Author: Jana

Wisdom Finds a Way

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The other day I was driving alone in the car, which very rarely happens these days. I noticed the silence and appreciated it for a moment, until I realized the thoughts that were swirling around in my mind. I was somewhat commiserating with myself about a situation that the Lord and I have been carrying for a while now. I heard a lot of hopeless words floating around so I turned on worship music to battle against them. As I was worshiping I started talking to Jesus. I quickly realized I was holding something close that I was reluctant to reveal to Him. I found myself saying things like, “Here I am again. Talking about this same old thing. I don’t even know what to ask for anymore. I just need some relief. That’s what I need. Relief.” It was as if He said, “Yes, yes you do. And is that really what we’re talking about? Because I see something more…” I knew immediately what He was seeing and replied, “But I love You so much. I don’t want to say that. I don’t want to think it, much less tell you I’m thinking it.” To which He replied, “Yes. But I already know. I can hold it. It’s ok. You don’t have to hold it anymore if you’ll just tell me about it.”
And so I did. I just said it.
I said,  “I know You can do anything. You can grow a 3rd arm on me right now if You wanted to. You make seas part and heal people and bring people back from the dead. And yet I’ve begged You for some relief from this draining relationship and yet here I am. Again. Still carrying it. I love You so much and I don’t want to accuse You of not being good. I know You’re good… And You aren’t acting on my behalf. You see it. You see it all. And yet You don’t move. And I want to be mad at You but I love You so much. So what do I do now with all this?”
As soon as the words left my mouth, I looked over to my left and noticed a billboard that said, “Wisdom Finds A Way” and the peace of Jesus filled my car. Matthew 11:28-30 says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” In that moment, Jesus took my yoke and my burdens and gave me His easy yoke and light burdens instead. I felt no shame or condemnation for my thoughts, only peace and can I dare say relief? Sweet relief.
Maybe that’s you today? Maybe you’re carrying far too much. Whether that’s pain, anger, bitterness, strife, jealousy, shame, sadness or guilt. Whatever your thing may be, can I encourage you today to just say it to Him? Tell Him about it, that which you so desperately want to hide or ignore. He will hear you and will find a way to bring you what you need. He always finds a way.
Contributed by Crystal Freeman

God Hacks for Living – Part 4

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Ready for another truth bomb? We have been doing a series that offers more than clever life hacks and conveniences. Instead, these God Hacks are life changers, if we let them. God hacks, though, they cut deep. Think bone and marrow. Soul and spirit.

As we begin, imagine yourself standing there, a bag of chips in your hand, eating one after the after. Mindlessly. Maybe instead of chips, it’s spoonfuls of ice cream, a bag of weed, or sips of a drink. Maybe you’re swiping a screen, one image after the other, memes to like, clothes to buy, or bodies to lust over. The key word here is, mindlessly.

We have all done it.  Frankly. It never scratches the real itch.

But God.

Today I want to poke that tender place called coping. Coping has a word origin meaning to cover, which lines right up with this verse from Hebrews.

For whatever God says to us is full of living power:

it is sharper than the sharpest dagger,

cutting swift and deep into our innermost thoughts and desires with all their parts,

exposing us for what we really are.

Hebrews 4:12 TLB

We want to cover what we really are, so coping seems like a really good idea at the moment. But God’s powerful word exposes what we really are. For those of you who are shamed-based, that language may seem scary. Exposing us for what we really are. Note it says, what. Not who. God’s love for us, His name and His place for us is unconditional. Our Who we are is secure. The what, however, is a different matter.

There is a good and bad kind of exposing.

Today’s psycho-pop version of coping looks more like pretending, ignoring, denying, and fantasying about an alter-reality. How do I cover up what is really going on inside? But Holy Spirit uses scripture, and any other expression God wants to use, to tell us the truth and take off our masks. He invites us into the real world of His presence. What are we actually feeling, needing, lacking?

Which leads to today’s truth bomb.

God’s Comfort: all addiction is a desperate covering of deep hurt.

Wait. Comfort? Isn’t that the same thing as coping? No. Not at all.

The word origin of comfort is strong or strengthen, from the word Fortis. Think fortify. Fortress. Fort.

Comfort equals strong.  

Coping equals cover.

The reality of coping and addiction is once is never enough. You have to keep covering. masking, hiding. The pain demands that you keep eating, masturbating, snorting, smoking, buying.

It is covering pain — not healing it.

Comfort is God’s strength for you, in you, through you to actually face the pain and heal the pain. Imagine not needing to go through all the coping antics because you no longer feel deep hurt.

What are you looking for?

In some of my hardest moments of coping, the Lord asks me this question. What are we looking for when we are grabbing — fill in the blank? When we are hurting, angry, tired, afraid, exhausted, abandoned, unloved, lonely, or neglected what do we really need?

For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.

So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Hebrews 4:12-16 NLT

Fortify.

I feel compelled to add this thought. How do you comfort? 

You get still with God. You invite His presence into your mess instead of avoiding it. You let Him have all the words, emotions, and needs. Then you wait to hear His perspective, counsel, or affirmation. This is a miraculous moment when Heaven invades Earth. I want to release a testimony of the goodness of God literally invading my worst of moments like a victorious army.

He is with us. He sees every intimate detail of our lives.

Let us run to Holy Strength and be healed. The God of all comfort. 

 

Back in Them Thar Hills

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Chuck and I are happily back in Knoxville for a visit. It’s a whirlwind with meetings, New Wine Church, Holy Spirit Class, GTC starting, Men’s group and the Team Planning for 2024!

Whew! I have more God Hacks and other revelations God is releasing. But today is something a little different. During our team prayer, I heard the line from an OG song by Chris Tomlin. Would you read it slowly?  Let it seep into your spirit and refresh you. Let it keep you aware of the Cross. Let it remind you of how dearly loved by Jesus you are.

 

Clean Hands

We bow our hearts, we bend our knees

Oh Spirit come make us humble

We turn our eyes from evil things

Oh Lord we cast down our idols

So give us clean hands and give us pure hearts

Let us not lift our souls to another

Oh God let this be a generation that seeks

Who seeks Your face, oh God of Jacob

Oh God let us be a generation that seeks

Who seeks Your face, oh God of Jacob

God Hacks for Living – Part 3

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Oh Lawdy. Take a deep breath. We have been talking about Life Hacks and their suggested better ways to do life. Meanwhile, God, because He is so smart, has been dropping some pithy truth bombs that will actually change our life trajectory. Today’s God Hack has to do with being stuck, paralyzed, frozen, or (ouch) comfortable.

Getting unstuck means we must live a different life.

For those of us who loooove our comfort zones, this one makes us squirm. 

If I coddle my excuses and my story, which is often a very sad story, then I get to shed my personal power and expect no forward motion. I don’t have to change anything. Because, I am, after all, stuck.

If I am stuck and willing to remain so, I can talk about the problem ad nauseam, but never take the next step of correction.

If I never spend the time with God to discern the truth about the lie that binds me, I will roll around in that denial for months. Or decades.

If I know the truth but never actually take the steps to change the course, or far worse, never follow the Lord’s instructions about how to get free, I will give days, years, and seasons of my precious life to an enemy whose intent is to keep me immobile, ineffective, silenced, and unproductive.

Listen. I love to soak in the Lord, but I rarely experience time with Him without coming back to this world fired up to do my part in bringing heaven to earth. The love of God, His big picture of restoring His beautiful world drives me, and you, forward into action.

“Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in deed and in truth.” 1 John 3:18

Getting unstuck means doing whatever it takes to let go of lies, unforgiveness, stinking thinking, bad habits, sinful choices, or easy excuses. Your destiny is a stake.

Almost certainly it means receiving help from others. We may have to humble ourselves and admit we need any variety of counsel, money, creativity, or accountability. Some of us literally need a swift kick in the ass like a spiritual defibrillator to shock our hearts into beating again. All of us need a plan of action to live a life that is Unstuck.

The stuck people that Jesus unstuck in the gospels had to learn how to do life completely differently. The blind man, the lame man, the possessed woman, the leper, all of them had created life patterns around their stuck places. Now that was gone. That old identity was gone. They had to deliberately create new habits for this new unstuck life.

I speak from personal experience. I kept running in this toxic mental circle. Think hamster-wheel devised by the evil one. I would tell the Lord about this wonky feeling. The Lord told me, after I had ignored it for a month, you need to name it. I made a lame attempt and said it feels like a worth issue. (That sounded noble.) Back and forth, thinking, praying, musing, and massaging. Still no progress.

Don’t miss this. If I didn’t really know what it was…I didn’t really have to change.

But God. He told me to call a coaching friend. Not a soft, squishy friend who cares about my warm, fuzzy feelings. No, this friend told me I was full of shit. “That’s not what the problem is at all. The problem is people pleasing.”

I was so offended. Or was that exposed?

People pleasing is a sin problem. And sin ALWAYS has a remedy.

Maybe, just maybe, we would rather be people who have wounds so we can be victims. Rather than be people who have sin issues that need a Savior.

Whether we have legitimate wounds or blatant sin, we can get unstuck!

God reveals the truth. And the truth sets us free. We don’t have to live in gray, unnamed, can’t-pin-it-down spaces. This works in one of two ways. God either names so it can be healed. Or He reveals it as a demonic attack. In that case, we break the agreement and the assignment to confound us and replace it with His truth. Either way, getting unstuck is part of our operating system.

Humans are born forward. The reason we dislike being “stuck” in the first place is because something deep inside of us knows we can be and should be advancing. It is at the core of our being.  Let’s get used to unstuck. Let’s get used to different. 

More God Hacks for Living

 

God Hacks for Living – Part 2

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The ever-popular life hacks offer us new and improved ways to do daily life. However, God digs a little deeper to shape and correct us from the inside out. Lately, He has been giving me these pithy phrases. I call them God Hacks.

And unlike the life hacks, these phrases make me stand up and take notice. Remember the definition. Pithy: concise and forcefully expressive. Here’s my second truth bomb.

True confidence produces great humility.

Please tell me it’s not just me. But I get so annoyed by the blow-hard braggart who tries to sell me on his fabulous skillset. These people are like Kung Fu Panda saying “There is no charge for awesomeness or attractiveness.” Snort. People who boast often doesn’t actually have skills, or certainly not at the level they believes they have, but they attempt to cover the lack with smoke and mirrors. Can we all just agree the more a person grabs the spotlight, acts superior, and name-drops, the more insecure she is?

On the other hand, what do we Christians and other counter-prideful people do instead? 

We grovel. 

We mistakenly think that the solution to pride is to be a doormat or deny value and expertise. Ouch. Heaven forbid that we just let our work speak for itself. Our results will be a testimony to our level of mastery. Since all of us are constantly growing forward, we look to who we are becoming. Not who we were. Is this needed?

The false humility, aw-shucks posture is almost as annoying as the deluded puffer fish.

So what does God mean by this pithy ditty about authentic confidence and humility?

Let’s look at Jesus. We consider Him to be the most capable and yet the most humble.

There is a world of difference between God-confidence and Self-confidence. The goals are different. The first speaks of dependence on and honor to Someone else, Someone greater. The latter reveals a focus and reliance on self for the good of and the glory of self.

The word confidence means “with faith.” So I don’t know about you, but I want my faith to be in someone bigger and better than myself. I want to level up into Jesus. We wear the wristbands, “What would Jesus do?” and it’s a great question. But make it real. 

How would Jesus like to express His life through me for His glory?

Straight talk here. I have done things WITH Jesus that I could never, ever accomplish on my own steam. This beautiful awareness eliminates any question about who gets the credit. Besides if I did try to grab it, Jesus would look at me and say, “Babe, who are we kidding here?”

Enter Great Humility. The more we hang out with heaven and see heaven in action in our very small, little lives, the more we understand the generosity of God. Jesus said in John 17:22-23,  “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.” 

Maybe go read that whole John 17 chapter again. It is the perfect breakdown of true confidence produces great humility.

We don’t have to puff up or grovel. We do have to learn how to carry glory.

Here is the final picture God gave me regarding this revelation. In each of us, exists a divine calling and purpose, like a holy acorn. As we encounter the love and truth of God, we grow into a tree. A tree doesn’t take credit for producing fruit, it simply does what it was planted to do. It is grateful for the sun and soil and the good Gardner who makes life possible. As the tree goes through seasons of trials and storms, the roots go deeper into the earth for security and stability..

Grasp the picture. Our confidence grows up and out in God like a tree grows taller and broader. Our humility grows down and strong in God as a tree’s roots drive deeper. 

“Apart from Me you can do nothing.”

With Him, we can rock the world. 

God Hacks for Living – Part 1

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Do you get sucked into the Life Hack videos? I sure do. From cooking to planting to storage, all these slick memes and reels show me an extraordinary way to do my ordinary life. But here’s the catch. I may watch them but do I actually do them? Real talk, I hardly remember the new and improved way when I go back to my regular-rut-of-doing-it-the-same-old-way.  Still, the maxim holds true. When you know better, you do better. 

 

 

I guess this is why God has been giving me these pithy phrases.  And unlike the life hacks, these phrases sting and sear. Note the definition.

Pithy: concise and forcefully expressive.

Ah, even in this writing I understand better His intention. We are inundated with thoughts, words, and pictures. Listen, the other day I picked up my phone to look at social media for a specific purpose. In a scant one minute, my emotions ranged from disgust over a certain recipe, to outrage over the face of a child being trafficked, to sheer delight over an intricate flower photo. I was so barraged, I forgot why I even got on in the first place. Ughhh.

But when God gives you a thought, word, or picture it’s different. It’s weighty and lasting because it’s meant to go deep into your being. Not just tickle (or exhaust) your emotions for a moment.  Forcefully expressed.

Let these thoughts hit the mark.

  • Ownership: freedom from enabling and entitlement

This one is packed. Enabling is when we take on someone else’s problems instead of empowering them to handle their own. Enter the rescuer and the victim. People who enable, and people who leech off enablers (wow, what a picture) both need a big dose of personal ownership. Whether it is parents who enable their should-be-grown children, lovers who enable each other, or employers/employees who enable, we all need a wake up call to be personally responsible for ourselves, our choices, and our consequences and allow others to do the same. 

We reflect God’s heart when we honor free will in ourselves and others.

“Each one should test his own work. Then he will have reason to boast in himself alone, and not in someone else. For each one should carry his own load.”  Galatians 6:4-6

Entitlement is when we falsely believe that we are owed something, should be exempt from, or try to escape hard work and effort. Entitlement in short is “You should do the hard work for me because I am special.” We hear lots of funny jokes about millennials and what they think they need to survive. The reality however is our nations are full of people who are either family rich or family poor and they believe that someone else’s labor should support them.

This is counter Kingdom. God views work as holy. It is part of His gift to humanity that we work the garden He has given to us to steward.

When we were actually with you we gave you this principle to work on: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” 2 Thessalonians 3:10

I could literally write a book about enabling and entitlement. But let me say to us all, get out of the way and let each person stand, or fall according to their choices.

Can you see how enabling and entitlement are the yin and yang of unhealthy relationships? The cure is ownership.

What can I own about my life and outcomes?

What can I acknowledge as direct results of MY choices or lack thereof?

What steps/directions/actions will I own to have a better life?

Jesus paid a high price for us to have personal power. Don’t waste it. Ownership is when we shoulder personal responsibility, self-govern, and acknowledge our actions, beliefs, and choices. We determine our lives without blaming or being codependent on someone else.

This is freedom.

“I am the master of my fate,

      I am the captain of my soul.”

Shake it Like a Polaroid Picture

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Do you ever have those times in life that you feel like conflict surrounds you? I mean, conflict at work, at home, in friendships, with relatives. Just conflict all around. I’ve been sitting in the middle of what felt like consistent and continual conflict and it is not a fun place to be for this enneagram 9.

Much like Matthew 5:23-24, I continually felt like I was walking to the altar in my heart with a gift and was reminded that my relative/co-worker/child/employee at Target had something against me so I had to go make it right with that person before I could talk with Jesus. So, really, I felt a deep need to people-please so God would be alright with me. A deep need to stuff my feelings and make sure everyone else was happy so I could talk to my Best Friend. That doesn’t really grasp the heart of the original text of relationship over religious ritual, does it?

I took it to the Lord and said, “I feel like I can’t even talk to you because so many people have so much against me. What do You have to say about that?” and so kindly He said, “I’m the one you sin against, not them. If you know that I forgive you, having them forgive you is a bonus.” And the pressure came off a little bit. The more I dug into His Words, the more I saw the full picture of His love for me. He cleanses me from all righteousness, not them. He makes me a new creation, without their permission. He tells me I can approach His Throne of grace with confidence. He desires a relationship with me, over religious rituals and He desires His Kids to be in peaceful, loving, healthy relationships.

In the middle of a conflict the other day, He reminded me about my grandmother’s old polaroid camera. My sister and I loved that thing growing up. We would take pictures of literally everything and would fan that polaroid back and forth to try to hurry up the developing process. Jesus said, “This conflict, this image you see could be perceived a certain way but it isn’t fully developed. Just give it more time. Don’t zero in on one aspect. Step back and ask Me for the full picture.”

Wisdom is seeing things from His perspective and I’ve found that asking for wisdom in conflict is my purest form of love for another.

So, maybe you find yourself in some conflict. Maybe you have picked up an offense, been hurt or feel misunderstood. May I encourage you today to take His Hand and lean into His heart for you. Whether you have wronged or been wronged, ask for forgiveness from Him for the offense and wait for the full picture to develop. It’s always more beautiful and more intentionally detailed than we could ever imagine.

What are you waiting for?

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Are you in the middle of a waiting period? You have a promise, word, or dream and you think you have done all you can to make it happen…and yet that very thing is still out of reach. Yeah, me too. Houses, cars, babies, money, marriages, jobs, friends, you name it. We have all been stuck in the “Not Yet” loop. The tension in the waiting sucks. It sucks faith, energy, creativity, even hope. Unless we have some secret weapons.

 

 

I want to briefly unpack something the Lord is giving me these days. Every experience, good or bad, is an invitation to encounter God. Here is the catch. These encounters are not one-way encounters — only what we get from God. They are two-way encounters, both parties giving and receiving.

Don’t miss the huge truth-bomb here that God enjoys receiving FROM you. Yes, you.

(So what are you giving Him?)

There is a reciprocal relationship where I ask and He gives. He gives, I praise. He doesn’t give… I cry, pout, stall out. But c’mon, that’s kindergarten level. Maturity offers different responses. I ask and offer Him thanks in advance. He gives, and I ask who to give it to. We dance. We laugh. And, when things go badly, I look to Him. He doesn’t always rescue me but He gives me perspective. I have the opportunity here to test my thinking and believing in the middle of the tension.

What do I actually think about the LORD, instead of what do I think about the situation?

The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those who trust in Him.

Nahum 1:7 NKJV

The Lord gave this verse in a hard, hard season of waiting. I learned how to use three secret weapons from one verse.

1) The Lord is good. Every disappointment, heartache, delay, and faith strain is reframed by God’s goodness. When we come to bank our whole life on His goodness and His desire to be good to me, to you, it changes every result, or lack of result. We don’t minimize the pain, but we tell the pain it is not the final answer. God’s goodness will be revealed sooner or later.

2) Every trouble we face, we have a stronghold to run to. We don’t flail around helpless and hopeless. We don’t try to white-knuckle it. Heaven has provided a very real place for us to rest and recuperate. A place where we can escape the trouble and find wisdom and comfort.

3) He knows those who trust in Him. Listen, this verse stopped me dead in my tracks. HE KNOWS who really trusts Him. Remember the give and take? He looks at us in the hardest moment and asks, “Will you give Me your trust?”

I don’t know about you, but that verse compels me forward into faith. I may get knocked down but I am getting back up. And when I do, I want to be that kid in the classroom, jumping up and down, with my hand up, shouting, “Pick me, Pick me. I trust You! I do!”

But wishing doesn’t make that kind of trust in God real. When we are willing to go through the experiences, encounters, history, risk, failure, and do-overs, then we grow a kind of faith and trust that makes Him smile. Maybe I am a hard nut, but it has taken a lot of hard knocks to get me to child-like faith.

I have also loved this passage from Psalm 27. In the NIV, verse 13 says, I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. But verse 14 in The Passion translation takes it to a whole new level.

Here’s what I’ve learned through it all:
Don’t give up; don’t be impatient;
be entwined as one with the Lord.
Be brave and courageous, and never lose hope.
Yes, keep on waiting—for he will never disappoint you!

Psalm 27 TPT

Being entwined with the Lord means it is not just me trying to keep going in difficult times. He is with me in it. He gives me all that I need in the tension. So what to do with the disappointment I do face? This verse strengthens me to keep waiting. He is not done. I WILL see His goodness sooner or later. He is with me. So that means His goodness is already here right in the middle of it with me.

Bad outcomes, poor results, waiting in the tension… these can become places to be even bolder. “Okay God, show me your goodness again even in this yucky place. I am looking because I trust in You.”

Wisdom from the Upside Down Kingdom

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Many of us are in places where we don’t know what to do. We may know what we WANT, but we sorely lack the essential HOW to achieve it. The Lord is literally tutoring me in lessons on wisdom. And may I just add, summer school sucks. Smile.

 

In an age of excess information and inflated reactions, how are we to discern what is truly wise? Some camps shout: You must use logic. Facts only. No emotions. The rival camp shouts: All decisions are based on emotions whether you admit it or not. The battle ensues. 

For example, consider this remark from a guy I just met. He was trying to decide if a particular house purchase was a good fit. When I asked him how he would choose, he boasted, “I take all the emotion out of it and just look at the facts.” I laughed in his face.

“Good luck with that,” I said. “The Lord has emotions, gave you emotions for a reason too, and you are totally deciding if this house gives you all the feels in all the right places.” Whatever.  

However, this conversation reminded me of a phrase God gave earlier in the week. 
Wisdom: the balance of logic and emotion.

The key word here is balance. We don’t lean too far on data points because we cannot predict the future from past numbers. And to be frank, the need to control and predict the future is fear-based and borders on sorcery.  We don’t lean too far on emotion because we may be over-tired, over-hungry, over-angry, or over-excited. Just over… which kills the balance needed for wisdom to grow.

Logic and Emotion. Balance. Check. Wisdom. Check.

Before we proceed, let me throw in a monkey wrench. Every new level of faith and adventure with God requires me to learn more about Him. His way of doing things, how it works in heaven, how I will have to take on or let go of earthly thinking.

This past March brought one of those upgrades. The Lord told me, “You are trying to figure this out in your world system. But I live in an Upside Down Kingdom.”

O-kaaaaay. That helped a lot. Thank you, Lord. But seriously. What does that even mean?

First came the revelation. Then came the wisdom from God to absorb the revelation. We had been talking about Jesus feeding the 5000, when He asked a question. 

How do you think the boy felt when he gave up his lunch (five loaves and 2 fish)?

Never crossed my mind.

The Lord persisted. 

That boy had his lunch. Why would he give up his lunch, so little, in the face of so much need? 

Squirming, I can tell you I went for the easy answers first.  Because he wanted to share. Because he loved his neighbor. Because the boy was moved by the great need. Because he was asked to help. Because, because, because…

The Lord would not let it go. 

But now he was hungry. And he didn’t have to be. Why did he give up his lunch, when he had all he needed?

The Good Teacher finally helped me, the slow student, grasp the answer. Because Jesus was on the scene. That lunch could do more in Jesus’s hands than in that boy’s belly.  Somehow, Jesus would fill everyone’s needs.

Enter heavenly wisdom.  Upside down Kingdom.

I had to align my life with how God does life in His Kingdom. His life is SO different from mine that it appears, looks, and feels upside down. Radical faith often requires radical sacrifice which produces a radical move of God.

Here is another tough lesson. Abraham gets a bad rap sometimes in our PC world of child-rearing. I mean, putting your kid on an altar today would land you in jail. But the real story, the bigger Kingdom story is not between father and son, but Father and son.

God instructed Abraham to think upside down. Go beyond the logic. Past the very real emotion. The Father who loved His only Son, invited Abraham to experience what He feels and to understand what it takes to make that kind of sacrifice. This was a severe test of Abraham’s heart and what it takes to walk in God’s wisdom. He passed the test. But don’t miss God’s profound response to Abraham’s willing heart.

“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

Abraham looked up and there in a thicket, he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,  I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring[b] all nations on earth will be blessed,[c] because you have obeyed me.” Genesis 22:12-18 (emphasis added)

As I said, upside down Kingdom. In this Kingdom, withholding nothing, extreme dependence, and revering God have supreme value. Also in this Kingdom, it is highly rewarded. More than we can ask or imagine and for generations to come.

God is constantly inviting us to not only know about His Kingdom but to do life the way He does it. Withholding nothing. Extreme dependence. In awe of God’s generous response.

This leads me to this lovely verse tucked in 1 Corinthians that makes me chuckle. For what the world says is wisdom is actually foolishness in God’s eyes. As it is written: The cleverness of the know-it-alls becomes the trap that ensnares them. 1 Corinthians 3:19 TPT

Can I tell you how many times I have said to God, “You want me to do what?  Are you sure? This is crazy!” Yep, foolishness to the world.

There are worthy questions to ask Holy Spirit. Do you think this is wise? Will it multiply and bear fruit? Am I withholding nothing and displaying extreme dependence on You to do what only You can do?

I may be singing to the moon right now. But I tell you, we are living in an age of humanity right now, where God’s wisdom is desperately needed and rarely sought after. We are drowning in a cultural mindset that does what is “right in our own eyes,” what makes us feel good, or safe, or seen. And it’s foolishness to God.

Our solution? Just ask.

And if anyone longs to be wise, ask God for wisdom and he will give it! He won’t see your lack of wisdom as an opportunity to scold you over your failures but he will overwhelm your failures with his generous grace. James 1:5 TPT

 

How much of God’s love do you want?

/ Jana / Leave a comment

How much of God’s love are you willing to receive? Uhhh. Is this a trick question? Some? Enough? All?  We humans play lots of mental games with God’s love. It often circles around our sense of worth or lack thereof. Perhaps it’s an unspoken belief that He likes other kids more than us, so we should be grateful and don’t bug God by asking for too much. Perhaps we have been extensively taught about suffering and sacrifice, which is good and true, but we have not been given permission to experience His lavish love.

Lavish is His word. Not mine.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1 John 3:1 NIV)

Believe it or not, this very difficult question was the second question in my wild conversation with the Lord last night.  It came on the heels of a memory with my friend Crystal. She and I (and many others) had just prayed her into a miracle house. She kept saying over and over, “Why me, Lord, why do I get this house?”

And His answer was so simple. “I picked it for you. I  know what I planted in you. And, I really like you.” 

“The thought that He would do something so big, so extra just because He loved me so much, really stretched my faith,” Crystal said. 

It was a love gift.

Boom. There it was. 

I had heard those words before. A love gift. God had given me and Chuck a love gift. An outrageous gift purely as an expression of His love. The Overflow House, a beautiful place in Pensacola Beach. This is part of much bigger story, but the words pierced my spirit like a needle full of medicine. Did I remember how to receive a Love Gift from God?

God is lavish in His gifts to express His love for His children. Me and you, we be da children. If we know how to do it, He does it so much better. 

If you, imperfect as you are, know how to lovingly take care of your children and give them what’s best, how much more ready is your heavenly Father to give wonderful gifts to those who ask him?” Matthew 7:11 TPT

As uncomfortable as this thought is, now try to imagine the gut punch of the first question. 

Am I your Lover or your business partner?

I mean, what a way to start a conversation.

Lovers do things for each other. We share and sacrifice for the other’s good without a second thought. We enjoy each other. We call each other silly names and giggle and smile for no apparent reason. No task seems too big or small, because well, it’s just an excuse to be together.  Rain or shine, all we need is love. Perfect Love, that is.

But business partners? That’s a little more clinical, don’t you think? You have your role and duties. I have mine. And please, stay in your lane. Don’t tell me what to do, I will return the favor. And then there is the pressure. I sure hope this proposition works out because we have poured a lot of time and money into it. We have to produce results after all.

Gut. Punched.

You know what I love MOST about Jesus, God, and Spirit? The Holy Three-in-One so completely adores, enjoys, loves, roots for, and is 1000% committed to my heart and soul, and yours, that They would zing me in quiet hours just to correct my course.

God is unwilling to just be our business partner. Don’t nit-pick me here. When Perfect Love is on the scene He does bring wisdom, insight, and guidance. He is the best Person to have involved in any field, home, or country. BUT. BUT. BUT.

He does it all for love, for us. To be with us. He is lavish. He gives good outrageous gifts to express His Love.

So why am I doing it? Why are you?

Let me give you the two questions again: Am I your Lover or your business partner? How much of My Love are you willing to receive?

I am just going to let that sit there for you and our Beautiful God to sort through. It has broken some serious wayward thinking as He and I approach this outrageous Love Gift that is on the horizon. I hope it gets you a little more free too.