We are currently in a season from the Lord of “overwhelm”.
We are “out there” so far in the deep that we only have two choices at
this point: sink or swim. Just as the Spirit of the Lord led Jesus into
the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, so we too are being tested to see
where our hearts are strong and what we still need to surrender to the Lord. Jesus, of course, passed every test, even
though He was weak with hunger and tempted with things which directly impacted
His heart. As He passed each test He was
taken to higher levels of temptation.
How did He pass these tests? He
slew His enemy and passed each level of testing with the Sword of the Spirit
which is the Word of God. (Matt.
4).
The Lord sets before us two choices: life or death, blessing or curses, Deut.
30:19. He will not overrule our freedom
to choose, nor will He force His will, overriding ours. We make thousands of decisions each day. For those choices to impact our life
correctly, we need to make the right ones, which God clearly says will bring us
blessings and life. To choose
independently of the one who is Life and who brings blessings, would be foolish
as it would bring curses and death, of which can come in many forms, not just
physical death. This sounds so harsh except the reality of this spiritual law
is this: we have a Father who loves us
more than we fathom, who is motivated by this indescribable love, and leads us
to do those things which will open us up to the blessings He holds in His heart
to bestow upon us. But it's still our choice to decide which one we will operate. We truly don't get that there are only two choices; it's one or the other of which we are operating.
So how does that amazing love equate to putting us into a
season of overwhelm??? Being presented
with the two choices stated above, we are now at a time we must choose which
way we are going to go. We must decide
on purpose to either: be overwhelmed
with stress, worry, anxiety, fear, dread, rush-rush-hurry-hurry mentality; which
all creates frustration and a negative attitude; or be overwhelmed with His
goodness for our lives by letting go of all the fear-based things from the list
above and press into getting to know Him and His nature of goodness for
us. How do we do that? Just as Jesus overcame in the wilderness with
the Word, we too will overcome this season of overwhelm with getting to know
the Word, Jesus, (John 1:1).
We tend to want to
spend time with God and His Word, but we just are too busy to actually do
it. Once you decide you are going to
take the plunge and take time from your busy schedule to make space for God and
you, I can predict some things will probably occur with your effort to do
this:
1. You will have to
seek the Lord about what is the best time
for you in your life circumstances to spend that time with God.
2. You will be
challenged to keep that time with
God.
3. If you are able to
keep it, you will have a hard time focusing or feeling like you are in His presence.
4. You will succeed
in the above if you are determined
that NO MATTER WHAT, you won’t give up but will keep pressing in.
5. As you keep
pressing, you will begin to catch the wave of His Spirit, learning more of Him
each day, learning how to flow with Him in His will for your life; where and
how He leads you.
6. As you flow with His Spirit, the Kingdom of God
will manifest in your life which is: righteousness,
peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, Romans 14:17.
7. As the fruit of
the Kingdom manifests in your life, you will learn how to cast cares upon God
along with all of the fear those burdens bring which try to overwhelm you.
8. You will then be
overwhelmed with His goodness of: peace, joy, open doors, closed doors,
provision, miracles, divine connections, timing, wisdom, abundant life, and the
pressures of this life will not succeed in stealing your joy and peace. Even if the storms are enormous and you may
have uneasiness because of them, you can still know deep in your gut that your
Father has His hand on you. You will
know He is guiding you, helping you navigate the storms to come out on the
other side with even more than you would have had, had the storms not
occurred. He works ALL things out
TOGETHER for our good because we love Him and are called according to His
purpose, (Rom. 8:28).
Looking at our
peace lily this morning I realized that it finally bloomed after
changing my watering habits. Instead of just maybe once a week, I water
a bit everyday now. It hasn't bloomed in a very long time. Now it has
five blooms; 5=the number of grace!
God drove home His point with a dream I had last week which
has been a reoccurring dream for years.
The specifics change but not the overall message each time I have these
dreams. Interpretation is in ( )’s. I was in college, (higher learning
opportunities in the Lord) and trying to find my dorm room, (the place or
season where we are “living” right now.)
I found my room and it was large.
Usually the rooms in the previous dreams are small and cluttered. (This room being large symbolizes more
opportunity in this particular season.)
The room was entirely the color of red from the painted ceilings and
walls to the carpeted floors and furniture.
The walls had murals of people who seemed happy but it still felt very
overwhelming to be around so much red.
It made me feel completely over-stimulated and anxious and I knew I had
to change that immediately to something more soothing and calm. (Nuff said) Immediately after that decision to obtain a
peaceful living environment, I found myself with a man who I knew very
well, intimately, who seemed like my husband yet also comrade, friend, etc.,
(Jesus.) There was a dance contest that
a group of us in the college were getting ready to go participate in and
everyone needed time to practice. My
partner and I just started flowing in our dance routine. I didn’t even need to know what He was going
to do next, I could just follow him, (trusting the Lord and letting Him lead us
step by step.) At one point, however, I
did attempt to lead which threw us off and out of step. Discerning what happened, I immediately exclaimed,
“Oh dear, I just tried to lead.” I got
right back in line with him as the lead, which caused us to glide and flow
effortlessly together all over the dorm.
It was a fun and magnificent dance to which others watching were in
awe. (When we try to lead, it will throw
things off in our life and we need to be quick to repent, calling out what we
did and immediately turn away from it.
This puts us right back in line with His perfect will for us and our
life will flow in peace and joy again.) It
was time for the contest and somehow I got separated from my partner. This is also a recurrent part of dreams in
the past whereby at this point I usually am panicking and not able to find
him. I feel stress, loss, and fear that
I won’t find him and will miss out on what I am supposed to be doing/receiving. However, this time I chose to react differently
than all the times in the past. I chose
to believe that we would meet up on the stage as we both knew where to go. I chose to decide that if something went
differently than what I thought, then that was ok. He now has me in a place where I trust Him
and that all will go according to His plan since I am yielded to Him anyway.
If we look at our
plans and what we actually get accomplished of those plans, we will feel a
sense of loss and like we are always fighting time. We will bear fruit of worry, anxiety, fear,
dread, frustration and foreboding. If we
surrender our lives/day to the Lord and look at what He is ordering for our
day and our steps, we will sense a feeling of gratitude for how He is using us
and accomplishing His purposes for our lives.
We will bear fruit of peace and joy.
We will know which decision we
made by the fruit we bear. If we have cast the care, we will be
able to say to the care, “I don’t care,” and to the circumstances, “Oh
well…this is how God wants it or it would have turned out differently.”
Just today, I had much on my plate of VERY IMPORTANT things
I HAD TO ACCOMPLISH by a certain deadline…when the Lord interrupted MY plans
and told me to write this blog. I must
consider and choose to believe all our times are in His hands, all in due time,
He is sovereign and goes before us ordering our steps, it’s ok for us to plan
but the end result is in His hands.
After finishing this blog my husband informed me that he
awoke from a dream this morning. I didn’t
tell him what this blog was about or even that I was writing it. In his dream he was with a large group of
people. He found himself with all of
them in a vast, dark basement that was open at the top as if the foundation had just been poured. The walls were high, creating
a deep foundation. Everyone was
following him and he felt fear that he led them to an empty hole. The Lord spoke over him in his dream, “Just tell them to
be at peace.”
We can feel like we have dug ourselves into deep pits of
problems, but God is saying in the midst of it all, let peace be your strong foundation
of which He is building something wonderful!
Out of the mouth of two or three witness every fact is
confirmed: Peace, be still and know that I am God, Psalm 46:10.
