I found myself weeping before the Lord this morning as I passionately renounced my most beloved and oldest demon friends for the thousandth time, and then longingly looked back at them heartbroken as the walked away at God’s command.
I cried out, “God, I don’t know why I’m doing that! I hate them! I don’t want them! And a part of me loves them and wants them back already! Help me, God!!! Help me!”
“Worship me,” he whispered. I felt the soft touch of his gentle calloused hand gathering up the tears on my cheeks.
A touch from the Master had already begun to sand away another rough spot on my broken heart. His calloused hand. A perfectly divine, resurrected body with a calloused hand and a rough, scratchy cheek and coarse dark hair.
He smelled like sunshine and cedar.
I wept. Jesus wept. We wept together for the death of Lazarus in my own heart.
“Lift your head, weary sinner,” He whispered.
Worship me.
I tell Google to play Lift Your Head Weary Sinner and I worship. I weep and worship and weep and sing at the top of my lungs. Let the chains fall! Let the chains fall! My repentance becomes worship. I worship.
Worship me.
Daddy’s personal playlist for me kicked into full gear. There is an Anchor played next.
I kept my head lifted up and I fixed my eyes on the Lord’s gaze. I’d renounced and confessed and repented. I’d worshiped. Our eyes stayed locked. He sees and he loves. He sees me. And he loves me.
O Lord, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. 5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. Psalm 139:1-6 ESV
I felt so much relief. The Lord and I were locked in unity. I allowed Him to keep my gaze, despite my fear and my torment, and He saw me. He saw all of me.
He has always seen everything in me, every darkness, every fear, and He loves me.
All those long lost beloved friends of perdition who whisper on the winds of my memories, with their shame and death and suffering, all just disappear into the glorious light. I know my gaze will wander. And I know His gaze wont falter even when mine does.
I don’t have to always understand. I doubt. I fear. I worry. I am human. I was born on a train bound for death. And Jesus loves me. He offers Himself up to me so we can be one.
And I am reminded again that we are One. Oh, the audacity to consider my fears more terrible than God’s power! His light washes away everything that isn’t light.
In Him there is no darkness.
5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5 ESV
I will worship Him.
I choose to be blinded by His love for me, bound on a train for Glory instead of death, no matter what familiar demons I hear screaming out the window.
It’s hard to imagine isn’t it? Divine collaboration. Sounds like something out of a cerebral mythology thesis. At least it does to me. Yet, those are the words that keep coming to mind.
“Daddy,” I asked. “What do you want from me? What do you want from Your Church?”
With a wink and a contagious grin the size of galaxies colliding, he replied, “I want Divine Collaboration.”
This is an honorific to Him, I can tell. It’s a title he likes to pin on all His kids. We are all his Divine Collaborators. And I could tell He was thrilled that he’d gotten my attention.
Perplexed and definitely curious, I said, “Please explain.”
I am a philosopher and processing with God is something I like to savor. I want to stew and chew and taste every scoop of insight the Lord ever gives me. I feel delightfully compelled to savor and digest the nuanced flavor profile of God’s interactions, not just with me, but with his Body and with his Creation. I’ve learned a lot eating at the Lord’s table with Him. We talk. A lot.
The other day I was talking to a friend about this tattoo idea I had and all of a sudden I heard myself say, “It’s kind of like this ‘divine collaboration’ between God and me.” It just made sense to me to say it that way.
I had to smile. There it was again.
My husband and I took a road trip last month to celebrate our anniversary. We drove along part of the iconic Route 66 through Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona all the way to the Grand Canyon. As we drove through high desert devoid of much life and saw rock formations that put modern architecture to shame, I heard it again: divine collaboration.
At the Petrified Forrest National Park.
The land spoke to me as I marveled at the spectacles and grandeur created where infinite pale sky meets striated rocks in various stages of petrification and erosion. I felt the profundity of time’s endlessness: infinitely changing and staying the same all at once. I had never felt closer to my Father God, the Creator of All Things than I did in those moments of experiencing his Creation. His words were clear: this is divine collaboration.
As I experienced the beauty of God’s world in all its intricacy I began to pray for the people who lived there, and I felt the land speak to my heart about them: these people that God loved so dearly and who had been so horribly abused by the “progress” of European settlers. I wept and prayed and wept and prayed. I fell in love with those impoverished and yet resilient indigenous people who continued to hold on through the worst types of adversity. Serious divine collaboration.
It’s so much more than just a “good conversation” with Jesus.
1So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,a6who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,b7but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,c being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:1-11 ESV
Even Jesus didn’t consider equality with God something to be grasped, but he accepted it anyway and obediently emptied himself from fear and doubt and the entitlement of his status, and trusted that His Father in Heaven had his back and they were a team, even if it didn’t feel like it sometimes.
Jesus humbled himself to the point of death on a cross because He trusted God.
1Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Ephesians 5:1
How can we possibly be like Jesus? Jesus divinely collaborated with the God of the Universe, while considering equality with God something beyond his grasp, and obediently and humbly received and obeyed, even in angst, even in hunger, even in torment, even in fear. He conquered because he humbled himself and obeyed in perfect unity with God.
Even though obedience made him look like a slave.
So maybe trusting God in obedience isn’t slavery, even if it might look like it is? Maybe obedience is actually divine collaboration. Maybe choosing to humble oneself, one can find exaltation in the Living God and be empowered in His Righteousness to be joint heirs with Christ.
14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sonsf of God. 15For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Romans 8:14-17 ESV
Divine collaboration: to trust that even obedience unto death will gain eternal reward and glory for God AND you.
It can be unimaginably painful, I’m not going to sugar coat it. Yet, I know that suffering pays beautiful dividends for those who are willing to learn and grow from it. Empathy, courage, salvation. It all come from suffering. Death and suffering are not the end for those who are in Christ Jesus. We know, because of Christ’s example of trust and faith, that God will be faithful to us as well.
God doesn’t want mindless robots. He’s not going to force you to do anything. He asks. He always asks, because he loves you. He offers this divine collaboration to anyone who would accept it. If you can get over yourself long enough to believe that it might actually be better with God than without, to accept for even just a moment that God is in fact good and trustworthy, you too can have this beautiful title of “Divine Collaborator”.
Divine collaboration means trusting God, submitting to God, and then freely talking to God without fear of condemnation.
Daddy didn’t get angry with Jesus when he questioned Him in Gethsemane. He listened. He comforted. He strengthened. And Jesus endured to the end. He trusted the Father, and on the third day was resurrected from the dead.
Jesus obeyed God and was raised up in Glory.
We have seen the truth of who God is in the flesh of Jesus Christ, and we believe in our hearts through faith, that God raised him from the dead and he will one day do the same for us. We are saved from death into life and from orphan to first born son. God wants us to be his friends. He wants unity in love. Unity in love means divine collaboration. It means trusting that the source of love and life is from God and endowed to his children with generosity.
Divine collaboration isn’t passive. It isn’t selfish. It isn’t arrogant. To walk in Divine collaboration with God is to actively believe in the reality of your shameless and righteous status as a child of God and fearlessly “approach the throne of grace with confidence” (Heb 4:16) not just to receive forgiveness of sins, but to be lifted up into glory with God himself and receive wisdom and comfort from Him for eternity. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship.
Refuse to be silent receivers of God’s mercy and love. Choose instead to be Divine Collaborators. Let’s use the tools we have been given, infused with the Holy Spirit and the many gifts He has provided us, and share our thoughts and ideas with Jesus with confidence. Realize that He’s already decided to “use the foolish things to confound the wise” (1 Cor 1:27) so we can stop worrying about if God really wants to hear from us or not. Trust me, he does. No, we’re not worthy of it on our own, but we’re not our own if we’ve given ourselves to Jesus.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV
Divine Collaboration with one another is equally valuable. God’s obedient and loving children are a collective force.
We are stronger together as Christ’s body here on Earth. Know that we are all one with Our Father in Heaven by His Spirit. We should be unified as His image bearers and as walking tabernacles of His Presence.
Let us each humble ourselves and be divine collaborators together with our Lord.
In the shade, horse lips, slobbery tongue Wet, insistent partnership Hidden in pockets filled with treats Crunchy kibble, bite size chunks–apple flavored.
Broken knees walk tilted steps for Soft velvet muzzle kisses Require persistent apple flavored treat Refined little nuggets so nutrient rich.
Consolation prize, the real prize, The prize fight where bloodied broken lips nuzzle For treats but won’t let you close Without nutritious apple snacks
Compressed into consolation prizes Not worth fighting for Broken compressed nothing until one taste Sweet consolation prize.
No perfect knees Gone adolescent exuberance compressed into Bite size tasty treats Full of insight, treasure trove of consolation prizes.
Compressed caesura, transcendent requiem Clarity unaltered by self-righteous indignation, Or sharp and critical loathing disguised as wit. Sharp as cataclysmic disregard and invalidation.
Presumptive triumph compressed Into juicy little broken bits Of delicious apply flavored kibble Not fit for human consumption.
Ever onward unstable legs! Forward Ho! Broken bones and curious scars. Preemptive strike in Bright white light that shines in the darkness and cannot be overcome.
Courageous strength submits to Truth; Submits to life and powerlessness. Acceptance amidst fear and pain and more of the same. Love breathed Life, presumed consolation prize.
Persistent partnership, with death defeated And the darkness exposed for all to see. No need to rehash every crunchy delicious apple flavored tidbit. More than growth has been given to me
For I have seen the invisible, Delicious apocalyptic revelation Choreographed by the Creator of the Universe So that the Darkness that battled to define me no longer has a say.
Immovable Rock, Source of abundant life. His life for mine will never count as wasted consolation prize.
then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature Genesis 2:7
If you follow my blog, or know me well in person, then you know that I was on a ventilator last year for almost two weeks. (You can read all the details about it here) I don’t remember it. Not really anyway. All I know is that everyone but my husband knew I was going to die. It was a grievous time. People flocked to the hospital to give their respects. To say goodbye. To offer comfort. Doctors told my husband to say goodbye to me multiple times.
People say that the ventilator kept me alive. People are saying that a lot right now because of Covid-19. Hospitals need ventilators to breathe for people and keep them alive. But the source of life will never be a ventilator.
The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. 1 Samuel 2:6
When you need a ventilator they have to restrain you so you don’t do something stupid while you’re heavily sedated. (Like I did when I self extubated and should have died…you can read more about that fun story here.) And the Church has definitely been restrained. Public gatherings have been shut down.
Jesus has shown me the Church as it gasps for breath. In these wretched days, a ventilator seems like the only thing that will keep us alive, whether we’ve gotten sick or not. Bills need to be paid. Congregations need comfort and encouragement. How can any of this happen while we practice social distancing? Zoom can’t be our new normal, can it? It’s just a stop gap, right? Until we can breathe on our own again, right?
But, wait a second. Are we even supposed to be breathing on our own?
Jesus Christ is the breath of life.
When I self-extubated my lungs should have collapsed. Instead I began to breathe “on my own.” But here’s a news flash, folks: I know full well I wasn’t breathing on my own. Jesus breathed for me.
I pray that the beautiful body of Christ would stop looking for ventilators. I know it seems logical. I know it makes sense from human standards. I know that a ventilator kept me alive last Summer. But Jesus showed me that He alone keeps me alive. He alone is my breath. He alone is our breath.
“Do you think that’s air you’re breathing now?” ~ Morpheus, The Matrix (1999)
Maybe being extubated is exactly what we need. We know right now that we can’t breathe on our own. We just can’t. All the things we keep doing are helpful, even encouraging to us. We want to do something. We need to do something. It helps us feel like we are contributing to the life of the Church still somehow. If we keep those tubes of action in place we don’t have to die.
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
John 12:24
Zoom and Facebook and YouTube have been useful and beautiful. Wanting to live has value! And these tools have shown us what matters and what doesn’t. My prayer is that they don’t become just another way for us to live without Jesus.
I can tell you, I shouldn’t be alive. Not by human wisdom. But Jesus could care less about human wisdom, and so I am alive.
Can we trust Him in this? Can we look to the Breath of Life for our resuscitation? Can we trust Him? Will we trust Him?
Lord, thank you for Zoom and Facebook. Thank you for exhorters and encouragers who say hard things. Thank you for teachers and pastors who tenderly show us the Word of Life and offer us comfort. Thank you for servants who weep for our needs in prayer and give beyond their means financially to support the Church. Thank you, Father, that each member is a part of one body, Your Body. Thank you that each of us brings something unique and beautiful to this mess that is the Church. Help us to love one another and consider others higher than ourselves. Let us love without judgment. Let us trust that You are working even when we can’t seem to work together or have opposing points of view. You are on Your Throne and that is something that we can all agree with. Bring us unity. Restore Your Church, Heavenly Father. Bring Jesus back. Set things right once and for all. Breathe for us, Daddy. Amen.
You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:48
That’s a lot of pressure! Be perfect, Jesus? Or, uh, how about try to be perfect? Trying is good, right?
I admit it. That verse has always confounded me. I was taught as a child to be my own worst critic. I was taught to seek nothing less than perfection. So, you better believe, I know full well just how imperfect I really am.
I am not perfect. And neither are you.
So, does that mean we’re hosed? Have we caught Jesus suggesting we do something that is impossible?
For nothing will be impossible with God. Luke 1:37
There you have it, folks. Nothing will be impossible for God. God can do anything he wants. God gets to be perfect.
Do you remember us talking about this the other day? No? We did. When we talked about sharing God’s glory, we talked about the living God within us. Remember? That’s the reason we can share His Glory. And guess what, there’s other stuff of His we get to share!
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons[f] of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Romans 8:14-17
Being perfect plays right into the truth of who we are. We are no longer slaves to sin, but sons of the Living God, with the Spirit of God living within us. Yes, even us girls are still sons. (Just like men get to be brides of Christ.)
We are made to be perfect. Yes. Perfect.
There are some caveats to that perfection, though. It seems that suffering plays a vital role in that. Paul said, “provided we suffer.” So, God’s a sadist? Certainly not! But, boy oh boy, when we suffer for the Lord we sure do learn a lot about Him! Just like He showed us He knew a lot about us by submitting to death–even death on a cross!
This world is broken, we’re going to suffer. But God made a way for that. God made suffering a vital part of our journey. Not because He’s a sadist, but because God makes all things new. God brings encouragement from the worst of situations. God takes death and restores it to life.
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a]6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,[b]7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[c] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:1-11
I know that was a mouthful of scripture. Maybe even a mouthful you just skimmed over because you already know what it says. Or maybe you just got intimidated. If so, go back and read it. I’ll wait.
Now that that’s done, let’s continue. We need to act like Christ. When we act like Christ we are doing something very, very special. We are walking in unity with him and with everyone else who is doing the same. When we walk in Christ, submitting to Him, listening to Him, and being in Him, we are…wait for it…
Being perfect.
I’ll let that sink in a minute.
It doesn’t matter what you think, or what you feel. You feel inadequate? You are! You feel weak? You are! You don’t know the answers? You don’t have to.
Because Jesus. Jesus is doing all the work. He’s bringing death to life. And He’s doing it in you.
You heard me. Jesus. Only Jesus. All Jesus all the time. When you’re in Him, you are perfect. When you’re not, you’re not. So, go be perfect, my loves! Go be perfect!
Here’s a link to a sermon I preached on this subject shortly after I wrote this blog. Enjoy.
30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. Romans 8:30
“Tell them to come and join us in our Glory,” my Lord said.
I thought about it for a moment. Did He just say Our Glory? Like the Holy Trinity Glory? Or was He saying something else? Something allegorical or maybe symbolic? I felt a rush of excitement. My heart pounded as I felt my Lord move me around the empty dance floor. I could see the throngs of people watching us. I wanted them to be with us. And I suddenly knew that’s what He wanted, too. He wanted them to join us in Our Glory.
“Invite them to join us in our Glory,” He said again.
In the natural world, about half of the ten or so people in the prayer room I was in had fallen to their faces in worship. I wanted to say, “Come join us in His Glory!” but no words would come out.
“Not right now,” the Lord said.
As my Lord and I danced, the Glory of His Presence surrounded me and guided me lightly around the golden dance floor. I hid His words in my heart.
“Tell them to join us in our Glory. Our Glory.”
Ours.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Romans 8:15-17
I hear the Lord calling me closer. I feel His longing for our reunion. I feel His heart palpitate with eagerness and excitement. His sweet Bride will one day share fully in His Awesome Glory. But even now, even waiting, He is beckoning us closer and closer to Him, to share His Glory in this dark and broken world.
We live in a world withering away from the cancer of sin that has plagued it for so long. This sin tears us down, taunts us with shame, throws us into fear, and rules over us with nothing but death. But the Lord has brought us Light. Beautiful, beautiful light.
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our[a] joy may be complete. 1 John 1:1-4
Come, let us join Him in His Glory. It’s Ours to delight in! If Jesus is ours, and our bodies He has made His Own. And if He has claimed fellowship with us, and offered us Joy. Let’s take it! Let’s join Him in His Glory: a Glory He freely offers to share with us!
5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith[b] into this grace in which we stand, and we[c] rejoice[d] in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:1-5
Where is our peace? Where is our forgiveness? Where is our hope? Where is our glory? It is all with Him Who Is Glory! Jesus Who Is Light! Jesus Who Loves Us. Will you come and join us in His Glory? Will you allow yourself to be fully exposed, fully known, fully forgiven, fully loved? Come into Our Glory!
It sounds crazy, even though I know it’s right. The weight of our suffering in this dying world can bring the reality of darkness starkly to bare. We feel the push of shame, and fear, and unworthiness because of the sin of this world. It throws us to the floor on our faces. We proclaim Worthy Is The Lamb, because we feel the weight of our own unworthiness! Yet, all the while Christ’s response to us is, “Worthy are my children whom I have made worthy! Join me in full unity! Join me in my Glory!”
5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 1 John 1:5-10
Can we try to hold onto that? We are in the light because we are in Christ. We no longer walk in darkness. We are free from the sin and shame that so deeply entangled us. Let’s stand amazed in His Presence and feel the Glory of His love. Let’s join Him in Our Glory and finally be one with Him.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2
God’s been talking to me a lot about these verses. They keep coming up as I pray and listen to the Lord. Jesus endured so much pain and suffering for us. And I know that it is the sin in us and the love in Him that sent him to that place of suffering on our behalf.
Yet I feel the burden of guilt and shame all the time. He breaks me free from it and then before I realize it, I’ve picked it up again. I grow weary and tired with all that I start carrying on account of sin.
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
He wants to give me rest. He wants to relieve my burdens. He wants me to be free and carry the light load of His yoke. The only way that happens for me is if I continue to look at Him and learn from His example.
I think about Gethsemane. I think about His suffering that night, all alone, full of the weight of what He had come to do. His friends fell asleep. His Father listened and gave strength, but didn’t take the cup away.
I want to do that. I want to be like that. I want to see the joy set before me. I want to despise my shame and endure as Jesus endured.
Sometimes I just get afraid that God will say no. I decide that somehow God wants me to suffer. But did He want Jesus to suffer? Did He really? NO! He didn’t. It was our sin that sent Christ to the cross, not the Father. It’s the Father’s love that made it even possible. And it is for that love Christ endured.
That same love is in me. That same power. That same God. He is in me and working in me. And He alone is able to despise the shame, instill the courage, and win the victory through me.
11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus[d] from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. Romans 8:11
That’s a lot of pressure off my shoulders. That great cloud of witnesses is watching and cheering the Lord Jesus Christ revealed in me. There is never shame or fear in carrying that! I can run with confidence. I can run for the joy set before me.
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:28-31
I can really get frustrated when God doesn’t tell me His plan. Doesn’t He understand that I need to know? I’ve got things to do, people to see! How am I supposed to do that effectively if I don’t know the details of His plan?
God has a chuckle every time I talk to him like that.
The sad thing is, I know full well I don’t need to know every detail of His plans for me. I just don’t. How would I ever learn to trust Him if I always knew what was going to happen? But I’m ornery. I’m stubborn. I wanna know, dangit!
God is so gentle, though, isn’t He? He’s patient and kind. He knows how much I love Him and how much I struggle with trusting Him. So He shows me love instead of wrath.
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands,[a] forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” Exodus 34:6-7
When I was in the hospital, God did something that I can’t stop thinking about. (To be honest, He did a lot of things I can’t stop thinking about!) He showed up, faithful and true, while I was sedated and saying all kinds of weird stuff.
I wasn’t really there in my mind. I was intubated, sedated, in terrible pain, and I definitely didn’t know the plan. But God did. And He showed up.
Over and over again, people have been telling me how the Glory of the Lord was there with me in the ICU. It overwhelmed people with love and peace and light.
I didn’t need to know all the details. I still don’t know them all. I will likely never know. Propofol and Fentanyl did a great job in handling my pain (apparently) and giving me solid amnesia for two weeks. Like John Snow, I knew nothing.
And God showed up.
That was all I had to do, too. I showed up. I showed up in delirious pain, full of drugs to keep me “comfortable”, and I demanded nothing. I was just there.
God is so good. All we have to do is show up. Really. We don’t need to know anything else. I’m learning this slowly. But God is patient with me. I will forever worship Him for His love is enduring and patient and kind.
8 And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. 9 And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.” Exodus 34:8-9
Stiff necked as we are, God shows up. Why should we try do anything more?
I spent a good portion of my adult life in churches that believed that miracles were something that only happened during “Biblical Times”. The idea that the giftings of the Spirit of God were only true in a long time ago when the Church really needed it to advance the Gospel. (This view is called cessationism if you were wondering.)
Never having learned anything else, I accepted this as fact even though it twitched in the back of my head as not feeling right. Now, I’m not trying to start a debate with anyone, and I’m not trying to say that millions of people with this point of view are wrong. I’m just saying it didn’t sit right with me.
As I grew in my relationship with Jesus, and grew in my love and reading of the Bible, I began to experience things in my life that could only be described as miracles. And I didn’t know how to partner these experiences with the teachings I heard from the pulpit.
I watched my devout Muslim husband come to Christ.
I experienced physical, instantaneous healings.
I knew things about people that I couldn’t possibly have known and was somehow able to speak to them in that knowledge and offer supernatural encouragement and wisdom.
I began to hear God speaking to me in my “heart”. I heard scripture that I didn’t know but googled to discover was in the Bible.
I got comfort when I should have felt nothing but pain.
I felt freedom when horrible things in life had enslaved me.
I could go on and on and on about this stuff. And the older I get, and the more I “grow” in my love affair with Jesus, the more experiential and miraculous my encounters with the Living God become. It has become undebatable to me. I know what I know. It’s my testimony.
God has empowered us, gifted us, to do miracles. Ya, that’s what I said. And He did it for His Glory and for His bride and for His Honor. In other words, He did it for us and for Him.
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 2 Corinthians 4:7-11
Do you hear that? Those are miracles. Miracles that glorify a Good God, a Worthy God, a Loving God. Miracles we might miss if we are too busy questioning the validity of such things.
Lord, teach us to see the miraculous. Teach us to see Your Power. Teach us to be Your Bride and Your Sons, with full inheritance to what You offer us. Teach us to listen better to You and test everything against Your Word and Your Spirit. Lord teach us to think and listen and learn through Your Spirit, so that we can be more conscious of the miracles you want to perform through us and for us. Amen.
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21
Thanksgiving in America has become a celebration of all matters of opulence. We eat a huge turkey “stuffed” with bread. We engage in a feast of desserts and sweets and treats, before, during and after a grand meal. Even our vegetables are celebrated in excess: sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, creamed corn, salad upon salad.
We come together and drink wine and celebrate our huge families, or our huge amount of friends, or our huge amount of food and festivity. We argue over politics and social justice and how the government should spend its copious amounts of cash.
And then we go shopping and celebrate our own cash hoards. Huge sales, huge expenditures, huge tvs, huge toys, huge crowds, huge SUVs to put it all in. It’s just more and more and more. All in celebration of our abundance.
Our God is the God of abundance. He is a God of provision. Of leftovers. Of fullness. But we’ve lost the plot in favor of celebrating ourselves and our own achievements, our own leftovers. What if we stopped looking at ourselves and our great prosperity, and started to look to God for our fulfillment, our nourishment, and our joy?
God loves to take care of His children. We’re often just so caught up with taking care of ourselves that we forget that God wants to be our provision, and give us leftovers besides!
Look what happened in Scripture with Elisha:
42 A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, “Give to the men, that they may eat.” 43 But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” So he repeated, “Give them to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’” 44 So he set it before them. And they ate and had some left, according to the word of the Lord. 2 Kings 4:42-44
The servant immediately looked to find provision among the worldly offering presented by the man from Baal-shalishah. He looked at the food and instantly decided that there was no way that food would go all the way around. But Elisha doesn’t look at the food, he looks instead to the provider of the food: God, who made the food and brought it to them.
Elisha then proclaims the Lord’s provision, “they shall eat and have some left”. Elisha knew that God is a God of leftovers. He didn’t doubt it, or look to himself. He knew.
In the New Testament, the Disciples got the same opportunity to look to God for provision. They knew the scriptures and the story of Elisha. They had learned these stories from history since their childhood. But when the time came to proclaim the provision of the Lord, they looked instead to themselves.
15 Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” 16 But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” 17 They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” Matthew 14:15-17
The Disciples fell into the same trap we are all guilty of at times. They looked at what they had instead of what God could provide. Jesus had given them the perfect chance to fall back into the grace and provision of the Father, and instead they panicked. Their response to the people’s need for food, “send them away to take care of themselves!”
It had to break Jesus’ heart to have His beloved friends so quickly turn from trusting God in the invisible things, but not trusting Him in the physical things. They looked to themselves instead of the promises of God. Even though they had the Holy Scriptures to know that God could provide for them.
Jesus is patient, though. He would not waste the lesson He wanted to teach because of His friend’s lack of faith. Instead, He spoke with authority and faith to His Disciples.
8 And he said, “Bring them here to me.” 19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20 And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. 21 And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
God is the God of leftovers. Isn’t it time we celebrated Him instead of ourselves?
give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” Luke 6:38
Broken Alabaster Jar 