Every time you encounter God there is an upgrade available. The key word is, available. Holy Spirit always leads us into truth, and truth changes us and sets us free. Some encounters are teaching or cleansing. It may be letting go of an idol or counterfeit love. Some moments are just sheer bliss, His presence being that intoxicating. No matter the beginning point, every encounter opens the pathways to more of the Kingdom being revealed to us and in us. 

It was precisely one of those delicious moments when Jesus whispered, “I want you to go from Follow Me to Flow with Me.”

I blinked a few times. My spirit was trying to adjust to the new realm like walking from a dark room into the bright sunlight. 

“Flow?” I said. 

“Follow Me is about obedience, which is beautiful to Me. I love your quick and willing Yes. But flowing is being so entwined with Me, there is no stop and start, just the two of us going in the same direction, effortlessly.”

Selah. 

Right after that, I was listening to a worship song by Davy Flowers that said: 

Oh, be still, my restless soul

Be still and know all the work is finished

Lay down your heavy load

Take on the yoke Jesus has given

Leave the weight of your world on His shoulders

Let the Cross of His love draw you closer

To the water

When you’ve got nothing left to offer

Just come running like a child to the Father

There’s no greater fountain

There is a whole revelation brewing for me about the river of God. It’s been going on for months. I just keep listening and marveling as He drops jewels in place. Yet, I know in my spirit that He is calling His people to lean into His peace. To lay back in His grace and float. To flow in His presence and hope. 

He is asking us to resist making life so hard but learn to flow in His eternal love and provision. We have to unlearn the grind and dependence on ourselves. We have to learn to enjoy the wild river ride with this Beautiful God, even the white water sections when we think we might die. Smile. 

So find a verse or a song, and start speaking and singing the truth into your reality. Watch it carry you to a new place.

Here’s my line that keeps bubbling out of my mouth. (From the same song.)

“Oh my soul be still. Oh my soul be lifted.
He loves you. Oh how He loves you.”

 

Well then. This is exhilarating! In two weeks, we’ve had a staff retreat, looked at property to purchase, signed the contract, gathered the $10K earnest money, and whew… What just happened? I think the answer we are straining for is:  Jesus. I laughed and told my team the last time the Spirit was moving this fast I ended up in another state!  

I will keep you abreast of all the steps as we go. You can watch the backstory video if you missed it. But going forward, I want to tell you this is NOT a story about property. As beautiful as Hunter Valley Farm is, this story is much, much bigger.

This is a story about our faith. 

And how our faith stirs the heart of our God. 

When all this began, I kept asking the Lord, “Am I crazy?” He responded by taking me back to Psalm 145, the song by Shane and Shane. What you don’t know is that song was a pivotal passage of scripture and an anthem in a season when I was praying for—wait for it—a miracle house. 

“You open Your hand and satisfy desires of all things.”

I took a deep breath and told Him, “Okay, okay, I’m tracking with you.” Then He started replaying in my mind all the miracle house stories and the feelings of fear, thrill, and clinging to Him that occurred with each one. 

“This feels familiar,” I said, the tension and breathlessness around the miraculous. “We’ve been here before,” I said.

“Yes. I just love it.” He said. 

But every story had one common denominator. Worship.

Many times I could do nothing to impact the outcome and He told me to simply worship. The same was true for this adventure.  

So I sat out on my dock and played the song, over and over, to let it seep into my spirit. 

Suddenly lyrics broke through in a whole new way. 

One generation will

Commend Your kingdom

To one another

They will speak of You

 

And I will meditate

On Your wonder

 

And they, they will speak

Of Your glorious splendor

Of Your majesty

 

Every day I’ll praise thee

Forever and ever

Tears slid down my cheeks. One generation will tell the wonders of God to another generation. That is the story God is telling us all. This is what He loves. 

Then I watched the episode from The Chosen when Jesus heals the centurion’s son. 

From a distance. With a word. 

The centurion explained he understood what it meant to be under authority and he KNEW that Jesus merely had to speak a word and his son would be healed. 

The look on Jesus’s face. 

His wonder and enjoyment. 

His response to such faith. 

I tell you with all my heart, our faith moves our God. It makes Him smile, makes Him laugh, even stops Him in His tracks. 

Makes Him proud. 

My friends, how will we tell God’s wonders if we never experience them ourselves? 

This wind of God is not merely on a ministry changing locations. The wind is blowing on the hearts of His people to rise up in faith. To test and see that He is good beyond what we can ask or even imagine. He wants us to stretch, to sacrifice, to give as He gives. Hilariously. 

Why? Because when we do that, it means we have tapped into His idea of Kingdom riches. There is always enough.

I am worshipping and listening to hear what God is dreaming about. What brings Him joy as we go on this great adventure? Like the centurion, I want to make Jesus marvel at our great faith in His goodness.

Every day I’ll praise thee

Forever and ever