|
God's heart beats to the most vast and unparalleled rhythm ever known to man. His thoughts, purposes and plans not only stretch so far beyond anything we could ever understand in the natural that we can?t even begin to comprehend the way He thinks, but He also grooves to a beat that we've never even heard. And it's a bold and inconsistent song that He likes to sing. Just when we think we've figured Him out, He'll show Himself strong and surprise us with something extraordinary! He loves being God. He loves that we're dependant on Him. It's the way He's set it up and it's a beautiful way of life!
The scripture is so filled with stories and teachings of God's greatness and wonder and we are taught by His Word that Jesus (who is the Word) is to be our firm foundation. This is reason enough to study and show ourselves approved. But digging deeper, God's Word being the truth of the gospel of Christ, is the only thing that is solid enough to let Him build His church upon! If we're not doing our part in laying the foundational truths in our lives, there's no way He'll build the glorious mansion of fruit and prosperity on us. He knows that we would crumble! (Matt. 7:25)
God's Word is an excellent guide to understanding His character. His character is displayed in the entire Bible as a whole. You cannot understand the entirety of His character by reading one or two verses. Know the entire Bible if you are to know His entire character. And once you know His character and you are totally convinced of His foundational truths, and you have hidden His Word in your heart so you don't sin against Him, it's time for the building process to begin.
Now we all share a common foundation. These truths are fixed, eternal and will never change. (1 Peter 1:24-25) But as we allow the Lord to build on us and begin to develop some character of our own, we begin to see that He is shaping us all a bit differently. Much like all the houses in a subdivision have the same foundation made of cement, yet each one bears individual traits such as shapes, sizes and colors. God has crafted us each uniquely and He's never called us to simply copy someone else's form.
So if we're all individual, yet the Word applies to everyone equally, (Rom. 2:11) how can we understand the specific plans and purposes God has for each one of us? How do we know which of the gifts we excel in? How do we know where we are to live and what part of the body we're called to operate in?
One of the traps many of today's Christians fall into is looking at circumstances to decide what God is doing with their lives. Now I'm not saying that circumstances are always misleading. They are often manifestations of our choice to be in or out of the will of God. But God said in the Bible that we're not to look at temporal circumstances but rather at the things that are unseen for those things are eternal. (2 Cor. 4:18)
What if Moses had followed what circumstances were telling Him? He had a serious speech impediment and the Lord was calling him to go before the ruler of the land and make bold demands in the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! (Ex. 3-4) Pharaoh would have probably laughed at Moses who was trying to be serious and all the while stumbling over his words. For some reason, this is the man God chose to deliver an entire nation from the hand of the Egyptians. God gave Moses the one job that he couldn't do. God seems to do this often.
What is it that you feel like a failure in? What parts of you seem unusable by God? I encourage you to give those parts of you to Him and see what He will do. He will always turn your weakness into His strength. That's one of His promises in the Bible. And get this: Satan will always try and attack you and discourage you when it comes to the areas of your life God has chosen to work through. If Satan can discourage you from using your gifts, and discourage your strong points, he's won the battle. Don't let him have a single part of you!
Here's the key to understanding who God has made you to be specifically. Spend time with Him. What better way to get to know someone's heart than to spend hours talking to them and letting them pour out their dreams and their hopes to you. Imagine this incredible heart of God I was talking about in the first paragraph. How He longs to share the depths of his being with you. After all, that's why He created Adam. He wanted someone to be able to walk with daily. He wanted to tell Adam all of His plans and the depths of His heart and He wanted to hear the depths of Adam's heart as well. Spend time in intimacy with God. He longs to hear your thoughts and your heart.
The more time you make for spending time with your heavenly Father, the more you'll understand yourself and who He's crafted you to be as an individual. He?ll tell you His plans for you. He'll restore your vision and hope. He'll give you peace that passes all understanding if you'll simply make the choice to enter into that secret place with Him daily.
At first you may spend fifteen minutes just laying on the floor and not feeling anything, or not hearing anything. This is simply because you're not used to talking to God. You're not comfortable in this intimate place with Him yet. It's okay. Keep doing it and keep asking God to sweep you away with Him. And then just sing out to Him. Don't just pray for yourself, asking for more from Him. Rest in the truth that He's given you everything you need to enjoy moments of intimacy with Him. And simply worship your God. Praise Him for who He is and everything He's doing in your life.
If you'll do this every day, you'll become so familiar in your intimate relationship with God that you'll begin to walk around during the day and hear from Him even when you're not thinking about Him. You might be at work and you'll just hear Him whisper words of encouragement to you. Or He might choose that time to pour out revelation into your heart. You never know with God, but when you're absolutely convinced of His desire to be active in 100 percent of your day, you'll find yourself soaring on wings like eagles. There's no better companion than your Father God.
Finally, just give Him thanks along the way as He begins to build that mansion on top of the foundation you've laid. The more time you spend with Him, the more time you'll want to spend with Him. I'm not talking about listening to a teaching tape or a worship CD. I mean where your affections are vertical, between only you and Him. Intimacy is the key to unlocking the plans and purposes of your life.
What an exciting thing that we serve a God who desires this closeness with us!
By Winston Davenport |