The Shouting Voices of Condemnation

There are times when the least informed voices speak the loudest. These dishonoring shouts of ignorance are designed to get your attention, divert your energy and occupy your time in personal defense.

These uninformed voices – voices that do not know your heart – will eventually pass and become distant echoes remembered only by those who have chosen to believe the worst about you.

While all the shouting is taking place, listen for God.  His powerful voice will be expressed in a gentle whisper of affirmation.  As the shouting voices of condemnation continue to make themselves rudely known, strain to hear the quiet whisper of God. This listening is your act of spiritual warfare.

The Rug Was Pulled Out From Under You

In this last season you have felt like the rug has been pulled out from under your feet. Your life resembles one of those slow motion camera shots where a person is thrown up into the air and suspended in time awaiting the eventual crash back to earth.  These camera images are humorous to watch, but unnerving to experience.

While all of this is taking place you need to know that God is at work arranging a safe place for your feet to land. He has prepared a secure place for you that will not be like the unstable rug of your past circumstance.

Before you land back on your feet you will need to create a response to describe what has taken place. Your response should not be crafted based on your feelings of betrayal, abandonment or who is to blame, but on the loving nature of God who will be faithful to place your feet on a good and solid place.

How Long?

You are wondering how long everything will take. You wonder how long you will live - how long before love comes your way - how long before someone walks into his or her destiny - how long before your faithfulness is rewarded? You are asking how long for so many things.

The reality is you only have this moment.  This moment is a capsule you live within as you move forward through time.  It is a vehicle that transports you through the events of life. As you arrive in your future you will still be surrounded by the moment.  A moment is not measured in time because it is part of simply being. 

Your questioning of how long all these things will take is disengaging you from the power of the moment. In this moment you have all the authority you will ever possess.  You carry with you the potential exercise of supernatural faith.   The future can give you none of what you already possess.  The only thing changeable is the realization of what you carry in this moment – the now. Once you realize what you carry, the questions will stop and you will begin asking a new a question - What can I do in this moment? This is where your supernatural future is created.

Painted into a Corner

You have painted yourself into a corner.  Mistakes and misjudgments have brought you to this place. As you look out from this isolated corner you feel like you want to break free and run, but you are afraid of ruining the paint job.

The natural mind says, “Wait until the paint is dried and then walk out. You have plenty of time to make things right.”  The danger with this way thinking is that in the wait you could die emotionally and relationships could be put in jeopardy.  Today, right now, stand up and begin to walk back across the still wet painted floor of these past mistakes ignoring the problems your obedience will create.

To those who are spiritually minded they will not see your paint spotted shoes and your footprints on the floor as something negative.  They will cheer you on because they will see God at work in your life.  The paint on your shoes and the tracks you leave behind will be a reminder to the rest of us of your willingness to do the right thing no matter what the cost. A life without these kinds of footprints is not an honest life because each life that moves deeper into the things of God will always leave behind the evidence of that journey.

Revolving Doors

For a while you have felt stuck in the revolving doors of your circumstance.  There have been brief moments when you thought your timing would allow you to step off, but it hasn’t worked out.  You feel trapped.  You long for freedom and a sense of stability.

This is not unusual.  Everyone has seasons when the desired exit is elusive and life seems to be spinning out of control.  Be patient with God’s timing.  Making your own way prematurely would only be an escape.  Allow God to deliver you into the right place.  God’s deliverance will be far more powerful than your escape plan.

The Two Sorrows

There are two kinds of sorrow. One sorrow will lead us away from the source of our pain into a place of isolation. The other sorrow will lead us toward the source of our pain to embrace its presence in a fellowship of suffering with Christ.

The sorrow that leads us away is fueled by a false hope that by increasing the distance from its source we will somehow ease our pain. Distance is never a healer. The other kind of sorrow – the God-directed kind of sorrow – leads us back to embrace the object of our sorrow to explore its cause and effect and offer our response to God for His healing touch.

In times of sorrow we begin to explore the reasons why we feel the way we do in its presence.  In this exploration we begin to discover where our hope was misplaced in the trauma.  In this place of renewed insight we begin to take steps to lift our sorrow from the traumatic ruts of life and place it at the feet of God.  In this repositioned place our sorrow will become, over time, a place of joy.