CREATIVE PROCESS

This week I began reading Richard Wurmbrand's "Sermons in Solitary Confinement".  It has been shouting at me every time I walked past the bookshelf and I wish I had listened sooner!

This blog is for all those who are struggling in this time of transition with the difficult parts of God's creative processes in our lives.  My heart was softened and changed as I read the beautiful words of a man who was held in solitary confinement for three years in total silence.  He was beaten and tortured and memorised the little sermons he wrote as he had nothing to write on!  This is exceptional beauty, rather like John of the Cross - the presence of God in the most awful and difficult of places.  I hope whoever reads this will be equally touched and encouraged.

“I am beginning to love this silence. I sometimes make up verses to pass the time, but what I would really like would be to make men, each one of whom would be a fine piece of poetry.  In the original Greek in Ephesians, it is written that Christians are the poem (poiema) of God (Eph.2:10).  So God is a poet too.  His poems are serene, flexible, rich in meaning.  He has embodied his poems in flesh.  Each one has a different subject.  One is the embodiment of heroism, another of sanctity, another of wisdom, yet another of practical common sense.  Christians are not only different, but also sometimes divergent and even contradictory characters.  But every one is pleasing to the Lord.”

“Instead of a world in which bookshops sell volumes of sermons and poetry, I would like a world in which each man and woman is a poem of high thought, filled with melody and colour.  If I am a hindrance to the coming of such a world, may God kill me here in prison!  But this is how the world should be.”

Currently I am sifting and sorting out the debris of my life – 6 bags in the rubbish yesterday and many more to come!  Maybe in some strange way it is a prophetic indication of this time – deep digging and clearing of the clutter of our lives, a tough work, time and pain involved, in order that we will truly be conduits of His life, placed where that flow is most needed.  If so I will sift and sort with great passion and vigour J.  Strange that it all takes place when our view ahead is limited, a work of great obedience to just keep going.  Definitely something that seems to be taking place in obscurity and darkness, stripping away the familiar, and eventually throwing open a window to greater light.  I have always suspected that when we feel most alone, vulnerable and defenceless, is when the deep and marvellous things take place without our being able to see or feel them.  If we continue to believe and hold on to the passion placed within us for changed lives and a different world, we will embrace this trial with great hope J.

"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  Ephesians 2:10

FATHERS

Today on Facebook I see numerous comments about absent fathers.  It's been 15 years since I was last able to talk to mine, and I hear many missing that key figure in their lives as we celebrate Fathers' Day.  My heart is sad, and I am further saddened by the sense of loss that comes through what others have written.

It seems as if this is the ache of all mankind right now.  For a Father.
The deep need for affirmation and love from a father is something that God the ultimate Father has put inside each of us to constantly call us back to Himself.  It cannot be avoided, and even the very best father in this world will never fill that gap.

I work with mothers and children who are having to do life alone.  Maybe father was dysfunctional, maybe he never committed to being with them, maybe he terrified them with his outbursts of violence and rage.  Maybe his heart was screaming for the father he never knew as well?

The greatest comfort in life is to know that we have a heavenly Father who is constant.  He will never leave us or let us down.  He is not full of human frailty and imperfections.  He IS Love itself and will be all we can ever need if we allow him to be.

Maybe this is one of the greatest days of the year. The day when the human ache for a father is highlighted in order that THE FATHER has a chance to walk in, fill the gap, heal the wounds, and line us up with His loving purpose for our lives.  I pray that today many will come to know that they are not alone, that they are loved, that there is a constant and secure love available to them.

COMPLETE LOVE

Recently, on a flight between London and LA, I heard a voice speaking to me above the sound of the plane – “It’s everywhere, it’s everywhere”. 

During the following night, I woke and the Lord began to reveal something new to me about the tremendous power of His love.  I felt He was showing that the Greeks divided the understanding of love into two – agape and eros.  It seemed He wanted me to understand that He does not separate or divide His love at all, it is always the same containing numerous elements that are Himself.  “God IS Love” in every place, in every way, EVERYWHERE!  He is the complete answer.  In the Hebrew language Ahava, the one word for love, has the root meaning to give and contains a completeness.

Ephesians 5:25 “Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her…”  Here we have the sense of giving.  It is interesting that the instruction to the wives is to respect and honour their husbands – not something that necessarily comes naturally but requires giving to them.  The instruction to the husbands requires humility and sacrifice, again something that might not be the usual response.  This requires a whole lot of giving!

God’s is a complete love.  The agape and eros are not separated in a marriage.  Jesus Christ did not lay down  His life for a denomination or a building, but laid down His life for His bride “to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a redeemed church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” Ephesians 5:25 & 26).

Christ died for freedom and cleansing from sin, pain, brokenness (stains, wrinkles and blemishes) and to establish a kingdom which is sovereignly governed by Love Himself.  Sin divides but love unites.  When God blessed Mary to carry His baby son, the Christ child was not formed by eros or agape but by Love Himself exercising the fullness of Himself as Creator of all.  The culmination of marriage as God ordained it is an act of creation.  Jesus Christ claiming His Bride has to be a profound creative act, as Paul says “a profound mystery”.

The church (congregation of believers) Jesus died for are being led into an ever deepening expression of His love, and this will have greater creative effect.  I saw that currently terror and the ungodly is able to expand in its strength because the church has become watered down and weak.  The antidote is that the people of God begin to function again in His complete love, not divided and watered down expressions of love that enable them to remain in the comfort zone.  The kind of love Paul describes in 1 Cor. 13 is a “most excellent way” and this “Love never fails”.  We are reminded that “the greatest of these is love”.

I believe the Lord is asking His church to put childish ways behind her.  He will not return for a child bride but for a mature and prepared one.  He gave me glimpses of the power of His complete love, sufficient that I would seek more of it in prayer and action, by His Spirit.

I feel that this amazing love of God bursts in on us, like a fantastic sunset or a beautiful scene in nature.  It takes us by surprise and captures us as all His creative wonders do.  He is truly EVERYWHERE and in everything.  I am seeing that His speaking “It’s everywhere” is probably one of the most astonishing prophetic experiences I have ever had, and yet it was quite short and simple.  It is not hard to open up in obedience to allow Him to surprise and astonish us with His love, and to take a gigantic step forward in the establishing of His Kingdom.

LISTEN! 5.5.15

I haven't written here for some time as I didn't feel there was anything much to say.  Over the years I have only blogged when I felt the Lord was speaking something significant into my heart. Some years ago He told me there would be a 'famine in hearing the word of the Lord' - this, like all else He says, proved to be true.

Last Tuesday I was preparing to go to work when He stopped me in my tracks and called me back to listen to what He had to say, so below is what I believe He was saying to me.  I believe He is speaking to His people in the land right now.

"Please, please, please, pause and listen.
You've become used to the work, the hard work, but I made you for so much more.
I need your ears and I will require you to speak.
You prayed for the release of the nation's prophetic voices and you need to be part of the answer.
We will re-engage in our conversation, the famine in hearing is now over.
Be alert, be awake, be listening.
The wind is rising and beginning to blow over the land, blowing away the dust of neglect and clearing the debris built up in this time.
Who am I to you in this time?
I am the One Who speaks
I am the One Who hears
I am the One Who declares things into being.
I am looking at New Zealand right now
My gaze is resting on her, and My heart is towards her.
My purpose overrides every plan of man and My plans will come to pass.
Please listen, remind others to listen.  Listen carefully.

Following on from this, the Lord lead me to a number of scriptures as follows:

Amos 3:7
Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.

Exodus 15:6
"Your right hand, O Lord, was majestic in power.
Your right hand, O Lord, shattered the enemy."

Revelation 20:4
I saw the thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge.  And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God.  They had not worshipped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their fore-heads or their hands.  They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Isaiah 22:16
What are you doing here and who gave you permission to cut out a grave for yourself here, hewing your grave on the height and chiseling your resting place in the rock?

John 14:15
If you love me, you will obey what I command.

These verses speak to me of God's purposes, plans and principles.  The Isaiah verse when read in context is the story of someone who exalted himself into a place of authority that the Lord had not given him.  I feel strongly that we need to ensure we are moving in His will and purpose in this day and have not moved into positions through ambition or need.  The Lord chooses and calls His prophets, we cannot decide to become one without the call, although we may all prophesy as the Holy Spirit brings God's word.

A FEW THOUGHTS

There have been a few consistent thoughts as we left 2014 behind and are cautiously making our way into 2015.  It feels to me as if 'cautious' is the operative word - there is something very careful about walking forward into this year. 

For a couple of weeks now I have been returning to Genesis 15 and reading it over and over.  It is a very short passage but it contains multiple layers of advice and understanding.  There are such huge promises and undertakings expressed in short passages as God speaks to His friend Abram about what his future will contain - even future generations that Abram will never see.  There are three key elements in this passage that I feel repeat over and over through the Bible, and over and over in our own lives.  I have been strongly reminded of them in this time.  God's pattern REVEALS, REVERSES, and RESTORES.

Abram is a childless man with no heirs when God comes along to tell him that he will be the father of a great nation, that his offspring will be as numerous as the stars in the night sky!  God comes to REVEAL the future to a man who feels he has no future!  It looks like a very barren end of the line!

Abram cannot see a way into what God is promising him, even though by faith he believes the Lord.  It all seems impossible when he looks at it with his natural eyes instead of the eyes of faith.  However in this place where the there seems to be a reversal of what has been spoken, God asks Abram to bring Him a sacrifice.  Having been obedient to this request still Abram has to wait and watch over the sacrifice so that it is not consumed by the birds of prey.  How often, in places of REVERSAL, have we needed to watch over and guard what has been promised so that it is not snatched away by doubt and unbelief?  Have we been willing to sit keeping watch until God shows up?  Gen. 15:12 tells us Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.  How often have we sat, or slept, in the darkness that keeps everything from our view and struggled to survive in that place?

Then as God walks into the darkness the promises are spoken again, and Abram is given prophetic assurance of what is to come, not just in his lifetime but way beyond it.  God RESTORES hope as He comes and speaks into despair and darkness His Word that all these thousands of years later we know came to pass exactly as He said it would.  There were many battles to be fought and changes to be made, many challenges to be walked through, but everything that God spoke came to pass.

In Gen.15:1 God speaks to His friend Abram and says what I believe He is still saying to you and I today, especially in this year:

"Do not be afraid, Abram.

I am your shield, 

your very great reward."

To you and I this year I believe He would encourage us not to be afraid.  As He works out all that He holds in His heart for you and I, He will indeed be our shield and our reward.  Let us walk quietly and carefully with Him into this new year, watching over what we do know, holding on to the promises He gives us, and knowing that in His perfect time it will prove to be true.  He will bring it to life with His presence, so we will continue to seek His presence above all else.

May we know His Revelation, walk with Him through every Reversal, faithfully knowing that He will Restore in His perfect time.