War rooms, coffee shops and other holy places

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances..." 

-1 Thessalonians 5:16-17

This year I am celebrating a big anniversary.  Thirty years ago, I began my journey and training in the foundations of  intercession. Learning about God through prayer ( the ongoing conversation with the Most High) has been a blessing in my life. I have seen this conversation change situations in the lives of others.  However, I have seen how this tête-à-tête has mostly changed me.  It brings awareness to the things I think I need to be content; whether I am in sync with the will of God; and  shines a light on the comparisons that I sometimes make on whether I am good enough. (Being nosey and looking around at what other people are doing has always gotten me in trouble.)

One of these comparison spots was having a war room. I know many prayer warriors that have war rooms, decorated spaces with boards laid out with the prayer requests of their families and communities. I know prayer warriors with designed prayer closets and even she-sheds dedicated to their prayer time. This is a practice that has given them focus and solace. However, this has never been my personal style.  My prayer practice did not match the warriors around me and that used to make me feel inadequate.  

 My secret place has always been hidden in plain sight. In my college days, my prayer time would be on the local city bus en route to class… or in the library between classes. As I entered my career, my space was my car or in a park on my lunch break…. Or anywhere at all really.  

You see, I have always carried a notebook.  A place for thoughts, prayers, requests, celebration and thanksgiving. A place to write to God about the things that didn’t make sense. This book was my “war room” and I could take it anywhere, code it anyway I wanted and hide it, in plain sight, if necessary.

Everyone should have a secret place before God, but your secret place does not have to look like anyone else's. I had to stop comparing my spiritual needs with the needs of others and find a rhythm that worked for me and God. My God space was always a place in my heart. He goes with me everywhere, so I can speak to Him anywhere. And I let that flow go into my notebook.

Now, nature may be my favorite place to pray- in a garden, on a hike or by a park bench by a lake; but I just need a place where I can feel that I can hear Him clearly.  Where the ambient sound of my own thoughts can quiet and God and I can have a clear conversation, nothing fancy - just talk.  My holy place is anywhere I can hear him clearly - a coffee shop, a hospital waiting room, or a parking lot - anywhere works as long as I can hear.

Because God is not loud. He will let me talk for five minutes or even five hours  and then He will whisper His answers.  Because God does not scream. Even though He will let us scream, even in His presence, when the pain is too much to bear, when bitterness won’t uproot itself and when grief just won’t make room for anything else.  He lets us scream.  And when we listen, He speaks. He pours His peace into us. He fills and heals the broken cracks in my human vessel and turns my heart into a holy place….Which is the only place He has ever asked for.

Find the rhythm that works for God and you.  Keep listening until you can hear.

Until next time

xylia

Seek, Renew & Press

Ecclesiastes 3  To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under Heaven

Congratulations! Happy New Year! Happy New Season! We made it through to 2024!  Tell God thank you! It is indeed a blessing.  Leaving one year or season and entering into another  gives us the opportunity to reflect on where we are and where we want to go. We can ask, “what have I accomplished and what do I  have left to do?" We can reflect on a larger scale than our daily check in. You may have like many of us sat down and written out goals or resolutions for this year. Many of us when new year comes focus on the external changes that we want. You may sound like this... I want to lose weight. I’m going to the gym and I’m not leaving this time. ...Or I’m going to change my diet this year. I’ve signed up for  Weight Watchers or Noom.” Does this sound familiar?

Tell the truth, how many of you have balled up that New Year’s Resolution list and thrown it in the trash already? There is no need to hide. Many Americans walk away from their resolutions in the first two weeks of making them. The gyms are full in January but before March they are back to their normal attendance levels.

If you are one of these people, it is not too late to hit the reset button. You don’t need a new year to make a change in your life. You only need today. God gave you new breath, new mercy and a fresh chance today. You only need to today to make that Divine opportunity count.

May I make a suggestion? If your list is at the bottom of the recycle bin, don’t bother pulling back out. Let’s start fresh. Together we can make some resolutions right here and right now.  This really is your year. It is your year to Seek, Renew and Press. This is your year to lean in and receive what God has for you.

Let’s go to the gospel of Matthew chapter 6. I’ll start with verse twenty-five.

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[e]?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (NIV)

Resolution one - Seek first the kingdom. Everything else is secondary.

The first thing that God has for you this year is His plan and your place in His plan. This year God wants you to make His priorities your own.  

So many times when we set our goals and priorities we do not consult our Maker before we make them. We submit our plans God after we have decided that this is what we want we want to do. When we seek His kingdom first our perspective has to change.

I like chess analogies though I do not play chess well at all. In chess, in order for your moves to effective in the long run against your opponent you have to take a step back visually and see the whole board.  What does that mean,see the whole board? It is the ability see the changing conclusion of the game with each move on the board you make; and with each move your opponent makes. For each move of a chess piece changes the number of options a player has to win the game.  It is more than just seeing several steps ahead. It is seeing to the end.  

In life I can only see so far ahead of what consequences my decisions (my moves) have on the long term options in my life. Thankfully, I don’t have to see them because I serve a God who is the author of my beginning and my end. He has asked me to look at Him and follow Him.  He is asking us to be moved according to His strategy and not our own.

In our setting priorities and plans for our lives we tend to forget that we are not the chess player, the master of the board who can see to the end.  But instead we behave as if we are the chess player and God is a piece that we can move on our board.  In truth we are the chess piece in the hands of a loving Master who will not lead us astray. 

Let us take the opportunity to change our perspective this year. In this season, let us ask the Lord where we fit in His plan this year and allow Him to move us into place. God can handle the needs and wants that we may have in this world (the what we eat and how we’re clothed stuff) while we focus on His priorities. 

Now you may say, “Well God is the one who gives us dreams and visions and the understanding to bring the plans to pass.”  This is true. But we also have to remember that there are 3 masters, 3 voices, that have access to our thought life (whether we are sleeping or waking). The voice of God, the voice of the adversary and the voice of your belly or your flesh.  Without the wisdom and discernment of the Holy Spirit, we may have difficulty telling these voices apart. It is critical, especially in these last days to be able tell these voices apart and move accordingly.

This is where our second resolution comes in.

Resolution 2 - In this season, I choose to renew my mind. In order to hear clearly, we have to be renewed.  Turn with me to Romans 12: 1&2.

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, [a]acceptable to God, which is your [b]spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this [c]world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may [d]prove what the will of God is, that which is good and [e]acceptable and perfect.

To hear clearly transformation is necessary; and it is not a one time thing. It is a day by day and moment by moment process. Sometimes the loudest of the three voices we just talked about is not the still small voice of the Lord or even the voice of the adversary; no, it is the voice of our flesh. That is the voice that tends to scream in our ears.  What our belly, our carnal mind, wants or thinks it needs.  It can be hard to tell these voices apart even as older believers. Sometimes we get complacent and say, “Well I’m God’s child? What I want must be what He wants for me, right?  Well as Sportin’ Life sang in the opera Porgy & Bess, “It Ain’t Necessarily So.”

We have to fact check what we hear against the word of God. Because God is consistent, He never gives instructions that contradict His principles. Our fleshly mindset can sabotage the very plans God has put in place for us to prosper. 

It is essential that we are rewed. Being renewed is like daily detoxing. The mind gets exposed to so much every day even without us trying. But being cleansed is not something we can do on our own. Because we were born into a fallen world our fleshly thinking is in tune with the pattern of the world we live in. Kingdom thinking requires an adjustment in our thinking. How do we do that?  How do we drown out the voice of flesh and amp up our receptivity to the voice of God? How do we renew our minds?

We renew our mind through by increasing our time in the presence of God and in the Word of God. It is here that we get refocused and tuned into the frequency of Heaven so that we can be responsive to Kingdom thinking. Do you have have a time or a set location that is set apart for your time with God? If you don’t, choose one. Worship, time in His presence is important. It’s what keep us in our right minds. But this time is more than just talking to the Almighty but for also waiting to hear His response. God responds to our prayers and He responds to our worship. The Holy Spirit comes and cuts through the clutter of our minds to help give us clarity of thought. When we have clarity of thought, we can have clarity of action on how God wants us to move. We will know which voice is seeking our attention and choose to respond to the voice of the Lord.

Now that you have sought the Lord and confirmed the vision; we can make our next resolution. Turn with me to Philippians chapter 3.

13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Resolution 3 - This year, let us press or lean in to the plan of God and not abandon it. I don’t know the vision or the tasks that God has given you to complete but I do know that whatever it is; it is precious and it deserves our undistracted attention. He has given you a task that cannot be handed off to someone else. Even with clarity of vision, there will be moments of adversity. There will be times that will be hard, but don’t give up. Instead, press. This year when you feel the push of adversity, push back. Press toward the goal God has given you. Difficulties come when you are in the right direction.

Sometimes pressing means that we have forget the pain of past failures or flawed decisions making. These are things that paralyze our movement. If you have asked for forgiveness, great! Learn the lesson from that failure and keep pressing.

 Paul was saying in this verse, don't’ think that I have always done this the right way….that I have this all figured out or that I’m already there… or that I've already accomplished it all. No! I’m reaching just like you. I’m striving toward the goals God has for me.

We can do this. We can press into the will of God and see His plans for our lives become reality this year.

Whatever has overwhelmed you, whatever may have tried to knock you to the dirt, you can get back up.  you can start again. All you need is today.  You do not need whatever you had to leave behind.  What you need in this season, you already have. Whatever you lack will be poured into you by the Holy Spirit.  All you need to do is say yes to Him. All you need is today.  All you need is this moment. All you need is now.

Maybe this is the new parent season. The empty nest season. The caregiver season. The reinvent your career season. Whatever the season … Let us in this new season, Seek 1st the kingdom, renew our minds so that we can hear God clearly; and press toward the vision God has given us so that when we  pray, we can say in earnest: Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in us as Your will is done in Heaven.

Be blessed.

Breathe In

In my home church, we have been talking about Reconnecting. How to get back in sync. How to reconnect with His presence His will and His direction for our lives. There are many reasons for becoming disconnected from God; but we are going to focus on one of them today - being battle weary or overwhelmed. Sometimes the cares and burdens of this world get in the way of our having true communion with God. This is not something that just happens to the new believer. The battle-hardened saint is many times more susceptible to this kind of spiritual attack. We can get so busy doing the work of the church that we can lose the strength of our connection with God- the head of the church. Make no mistake this is a spiritual attack. This is the enemy coming in when you are at your most vulnerable trying to make you fall.

How does this happen? We can become disconnected when we are battle weary. You weren’t distracted, you were following God’s instructions. You were told to stand for Him in a particular spiritual battle. You have done your job. The battle is over and God has won. But you are depleted. Worn out. You need refreshing and you can’t get the well fast enough. It is when you are in this vulnerable state that the attacks of the enemy are more potent.

Turn with me to 1st Kings chapter 19 and let’s meet my stressed out buddy Elijah. Elijah was a great prophet by had instances of stress and intense spiritual warfare. (God could trust him) We are meeting him after what was possibly the greatest spiritual victory of his prophetic career - The Lord’s victory at Mt. Carmel over the prophets of Baal. (You know it's big when this is the story that gets illustrated in Uncle Arthur Maxwell’s stories books)

Elijah has been standing for God in this one battle for three years . Commanding drought after Ahab and Israel‘s disobedience in worshipping Baal. Three years of standing brings us to the climax at mount Carmel. The atlars are built. The choice of who to worship is made. Yahweh shows up by fire and burns His sacrifice to the ground while Baal and his prophets can do nothing. The people return to The Almighty and Baal’s prophets are slaughtered and rain is on the way.

What a moment! After this Elijah should be riding high, Right? Look closer. You can’t tell from the outside that he has left all of his strength on the battlefield. Those around him have no idea that the Glory to do the work has lifted and in your own strength the slightest wind could blow you over. This is where Elijah is in this moment. The enemy senses an opportunity and sends Jezebel to blow Elijah over. With one message, Elijah was on the run.

-You’re a dead man.-

That’s all it took. Because Elijah is depleted and can’t get to well fast enough. This first thing you need to do when you are depleted like this is to separate yourself from the source of your stress so you can regroup. Elijah does this, though it does not appear to be a tactical decision. He is disoriented and running for his life. Elijah is running and it seems as if he does not have direction. Not quite so. Elijah heads to the wilderness near Beersheba. Beersheba is in the southern desert region of Israel. Its name means “well of the oath” for it was here that Abraham made an agreement with Abimelech over ownership of the well there. Whether Elijah realized it or not he was headed in the right direction. He was headed for a place where he could be refreshed.

That brings us to the next key to reconnecting if you are overwhelmed or depleted. Once you have separated from the source of your stress- seek a safe space. When I say seek a safe space, I do not necessarily mean find a spa or a hotel to be pampered. Seek a place where God can refill you. For the truth is you cannot fill yourself. Stepping back and finding a safe space is an acknowledgement that you are not battle-ready right now and that is okay. It is alright to say, ”I am not okay.”

Elijah went from the mountain top to rock bottom and asking to die in the course of a day. It was what he heard that turned his exhaustion into depression. Your safe place needs to be a place where the promises of God are reinforced for you. Where God can breathe back into you His life-giving strength. Elijah needed a place where he could be refreshed and reconnect and God placed him under a juniper tree.

1 kings 19:4-8 -4 “But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.  5 And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.  6 And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again.  7 And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.  8 And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.” (King James Version)

Locations are not given in scripture at random. Not even a tree. Elijah is noted to have been place under this juniper tree. Why is this here? Why this tree? Juniper in this text is actually an incomplete translation. The juniper with berries that we are familiar with is not found in this area of the world. The tree Elijah is under is known as the Spanish broom tree. It is a shrub that grows up to 8 feet high and offers shade in desert places. Why is our stressed out man here?  Because the flowers of this tree have special properties. The scent from these yellow flowers lowers heart rate. The essential oil from this plant is so strong that is not used in modern herbal formulations for treatment. It cannot be digested and it cannot be used in large doses as it is can be considered toxic.  The only way to use this natural medicine was to breathe it in.

Elijah was under the care of the Master Physician who knew just how to dose him. All Elijah had to do was breathe.  When we are stressed. When we are overwhelmed We are not alone. God is right there waiting to make provision for us so we can reconnect with Him.  But first He had to calm Elijah down.  Elijah is under this tree to keep his heart for failing him from overwhelming fear. 

The next step to reconnecting when you are overwhelmed is to rest. Rest in God.  Breathe His rest in.  Exchange your stress for His rest.  When think we have to do something in order to rest.  Not so.  God has already made provision to restore you, just like He did Elijah. God knew what was going to happen before the first instruction was given. And in Elijah’s lowest moment God sent reinforcements. An angel kept watch over Elijah the entire night. He woke him up and fed him at intervals to bring back his strength.  An angel got assigned to cook for Elijah!

We he got up from this rest, Elijah was able to run. Not from his problems, but forty days toward Mt. Horeb- toward God - where He could obtain instruction.  These instructions would make out the framework of the remainder of Elijah’s spiritual career. But he could not have received them until he was refreshed.

When we are refreshed. God will be able to speak instruction to us too.  But first we have to let Him nourish our battle-weary souls. Breathe In. Rest in him and be refreshed.

It's Swarming Season

Recently I received a message from my neighbor that surprised me.  She called to say that a swarm of honey bees were in our yard. The bees decided that they liked the tree in our front yard, so there was this huge ball of bees- a few thousand- writhing wrapped around one of the large limbs of this tree. They were so heavy that the limb began to bend toward the ground.  Thankfully my husband and the animal control beekeeper handled everything before I made it home, but they took enough pictures so that I felt a part of the action. The beekeeper took them away bare handed in a box and the swarm received a new home with little help from me.

Growing up I was a part of the Pathfinder Club and many times our counselors used nature as our classroom. We would study how a tree grows or what plants were edible verses which ones were poisonous.  You can learn a lot about who God is and how He thinks by studying and observing the things that He has created. So when bees decided they liked my home, my response was to see it as an invitation from God to learn about the natural and spiritual world around me.  It was time to learn about bees.

So, why a swarm of bees? Where do they come from? Is it an attack?  Late spring to early summer is honey bee swarming season. Not every nest or hive swarms during this season.  Certain conditions must be met in order for a nest or hive to swarm. Swarming is the result of new growth- in particular, a new queen has been born. There has also been enough growth in the hive’s population that the mature queen can take about two-thirds of the existing hive and leave the new queen and the remaining third in the old nest.  A new social structure would be built around the new queen allowing the larger group to move with the mature queen and fly away or swarm. The swarm then sends scouts out to find a new location for their group; they establish a new nest for themselves; and then the growth process starts all over again. They don’t attack during this season unless they are provoked. Swarming bees do not attack because there is no honey at this point to protect.  Swarming is the honey bee version of church planting. Grow, mature, separate, and grow again. (For my biology fans it looks like cell mitosis)

Bee swarming and the hive itself remind me of the Kingdom of God and the church He created. In the beginning, the disciples were taught and grew under the foundation that Jesus gave them.  When they came to a level maturity, they were empowered by the Holy Spirit (on the Day of Pentecost) to fulfill the Commission to go ye therefore. They multiplied that day gaining 3000 to their number. They separated from Jerusalem and the church grew again and again. In the beginning the church was a swarm.

Swarming is unified movement. A bee (like a believer) is vulnerable on its own. But when a believer (like the bee) is united with its swarm it has protection and community.  Once a nest is established they have the power to reproduce and be fruitful (honey).

Bees work in unified purpose. In the hive every bee has a position; every bee has a place where they fit.  The worker bee is not out trying to be the queen. The queen is not trying to become a drone. She knows where she fits. The bees’ lives and purpose are interwoven with one another. They work individually but they also work in oneness.  When the system functions effectively there is unity. Where there is unity, there is fruit.

We-the church- are God’s hive.  Oh, He doesn’t call us a hive. He calls us a body. In the body of Christ, every believer has a place. Every believer is given a gift or gifts from the Spirit and every member of the body has a purpose. We have not just an individual purpose in Christ but also a collective purpose in Him as a church.

Now collective unity is the opposite of what we were taught before we came to Christ. The culture of this world-particularly western culture- does not promote unity. The world system teaches competition. We are taught that it is the survival of the fittest that reigns. That eventually the stronger will take down and (destroy) the weaker.  In some cases folk were taught to pit people against each other so they can destroy themselves. You may have heard of this one; “throw the crabs in to an open barrel, watch, not one of them will escape for they all pull each other back down.” The world encourages this concept. It encourages the- I will only help others if there is something in it for me. We are designed by God for unity, but we are not initially trained to practice unity with selflessness.

Thankfully the Kingdom of God is not structured this way. When we are in Christ we are no longer of the world, but we still live here. We have to shake off the world’s training and its mind set and allow God to renew our minds and teach us His methods. As it is written in Philippians 2:5 “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” We are not crabs. We are bees – unified, mature, and ready to produce.  We are leaving the old mind set and embracing the new – speaking this new truth over ourselves as we allow God to mold us fully into this new reality.

The Kingdom is structured more like a hive.  When the hive produces food it is not just for the few, but for the whole hive.  The Kingdom encourages provision, not just of food and funds but of the whole man.  Widows and orphans are to be cared for. We are to give peace to the troubled. We are to be in position to help those who have no hope.  We are to provide stability in the midst of an unstable world. When we do those things we show the unified movement of the body of Christ.  We are meant to be dependent on God and interdependent on each other.
It is not just that God wants us to just be unified with each other. He wants us to be unified – or in agreement- with Him. He wants us to understand and experience oneness. Being in agreement with each other without being in agreement with God means nothing.

Our hive does not have a queen. We have Jesus as our leader. Throughout His life on earth and in His ministry, He was in sync with the Father.  Every move He made was in submission to the will of His Father and ours. Jesus is the head of the body of Christ. It is His blood and the breath of the Spirit that make the body of Christ – the church- a living, breathing and vibrant thing. As it is written in 1 John 5:7-8 “For there are three that testify; the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement." (In the original language agreement is the word “hice” meaning one). The Son and Spirit do not move without being in agreement with the Father and neither should we.

When we are in sync with each other and in sync with God. When we have taken on His mind set, His way of thinking; when we move when He says move and stop when He says stop.  We see things happen. We produce and our fruit remains. It doesn’t spoil. Honey bees produce…well honey. Did you know that honey is the only food that does not spoil?  What God has given us- the Good News of Jesus Christ- it never spoils either. And we have been commissioned to give this good news away. We are supposed to pollinate the earth with it, like bees pollinate flowers.  Honey bees are the main source of pollination of ¼ of all U.S. crops. Just in pollination of crops they produce $10 billion dollars of revenue in this country every year. Now that’s being fruitful.

Harvest time is coming sooner than we think.  The world is still hungry to know whether there is more to this life than the day to day grind. Are we holding our honey? I encourage you to reach out to the people in your sphere of influence. The people God is putting in your path. Pollinate them with the Good News and the love of Jesus Christ . Allow them to taste sweetness of who He is while the window of opportunity is still open.

Beloved, it is swarming season. The bees are doing their job. Let us make sure that we are on ours. Let us be submitted to the Lord’s moving, pollinate where He sends us, so that the harvest can be great.

Be Blessed

 

The Meek Are Getting Ready

My Mom used to wear a button that read, “the meek are getting ready.”  Getting ready to do what you ask? In Matthew chapter five verse five Jesus tells us that “the meek shall inherit the earth.”

How is that possible?  When we hear the words meek or gentle we tend to think of ` who is a boneless jellyfish. A weakling. Meek and weak rhyme in our language and we have begun in our society to make them mean the same thing.  But that is far from true.

The best definition of meekness I have heard is that meekness is regulated strength or strength under control. But strength under whose control?  Our own? Now that would be dangerous. It is not self-governance that is the key here; but the yielding of our will to that of our Heavenly Father. Meekness is our strength, our energy, yielded to God’s control.

The Greek word used here in Galatians five at this point is one that is loaded with meaning.  Bible translators have a hard giving us one English word that encapsulates all of what is being said with this one Greek word. Pieces of the meaning keep falling through the cracks. The three words that keep coming forward in translations are meekness, humbleness and gentleness. Each of these words hold a piece of what the original word is trying to convey.  Meekness focuses on our inward attitude and how it flows out, humbleness talks about about our walk before God and man and gentleness focuses on the outward behavior of this trait toward our brother.

Some of the meanings of meekness are the ability to submit, the ability to humble and the ability to be teachable. Meekness is the ability to work for God and allow yourself to be vulnerable so that His glory can be seen.

Jesus is the ultimate example of strength and power under this type of governance. Everything Christ did in His ministry was in submission to the will of God the Father. Every miracle, every healing, every parable shared- was according to Divine purpose-even to the moment when He cried, “It is finished.”  Jesus who spoke the world into existence. Jesus who has all power at His disposal. He could called angels to defend him from his detractors. Yet, He made the decision (daily) to yield His will -His power- to the will of His Father.

And He has given this power to us as one one the fruits of the spirit.  Wait. Sister, I don’t think I heard you just right - meekness is a form of power?  Yes, it is a form of power. You see when you yield to God and submit (there’s that word again) to His will and plan. He then empowers you to do the work He has called you to.

Our power is from the Most High God and when we yield to Him- power and Divine wisdom get to operate at peak efficiency. It wasn’t that Jesus wasn’t capable or powerful. He is all of these things, yet He yielded. And He was one with the Father. Everything He did was done with power, but it was done in meekness. Jesus walked with humbleness. He didn’t have to grandstand. He didn’t have to yell and tell people that He was the chosen one - the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. He simply operated in His purpose. He moved with humbleness and allowed God the Father to direct and instruct Him. Jesus allowed Himself to be teachable.  In His ministry Jesus was teaching to multitudes but yet He craved the Father’s instruction.

.Jesus had the ultimate source.  Because of His shed blood on Calvary, so do we.  We have access to the Father. We can rest in the Father just like Jesus did.  When you received instruction from God to move, you can rest in the Father who is making provision for His work to be done through you.  When you know your source, When you know where your power comes from. That releases the humbleness in our walk.

You know that you cannot function this way on your own. When God empowers you, you do not have to labor in the Kingdom from a place of insecurity. God creates a safe space for you. When Jesus said in the gospel of John that “I’m preparing a place for you.” he meant more than just your mansion in glory.  He was also creating a space where you fit in Him and in His Kingdom - so you could do the work of the Kingdom right here on earth. That safe space allows you to feel secure in Him; it also allows you to soften and be gentle with your brother when he or she is not at that place yet. We can be understanding when he or she are feeling unsafe and are lashing out. It softens you so that you do not see your brother or sister as competition in the Kingdom of God but as a co-laborer.

The instructions that God has been pouring into you can now flow out in a gentle manner for the benefit of His Kingdom.  When we walk in humbleness, when we work with gentleness, when we submit and allow meekness to flow through our lives; we put ourselves in position to be prepared to receive our inheritance in God.  The meek shall inherit the earth. Let’s get ready.

Be blessed