I recently purchased glasses to wear at night. Sigh…that season is upon me. I want to complain about needing assistance, but I am thankful for the help. It means I can keep going at the pace of my choosing. You know, and I know, it is a losing battle. My eyes will continue to fade, my pace continue to slow and I will regrettably lose the option to choose. There is a lesson in the slowing. It has to do with a greater vision.

God is talking, talking, talking about my priorities, my heart, and my investment of energy. Therefore, I want to make you as uncomfortable as He is making me. Smile. 

I am a do-er. I love a good list. I love checking off completed items because I like to be productive. Not busy…but productive. That’s in the fine print, right?

My whole Christian life I have heard “to whom much is given, much is required.” Luke 12  And while I don’t feel bound by performance (anymore), and I am definitely not working for God’s love (anymore), I do want to be faithful to complete all that God has deposited in me. It’s all for Him, right?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Sunday morning, the Lord stood me on my head regarding this verse from Luke. Add to that a good eye-opener from this Shawn Boltz book I am reading. I have only made it through chapter 6 and Boltz issues a call for pure intimacy and laying down the law. He boldly explains how the Church is living under the law by trying to “do good for God” or “win souls for God” or even “build churches” for God. 

He says plainly, and I quite agree, these are wrong goals. Even the preaching of loving our neighbors is misguided if we do not preach and teach first and foremost how to experience and long for the intimate love of the Godhead. 

Our goal. OUR ONLY GOAL is to love Jesus more and more. Our aim is being with Him, growing in our affection, receiving His love and revelation, becoming like Him through the Holy Spirit.

We are here for Him. We are Jesus’s reward. This is the chief aim of the human life. And then, out of this glorious place, we overflow into the lives of others. 

So now read Luke 12:48 (NLT)

“When someone has been given much,
much will be required in return;
and when someone has been entrusted with much,
even more will be required.”

We have made that mean doing FOR God. But the Passion Translation brings a whole new spin.

“For those who have received a greater revelation from their master are required a greater obedience. And those who have been entrusted with great responsibility will be held more responsible to their master.”

This echoes what the Lord said to me Sunday morning. It’s not about doing for Him. 

To whom much is given, 

            Read: the person who has greatly encountered God’s love

much is required in return

             Read: then great is the response of love desired by Jesus in return
                         from us

The one who has been entrusted with much

             Read: the person who has been granted the secrets of Heaven

much more will be asked.

             Read: then that person will be asked to surrender all to carry the
                        weight of glory.

It’s about loving Him with complete abandon as reciprocal as a bride loves her Groom.

If this doesn’t blow your face off— then look Jesus’s declaration in verse 49.

“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already ablaze with fiery passion for God!”

Listen, I love Jesus. I love Father and Holy Spirit. And yet I have this conviction in my soul. All this empty or obligatory doing for Him, these silly games of being good Christians so we can get our gold stars are just— blasphemous. 

Stop whatever motions you are mindlessly going through until you feel HIS heartbeat in your chest. And then… stay. right. there. 

It’s about the fiery passion for the God of Heaven until you hunger for nothing else.  Let your eyes be fixed on this fire. 

You only have to visit the ocean for a short span of time to experience its wild unpredictability. In a few hours the water can completely change from a serene, lake-like surface to white-capping waves of foaming beauty. 

It is a thing of wonder. 

Shimmering, crystal clear water that is home to many other marvels of the deep. 

We are so small in comparison.

It is also a thing to be revered.

The ocean is completely outside of our control. We honor its currents and riptides and destructive surges.

The ocean is a great teacher inside the Lord’s hand. He tutors me with every trip. I never know what I will get, only that it will be breathtaking and different every single time. 

Here is the key: I get to choose whether I will be thrilled by it or afraid of it. 

I am writing all this today because we do well to remember our smallness is a gift. 

Here we stand at a political shoreline. 

We have all made our well-considered, educated, prayerful choices. Now we choose whether our peace depends on the condition of the ocean, or the Maker of the ocean.

We tend to rejoice or lament in four year increments as the political waters are moved by unseen currents and winds. But our trust is not in a man, a woman, or a party. It is in the Maker of heaven and earth.

We were never meant to carry the weight of the world. We see in part. We understand in part. We make choices based on the part of the story we like — or don’t like. 

Our smallness is a gift. It reminds us that we need Someone bigger, mightier than a political ocean that can excite or destroy us.

Let me be direct. 

I have participated in many, many elections. Some results thrilled me and some I feared. Yet whether my candidate was voted in or not, my prayer has been the same: Lord bless and protect our nation for Your glory. Lead and guide your people like a Good Shepherd. Deliver us from evil and ourselves. Give us hearts to live like You.

God Almighty makes the nations rise and fall, just like He makes the oceans rise and fall. We are small, but He is not. 

I exhort you to keep our hearts and heads free of accusation and insult. He alone is enthroned forever and ever.  We can enjoy and endure  the adventures of the political ocean because we know the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. 

“The king’s heart is like a stream of water directed by the Lord; he guides it wherever he pleases.”

 Proverbs 21: 1

I have heard or been given many words about a new season. You have probably seen them too. I love it when Holy Spirit sings the same song through several different streams and voices. It gives us all a deep breath of hope and even anticipation from God. I am frankly ready for a new season. This current one has been full of faith-building exercises. I am t-i-i-i-red. Smile. 

And, here is what I am hearing about the new season quickly approaching.

It will be costly. 

Everyone, myself included, wants a New Season where they get what they want and it’s easy. Rarely is that the way of God. God has NO affection for easy at all. He does however have great dedication to stamina, purification, maturity. My friend Suzanne Stelling wrote a compelling book on this process of growth. Check it out sometime. 

Instead of easy, God the Father wants to reveal in us the life of His beautiful Son. No more. No less. 

So while we are twisting our heads around all things human, this new season will be asking different questions. 

Do I look and sound like Jesus?
Do I love like Jesus?
Can I walk in peace in a corrupt world like Jesus?
Do I bring healing to the nations like Jesus?

Depending on where you are with the Lord, you may be asking, how do I do anything like Jesus? So glad you asked! It is the actual merging of our lives with the Holy Spirit so that what pours out looks like our Risen King. And that my friend, is not easy work. It’s costly.

When you pray about the coming days, are you praying for a party or candidate? Or are you praying for the Kingdom of God to be honored and revealed? 

When you look at your obligations, commitments, possessions and purpose, are you putting God first? No, really. I mean, first.

This new season is costly.

Everywhere I sense a cooling off of those once deeply in love with God. I see many gifted leaders and servants who are coasting instead of breaking new ground. I witness families who have extreme dedication to extracurricular activities but no true connection with God. I see young ones so preoccupied with social media they have neglected spiritual roots. 

This new season is about fanning the fire of God in our hearts personally so that every area of humanity is ablaze with His love.

Like. Jesus.

We are all under great temptation to do three things.

Fall Back.
Fall Asleep.
Fall Behind.

In this new season of God, the Spirit is inviting us into more and more  passion from God and a passion for God. 

Not a watered down placebo that has no affect on my daily life. But white-hot love encounters with God that burn off every earthly attachment and distraction.

Don’t expect your church or social scrolling to do this for you.

This is me and you sitting with the Lord until we hear from Him. This is eating the word of God until we get full. This is us soaking in one song until gets in us like medicine. 

Here’s a jumpstart for you. This album has been a spiritual antibiotic for me this summer. 

Do whatever you have to do, or QUIT doing, until you get a REAL relationship with the Living God. Like Jesus. 

The new season will not be defined by earthly success but spiritual depth. It’s what this chaotic world needs right now. Not more fluff and stuff. But real love.

Like Jesus. 

Have you ever had a relational break? Some hurt or offense or betrayal that ruptured the loving connection you once shared with someone? Dumb question, I know. We’re human, we all have. But what happens next? 

In most cases, there are conversations needed to get a clear, full picture of the story from all angles. Forgiveness work is needed on both sides.  And then there are the awkward steps of how are we going to move forward from here…

To be frank though, many relationships just stop. They never make it through the above steps of understanding, forgiveness, and moving forward. They just stop.  

And. God is revealing a “deeper magic” to me. Or is that IN me? 

I am experiencing a break with someone. It was so beautiful until it wasn’t. When I say I love her, I mean it. However, there is just no sign of reconciliation.

So last week I was praying for her, and myself— again. The Lord prompted me to text her. I started listing out excuses about why I couldn’t do that. 

Excuses He promptly dismissed. (I hate it when He does that.)

“It doesn’t matter how she feels about or talks about you. You get to move in My love toward her,” He said.

“But—but—but—” I complained…

“You don’t need her permission, approval, or appreciation.

You are free to love.”

Mic drop.

I am free to love. So are you.

No conflict, lack of resolution, or refusal to connect can stop the flow of His love out of us. That’s an inside job. 

I determine whether I will let love flow to someone. Regardless of their response. 

So I texted her. 

I am free to love. 

This beautiful person and I may or may not resume relationship this side of heaven. However, the facts remain, we both love Jesus and that makes us sisters. We are eternally connected. 

We are part of the same root system of Jesus. There is no cutting off. I love to think that one day in heaven we will be playing together in the River of Life.

I know God is calling me, and probably you too, to live from heaven now. His love is the best thing we can offer to anyone. And we don’t need their permission, approval or appreciation to give it. 

Love one another.
Let’s do this. 

Seems everyone is trying to get their head around the recent storm catastrophes. The grief, the survivor’s guilt, the destruction, the death and loss. Then add to this the news of local childhood deaths and our friends fighting cancer. That’s the big stuff. What about the normal strain?

I had three phone calls in one day with friends who said, “We need God to provide TODAY.” In one day. 

As I have been talking to the Lord, I keep sensing He is shaking us loose. From the world’s perspective. From possessions. From false securities. From weaker love.  From selfish goals.

He is not cruel. Or absent. 

But rather He is deeply invested in us experiencing His Real Life. The Eternal Life this side of heaven. He is shaking us out of our systems and structures so that we might truly live.

He is Our-Ever-Present-Hope-In Time-of-Need God. 

But this is no time for spiritual bandaids or platitudes. 

No, this God is WITH us. In the middle of the mud, debris, debt and even death.  

We wail. We mourn. We lament. We bless the dying and bury the dead. We move the sludge and destruction. We rebuild. We live. 

With Him. For Him. 

Through

Him.

We can see God in every moment of every heartache filled day. In the hands that rushed to help. In the hearts that rushed to pray. In the Spirit who rushed to comfort. Never mistake the presence of God always “hovering over the waters.”

Speak this declaration out loud. Let your ears hear as you utter the words and know your words carry life into the unseen world. God will not fail us. 

God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
    and the mountains quake with their surging.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy place where the Most High dwells.

God is within her, she will not fall;
    God will help her at break of day.

Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
    he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Come and see what the Lord has done,
    the desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease
    to the ends of the earth.

He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
    he burns the shields with fire.

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
    I will be exalted among the nations,
    I will be exalted in the earth.”

The Lord Almighty is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Psalm 46

You ready? This is one doozy of a revelation. We have been in a dry spell  in Florida for about two months. This means high heat and humidity. Imagine walking outside and immediately dripping sweat. I have all kinds of beautifying to do for the wedding I spoke about last week, but it has been insufferable to work outside until the recent rains. 

This morning I went out and it was cool and fresh. So I attacked a flower bed that has been taken over by weeds. To my delight, the latest downpours have softened the soil so that most of the weeds come up root and all. It reminded me of a past lesson of how our tears soften our hearts in the same way the rain does dirt. 

God removes unwanted intruders best when we are soft before Him. Selah.

But today as I mused over this lesson and pulled up the aggravating plant called Dollarweed, God started showing me faces of people to pray for. These are people whose soul gardens have spiritual intruders but they can’t seem to get a grip on removing them.

Here are my spirit landscaping tips from the Good Gardener:

      1. Know the difference between a plant and a weed. 

Dollarweed is not ugly. However it is invasive. So I had to intentionally separate it from the real plant. Likewise, my friends are so busy defending themselves, and their pride, they don’t seem to realize their identities are not in question— the intruders are. My friends are each beautiful gardens with good soil. Yet they have unwanted destructive forces threatening their well being. 

      2. Get to the root instead of breaking it off at the stem.

A couple of times, the weed broke off in my hand at the surface of the ground. I held a long slender shoot and leaf but no root. This is not lasting progress. My flowerbed may look better for a week or two, but I know the weed will return in time.

When you are doing soul healing, it is easy to remove the evidence of an intruder without actually getting to the root of the issue. 

Here’s a thought. I wonder why we are not more alarmed by weeds, sin, intruders, robbers, (pick your word) that are strategically placed to take over our whole life. We seem content to casually break off weeds for appearance sake but not for freedom’s sake. 

      3. The root is deeper and longer than any of us know.

You can see in my photo that there is a weed attached to the root. But the long white strand is the root SYSTEM running under the offshoot. My prayer for my friends is a wake up call to see there is more going on under the surface than they realize. 

Life really is simple in a garden. This plant belongs here and this weed does not. I do whatever it takes to remove the weed because I know, unchecked, the weed will eventually choke out my plant. Our hearts are no different.

Let me end where I began. 

Rain softens the soil like repentance, our tears, softens our souls. A tender heart yields to God’s perspective about what He calls a weed. The real work comes next. 

We agree that we no longer are willing to accept the weeds in our life. We will not ignore, welcome, or fertilize the intruders. And then we do the digging work that gets to real freedom. 

Yes it’s hard. My back was killing me. I cut my fingers. But my flower bed looks beautiful and my plants are no longer barely visible. Guess what? I will have to continue to clear out the intruders. 

My reluctant friends need to know one crucial piece of good gardening. 

Holy Spirit was with me all morning showing me what to pull up and what to leave. It was even the Spirit who encouraged me to keep working way past my want-to. The Lord so gently kept telling me to keep going even though I was tired and sore. 

There is a lot in this revelation for those who will ponder it. For me, I can’t afford to let intruders get too comfortable in my soul, emotions, or thoughts. They will try to take over the whole dang place. 

Let it rain.

I am in the happy whirlwind of planning a wedding. I have done this many times before, but THIS time, it is for my own daughter! So many emotions swirl in my heart and head, but like every wedding I have been a part of, Jesus just takes my breath away. 

I find myself stepping away from the lists and need-to-do’s to catch a glimmer of His excitement. His joy. The twinkle in His eyes over every little detail. Jesus loves a good wedding. 

Over the years, He has rebuilt my heart around men, sex, marriage and romance and revealed that every earthly wedding is a practice run, a shadow of, a declaration of The Wedding. His wedding. 

When True Love is finally united.  The day of His rejoicing.

“Go out, young women of Zion, and gaze at King Solomon,
wearing the crown his mother placed on him
on the day of his wedding— the day of his heart’s rejoicing”.
Song of Solomon 3:11 

Siiiiigh. All the feels of being perfectly loved and longed for.

And. My daughter’s wedding is schooling me on Holy Spirit. As a mama, I push down this rising lump in my throat as I prepare for her day. I deeply want her to be seen and celebrated. I want to pull off all the weight of distractions so she can just enjoy the day. I want her dreams and desires to be met. I’m deeply invested in her future relationship.

It’s a mother’s heart.
And it echoes from a higher place. 

You know Holy Spirit simply must represent the Divine Feminine. Her passion to orchestrate and provide for all of the daughters (and sons) of the world is truly other-worldly. Holy Mama delights to celebrate us and  intimately captures the desires of our hearts.

This is an experience of God that is new to me. I have seen the hand of God (Holy Spirit) working, protecting, intervening, even providing. But the unrelenting, deliberate passion as the Mother of the bride is a new revelation. 

Holy Spirit fiercely and intentionally prepares me and you, prepares a banquet for the day of His heart’s rejoicing. She is the connector of dots, the keeper of tiny details, the fixer of broken things. She is even more deeply invested in the future of our relationship with Jesus.

Why would I ever question God’s involvement and availability in my life? We are all working towards the same goal of a heavenly wedding.

I know I will cry when my beautiful daughter walks down the aisle; there will be tears of great joy and satisfaction. I know I will be completely and utterly spent by day’s end. And it will be worth it. It’s what mothers do.

Thank you Holy Mama for showing us what it means to pour out for your children. Thank You for giving us a bigger vision and for removing the weight of distractions so we can lean into Your love. Amen

I have an active night life— with Jesus. Wink. Sometimes it is dreams, sometimes it is songs or pictures. Literally some mornings I wake up and I know there has been a spiritual transaction in my spirit. I am just different. Other times, I wake up and have to take immediate action. This recent dream was one of the latter.

In my dream, I was in this large convention hall where hundreds of people gathered at round tables, talking quietly. There were large doors on one wall behind me and I could hear distant voices and commotion in the hallway.  Several of us heard brutal instructions barked out. We looked at each other in shock. They intended to load us all in trucks for future harm.

Some of the people who heard the same message began to cry. I asked the Lord, what can I do here in this moment? He said, “Give what you have.”

I made my way to tables near me and put my hand on each person’s back and said, “Peace to you.” They had no idea what was coming. They smiled and thanked me. I sensed the witness of Jesus in each person I touched.

I circled tables and touched people moving further from the doors. Then the doors flung open and soldiers shouted demands for people to line up and move into trucks. 

People at the table where I stood looked at me. I spoke to the closest woman, “peace to you in the name of Jesus.” It was as if everyone understood in a moment what was happening. So she began telling me her God story. The next person did the same. The next person and the next. As they gathered people into the vehicles, everyone told stories of God’s goodness and faithfulness. 

In a flash of panic, I thought, where is MY family? I need to tell my family I love them. The Lord said, “Oh they know you do. You love Me by doing this. I am holding your family.”

As I scanned the room, the Lord revealed that everyone in the room was a believer. We had been gathered under false pretenses, but for the intent purpose of destroying us. Yet here we were releasing testimony of the beauty of God.

Then I woke up.

I am still meditating on this dream but here’s what I have so far. 

1. What am I storing up in my heart that I could give in a moment’s notice? 

In the dream I gave away peace. I have growing to do with the Lord that I might have enough peace, or anything else,  to give away. 

     2. In the moment of greatest trial, the goodness of God is our greatest weapon. 

We must learn how to bless the Lord in every season. Do we carry the same faith in trials that we say we do in seasons of ease? Frankly, you don’t need faith if you have everything you want, when you want it, how you want it. Trials grow spiritual muscles. 

      3. The big picture of opposition against believers is a real thing. 

I recall when Joshua asked the Angel, are you for us or for them? And the Angel replied, Neither. (Joshua 5:14) You can be sure that there are dividing lines with evil intent. Do not be swayed by them or join them. 

We stand with the Lord our God. We are His children intent on one purpose: to love and glorify God on the earth today. Regardless of nation, politics, program or denomination, we belong to Him. And we lay down our lives out of love for Him.  That includes our possessions, plans, and preferences. Why?

The goodness of God is revealed through us. No matter the cost.