"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)
“When the rug was pulled out from under me, I found solid rock beneath my feet.”
A lot has been burned up. A lot has been shaken. A lot feels lost.
As I write this, I am keenly aware that so many of us have been trudging through impossible circumstances, trying to scale insurmountable mountains.
But friend, I want you to know that there is healing in the valley and there is honey in the rock.
Our setbacks may have caught us by surprise, but God knows the end from the beginning. And He still has a plan, a purpose and a sure path of victory moving forward.
Do not fear. Hold onto Hope.
All of us want to know the miracles of God, but very few of us want to know the God of miracles. The latter always requires us to be in a position where we need him to show up – a posture of vulnerability in the face of fear and uncertainty.
Here it is important for us to remember the nature and character of our God – he is rich in mercy, abounding in grace, perfect in love and unrestrained in power.
He rules the earth with the scepter of his throne, and works on the behalf of truth, humility & justice. Though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, the Word of the Lord endures forever.
Stepping into the rocky landscape of this post-pandemic world, I see God creating a new reality, and he is doing it by the power of the Spoken Word.
Certainly we have seen our circumstances cave and crumble, but the power of God’s Word has withstood the test, the tribulation, the hell, the highwater, the fire and the storm.
Jesus told us that God’s Word is firm foundation for us to build our lives on. And I have found that in a time when everything that can be shaken has been shaken, it is only that which cannot be shaken that remains – all things built upon the kingdom of God.
The kingdom still remains unshaken, and always will be.
So the waves can roar and the winds can blow, but I will be still and know –
.. the ground where I stand is not only rock solid, but rather solid Rock.
The Lord first laid this verse on my heart a couple of months back with regard to a personal initiative that I believe He is calling me to take up. Someone who absolutely delights in chronicling everything that Jesus tells me in multiple journals, I made a quick note.
But as I did, a really funny thing began to unravel in the days and weeks ahead.
What began as a fancy name for a future enterprise slowly morphed into a most stunning personal revelation. Seeking to share what I have learnt, allow me to welcome you to a tiny segment of my personal walk with Christ called,
“Small Things with Great Love.”
I believe that it was Mother Teresa who first contrived this phrase in her well-known adage,
“We cannot all do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”
Though there is much to say about our faith walk with the Lord, what I love most about it is that it can all be summed up into one simple law, the law of love – ‘and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Mark 12:30-32, ESV)
More often than not, I feel that as children of God who are learning to walk with the Lord, we can tend to overcomplicate things. We can start to think about our calling and destiny in terms of something quite spectacular and grand which will happen, ‘one day when.’
One day when I get my degree and start my practice..
One day when I get married and start my ministry..
One day when I get my breakthrough and the path ahead is cleared..
But what I have discovered is that all we ever have is the ‘here and now.’ As long as we are sowing in love in our lives on a daily basis, we can be rest assured that whatever the Lord has promised us in the ‘then and there’ will manifest most organically as a result of our humble obedience and loving devotion – right here, right now.
1.Loving God well
Our primary calling in life is to know God and love God. I have learnt by experience that what this basically means is a lifestyle of unbroken fellowship with the heart of our Perfect Father, something which doesn’t only happen in and through our spiritual disciplines like prayer and quiet time with the Lord (though those are really important!), but rather in and through the beauty of an authentic heart-to-heart connect with the Lord through the hours of our day.
In my own personal walk with Christ, I have discovered that one way to effectively put this truth into practice is to remain in a relational dialogue with the Lord as we walk through whatever it is that we are called to in our day-to-day life.
Whether it is in the context of family, community, business, workplace or ministry, what confounds us is never beyond the wisdom of heaven. I have learned the value of taking my questions to Jesus, instead of striving to find solutions in my own limited strength. What inevitably follows is not only a satisfactory response from God that promises resolution, but also strength and strategy for the journey as I embrace my process, knowing that God controls the outcomes and therefore, they remain secure.
The net result of such a lifestyle, friends is a deepened and more dependent relationship with the Father where He leads, and we follow. Walking in humble steps that keep Him involved in our daily lives not only demonstrates our love for Him, but also brings the awe and wonder of God into our otherwise mundane lives, keeping the adventure fresh and exciting.
Love, I’m learning, is its own reward.
2. Loving ourselves well
Fuelled by the transforming power of grace, rest and self-care; I am also learning the power of loving myself well. We cannot pour from an empty cup, but for my cup to run over, I not only have to receive the love of God for me in its fullness, but let my experience of that love transform the way I see myself and love myself.
Grace Talking of grace, our Father personifies it fully in the person of Jesus and as I take my cues from Him, I am learning to not be too hard on myself but rather give myself the kind of grace that I receive from the Lord too. Letting Him teach me to understand myself with mercy, not judgement has one of the most challenging yet satisfying part of my journey to wholeness thus far.
Though the times I fail or falter are many, learning to correct my posture in such times from self-condemnation to self-compassion has begun to awaken me to the truth that God does not call me to a life of perfection, but rather perspective. I wasn’t created to have it all together, but rather to bring all the messy parts of me to Jesus, letting His perfection fill in the gaps. For in Him, I am complete. The Lord couldn’t have said it better when He spoke thus to apostle Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9, ESV)
And because it is, I am learning to let go and let God. Letting God not only inhabit those spaces of my soul where His power is made perfect in my weakness but also take over as it relates to the situations and circumstances of my life, which brings me to the topic of rest.
Rest Friends, though there are many ways to practice rest, I have found that they are all rooted in one common truth – trust.
Our most basic human instinct is to have control, but the word of God says that love always trusts (1 Corinthians 13:7). Control has to do with fear, but love will inspire trust. As image bearers of God being transformed into His likeness which is the purest love ever, a huge part of our process with the Lord has to do with releasing control and replacing it with simple, childlike trust.
I am discovering that when I do what the Psalmist describes in Psalm 56:3, ESV “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you,” I immediately enter into a place of deeper rest as a result of placing my trust in the right place – Him.
Not in my limited ability, and not in the broken state of my circumstances, but rather in Jesus – the author and perfector of my faith (Hebrews 12:2). Each time I sense fear creeping up, tempting me to take control, I have to be very intentional about acknowledging that the Lord is sovereign – over every nation, every household, every heart. And if He said it, He will do it.
This is a gentle reminder that I give myself several times a day, and the more I do, the more I am able to trust Him and the more at rest I am internally.
Self-care The third counterpart in the realm of loving ourselves well that I have found, friends is self-care.
Taking the time to engage in an activity that serves to rekindle our passion and zest for life while simultaneously connect us to the heart of the Father is a wonderful way, I believe, to remind ourselves that we are worthy to be taken care of, to be nurtured, to be replenished.
A personal revival is always at the core of revival in our families and communities. Though there are several things that we can indulge in, I have learnt that commiting to what is most authentic will be the most fruitful.
For some of us, this can look like catching up with a trusted friend over coffee at Starbucks. For some, it can take the form of reading through a fictional novel that transports us and stimulates our imagination. For some, it can even be fixing a jigsaw puzzle in the cosy comfort of their home, while for others, it can look like long walks and evening strolls with Jesus.
Let me share a true story at this point. On the other side of having begun this post, I found myself thrust into an unexpected trial. Since my temperament is basically like that of a finisher, I had kept a target of 2-3 days when I would write, finish, edit, pray and publish. However, the process that the Lord had in His mind for me, was quite different.
Though I don’t believe that He causes our troubles, I do believe that He uses them for our development. And this much I knew, I had hit a valley.
As the Lord shepherded me through this difficult time, I learnt how to love myself well in a whole new way. Walking out the impact I had endured hand-in-hand with the Father, I was compelled to give myself grace even if I never completed what I had begun. And perhaps, especially then. I was inspired to take adequate rest not only physically, but also spiritually as the Lord challenged me to trust Him to complete that which He had begun. Any voice of self-condemnation was replaced by the voice of self-compassion as I took the necessary measures to heal, recover and rebound well.
Coming out on the other side, I am so pleased to share that as a result of learning to love myself well through this time, I have come forth more refined, more rested, more whole, more free and more empowered. I also feel better positioned to love my neighbour more authentically because I know what it is to love myself the way God loves me.
3. Loving our neighbour as ourselves
I believe that God deposits the seeds of a prosperous future in our present. We are summoned by Him into a lifestyle of daily devotions and daily missions where it is not so much our ability that qualifies us, but rather our availability before the Lord.
The people that He has called us to love and serve are always around and about us. So, I will share here a couple of questions I have started asking God in prayer that have empowered me to be the hands and feet of Christ to help those around me:
– Who can I help today? – Who can I encourage? – Who can I pray for? – Who can I bring loving correction to? – Who can I forgive and bless?
As I write these questions for you to ponder, I am struck by the fact that all these questions have one thing in common –
‘Who.’
I feel we can often stumble over the ‘what’ in terms of our calling/destiny. My own experience testifies. But what I am learning and seeing is that the Lord wants us to pay attention to the ‘who’ – His son or daughter that is right in front of us. And as we do, He promises to make all things manifest in His perfect way and timing.
In other words, the question perhaps is not so much as, “what am I called to do?” as it is, “who am I called to love?”
Personally, this approach has been hugely rewarding for me. I have since found myself more present in my day-to-day life. Whether it was organising a vehicle for a young girl stranded on the street desperate for a ride to her destination, fetching medication to aid the recovery of my auto-rick guy, or agreeing to speak the truth in love to a family member; walking in tune with the rhythm of the Father’s heart postures me to be more aware of and attentive to the needs of the people that God has placed in front of me – right here, right now.
For it is our obedience in the here and now that is instrumental in unlocking the realms and doors of our destiny in the then and there, simply because all that we are and all that we do is grounded in the primary call of beholding and becoming love.
The value that God places on love above all else is clearly revealed in the passage that says, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3, ESV)
I believe that God here is saying that no matter how accomplished we are, no matter how much knowledge we possess, no matter how theologically sound our doctrine is, if we have not love, we have nothing at all.
Conversely, even if the areas of our calling and destiny seem a bit obscure, we don’t need to despair. We are encouraged by heaven to start small and begin right where we find ourselves. We can all learn to love God, love ourselves and love our neighbour as ourselves right where we are at. And as we do, the Lord promises to go before and do what only He can do.
So as we walk in radical obedience friends, may we be encouraged to remember that our tiny acts of faith executed on a daily basis will inevitably add up to a glorious destiny. For the liberating truth of the Simple Gospel is that we don’t really need to do grand things for God to make a difference, but only small things with great love.
“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!
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!
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?
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, “Did God really say, ‘You 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.
We live in a world that is easily frightened by the term, “surrender.” However, it is not difficult once you recognize the Power, the Love and the Might of The One you are surrendering to.
It is a Scripture all too familiar, yet the cornerstone of our Faith,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Jesus came from Heaven to Earth, fully God and fully human. He came as a man so we could identify with Him, yet He walked the Earth in the fullness of The Holy Spirit. He endured everything that one can possibly fathom – misunderstood, rejected, betrayed, denied, crucified. In His Great Love for us that we may have a forgiveness of our past sins, a brand new start today , a Hope for the future and once our time is done, Eternal Life with God; He took the Cross. He nailed all our failures, all our weaknesses, all our limitations, all our shame, all our brokenness to that Cross at Calvary, but The Good News is that He didn’t stay there. He rose from the dead and as He was raised up, we were raised up too : free, healed, redeemed and set free! Set free from the bondage of the past, and released to experience life more abundant here on Earth and everlasting life thereafter.
Why do I take the time to write what we perhaps already know?
Because I am writing this post after a season that I have wrestled to surrender. I was enslaved within the safety of my comfort zone, yet, in His relentless Love, He came, pursued and enabled me to release that which was necessary for the ushering in of the inevitable. I realized that the end of one season is only the beginning of another, for in Christ, we only go from strength to strength and glory to glory; even when it doesn’t feel like it. We feel like holding on to the familiar, not realizing that the next level of growth and transformation awaits us outside the confines thereof. Courage comes when we remind ourselves of The One we serve – Faithful. As The Word says,
” He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”
So, I surrendered. It wasn’t easy, but it was so worth it. I am still navigating the changes that have ensued since but can testify that the point of absolute surrender is the point of absolute victory. When we surrender our will to His, a beautiful divine exchange occurs: beauty for ashes, wholeness for brokenness, Victory for defeat. Because THAT is the beauty of The Cross. Our Savior did not get stuck in a phase. Yes, He was crucified, but He rose again from the grave, and the same Spirit which raised Christ Jesus from the dead lives in us too. Suffice to say, surrender is strength, the point when we lose to Him is actually when we win. When we are at our end is usually when He steps in. As Christine Caine says,
“Impossible is where God starts, and miracles are what He does.”
So friend, if you are struggling in any area of your life right now, my encouragement is simply this, “surrender.” Give The Holy Spirit free reign to move in every facet of your life. Let Heaven invade Earth. Let His Will manifest and co-operate with the person of The Holy Spirit, till it actually does. Let go, Let Him.
SoulandSubstance27 