Sometimes God invites us out of the place we are, into something new and different.
Sometimes He invites us to stay and be catalysts for change, making the space we are in, new and different.
Isaiah 35:1-2 The wilderness and dry land will be joyously glad. The desert will blossom like a rose and rejoice! Every dry and barren place will burst forth with abundant blossoms, dancing and spinning with delight! Lebanon's lush splendor covers it, the magnificent beauty of Carmel and Sharon. My people will see the awesome glory of Yahweh, the beautiful grandeur of our God.
These things can’t happen if we leave. If we keep looking for an escape. If we forget that we are the oasis, we are the ones through which rivers flow and God’s glory is revealed. If we forget, then the wilderness and dry places stay wild and dry and the dry and barren places, remain barren. These places – in the natural and in the hearts and lives of men and women – they are waiting for us to not look for a way out but to BE THE PLACE of joyous gladness, blossoming, and rejoicing. They are waiting for us to allow the rivers of living water to flow from us and for our lips to call forth abundant blossoms as we spin and dance with delight in places others call dead and lifeless.
There is within us a lush splendor, a magnificent beauty – it is the awesome glory of our God and His majestic grandeur.
All of nature waits for us to realize what it is we carry, what it is we have to release and to stop longing to run away from the burning sand and be rescued from the parched ground WHEN WE ARE THE ANSWER! We are the streams in the desert. We are the refreshing oasis. We are the bubbling springs. We are the ones that come and show forth the way, the truth, and the life.
But we have to trust the leading of the Spirit to the point that we know when it’s time to move forward into a new space and when it’s time to make our current space new.
Newness of life flows in our veins. Resurrection and re-creation abound within us. We were created to change atmospheres and impact our environment. We were created to call forth life in the barren places; to open blind eyes and deaf ears, to loose the tongue of the tongue-tied, and to create a space for the lame to dance and play.
We are the ones called to strengthen the discouraged, to energize those who feel defeated. And in these days, so many feel defeated and discouraged – void of hope. All around us people are looking for hope, pleading for it, and growing weary in the search. Their hearts are thirsty for the living water that we can give them because we have the words of life abiding in us; and the Holy One filling us with wisdom, knowledge, compassion, and understanding.
There are those who look at a dry and barren space, and call it “dry” and “barren”. They say they are speaking the truth, that they are realists, and that this is wisdom that protects them from getting carried away in fantasy.
And yet we, we are those born of the same Spirit who hovered over the vast darkness that was the formless and void earth prior to creation, brooding, and bringing forth light and life and beauty at the sound of His voice. At the right time, we hear what the Creative One is saying and we say the same – releasing His creative power into the space around us. At the right time, we see what the Life-Giver is doing and we do the same – and life springs forth all around us. We leave a trail of life, splendor, majesty, hope, and love in our wake because this is the stuff we are made of.
When God calls us to walk the narrow path that others don’t see and don’t dare to travel; we leave behind all that does not fit for the journey – with joy and pleasure, knowing greater things await as we do.
We walk the path knowing that we will hear His voice and see His face, even as He longs to hear and see us. And in our faithfulness to travel, we leave a roadmap for others who will come along behind us that reads, “Be strong and never afraid. Look, here comes your God! He is breaking through to give you victory!” And in the reading, there is release and forgiveness, chains and weights fall to the side and the reader is prepared to walk the path that your feet have already traveled, unbeknownst to you having left behind a trail of provision, direction, and hope simply because you took His hand and followed Him – daring to see what others would not, and to dream where others were anchored to the appearance of a reality without possibility.
The call of God today, to each of us, is simple – remember who you are. Stand in that place of your being even as you become. Dare to become immersed in His dream of you and to call forth with confidence those things that be not as though they were because that is what you were created to do.
Your life is a living epistle. Live it well.
Do not look behind because you’ve already been there, done that.
Instead, look into His eyes, lean into His presence, and dare to dream bigger, to speak of possibility and hope, to seek His heart rather than seeking release and see what comes of being willing to both stand and move to the rhythm of the love song He has never stopped singing over you.
Note: Recently I began participating in a group coaching experience with Allison Bown and Grace Spaces (www.gracespaces.org). Yesterday was our first session and as I was sharing with the group my heart for Isaiah 35, something began to stir in my heart. Later, in the same session, we did an amazing activation that ignited my heart. This evening I sat down to try to process it and this is what I wrote. It encapsulates the call of God I felt as I lay in the hospital fighting for my life, what I’ve been trying to suss out over the past couple of months, and what sprang to life afresh yesterday afternoon. And, while I know this is a call from Holy Spirit to me, I share it because I believe it is also a call for others as well.
