Embracing Suffering- Finding out What We are REALLY Made of

I hit the wall today. It was as if everything that had been held at bay from the last few months- came crashing down on me- like a climactic anxious hail storm in a Midwestern town, on a previously hot summer's day. 

Eerily, today around me- the winds in my spirit changed.

Living in Texas for a season- I have seen those crazy thunderstorms dance along the prairie. I have felt the hot morning sun begin, and beat down- until from out of nowhere, a cold front blows in- and what was once hot and steamy now becomes frigid and cold.

Sweaty flesh turns into clammy goose-pimpled skin. Unless you are a Native Texan, you never get used to this dramatic temperature shock- and maybe sometimes even then, you never will.

 Like the woman stuck on top of her roof, in a flood- you'd think she would have known- when the water was waist high? Or the man who knew to not go in the office- the day that fire blazed down.

What were these people doing? Not to cause the change- why where they caught, in the middle of it?

Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for? Matthew 16:24 (Message)

Hmm, so according to The Word of God, we are called to follow Him, and not run from the suffering. In fact according to scripture- we find out who we really are, in times of personal suffering.

Could it then be determined that our suffering is intended for us to realize- our true selves? Whether winners- or whiners, victims- or victors, conquerors- or condemned?

Could it be, that maybe just maybe- God wants us to know what we are truly made of, in HIM?

Let’s look at the drug addict, when they have just lit up again, and gone into the tailspin of seeking self pleasure- do you think that the Lord maybe just maybe- might let them go there- so that they then can see themselves for REAL? So they can see that they ARE someone worth fighting for? Could it be that our God could love us so much that He allows us to get right near the edge and show ourselves our true colors?

What about, all those poor tortured souls that have done horrible things, could they have woke up one morning and saw there true selves, as evil- uncaring- immoral people and either killed themselves, or went and got themselves killed?

Or how about the inner city kid who gets hammered by life- constantly told that they are nothing- them wakes up one day to the fact that he/she is a child of God and ends up wining the Nobel Peace Prize. Could he/she’s suffering in life have revealed to him/her what they were really made of- and chose to see in themselves- the Spirit of a living God?

So when I hit the wall today, and was fighting back tears- burdened with all of the signs of the times- I decided before I went to bed to write this, and rediscover who I really am.

 

I am MORE than a conqueror in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:37

 I am the HEAD and NOT the TAIL. Deut. 28:13

 I am ABOVE and NOT beneath. Duet. 28:13

 I am made in the IMAGE of GOD. Gen. 1:26

 I have DOMINION. Gen.1:26

CHRIST has reversed the curse, in my LIFE. Gal. 3:13

I am GOD'S. John 10:34

The Kingdom of God is within me. Luke 17:21

 I AM BLESSED. Psalm 34:8, Deut. 28:3

 Who are you? At the end of the day- who are you, really? After all the pain of these last few months- theft, unemployment, sickness, poverty, hunger, emotional pains- you know who I am? I am covered by the blood of the lamb- Jesus Christ... and I am, 

 CHOSEN

Jeremiah 29:11

Thank you father, that I have Jesus- the greatest gift, and thank you Lord that you will NEVER let me fall. I may get close- but You always catch me. I may get lost- but you always find me. I may get confused- but you always straighten my path. Praise You Jesus.

Who do you want to be? Chose Christ, and be chosen.

Kirk Franklin - Lovely Day

Have a lovely day!

The Lord Comes to Us!

     One day, as I was meditating on the power of speaking in tongues- the Lord showed me a busy foreign marketplace. Where everyone was bustling around, like a busy mob -shoulder to shoulder- all speaking a foreign language, various different words- all at the same time. Not a tranquil Sunday afternoon marketplace in which you would meander dreamily, but a sweaty Monday marketplace filled with a cacophony of various motions and foreign dialect. In the vision, a father and son- both English speaking, had been separated- and the father was looking, with out-stretched neck- for the son.

Oddly enough, the father was not shouting- he was listening. It was the son who was doing the shouting, saying; “Father! Father! Here I am!” Even though the boys voice, was fainter than the rest of the indecipherable jargon- the father found him, immediately! Not because he was screaming louder than the rest- but because the boy was speaking English in a crowd of foreign speaking people! The father and son couldn’t see each other- but when the son shouted out to his father, in a language his father could understand- the father immediately found the son, and they were reunited.

“ And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” Gal. 4:6 (KJV) The Message Version says, “You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as His own children because God sent the Spirit of His Son into our lives crying out, "Papa! Father!" Doesn't that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you're also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance.

How wonderful is that! The Spirit of Jesus- His very Spirit is living in us crying “Abba, Father!” Before the vision from the Lord, I had always read this scripture to mean that we are left to cry out to Him, and go find Him (like it was in our power)- but instead, it is Jesus’ Spirit in us crying out to the Father God, on our behalf! We became God’s very own child when we accepted His Son, and now we through Christ- speak His language! Thank God it’s not up to me to figure out how to get to Him, I’d only get myself more lost!

What is this language? What is this language that is spoken that only God hears? This language that when we are lost in a crowd- He hears, and comes to us immediately? Praise! Oh that sweet sound of praise! It wasn’t until I read Myles Munroe’s book, and the chapter on The Blessing of Judah- that I realized the full meaning of the vision the Lord had given me. The Lord comes to us!

When we are in an intimate relationship with someone, like the little boy in the marketplace- we speak the same language. And though the boy was shouting, “Father! Father!” What he was really saying was “My trusted companion! My provider! My only security! Where are you?!” When we shout out to our Father, in time of need, or hopefully otherwise- we praise Him! And He hears our praise!

“But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” (Psalm 22:3) When we praise God- He comes to us! Unlike other religions full of ‘trying to get a more heightened sense of spirituality’, when we praise our God- He comes and finds us! How freeing is that? You will never be lost, abandoned, left alone again! And once you are reconnected, and hooked up to the source of His provision- He is more than capable to set you straight again, because He not only loves you and wants to find you, He created you!

“What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.” Matthew 6:33 (The Message)