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Follow Me

The problem with me is that I want the adventure of living by faith but I am not always so thrilled about the risk. Recently we made a decision that was really a step of faith. After seeking the Lord we felt certain it was what He wanted us to do. The problem is that after the fact a situation arose that caused us to question if we had missed Him. I stayed unsettled for too long as far as I am concerned until the Lord showed me what was wrong. He told me you want to come out on the limb with Me but at the same time you want Me to promise you I won’t saw it off. If you are going to trust me to get out on the limb then you must trust what I chose to do once you are there. You see once I find a level of uncertainty I am comfortable with Jesus always comes along and says go further.

When my relationship with Him becomes obscured it is often because I am not walking in agreement with where He has me at a given point in time. Maybe you can relate. I am always amazed at how simple it is yet why I could not see it before I do not know. It’s like yes I want to follow you but ….. How many examples are given in the word of those who wanted to follow but with conditions attached? In one instance Jesus said, "He who puts His hand to the plow and looks back is not worthy of the kingdom". We don't like to think about that much, but Jesus just has a way of cutting to the chase as they say. Obedience takes faith, period. You can walk by faith or walk by sight but you can't do both.

Following Him must always be about who we are following and never about the outcome. Because we have lived in the world so long sometimes we are deceived into thinking this is reality when that is a lie, and so are all the ways of this worlds system we use to justify our disobedience. To be sure our loyalty to Jesus will be put to the test in a number of ways because He wants to know what is more important to us, our relationship with Him or a false sense of security.

More often than not I have found the thing Jesus is after in me is getting me to be still and trust and not think that I have to do something. Waiting can be so hard sometimes. I have yet to meet anyone who finds it enjoyable. Doing nothing can be hard because that is not the way of the culture in which I grew up. Again, there is that dying to self thing. Geez, it never goes away.

Passivity

Passivity: The condition or quality of being passive; inactivity, quiescence, or submissiveness.

1. passivity - the trait of remaining inactive; a lack of initiative

2. passivity - submission to others or to outside influences

submissiveness - the trait of being willing to yield to the will of another person or a superior force etc.

I have been hearing the Spirit of the Lord saying to the church for some time now as have others, “Rise up, rise up, rise up.” He began speaking that message before the spirit of passivity was even apparent, and now I understand why. God is ALWAYS ahead of the enemy even when it doesn’t look that way.

The enemy is attempting to lull people into a state of passivity and in many cases has already succeeded by causing many to believe their situation is a result of what is going on in Washington and the economy and as a result, hopeless. It is a LIE. The devil has gotten people to believe the lie more than they believe His word. Many believe with a conditional faith based on what is going on around them. It isn’t what others are saying, it isn’t what is being said on the news or what is being spoken in Washington that is the problem, and it is what we are saying to ourselves in response to what we are hearing. That is the problem. God is a God of Covenant. His ability to keep His part of that covenant has absolutely nothing to do with what is going on in the economy, Washington or any place else for that matter. He is the God that created the universe simply by speaking. The worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. We read the account in Genesis where over and over it states, and God said. We must remember the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy but Jesus came that we might have life and have it to the full. I am not talking about a short term situation here, I am talking about one that drags on and on with no relief in sight. Even when God brought judgment on Egypt because of Pharaoh in Genesis, His people were taken care of i.e. their needs were met. I'm not referring to living in self indulgence and excess. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

John 3:16 God so loved the world that he gave his one and only

son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

To perish means more than just ending up in hell at the end of our life. It is defined as suffering complete ruin or destruction.

I am not referring to people who didn’t consult God about their decisions and acted in rebellion. That’s another post. I am speaking to those who walk with God, who include Him in their day to day decisions of life, even if you made a mistake and missed it. Nor am I referring to those who think godliness is a means to financial gain, (although given the majority of what is being preached in America it's no wonder why). Even the Word says that such people end up piercing themselves through with many griefs.

The funny thing about people who really love God and want to know Him are the ones who are more prone to being deceived into blaming themselves for what has happened which in turn causes guilt, condemnation and leads people to be passive in the way they navigate through financial crisis which I believe is exactly what the devil wants. It is a little difficult to walk in your authority in Christ if you’re in a mind battle over ‘whose fault is it anyway’? kind of thing.

I know I have put this scripture in several of my last posts but it is so suitable for this subject. This time however I am going to use the Amplified version (bold print mine).

Isaiah 60:1-3 ARISE [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you--rise to a new life]! Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord), for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you! For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and dense darkness [all] peoples, but the Lord shall arise upon you [O Jerusalem], and His glory shall be seen on you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

One of the things God is accomplishing through financial crisis for those whose hearts and minds are fixed on Him is to bring us to the place of realizing that our only true wealth is in Christ and Christ alone. We are in the world, BUT we are not of it! God desires for us to come to a place of being content in any and all situations and the only way to do that is by abiding IN Christ, not merely going to church.

John 3:16 God so loved the world that he gave his one and only

son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

To perish means more than just ending up in hell at the end of our life. It is defined as suffering complete ruin or destruction.

I know I have put this scripture in several of my last posts but it is so suitable for this subject. This time however I am going to use the Amplified version (bold print mine).

God Always Keeps His Promises

God is not a man, that He should lie,
nor a son of man, that He should change his mind.
Does He speak and then not act?
Does He promise and not fulfill?

Numbers 23:19

We have all had people in our life at one time or another who have made promises to us and even though made with the best of intentions, they failed to do what they said they would. It can be especially painful if that person was a parent. Often it is these experiences which inhibit our ability to trust God. When I say “promises” I am not referring to the whole written word of God, although His word is forever settled in heaven and the absolute truth, I am talking about what God speaks to us personally from His written word to our hearts through specific passages of scripture, or something He says through another person concerning us that upon hearing it causes our faith to rise because we bear witness with what is being spoken. Trusting that He will do what He says is essential to walking by faith and faith is essential to walking in obedience. The Word tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word (the rhema or utterance) of God. Faith is an action word, not a meditative word. Faith walks in accordance to what God has spoken no matter what the circumstances look like. Faith doesn’t deny circumstances like some have done in the past when the word of faith movement went off in the ditch and people would walk around hacking there heads off denying how they felt in their bodies because they (erroneously) believed acknowledging it was a denial of their faith that through Jesus they were healed.

One thing I have learned over the years, when God speaks or breaths into you through His Word, come what may, if you will mix what you hear with faith nothing in the natural will be able to steal it from you. But often what we stand on isn’t a word God has breathed into our spirit, but a passage of scripture we have grabbed to keep from being tossed to and fro or something someone else says may be the truth, but has not been made our truth.

As I have walked through some of the most trying circumstances the past few years I have come to realize delightfully that when God speaks it has absolutely nothing to do with what is going on in the natural. His ability to perform His word isn’t altered by the severity of circumstances. When God says He is going to heal you it matters not whether you have the least of symptoms or go to deaths door, He is going to do what He says. He speaks according to His eternal power and unchanging nature and character. But how often does our faith waiver when the situation gets worse, which most often it does. Or He speaks when we are in a financial crisis and things go from bad to worse and we start to doubt what He has said. Because God is holy, He can't violate His word. God and His word are one. Oh, how that needs to be true of us as well.

There is an account in Mark 2 where Jesus is being harassed because when Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, "Son your sins are forgiven you". The scribes accused him of blasphemy. Jesus’ response was, “Which is easier to say, 'your sins be forgiven', or to say, “Arise, take up your bed and walk?" You see it wasn’t a matter of natural circumstances but of the authority of the one who was speaking. His authority doesn’t change. He has it all according to Matthew 28:18. Whether He exercises it to heal you of a cold, or to raise you from a death bed, His word will not return to Him void without accomplishing what it was sent for.

Faith

"Faith grows in the space between where you thought God should intervene and where God actually does intervene". -Jenetzen Franklin

Faith

He has fenced up my way so that I cannot pass;
and has set darkness in my paths. Job19:8

Have you ever found yourself feeling that God himself has walled you in? That in spite of exercising your authority in Christ over your circumstances nothing has changed. That everywhere you turn is an obstacle and you feel surrounded by darkness rather than light? All of us at some time or another will experience these times, no matter how spiritual we are, and more likely because we are spiritual. I have found myself in such a place for much longer than ever before but oddly I am now drawing strength from what I am learning rather than becoming weakened through the process. It didn’t start out that way though, trust me.

What do you do when all you hear from Him are the words “stand” and “wait”, especially when it seems that where you are standing is in the middle of a train track and what you “seem” to be waiting for is the train? I used to think that being in darkness was a sign of a lack of spirituality and what's more, not being able to explain why signified an even greater measure of that lack. I don’t think that anymore, and if you have been like I was, neither should you.

We need to realize that it is during those times that true faith is made manifest and if we will submit to the Lord in it, we will become stronger. I think sometimes we want to understand the why of what we are going through but for the wrong reason. It is one thing to want to learn from our mistakes (what have I done that has brought this about?) and that has it’s place, but too often I think our desire to understand, to want to be able to connect all the dots or cross all the T’s and dot all the I’s comes from our inability to just trust Him. We want to know what God’s purpose is for this, why has He allowed this, and the desire to want to know that is one thing, but could it be that we want to draw our comfort and peace as well as put our faith in what we understand and can figure out rather than trusting the God we feel has left us? As much as I would love to say I never experience times where it seems God has taken a holiday the truth is I can’t. And from what I have learned over the years, neither can anyone else I know who has learned to really trust Him.

How can we connect all the dots when trying to walk with a God of mystery, no matter how much of that mystery He has chosen to reveal to us He is a God of understanding that cannot be fathomed and of wisdom that cannot be measured and yet we will try like the dickens to rationalize the circumstances we find ourselves in because they are so contrary to what we believe they should be.

Consider King David, referred to by God to be a man after his own heart and yet over and over through out scripture we read of times where he felt cut off from the Lord, where he felt he was at the gate of death itself, times where he was surrounded by the enemy and surrounded by darkness as well. What a source of encouragement God has given us in the Psalms as David penned his struggles as well as his victories and allowed us to peer into the reality (not the false preconceived idea of what being spiritual looks like), of the life of a man who was intimately acquainted with God.

But the word tells us, ”Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality (faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses).” Hebrews 11:1 Amplified.

The most important exercise of our faith during these times is believing that God does love me, that my way is not hidden from Him nor my cause disregarded by Him, even when everything seems to be screaming the opposite, which is probably why we have such a hard time hearing the still small voice of the shepherd, yet He has promised to never leave us nor forsake us.

Peace, Peace

There is peace in the midst of the storm. Peace isn’t in knowing how it will all play out but in knowing without a doubt that He will come, that He already has come. Our anxiety rises to an all time high when we fear not so much that He won’t come but that He won’t come in the way we desire or think He should. But when we find that place of peace and calm in the eye of the storm it no longer matters how He comes but we realize that He already has and that He has in fact entered into the storm with us and provided a place of rest. That is why our hope and trust must be in Him not in how He will do something or what He will do. I know without a doubt He is my green pasture and my quiet waters but how many times have I failed to recognize this and thought my green pastures and quiet waters are the outcome of a situation going the way I want. Have you ever been there? There is only one place our soul can find rest and that is in Him alone.

Psalm 62:1-2 My soul finds rest in God alone, my salvation

comes from Him, He only is my rock and my fortress.

I shall not be moved.

I find it to be such a paradox that when I find this place (the place of rest and peace in who He is rather than what He does) I also find the faith that truly believes nothing is impossible with Him. This faith that is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen can not be present when there is any measure of anxiety inside of us, but when we come to this place of faith we are no longer fighting the fear of what if, because we are so at peace and rest in Him that the “what if” no longer matters.

I see this picture of a girl following the Master up the steep mountain that He has promised leads to a wonderful place, a place that she has longed to go and asked for him to take her. But the only way to get there is by climbing up. At times filled with doubt that He even knows for sure where He is going, at other times filled with doubt that this could possibly lead to anywhere good. Can you relate? She asks the Master,” Are you sure this is the right path”? She not only questions the way they are going but the condition she will be in when they do finally get there after having to climb so high. “Do we really have to climb this steep mountain to get to this spacious, peaceful place I have heard so much about? Are you sure there isn’t another way?” And He confidently reassures her, “Yes my child I am sure, just trust me, it will be all that you imagined and more.”

There are times in our lives when choosing to follow Him is going to lead down obscure paths and hidden ways, with plenty of opportunities for questions to go unanswered and things we just won’t understand. It won’t always be comfortable and often it won’t be the easy way, but it will most assuredly be the path that leads to the life in Him we long for and are searching for. That is why it requires faith because there are times that what we see in the natural will simply contradict the picture of the outcome He has promised to us and to which we are following Him. But He knows the desires of our hearts, the desires created by His dreams for us before we were ever born; and He alone is the only one who knows the path we must take for the fulfillment of them.

As Bill Johnson says, “The cross is living between the revelation God has given of our purpose and are willing to lay down our lives for and the circumstances we find ourselves in that contradict what He has shown us.” To take up that cross requires faith indeed. No amount of understanding will ever suffice nor will He give it for then it wouldn’t be faith. That is why the peace Jesus gives is truly peace that passes all understanding.

Resting in God

In an email I read this morning there was something said about not being afraid of the grandeur of God and to never shrink back in unbelief. Have you ever had God show you something or speak something to you that just seemed to good to be true? That is what I thought about at first. It was about God's provision and in my mind I could see God showing me the splendor of His kingdom and me shrinking back not only because of a wrong perception of myself, but also because I forget that the fulfillment of His word depends on Him, not me.

As I pondered that I realized how important it is that we see ourselves through His eyes. Have you ever realized how much the way you see yourself afffects the way you see God? As well as affecting your ability to receive from Him. I thought about Abraham and I thought about the Israelites and the difference in the way they walked out Gods promise.

Abraham not being weak in faith, did not consider his own body, already dead in terms of his ability to reproduce, and the deadness of Sarah's womb yet he did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strentgthened in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what God had promised He was also able to perform (Romans 4:19-20). Contrast that with the Israelites and their unwilllingness to obey the command of the Lord to take possession of the land, hence they ended up on a 40 year trip that should have taken 11 days.

Two things come to my mind here. One is the difference in their perception of God which in turn affected their perception of themselves. Second, what Abraham understood that the Israelites didn't is that when God makes a promise it is based on His ability to perform it, not ours. He watches over His word to perform it (Jerimiah 1:12), but have you ever been guilty of receiving a promise from Him then make the mistake as I know I have in thinking it depended on you for it to be fulfilled? Is it any wonder that sometimes even though we have a "word" we still find ourselves battling rather than resting? We don't doubt God's ability to do what he says, I think we just forget He is the one "doing" and not us. That would be the defining thing that determines whether or not we enter His rest. We see in Hebrews that they (the Israelites) were not able to enter because of unbelief, which in turn caused them to disobey.

Be careful about how you perceive yourself. Don't let a religious spirit keep you from seeing yourself through His eyes. It will make the difference in how you respond to the goodness of God in giving you His word to hold on to and whether or not you enter into His "rest" or continue to fight with something you have no control over anyway.

Mystery

My main interpretive task, as I understood it, was to distill from the Bible principles, technique, a series of points to ponder or steps to take. It was to compress the infinite into the numeric, corral the miraculous into the pragmatic, tidy the messy earthiness of the Bible into a neat-edged moral-ism, parse its poetry into prose – or worse, propositions. In short, it was to banish mystery…… The worst consequence of losing our imagination, our wonder, is that we no longer see the Christ-ward life as an adventure. We see it as a duty, a chore, a list of dos, don’ts, and how-tos. We think the point of life is to stay safe and undisturbed as possible. We think borderland is not a bad place to live. The stories we read in Acts about the church “turning the world on its head” (Acts 17:6) – well, what would that kind of thing do to our tax-exempt status?”

Taken from: Your God Is Too Safe: Rediscovering the Wonder of a God You Can’t Control by Mark Buchanan

How true this is. We are drawn by your majesty and mystery,yet at the same time scared to death of it. Your majesty that speaks of your omniscience, omnipotence and beauty that words can't describe that makes us feel safe while at the same time makes us feel vulnerable. Because that same majesty that tells us of your power and might also demands a surrendering of ourselves to the very omniscience and omnipotence it displays. And of your mystery; we love that you are mysterious but then we want so much to be able to dictate when you are mysterious and when you are not. We want to tell you when and how to reveal yourself. We even fast and pray in hopes of somehow bringing you under control by our actions, that by our doing something we can push some cosmic spiritual button to get you to behave in the way we desire. and how offended we can be when you don’t.

It is true there is part of us that desires a God who is safe, but then a God who is "safe" is not the God who came to save us. A safe God is not one who would risk it all by coming to earth via the womb of a woman to reconcile men to himself. As you have often reminded me; I want you, but I want you on my terms and you will not be had that way. The truth is although I am not always comfortable with that I am also glad, because if I could have you that way it would make you less than what you are. I would rather know you in truth even if I am offended by what you reveal than to not know you at all. I realize more and more that if I would live the life you have chosen for me, the more I will have to live by faith. Faith is what draws you, and the atmosphere in which you dwell. The problem with knowledge is it seeks to create an environment in which faith becomes unnecessary. Yet without faith it is impossible to please you.
January 25, 2010

Follow Me

Passivity

God Always Keeps His Promises

Faith

Faith

Peace, Peace

Resting in God

Mystery

About Me

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