Favorite One

“The Wisdom of God”

The Knowledge of the Holy

A.W. Tozer

 

“We turn from our folly and flee to Thee, the wisdom of God and the power of God. Amen.”

 

Blessed be the name of God forever and ever. For Wisdom and might are His: He giveth wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding: He reveals the deep and secret things: He Knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him. Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever.

 

Any wisdom that we might exemplify is pathetically small when compared to the infinite wisdom of God. “That is, God is wise in Himself, and all the shining wisdom of men or angels is but a reflection of that uncreated effulgence which streams from the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.”

 

“Wisdom, among other things, is the ability to devise perfect ends and to achieve those ends by the most perfect means. It sees the end from the beginning, so there can be no need to guess or conjecture. Wisdom sees everything in focus, each in proper relation to all, and is thus able to work toward predestined goals with flawless precision.”

 

All of God’s acts are done in perfect wisdom, first for the glory of His name, and second for the good of those who love Him. His way is the best way. His thoughts are the highest thoughts. A better way could not be imagined. O Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your riches!

 

“Without the creation, the wisdom of God would have remained forever locked in the boundless abyss of the divine nature.” God brought us into being so that He might enjoy us and we might enjoy Him. Look around; throughout creation we see the wisdom and the brilliance of the Creator.

 

“When the hour of Christ’s triumph arrives, the suffering world will be brought out into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. For men of the new creation the golden age is not past but future, and when it is ushered in, a wondering universe will see that God has indeed abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. In the meantime we rest our hope in the only wise God, our Saviour, and wait with patience the slow development of His benign purposes.”

 

We believe that everything God is and has done is infinitely wise and good. Abraham was strong in faith, holding fast to the goodness of God and His promises through His unbelief, still giving glory to God. He was completely convinced that not only was the Father willing, He was able. So do we stand with our hope in God alone, holding on to the reality of who He is; resting in the wisdom of God.

 

No matter how things may look, we have to believe that all things are worked together in perfect wisdom for those that love and trust in Him.

 

By faith and prayer we must bring the wisdom of God into the practical world of our day-by-day experience. “To believe actively that our Heavenly Father constantly spreads around us providential circumstances that work for our present good and our everlasting well-being brings to the soul a veritable benediction. Most of us go through life praying a little, planning a little…hoping but never being quite certain of anything, and always secretly afraid that we will miss the way. This is a tragic waste of truth and never gives rest to the heart.”

 

There is a better way. Let us be people that cast out our own wisdom and cast ourselves upon the wisdom of God. Insisting on seeing ahead is a great hinderance to our spiritual progress, as a part of our nature it may be. “God has charged Himself with full responsibility for our eternal happiness and stands ready to take over the management of our lives the moment we turn in faith to Him.”

 

He will bring the blind by a way that they didn’t know; He will lead us on paths that we do not know. We will see our Teacher with our own eyes and hear Him with our own ears. From behind us we will hear a voice telling us, which way to go, whether it is to the right or to the left. These things He will do to us and not forsake us.

 

God is constantly encouraging us to trust Him in the dark. “I will go before you, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: and I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of the secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, that calls you by name, am the God of Israel.”

 

Lets just talk about the secret place for a second. The mighty deeds of God were done in secret. The heavens and earth were created in the darkness of time. Jesus became flesh in the darkness and solitude of a virgin’s womb. When He died for the world to have life, it was in the darkness of day. When He rose from the dead, it was in the early hours of the morning with no one to see Him rise. “It is as if God were saying, “What I am is all that need matter to you, for there lie your hope and your peace. I will do what I will do, and it will all come to light at last, but how I do it is My secret. Trust Me, and be not afraid.”"

 

Tozer says that “the goodness of God is to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God is to plan it, and the power of God is to achieve it”. Surely, you are His favorite one.

 

You are His favorite one.

 

Sand Grains

“The Divine Omniscience”

The Knowledge of the Holy

A.W. Tozer

 

You know me.  You are near. You have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I’m going to say even before I say it. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!

 

I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night – but even in the darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.

 

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

 

How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!

 

We can’t even comprehend how well the Lord knows us and understands us. We’re constantly learning things about ourselves that all along He’s already known. He’s constantly revealing His creative nature at work in the fabric of our hearts by showing us who we are in the light of who He is.

 

To say that God is omniscient is to say that He possesses perfect knowledge, but it says more: He has never learned and will never learn. He knows all things, has always known all things, and will always know all things. All knowledge, just like all time, and all wisdom, are in Him.

 

The Father never had to sit at the feet of instruction. He was never discipled to be the Creator of the universe or the Author of all wisdom. Knowing Himself perfectly, and being the source of all life, He has perfect knowledge of everything that exists, everything that has existed, and everything to exist in the ages to come.

 

God effortlessly is well acquainted, and better yet, perfectly knows all matters, spirits, minds, beings, creatures, laws, relations, causes, thoughts, mysteries, enigmas, feelings, desires, secrets, thrones, dominions, personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven, and hell.

 

He knows in perfection the state of all things. Because He knows all things perfectly, He does not know one thing better than the other, but knows all things equally as well. He has complete knowledge of the circumstance and situation you are facing now, as He had complete knowledge of the circumstances and situations of ages past that He showed His faithfulness in.

 

What confidence we can have to be free to live when we make a conscious decision to quiet the inner anxiety and insecurities of our hearts and trust in a God who never discovers anything, is never surprised, is never amazed, is never wondering about what to do next.

 

God knows Himself perfectly and knows us perfectly. Look around and find a common denominator in the troubled hearts of those that are on a journey of the inner exploration of their soul. The Father speaking to the true identity and value of a person quiets this internal crisis that so many seem to face in this changing world.

 

The eyes of Jesus burn with a fire that sees through all things to their purest form. To the one that loves the Father with a real, yet weak, love, this can be a cause of great joy for He sees the motivations of their heart. To the wicked, the very thought that God knows all things perfectly is cause for great fear.

 

“To us who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us in the gospel, how unutterably sweet is the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows us completely.” He knew us before we knew Him and called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything that we are, were, would be in light of everything that is against us.

 

Our Father in heaven knows our frame and remembers that we are dust. He knew our inborn treachery, and for HIs own sake engaged to save us. “His only begotten Son, when He walked among us, felt our pains in their naked intensity of anguish. His knowledge of our afflictions and adversities is more than theoretic; it is personal, warm, and compassionate. Whatever may befall us, God knows and cares as no one else can.”

 

 

Everything is Changing, You Never Will

“The Immutability of God”

The Knowledge of the Holy

A.W. Tozer

 

“O Christ our Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. As cronies to their rock, we have we run to Thee for safety; as birds from their wanderings, so have we flown to Thee for peace. Chance and change are busy in our little world of nature and men, but in Thee we find no variableness nor shadow of tuning. We rest in Thee without fear or doubt and face our tomorrows without anxiety. Amen.”

 

To say that God is immutable is to say that he never changes. The concept of Him growing or developing in His greatness is not found in scriptures. The fact that He is perfect in every way rules out any such possibility. He cannot change for the better.

 

“Since He is perfectly holy, He has never been less holy than He is now and can never be holier than He is and has always been.”

 

And while this might be a concept we take for granted, He neither can change for the worse.

 

All that He is has always been and will always be.

 

“The immutability of God appears in its most perfect beauty when viewed against the mutability of men. In God no change is possible; in men change is impossible to escape.” Time, seasons, change, and motion are of familiar frustration to the human heart. Many approach the reality of change with a sharp cynicism, using humor and whit to mask the pang of heartache that follows our elements constantly readjusting. Others face and accept man’s mutability with hope and confidence, for they have found the cure for the great sickness; God they say changes not.

 

“The law of mutation belongs to a fallen world, but God is immutable, and in Him men of faith find at last eternal permanence. In the meanwhile change works for the children of the kingdom, not against them. The changes that occur in them are wrought by the hand of the in-living Spirit.” We are changed from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord, and in that security comes our confidence, even in the face of change.

 

In a fallen world, we will always crave an eternal permanence, and feel heartache at the passing of familiar things. However, we have much to be thankful in the treasure of change we experience in this life. The divine exchange of an old life for a new life, beauty for ashes, tears for laughter, mourning for dancing. This very ability to change in the light of grace is cause for much thanksgiving. God is in the business of restoration through the vehicle of change.

 

“God makes full use of change and through a succession of changes arrives at permanence at last.”

 

A.W. Tozer says it best:

 

“In this world where men forget us, change their attitude toward us as their private interests dictate, and revise their opinion of us for the slightest cause, is it not a source of wondrous strength to know that the God with whom we have to do changes not? That His attitude toward us now is the same as it was in eternity past and will be in eternity to come?

What peace it brings to the Christian’s heart to realize that our Heavenly Father never differs from Himself. In coming to Him at any time we need not wonder whether we shall find Him in a receptive mood. He is always receptive to misery and need, as well as to love and faith. He does not keep office hours nor set aside periods when He will see no one. Neither does He change His mind about anything. Today, this moment, He feels toward HIs creatures, toward babies, toward the sick, the fallen, the sinful, exactly as He did when He sent HIs only-begotten Son into the world to die for mankind.

God never changes moods or cools off in HIs affections or loses enthusiasm. His attitude toward sin is now the same as it was when He drove out the sinful man from the eastward garden, and His attitude toward the sinner the same as when He stretched forth His hands and cried, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”"

 

Everything is changing, but you never change.

 

 

 

God’s Infinitude

“God’s Infinitude”

A.W. Tozer

 

“Whatever the cost to us in loss of friends or goods or length of days let us know Thee as Thou art, that we may adore Thee as we should.”

 

“Up now, slight man! Flee for a little while they occupations; hide thyself for a time from thy disturbing thoughts. Cast aside now thy burdensome cares, and put away thy toilsome business. Yield room for some little time to God, and rest for a little time in Him. Enter the inner chamber of thy mind; shut out all thoughts save that of God and such as can aid thee in seeking Him. Speak now, my whole heart! Speak now to God, saying, I see Thy face; Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” – St. Anselm

 

What shall we do with this knowledge of Your infinitude that is most difficult for our human hearts and perspectives to grasp?

 

This limitless characteristic of the Father is impossible for our limited minds to take hold of. In His grace, He gives sight to the blind. “Now we must expect to receive the treasure of darkness and the hidden riches of secret places.”

 

When it is said that God is infinite, it means that He knows no bounds. Whoever He is, and all that He is, He is without limit. He is boundless, measureless, infinite.

 

“But God’s infinitude belongs to us and is made known to us for our everlasting profit.”

 

We’re constantly being frustrated with the limitations of this life. The fact that we are running on a schedule, running out of time, and running against the clock, all speak of familiar ways that we are aquatinted with the tragedy and tension of limitations.

 

However…”How completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none. Eternal years lie in His heart. For Him time does not pass, it remains; and those who are in Christ share with Him all the riches of limitless time and endless years. God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which He must work. Only to know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves. For those out of Christ, time is a devouring beast; before the sons of the new creation time crouches and purrs and licks their hands.”

 

What freedom we’ve found to run with the Lord, instead of against the limitations of this life. There is a time and season for everything, but He does not answer to a ticking clock. This ticking clock called process and time answers to Him.

 

He will accomplish everything that He desires to accomplish, in perfect order and in perfect timing.

 

The foe of the old creation becomes friends of the new. All of us who are in Christ share in the limitless of life. In Him, there is life for all and time enough to enjoy it. And this is eternal life: to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.

 

The governor has been taken off the process and law of time, offering us limitless opportunity to live.

We’ve been given eternity to know the eternal, infinity to know the infinite.

 

Looking through this infinite glass, we find that time, grace, and mercy aren’t the only things that are without limitation in the life of God. “His love is measureless. It is more: it is boundless. It has no bounds because it is not a thing but a face of the essential nature of God. His love is something He is, and because He is infinite that love can enfold the whole created world in itself and have room for ten thousand times ten thousand worlds beside.”

 

Boundless love is unimaginable, but the very concept of its reality brings rest to our souls and joy to our hearts.

 

“This, this is the God we adore,

Our faithful, unchangeable Friend,

Whose love is as great as His power,

And neither knows measure nor end.

 

‘Tis Jesus, the first and the last,

Whose Spirit shall guide us safe home;

We’ll praise Him for all that is past,

And trust Him for all that’s to come.”

Joseph Hart

 

 

 

 

The Eternity of God

“Enlarge and purify the mansions of our souls that they may be fit habitations for Thy Spirit, who dost prefer before all temples the upright heart and pure. Amen.”

“”From vanishing point to the vanishing point.” The mind looks backward in time till the dim past vanishes, then turns and looks into the future till thought and imagination collapse from exhaustion; and God is at both points, unaffected by either.”

Because God never had a beginning and will never have an end, He is outside of the concept of time. Timeless being is something that is so foreign and inconceivable to our seasoned minds.

The concept of time, the succession of consecutive changes, begins and ends in the eternity of the Almighty. The Father has lived everything that has already happened and everything that will happen. He sees the beginning and the end all at the same time.

What transformation would take place if we lived with this eternal perspective that was removed from the confines of time. The intellectual confines, the impatient confines, the mysterious and frustrating confines of time. What security and confidence is found in seeing the future, the past, and the present in one big picture. There’s such a transformation in how we address the present when we take into consideration what will take place (or rather, what has already taken place) in the future.

The prophets and the apostles lived out of this eternal perspective with a knowing that cannot be found in the limited sight of time. I believe that the Holy Spirit wishes to initiate the growth of an eternal perspective in the hearts of man by the gift of prophecy. The encouragement of prophecy pushes us outside of our current perspective, giving insight to potential and desire in light of eternity.

From everlasting to everlasting, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Teach us to number our days, our seconds, our hours, and let not the knowledge of Your eternal nature be wasted on me in my moment.

Tozer writes, “We who live in this nervous age would be wise to meditate on our lives and our days long and often before the face of God and on the edge of eternity. For we are made for eternity as certainly as we are made for time, and as responsible moral beings we must deal with both.”

There is a tragic tension in being made for eternity and living in time. There are all sorts of obstacles of our intellect that we must overcome in our perspective shift. However, the first and most important obstacle of our heart comes with good reason, for it’s at the junction of God’s eternity and man’s mortality that we are confronted with the decision: Jesus or eternal tragedy.

You have set eternity in our hearts. Let us set our affections on and keep them set on the things above; that of eternal substance. It’s time that we grow in the knowledge of God and have a dramatic perspective shift. Its time that we learn how to operate from our joint seating with Christ in the heavenly realms as we live and breathe on this earth. Its time to get a high vision.

Jesus reigns forever. From vanishing point to vanishing point…

 

The Self-Sufficiency of God

[Notes and thought processes from reading through A.W. Tozer's "The Knowledge of the Holy" this morning. I hope the knowledge of the self-sufficient God upsets you in your false, self-important ingenuity as much as it has me.]

In what ways have I dumbed down the sovereignty of God by thinking that He needs me to accomplish something? He can accomplish anything without anything in Himself.

His delight is to include us; to co-labor with us. It is not a necessity to include us. We can’t do anything apart from Him, but He can do everything apart from us. In fact  He did, He created the whole universe without us first. In Him we live and move and have our being.

This just speaks of the overwhelming kindness of the Father that He would invite us to exercise our creative nature with Him. The whole lot of me figures that if He doesn’t need us, then quite the opposite takes place, we actually become a hinderance of the workings of God in the earth. But I must not miss the point in understanding that He has no necessary relation to anything outside of Himself; He is the Sovereign Almighty. He will accomplish what He intends to accomplish with us or without us. He makes up for all of our inadequacies and wrong turns gladly, just to be able to include us in what He is doing.

The Father’s heart. My imagination escapes me for a specific example in parenting. I keep going back to an arts and crafts type activity where a parent involves their child. More work is probably spent in cleaning up after the child and helping them complete the project, and in retrospect it would’ve been more efficient to exclude them, but their delight was in sharing the activity with their child. The Father is kind to include us in what He’s doing in the earth.

In the same way that God does not need us to accomplish anything, He does not need to exclude us to accomplish something. He is in the business of restoration. What Satan intended for evil, the Lord will turn it around and use it for good. There is something to be said about free will, but for those that invite the Holy Spirit to have His way in their lives, for those that have surrendered in their rebellion against the will of God, there is freedom to trust that He is bigger than our weaknesses.

The Father will not violate our free will, but He is also outside of time which brings a whole new concept and set of rules of operation. Part of me wonders if maybe the Father will act in His sovereignty, seemingly overriding our free will, but not in violation because He sees that down the road we have a desire to have Him work in our hearts. Or possibly, His sovereignty seemingly overrides our free will because we are blinded to our own desire for the Rescuer.

“Somehow my weakness has overwhelmed you, somehow my weak love it has stolen away your heart”

Tozer said, “It is morally imperative that we purge from our minds all ignoble concepts of the Deity and let Him be the God in our minds that He is in His universe...the high honor of God is first in heaven as it must yet be in earth.”

It’s Christ in you. Christ, working through you.

“We can’t do anything, God. And He wants to drive that down more and more and more and more until it strikes us in our core. And that is where true prayer begins to give birth. And its a creative prayer.”  - Corey Russell

Jesus, You are the hope of the nations.

“Yet, self-sufficient as Thou art,
Thou dost desire my worthless heart;
This, only this, dost Thou require.”
Johann Scheffler

The Winds Deliver

I have a month’s worth of dreams and writings recorded, and again, I feel like I can’t keep up with all that is taking place around me. To be able to generalize this past month would be simple, but to keep the meaning suspended leaves the possibilities endless and my hopes high.

I can feel the acceleration as we close out one season and move on to the other. A new oil and wine will soon be released, and I can feel the resistance building as we force ourselves to stay planted in spite of our natural desire for motion and movement. But the movement is coming, and the motion will accelerate.

Change is coming. The vines are being made ready for the harvest.

The next several weeks will call for the diligence and perseverance of this past season to be intensified with a passionate focus, devotion, and resolve before the end of the harvest season. How we spend this time will play a part in determining how much we gather; the measure of our increase.

It’s the Father’s privilege to conceal a matter, and it’s our privilege to search is out.

Let us not waste our efforts already spent and miss the banquet to follow.

The Day the Rain Came

Sometimes I wonder if I’ll always be waiting for something. If I’m not waiting for this, I’ll be waiting for the completion of a written book, for favor in the marketplace, for a family, for a ministry to unfold, for a greater measure of the anointing…the list could go on and on and it seems to be that I’m good at finding things to wait for, things to expect, things to look forward to.

I thrive on constant motion, and it’s been quite a lesson to learn how to enjoy the moment and the current season regardless of what I know is coming next. For the first time in my life, I’m not running. I’m not lacing up my shoes ready for the next place to move; racing to the next destination. I’m planted, rooted, grounded and…waiting.

I’ve realized that once you start waiting, you’ll always be waiting. It’s a never ending lesson to wait on the direction from Holy Spirit in all things. To put to sleep our adventurous, ambitious, constant-motion, self-fulfilling, prideful nature and to exchange it for a season and a spirit of patience and wisdom. Jesus never did anything unless He saw the Father do it first, He would only say what He heard the Father speak. Every move that Jesus made was in surrender, complete surrender to the Father’s will.

I want to hear and see every move before I make it. What confidence that allows us to walk in, knowing that our steps were ordained, purposed, and protected by the sovereign will of God. What hope we have when we meet adversity in those seasons, never having to question the path we chose to walk.

 

Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are all those who [earnestly] wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him [for His victory, His favor, His love, His peace, His joy, and His matchless, unbroken companionship]!

See how the farmer waits expectantly for the precious harvest from the land. [See how] he keeps up his patient [vigil] over it until it receives the early and late rains

What strength have I left, that I should wait and hope? And what is ahead of me, that I should be patient?

[I do it because, though He slay me, yet will I wait for and trust Him and] behold, He will slay me; I have no hope–nevertheless, I will maintain and argue my ways before Him and even to His face.

All the days of my warfare and service I will wait, till my change and release shall come.

And they waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouths wide as for the spring rain.

In the morning You hear my voice, O Lord; in the morning I prepare [a prayer, a sacrifice] for You and watch and wait [for You to speak to my heart].

Yes, let none who trust and wait hopefully and look for You be put to shame or be disappointed

Guide me in Your truth and faithfulness and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for You [You only and altogether] do I wait [expectantly] all the day long.

Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for and expect You.

Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for and hope for and expect the Lord!

Behold, the Lord’s eye is upon those who fear Him [who revere and worship Him with awe], who wait for Him and hope in His mercy and loving-kindness,

Our inner selves wait [earnestly] for the Lord; He is our Help and our Shield.

Be still and rest in the Lord; wait for Him and patiently lean yourself upon Him

But as for me, I will look to the Lord and confident in Him I will keep watch; I will wait with hope and expectancy for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.

For the vision is yet for an appointed time and it hastens to the end [fulfillment]; it will not deceive or disappoint. Though it tarry, wait [earnestly] for it, because it will surely come; it will not be behindhand on its appointed day.

But if we hope for what is still unseen by us, we wait for it with patience and composure.

 

 

[June 19, 2009]

 

“I’ve prayed for over a month for rain. The kind that pours. The kind you can dance in, that washes over you, that refreshes the earth. The kind that allows you to escape the concept of time and let go. Renewing rain.

First in the natural, then in the spirit.

I’ve waited and waited, prayed and prayed through the unusually dry months and season for their to be a release.

Today, like most every Friday, I turned on IHOP and worshipped before Mike’s teaching. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come…

His presence is my place of refuge. My hiding place.

I stepped outside to the blue sky breaking through the majestic clouds, sunlight hitting the crest of those clouds, painting a beautiful picture for me in the expression of God in the earth. As I’m looking at the clouds I was reminded that my voice in His ear doesn’t go unheard. That eventually, in His faithfulness, He will respond, so I didn’t need to be discouraged in my waiting and watching. What reason for hope!

I felt like I could just rest in that truth, and it encouraged me to keep pressing in and to continue waiting with a focused passion for the release in the faithfulness of God. He will respond.

Before I knew it, rain fell. Little drops at first, but even then in my poor and needy, weak and weary heart, I didn’t allow myself to believe or even get excited. I didn’t think that real rain would come.

Next thing I knew, it was pouring…

Steadily the rain came and I twirled with arms open under the down pour. Increase after increase came and water fell everywhere around me.

Such momentum from the heavens…

My heart was so encouraged and so delighted. FINALLY – the rain came. This is EXACTLY what I was waiting for. And as I danced in the down pour from heaven, I realized, THIS WAS SO WORTH THE WAIT.

I could feel the Father’s heart as I danced, the delight He felt in answering my cry; in delighting my heart with the very thing I had been waiting for.

There is such joy in Your presence.

It was so worth it all. Worth the desperation, worth the discouragement, worth the wait.

Oh, sweet release…

And then it occurred to me, how much this is true in the other things I’m waiting for. Waiting for dreams and prophecies to be fulfilled, waiting to see the Lord, for more release, more outpouring, more overflow, more revelation, more dreams, more fellowship with the Holy Spirit, more visions of the man, Jesus.

And I knew that just like the rain was worth the wait, so would these things be worth the wait. I can’t even imagine – this was just of glimpse – of the joy I will feel in the revelation of God’s faithfulness when He grants these desires of my heart.

I was so encouraged to keep pressing in, keep waiting, keep watching. It is SO worth the wait.

Oh, how He delights in every detail of our lives and in granting the desires of our heart.

Surely He will respond…

“Let us press on to know HIm. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of the dawn or the coming of rains in the early spring.” – Hosea 6

I realized too that I took so much more delight in these things taking place because I had waiting and yearned and cried out for them. Had I not they probably would have happened, going unnoticed. But God, in His goodness, stirred my heart to yearn, ask, and wait for these things to take place. How much more delight I experienced after waiting for these things. How much more glory the Father received in my delight and heart of thankfulness when they are unlocked and given.

There is perfect timing in cultivating our hearts for the blessings of God.

He will respond.

ALL glory to Him forever and ever.
Amen.”

 

So I have concluded that with our heart’s desires lying unseen and in wait, I count it all worth it. Still, I find myself resisting the waiting, fighting the urge to grow weary in my patience through losing focus. This sustained focus. But I remember the day the rain came…

Jesus, You are so worth it all…

High Vision

“The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us…With our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine Presence. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence…The decline of the knowledge of the holy has brought on our troubles. A rediscovery of the majesty of God will go a long way toward curing them.” A.W. Tozer 

 

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. 

 

“Who do you say that I am?” was asked by Jesus of his disciples. When Simon son of John, got a revelation of who Jesus really was, he received a new name, a new identity, a new persona. Heaven saw him in a new way, and the earth would too. 

 

We need to get a revelation of who God is, in that will we find a transformation taking place inside us and around us. The greatest perspective shifts occur when we begin to see differently. 

 

“The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian Church today is to purify and elevate her concept of God until it is once more worth of Him – and of her. In all her prayers and labors this should have first place. We do the greatest service to the next generation of Christians by passing on to them undimmed and undiminished that noble concept of God which we received from our Hebrew and Christian fathers of generations past. This will prove of greater value to them than anything that art or science can devise.” A.W. Tozer 

 

Enlighten our hearts and minds that we may know You as You are, so that we may perfectly, rightly, fully love You and worthily praise You. 

 

You are a God who is near, not far away. 

 

Oh, that we would have an Isaiah 6 vision of God. That we would see him in His glory; high and lifted up above all things. That we would see His majesty and power fill the temple – that He is deserving of highest praise. 

 

Their voices – of praise, of worship – continual worship and adoration – shook the temple to its foundations. It was through this revelation of praise and worship that Isaiah recognized who he was and who God is.

 

But there was grace in the coal that touched his lips and there was a purpose and commission following his revelation and repentance. 

 

We need to get a high vision. We need to be like Isaiah, having that one encounter that reveals the glory of God to us to where we have no choice but to cry out in our spirits for grace. 

 

Oh, that we would really know the grace of Jesus even in His power and splendor. What love He has for us. That this God, in all his power and authority would humble himself to partner with us in the earth for his glory to made known – that others would receive a revelation in the knowledge of the One True God, high and lifted up. 

 

Amen. 

 

Waiting in the Passionate Pursuit

[August 2009]

 

What makes your heart come alive? 

That overflowing, throbbing with life and fullness, sort of feeling that you get when you engage in the very activity or sphere of influence that you were purposed for. 

What causes your heart to feel as if it were to burst into flames at that very moment? 

What moments cause great inspiration for hope, passion, energy, and vision? 

In a single moment, seemingly disconnected with time, what shifts your perspective? 

What provokes a confidence in you as if to say that in this moment you’re exactly where you were destined to be? 

What is your element? 

Come alive. 

 

I believe that in many cases, for those in passionate pursuit of the heart of God and His call on their lives, desire speaks of the very nature of our destiny. Our greatest hearts desires and dreams are hints, keys, and motivations into the manifestation of our spiritual purpose and production on this earth. Passion accelerates us with an ambitious force into the realms of influence, creativity, and authority that we are called to. Vision is a pre-circumstancial point of reference. Vision is not retrospective, but rather that which inspires forward thinking and therefore, forward motion. We do not accomplish what we were commissioned for, and then look back with vision. We have vision first to accomplish what we were commissioned for. 

 

Before we can truly walk in step with the Holy Spirit as a part of a collaborative team in the Earth, we must receive a high, specific vision of what the Father desires to do. Where does He desire us to go? What must be accomplished? How will He use us in these areas He’s bringing us into? We must be people of purpose. Efficient and fruitful, exercising wisdom and being good stewards of our time and resources here on Earth. Making the most of every opportunity. We must be purposeful in our efforts. 

 

But before we can be purposeful, we must have an idea of how to be efficient, how we will be fruitful, how we will exercise wisdom. Without vision, we will be aimless and ineffective with no focused passion that is needed in bearing lasting fruit and instilling lasting changes. Our efforts, passions, desires, and burdens will be wasted in vain for our lack of wisdom. Our God is a God of order. There is a time and season for everything. There is a process and progression that takes place as we move and grow in what the Lord has for us. Moving outside of our seasons and given areas of influence prematurely could very well cost us the fruit that we so passionately long to see develop as we co-labor with the Creator. All because we had passion and purpose without receiving the specific vision first  on how He desires to accomplish such things. 

 

Without vision, the people perish. There is such hope, confidence, and purpose that is given with vision. True purpose lies within the vision. Purpose outside of vision is simply passion with no means of focus for seeing it spread. Without a vision that gives us purpose, the passions of our heart lie dormant as distant desires with no hop to bridge the gap to see them fulfilled and manifested. These passions will remain inside of our hearts as only dreams unless we have the vision and purpose to see them become reality. 

 

This whole thought process has led me to believe that there is a difference between dreams and visions concerning our destiny. Passion births dreams, visions birth purpose, and purpose births the dream of our hearts into a reality that is better than anything we could have dreamed of from the start: our glorious destiny. 

 

We’re missing out on so much more by running with the passions of our heart before we wait with the Holy Spirit for our vision and purpose. We want to be people who walk in the fullness of life, the fullness of our calling, the fullness of our anointing. Let us wait and contend for the high vision, purpose, and call that we were destined for. And let us settle for nothing less.