There is a gradual spiritual metamorphosis that takes place as a disciple of Jesus Christ learns to travel this earthly passage, but only as he, or she, walks WITH God. During our pilgrim walk we learn many things. We can embrace our failures and humbly turn them into learning curves, or we can learn the easier way by obedience. There is no waste in the economy of God. He uses all things in the lives of His children to teach them His ways, if in humility , they have ears to hear, (Mattthew 11:15). We all have physical ears, but are our spiritual ears tuned to listen, and hear, what God is speaking to us in every day circumstances? The voice of reason and acquired knowledge has a very loud voice and my responsibility is to deny it pre-eminence, as I listen for what God is saying to me. “Be still, and know that I am God”, Psalm 46:10. In the stillness God will speak, impress, direct by His Holy Spirit.
There are things in our lives that God requires a change to take place. We have strongholds of believing that have influenced us that God wants removed. We have thought them so right, lived by them, but when God brings more of His light, it requires a displacement of these old ways. A fresh wind from God brings change. It may include a change of circumstances, or not! But it will certainly require a change of heart. There is an altar of God in my heart, where my heart has to change.
Genesis 32: 24-32 records Jacob, the twister, wrestling with an angel, refusing to let go until he received a blessing. He was physically marked for life afterwards in the sinew of his thigh, but the greatest change took place in Jacob’s heart. God changed his name from Jacob, the twister, to Israel. Genesis 32:28 “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for as a prince you have power with God and with men, and have prevailed”.
Change will never take place if we continue to do the same things in the same way we have always done them. God can stir up a divine dissatisfaction in us that seeks a dwelling place for His creation to take place for change and something new.
There is an altar in my life where I must needs meet with God. It must not be my concern to preach to others, put them right. My obligation is to get right before the Lord, in everything I do or think. The Lord is getting me ready, continually seeking that place where the life of His Son can dwell comfortably in me, and flow through me in demonstration to a needy world. Can Jesus find a sanctuary in my heart, ruled by Him, a home for His presence?
There is a divine satisfaction that can only be found in God, our Father, through Jesus Christ, His Son. This satisfaction is entirely independent of any trial we are facing, and only His strength and ability will carry us through with His joy for the journey with Him, and His peace that bypasses our understanding, all because the Source is in Him, of Him and through Him…….all glory to the Father.
Amy Carmichael wrote this poem from a bed of intense suffering:
Before the winds that blow do cease, teach me to dwell within Thy calm,
Before the pain has passed in peace, give me, my God, to sing a psalm,
Let me not lose the chance to prove the fulness of enabling love,
O Love of God, do this for me, maintain a constant victory.
Before I leave the desert land for meadows of immortal flowers,
Lead me where streams at Thy command flow by the borders of the hours,
That when the thirsty come, I may, show them the fountains in the way.
O love of God, do this for me, maintain a constant victory.
May we walk in the victory Christ won for us at Calvary, especially now as the winds of change are blowing. Below is an interpretation of a tongue given in our Gathering this week. The theme the Lord had shared among us was change.
“You have read how the sacrifices of old have wearied Me. I have looked on you and your activities. Let Me say – I have not been wearied. I have seen in your child-like manners you have sought to obey Me. But, behold, I do a new thing, the old things have passed away. The sacrifice that I gave at Calvary will never, never be surpassed. I observe, but I do not condone. I look for something for My glory. I look for something that is pleasing to My heart, and what I demand, I provide. Nothing of yourselves will suffice, but that which comes from the life of My Son within you. Consider this: The time is passing quickly. You are aware of change in the earth, in the world, but My Son never changes, and that which He has deposited in you will find its fulfilment and will satisfy My heart.”
Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash
