get real with Him. It is an opportunity to express my truest feelings and let myself flow in the beauty and the authenticity of the freedom that my relationship with Jesus inspires.
It is also a place where I am shaped and forged. For it is in the secret place where I get to yield my will to His and exchange His thoughts for mine. It is here that I know I can lay down the burden of the ‘performance anxiety’ that I am feeling and instead, let myself grow into the gift of the full acceptance of the Father. It is here that I am able to embrace my imperfections and my vulnerabilities simply because His strength is made perfect in my weakness.
It is also in prayer that I can transact and bridge the gap between what Jesus has died for me to receive and my current reality. Here faith is the currency of exchange as I seek to draw from what Jesus has already put in my account, and I need only ask, seek and knock till the door is opened for me.
Prayer is when Heaven touches earth and nothing is going to be the same any more. But isn’t that the reason why the Gospel is called ‘Good News?’
I reckon.
In prayer, I assume the responsibility of partnering effectively with the King of glory as well as tap into the delight of being a much loved Child of God. I rejoice in the Lord who has gone before me and call down things that are not as though they are. I learn what it is to walk by faith and not by sight.
I prophesy so that I can testify. I believe before I see. I trust even when I can’t understand.
Here it is that I meet my Creator face-to-face, skin-to-skin, bone-to-bone as I work out my salvation with awe and wonder.
Ok. Coming back to my tendency to fret.
Let me share a verse from Scripture, friends.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
(Philippians 4:6-7, ESV)
The Word of God here is talking of a beautiful barter exchange – an exchange of our yoke with His.
We give Him our yoke which is oh-so heavy and burdensome, and receive His in its place, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light. He offer Him our worries in prayer and cast all our cares on Him because He cares for us. Joyce Meyer says something quite profound,
“Cast your care, but not your responsibility.”
So what is our responsibility?
To pray, to trust and to partner.
To do what He shows us to do, and trust Him with the results. The process is our responsibility, the outcome is His.
And He is Faithful.
Takes the pressure off, doesn’t it?
So as a result, I am honestly doing much better than before, friends. When I find myself even starting to get anxious, I am learning to still myself in His Presence and pray instead.
I read a blog post by Ann Voskamp earlier this month, friends. And it has easily been one of the most heartfelt and impactful messages to me, this season.
September to me marks what I call a ‘bridge-building’ month. It is a point of convergence between the last few weeks of Summer this year and the ushering in of the Fall. It is that surreal season where the feel of warm cakes and the sensation of ice-cream dripping down my forearm, all seem to beautifully collide and peacefully co-exist.
This is where cup cakes, cookies and coffee beckon me and warm me up toward Fall, yet the precious scent of Summer continues to linger and entice.
Ok. Enough said.
Now back to the post.
Ann here gently encourages us to seize the last few weeks of Summer with passion and zeal. Needless to say, I was deeply moved and made up my heart to do just that. She also attaches a list in her post of some things that we can do in this special season to seize the flavour of Summer in what the year-end still has to offer, and squeeze the delight of childlike wonder as we commit to what I feel can best be described as – tiny miracles.
β the feel of cool, running water over my tippy toes
β having drippy butterscotch ice-cream
β applying pink guava shine lip balm with its fruity scent washing over me
β standing in my open balcony under the night sky, listening to the sound of water cascading down a stone wall at the entrance of our building
β listening to the sound of the world go by as I slow down and pray
β watching the sun set with Jesus and praising Him for painting the sky a different hue each time
β hearing the pitter-patter of gentle rain falling in the wee hours of the night
β eating fresh kiwi fruit from the market, and letting Jesus teach me to peel & cut it myself for the first time in my life!
Tiny miracles.
Getting myself ready for year-end thus, friends.
Though the thought of woollen socks and hot tea seem to soften me up for Fall, yet there remains honor to be paid to the last few weeks of Summer. And as September builds the bridge in between the seasons, I can’t help but ask,
βWhat is the value of your soul to God? Could your worth be defined by any amount of money? God doesnβt abandon or forget even the small sparrow he has made. How then could he forget or abandon you? What about the seemingly minor issues of your life? Do they matter to God? Of course they do! So you never need to worry, for you are more valuable to God than anything else in this world.”
(Luke 12:6-7, TPT)
Friends, today as I sat with Jesus over this passage of Scripture in my ‘Lectio Divina’ time (btw, if you have not yet been introduced to this practice, I highly recommend you googling some information on it, you won’t regret it, I promise!) I felt a tender, gentle reminder from Abba’s heart to soak in the Truth that I am hugely valued and eternally worthy in His sight. He looks at me with the deepest affection in His heart, a huge smile on His lips and a pure delight in His eyes.
Hmnn…
So I have made up my mind.
That that’s really the only thing that is going to define me.
The Love of my Father, my Heavenly Dad.
β€
A love so deep, profound and faithful that it will never leave me nor forsake me. It will never abandon me. It promises to be eternally true to me –
To be with me, to fight for me, to make a way for me.
Always and forever.
And should you let me speak some Truth over you today, He is the same for you too.
A doting, hands-on Father who is intimately involved in the details of your life.
You are His child, beloved – sought after, precious, valued, cared for, wanted, needed, esteemed, honored, fought for.
And though man may fail you, Jesus never will.
He calls you beautiful, bold, fearless, wise, strong, courageous.
He enfolds you within His loving embrace and calls you His own – His image bearer in the earth and His chosen one.
And no.
We don’t deserve it. We couldn’t have earned it.
But it is a grace-gift and the Bible says that Abba gives good gifts to His children.
π
So I’m learning to receive this uncomon grace, friend in a way so free and trusting that it lets my Heavenly Dad know –
“I love you right back, Abba. I love you right back.”
Times and seasons change, friends. And as they do, a lot remains unexplained. But what I am increasingly discovering is that we don’t necessarily need to have all the answers when we have Truth. Though it is very important for us to process our experiences with Jesus, the purpose of this relational dialogue is to bring our questions to Him, without questioning Him.
Without questioning the integrity of His nature, character and heart towards us.
Entering into the Presence of the Lord to receive the Truth of His narrative in any given experience or event that we have had to walk through remains vital, but we can learn to do so remaining anchored in the Truth of who He really, really is for us through it all.
God is Good, Faithful, Holy, Righteous and True.
He is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent and sovereign.
He embraces us with Perfect Love, guides us in Perfect Wisdom and fights for us with Perfect Power.
He reverses what the enemy meant for evil and uses it for our good and His great glory.
He heals us, sustains us, grows us and carries us all the days of our lives.
And He remains unchanging.
He is our anchor in the storm, firm and secure.
As a Perfect Father, He is completely faithful and absolutely trustworthy.
He is the alpha and the omega, leaves nothing unfinished and as He brings it all to completion, He also authors new beginnings that we really could never have expected.
So to be able to step into the greater things and new seasons that He has in store for us, I do believe it becomes imperative to see if we are carrying the baggage of unhealed pain and unresolved trauma from the weight and warfare of seasons past.
But as we do, I also realise that there will be things that remain unanswered and that’s ok.
We don’t really need to have all the answers, when we have Truth.
The Person of Jesus with us will always be more than enough.
He Himself is our peace.
So as we all prep up to step into the newness of life that the Lord has faithfully prepared for us, may we walk with humble hearts, sound minds and free spirits.
For where the Spirit of the Living God is, there is liberty.
Liberty to lay down our need to be right so that we can be free.