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Don’t Just Give God a Nod

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One of my favorite scriptures has always been Proverbs 3:5:

Trust in the Lord, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will give you the desires of your heart.  

What a wonderful promise we have in this verse, but this is a conditional promise.  If we trust in Him and acknowledge Him in all of our ways, then we can be confident that the things that burn in our hearts will be ours.  I was pondering this truth the other day and began to consider what exactly does it look like to acknowledge Him in all of my ways.  

Am I just giving God a nod?  Of course, I want to know His perspective, His answer, His leading, but am I relying far more on my preconceived ideas, traditions, ways of doing things that are just so normal that I don’t really yield them up to the Father?  It’s easy for us to think we know God and how He thinks, but often we mistakenly think He thinks the way we do.  He clearly tells us, “His ways and thoughts are higher than ours.”  He is not like us.  This is the very reason that He calls us to come up higher and transcend our earthly thinking, our habits and our ways that have been conformed in certain patterns.  We must begin to think with our spirit instead of our soul.  If we’ve been born again, then the Holy Spirit is alive within us to lead us in the way God thinks.  Jesus’ death on the Cross gave us access to Heaven’s realm, but we need to accept the invitation to “Go up!”  

Many of us have been through a long, difficult season of preparation.  That season has come to an end and we are now transitioning into a new era:  The era of living out our Kingdom Identity.   With the beginning of the new year 5780, last month, we can feel the winds changing and a new liberty of the Spirit blowing across the land.  We can sense the Lord is releasing us into the “desires of our heart,” but there is still much uncertainty to what that will really look like.   The Lord has given many words to encourage us, words that have pressed us to move past discomfort because what we’re about to experience is so unlike anything we’ve seen or known before.  The main key to all of this is to stick close to His heart and trust Him, and to be quick to obey even when we don’t understand.  It is these exciting, yet mysterious, words from the Lord that have caused me to ask if I’m only giving God a nod; is my acknowledgment of Him is just a cursory gesture or a heartfelt surrender.  

After inviting Him to come in and search my heart, He has revealed many places where I was holding on to what I thought things should look like rather than giving Him free reign to release me into the true desire of my heart.  I haven’t acted with intentional rebellion toward Him, but rather just a learned way of response and a human tendency toward comfort.    When He says “Dream Big,” it’s easy for me to get my heart set on something and form the expectation that that’s the way it’s going to be.  I have struggled with these concepts for years seeking understanding of what He really means.  When I dream I am specific; I see something and my heart longs for it to be that way.  If I was to dream about the perfect house, I would dream in every detail, the color schemes, the light fixtures, the number of rooms, the outdoor areas, etc.  I would spend countless hours imagining what this house might look like.  That’s dreaming to me!  It’s fun and exciting and when I’m finished, I’ve decided I know the desire of my heart.  The Father let me walk through this process this past year and it served as a great example to me. 

He began talking to me about moving.  I had asked about location but didn’t feel Him prompting me to leave my current location. I began looking at houses online and going to open houses.  I came up with my list of “must haves” and “wants.”  It was so much fun and soon I was chomping at the bit to move.  But then some things happened and because I wanted to be obedient and responsive to the Lord, I felt like He might be saying I needed to move to another state.  At first I was not happy about this, but I yielded and said, “Yes, Lord,” so I began researching housing in that area.  The style of houses, prices and features were completely different.  I had to shift my thoughts.  It took a while, but eventually I started to see a lot of benefits to moving to this area and I got excited about that.  The things on my “must haves” list didn’t change, they just looked different.  

After a few more months of nothing happening and no doors opening, God had me beginning to look at things from another angle and I felt impressed to consider going back to the area I am from originally.  Though this was something I have NEVER desired to do, I was getting so tired of nothing happening in my current situation that I finally said, “Yes, Lord, I will go if that’s the best place for me and my family.”  Sometimes, discomfort is a great motivator!  I began looking at houses in a third location.  Again, the styles and features of homes were completely different than the previous two locations, but I began to see many benefits there as well.  Overall, there were pros and cons to each area I looked at, but in the end, I saw that I could find my “must haves” anywhere even though they would look completely different.  

What then were the “desires of my heart,” the specific house or the “must haves?”  The “must haves” list came from what I am hoping to do with the house.  They have to do with function, not style.  As I continued to write lists of how my vision would be accomplished, regardless of location, I saw that these core values and desires have always been in my heart.  They were in my heart when I picked my last two homes even though my vision has increased and my purpose has become much clearer since then.  This process is one of the ways the Lord helps us to clarify our purpose, desire and destiny.  If we hold too tightly to the style, we may prevent God from moving us into the place of destiny and end up settling for something that is more about us than the bigger thing that God has in store.  

When we acknowledge God in all our ways, we must give Him free reign to go deep into our heart and pull out the preconceived ideas we have about how the outcome is going to look.   We can entrust our “must haves” to Him and then let Him perfectly fulfill them.  He knows the things we like and, because He is a Good Father, He delights to give good gifts to His children.  He is not limited by budget or ability.  The sky is the limit when it comes to God’s ability to fulfill a desire in the heart of His child.  Remember His glorious words in Eph 3:20:

 Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energizes you.

To acknowledge God means that we become intimately acquainted with His thoughts about our ways.  We will take the time to study Him, to discern Him, to understand why we desire something so that we can trust Him to bring it to pass.  It will require a yielding, a surrender of that desire so that we understand it at a deeper level. What is His heart cry behind it?  And most importantly, we will gain a perspective that goes far beyond us.  The Lord is likely planning to use the desire He put in your heart to satisfy the needs of many others, to cause you to not only receive a blessing, but to be a blessing.  

If we invest ourselves in developing greater intimacy with our Creator, we will discover many things about Him and about ourselves, the treasures within that He wants to bring out.  This next decade will be about Him demonstrating His power, His beauty, His authority through us.  He is going to show Himself through us!  It will be far more glorious than any of us can imagine and it will be worth the struggle and discomfort that we have endured.  He is faithful to His promises.  Do not be afraid to give Him your dreams and your ideas.  Trust Him and watch Him cause your heart to swell with delight as you see your desires fulfilled.

It’s about to happen! 

Shalom!

Faith Poured Out

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I woke up thinking about the widow in 2 Kings 4:1-7.  I’ve read the story many times, but as I pondered it again this morning, the Lord showed me something fresh.  I share it freely because there are so many out there waiting to see their promise.  Be encouraged!

The widow was left with a lot of debt and no resources to care for her sons. Elisha heard the desperate cry of this woman, a believer in Israel, and was going to show her how to receive all that God had for her.  He asked her what she had to work with and all she could see was a jar of oil.  No problem, God would take that oil, representing the anointing of the Holy Spirit that she had, her faith, and do something amazing.

Elisha instructed her to gather as many empty vessels as she could, these vessels representing situations or people in which she could express her faith or impart an anointing.  Would she seek out those opportunities and continue to express faith even in the midst of her own need?  Then he told her, “Go inside, shut the door behind you, pour into all these vessels and set aside that which is full.”  He was telling her to shut the door on the things of the world that would discourage or distract her faith, stay single focused, maintain your atmosphere of faith.  Keep pouring until there is fullness.  Verse 6 says, “When the vessels were full, she asked for another vessel but her son said there were no more.”  That’s when the oil stopped.  She was ready to continue pouring, but she had reached the time of fullness.  The oil stopped because it was time to be established, to stand in confidence and watch what God would do.

Then the prophet instructed her to sell the oil, pay your debt and live off the rest.  This is a transaction where God invites us to trade in our faith and receive our promise.  (Is 55:2)

All the time you were pouring out, God was watching and crediting it to your account, just as He did with Abraham.  Now you are about to receive the reward of your faith. Your faith was/is your currency.  It’s been stored up in your account.  God gives exponential interest and your account is now overflowing!

Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now to him who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but what is due.  But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness…  Rom 4:3-5

In this time of fullness, those that have poured out in faith, trusting God to make good on His promises though little was seen, are now going to see miraculous multiplication produce abundant overflow enabling life to be lived in fullness.  Continue to stand and hope in the Glory of God!  Our God is faithful! You are going to be revived in His fullness.

Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.  Romans 5:5

 

What Do You See?

Posted on by Posted in Biblical Holidays, devotion .

Now it was the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter.  And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon’s porch. John 10:22-23

The Feast of Dlight of the world menorahedication is Hanukkah, a time when the Jews celebrate the great deliverance that God gave them from the Greeks who were out to destroy them all. On each day of the eight-day Feast, another lamp was lit on the special 9-branched menorah called a hanukkiah. (This special menorah was created for this feast, the traditional menorah has 7 branches.) The significance of the hanukkiah represents another miracle that was given during this time of deliverance. After the Greek army had been defeated, the Jews had much work to do to restore the Temple from desecration and defilement. After cleansing the Temple, they wanted to rededicate it to God and part of that process involved lighting the menorah. Unfortunately, only one vial of oil was found. Rather than wait eight days until more oil could be obtained, they decided to light the lamp anyway. The lamp remained lit for eight days with only a one day supply. The theme of this feast is God’s salvation of the Jews and His Presence seen through the miracle of the light as the Jews dedicated themselves back to Him.

This historical event took place during the time between the Old and New Testaments. The only place it is mentioned in the Bible is in John chapter 10. Since the verse doesn’t expound on the significance of the Feast, we must look at the context to determine why it is mentioned at all. What we know is that Jesus was at the Temple observing the Feast. While the people were lighting the lamps and thanking God for preserving them, Jesus (salvation personified) walked among them.

Just prior to this verse, Jesus had been saying, “I am the Door” to the sheepfold and “I am the Good Shepherd.” He was talking about the great care the shepherd provides for his sheep, that he is not like the hired hand that turns and runs when danger comes. He was painting a familiar picture for people who had intimate knowledge of shepherds and sheep. Surely, they could relate to what He was communicating to them. Why then does verse 19 say that His words created a great division among the people. Some were probably hanging on His every word, touched by the deep love that was emanating from Him. They were being drawn toward Him. Others were infuriated, calling Him demon-possessed and insane. How could this Man’s words create such opposite reactions?

In the chaos of this divided group, they huddled around Jesus and begged Him to tell them if He was the Christ, the anointed One that was to come. Jesus’ response was not a direct answer to their question, but it did provide the answer they were seeking. He said, “I told you, and you do not believe, the works I do in my Father’s name, these testify of Me.” He was directing them to not only listen to His Words, but to see His works. His works were fulfilling prophecy that had been passed down through the ages. So how could they miss it, why couldn’t they see?

This is a question we must all ask ourselves. There are times in life when we just “can’t see” an answer for our questions. The problem lies in our expectations. What are we looking for? We expect the answer to come in one way, but if it doesn’t appear in that form, we don’t recognize it as the answer. That’s what these unbelievers did. They expected the Messiah to look differently. They expected Him to act differently, to do different works. Yet, here He was in the Temple, while they were celebrating the Lights of Hanukkah, walking and talking among them, testifying to the fact that He was the very Light they were celebrating. He was not trying to hide His identity. Those who were truly seeking Him had eyes to see and ears to hear His Voice, the True Shepherd. These people heard the words of prophecy and kept their eyes of faith open, expecting that God would reveal Truth to them. The others were seeking their own man-made image of Messiah, one that would satisfy their expectations. They weren’t willing to change their minds to align with God. They had their own agenda. The scripture says, “it was the Feast of Dedication and it was winter.” In the midst of the warm glow of the lights, many had cold hearts.

As we celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas this year, consider the question, “What do you see?” You have heard many words of prophecy about Jesus, about the Kingdom of God, about His Second Coming and the End-times. What do you believe about these things? What are you looking for? Have you limited the answers to what you can understand with human reason, or are you willing to consider that God can do things any way He likes, even if it doesn’t make sense? Or are you even looking? Have you considered that you might have to be active in seeking to understand the stories (which are prophecies) you’ve read about Jesus’ Second Coming. Headlines will not be written in the sky! It takes faith to believe what we don’t fully understand, but that is the exciting journey of walking with God. He will show us as we go. If we’re not willing to go on the journey, we get left behind in a sea of unbelief and disappointment.

Take another look at things that are familiar to you and see in a new way. Allow the Lord of Light to give you new vision to see beyond what you’ve been able to see in the past. Listen to the sounds of the season and hear a new sound. The Voice of the Good Shepherd is calling His sheep to come to Him and be saved, to be delivered from the evil that seeks to destroy. He will light a new path for you. He is the Light of Life.

Happy Hanukkah!

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