"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)
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, youâll 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.
âOr 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?
I’ve noticed one thing about pain. It compels us to misunderstand the nature and character of God.
Much like Eve.
Cut to the chase, here goes.
The Bible tells us that God told Eve she was free to eat from any tree in the Garden of Eden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Why did He do that?
I believe that God was actually protecting her freedom and that of man, because we were perhaps never designed to know any evil. Yet, in the face of an inadequate understanding of God’s true nature, Eve sinned.
To me friends, it is not so much the sin that led her to partake of the forbidden fruit that matters, as much as it is what led her to.
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, âDid God really say, âYou must not eat from any tree in the garden?'”
(Genesis 3:1)
For the crafty serpent to come in and sow doubt in Eve’s mind with irrelevant questions like, “Did God really say?” and have her succumb to the temptation of sin so easily, I do feel that somewhere Eve did not know the nature and character of her God well enough to begin with.
Neither did I.
But when you know better, you do better.
I am so glad, friends that we serve a God who forgives, redeems and makes all things new.
Jesus does not sit on the Throne with a stock of all our sin. He already dealt with that on the Cross.
He sits on the Throne and fights for us instead.
Our God is with us. He is for us. And He fights for us.
The Good News here is that He does not fight for victory, He fights from it.
Talking of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Word of God says:
“Then Jesus made a public spectacle of all the powers and principalities of darkness, stripping away from them every weapon and all their spiritual authority and power to accuse us. And by the power of the cross, Jesus led them around as prisoners in a procession of triumph. He was not their prisoner; they were his!”
(Colossians 2:15, TPT)
In short?
Having defeated and disarmed the powers of darkness, Jesus reigns.
And in Him, we do too.
With absolute victory over sin, sickness and death; we are called to co-reign with Christ.
So in the face of so much adversity, persecution and trauma; I am learning to be very intentional about reminding myself of some truths that though appear basic, are the very cornerstone of our faith.
And what I am realizing is that though in Christ, we do have victory over sin, sickness and death; we are not exempt from pain and suffering.
We are in the world, but not of it.
The world we live in friends, is lost and broken. So are the people that constitute it.
So when God called us to fight the good fight of faith, He made it abundantly clear that we do not fight against flesh and blood, but against the forces of darkness for which we have absolute triumph through Christ.
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
(Ephesians 6:12)
Yes and Amen.
So it naturally follows that our enemy is not our parent, our sibling or our next door neighbour.
Our enemy is the devil, Satan. And the Good News is that he is defeated.
Yes.
The same crafty serpent that once deceived Eve and has continued in his attempts till date, is forever defeated.
How?
"By the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony."
(Revelation 12:11)
But here is the catch.
The degree to which we seek to know the Lord is the degree to which we will be abe to walk conscious of this reality, on an everyday basis.
Pain and suffering always threaten to numb or dim our consciousness of the victory we have through Christ. So it becomes important that we learn to process it in a healthy way.
In a way that is worthy of us.
For our perspective during such times, is the difference between life and death.
We will either succumb to the despair and hopelessness that our enemy, Satan would love for us.
OR.
Or we can choose to run to Jesus. Run to Him for the healing we need in our souls and the perspective we need in our thought process.
Co-operating with the reality that God is trying to cultivate in us during such times friends, is key.
Are we trying to avenge ourselves, or are we letting Him avenge us?
Are we wasting precious emotional resources on harbouring bitterness and resentment, or are we learning to forgive, let go and trust God?
Are we walking in anxiety and dread, or in the fullness of the peace and power that the Lord died for us to receive?
The difference between the two sets of scenarious presented here is the difference between being a victim of our circumstances or rising above them as more than conquerors through Christ.
God often says to us,
Choose life.
Therefore, I choose to intentionally put Christ first. To surrender my will to be aligned with His and I find that the more I do so, the more I get to know the Lord.
Friends, as I am learning to do just what He says, I have found myself face-to-face with one beautiful yet startling reality,
“I may know Jesus fairly well, but I don’t know Him well enough.”
I really don’t.
I may know Him well enough to know that He is fully and completely worthy of my faith and trust, but I don’t know Him well enough to know just how much He does honour child-like trust and mustard-seed faith.
I may know Him well enough to know that He is perfect in love and perfect in wisdom, but I don’t know Him well enough to know the full extent of all that He really is, all that He is capable of doing and all that which He will do.
I may know Him well enough to know that He is my best friend and my glorious king, but I don’t know Him well enough to know His next move on my behalf.
I may know Him well enough to know that He will never leave me nor forsake me, but I don’t know Him well enough to know just how very faithful and relentless His pursuit of me, in reality, is.
I may know Him well enough to know that He is sovereign and has the final say in all matters that concern us, but I don’t know Him well enough to know just how He will bend the rules of the game as we journey on.
I may know Him well enough to know that He is good, He does good and He works all things together for good in conformity with the counsel of His will, but I don’t know Him well enough to know just how He will manifest this Romans 8:28 promise again in my life circumstances.
I know Him fairly well, friends. But I don’t know Him well enough.
Fairly well to know Him as a beloved father, a heavenly saviour and a dreadful champion of my cause; but not well enough to know just what that may mean in its entirety as my destiny unfolds.
But I take heart in what I do know.
For what I do know is that with each day that unfolds, I can seek to know Him more.
Filled with the awe and wonder of His majesty, His mercy and His might.
And somewhere I suspect that the same holds true for you too, my friend.
So together?
Let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.
Friends, as I pen this down after a whirlwind of insane happenings the past 11 days, I’m still learning to grow into a fuller revelation of what it means to be pleasantly bewildered.
I wouldn’t say that we need very many spectacular things to know that the season has shifted, and though chaos still ensues, what I’m learning is that the Lord is able to manifest goodness, blessing and favour in the midst of it all.
“Pleasant bewilderment.”
On googling the meaning of the term, “bewilderment,” I was met with the following statement,
“a state of being perplexed or confused.”
I’m sure I am not alone when I say that the past few seasons have come with more than a fair share of trials and traumas. There has been heartache and suffering, pain and brokenness. Unfair situations have kept coming up from time to time, leaving us with one question,
“Is it ever going to get better?”
I have wrestled with this question. I know I have, and perhaps friend, you’ve been there too.
But it is how the Lord meets us in the midst of despair that lifts us up and redefines our journey.
He has been teaching me much, and as I write, I hope that the nuggets I’ve gleaned from His heart serve to help you make sense of your own story and walk with the Lord.
So here goes.
As important as it is to acknowledge our feelings friends, I am learning that we don’t go by them. We are called, “believers” for a reason. Not “feelers.”
I don’t mean to be insensitive, quite the opposite really.
For the truth is that though we may feel the pain and heartache that are an inevitable everyday reality in some shape, way or form; we are not defined by it. We are only defined by Love, for that is our Identity.
It is God-given, and irrevocable.
But we do have a part to play in protecting that which He has given us. So how does that work?
Ahem.
Let’s see.
My feelings should never get in the way of my faith, I believe. Therefore, it is so vital to acknowledge them and process my experiences with the Lord. He does not dismiss my brokenness, so I don’t have to either.
The key lies in not stifling my emotions nor stuffing them away. It lies in not denying nor dodging.
For a humble acceptance of truth goes a long way.
So friends, I’m wondering,
“What if instead of burying that which needs addressing, tending and healing, we slowly learn to do just that? Address, tend and heal?”
For whatever is not revealed cannot be healed.
But whatever is brought out into the open, in the safety and security of God’s presence, can be and will be healed by Him. His Love and Truth are a healing salve that nothing can diminish the potency of.
So what if we started to unpack our backpack in front of the Lord? That which we have been carrying for years now? He delights in getting in the dirt with us. To help us sort and sift through our baggage. To show us what lessons of wisdom to pick up, and what toxic emotions to let go. To empower us to forgive the pain of our past, and to trust Him with the new story of Goodness, Grace and Glory that He is writing for our lives.
Sometimes, it is us who remain hesitant.
However, I do beseech you friend, that regardless of where you are in your own story with Him, you would take the time to get in the dirt with Him. In the safety of His love and presence to receive the healing salve of His love and truth that nothing can diminish the power of.
Not a past that looks worse than a trainwreck, and not even the worst sin you can think of.
Nothing.
For when we bring into the light of His face, everything that holds our hearts hostage to guilt, shame, bitterness, anger and unforgiveness, His mercy meets us, understands us, heals us and shows us the way forward.
Suffice to say, if we are truly going to walk in health and wholeness in the midst of a world that is anything but healthy and whole, then it remains important that our feelings, both good and bad, be acknowledged. It is in that that we truly honor our design, and the value thereof.
It is then that we learn that pain and hope can co-exist. It is not “either-or.” Rather, it is “both-and.”
Sorrow AND celebration. Grieving AND rejoicing. Feelings AND faith.
Hope is at the heart of our faith, and healing is the children’s bread. There is no hope without healing, and there is no healing apart from hope.
For my experience convinces me that they are in fact, two sides of the same coin.
It is when I am emotionally healthy that I am spiritually powerful.
And yes.
It is an everyday journey, a step by step walk with the Lord.
Healing paves the way toward hope.
Though nothing can take away from our Hope that is in Christ, things can certainly threaten to dim our consciousness of it. For anything that is unprocessed is ill-processed, and whatever is ill-processed is under the influence of a lie.
Truth and Love can never be divorced, and neither can Love and Hope.
To protect and cultivate our divine design which is Love, it is important that we know the Truth for it is only the Truth that we know that can set us free. And wherever there is freedom, there is power.
Power to be redeemed, be restored and be pleasantly bewildered.
Not because everything is perfect, but because we are free.
Free to love. Free to heal. Free to have hope.
Hope for a future that though obscure is only safely tucked away within the heart of our Saviour.
Only so that in the fullness of time, we will look back and say,
âCall to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.â (Jeremiah 33:3)
Iâm learning things about the Kingdom lifestyle, slowly but surely. And what I believe that the Lord showed me recently is that though our lives and destinies are hidden in Him, they are hidden âforâ us and not âfromâ us.
I got this golden nugget of Truth from Pastor Bill Johnson and it instantly hit home.
âIt is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.â (Proverbs 25:2)
I concur.
And I also believe that it is the Mercy of God that hides things and does not at once give us the complete blue print of our lives, but rather lets the details slowly unravel as we travel.
I think that is why the Lord delights and indulges Himself in the journey as opposed to the destination.
He likes for us to learn to walk with Him. The Bible says that the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. I believe this because He wants to encounter us as a most loving Father who takes His Child by the hand and teaches us to walk in step with Him.
We donât want to be running ahead of Him any more than we would like to be lagging behind.
It is in our submission to the rhythm and cadence of God that we get to taste of true life because it is a rhythm and cadence that is specifically designed for our benefit.
He knows us better than we know ourselves, and has a beautiful plan to develop us bit by bit. He does this not by pushing us around, but rather doing a deep and gentle work within us.
Itâs in the journey that our weakness meets His strength and our vulnerability, His love. The ache in our hearts when surrendered at the altar sees our burdens be transformed into blessings, and our problems into promises.
âTo every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.â (Ecclesiastes 3:1)
In essence, there are times and seasons to everything in the Kingdom of God. There are times of trials and testing when our faith is being developed and matured. But there are also seasons of manifestation and favour when God knows that we are whole enough to be able to sustain the very blessings we have prayed for.
This is why the wilderness makes for a rich experience because it provides us with the opportunity to encounter the Lord, develop authentic relationship with Him and let Him grow us up into the truest versions of ourselves.
The interim seasons are always seasons of preparation and growth. We may have questions from time to time, but they donât have to remain unanswered because we have the opportunity to seek the Lord while He may be found.
Remember friend, what Pastor Bill Johnson says.
âHe hides things âforâ us, and not âfromâ us.â
He is a loving and faithful Father who loves to be engaged with His children. And it is His promise to us that if we seek Him, we WILL find Him.
He doesnât play the game of âhide and seek.â
Rather, He invites us on a journey called,
âSeek and Find.â
Though it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, God is also glorified in revealing truth.
He is glorified when we, as His sons and daughters who belong to the household of God, seek Him. And each time that we seek, we know that we always find Him because He is Faithful.
The Word of God declares,
âThe LORD confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.â (Psalm 25:14)
The Lord delights in making known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure. His guidance along the way assures us that we are walking the path to eternal life.
We need only call on His Name as we cry out to Him for answers, revelations and resolutions. And as we do, we will have tapped into the privilege of seeing our possibilities be transformed into sure promises of God which are all in Christ Jesus,
âYes and Amen.â
To the glory of God.
Because the same God who is glorified in hiding the details of our destinies is the same God who is glorified in revealing them.
And the same God who is glorified in the revelation is the same God who is glorified in the manifestation thereof.
Because He who promised is Faithful.
Friends, it is my passion and my prayer to be continued to be taught of the Lord. To let myself be developed by God, shaped by Him and moulded in His care. To remain in awe and wonder at the depths of His love and the glory of His might. To continue to ask, seek and knock in the full revelation knowledge that the door WILL be opened up.
And as He opens up the door for me to walk through, I donât want to be walking through it alone, but rather hand-in-hand with my Father.
And perhaps, it is in my journey through the wilderness that I get to learn the rhythm of Life.
In a most unprecedented time In the history of mankind Perhaps there really wasnât a better time To be gracious, compassionate and kind.
But we canât do it in our own strength So guide us in Your Wisdom Comfort us when we are hurting For in You, we find our healing.
Let us bring our troubled hearts to You For in return, You have promised peace With a confident reassurance we will sing to You Our praises of resounding victory.
Youâre our Maker and Mediator So open up the floodgates of Heaven Loose our cities and nations And restore us to our promised haven.
Clear our vision For though itâs foggy and misty The haze is nothing for You For You are The King of Glory! đ
As my day draws to a gentle close, I couldn’t resist sharing this exquisite view from my balcony. If you’ve been following my posts for a while, I hope you recall we recently moved base!
So, I get to see the radiance of the sun, which cliched as it may sound, undoubtedly points to the brilliance of the “Son.” I often say that nothing beats the majesty of His Creation, except His Character which I believe is also revealed in and through the splendor of all that we so easily take for granted through the business of life, yet it is precisely those things – the sun, the rain, the breeze, the dewdrops, the rainbow – that we find ourselves captivated by in those times that our soul needs peace, rest and solace.
I would love to share one of my favorites from The Bible, Psalm 19:
“The heavens declare the glory of God;     the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech;     night after night they reveal knowledge.  They have no speech, they use no words;     no sound is heard from them.  Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,     their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun. ” (Psalm 19:1-4, NIV)
The last verse just caught my attention, friends! I would venture to say that perhaps God meant that in the heavens, He has pitched a tent for The Son, and not just for Him, but for all of us that are IN Him; The Beloved of God, The Bride of Christ, The Light of the world.
On that note, I hope and pray that we will be more sensitive to these tiny everyday wonders that point us towards Home. I hope that the joy that such a revelation brings forth would continue to give us the strength to press in and press on. I hope that we will find Jesus in the details, and every now and then?
I am sure that in our walk with The Lord, there are more times than once when we may have found ourselves wrestling with God. At times, we need to. Even Jacob wrestled till He got a blessing from the angel of The Lord, even though it cost him to walk with a limp. However, what I am writing about is a different kind of wrestle though, the kind that comes when we war with The One who went to war for us.
At every juncture in our lives when we need to hear from Him, I believe He always speaks. He may speak through His Word, a person, a revelation, an epiphany, a song, a billboard, a message, whatever the case may be. But He never goes silent on us. Those times when we feel He has, it’s only because He has already spoken, and waits for us to embrace the fullness of what He has decreed in order that we may walk in it and seek Him for what He will do next in our lives.
The answer to the breakthrough we are contending for lies in reverent submission and obedience to what He has spoken concerning us. Not a wrestle. Not the kind that I am meaning to talk about.
Today is Father’s Day and my heart rejoices at the mere thought of all that He has already done for us, and is still committed to bring to completion that which He has promised. Personally, revelations of The Father’s Love have transformed me from the inside out, and developed a quiet trust, a brave confidence that He only has my best interests at heart. In order for us to follow through with what He has said, submission is a must. Putting our own plans and goals on the altar in exchange for His Eternal Purposes mandates that kind of trust and faith in the goodness of Our Great God. I still, by no means, have arrived and am very much a work in progress. But I believe that to truly receive the fullness of His Promises, we will need to cultivate greater trust which is possible only through greater encounters with The Lord leading to greater revelations of His Love, ultimately developing an unshakeable confidence that He is good, He does good and He works all things together for our good and His Glory.
Going against the grain of what He speaks will only delay and perhaps, even derail the good plans He has for us. He is Mighty to save, and will undoubtedly scoop us up even from the deepest of pits that we may have dug up for ourselves in our rebellious state, because His Presence is stronger than anything that may dare to come against. As I write, Psalm 139 comes to mind;
“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”
During one rather vulnerable period in my life, The Holy Spirit reaffirmed this Truth in my heart. He said,
“It is not your feeble grip on me, it is my firm grip on you.”
Soul saving, isn’t it?
It is this Agape Love of The Father that has won my obedience over and given me the courage to believe even when it makes no sense, in the full assurance that His thoughts and ways are beyond understanding and always greater. That also represents the fruit of obedience, friends. When we choose to obey in the face of all adversity, chaos and confusion; The Father honors it in a way that when we look back in hindsight at what HE was doing when WE didn’t understand, it breeds a greater awe of who He is and a greater revelation of who we are as His Children. Let me share God’s Promise from Isaiah 43 at this juncture,
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”
At times, His Way may cause us to walk through the fire and flood. But with a confident assurance that we are covered in The Blood of Christ , we can go forth. He promises us that NO weapon forged against us shall be able to prosper, and every tongue that rises against us, He will condemn. He reaffirms us that greater is HE that is in us than he that is in the world. He instructs us to remain steadfast and constant even in the face of what we don’t like, trusting that if we have agreed to go through the purifying fire of God, then we WILL come forth as pure gold.
My heart says that we can submit only to that which we are convinced about or that which we trust. In our walk with Jesus, we don’t have to be convinced about what He is calling us into, if we are convinced about who He is. Once we are convinced about the impeccable nature and character of God embodied in The Person of Jesus Christ, we can trust. We can trust that He is a Father, Healer, Redeemer, Savior, Miracle Worker and Way Maker. He is both, The God of process and The God of breakthrough. Wherever He calls us, HE sustains us. And needless to say, He is Faithful.
According to Hebrews 5:7,
“During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.”
Friends, I believe “reverent submission” is key. It is both, an awe of God and a love of Him that enables us to submit to His Will over ours. My journey testifies that though our walk is anything but easy, it is quite simple. We don’t need a formula to figure things out when we have a Person to follow, is something I quite often say. I say this because all our answers, needs and desires are wrapped up in Him. As we continue to submit and obey in our walk with Him, these things unravel and manifest as a direct result. At times, it may be obvious and somewhat instant. At other times, it may be prolonged and noticeable only to a discerning eye. Either way, it manifests. And it leaves us richer and more whole than when we first began. Not because we received breakthrough, but because we developed an intimate connection with The God of the breakthrough, and through that connection, we found everything we would ever need to feel affirmed, secure and loved, no matter the circumstance that dares confront us.
Yet it all begins with saying that first, “Yes” that introduces us to the glorious gift of eternal life through Christ Jesus, a journey that will inevitably find us saying one “yes” after another, causing a chain reaction of signs, wonders and miracles to be put in motion, leading us step by step, into the fullness of who we are called to be and what we are called to do in our lifetime.
So the next time we find ourselves wrestling with giving God our “yes,” I hope and pray that we remember that the first time we did, we received Heaven in our midst.
SoulandSubstance27 