All Things

I prayed over these eggs today. 

It may seem like a silly, pointless thing to pray about when there is suffering and war and the crushing tide of wickedness to pray about. But there is life in those eggs and life is valuable, because all life came from God Himself. My eyes —still swollen from praying about all the big things this morning— closed, as I laid my hands on these incubators and prayed for the little things.

I prayed that my little ducks would make it. That they would not die in their shell because they didn’t have the strength to make it out. I prayed that my turkey eggs were by some miracle fertile, despite the fact that the turkeys who laid them continually avoided the one who could make them fertile. And in that moment, I thought about how those prayers could easily be the very same prayers I could pray for the church. 

More times than I can recount, God has used the little things to teach me about the big things. He has used the mundane to teach me of the magnificent, and the overlooked things to teach me of the things that must be overcome. He is in every moment, every step, every breath. He is with us when we pour out our tears in prayer over the big things, and He is with us when we— with swollen eyes— whisper our prayers over the little things. 

Father, we praise You this morning for Your faithfulness. We thank You that You remain with us in all things, whether great or small. 

(Ps 66:17-20) I cried out to Him with my mouth and praised Him with my tongue. If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; But truly God has listened; He has attended to the voice of my prayer. Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!

(1 John 5:14,15) This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we already possess what we have asked of Him.

(Ps 89:1,2) I will sing of the loving devotion of the LORD forever; with my mouth I will proclaim Your faithfulness to all generations. I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself.

In All Things

I used to wonder if there was something wrong with me when people would say, “You can’t love Jesus without loving other people.” And I would think to myself, “Wanna bet?”

One thing I learned from the pastor I discipled under for years, who taught me things about ministry that you simply can’t learn from a book, is that people are messy. But God isn’t afraid to get His hands dirty and reach into their mess and pull them out. Our job is to surrender our own notions about what “ministry” should look like, and allow the Lord to work through us in whatever mess someone may be in, to be used by Him to show them the way out. My flesh resists that, as my reasoning screams, “It’s not my job to save someone!.. I can’t fix someone else’s mess!” And both of those things are true, but being used by the Lord comes down to the question: Do I trust God?

Do I trust the Lord to guide me into someone’s dungeon so I can help lead them out of it? Because people in a dungeon need a light. They need a torch bearer— not more lashings upon their back about why they ended up in that dungeon in the first place. So, I have to constantly ask myself, “Do I trust God? Do I reeeeally trust Him in all things?” And to be flat-out honest, my answer has been a heart-breaking “No,” more times than I care to admit. 

I would reason within myself that I DO, in fact, trust God— it’s just other people I don’t trust. Or myself I don’t trust. But trust in God “in all things” necessarily includes my trust that He is bigger than all our untrustworthiness. I have had to learn that our ability to love others the way we’re supposed to, involves learning how to invest our trust in the right person, which is God Himself, regardless of our own or anyone else’s stumbling. 

O Father, forgive me for my lack of trust in You. Guide us in Your truth and faithfulness and lead us, as we shine Your light into the darkest dungeons to set the prisoners free.  

(Psalm 40:1,2) I waited patiently for the LORD; He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

(Luke 4:17-18) …the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. Unrolling it, He found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

(Rom 10:14,15) How then can they call on the One in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

(Matt 5:14,15) You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they set it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

A Wish For What He Wants

“Mommy, make a wish…”

I went for a walk to the pond yesterday with my seven year-old daughter. As we walked, she picked a dandelion and said, “Mommy, make a wish!” I asked, “Can I say my wish out loud?” She said, “Yes.” So I closed my eyes and blew as hard as I could on the dandelion fluff and said, “I wish Jesus would come back soon.” When we started to walk again, she said, “Well, maybe He will.” Then I asked her, “What’s the first thing you’d say to Him when you see Him?” And she replied matter-of-factly, “I’d rub His feet.” 

In my mind, I was thinking about all the questions I’d ask Him. In her mind, she wasn’t thinking about what she would ask at all, but about what she would do. Humbly amused, I inquired, “You’d rub His feet?” And she answered, “Yeah, because I think He’d like that. I wanna do what He wants.” 

I’m sure if we were asked, most of us would probably say the first thing we’ll do when we see Jesus, is fall at His feet in worship. And maybe that’s true. I don’t know. But in that moment, all I knew was that I wanted that dandelion back. All I knew was that I wanted to make another wish. A wish that wasn’t about what I wanted, but about what He wanted. 

O Lord, may the longing of our heart be about what You want, more than what we want. 

(John 6:38) For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but to do the will of Him who sent Me.

(John 8:28,29) When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases Him.

(John 13:13-15) You call Me Teacher and Lord, and rightly so, because I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example so that you should do as I have done for you.

Trust Through Failure

“Mommy, I know how to do it now.”

She didn’t, of course, but I had to let her try. I had to let her see that she couldn’t. She had an idea of what to do, but I had to allow her to attempt an execution of what she thought she knew. And I had to allow her to fail. It was the only way for her to comprehend her lack of understanding. 

Understanding is not gained by making the right choice all the time. We do not gain spiritual enlargement because we always have perfect execution of what we think we know. The gamut of “knowing” spans in both directions from center— one way delving into the abyss of failure, the other way reaching toward the mountains of success. Complete understanding is comprehension of both. 

On my desk calendar, I have written at the bottom corner, “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.” Each day I read it and consciously put my trust in Him, whether my day is a success or failure. Each day, I trust in His knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, rather than my own. Because each day, whether success or failure, the overcomer trusts in the Lord through both.

O Lord, let the land be covered in still and resolute trust in You, as the quiet, gentle dew covers the ground in the morning.

(Prov 3:5,6 AMP) Trust in and rely confidently on the LORD with all your heart And do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know and acknowledge and recognize Him, And He will make your paths straight…

(Jer 1:11,12) And the word of the LORD came to me, asking, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” “I see a branch of an almond tree,” I replied. “You have observed correctly,” said the LORD, “for I am watching over My word to accomplish it.”

(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.

Capacity To Listen

“I pray that I will not strive more than I listen.”

Work comes naturally to us, listening does not. We are much more comfortable doing something for God, than we are simply sitting in conscious trust in Him. Work seems to give us a tangible measure of progress, whereas listening seems tedious and unproductive. However, it is far better to listen than to strive, because work does not give spiritual enlargement— listening does. 

As vessels of the Lord, we need enlargement. We must have capacity to withstand the full indwelling of the Spirit of the Lord. Oft times this is a strenuous process of “He must increase, and I must decrease.” We cannot be filled with the knowledge of His will, while we continue to stubbornly cling to our own.  We cannot be filled with His wisdom and understanding, if we continue to fill ourselves with the world’s. 

One of the most frightening prayers I’ve ever prayed was, “Lord, enlarge my capacity for You.” I trembled as the words fell from my lips, because my soul instinctually knew that to whom much is given, much is required. We have not because we ask not, and we ask not, because deep down inside, we know that to be given more capacity for Christ in us, requires a cost of “self” that we simply are not willing to pay. 

O Lord, grant us the courage to ask for capacity. Help us to listen more than we strive.

(Col 1:9-11) …we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have full endurance and patience…

(Matt 7:7,8) Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

(Psalm 37:4-6) Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness like the dawn, your justice like the noonday sun.

Kneeling VS Bowing

“I will kneel before Him, but I will not bow.”

Yesterday morning, the Lord showed me in the Spirit a woman sitting at a table. A woman that symbolized the church. This woman was reflecting back over her life, all the choices and mistakes that were made. And as she realized more and more the true state of her heart, she said with downward eyes and trembling hands, “I will kneel before Him, but I will not bow.” It was a truth not spoken in defiance, but a confession spoken in the kind of anguish that is only caused by a heart-wrenching moment of clarity. 

In that moment, the Spirit ministered to me the difference between kneeling and bowing. Kneeling is an outer thing, bowing is an inner thing. You can kneel before someone without bowing to them— demons kneel before Christ, and every creature will bend the knee and confess that He is sovereign Lord. But wicked creatures will never bow to Him— they will never worship Him and serve Him in obedience as Lord. Because bending the knee and bending the heart are two completely different things. 

There are many in organized Christianity who may have bent their knee to Christ outwardly, but inwardly, their heart is bowed to Babylon. This is what the Lord wants us to understand for the sake of recognizing the true state of our heart and repenting while it is still day, before the night comes and no one can work. 

O Lord, search my heart and try my conscience; see if there be any waywardness in me or any delusion; purify my heart and cleanse my hands, that I may ascend your holy mountain. 

(John 9:4-7) “While it is daytime, we must do the works of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When Jesus had said this, He spit on the ground, made some mud, and applied it to the man’s eyes. Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam”... So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

(Rev 3:16-18) So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of My mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from Me…salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

(Dan 3:14-19) Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true… that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up?”… Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, “…let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image you have set up.” At this, Nebuchadnezzar was filled with rage…

Exclaiming His Exaltation

“It is enough for a disciple to be like his teacher, and a servant like his master… What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the housetops.” (Matt 10:25,27) 

Scripture tells us that in the church, there would be an increase in false prophets at the time of the end. The Lord said that while the people slept, the enemy would come in and sow weeds among the wheat, and He said that both must grow together until the harvest. But He also said that you would know them by their fruit. Not by their appearance—because tares look very similar to wheat— but by their fruit. By whether they produce something that feeds or nurtures His sheep, or whether they produce something that frustrates them, confuses them, or leads them astray. 

Regardless, the one thing we have not been instructed to do is to be silent. There will be many who speak in the name of the Lord who speak from their own heart and not His. There will be many who say, “The Lord led me to share…” whom the Lord did not lead to share. There will be many who say, “Lord didn’t we prophesy in Your name…?” to whom He will say, “I never knew you…” And this is terrifying to me.

The Lord created us to be His vessels. We were created to represent Him in character, mind, and heart upon this earth. So there have always been those who truly hear the Spirit of the Lord, and those who think they do, but don’t. And as we make our way to the finish line, we must pray for the ones who are genuine, that they may not be tempted to silence because of the ones who aren’t. We must pray for all us to be like our Teacher…

…and to fearlessly speak in the daylight what He shares with us in the dark. 

(Matt 24:45,46) And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.”

(Matt 24:10-12) At that time many will fall away and will betray and hate one another, and many false prophets will arise and mislead many. Because of the multiplication of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.

(1 John 4:1) Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.

(2 Pet 2:1) Now there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.