Words that used to intimidate, setting standards I couldn’t meet, are becoming joyful promises of wellness!  Light is dawning in my heart and soul. True understanding is taking the place of reason…year-by-year, day-by-day, moment-by-moment.

How can this be? How does it happen?

Slowly, like the blooming of a flower from a seed. Little-by-little as we wait creatively and expectantly for it to unfold, attentive to the process. Sometimes via growth spurts and sometimes in the midst of seeming dormancy.

“And we have the prophetic word made firmer still. You will do well to pay close attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dismal (squalid and dark) place, until the day breaks through the gloom and the Morning Star rises (comes into being) in your hearts.” 2 Pet 1:19 Amp

It’s simple, through it all PAY CLOSE ATTENTION to His Word, LISTEN to Him…… and the Morning Star (Christ) will rise in your heart!

It will take time, and we must trust Him through the various seasons of growth, even those when it seems we wait in vain, because His promise is sure:

Those who have received the Holy Spirit progressively recognize, understand and become better acquainted with the gifts teachings and revelations so freely and lavishly bestowed on us by God. The Holy Spirit was given to us so that we might realize and comprehend and appreciate God’s gifts of divine favor and blessing! We have the mind of Christ and do hold the thoughts, feelings and purposes of His heart!

(my paraphrase from 1 Cor. 2:12-16 Amplified)

Understanding doesn’t happen all at once, nor in a few months or years, but progressively, becoming brighter and brighter like the dawn. It continues throughout a lifetime if we will continue to pay attention:

to His Word; our water

to Him; our nourishment

to seeking first His Kingdom; our focus

to every moment and every event our lives; our awareness.

We don’t have to make the Kingdom seed grow:

“Jesus also said, ‘The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, while he’s asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens. The earth produces the crops on its own. First a leaf blade pushes through, then the heads of wheat are formed, and finally the grain ripens.’”     Mark 4:26

The farmer merely waters and weeds and pays attention, and the crops grow from the seeds that contain everything within them. The Kingdom of God is like that. God’s Seed is planted in our hearts. We nurture it by paying attention and watching it grow.

Thomas Merton writes:

Every moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul—germs of spiritual vitality coming to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because men are not prepared to receive them. For such seeds as these cannot spring up anywhere except in the good soil of freedom, spontaneity and love.

Father has bedded us down in freedom, spontaneity and love, He has lavished it upon us. Will you see it? If you keep paying attention, you will.  No hurry.

In my journal Father said:

“Attention is all that’s required, an awareness of each moment and of My Presence will help you to receive Life correctly—as a medium of growth and not as something to try and control and manipulate to suit you.”

We must receive life as a medium of growth where our heart’s cry is “Father, glorify Your name,” rather than “Father, save me.”

When this becomes the cry of your heart, barren platitudes will eventually come alive to you. Words that used to feel like law, will feel like grace. Obedience will flow from love. You will discover that you were made for this; for glorifying God, for housing the life of God within you, for resting in the endless joy of knowing Him.

“Listen, listen to Me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.” Isaiah 55:2

]]> http://www.visionwriters.com/blogs/saras-blog/spiritual-growth/feed 2 http://www.visionwriters.com/blogs/saras-blog/resurrecton-defined-life http://www.visionwriters.com/blogs/saras-blog/resurrecton-defined-life#comments Sat, 03 Apr 2010 16:43:37 +0000 Sara http://www.visionwriters.com/?p=1486 Just a few Easter thoughts……

In the Bible I am reading there is a note which says that the seven questions in Romans 8:31-35 ‘bring the whole field of spiritual formation into sharp focus. This life is about God at work on an inconceivably vast scale, embracing all of creation, all of history.’ Here are the questions to ponder:

1. What then are we to say to these things?…..

2. If God is for us, who can be against us?

3. He who did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up on behalf of us all —is it possible that, having given us His Son, He would not give us everything else too?

4. So who will bring a charge against God’s chosen people? Certainly not God—He is the one who causes them to be considered righteous.

5. Who punishes them? Certainly not the Messiah, who died and —more than that—has been raised, is at the right hand of God and is actually pleading on our behalf!

6. Who will separate us from the love of God?

7. Will trouble? hardship? persecution? hunger? poverty? danger? war?

These are some things to think deeply about this Easter. What do you say about these things? If we live believing these things  that changes the foundation of our lives and we are now resurrection-defined, not defined by the secularism of this world. The whole world is ‘robust’ with God’s eternal love from which nothing can separate us. This is the resurrection world in which we live as followers of Jesus.

Jesus Christ is God’s will personified, God’s word embodied. That God would become a human, enter the world and be put to death by humans, and that this would be celebrated 2010 years later shows the world changing power of God’s will.

In my Journal Father said:

“My will is in effect, always and continually. My will for you is that you would know Me and that you be conformed into Christ-likeness because Christ is in union with you now—the strongest link there ever could be between God and man. We are linked now and this was my plan. First I created you and then I gave birth to you. In creation I put you together in your mother’s womb. In birth I went through agony for you, death and resurrection, bringing you with me into the New Life. This Easter weekend, you celebrate your new birth along with and as an integral part of My resurrection.”

Lets celebrate: laugh and sing and be delighted because God has called us His own!

Growing up, one of my biggest fears was that if I surrendered all to God then I would have to go off to Africa and be a missionary. I heard countless stories of folks to whom that happened and I really didn’t want to go to Africa.

I presumed that whatever was unpleasant would be my duty. But, as Oswald Chambers says; Is that anything like the spirit of our Lord? —”I delight to do Your will, O my God…” Ps 40:8

As I got a little older I heard it said that God places His desires in your heart, that you will find that if He has a place He wants you to go to or a task He wants you to do, then He will sneak that desire in there and you’ll want to do it. That made me feel a little better about things…

But I have found that following God often feels like He’s asking me to jump off a cliff without a parachute; that proverbial leap of faith. What if you’re afraid? What if you just don’t want to do what you know He is asking you to do? How can it be an adventure and a delight? Why does He have to keep stretching me?

I am discovering that the beauty of this courageous life in Christ is that it’s all about knowing Him and trusting Him and being with Him. Yes, He does ask you to leap into the unknown, He does ask you to take another step without knowing the whole pathway. But every time you do that in obedience to His leading, you will discover that He is waiting for you there. He is your parachute who protects you against a fall, but your parachute won’t open until it’s needed. He gives you the words He wants you to say or the direction you need for decisions, or the guidance for the next step…..or leap!

And so it turns out that He does give you the desires of your heart after all because the true desire of your heart is Him and if He is ahead on the pathway then you’ll want to follow and be with Him at all costs.

Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be. Matt 6:21 NLT

You don’t need excessive confidence first, just the simple willingness to take the next step towards Him. I will choose courage over fear because he has proven himself trustworthy over and over again. I would never know that if I hadn’t leapt off the cliff. The thrill of the adventure with God draws us on. But, more than anything just remaining in His presence is the desire of our hearts and it is because of this that we delight to do His will.

Amazingly I have discovered when I obey, that He has been preparing me for the task a long time in advance. He doesn’t throw us in so deep that we drown; He teaches us how to swim first. He has certain tasks that He has, and is preparing us for and because He prepares us for them they do turn out to be delightful. They fulfill us in ways we never expected. Whatever God calls you to do, He will give you the power and the courage to carry out. Who would have thought?

And once you’ve experienced that thrill, you will be truly delighted.

And so it’s true what He said at the beginning, but it’s the first part of the verse that the second part flows from and that’s the only part that we really need to focus on:

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Ps 37:4 NIV

Visionwriting /journalizing is my passion, and the tool that God has used in my life to constantly woo me deeper and deeper into this love relationship with Him.  For me it’s like a golden key that unlocks doors to hearing and knowing God. I hope that as you look around our website you will find encouragement and hope and get involved in one of our courses.

I must admit that I had an initial resistance to having a blog . After all, laying your heart out there with no idea who is reading it or even if anyone is reading it? So, this week, I took my attitude to the Lord and asked Him to clarify my mind and to show me what my aims and motives are, you know, the ones He has placed within me that are sometimes difficult for me to identify. Boy, did he come through, so much so that I now can’t wait to blog!

So, He decided to take me back to my very first journal, the weekend I attended Jaque’s retreat in Hawaii 18 years ago. Aha, right there he nailed me with this revelation: ”Sara, the reason that you are discontented is that you are not bearing fruit in your life.”

Jesus told us in John 17 that fruit bearing comes from abiding in Him, (listening to Him, staying with Him, paying attention to Him, trusting and obeying Him, and looking for Him everywhere and in everything).

He further explained to me that the fruit that we bear IS Him. From 18 years of abiding through journalizing, the fruit that I desire, see, taste and enjoy and can hold out to you is: GOD.  Sharing what I see of Him with you in this format of blogging, keeping a web-log of God-sightings and God-tastings, oh yes all that I have to share is Him. What delicious, refreshing fruit!

Jesus said, “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth…here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world.”

Matthew 5: 13,14 The Message

If I can add a little salt and light to your world by sharing what God is teaching me, I hope that it will help you to wonder and exclaim over the God flavors and colors that are all around you. Sometimes it’s hard to taste and see that the Lord is good, but we can point Him out to each other; just sprinkle a little salt and all the flavors are enhanced. Shine a little light and the darkness flees. Oh did you taste that? Did you see God there?

While seeking clarification and reassurance over this blogging endeavor, I went back to read those verses again.  I heard God speak clearly to me as I continued to read:

Sara, “God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.”

OK, God, we’re going public! I can’t argue with that.

May He shine through me to you, even in my struggles. And what an incredible promise he has given, that by opening up with others, we prompt them to open up with God. More amazing fruit!

I hope you’ll come back and visit often and join me as I pursue God in the midst of the realities of my life.

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So often we get close to the flame but are too afraid of catching on fire. But it is that very fire that is the power and glory of God shining and living through us. We were made for this. That’s casme.

He tells me stubbornness is an unintelligent barrier that must be blown up with the dynamite of obedience…..ouch.

Another thought about being a container; we are a cup or container for the Lord but we also need to drink the contents of the cup!  When we drink it requires taking the contents into our entire digestive system and distributing it throughout muscles, bones, cells, nerves etc. We take something that is not us into our lives so that it becomes us and enters into our living.  Same as a washcloth in the bathtub. Christ in us as us…

I also see much from an analogy of a flowing stream. We often talk about going with the flow of God. When we are navigating rapids we need to be in the flow of the deep water path, between the rocks that will be in the way. We have to tap into God, our inner source in order to be calm and tuned in and go with the flow, otherwise we panic and stick our oars in when we shouldn’t- taking us out of the flow and throwing the whole thing off balance. So, making our way through rapids is more intuitive than planned. God in us sticks the oars in when needed as long as we are completely tuned to him and letting him live through us. (I discovered it works once when I was in a regular kayak but I was in the ocean and I had to avoid hitting folks in the head who were playing in the waves! Instinct took over and I was amazed afterward at how I automatically steered that thing correctly…and didn’t even capsize.) I would love to live that way all the time and I believe that is what God is offering us.