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The Lord is gracious to escort me on a new spiritual journey but why? Is it for my happiness? While I know God desires to delight me just for sake of enjoyment and personal growth, the bigger picture involves transforming what you learn in those quiet times to serving others. In my usual Thursday afternoon spirituality group with women recovering from eating disorders, the bulk of our conversation revolved around the concept of focusing the eyes of our heart upon God. The exact message God used this morning to transform my heart was immediately used to teach, encourage and bless others. I thank you Lord for blessing me in our quiet time together but even greater thanks that others are served and blessed through You. That’s why I’m on this journey - to glorify the Lord through sharing the blessing!
Day9 - self-abasement. My times with the Lord are getting longer and longer. I don’t want to leave His absolute peace when I am on my face, in a fully surrendered posture and a growing, transforming, surrendered heart. I asked God to help me have fresh eyes and spirit toward my work. I have become somewhat disillusioned with the ministry to patients in the mental health arena. I see change but I also see regression at a regular rate. Why don’t I see healing and deliverance that reflects God’s healing presence. Have I become pessimistic toward Your hand at work? The Lord answered me with 2 Scriptures: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding…” Prov. 3:5 and “…He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion…” Philippians 1:6. I allowed those verses to wash over my heart and renew my faith in God’s work and His assignment for me. Do I trust that as I minster that God is at work in hearts and will bring that heart to completion? It’s not my job to see God’s work but to continue to be obedient to minister where He plants me.
God has been so gracious to bless me with visions as I lay before Him. Today I saw steel clamping down onto my hands. What at first felt a bit restricting turned out to be protective armor upon my hands. Of course the Ephesians 6 “full armor of God” came to mind. What do my hands represent and why must they have armor? In that moment my hands seemed to represent “hands of praise”.
It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High…Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name…Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits…Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever…Praise the LORD. Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who finds great delight in his commands….
…and this one I’ll memorize…“Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the LORD.” Ps. 134:2
As I type this I realize those are the same hands that minister to the blessed souls that God puts in my path. Guard your hands for the work of the Lord!
Transition to the Bible study…the study continued with Psalm 123. Keep your eyes on the Lord because if they’re not, they’re on your flesh or your circumstances. Neither of the latter gazes leads to peace, trust, praise or godliness. I was given a glimpse of a cycle of praise. As our eyes are focused on the Lord we hear, listen to His voice, His Word, His wisdom which, when obeyed, lead to Christlikeness and PRAISE! As our eyes are focused on the Lord we feel His love, joy, peace and we can dispense the same to this world and this all again leads to PRAISE! As our eyes are focused on the Lord we experience His will, plans, purposes with Romans 8:28 eyes which grows our trust and faith and leads to PRAISE! This cycle is quickly broken when our eyes are on ourselves, our flesh, our circumstances. No praise released in that downward spiral. Lord, thank you for moving me to this place of face down surrender in Your presence as I press into fresh eyes fixed upon You!
Day7 - self-abasement. (Today I was rather pressed for time and couldn’t give myself fully to quiet before the Lord. After all the ways God is speaking to me during this journey you’d think I could plan my day to include more quality time with Him. Lord forgive me.) I continue to grab hold of the Lord’s feet as I begin my time with Him. As I touched His feet I was so very aware that He was barefoot…I could see the hairs on His skin. The Lord bares Himself to us…there are no facades, false impressions or games. He IS what He is and makes Himself known to us through His amazing grace. Can I bare myself before this world? Can I live my life without masks or facades? Lord…continue to transform me into an authentic woman of humility and integrity.
Day8 - self-abasement. Lord before I descend please prepare my heart and mind to praise You fully, to be totally present in Your company and to listen attentively to Your will, plan, purposes…
I received absolute peace before God and an anointing of holiness and purity. I received a vision of a roaring fire within me…burning flesh. Thank You Lord! In the study we began Psalm 122..”I I lift my eyes to You, the One enthroned in heaven.” Lord I pray for fresh eyes to continuously look to You for all things. I pray for holy/pure eyes, expectant faith-filled eyes, loving, trusting patient eyes. Lord as you begin a new work in me of holiness and purity it must start with my eyes…draw my eyes to the heavens, to Your throne…burn away the flesh and the human yearnings that still draw me away from You. May my gaze upon You be as strong and persistent as Yours is upon me.
Week2 Beth Moore video - “I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.” 1Co14:15 Just as I must keep my eyes focused upon You, I need to focus my spirit and mind upon You. Lord I want to spend more time in worship singing with the deepest movements within my spirit.
Saturday night worship service…During Communion time as I grasped a hold of the Lord’s feet, I saw Him crouch down to be with me at my level. He tenderly put His hand around the back of my head as I experienced the love of His touch.
Day6 - self-abasement. God said He loves me both before and after my experience. I praised God for the past and started crying, just spontaneously…when finished, I praised God for the present and again, crying…when finished I praised God for the future and again, crying. There is sadness in the way of fully praising God…surrender the sadness. Tears are now shed upon my towel. Perhaps the tears were watering the seeds just sowed in the fertile soil (day 3). I came upstairs and feel extremely tired and worn out vs. the usual joy and peace. Hmm, something happened.
Day7 - self-abasement. As usual I started my time with God praising Him in His magnificence. I remind myself, You are God and I am not. I grasped hold of His feet and felt His hand around the back of my head as He had on Saturday night. I meditated through the past week’s inspirations and thanked God for His presence and revelation. Today was all about peace and fully surrendering to the quiet and silence before the Lord. I wondered if this was the state that Jesus often retreated to in His quiet times of prayer. Peace in the midst of Emmanuel…God with us! Just before arising I heard the Lord say, I have one more thing to tell you…you have a purpose overseas in Cambodia.” WHAT? You’ve got to be kidding me! At that moment I thought, OK, that couldn’t be God…I’ll need oodles of confirmation for that. How quickly my trust in hearing from Him shuts down. I arose and began the 2nd week of the Beth Moore study. This was part 2 of Psalm 122…the City of Peace. I was reminded of the phrase “bloom where you’re planted”. Whether we are in a place of distress or safe in our homes and churches…we need to pray for that place, that assignment, and ask the Lord for His blessings. Lord do you have a new assignment for me? Will I be replanted? I’ll pray! I’ll patiently take the pilgrimage up these steps of ascent and delight in whatever You bring!
Day4 - self-abasement. I layed down once again and grabbed hold of the Lord’s feet. This morning I had a vision of rats coming and biting at my hands. In Jesus’ name I asked for the protection of God (as He was just described yesterday in Psalm 121-was He testing to see if I was learning anything:) The rats disappeared…praise God. I had a glorious time of praise and prayer and the word I received from God today was “perfume”…the fragrance of Christ. This is not just a journey with a destination but WHO we are along the way. I am reminded to be the fragrance of Christ to those around me…love them, serve them and connect them with His presence and truth. The subsequent study time centered on Psalm 122. The pilgrimage lands the traveler in Jerusalem…the City of Peace…”the house of the Lord… our feet are standing within your gates…peace be within your walls… peace be with you.” This Psalm reminded me that we are the Lord’s temple and the peace is within us, within our walls, within our hearts. I have the peace of the Lord within me - praise God! My feet have arrived upon the fertile soil of the Lord’s house of peace. That peace is also the fragrance of Christ. Lord, send me forth on this pilgrimage as a fragrant servant and dispenser of peace. Let the peace of God dwell richly in my heart so that I may spread that peace to others. Protect and guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus.
Well I’m done with week 1 of the Beth Moore study…I’m supposed to wait til next week to continue…I can’t wait! I’ll continue my self-abasements until then.
Wow…my last post was Sunday night, the evening before a new Bible study. I now see that God brought me to the exact place I needed to be to enter into this new study. To quote a few of my “pit”iful statements: “I have developed a resentment toward the world…I’ve become cynical and lost my naïve joie de vive….so disconnected from the world…everything is meaningless…Is this what they call the dark night of the soul? Is that You forming this darkness?.” I ended with, “I could use some fresh insight here.” Lo and behold the Lord is definitely giving me fresh insight. The study is Beth Moore’s “Stepping Up, a journey through the Psalms of Ascent”. I never heard of that before? The 15 Psalms of Ascent are #120-134. They correspond with the 15 steps at the Nicanor Gate of the Temple. They represent a journey…an upward journey. They also are thought to be songs of the journey from Babylon back to Jerusalem (just as the Jews were exiles in Babylon…I’m an exile…a captivity of my own right now). If God is inviting me to “GO UP” then He must have allowed me to go way down first. So I am so energized and passionate about beginning a journey with God as He draws me up the steps closer to Him and His plans and purposes. This is a new pilgrimage! God has given me the impression that He is more excited than I am…He can’t wait to show me whatever is at the end of this journey. Beth encouraged us to get down on our faces every day before God and humble ourselves. I’m heading down to the lowest place in my house, the basement, for a little self-abasement every day. I’d like to journal about this pilgrimage.
Day1 self-abasement. God said, “There are things you need to let go of before you ascend-what do you need to surrender? What’s too heavy to bring on the journey? Let go of expectations and disappointments of the world (including the church) and see through fresh eyes.” I do have baggage of self-pity and woe is meisms. OK…let go! I followed with the Bible study and read through the first Psalm of Ascent 120. “In my distress, I called to the Lord….woe to me”. That describes my current experiene to a tee!!! Another confirmation that I’m exactly where I need to be! The study also reminded me to praise God throughout this journey. Praise for His work in the past, His work and presence today and the glorious hope for the future. The study also reminded me that God redeems along the way…expect redemption, change, pain and growth.
Day2 self-abasement. I saw a vision before me of God’s feet and He said, “Put your hands on my feet. People want My hand of power but your solid foundation is here at my feet.” God wants me to hold fast to Him…each day of self-abasement I will grab hold of Him. The study reviewed Psalm 121…”where does my help come from, my help comes from the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and earth….the Lord protects you (x4). What do we need most on a pilgrimage but protection. In the psalm He says “I will not allow your foot to slip.” That’s such a glorious parallel to being told by God to grab His feet. We won’t slip when we’re grasping hold of our Lord! I will hold on, trust You and praise You on this journey.
Day3 self-abasement. I saw a vision of a young girl on her hands and knees planting a seed in very fertile soil. God said, “Watch it grow.” The Lord is providing the fertile soil for my growth along this journey…seeds will be planted and growth is the outcome. I didn’t provide the soil, I’m not providing the seeds but this is all God’s work within me. Praise Him!
I’m sure there’s so much more to come!
I feel the need to post a journal entry since it involves my trouble with the world. While these thoughts and feelings have brewed for some time it was a church sermon today that brought me to think afresh. The message was on reconciliation. Every once in a while we all need to be reminded to take an inventory of anyone we have outstanding conflicts with and then seek reconciliation. Well I can’t think of a single individual but have the type of bittnerness within my heart that is rooted when resentment emerges against an individual. Who am I resentful toward…perhaps the question is ‘what’. I believe I have developed a resentment toward the world…toward people as a whole. I’ve become cynical and lost my naïve joie de vive. I remind myself that as Christians we are “aliens and strangers in the world” and should therefore not get hooked in to expecting anything from the world. But what about brothers and sisters in Christ? My cynicism is linked to the body of believers as well. How did I find myself in a place where I doubt even the goodness of the body. Are we so entwined with the world that our behaviors and motives look more like the alien world and less like a loving/serving body? Are we to expect anything…of anybody…except God. Is it a wonderful thing to be so disconnected from the world that it’s just you and God? Should I be celebrating my estrangement from the world? If this was the case why would loneliness be the norm? I was reading Ecclesiastes last night and was again reminded that everything is meaningless. Perhaps I have the meaningless blues these days. Where do I go to get rejuvenated with the Spirit-filled answer? I don’t want to settle for another short-lived worldly answer. I want to arrive at a Spirit-filled truth that can sustain me through the loneliness and meaninglessness. I read the Word, I try small groups, I go to church, I serve, I help people find their way back to God…..then, I go home and live through the loneliness. I could use some fresh insight here. Is this what they call the dark night of the soul? Is that You forming this darkness? “I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.” Isaiah 45:7
The new year brings new territory to explore and capture for Christ. I am firmly being led in a new direction that involves 12 Step groups such as AA, EDA, CODA, etc. In our town, we have AA meetings at various churches but there is also a central “spiritually neutral” place where 12Step groups (mostly AA) meet from morning til night. God is leading me to bring a Christian presence to this location…a missional call to begin an organic movement perhaps. My first step will be to approach the AA folk in our district with a proposal for a Christian recovery meeting. At this point I could use prayer for wisdom to see the fullness of the vision God is calling me toward, open hearts within the district decision-makers, and partners in the journey. I haven’t had much Google success finding other ministries that have followed a similar vision. Do you know of any examples of successful Christian recovery ministries within the AA umbrella. Thanks and God bless!
Things change…change can be fun, exciting, terrifying, confusing…I think of God as unchanging but I experience God and His provision differently as life changes. Hmmm. Joshua 5:12 brought me to an interesting focus: “The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate of the produce of Canaan.” The Israelites were provided for but one day it was manna and the next day it was produce from the new land. Yesterday God provided for me with gifts, passion, vision that propelled my mission but today He provides as I respond to His leading with faith and obedience. I was freely given manna each day but now I work differently to receive the daily provision the Lord desires. I assumed the promised land would be easier to navigate but the promised land had to be conquered. Conquering entails new genres of provision.
As fishers of men, God may bring the fish to us or He may ask us to step into new land to seek and conquer fish. That’s change…am I ready to step out in faith and be obedient to His new land offering? Am I hungry enough for fish or was it just easier to be fed daily? Lord, provide the hunger…the holy passion!
