"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)
In a few days, friends, we will be moving into a brand new year. But as we do, may we look back on the year that has been 2021 – not to stay stuck in what we are gearing up to wrap up, but rather to reflect & learn so that we can grow as we go. For me personally, this year has been both, difficult + monumental. It has had me traverse the roughest terrain, navigate my way through snakes and adders, but it has also seen the Lord’s hand move me through my pain so mightily that it has grown me closer to His heart than I have ever been.
I call this the art of finding the ‘beauty in the brokenness.’
It will need us to get alone with Jesus for some time so that God is invited in to clean up the lens of our perception and show us the glory of what has been as He takes us into what will be in 2022.
The Father has good plans for us. For each and every single one of us. I believe that with all my heart.
For Jesus writes the script of our lives with grace, hope and promise. He does not plot our pain, but He does use it to evolve us.
So as we prepare our hearts this time of the year, let me leave you with some thoughts.
What was may not have been easy, but I bet it transformed you. I bet it gave you greater grit, purer faith and more strength of character than ever before.
I bet it developed things on the inside of you that couldn’t have been developed any other way.
I bet it taught you to turn your back on the inferior and pursue the superior.
I bet it introduced you to a version of yourself that reflects the image of its Creator better than it ever has.
And I bet that that’s worthy of celebration, sweet friend.
I bet that’s reason enough to tie a bow on 2021, receive the glory it carried and let that fuel us into the next.
“Performance was a big problem for me. As a child growing up, I always sought to perform for the approval and validation of people. I harbored a compulsive need to top my class, and I would work my tired fingers to the bone. Needless to say, I found myself on the hampster wheel of performance and ended up extremely weary, tired, exhausted, depleted – needing hope.
That was when I turned my life over to Christ. As I gave myself over to receiving mega doses of the Father’s Love, I realised that beneath all these layers of performance, the root of the issue that plagued my soul was –
…
To read the rest of this story from my life and the testimony of God’s grace, I invite you, friend to visit my guest post live with my creative friend, Jennie Denney!
Friends, it was earlier this year that the Lord laid this verse on my heart.
Coming out of a year most unprecedented, this new wave of His Spirit found me seeking and soaking up Truth like a dry sponge. Though I don’t think we ever ‘arrive,’ I certainly am in a better place than I ever have been before.
Praise God!
So as the Lord began unearthing areas of my heart that needed healing, what I realised was that a lot of brokenness in my life was the result of the lies I had believed –
Lies about the nature & character of God, which led me to believe lies about my identity, worth and value.
Looking back, I realise that though I have come a long way since the beginning of this year, I still have to be intentional about guarding my heart against lies and renewing my mind with Truth, if I am going to continue to walk in Freedom.
I still have to be careful about not letting my worth and value be defined by anything other than the Cross of Jesus Christ. If God saw me so valuable, that He sent His one and only begotten Son to die for me, then yes – I am quite valuable, and that’s a truth I can stake my life on, regardless of how poorly or well I am doing.
It has since become the cry of my heart to resist the temptation to be defined by the opinions of man or the strength of my works. Instead, I now seek to be defined only and only by the words of authority that Christ declares over me, words that call me healed and made whole as the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
And yes. Though it seems paradoxical, it is true. As I ascend the mountain of the Lord, He continues to unearth deeper and deeper areas of pain and brokenness in my heart that I perhaps thought were already dealt with!
But I reckon that we are more mysteriously complex than we realise. Our souls are a fragile part of us, and need more care and attention than we realise.
Much like a garden actually. I am learning that for a garden to flourish, it must be tended to, watered well, dug up, fertilised and cultivated. And the same holds true for the condition of our hearts.
So how do we cultivate this tender garden deep within?
I do it by letting it soak in the Presence of God, letting it receive Truth and correction through the Word of God and letting it breathe in the Freedom that Jesus died for it to receive.
After all, He paid more than enough a price for my heart to remain alive, teeming with life and free!
Journeying hence with the Lord, friends; but as I do, I also wanted to chime in here for a bit and speak Truth over you. You, my friend, are more worthy and valuable than you realise. You are imago dei – an image bearer of God himself. He knows you, loves you and cares deeply for you.
And that thought you just had? That thing that seems to be blocking your access to Him?
It’s time to check it and thwart it. For whatever tries to threaten your relationship with the Father, must cease to exist.
So that you can be set free to become, heal, develop and flourish into the image of the Wonderful One who created you, knows you by name, and calls you –
“Beloved.”
But again – it is only the Truth that we know that can help us do that, for it is only Truth that makes us free.
So I declare that its time now. It’s time for you to encounter Truth in a way that lets His finger prints run through your mess, and rewrite the rest of your story with the echo of love, life and liberty.
“Now if we are children, then we are heirsβheirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.”
(Romans 8:17)
Honesty Hour – A key nugget in being made whole through Christ
Entitlement is an offspring of the orphaned spirit, whereas contentment and gratitude are the hallmark of the Spirit of Sonship.
Father, take us higher in our awareness of the Truth that we are not orphans any more, but your Sons & Daughters. You are not the care taker of an orphanage who gives us barely enough to just get by, rather You are a Perfect Father who delights in us, celebrates our gifts and always provides MORE THAN ENOUGH to empower us to fulfill our destiny.
He is a Good, Good Father who delights in the desires of our hearts. Yes, even those tender ones that we are tempted to discount. For me, this has meant a beautiful amalgam of Loops + Journal + Bible Study these past few days.
I first saw these loops earlier this year on Jenn Johnson and I immediately knew that I would very much like a pair for myself. Was it the best time for me to indulge?
Honestly, no.
So I laid it down.
Soon after, I saw this journal in the shop next door. It caught my eye, as only some things do. I immediately knew that I wanted to purchase it, yet I wasn’t too sure. Not sure if it was needed, not sure if it even fit my budget.
But I had it in my heart. So I laid it down.
Fast forward to August. I get my hands on this awesome Bible Study by Hannah Brencher and yes, I knew I wanted to dive in. But I wasn’t so sure yet again. I was in a trial and my focus was different.
So I laid it down.
Come September γNew Beginnings
Come September, and God starts to reveal Himself as the Father He always has been, but in a whole new way.
Tender, Gracious, Extravagant.
A Father who is so intimately involved in the details of His Daughter’s life, that even when she forgets, He remembers.
He remembers the what, He knows the where, He orders the steps.
To put it bluntly, the past few seasons have been dark. Staying close to Jesus, I have learned to navigate murky waters and make my way through the fiercest storms. I didn’t know if I could even take it at times, but He carried me anyway.
And He has brought me safely through.
Come September, and God starts to reveal some tender, new truths that suddenly bring a ton of light into my life. He keeps me sensitive to the fact that times and seasons do change, and He is, in fact, Faithful. He tells me to burn the bridges to the trauma of seasons past, and create space for Him to build some new bridges in my life instead.
Some new bridges that will connect the dots… from where I am to where He has promised to take me.
But this also needs faith at a whole new level.
As surely as I have needed faith to sustain me in times of warfare and difficulty, I now also need faith to step into the breakthrough He has fought for me to receive.
“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
(Luke 9:62)
So I decide now to not look back, and instead, to let go of what was so that I can step into what is and what will be..
Legacy as the Script is in the hands of a world-changing God.
So guess what He is doing?
A new thing within the New Thing.
Revealing Fatherhood. Growing relationship. Building bridges..
… for the bridge that links my present to my future is made with the bricks of authenticity, vulnerability and transformation…
And it needs me to open up. It needs me to let go. It needs me to listen to His voice.
It needs me to listen to the still, small voice within. Cliched as it may be, but oh-so-true!
And if I pay attention, I can hear Him.
I can hear Him rap ever so gently on the door of my heart, beckoning me to open up. I can hear Him take me by the hand, inviting me to release control and choose to trust Him instead. I can hear Him bring to rememberance things long forgotten, but only until such a time as this.
Because the Truth is that times do change, desires do come to fruition and promises are made manifest.
And when its time, He can’t be stopped.
“He changes the times and seasons; He removes kings and establishes them.”
(Daniel 2:21)
He is a Good, Good Father whose unrelenting Love will chase us down till we get it ..
His heart for us that is as true as the still, small voice within.
The tender whispers, the gentle musings that come up, seemingly out of nowhere, and remind me that its time for the loops to be bought, for the journal to be filled in and the Bible Study to be printed.
All because my Father knows. My Father sees. My Father cares.
Which brings me to another point.
The Word of God tells me that He will give me the desires of my heart. No – He won’t give me what I want, but rather what to want. And when He does, I know that He doesn’t give me the desires of my heart to frustrate them, but rather to fulfill them.
Whether it’s a beautiful amalgam of loops + journal + Bible study today, or may be a seemingly more important issue tomorrow, I’m beginning to realise that God is involved in the details of our lives.
After all, everything is small for a big God like Him.
All of this to say –
On the day that marks the beginning of the last quarter of 2021, may we pause and listen for His whisper. And as we do,
May we consider. May we follow. May we rejoice.
May we rejoice in the voice that wades through our thoughts, pierces through the dark, debunks all lies and brings forth light.
May we rejoice in the voice that lifts our spirits, cheers our hearts and encourages our souls to believe at a level that though seemingly outrageous, is only our normal.
May we rejoice in the voice that serves as our GPS and tells us to go another route even when we are convinced that we know what we are doing, and sometimes I think, precisely then.
May we rejoice in the voice that tells us enough price was paid for us to have the permission we need to be free, to be healed, to be whole and to be prosperous.
May we rejoice in the voice that tells us having seen all that you have, you haven’t seen nothing yet.
May we rejoice, friends in the voice deep within – so still, so small, so gentle, so tender – till it becomes the loudest in our lives. Till it is bigger than the narrative and clearer than the noise. Till it redefines reality and manifests life.
Till it is the sole thing that moves us, and as it does, we move mountains.
Till we let that voice win – every single time. Amplified by the sound of our obedience, and not diminished by the clanging of our fear or unbelief.
Till we let that voice have the Final Word.
Because I read the end of The Book, and my Bible says this:
Love wins.
So as I bring this letter to a close friends, I just want to ask you to heed that voice that is deep within you. It may be a tiny flicker, but as you fan it into a flame, know that it only takes a tiny match to set a forest on fire. He is in you and you are in Him – there is no more separation, but only the closeness of relationship. Father and Child enmeshed in Love, proclaiming Victory and rewriting Destiny.
You are a world-changer, just like your Daddy.
And don’t you let anyone tell you otherwise.
Here’s to Loops + Journal + Bible Study! And the treasures of wisdom that go for all eternity!
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.
“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.
SoulandSubstance27 