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By Posted on Posted in obedience No Comments Tagged with , ,

I read a certain verse a few weeks ago, and it has been on my mind since then.  I had never noticed it before.  The reality of these words struck me and I can’t help but think about them. All the time.

The words come from Luke 23.  In the text, Pontius Pilate has brought together the chief priests, the Jewish leaders, and the people. Jesus has already been arrested, questioned, shuffled back and forth between King Herod and Pilate.  Neither of these authorities can find any basis for executing Jesus, but the people (incited by the religious leaders) are demanding that Jesus be crucified.  Pilate must follow tradition and release one prisoner for the Passover Feast, and he is shocked when the people ask for the notorious Barabbas instead of the innocent Jesus.  He decides to grant the people’s maddening request, releasing Barabbas and sending Jesus to the cross.  You know the story well.  Me too.  But you may have missed a minor detail like I did. This is what the last phrase of Luke 23:25 (NIV) says about Pilate and the people:

He surrendered Jesus to their will.

My first reaction– this is totally backwards thinking!!  But how often is this true in our lives?  It’s backwards living!!  How often do we ignore the Lord’s promptings and His word?  How often do we force Him to surrender to our will?  We lose out on what He had planned…

  • amazing opportunities to be used by Him
  • abundant blessings from His hand
  • awesome demonstrations of His power and love

And then He has to re-route us to get us back on track with His will. Most times, the opportunites go to someone else. The blessings wait, never discovered. The demonstrations of His power and love are a part of someone else’s testimony — not ours.

I want to surrender myself to Jesus’ will.

It has to be a conscious choice.  We have to lay down our own will.  Sometimes we have to lay it down over and over again until we get it right.  Many times, we have to ask for the willingness to lay down our own will.  The Holy Spirit will provide the willingness.  It’s His desire to work in us and enable us to surrender to Jesus.

Are you living backwards?

By Posted on Posted in faith 1 Comment Tagged with , ,

I’m feeling a little sore, so to speak.  Have you ever had one of those weeks when you spent much of the time wrestling with God?  I really had to let go of some things (see last week’s post — Touching the Sacred) and now I’m in a much better place.  Just a little worn out from the tug-of-war.  I should remember that God always wins these things and I’m better off if I can let go sooner instead of later.

Yesterday at church, the Lord really spoke to me.  I was feeling very emotional…kind of raw… during worship.  My mind was totally on Jesus as I was singing to Him, and in the middle of it all, He gave me a promise.  Actually, it’s more like part 5 of a promise He first gave me over a year ago during worship.  That first time, He gave me a mental picture of something truly amazing.  Over the last year, He’s been adding detail to the same picture.  This time, the new portion of the promise had to do with the timing.   I was blown away. (Translation:   I cried like a baby and wondered why I’d even bothered to put on make-up that morning.)

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the new layer of detail for this promise came after I surrendered this week.  I’ve been asking for direction and confirmation in a few areas, but because I had the death-grip on some things, the communication He had for me couldn’t get through.

So, what to do with this new layer of the promise??  The old Jamie would already have a 5 step plan on how to achieve this thing.  It’s been 24 hours now, so I’d be fully immersed in step one and God would be eating my dust.  However, the new Jamie knows that only the Lord can accomplish what He has dreamed up for me in His heart.   So, if I can’t make plans or force this promise to begin sprouting, what’s on my docket for today?

I’m following in the footsteps of Abraham…his footsteps of faith.   I was looking more closely at Romans 4 this morning:

…the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.  Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.   Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,  being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.  Rom. 4:18-21

First, I was reminded about God’s nature.  He gives life to the dead.  It makes no difference to Him what the current state of a person or a situation is. He brings life to everything that deserves life according to His will.

In addition, He is eternal. Because He exists outside of our  earthly time constraints, He sees things as they will be in HIS time.  “He calls things that ARE NOT as though they WERE.” In the case of Abraham, God called Abe the father of many nations before Sarah ever conceived their son. God saw Abraham in his future, complete, received-the-promise-in-hand state.

Since God called Abraham the father of many nations, Abe believed it even though the fulfillment hadn’t come yet. Look at what the Romans passage says about Abraham’s actions:

  • Against all hope, Abraham believed.
  • He did not weaken in his faith as he faced the facts of the situation (old man’s seed + old wife’s womb = no chance for a baby)
  • He never stopped believing God’s promise.
  • He was strengthened in his faith by giving glory to God (focusing on who God is instead of what is going on).
  • He maintained the position of being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what He promised.  No matter what the circumstances were.

Today, I am putting my faith in God and believing His promise.  He can see it completed.  That’s the picture that He keeps sharing with me during worship!   It’s the end result.   I am fully persuaded that He has the power to do what He has promised.  He’s the ONLY ONE who has the power to do it.  All I have to do is believe and wait.  I am viewing the waiting time as preparation and transformation time.  It is my joy to wait and see what God will do!

By Posted on Posted in spiritual lows 2 Comments Tagged with , ,

The last year has been very interesting for me.  In 12 months, I’ve managed to experience the absolute peak of my spiritual life (so far) and also some of the lowest lows of my spiritual life.

The lows have hit me hard.  Struggling to trust God after painful losses.  Being too afraid to press in and hear from God.   Finding myself in extended periods of waiting on Him and His provision.  In those low moments I saw things in myself that I did not like.  I couldn’t help but beat myself up (since I had just been on such a high) and I found myself being angry at God for letting me get so high and fall so far.

God’s been teaching me some interesting things lately.  My daily bible reading has taken me right through the biographies of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, etc.) and I’m gaining a little perspective.

These guys were total ding-a-lings sometimes!  Yes, they received the promises of God and followed Him faithfully in amazing acts of service.  However, they had moments of poor judgment, major selfishness, and crippling fear.

With that in mind, look at what the New Testament says about them:

  • (God) testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’   Acts 13:22
  • Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.   Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”  Romans 4:18-22
  • By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.  Hebrews 11:24-28

When God describes these men and their lives, He focuses on the positive.  On the acts of faithfulness.  On the victories.  On the moments when they trusted Him and held onto Him.  He let go of their sins and their failures.

I think it’s about time that I let go of my lows and my moments of failure.   Isn’t that why Jesus came to shed His blood for me?   So that I can be forgiven.   Not only by God, but also by myself.

I’ve also noticed some other folks who fell hard after their spiritual highs.   The children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years after miraculously walking through the Red Sea.   Elijah hid out and wanted to die after the unbelievable defeat of the prophets of Baal.   Peter sank into the sea after taking some amazing steps on the water’s surface.   Even Jesus spent 40 days in the desert immediately after being baptized, blessed, and confirmed by the Father in front of many witnesses.

With a little perspective, I am coming out of my low season.  There’s no shame in where I’ve been.  Only hope.  I’m on the upswing and God loves me no matter what happens next.