Spiritual Torrents

I started as a trickle 

A babbling brook that wet the ground 

As I gathered momentum 

The stream widened all around 

I continued on as a creek

Winding ‘round every jagged rock

The force of flow was stronger now

But not so much it couldn’t be stopped 

Despite the enemy’s efforts 

To divert and dam the flow

The creek turned into a river 

And toward the ocean the river did go

The river became a torrent 

Cutting through muddy lands 

The path of the river was sure now

Because it was cut by the Master’s hand

The torrent yearned for the ocean 

To at last find its way to the sea

“Father, what happens when I reach the ocean?”

“Daughter, you will reach fullness in knowledge of Me.”

(Psalm 46:4,5) There is a river whose streams delight the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her; she will not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns.

(Ezekiel 47:3-9) As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured..and led me through ankle-deep water. Then he measured..and led me through knee-deep water. Again he measured..and led me through waist-deep water. Once again he measured..but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough for swimming—a river that could not be crossed on foot…wherever the river flows everything will flourish.

(Rev 22:1,2) Then the angel showed me a river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the main street of the city. On either side of the river stood a tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit and yielding a fresh crop for each month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

Many Counsels

This morning, as I read through Job, I prayed to the Lord that my words would be few, but that they would be from Him. 

As I read through Job, the word that the Spirit keeps bringing to mind is: “You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels.” This is the word of the Lord for us today. The gift of teaching initially given to the church for the edification of the Saints has become an albatross about its neck, keeping minds and hearts grounded in earthly and fleshly arguments, rather than drawing our minds and hearts upward and onward into spiritual principles that cannot be apprehended by the natural mind. 

There are a multitude of saints who are wearied by the many counsels in the church. So many voices, so many words and opinions and teachings, so many of my precious brothers and sisters anxiously looking left and right in a desperate attempt to discern with their mind a narrow path that can only be walked rightly by being led by their Shepherd, rather than figured out by their own reasoning. Oh, beloved Shepherd of our souls, indeed we are wearied by our many counsels! 

As I read through Job and I see the counsels given to him by his “friends”, I weep and I groan.  These friends of Job try to teach him truth based on their own perception of God. Their attempts at consolation only end in dispute—arguments over who is right and who is wrong. Completely blind to their own lack of wisdom, what “truths of light” they do manage to utter, are swept away into the lengthening shadow of their own darkened understanding. 

I have no clever statement of summary today, only an agony within for those who do not see their own bondage to be made aware of their chains. 

(Gal 5:13-15) For you, brothers, were called to freedom; but do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is fulfilled in a single decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you keep on biting and devouring one another, watch out, or you will be destroyed and consumed by one another.

(Is 47:13) You are wearied by your many counselors; let them come forward now and save you—your astrologers who observe the stars, who monthly predict your fate.

(Job 13:5-12) Oh that you would be completely silent, And that it would become your wisdom!..Will you argue God’s case for him? Would it turn out well if he examined you? Could you deceive him as you might deceive a mortal? He will surely rebuke you if in secret you show partiality…Your platitudes are as valuable as ashes. Your defense is as fragile as a clay pot.

The Table Of My Heart

 

As You stand at the door and knock 

And call out with Your shepherd voice 

May I throw open the door and answer You, 

“Beloved, you are my only choice”

Sit at the table of my heart, O Lord

Come in, and make Yourself at home

Set upon the table Your bread and Your wine 

Come in, and make my heart Your throne 

Forgive me, please, for all the times 

I tried to sit upon that throne myself 

Help me, Lord, to walk only with You 

May I never be led by anyone else

At the table deep within me 

You and the Father sit end to end

Like eternal pillars of all that is good 

Holding up holiness and delivering from sin 

(John 14:23,24) Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”

(Rev 3:20,21) Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me. To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

(1 John 5:3,4) For this is the love of God: that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome, because everyone born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith.

Left Of Center

 

Every day I have to straighten these desks. 

I teach 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade English Language Arts, and at the end of each day, after all three grades have sat in these desks, each one needs to be adjusted back into the proper position. If I go a couple days without straightening them, there are a few that would probably veer so far off-center, that they would end up on the other side of the classroom. Some days, when I straighten each row, I think to myself, “Lord, I wish more of us in Your church would do this.” 

When Scripture tells us that David was a man after God’s own heart, we are being told that David sought to have a heart like the Father’s in all things. And one of the things we see when the Father manifested His heart in human flesh through His Son, is that often times people made the wrong assumption about how God felt about others and themselves. We see Jesus often dealing with people at extremes, giving grace to those who didn’t deserve it and bringing conviction upon those who thought they didn’t need it. 

Beloved, the inconvenient truth is that we fight an enemy who is just as pleased when we misuse the letter of God’s word, as he is when we disobey it. Our enemy dwells at both extremes, but he doesn’t necessarily seek to draw us fully there. He simply seeks to tip the balance one way or another, subtly moving us off-center. Whether in the direction of hedonism or asceticism, he is equally successful. And unless we daily offer our heart unto the Lord to search it and try it…

…we may end up clear on other side of the classroom before we realize it. 

(Acts 13:22) After removing Saul, He raised up David as their king and testified about him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after My own heart; he will carry out My will in its entirety.’

(Psalm 139:23,24) Search me, O God, and know my heart; Put me to the test and know my anxious thoughts; See if there is any hurtful or offensive way in me and lead me in the everlasting way.

(Job 31:5) If I have walked in falsehood or my foot has rushed to deceit, let God weigh me with honest scales, that He may know my integrity. 

(Prob 21:2,3) All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart. To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.

Seeing The Son

All my life I prided myself on my strength

Until You showed me I wasn’t strong

All those years spent thinking I was right 

Until You finally showed me I was wrong 

“Prepare me, O Lord!

Give me dreams and visions 

Show me that You are truly there!”

Be still, My daughter 

Let Me teach you of faith

First, pick up the cross you must bear

“Oh Lord, I trust you completely!”

Yes daughter, until you don’t. 

“But Lord, I will follow You implicitly!”

Yes daughter, until you won’t

Father, why do I struggle with these things that are true?

Why do I hesitate and question You?

How will my heart find the strength that it needs?

How will I ever work your marvelous deeds?

“Lord, help me please! 

Show me how it is done!”

I did, my daughter 

I sent you my Son 

(1 John 4:9,0) This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

(Col 1:27,28) To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.

(James 3:17,18) But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, gentle, accommodating, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

Patience Of The Lord

 

The Lord convicted me today. 

I scrolled through Facebook as I sat at my desk eating lunch today. I began to lament the caricature that Facebook tends to be of human existence, including and especially things pertaining to religion and faith. I thought to myself as I have so many times before, “I’m so done with this.” And the Lord communicated in that moment, that it is a good thing He’s never been like that with me. 

So many times I’ve said, “I’m done with this world…I’m done with the way this person thinks…the way this person acts….the way this or that thing is…I’m done with this.”  But the Lord isn’t. Not yet. And that is a good thing for all of us. His patience with us is a good thing, and today the Lord reminded me that our patience with each other is a good thing, too. 

I’ll be flat out honest with you, there are people who get on my last nerve. There are things happening in this world that make me just want to throw up my hands and jump on the next train to heaven. But that is more of a testament to the work the Lord needs to do in me, rather than anything else. Oswald Chambers said that God uses us from His perspective, not ours and that when we say, “Lord, this causes me such heartache,” we become a stumbling block. 

He goes on to say, “When I stop telling God what I want, He can freely work His will in me without any hindrance. He can crush me, exalt me, or do anything else He chooses. He simply asks me to have absolute faith in Him and His goodness.”

(Is 48:9) For the sake of My name I will delay My wrath; for the sake of My praise I will restrain it, so that you will not be cut off.

(Rom 2:3,4) So when you, O man, pass judgment on others, yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you disregard the riches of His kindness, tolerance, and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

(2 Pet 3:9,15) The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance…Consider also that our Lord’s patience brings salvation…

Seed Of The Lord

The Lord speaks unlike man speaks. 

Mankind speaks according to the structures of reason. We observe an issue to contend with, and then we formulate our arguments against it according to our ability to reason and understand. We may incorporate Scripture into our argument, but it is still Scripture as we interpret and understand it. And we do all of this without even realizing it. If we are truly honest with ourselves, we must concede that more often than not, we contend for God through the lens of our own heart. 

I have found that one of the most difficult lessons we must learn as followers of Christ, is to simply be honest with ourselves. To admit that maybe we cannot see as clearly as we thought we could. To truly arrive at the end of ourselves where we have no other options left, nothing left to hide behind, and thus admit with a truly humble heart that we know nothing. To admit that the impetus for much of our contending for the word of God, is to preserve our own understanding of it. 

When the Lord speaks, He doesn’t really argue, He just plants seeds. He speaks transforming truth that is not apprehended by the mind of the flesh. And even though those truths may be overlooked at the time, the seed of that truth settles deep within a person’s psyche and begins to take root, quietly working through a person as leaven works through a lump of dough. That is why the Holy Spirit has no need to argue according to reason. He simply needs to cast His seed and allow that seed to do what it was created to do. 

May we all have faith that the Lord is capable of doing that. 

(Mark 4:26-29) Jesus also said, “The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed on the ground. Night and day he sleeps and wakes, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he knows not how. All by itself the earth produces a crop—first the stalk, then the head, then grain that ripens within. And as soon as the grain is ripe, he swings the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

(Matt 13:33) He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into three measures of flour, until all of it was leavened.”

(1 Cor 3:6,7) I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

(Is 55:10,11) For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return without watering the earth, making it bud and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.