Creation-Fall-Redemption-Recreation

I find it helpful to think in paradigms, particularly in terms of the biblical sequence creation-fall-redemption-recreation. The glorious vision of the recreation of marriage under and in Christ has expanded my small thoughts on the entire issue, to help lift my eyes off the everyday pettiness and look at my marriage through the lens of the powerful cosmic-sized gospel.

 

    “…when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away” (1 Corinthians 13:10).

Another month is passing away. Thank God. Not only for the massive amounts of unquantifiable grace we have received from him, but also because we are closer to the passing away of this partial age and all of its incumbent sorrow and weariness.

“When the perfect comes.” Those inspired words stir up deep longings for a time we have never known and yet desperately want.

Paul may have been talking about spiritual gifts when he used that phrase in 1 Corinthians 13, but we know because of Romans Eight that “the partial” means so much more. Right now even the best things are not what they should be. And so much goes so very wrong. In this partial age, our bodies, our loved ones, our careers, our creations, our investments, and our plans are all subject to the forces of futility (Romans 8:20). This age is marked more by suffering (8:18), longing (8:19), groaning (8:23), and hope (8:24) than by fulfillment.

So at year’s end, especially if what we feel at its passing is another disappointment, we must remind each other that the partial, this age that is all that we’ve ever known, is passing away and the perfect is coming.

To all you road-weary travelers who have found that the way that leads to life (Matthew 7:14) is harder than you ever imagined, the perfect day of rest is coming (Matthew 11:28).

To all you who find yourself at the end of this year poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3), humbled, desolate, and in desperate need of what only God can provide, the perfect day of the all-abundant kingdom is coming.

To all you who are mourning the loss of a precious one (Matthew 5:4) and finding it hard to press on under the heavy cloak of sorrow, the perfect day of death’s death (1 Corinthians 15:26) is coming.

To all of you who are growing tired in the relentless struggle to hold back the flood of unrighteousness, both from within and without, and who long deeply for a time when all is made right (Matthew 5:6), the perfect day of your satisfaction is coming.

To all of you who have been injured by the maliciousness of another and have responded with a tear-filled mercy (Matthew 5:7), the perfect day of restoration is coming.

To all of you whose soft heart (Matthew 5:8) is tormented over the sin-hardened, sin-infected world around you, the perfectly pure day is coming when you will see what your soul most longs for.

To all of you peacemakers who are blessed of God (Matthew 5:9) and yet find this blessed work heartbreaking, misunderstood, and under appreciated, the perfect day of reconciliation is coming.

To all of you who find yourselves in a disorienting darkness that feels unbearable and wonder if God has abandoned you (Psalm 88:14), the perfect day is coming when the Light, in whom there is no darkness (1 John 1:5), will shine upon you (Numbers 6:25).

And to all of you who increasingly love and long for Jesus’ appearing (2 Timothy 4:8), who have an inconsolable homesickness for a country far better than any that exists here (Hebrews 11:16), your perfect home, a home prepared especially for you (John 14:2), is coming.

When the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. The promised “soon” (Revelation 22:20) is getting sooner. Let us keep encouraging one another with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:18). Let us hold fast to the hope set before us (Hebrews 6:18). And let us press on to know the Lord (Hosea 6:3).

THE DRY BONES WILL RISE AGAIN...

[Ezekiel 37]

And He said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, You know!

Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath and spirit to enter you, and you shall live;

So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a [thundering] noise and behold, a shaking and trembling and a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.

This is a powerful prophecy. It is an apt picture of how circumstances in our life, (the death of a loved one) can kill our hope.The life of Peter Kaberere has actually encouraged me on the same,that one day dry bones will rise again.

What word did God give you for your life? Sometimes when we are waiting for the fulfilment of His promises our faith can grow cold. Notice that the bones were in a valley, a place of depression, there was no life in that valley to the extent that the bones were completely dried out.

This is the valley of dead, dry bones (Ez 37). The Spirit carries the prophet, pregnant with God’s Word ‘shut in his bones’. God shall trust the people with visions of revival and they shall call others to see. He that sees first and moves with the vision… that is the leader of men. The vision may tarry, but the God that gives it is faithful and the leaders of revival shall not be disappointed. According to God’s Word, the vision shall eventually confirm itself, ‘it shall speak at last!’

Every morning my passion for revival has made me ‘crazy’ for Jesus.

He was a preacher and Prophet not an undertaker. He was in the spirit. He was not carnal. He knew how to walk in the Spirit so as not to fulfill the desires of the flesh. Even, the hand of the Lord was upon him. Yet he was found in the valley full of dry bones. How can such a person be found in the midst of dry bones? Dry bones were found in the valley he was carried to by the Spirit of the Lord.

But why would God allow such to happen to an annointed preacher and prophet? Why not in the midst of the rich and influential? Why not even in the midst of the poor so he could minister to them? A lot of questions could be pondered about but God the almighty knew better.

It is gratifying that the story didn’t end in the valley of dry bones.

There is a great message for you today from the throne of grace. The message will emerge from the scriptural passage in Ezekiel 37.

‘The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones’ (Verse1)

I therefore charge you by the word of God to prophecy now into those situations. The power in the word of God shall cause the dry bones to reconnect and reunite until life is restored into those circumstances.

Open your mouth now and begin to speak the word of God to those situations. That is your hope. That is your power. That is your opportunity. Use it now!

Mountains,its time to move

I had a revelation yesterday morning. It was one of those moments when someone says something and the words seem to jump at you in 3-D.

I was watching “The 700 Club” as I always do on weekdays when I’m getting dressed, and they were featuring the testimony of a couple who came to Christ. The two of them had been heavy drug users early in their marriage, and to support their increasingly expensive habit, the husband sold drugs as well. In the process of selling drugs, he was on the road a lot, and began to have affairs. Drugs controlled his life for more than 2 decades.

His wife went to a Christian rehab center to get clean, and began to study the word of God. And she began to pray for her husband. But she did more than pray…she began to “call those things that do not exist as though they do.” She began to call her husband a mighty man of God, even though he was the farthest thing from that. He continued to use drugs and deal. He was finally caught, and sentenced to 15 years in prison. While in prison, He met the Lord, and was completely set free of all his addictions. He was released less than 2 years later.

Today he is precisely what his wife began to call him…a mighty man of God.

That was my revelation…this verse out of Romans:

(as it is written, “A father of many nations have I made you”) in the sight of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls the things which do not exist as existing. (Romans 4:17b)

Romans is a very complex book, and packed full of information. It would be easy to read past this. But if God gives us His power to give life to the dead–which He does and has–why then could we not call the things which do not exist as existing? As long as we know that we are praying absolutely within His will, we can boldly call those things into existence.

I often strive in prayer over my children. In a world that is dark and getting darker, I know the influences on them are huge. So my words in prayer are many; it’s as though I don’t want to leave any stones unturned. But yesterday clarity came into my mind. I could simply begin to call my friends mighty women of God in faith, knowing that that is completely within God’s will. And it will be done.

This might seem too simplistic for some people. But here’s the difference between striving in prayer and “calling those things that do not exist as though they do”: the first ”hopes all things,” while the other “believes all things.” The second actually pictures that reality, sees it as God sees it in the future. This, I believe, is the kind of faith that truly pleases God. Because when we call it into existence, we agree with His will and trust in the power He has given us. We truly believe Him. We are expecting His will to be done “on earth as it is in heaven.”

How wonderful it is that God makes it so simple for us. Faith.

“…for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it shall move; and nothing shall be impossible to you.” (Matthew 17:20b)

So look at your mountains differently today. Take faith and tell them to move. And continue to tell them until they do. Because nothing is impossible to you.