After His Heart

“…the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people…” I Samuel 13:14 New International Version

How do you stir your passion for God? Sometimes there are seasons where it is so easy. The worship flows and it doesn’t matter if anyone is watching or not. You are just caught up in love – caught up in worship. And there are seasons of constant distractions or dryness or exhaustion. How do you maintain passion in those seasons? How do you keep from becoming like the Laodiceans who were neither hot nor cold?

August 2005 – at a conference in Southern California. It was unlike anything I had experienced before. People were running and dancing and jumping during the worship. People were breaking out in laughter and yelling during the sermons. Even waiting in line to get into a session people were falling down on the ground and yelling out what were suppose to be prophesies. I was hungry for God but this was too much. This chaos couldn’t be God.

The speaker for that session was Heidi Baker – whom I had never heard of. As she came onto the stage, before she even spoke, I was suddenly and powerfully struck with the conviction that I did not love the Lord Jesus. It made no sense to me. I thought I loved the Lord. I had given everything and risked everything to be obedient to the call on my life. Time and again I had surrendered to the Holy Spirit. But even though my mind couldn’t wrap around it the conviction was real and powerful. As Heidi knelt on the stage to worship God as if no one else was in the room, I knew it was true. She loved Jesus above all else. I had gotten so caught up in ministry and what I thought was God or wasn’t I had lost my first love. That evening Heidi spoke on the Spirit of Adoption and I realized I had been working for God as an orphan, trying to earn my way into the favor I already possessed as his child. When I arrived home from the conference I went to my bedroom, put on worship music. I knew if it was Jesus I wanted it – no matter what it looked like. I said out loud, “Holy Spirit, I surrender” and within a minute I was on my face at the beginning of what would be a three day encounter with God that would change me for the rest of my life. Those three days led into a season of almost daily encounters with God.

What I've learned is that when I hold onto the revelation that my first calling in life is to be a kid, His daughter, I never have to go a day without hearing His voice and feeling His presence. No matter what the season of my life, if I make my one ambition to seek after his heart I will remain in encounter with Him and from that place of encounter passion flows. I don’t have to beg for the crumbs that fall from my master’s table, as an orphan or slave would. I am a daughter of the most high God and anytime that I want to I can turn my heart towards him, connect with his heart and encounter His presence.

Jesus, we are after your heart. We want to know what you are thinking and feeling, what moves you with joy and what brings a tear to your eye. Teach us to live in a continuous encounter with you. Amen.

Transition

Transition is a word I've heard a lot lately, especially from the prophetic types. I've felt it in my own life too. I have this sense that life as I know it is about to radically change. Being a pioneering adventurer at heart there is definitely an exciting element to that thought. However, its also a very uncomfortable season and I have to battle the temptation to get into fear and worry about what's coming next and what I might have to leave behind.
As a worship leader I know that the transition time between songs is as important as the songs themselves. The goal is to keep the flow of the anointing going and not have abrupt starts and stops where suddenly were not worshipping anymore, then suddenly we are. That is the way I want the transitions in my life to be as well. The temptation is to check out, escape the sense of uncomfortableness and fear through distraction and busyness. I don' want to live my life that way. So here are some things I'm trying to do to get me through this transition season.
First of all I'm waiting. The season demands that you wait because you don't know what's coming next. But instead of an anxious impatient waiting, I'm trying to wait on the Lord. To rest in him so that I have strength for whatever is next. Isaiah 40:31 promises that "they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint" (ESV). Waiting for me looks like doing what the Lord puts in front of me each day, resting, and doing the things that give me joy like painting and worship. So what is it that renews your strength; quiet time, family, the outdoors? Make time for those things and then while you're doing them be in communion with the Holy Spirit. Let his presence rest on you. This is what will get you ready for whatever God is going to do next.
I've also been focusing on what I know God has called me too. Such as relationships for starters. Also, I know He has called me to pour my life out for the church and to be a conduit of transformation to the people around me. Whatever he has next for me will involve that. Do you know what God has called you too? If you don't, start thinking about what you're passionate about. Our passions and dreams are tied up with our destiny. New Life also has some excellent tools to help you discover your place in ministry, your gifts and the way God has wired you.
During this season of transition I also have found myself revisiting the prophetic words over my life. I have words on cd and written out that I've been listening to and reading. It is awesome to see what God has already done in my life and the words that He has fulfilled or is fulfilling. It also feeds my excitement for why He is transitioning me. I know that at the end of this season I'll be stepping into more of the destiny for my life.
Above all remember that God is good. Everything he does is good. He takes all our ashes and turns them into beauty (Is. 61:3). He works out everything for our good (Rom 8:28). He has plans to prosper us and to give us a hope and a future (Jer 29:11). Whatever it is that I have to leave behind to move ahead into the new season will be totally worth it. I've seen it time and again in my life. God is good.

Wisdom & Revelation

"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe." Ephesians 1:17-19 (ESV)

This prayer that Paul prays for the Ephesians has always been a favorite of mine. The words stir a sense of empowerment and the thrill of being alive inside of me. They remind me of who I truly am and what I have in Christ. I've needed that reminder from time to time and, especially in the day we are living in, so do the people around us. You don't need to look far to find people who are just trying to get by. They are numbly checked out as they go through the motions of their daily life. Maybe life is too scary right now to want to be fully experiencing it, or maybe people are just exhausted. I know I felt the sense of exhaustion myself at the beginning of the summer. That kind of existence keeps us from taking risks, reaching out, and boldly believing the promises God has made to us.

The Lord has gently been reminding me lately to pray for a Spirit of wisdom and revelation for His people. I recently began reading a book by John Eldredge called "Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive." In it Eldredge reminds us how imperative it is that we have both wisdom and revelation if we are going to walk with God.

It is by wisdom that I know that this season, this economy, will not last forever. Too many times in my youth I believed the enemy's lie that this was the way life would always be. My mother said to me on many occasions that I felt were the end of the world, "This too shall pass." So many times the Lord has echoed those words in my heart, as in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 which says "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." My prayer is that in the years to come, when the intensity of the moment has passed, I will look back on this season knowing I was not overwhelmed by the momentary trial but that my eyes and heart were steadfast on the eternal glory God has for me.

It is by revelation that I see the signs of transition all around us. God is moving, there is no doubt. Perhaps now, more than ever, we can not afford to be checked out. We must hear his voice. As Pastor Jon has said, we must follow the sound of the river. We must be as John 3:8 describes us, "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit" (NIV). In his book, "The World Aflame" Rick Joyner describes how the leaders of the Welsh Revival took this verse to heart. "They did not try to figure out where the Spirit was going next, they only tried to stay close enough to hear the sound of it" (page 16).

And so Lord Jesus, I ask that you release a Spirit of wisdom and revelation to your people, especially at New Life, that we may know you, and that our hearts may be fully alive with hope. That we would live as children of rich inheritance and glory and incomparably great power. That we would move at the sound of your voice without hesitation or fear. In Jesus name. Amen.

Lavished On

"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" I John 3:1 (TNIV)

When you think about the love the Father has for you, does it feel lavish?  When you think about being God's kid do you have a warm, secure feeling on the inside?  I know that sometimes we have to choose to believe the truth because its the truth whether we feel anything or not.  But how can you really believe you're loved, if you've never experienced being loved?

That's why Paul's prayer for the Ephesians (the church who had everything going for it) was, "I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know (by experience*) this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:17-19 (TNIV) 

For a long time now I've been mesmerized by the thought of being "filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."  What must that be like?  It must be possible if Paul is praying it for the Ephesians.  But it's not possible by any other means then growing in our experience of God's love.  You can't behave well enough, pray enough, go to church enough, give enough money or serve enough.  

So maybe we can help each other grow in our experience of God's love by sharing how it is that you experience the love of the Father.  Somehow God's brought me to a place where all I have to do is think about him or read a bible verse about his love or sing a love song and I feel wrapped up in His love all over again.  I'm going to have think for a while about how I first started experiencing God's love.  What about you?