Passion ignited a flame and sense of urgency within me. I had written
a couple of days before in my journal, “Lord, become the one and only desire of
my heart. May my love and desire for you overshadow everything in my life, for
you alone are fully satisfactory, good and constant.” This still remains the
deep prayer of my heart! How fast I get so caught up in worldly matters. I want
to be in awe of God, stunned by him. I want his word and love so seared within
me that it makes my spirit soar!
Why do we not wake up every day and say, “This is the greatest day of
my life!” We become numb, apathetic sometimes, to reality and the world around
us that we forget that each day is the greatest day of our lives because…we are
alive! I am alive physically and spiritually, and I have a goal I am striving
after in order to “press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has
called me heavenward in Christ Jesus,” (Philippians 3:14). In my newness and as
Christ lives within me, I live and breathe with a purpose. God has appointed us
to live and have our being in this present generation, the chosen generation.
What will we do with that? We are created to seek him and find him and to make
him known among all nations. I love Acts 17:
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the
Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is
not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives
all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation
of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times
set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that
men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not
far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As
some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’”
In Christ we have freedom. My prayer is that in our freedom, we seek
to pursue a deeper relationship with the Lord, as this takes a daily
self-discipline and consciousness. How are we so forgetful that CHRIST himself
LIVES in us! He has cleansed us, set us free, captured our hearts, and allowed
us to be partakers of the divine nature. How are we so forgetful that Christ’s
power is within us? His divine power has granted us all things that pertain to
life and Godliness. He calls us to be true worshipers.
“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and
godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and
goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises,
so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the
corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make
every effort to add to your fait goodness; an to goodness, knowledge; and to
knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to
perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly
kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they
will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our
Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and
bind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins,” (2 Peter
1:3-9).
Francis Chan quotes, “Don’t get so near-sighted that you’re blind.
You’ve been given eternal riches in Heaven, and everything is temporary. Forget
everything you can see. What is left? Your soul and spiritual things. In your
times of prayer, pray like this. You’re talking to the God who made the Heavens
and the earth and everything in them.”
“If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in
our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are
convinced that one died for all, and therefore, all died. And he died for all,
that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died
for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly
point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone the
new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ
and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world
to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them And he has committed
to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as
though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s
behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so
that in him we might become the righteousness of God,” (2 Cor. 5:13-21).
Because of this, and because Christ is now seated in the Heavenly
realms, it is FINISHED, and our sins are atoned for. Now, we are called to live
lives that are hidden in Christ. “For you died, and your life is now hidden
with Christ in God,” (Colossians 3:3). There is no power in our flesh; there is
only power in Christ, who is in us. There is power that is made available to
each one of us! Therefore, the work that is outpoured from us is not our work
but rather the work of Christ, and we should only boast in that! We have been
appointed, and we have a position to withhold; however, our position determines
our practice, in which we must daily deny ourselves and seek the Lord, as we
are being refined and edified. Christine Cain put it as, “Get in your dark
room. It’s not about your performance but your preparation; seek to be the
image of Christ. There is a gap (the process, the practice) between the
anointing and the appointing.” We should pray that we get rid of our image, as
greatness is measured by how much like Christ we become.
Then, Beth Moore rocked my world with the concept of TIME.
I’ve never thought about how anxious about time we are. Why are we a
people anxious about time? We created time, we count it, think about it, look
forward to it. Why? It’s innately designed in our being to be anxious about
time (just like other things such as why we long to worship, love, and do
good). They’re all part of our creation – everyone.
So, time. It’s linear. According to the Kingdom calendar, time is
continually COMING.
-Gensis 4:26
-Luke 2:6
-John 7:8
-Galations 4:4
The word “time” is used 700 times throughout the bible. There is
something that makes us anxious about time, and it is this: time is working
toward one huge event, which is the coming of our savior! Doesn’t it make
sense?
We’ve been entrusted with this exact time and generation to live our
“dash,” as she described. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6:2, “For he says, ‘In the
time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ I tell
you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.’” We’re not
promised tomorrow, so what are we doing and how are we living so that the
purpose of the Lord for our lives is fulfilled? We are a tiny puzzle piece in
God’s enormous, planned-out picture of his creation, and we have a duty and
story to fulfill as part of God’s will and in our freedom. It was so cool to
behold 25,000 of my brothers and sisters whom I do not know all worshipping the
same God and praying for each other, knowing each has his/her own duty to live
out wherever they may go and to the ends of the earth to spread among the
nations what He has done and to proclaim the Lord’s name! There were so many
languages and nationalities. It was a small glimpse of heaven. Our generation
is chosen because it is one generation closer to Christ’s return, but I also
believe The Lord is doing mighty things in our generation. We’re to also fight
the good fight and speak and hold fast to beautiful confessions. Jesus is Lord,
and he is coming back.
Lord, my prayer is that I
won’t move without you. This song has played over and over in my mind for a
week:
Promise maker, promise keeper
You finish what you begin
Our provision, through the desert
You see it through til the end
The lord our god is ever faithful
Never changing through the ages
From this darkness, you will lead us
And forever we will say
You're the lord our god
In the silence, in the waiting
Still we can know, you are good
All your plans are for your glory
Yes we can know you are good
Yes we can know you are good, so good
The lord our god is ever faithful
Never changing through the ages
From this darkness, you will lead us
And forever we will say
You're the lord our god
So we won't move without you
We won't move without you
You're the light of all and all that we need
We won't move without you
We won't move without you
You're the light of all and all that we need
We won't move without you
We won't move without you
You're the light of all and all that we need
The lord our god is ever faithful
Never changing through the ages
From this darkness, you will lead us
And forever we will say
You're the lord our god.
You finish what you begin
Our provision, through the desert
You see it through til the end
The lord our god is ever faithful
Never changing through the ages
From this darkness, you will lead us
And forever we will say
You're the lord our god
In the silence, in the waiting
Still we can know, you are good
All your plans are for your glory
Yes we can know you are good
Yes we can know you are good, so good
The lord our god is ever faithful
Never changing through the ages
From this darkness, you will lead us
And forever we will say
You're the lord our god
So we won't move without you
We won't move without you
You're the light of all and all that we need
We won't move without you
We won't move without you
You're the light of all and all that we need
We won't move without you
We won't move without you
You're the light of all and all that we need
The lord our god is ever faithful
Never changing through the ages
From this darkness, you will lead us
And forever we will say
You're the lord our god.
