"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)
I can’t help but think about how the coming month of September builds a bridge allowing us to now transition into fall.
The year thus far has been challenging, I admit. But it has also been one that has made me more alive than I ever have been. It has been marked by moments that have called me higher and taken me deeper than I could have imagined. It has not been easy, but it has been worth it.
As I head into what I would like to call a ‘bridge-building’ month, I can’t help but find myself in the tussle between what has been and what will be.
Between the black and white, there are always shades of grey.
As I ponder this, I am reminded that our souls have a tendency to believe that because it has always been a certain way, that’s the only way there is.
But I am discovering that nothing could be further from the Truth.
God is always doing a new thing. Though the scenary may not yet look like what He promised, the Good News is that it doesn’t look like what it did in the seasons past either.
There has been growth, there has been transformation, and there has been refining.
God has been on the move, friends.
In us. Through us. All around us.
But to be able to see clearly, sometimes we just have to be willing to spend some time with Jesus.
Some alone time with Him always helps us to unwind from the pain of what once was so that we have enough space and room in us to receive the new wine that He wants to pour out and pour in.
Being the gentleman that He is, I hear the Lord inviting us to come close. Rapping ever so gently on the door of our hearts and awaiting our response.
So shall we gear up, friend?
Shall we get ready to receive the outpouring of His Spirit?
Shall we leave behind the mess of seasons past so we can lay hold of the prize for which Jesus laid a hold of us?
Shall we lift our hearts in praise and thanksgiving, and let the King of glory enter in?
Shall we let Jesus cleanse our perspective to adjust the way we view God, ourselves and the world around us?
Shall we pour ourselves a cup of coffee as the Lord prepares a table for us and beckons us to dine full?
Shall we, friend?
I don’t know about you, but I love the feel of fall around this time. I love the sense of transition towards the latter part of the year where we can look forward to beautiful things like Advent and Christmas.
But I also know the value of transitioning well. And the one GPS that never fails me is Jesus.
He is my GPS.
He is the God who goes before me and is already sitting in my tomorrows. He knows the path ahead and meets me in the present moment with a Word.
Dropped from His heart into mine.
I call this my ‘heart-to-heart’ with the Lord.
For this is where I get to meet my Father and my Friend. This is where I experience His Love and His Mercy. This is where I enjoy sweet communion and true friendship. This is where I know that He has good plans for my future and good things in store for me.
And not just good things, but greater things.
“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”
(John 14:12, emphasis added)
So as I get ready to take my cup of cappaccino in hand, I lovingly invite you too, friend. I invite you to join me this ‘bridge-building’ month so that as we together get together with Jesus, we can learn to co-operate with the season at hand to do just that –
Build bridges.
With the bricks of love, the mortar of grace and the blocks of forbearance.
In our strength?
No.
But in His?
Yes.
So as I prepare my heart to transition in this time, I know that I may not know a lot but one thing I do know is this. In the kingdom of God, the greater things always begin with doing the next right thing.
For tiny steps of faith in the hands of Jesus always amount to gigantic leaps.
We sit. We stand. We run.
And sometimes, it all starts with a cup of coffee.
My next right thing.
Hand-in-hand with my Saviour, I wait upon Him to lay out the table.
Funnily juxtaposed with the sunny disposition of this design is the mysterious revelation that accompanies it at a time that I candidly confess, was anything but sunny.
If anything at all, it has been fiery.
A fiery trial, some would say.
Going through something like this is not something I would opt for, but when the enemy does wage war, I gang up with Jesus.
Because He wins every battle he ever wages.
So at the very onset of this trial, I prayed to the Lord, friends; and asked Him to not only get me through the string of the impossible situations that seemingly stood like giants before me that came up overnight, but also bring me out with greater spiritual fruit than I had when I went in.
It’s literally how the Lord makes the devil pay.
So I decided to cash in on this Truth.
Today I write to you as a child of God with concrete evidence in her hands that God is Good, God does Good and God works all things together for our good and His great glory.
As He has safely brought me through this trial, friends; I have had to understand the difference between what I felt and what I knew to be Truth at another level.
I will explain as we go on.
With a high value for the revelation-light of Truth, friends; I love it when the Lord makes a wonderful invitation for us to seek Him throughout the pages of Scripture, and one of my most deeply personal favorite verses is thus,
“He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him.”
(Daniel 2:22)
So when everything came up under siege overnight, I mentally scanned the Truth thatthe Lord had already deposited in my spirit.
“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.”
(Romans 8:28)
If this is true and it is, so the only valid question to ask was,
If this is what the enemy has done, Lord; then how do You want to redefine this narrative according to Your Promise of Romans 8:28?
How will You work all this together for my good and Your glory?
I heard the Lord say,
“With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
(Matthew 19:26)
Each time that I doubted the Lord during my trek through this trial, the Holy Spirit would gently remind me of this Truth from Matthew 19:26.
I tried to remember the memorial stones that the Lord enabled me to pick up especially this year. Calling to mind testimonies of the Lord’s faithfulness is a sure fire way to stir up faith at a time when little else is needed.
As I would do this along with confessing the Promises of the Lord over my life, I found myself in battle. On the one hand, I knew God was Faithful. He saw me through then, He will see me through now.
But it was also at this precise juncture that the enemy tried to intimidate me with the size of the giant in front of me. I have slain giants before with the Lord, but this one?
I suddenly wasn’t too sure.
On a particularly anxious day, I stumbled over a podcast from Christine Caine. She said something that I felt was straight from the heart of God. I made a note of it. The next day, the message from the Lord’s heart again caught my attention as Christine shared precisely the same thought on her Insta page.
Let me paste it below for you.
It struck home.
I felt bolts of lightning go off in my head as I realised the Truth that it was never the size of the giant in my life that determined my destiny. Rather, it was the size of my God that did.
The God in me. The God through me. The God around me.
With new found faith, I found the courage to believe again. Putting my hands in the hands of Jesus, I decided to let Him walk me through this and teach me everything that was on His heart for me.
After all, this giant may be too big for me. But it was nothing compared to the bigness of my God.
“The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
(Exodus 14:14)
Because it is the Lord who fights for me, I need only to be still…
What does that mean?
I believe that what the Lord was and still is saying through this is that because it is Him who fights for me, I have no need to be anxious about anything. The enemy is already defeated in Jesus’ Name, and the irrevocable victory of the Cross is already my portion in Christ. Therefore, the outcomes of my life situations and circumstances are already secure in the hands of my God.
But what about the process?
This is where friends, I believe we really get to meet Jesus face-to-face. The Lord is a God of process. As surely as He kept affirming me that He would bring about my complete deliverance and vindication, He also lovingly exhorted me to commit my way to Him so thatit could align with His right way forward.
So, in response to this perfectly wise Father, I released my process to Him.
And I learnt much.
So much more than before, friends.
With more insights in my spirit, more humility in my heart and more dependency on the Lord; I had many more arrows in my quiver.
Allow me to repeat myself.
This is how Jesus makes the devil pay.
Jesus started to emphatically teach me that though His Promise of victory will see to it that I come out on the other side stronger than I was when I went in, it does not mean that my feelings will magically line up.
More often than not, they don’t.
Though my spirit knows the Truth, my soul is often having a fit.
So what do I do?
I learn to demarcate between spirit and soul.
Between what I know to be the Truth based on what God is saying v/s the feelings that I am currently having which are based on the facts of my temporal circumstances.
As believers in Christ, we are given authority by the Lord to challenge the facts of our current circumstances by declaring the Truth of what God is saying.
Therefore, it naturally follows that the temporary state of my temporal circumstances is just that – temporal. It is now in fact, subject to change according to the eternal, everlasting Truth of God’s Word that will not only come to pass, but will endure forever.
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
(2 Corinthians 4:18)
So what I am getting at is this:
When we are willing to acknowledge our opinions and feelings for what they really are – just feelings and opinions – and readily exchange them with the Truth of what God says, then it is a sign that our soul is coming into alignment with God and is thus, being saved.
My soul says that this is how I am feeling _______________________________ .
But it is also willing to admit that these are just feelings, it is NOT Truth. Just because our feelings are real does not mean that they are right. They are after all, only feelings based on facts. But facts change because God moves in alignment with Truth, and eventually manifests it.
So even though I felt the giant was too big, I knew that it was no match for the bigness of my God. Even though I felt it was the end of everything, I knew that in the Kingdom, it was only a new beginning. Even though I felt abandoned and forsaken, I knew I was never alone for Jesus was with me every step of the way.
Feelings v/s Truth.
A divine demarcation.
So I am learning that the degree to which we are humble enough to admit that how we feel is not based on reality because reality is only determined by what our Holy God says,is the degree to which we will be able to trade them in for Truth and be healed, whole, saved, contented and at peace.
Coming out on the other side of the tunnel, I can attest to the fact that how we feel during a trial is often misleading. The only way through the valley of the shadow of death, is to hold on to the helm of His garment and fix our eyes on Jesus – the author and the perfector of our faith. As we humble ourselves under His mighty hand, He promises to take us by the hand and lead us forward, step-by-step, into His promise for our victory.
So as I draw to a close, friend; I will leave you in the Presence of the Lord with one question:
What mountain are you needing Him to move on your behalf today? How can you learn to partner with Him as He unfolds your triumph?
Let me lead you into a prayer to get started.
“Dear Lord Jesus,
I thank You that because of Your finished work on the Cross on my behalf, I am now a partaker of Your Victory, on earth as it is in Heaven. I thank You that in the power of Your Name, the enemy is defeated and I am now seated at Your right hand in heavenly places.
I thank You that You are the Sovereign Lord with whom nothing is impossible. So I ask, Lord that You would help me walk in Your promised victory for my life in the context of the challenges that are confronting me in this present day, time and season of my life.
I invite You to enlighten the eyes of my understanding by Your Spirit so that I can learn to partner effectively with You. Teach me to embrace the process of growth that You have for me through this phase. I trust that because You are fighting for me, I can surrender all my anxiety for Your Perfect Peace.
I also ask for Your help with my emotions and feelings in the process, Lord. As You hold the outcomes of my life securely in Your Faithful Hands, I declare that I will trust that despite what I feel, the Truth is that You have the power to do what You promise. Help my feelings to slowly line up with the Truth of that which You have spoken concerning me as Your Beloved Child and grace me to whole-heartedly receive it.
I thank You that You will not only see me through, Lord but make me better as a result of walking this out by faith in You. Honor and praise belong to You!
I am so delighted to share with you a FREE RESOURCE that I believe will be a sure blessing in your faith journey in Christ.
It is a tiny capsule of 32 wonderful, life-giving Biblical truths that convey the message of the infallibility of God’s promises, in direct co-relation to the perfection of His character which inadvertently assures us of the certainty of His ways.
There are 4 pages in all, and I have attached the image files here for you. The link is below, friends to enable print out for you to get your own personal copy. So I invite you to just dig in!
I hope that it serves to bless you, and should you desire, stick it up on a wall or a journal. Give yourself permission to get creative with how it can serve as a daily reminder to you about the Truth that God is Faithful.
Friends, I made a journal for myself this year in April to record and remind myself of the promises that God has made concerning me and concerning those that I care about.
It is one of my absolute favorite things to dive into this journal from time-to-time to read, confess and release the power of God’s Word over my life.
Why do I do that?
Because like Mary in the Bible, the mother of Jesus, who pondered and treasured the words God had spoken about Jesus being the Saviour of the world, anointed and appointed, to take away the sin of humanity; I do believe that we too have the same privilege.
The same privilege to receive, believe and steward the Word of God so that it is the Lord’s narrative that we are intentionally choosing to partner with and eventually see made manifest in our midst.
So I felt it back then, friends.
I felt an urgency, an impulse, an unction of the Holy Spirit to make myself a journal that would allow me to organise all the wonderful, prophetic words that God has given me thus far, in one neat place. One click on Amazon got me this babe:
I think she is fearfully and wonderfully made!
Ok.
So my jouney with Jesus through this brand, new journal began. I divided it up into a couple of different sections and promptly began decreeing the Word of God over my life.
Happy to report that not only have I seen the Holy Spirit move and manifest God’s will time-after-time, but also that the Lord continues to add more and more promises to my bounty.
Pastor Bill Johnson often says that we attract what we value. The Bible puts it this way,
“For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”
(Matthew 13:12, NASB)
God here, I believe, is talking about the sheer value of stewarding the revelation of His Word. He guarantees, that should we commit to this process of discovering and consistently releasing the sound of His Word into the earth, it is sure to have a domino effect and reel in even more abundant revelation, simply because we show that we value the sanctity of what our Holy God has decreed.
Like rain drops filling up a bucket.
Or like the missing pieces of a jigsaw puzzle being consistently and increasingly put together by the Hand of God.
That’s what the Promises of God do.
The promises of God can be likened to the missing pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that God is putting together behind-the-scenes.
The things that most puzzle and confuse us are these ___________________________. Fill in the blanks, literally. Questions about our identity, our purpose, our destiny. Questions about our family, household and community. Questions about God’s plan for us, individually, corporately and globally.
But what if we learned to take these questions to God Himself, instead of trying to figure things out in our own limited strength, with our own limited wisdom and our own limited resources?
What if we stopped trying to simply ‘fix’ everything ourselves and dared instead to entrust our matters to The One who is sovereignly in control, confident in battle and more than capable of bringing resolution to the very things that confound us?
God truly is who He says He is, friends.
I have always, always witnessed that whenever I am challenged by a trying and impossible circumstance, God always, always shows up.
He may not do it the way I expect or would like for Him too, or even on my timeline. But I can testify that He always, always does show up and show off.
Imagine a scenario, friend where you find yourself in what appears to be a snow-covered wasteland. For as far as your eyes can see, the land looks completely barren and desolate. You are fully geared up for a trek, equipped for the harsh conditions in front of you. Donning a long, furry overcoat to keep you warm and gum boots to help you plough through; you are good to go.
Yet, you can’t.
You feel lost for direction.
Now imagine the same scenario through the lens of the pilot of a chopper overhead. He can see that if you only take a few steps forward, turn right and walk for about a mile, you will be warmly greeted by a kind and hospitable old, godly couple who even have a guest room to spare, warmly lit with an inviting fireplace and a steaming cup of hot chocolate milk.
The pilot of this chopper overhead has insight into things that are obscure to you because he has a higher vantage point.
Yet, you do have the option of connecting to him through your cell phone device. You can choose to pull it out from your pocket, press the right buttons and connect!
One call away.
That’s how I believe it works with God too. He has insight into the road and the route ahead that will be instrumental in paving the best way forward, but we have to be willing to connect to Him using the cell phone device called the Word of God.
For the Word of God is our GPS to help navigate life.
“Jesus answered, ‘It is written: Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'”
(Matthew 4:4)
Spending time in the Word and receiving His insight into the plans and purposes that He has for us is precisely how we trek through the snow-laden terrain of the broken pieces and parts of our lives.
All we are tempted to see and believe in the moment though, is that one piece of the jigsaw puzzlethat we find ourselves in the midst of. But God knows the whole picture!
And believe me, its a good one that He’s painting.
Things may look unanswered and incomplete to us in the natural, but we can take heart because we serve a supernatural kind of God.
“With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
(Matthew 19:26)
The God who knows the end from the beginning, already has the answers and the redemptive solutions our lives need. He reveals these hidden plans and purposes of His heart through a revelation of His Word by the Holy Spirit.
What He does require in the process is for us to put down the bricks of humility, vulnerability and complete dependency on The One who is perfectly faithful and absolutely trustworthy. The assurance of His Perfection is the fuel that empowers us to bring the broken pieces of our lives to Him so that He can begin to do what only and only He can do.
“Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.”
(Zechariah 4:6)
The promise friends, on the other side of our obedience is, that God will raise up a wall with the modest bricks that we have put down so beautically and monumentally that it will not only leave us astonished, but even those that we care about.
The truth is that God is the Architect of our lives, friends. As He has taken the complete charge of bringing about the complete restoration of our lives, I like to call this a process of ‘re-membering,’ i.e, rearranging, reassembling and realigning the different parts and pieces of our lives into the Grand Masterpiece that He has in His heart and mind concerning us.
So as He ‘re-members’ the different parts and pieces of my life, I find it incredibly helpful to in turn, ‘remember’ the truth of that which He has spoken and decreed.
☆ The Book of Rememberance ☆
It can be a file, a folder, a journal, a diary because the goal is to have a place to document and rehearse Truth.
Friend, for the Lord to ‘re-member’ our lives, we must remember what He says.
The devil is a liar, and in the absence of Truth, it is easy to believe what the world says. It is easy to believe what the media says, the government, or even our family and friends. Therefore, I find it so vital to be intentional about my time in God’s Word so that I can literally dwell in the Truth that He has spoken over me, letting His narrative shape and frame my reality, and not a lesser word.
So simply put, The Book of Rememberance is a space friends, where we get to put down God’s dream for our lives, and through the power of a loving partnership together, watch Him make it a reality.
Activation: Friend, I would like to invite you to ponder some questions with the Lord in your own, unique miracle-in-the-making story. Letting God come into every dark and obscure crook, cranny and crevice of our lives is key to a lifestyle of ongoing holistic healing and good success.
I’ve learnt this much, and I know its true.
Any part of our life that is kept from the Lord will become an open door for the enemy.
While there may be areas of your life that you perhaps don’t feel comfortable addressing with the Lord yet, I encourage you to start opening up bit-by-bit to the Goodness of God. He is good, He does good, and He works all things together for good.
So friend, consider asking yourself the following questions:
What has God spoken concerning me? What has He spoken concerning my health, my family and my calling?
If you feel unsure about these questions, it’s time to press in. Its time to pray and seek God to reveal His heart and mind concerning the things you care about. Its time to let go and let Him step into your life and do what He is best at – make all things new!
These two precious snails yesterday taught me to trust the timing of God, friends.
For a few days now on this side of the globe (I live in India!), we have been sitting in the bliss of some very welcome monsoon rains. The trees have been washed and cleansed, the soil rendered moist, and the snails, loose.
So I took a long stroll hand-in-hand with Jesus last evening. A newfound leap in my step betrayed my joy with the kindest intentions. And with each step forward, my eyes started growing wide with wonder.
I began to experience the awe of God in a fresh new way.
In a way that showed me where a few days back, we were primarily held hostage indoors due to the intense heat and humidity, we were now experiencing such joy and bliss alongwith the freedom to be able to truly enjoy the beauty and splendour of creation, and the difference between the two scenarios was, what we call, a shift in seasons.
“He changes the times and seasons; He removes kings and establishes them.”
(Daniel 2:21)
Candid confession time, friends.
As a believer, I honestly struggle and wrestle with God to be able to accurately discern the times and seasons that I orbit in and out of. He is faithful, I am happy to testify, and lets me in when I seek Him. So it was this time too.
Transition change.
A season of dryness morphing into showers of blessing.
Naturally.
And I am beginning to suspect even spiritually.
Ok.
Let’s get back to the snails.
With their home on their backs, these two precious snails were positioned right next to one another when I, still within my apartment’s complex, received a gentle nudge of the Holy Spirit.
“Let’s take a few steps out.”
Yes, Sir.
So off I went following His leading. And just a couple of steps through the gate of my building was awaiting me this exquisite sight.
Two precious snails carefully aligned next to one another. Five minutes here and two minutes there – I would have missed it! For one champion was headed up north, while the other downtown. Different destinations assigned to each comrade, yet carefully juxtaposed with one another in this one moment of time.
Divine timing .
Isn’t it amazing friends?
Isn’t it amazing how our Heavenly Father is so intimately involved with us, even in the smallest details of our lives?
Helps me to know that He never misses a thing.
He is present. He is intimate. He cares.
He cares about His Beloved finding these two precious snails forming a yin-yang all their own to let me know that even my seconds are carefully timed so that whatever it is that He has for me, never misses me.
All we need to do is pay attention, friends and there are tiny miracles all around us.
Including what we call, a shift in seasons.
Yes, even spiritually.
With a timely downpour washing clean both, creation and the children of God; I felt a deeper stirring in my soul, and as I continue to write, it nags me all the way into faith for more.
For more of the awe of God.
The God who changes times and seasons, translating a dry and arid time into a season of fresh outpouring, blessing and favour; is the One I am wanting the more of.
For being in awe of Him, captivated by His majesty serves to heal my heart and reignite hope.
Hope for a season that brings us into a fuller manifestation of all that He has in His heart for us is what I am beginning to let myself have faith for.
So as I was soaking in the Word today friends, I found myself praying and prophesying some tender and potent truths over myself in a spontaneous outburst of Psalm 89.
I felt it on my heart to share with you too what I believe He has released, so that together we will walk into a bountiful future.
A future that is full of the bounty of heaven, both spiritually and naturally.
Paving the way forward, I am sharing now a benediction for Showers of Blessings based on the Promise of God from Psalm 89, The Passion Translation. I encourage you to personalise Scripture and confess it over your life as the very heart and words of Father God concerning you.
Personally.
Friend, the Lord loves intimacy in a way that is up, close and personal; dares vulnerability and demonstrates trust.
So let’s go.
This is what I believe Father God says to you,
“I have chosen you, ____________________ , Beloved Child of God,
as my loving servant and exalted you. I have anointed you with the oil of my holiness. I will be strength to you and I will give you my grace to sustain you no matter what comes. None of your enemies will get the best of you nor will the wicked one overpower you. For I will crush your every adversary and do away with all who hate you. Because I love you and treasure you my faithfulness will always protect you. I will place my great favor upon you and I will cause your power and fame to increase. I will set your hand over the sea and your right hand over the rivers. And you will come before me, saying, ‘You truly are my Father, my only God, and my strong deliverer!’
… This covenant will be an unbreakable promise that I have established for all time.”
Says the Lord.
In my experience friends, the best way to respond to God when He gives us a promise from His heart is to pray in alignment so that we can see the manifestation activated and fulfilled.
King David did this, Scripture tells us when God gave him a promise that his son would be the one to build the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem and that David’s dynasty would indeed be established.
I’m guessing we can too.
Join me friend, won’t you?
“Dear Heavenly Father, I am so thankful that you love me and I want you to know that I love you too. I thank you that you have given me access to some truly precious and great promises concerning my Identity, sustenance, protection, vindication and favour. I receive them with praise and ask that you will activate all that is needed in the unseen realm so that the seasons up ahead will testify to Your Faithfulness in my life as Your beloved child. I thank You that He who promised is Faithful and I wait in confident expectation to watch You move. Keep me close, Father and give me eyes to see and ears to hear so that I may know you deeper still.
The Word of God is both, a skillful scalpel and a mighty sword.
Talking of God’s Word today friends. Speaking of which, I humbly realise that no matter how much we say, it will never be enough.
But I told Jesus I’d try.
Thanks for your time.
Let me start with the story I believe He laid on my heart last evening as I began to churn with creative ideas for this post. If you have spent some time studying God’s Word, you may be familiar with the story of Elijah and the widow of Zaraphath recorded in 1 Kings 17. If not, no sweat. I’ll break it down for you.
Ready?
Elijah, friends was a prophet of the Lord in Old Testament times. When the nation of Israel became rebellious and idolatrous by worshipping gods other than Yahweh, the net result was not only moral decay but also the inevitable circumstantial consequences that followed their disobedience towards the Lord.
Led completely astray under the leadership of Ahab, an extremely evil king; Israel found itself in grave trouble. That was when Elijah stepped onto the scene and prayed for the Lord to shut up the heavens to get the people to a point of realisation and repentance so that they could be restored.
So what culminated as a result was a drought which lasted three and a half years. Even at great personal cost, Elijah put the purpose of God at the center of His life and persevered to see Israel turn around.
Israel eventually did and the drought was lifted. But that’s not the point of this story.
The point of this story is the power of God’s Word.
“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
(Isaiah 55:11, NKJV)
During the drought, Elijah was supernaturally supplied with food and water. The Lord sent him to a place where Elijah drank from a brook while God arranged for ravens to bring him bread and meat in the morning + evening.
However, the brook soon dried up.
But the good news is that the provision of the Lord did not.
The Lord commanded Elijah to go to a place called Zaraphath where God said He had already commanded a widow to supply him with food.
I am sure Elijah must have been surprised at this because widows in that time were presumably poor. Yet, how often do we see God provide instruction in a way that perhaps makes no sense in the given moment?
A test of faith.
Elijah’s story testifies.
Zaraphath was devastated by the onslaught of drought and famine. Starvation threatened the lives of people. These were indeed some desperate times, friends. And to top it all, God decides to send Elijah to a poor widow for provision.
Elijah at this point I believe summoned all his courage and asked the poor widow who did not even have enough firewood and was found by him collecting sticks.
Yet, Elijah did as he was told.
As the poor widow told Elijah that all she had was only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug which she was preserving for her last meal to be had with her son, preparing thereafter to die; Elijah audaciously interrupted her plans.
He told her that before she could cook a meal for herself and her son, she would first make a loaf of bread for him.
It was a request, actually. A very bold one.
What prompted him to say this, I hear you ask.
The Word of the Lord.
“For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.'”
(1 Kings 17:14)
God promised Elijah a never-ending supply of provision from a tiny jar of limited flour and a tiny jug of limited water.
And so it was.
“For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.”
(1 Kings 17:16)
Friends, whether I see it in the case of Jesus multiplying the two fish and five loaves of bread in the New Testament so much so that there were twelve basketsful of provision even after the crowd had eaten, or in the case of Elijah and the widow of Zaraphath in the Old Testament having more than enough to fill their stomachs even in the midst of an impossible drought and famine situation; one truth stands out to me:
Our limited resources when entrusted into the eternal hands of our Multiplying Master become a superabundant supply of God’s riches.
For our limitations are His opportunity.
All we need is a Word from the Lord.
Because the Word of the Lord goes forth like a mighty sword to manifest that which He has spoken and pull down strongholds that are contrary to His will.
It is designed and anointed to contradict, challenge and change the state of our circumstances.
Till our circumstances are brought into alignment with His will.
For His will is revealed through His Word.
Our part, friends in God’s story is to believe, receive and steward His Word.
For this is what God says to us,
“Open your mouth with a mighty decree; I will fulfill it now, you’ll see! The words that you speak, so shall it be!”
(Psalm 81:10, TPT)
Father God encourages us to speak His Word, friends.
To boldly declare it as a mighty sword in our mouth that is able to pull down strongholds in oppositional circumstances till our circumstances begin to align with the truth of that which He has spoken and the realm of His Kingdom is made manifest.
On Earth as it is in Heaven.
That is what God’s Word does in the context of our circumstances. But what about the condition of our hearts, friends?
Our inner world matters.
“For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”
(Romans 10:9)
God’s Word, friends falls first on the ground of our hearts. So it is important that our hearts be soft and supple so that they can easily receive and believe what He is desiring for us to hear and implement.
But that is really not how we start with Jesus.
Because above all else, Jesus invites us to come to Him, just the way we are. Bound and shackled up. Shamed and discounted. Hurt and heartbroken. Hard and bitter.
He doesn’t really care how much of baggage we are dealing with, as long as we are willing to humbly surrender it all to Him and watch Him do what only He can do.
“Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit”
(Zechariah 4:6)
For the Lord is famous for taking the broken and fragmented pieces of our lives, and weaving them all together in the masterful way that only He knows to, ultimately resurrecting a master piece from the inside and out so that it brings glory to His Name.
Well known evangelist, Christine Caine often says,
“Your history does not define your destiny. You can start bad and finish good in and through a relationship with Jesus Christ.”
Our God is truly a miracle working God, friends.
He takes our brokenness and gives us wholeness in exchange. He translates our pain into purpose and brings beauty from ashes. He heals the anger and bitterness in our hearts by teaching us to forgive. He promises us justice as we agree to put our trust in Him. In fact, the Bible calls him the Restorer of Broken Dwellings. So it shouldn’t surprise us when He starts with first holistically healing and restoring the broken condition of our hearts, minds, bodies and souls for New Testament says that now we are His holy temple, the habitation of His Spirit.
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?”
(1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
We are now His beloved children, holy and blameless in His sight. And guess what every good father cares about when it comes to His kids?
Their peace, their joy, their hope.
And anything that interferes with the kind intentions of God is dealt with.
Foremost of which, are the lies that we have believed, friends which affects the ground of our hearts.
Yes. It’s true.
Lies that we have believed about the nature and character of God. Lies about ourselves and our identity in Him. Lies about the world that we are called to touch and transform.
Lies designed by the enemy to keep us in deception and bondage.
But Christ came to set us free.
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
(John 8:36)
So where do we turn to receive Truth that is able to set us free, remains a valid question.
The Word of God.
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
(Hebrews 4:12, ESV)
God’s Word consists of Truth that are words anointed by His Holy Spirit, possessing the power to pierce and heal with the surgical precision of a scalpel.
It completely counters the lies of the enemy, reveals the authentic heart of God and brings His children into the light.
The light of the true nature and character of God, the light of our true identity in Him and the light of the truth about the world we are called to touch and transform.
The Aramaic language calls it, “noohrah” – the revelation light of God as well as the glory light of Christ.
This is the light of God, friends that pierces the dark, dismantles lies, reveals Truth and sets the captives free.
The light of God which sees us as a chosen people, a royal priesthood and a holy nation – forgiven and redeemed as the righteousness of God in Christ.
The light of God which deems us radically loved, fully known, carefully understood and deeply valued as the very family and household of God.
The light of God which draws a line in the sand through the blood-stained path of Calvary and demarcates between the counterfeit roar of the enemy (fear or intimidation) and the holy roar of the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Perfect Love which casts out all fear and breeds inner rest, deep assurance and complete security).
Psalm 36:9 says it well,
“For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.”
The power of the Word of God.
Both, as a skillful scalpel and a mighty sword.
Where can you apply the Truth of God’s powerful Word today, friend?
SoulandSubstance27 