When less is more

It has been an interesting week for me.  I have felt somewhat overwhelmed with this sense of weight.  I got a few responses to the latest blog.  One told me that the course of the discussion wasn’t linear and went down too many rabbit holes.  Another told me that it didn’t have the power that my typical blogs have.  As I came back to my computer to start typing I had decided my next series was going to be on the seven churches of revelation.  I was about to open my bible and begin work on the first church.  And then I opened last week’s blog.

The discussion in our home over the past several days has been, without mentioning it, all the issues discussed in this last blog.  The sermons that Robyn and I have been presented with at both churches we are attending are, in a different way, all about what was written in the last blog.  The study Robyn is doing that God has led her to presenting to SLUM, although from a different perspective, is all about the heart of this last blog.  As I shared last week, everything God has been leading me to over the past two years is contained within the context of that blog.  I can only reason that my sense of weight is that I was too close to what I was writing, that I did not allow myself to disconnect from myself, and that there was too much Jeff and not enough Spirit in last week’s blog.

Through the overwhelming parallels mentioned above, I can only discern that God wants me to go back and take Jeff out, to simplify, and to re-address.  I pray that what I am hearing is true, and that the following is good fruit.

Last week’s blog was entitled “The greatest blessing”.  The blog then went on to reveal the following:

• The greatest blessing is to be chosen to be God’s bride 
• Being God’s bride requires that He properly prepare us to be one with Him,
• A properly prepared bride embraces her unity with her husband and turns from any desire for anything less than full unity with Him.  She does this through free will, without a sense of dedication, commitment, responsibility, resentment, questioning, competition, pride, selfish motivation, or anything less than fully embracing every aspect of her husband’s character, nature, and will,
• The journey to being properly prepared cannot avoid extraordinary challenges, discomfort, pain, suffering, persecution, and “sacrifice”,
• Therefore, the extraordinary challenges, discomfort, pain, suffering, persecution, and “sacrifice” are in themselves “the greatest blessings”, and as such
• We find joy in these things as we embrace the spiritual transformation they provide as we let go of the perspective of seeing them as challenging, uncomfortable, painful, or sacrificial.  This is the true realization of the blessing; the realization of being one with Him.

This message applies to us individually at the smallest scale and to the world in general at the largest scale.  As individuals we are allowing God to lull us to Himself as we accept the journey of our own lives.  As a people we are allowing God to lull us to Himself through the global experience of His redemptive plan.  As “His People” we are to understand this plan and embrace it as righteous so that we may allow the world to experience what the world must experience to come to know Him.  The tough part is coming to understand that “The world” includes various religions, people groups, cultures, and even us. 

In other words, we must have faith in God’s plan for redeeming the world and accept that our own role is to allow ourselves to be drawn into oneness with Him.  We do this to the best of our ability as we die to our flesh and trust that we remain in God’s grace based on His work not ours.

Pulling from last week:

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. 9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts. 10 "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; 11 So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

We followed this bit of scripture with some questions.  The first two were:

• How do God’s thoughts differ from our thoughts?
• How do God’s ways differ from our ways?

At first thought these questions sound somewhat absurd.  Isn’t God clearly telling us that we don’t understand His thoughts and His ways?  Yes, that is exactly what He is saying.  But then again, it isn’t exactly “what” He is saying.  What He is saying is this; “If you try to understand Me based on your flesh based logic you never will.  This is why I have put My Spirit into you, so that you may come to know Me, understand Me, and choose to embrace all that I am”.  Isn’t it critical for a bride to come to understand the thoughts and ways of her husband?  How could we possibly support Him in all that He is doing if we don’t understand His thoughts or His ways?

These questions were asked to expose our own personal levels of spiritual development.  This one short piece of scripture sums up what this entire existence on this earth is all about……we are here to freely decide to embrace His thoughts and His ways.  If we do not allow ourselves to get to know Him, how could we possible choose to become one with Him?

Moving on to the next two questions:

• What analogy could God be making through Isaiah with the “rain and snow”?
• What analogy could God be making through Isaiah with the “seed to the sower and bread to the eater”?

When I read these two statements, I see the “rain and the snow” as the storms of life.  As for the seed, the sower, and the bread, I see truth, disciples, and spiritual food.  In other words, it is the storms of life that help us see things God’s way, we apply these things to our own lives in such a way to be transformed into His image, and through this process we grow in our ability to lead others back to Him.  This is His way.

Let’s take a moment to ask God to show us our spiritual condition.  Are we capable of asking God to help us let go of anything that stands in our way of letting Him show us His thoughts and coming to understand His ways?  Are we capable of asking God to show us how He is trying to use the circumstances of our life to reveal these things to us?  If so, let’s take a moment to pray that God will open our hearts to the following questions:

1. Have there been challenges with people or life circumstances that God is attempting to speak to us through?
2. When we think about those circumstances, what are our thoughts relative to the issues?
3. When we think about those circumstances, what feelings and emotions do we have?
4. Are we willing to see our feelings, emotions, and thoughts as flesh driven and focused on a perspective where we are at the center of what is important, right, or fair?
5. Are we willing to allow God to show us what He is attempting to reveal to us about our spiritual condition through these issues?
6. Are we willing to allow God to show us how He is attempting to transform us through these issues?
7. Are we willing to allow God to show us how He is attempting to use these issues to reveal Himself to others?

This is enough for today.  In reality, this is enough for this week.  I pray that as the week progresses you:

1. Allow God to speak to you through the storms of life,
2. You allow Him to help you let go of your thoughts so that you can hear His,
3. That you allow yourself to let go of aspects of yourself that keep you from shining with His light,
4. That you let Him show you how He is attempting to use you to reveal Himself to others, and
5. That as you live out His thoughts and His ways you feel the blessing of being one with Him