Squeezed and Pure

A couple of things were going through my mind, thinking about some of the difficulties we go through in this life, and how it is that God is using the trials that … let’s face it … are just part of life to teach us how to trust Him and to reveal and purify the motives of our hearts. In a way, I was thinking how I was glad to have gone through some of the things I have gone through, because now for the first time I think I’m starting to get real in my relationship with God. I thought about what I wrote in “The cord of three strands” about keeping it real, and this verse came to my mind.

1Peter 1:6,7

…now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine

For some reason I was thinking about the colour orange, and the song “Orange Crush” was going through my mind… I look across at the kitchen bench, and see an orange juice bottle. On it are the words Pure… 100%. Freshly squeezed. The brand is McCoy.

God is preparing our hearts, teaching us to keep it real, so that our faith may be proved genuine. As our genuine faith is revealed may it point the way to Jesus. That is coming. When others see our reality they will see Jesus.

Hebrews 12:7,8 and 12-14

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.
Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13″Make level paths for your feet,”[b] so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
14Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

Holiness here, I believe, speaks of purity and keeping it real.

Matthew 5:8

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

The floods of disappointment

When disappointment comes, it’s as if somehow our lives are shut down, and the streams of our lives back up like water behind a dam.

It’s as if we’re stuck in this bitter, putrid, festering, muddy pool of frustration, self-pity and doubt. Its as if our lives have been inunundated.

This is not life as God intended it for us. His word says that he has come to give us life, and life in abundance. He doesn’t want us moping around by the festering pools of our life, without hope and without God active in our lives. He wants to get the streams flowing again.

Flooded fields are not productive fields. In fact, when the flooded water gets stagnant it grows toxic bacteria which can kill the ability for the fields to produce anything, even once the floods have gone. In order for the fields to be productive again, there is a plowing process which must take place, but more about that later.

God wants to open the floodgates of our lives which have caused the blockage, the areas which have allowed disappointment to take over. But even when the floodgates are opened, the floods persist sometimes. Why is that?

The reason is that there is much sludge and silt which has backed up behind the floodgates, so that even though they’re open the putrid, stagnant, foul, bitter waters remain. The gates are stopped up with the sludge and various other (indeterminate) junk.

OK, I’m speaking rhetorically here. What do I mean?

To recap: there are two processes that need to take place, to get rid of the backed up junk and putrifying flood water. First, there is an opening: the floodgates have to be opened. Then there is an unstopping which must take place.

In Isaiah, we read “Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.”

The opening of the floodgates represents the opening of our eyes: we are able to see, we’re able to assess the damage, realize we’ve been subject to flood, realize that there is something we can do about it, and see the Lord before us, the blood of Jesus, the price He paid for our redemption so we don’t have to wallow in the floods of disappointment, bogged down in our lives.

Secondly, our ears are unstopped. We’re not only able to see, we can hear from God what it is that we need to do to get ourselves out of the muck. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Jesus opens the eyes of the blind (ours) and the ears of the deaf (ours) so that the backed up filthy floodwaters can subside, hope is restored, and the festering disappointment gives way to the fruitful fields of God’s plan for our lives.

Remember, he knows the plans he has for us, and they really are to prosper and not to harm us. Whatever the devil has meant for evil, God meant for good.

As the eyes of our heart are opened, we are able to say, with Job, “Though he slay me, yet will I praise him”.

Then as we begin to praise him, our ears are unstopped, and we hear Jesus rejoice over us with singing.

He truly does delight in us, he is already saying “Well done, good and faithful servant”. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. While we were still a long way off, the father has seen us and is running with open arms.

He has come to change your name. No longer desolate, now your name is delight. The joy of the Lord, his joy over you is your strength.

The LORD has made proclamation
to the ends of the earth:
“Say to the Daughter of Zion,
‘See, your Savior comes!
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.’ ”

12 They will be called the Holy People,
the Redeemed of the LORD;
and you will be called Sought After,
the City No Longer Deserted.

Recompense and restoration are coming. A marriage, a restoration is coming, and is now here as you look to him.

The Promise of Restoration

David says, in Psalm 138

In the day when I cried out, You answered me,
And made me bold with strength in my soul.

No matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, that promise is true for us today. It’s true for those of us who find ourselves in “constraining circumstances”. Sometimes these circumstances are obvious and external, sometimes they are less obvious and internal, but no less real.

I believe that God has a message today for those that are hurting, those who have been “burned”. Jesus said that the enemy comes only to kill, steal and destroy, but that he has come in order that we may have life, and that more abundantly.

Many in the church today are suffering from burns, received in the heat of battle, for which they were woefully unprepared at the time. They’ve been burned: burned by discouragement, burned by disappointed, burned by betrayal, burned by those who were supposed to help and left wondering who to turn to.

Just like natural burns have differing degrees, so do the burns of disappointment, discouragement, abandonment, failure (etc.). First degree burns are superficial, easily healed. Second degree burns reach the dermis, and cause blistering that can be painful for weeks, but take longer to heal and leave a scar. Third degree burns require hospitalization and/or divine intervention if the recipient is to survive, let alone be healed.

Third degree burns are disappointment, discouragement and difficulty that is of such a magnitude that it reaches deep within us and causes us to “despair of life itself”, such as Paul spoke of:

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.

This kind of pressure and difficulty has a very high cost for us, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Yet God says, today, I give you life, and life more abundantly.

I am here to provide healing for third degree burns. I am here to bring restoration where you thought it was impossible. God says, just because no-one else sees your pain, doesn’t mean I don’t.

Though the LORD is on high,
Yet He regards the lowly;

The promise of God for you, from Psalm 138, is this:

Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me;
You will stretch out Your hand
Against the wrath of my enemies,
And Your right hand will save me.
The LORD will perfect that which concerns me;

Though you walk in the midst of trouble, the Lord will save you. Though you walk in trouble and difficulty, the Lord will perfect that which concerns you.

Perfect… make right, restore, recompense…

I’m reminded of words spoken many years ago by Kent Henry, a worship leader:

“You’ve been hurt, disappointed, and discouraged…”
“That’s ok, it just means you’re in David’s band…”

He talks about the three “P’s”: Proclamation, Prayer and the
Prophetic.

Today, proclaim over your life:

The Lord will perfect that which concerns me

There is a prayer:

O, Lord, according to your word, perfect that which concerns me.

There is a prophetic word for you:

The Lord will perfect that which concerns your life.

your life, in the brokenness, and the difficulties, and the impossible circumstances. God speaks to these and promises: I will perfect that which concerns your life.

Bruised not Broken

Isaiah 42 (New International Version)

The Servant of the Lord
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen one in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him
and he will bring justice to the nations.

He will not shout or cry out,
or raise his voice in the streets.

A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;

he will not falter or be discouraged
till he establishes justice on earth.
In his law the islands will put their hope.”

Isaiah 54 (New American Standard)

the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake,
But My lovingkindness will not be removed from you,
And My covenant of peace will not be shaken,”
Says the LORD who has compassion on you.
“O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted,
Behold, I will set your stones in antimony,
And your foundations I will lay in sapphires.
“Moreover, I will make your battlements of rubies,
And your gates of crystal,
And your entire wall of precious stones.
“All your sons will be taught of the LORD;
And the well-being of your sons will be great.
“In righteousness you will be established;
You will be far from oppression, for you will not fear;
And from terror, for it will not come near you.

Hebrews 13:5 (Amplified Bible)

be satisfied with your present circumstances and with what you have; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. I will not, I will not, I will not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let you down (relax My hold on you)! Assuredly not!

Strength in Weakness

Isaiah 40: “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak”.

Consider Hannah: Almost everyone has heard of Hannah, but whoever heard of Penninah? Yet in Hannah’s day, it was the other way round.

Hannah’s fame was such that when God through the prophet Isaiah, that “more are the children of the desolate woman” (referring to God’s blessing to the barren woman), God’s people would have immediately thought of the story of Hannah.

Hannah was a barren woman, without children. More than that, she was persecuted by her husband’s other (we’ll save discussion of polygamy for another day) wife, the not-so-barren, childbearing (and don’t you forget it) Penninah. She was not only barren, she was desolate, hurting and pained. Constantly reminded of her failure, aggravated by the success of her peer, she bore the reproach of her barrenness and it was killing her. Her sadness showed on her face.

Hannah, however, sought the face of God. She went to the tabernacle to make her sacrifice. She would not let go until God blessed her. She did not give in when the clueless High Priest of the day, Eli, mistook her grieving and crying out to the Lord for drunkenness, and rebuked her. Almost to get rid of her, Eli announces to her “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition which you have asked of Him.”

Immediately, Hannah’s countenance changed. God imparted strength to her, in her weakness, and with the strength came miraculous grace to change the situation and to change the world.

Incredibly, especially given the apostacy of the priesthood of the day, God does indeed grant Hannah’s petition. It wouldn’t be the last Eli would hear from Hannah either.

Hannah’s pain and weakness became her strength. Her song celebrates this:

I smile at my enemies,
Because I rejoice in Your salvation.

“The bows of the mighty men are broken,
And those who stumbled are girded with strength.

Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
And the hungry have ceased to hunger.
Even the barren has borne seven,
And she who has many children has become feeble.

The barren has borne seven, God’s number for completeness. The barren’s faithfulness results in the birth of Samuel, a true prophet after God’s own heart… and she who has many children? Penninah? Panini? Pa… who?

Not that there should be a cause for gloating. No, there is never cause for that. There is, however, always cause to celebrate God’s faithfulness.

Today is the day of God’s favour. Today is the day of salvation.

Receive the strength of God, recall Hannah’s words today, even as you stumble:

“Those who stumbled are girded with strength”

The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ,
after you have suffered a little while,
will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

So you’ve failed? So you’re weak? So those mountains keep looking bigger? So what?

Have faith in God. Only keep on believing.

God himself will restore you.

Have a look at the video:

Hold Fast to That Which is True Part II

The Bible teaches us again and again to hold fast; we are to speak the truth, we are not to be vague.  We are to let our yes be “yes”, and our no “no“, we are not to be double minded.   We are not to despise prophecies.  We are to test everything.

The disturbing fact is, when God speaks something over us, or through us, or to us, it’s all to easy to lose the moment in the glory.  How could this be?  When experiencing the glory of God, its all too easy to feel invincible, that the clarity of the moment will remain when the glory lifts (not departs, just lifts, as in is no longer tangible).

Then as we return to the tyranny of the familiar, the word becomes all too distant and vague and unbelievable, and before long we forget it.   God instructs us to write his word on our doorposts, to strap it to our foreheads.  That is true of the written word, the Bible, and it ought to be true of the things that God shows us, that we know that He’s shown us, that He’s confirmed to us.

Maybe now would be a good time to dust off the word that God’s spoken to you, the vision God’s given you, the dreams Gods given you, and take a good look at them for what they are.  Don’t let the distorted goggles of disappointment and the choking black smoke from the fires of your current circumstances cloud your judgement and cause you to forget what God has promised.  God will do whatever it is He said He would do.  God is still true to His word.  He is the same yesterday, today and forever, and don’t you forget it!

And those circumstances—just what are they?  Just as Jesus said to Peter “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed that your faith should not fail” Satan and his diabolical henchmen also ask to sift us, and will send anything in their power to discourage us from what God has clearly spoken.

Fortunately, Jesus has prayed for us too, and our brothers and sisters in Christ are going through those same struggles.   If you faint in the time of adversity, how small is your strength? Similarly, while Jesus is sleeping and the storms of life knock the boat, remember Jesus’ words, as He rebukes the wind and the waves and calm prevails: “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?”.

You of little faith, why are you so afraid?   God is faithful, He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but when you are tempted, He will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

You who are disappointed, remember Jesus’ words “In my Father’s house are many rooms.” So the other ten doorways were dead ends?   So what?   Jesus has asked the Father, on your behalf, and He has provided many rooms for you.  No matter what life may have thrown your way, He who promised is faithful.  Don’t you dare let life steal from you the joy of the great cloud of witnesses, cheering you on in heaven.  And don’t you dare think you have it harder than they did.  Press on! Remember the promises of Hebrews Chapter 11, and fight the good fight of faith!

Overcoming Disappointment

  

“Sing, O barren woman, 
       you who never bore a child; 
       burst into song, shout for joy, 
       you who were never in labor; 
       because more are the children of the desolate woman 
       than of her who has a husband,” 
       says the LORD.

When dreams are shattered, its not just hard to pick up the pieces.  It’s impossible.  We know what happened to Humpty Dumpty.

What does God say to us when life gives us lemons?   Make lemonade??  No.

God knows that the lemons of life are often too bitter to be of any use for anything, other than to be tossed back into the pit from whence they came.  So what does He give us instead.  He gives us hope.   Not the pitiful “I hope so” of the plaintively desperate.   Not the “hopefully” of the hopeless.  No.  

Paul writes to the Romans:

…since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

“Hope does not disappoint us”

Hope, in the Glory of God, does not disappoint us.  And we also have hope from the word of God in Isaiah.  A promise, that he will give us “children” in our barrenness.  Joyce Meyer says “If you’ve been disappointed, get reappointed”.

And when I first heard that—well, I was seething—but then God gave me a picture.  God reappoints us with a new appointment—not the same appointment—a new one, tailor-made for where we’re at

Because within the black hole of disappointment, the crucible of broken dreams… the-thing-that-you’d-hoped-for-that-just-ain’t-gonna-happen…ever!  The nothingness of defeat.   God says “I will turn the specter of failure in to a sceptre of righteousness”

How?

By giving us a new dream, a new vision, a new hope.   Maybe yesterday we dreamed of a perfect marriage.  Until that was decimated in the ashes of an acrimonious divorce.   Maybe we’ve been crippled… physically or emotionally.  Maybe we got struck down by depression.  Maybe we lost our confidence. Maybe our best friend betrayed us.  It doesn’t matter.

The new hope is a vision of Gods glory, it’s engaging Gods plan for redemption that meets us head on right where we’re at.   Its focusing on the cross,  Jesus Christ, the True King, himself utterly broken and bereft for our sakes.  But not without hope.  As we gaze upon the cross, a remarkable transformation begins to take place.  He who knew no sin, no brokenness, was made sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.  There it is—the specter of failure turned into a sceptre of righteousness.  Its praying through the depression.  Its loving our enemies.  Its learning to be gracious in defeat.  Its the gospel… the good news.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

Hope has come.  Jesus Christ is that hope,  he alone can fulfill that longing and complete the picture right in the midst of our incompleteness.   And in the midst of that, the new plan for our future begins to unfold, right where we’re at.

For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future an a hope.

SHIFT_Your world

See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.

God is, was and always will be the creator. He is the beginning and the end and the author and perfecter of our faith, and His promise to us is our perfection. His promise to us as we are trapped by false expectations, broken dreams, the bankrupt past and the mortgaged future, the tyranny of unrequited hope, is that He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Because of this, and because of His great and precious promises when we look to Him and lean on Him, that same everlasting creative power is made manifest to us, the power to change to bring a SHIFT_ into our lives…. as I am inspired by this Nissan commercial, we are, or will be (as we lean on Him) inspired by our God.

God says “Seek me and Live”. And by “live” he means life more abundantly, a good measure, pressed down and shaken together. Taste, and see that the Lord is good.

Oceans will part

The refrain of the song in my head is
“Oceans will part, Nations Come, at the whisper of your call…
“Hope will rise, Glory shown, In my life your will be done”

There is something about the will of God in our life that engenders the miraculous. In order to step into the future God has for us, we are led to a place where the impossible confronts us head on, and we are left with nothing else but to step into his plan. The parting of the oceans and the establishment of Gods purposes for our life are one and the same. One is an outward manifestation of the supernatural, the other an inward but no less incredible impartation of miraculous grace.

But why are we so surprised at the need for the miraculous? (or why I am I so surprised…) Doesn’t Jesus promise us that whosoever believes in Him, rivers of living water shall flow (gush?) from their innermost being. Where else does that overflow of supernatural grace come from but the miraculous presence of God pouring forth into our lives. It is no less incredible than the mighty Red Sea, split asunder as Moses lifts his staff, no less gobsmacking than the river Jordan rolled back as far as the eye could see, the reproach of Israel driven back to Adam.

So it is with the miraculous working of God’s will in our lives.

In my life, Your will be done. Not the comprehensible, categorizable, understandable plans that I can conceive. The incomprehensible, improbable, impossible will of God for my life. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived”. But God has revealed it to us by his spirit. How incredible is that.

The Plans I have for you

Just as God led His people Israel through the wilderness in times of old, God still leads His people into the wilderness. And He led his own Son, Jesus, into the wilderness, before his ministry. Just as he promised Hosea, He is leading us into the wilderness with a purpose, and that purpose is to speak tenderly to us, to teach us how to depend on Him and not ourselves.

To those who don’t know God and His ways, nothing could seem more preposterous. Yet to those who do know God, and are familiar with His ways, nothing provides a greater testimony to the truthfulness of these words than the very experience of Gods tender mercies while in the depths of the wilderness…

And the purpose He has for us today, in learning to depend on Him and learning to lean on Him is wholly pointed in the direction of the future. He declares: “I know the plans I have for you, plans to give you a future, and a hope…. plans to prosper you, and not to harm you.’ Yet our circumstances, in their abject barrenness speak of the complete opposite. We are reminded of God’s faithful servant Abraham: “Against all hope, Abraham, in hope, believed”

And one cannot believe unless there is an object for that belief. That object, is the embodiment of his Son Jesus. He is our portion. When we are fully satisfied in Him, and in Him alone, we find that within the awesomeness of his majesty, his provision, is our very future, and the plans of God mapped out before us somehow within the person of Jesus. Jesus declared “In my fathers house are many rooms”… and we do not know how true that is for us, as Jesus opens His heart to us and we find within the desires of our own heart, the plans and the destiny and the dreams that we had hoped for, within the desire of our heart, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that is the plan for the future. “For I know the plans I have for you”, says God, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope”. Hope, as they say, has a name.

That name is Jesus.

Do you know him? If not, take the time to seek Him and learn of Him… for He is gentle and humble of heart, His yoke is easy and His burden is light. He knows you by name and He is calling you this very day.

“Choose this day whom you will serve. As for me and My house, we will serve the Lord”