At
my age and length of service in God’s Kingdom, I am now what some people would
call a spiritual father. In most gatherings, I am one of the older pastors in
the room. As we age, wisdom can increasingly be present and in operation in our
lives if we have allowed God access to our hearts along the way in our journey
of faith.
A spiritual
father should be able to speak words of wisdom, but he should also be able to
reveal the heart of God out of which that wisdom was birthed. Understanding
God’s heart is what motivates our obedience. Wisdom, without knowing God’s
heart, is a limited understanding of wisdom.
For the last
month the Lord has been asking me as a spiritual father to join with him to
encourage his Church to believe for something new. He began to give me simple
sentences of understanding and then a few days later he would reveal his heart
behind each of those words. This deeper revelation helped me understand his
heart that motivated his wisdom.
I invite you to
read these words delivered by two fathers – an imperfect earthly, spiritual
father and a perfect and loving Heavenly Father. God wants to encourage us to
keep believing and trusting that he is good and has good things planned for his
children. Understanding this truth is the foundation of true wisdom.
As you walk in honor, God desires
to turn your enemies into allies. Those who have opposed you will now come to
your rescue. Honor is the victory.
I am about to do a
turnaround. This turnaround will
surprise you because you would never think your enemies could become your
allies. This is a time to give honor to those who have betrayed you. Once the
honor is given the enemy of your soul that has caused this division will lose
his ability to control the outcome.
This will be like the meeting
of my sons, Jacob and Esau, years after a great division took place in their
relationship. Jacob humbled himself before his offended brother bowing down
before him in humility and I did a powerful work of restoration. I have this
work of restoration planned for you and those defined as your enemy.
At every point of adversity a
door of destiny is opened. The threshold of this door can only be crossed with
a humble stride.
There have been places of
adversity in your life – places that you now run from. I am calling you to step with humility into
these places of adversity and I will open a supernatural doorway. This doorway is hidden from prideful eyes.
Only the humble will see this doorway and walk across its threshold. Step
forward and I will show you what I am about to do.
After difficult discussions
and challenging interaction there has been relational debris left behind. The way forward is found in the debris.
The world collects debris and
calls it garbage. I collect debris and transform it into treasure. There have been painful outcomes in some of
your relationships. What was left behind
has been defined as debris. I am about
to change your definitions.
This is the same kind of
debris Peter faced when he failed me the night of my betrayal. Peter thought his future would be navigated
around the constant reminder of his failure. I had another plan.
If you are looking for the way
forward it will be found in the restoration of those relationships that now
look like piles of debris. The
restoration you seek will be found by making right your contribution to the failure
in those relationships. If you do this,
I will show you the treasure I see within the debris.
New direction is the result of
realignment. Realignment only takes place after an encounter with God.
Encounter is the priority, not a new direction.
Your desire for a new
direction has replaced your desire for the sound of my voice. Seeking new
direction will not bring you peace. Only
my voice brings peace. You are in need of realignment not to a new purpose or
direction, but to me. Encounter me as my Church did in Antioch when they waited
before me in worship and prayer.
Encounter me and I will reveal to you a new direction.
A word from God loses its
impact and becomes diluted when we run it through too many relational or
corporate filters before we obey.
Invite people to your
obedience. Do not wait for consensus. You have allowed my word to become
diluted in your heart. The filter of
man’s opinion has strained out the meat of my word from within you. I have
prepared a wonderful meal for you. Return
to the feasting table of fresh revelation.
Put down your fear of failure and your need to have others walk with you
in your obedience. I have not left you
alone. I am the one who will do what I
promised.
For real change to take place
there must exist both a willingness to let go of the present and a willingness
to embrace the future.
You are holding on when you
should be letting go. I have promised to lead you to a good place – a place of
blessing and purpose. Do not fear the future you define as unknown. I know this future because I reside
there. It is from that place that I am
inviting you to come. Your destiny waits for you in my presence. Let go.
Come to me and I will welcome you.
When God is moving and someone
says, "We need to slow down”, this is fear speaking. Wisdom moves at the
speed of revelation.
My wisdom is not limited to
the measurements and restrictions of the natural world. When I gave you the
word of hope, I gave it knowing it would seem too fast to you. I was after more than the accomplishment of
that word. I was after that place of
fear in your heart that caused you to pull back and ask for things to slow down.
Trust me. Take hold of my promise and
move forward with confidence in my faithfulness to perform what I have promised.
If you keep pressing in you
will eventually break through. God
honors faithful persistence.
You will move forward in the
direction you have chosen to lean. Lean
toward my grace. Press in toward my faithfulness. Tilt your life in the
direction of my promise. This is your
act of pressing in. Even in your failure
you will fall in the direction you have chosen to lean. This is how
breakthrough will take place in your life.
I have promised to give you
the desires of your heart if you will first delight yourself in me. Your
delight in me is your persistence in the middle of opposition. I will honor your persistence with
breakthrough because you have chosen to press in to me.
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