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discover your promised land

Have you Discovered Your Promised Land?

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11

What are you really after, beloved?

As Christians, most of us say that we seek God. But if we’re honest, I think many of us have been tricked into settling for something less. We encourage one another to fix our eyes on God’s promises. But what if by fixing our eyes on those promises we miss the blessing of God Himself?

Our enemy has convinced us to focus our desires on the blessings found in this world. Our hearts long for material things. For honor. Comfort. Wealth. Security.

And we’ve incorporated those things into our understanding of life in Christ. We know Christ has blessed us, so we interpret those blessings to come through material provision, expecting God’s generous overflow. Christ promises victory and authority, so we assume that means we’ll get everything our heart desires. Chasing that promise, we seek power we’re not yet ready to handle.

But many of us have missed what God taught Abraham when He called him away from the life he knew to a life of radical faith.

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” Genesis 15:1 NKJV

God Himself is the reward, beloved.

Moses discovered that promise to be true. He grew up in the palace of a king in the wealthiest nation in the land. He had everything a worldly heart could desire. Money. Prestige. Comfort. He lived the life that many of us long for. Yet Hebrews 11:24-26 tells us this about him.

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

Think this through with me a moment, dear one. What reward was Moses looking toward? He had everything the world would tell him to desire. Yet he was willing to suffer dishonor for the sake of Christ, because what he would gain surpassed the wealth and treasures of Egypt.

What was Moses after?

I doubt he knew, until 40 years later when God showed up in a burning bush and called him to Himself. And after encountering His glory, Moses made the same choice Abraham made. He’d follow wherever God led, even if it took him back to Egypt.

God sent Moses to deliver Israel from their slavery. But He wasn’t just taking them from Egypt. He was taking them to their Promised Land. After 400 years, God was fulfilling His promise to Abraham.

“And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” … “To your offspring I will give this land.” Genesis 12:2, 7

God had promised Israel the land of Canaan. And finally, after centuries of waiting, He sent Moses to deliver them and take them to their land of promise.

But it didn’t take long for the people to start grumbling. They complained about their lack of food in the desert, and God sent bread from heaven. He drew water from a rock when they complained of thirst. And after the people began to worship a golden calf, God offered Moses an opportunity to end the grumbling.

The Lord said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’  I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” Exodus 33:1-3

I wonder how Moses felt in that moment. God offered to send them from the desert into the land the people had longed for. And He vowed to send an angel to drive out their enemies. God promised power and provision, and Moses would regain the people’s favor by giving  them what they wanted. They could finally exchange the lifeless desert for the land of promise.

You might be surprised at Moses’ response.

And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.” Exodus 33:15

You see, Moses realized the Promised Land wasn’t the true blessing. God Himself is. An angel wasn’t good enough. He wanted God. And he was willing to forsake God’s promised blessing to have His Presence.

What would you choose, beloved? Is Jesus your means to an end, or the end you’ll pursue by whatever means?

Don’t fall into the trap of wanting God’s promises more than you want Him. Jesus is your promised land, dear one. In Him you will find fullness of joy.

And He’s worth whatever it may cost you.

Have You Declined God’s Invitation?

The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was. Exodus 20:21

Recently God opened my eyes to a beautiful truth tucked into Exodus 19. A single purpose has always marked God’s heart in His dealings with man. He expresses it in verse 4.

“You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.”

We tend to think that God delivered the Israelites from Egypt so that He could deposit them in the Promised Land. But the land of milk and honey wasn’t His primary objective. Relationship was.

“I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.”

God rescued the Israelites out of their slavery—out from under the law of the land that oppressed them—to bring them to Himself. I think sometimes we overlook that part.

Beloved, God prioritizes bringing His people near. His people, however, don’t share His priorities. We often skip the relationship and focus on seeking the earthly blessings He can provide. We don’t want Him. We want His gifts.

Unfortunately, that’s the same choice the Israelites made. And do you know what happened to them, dear one?

They died in the desert outside of their land of promise. They never made it to their earthly blessing because they rejected the means to get there. Oh, that you and I would learn from their mistakes!

God further revealed His intentions for Israel in Exodus 19:9.

“Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you forever.”

Did you catch it, dear one? God wanted the people to hear Him speak. Until that point, He had only spoken to Moses, and Moses communicated God’s desires to the people. But now He called them all to Mount Sinai because He wanted them to hear Him too.

So God gave Moses instructions to prepare the people for their encounter.

The Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.” Exodus 19:10-11

An unholy people were about to encounter a holy God. So God gave them instructions to follow that would enable them to survive the encounter.

He told them to purify themselves for three days. During their time of cleansing, He set some boundaries in place for their protection.

“And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death.” (Verse 12)

You see, sin can’t live in the presence of pure righteousness. The people couldn’t draw near to God’s holy mountain while they remained impure.

But once they were cleansed, God offered an invitation.

 “When the trumpet sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.” (Verse 13)

The Message Bible states it this way.

“A long blast from the horn will signal that it’s safe to climb the mountain.”

Let’s see what happened when the trumpet sounded.

On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. 19 And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. 20 The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. Exodus 19:16-20

Notice the purpose clearly stated in verse 17. Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. This was the moment God had prepared them for, to bring His people to Himself. Now note the language indicating their posture in the rest of the verse. They took their stand at the foot of the mountain.

Picture the moment, will you? Thunder and lightening burst forth from thick clouds. Knees tremble in fear. A trumpet sounds, its volume increasing as the people stand firmly planted at the foot of the mountain. Nobody moves. No one ascends. Until finally Moses cries out to God and meets Him on top of the mountain.

Exodus 20:18-21 reveals what happened in those moments.

Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off 19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” 21 The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

Do you see it, dear one? God brought them out of Egypt to bring them to Himself. But the people didn’t want to come close. They preferred boundaries and limits over relationship. They didn’t want to hear God speak. Instead they chose an intermediary to tell them what God wanted. They didn’t want to hear it for themselves.

I wonder, dear one. How many today continue to make that same choice? Christ tore the veil so that each one of us could boldly enter the presence of God. He longs to speak to each of us through His Word and whisper life into our hearts by His Spirit.

But we’d rather let a pastor talk to Him and tell us what He says.

If we choose to stand far off, dear one, we’ll suffer the same fate the Israelites did. We’ll die in the desert without ever entering His promises. And we’ll blame God, but it won’t be His fault. It will be the result of our refusal to draw near.

You see, we can’t just call on His Name and expect to enter His promises. Every promise comes through Him. We must step into His arms and let Him draw us to Himself.

Only then can He carry you to your land of promise.

Empowered in the Wilderness

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Luke 4:1 NIV

I imagine the wilderness isn’t high on your list of places you’d like to visit. It certainly doesn’t top my list. Give me oceans, lakes, or mountains with bubbling streams any day.

Yep. I’m a water girl. Something about the way the light glistens atop it stirs my soul. I love its sound, the feel of it on my skin, even the coolness in the air as you get closer to it. Water refreshes in so many ways—which makes the wilderness pretty unappealing.

So I find it surprising that the very first place the Holy Spirit led Jesus after His baptism was the desert.

Does it surprise you too? I mean, Scripture teaches that we’re supposed to follow the Spirit to abundant life. So why would He lead Jesus straight into the desert?

Verse 2 tells us what happened there.

 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. Luke 4:1-2

I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun to me. The wilderness offered Jesus confrontation from the evil one and an empty belly. Conditions like that tend to defeat most of us. We wallow in our misery and assume that God has abandoned us.

But that’s not what happened to Jesus. Verse 14 describes Jesus at the end of His wilderness adventure:

 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.

Did you catch it, dear one? Jesus entered the wilderness under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and He left that wilderness empowered by the Spirit. Notice the Spirit never left Him. But what happened in the wilderness moved Jesus from simply following the Spirit to operating in His power.

Could it be that our own treks into the desert hold that very same purpose? What if our testing in the wilderness holds the key to igniting the power of the Spirit within us?

Listen, dear one. God wastes nothing. Nor does He allow or ordain anything for our lives that He can’t bring great good from. Jesus needed His wilderness experience to fulfill His purpose. If He didn’t, God never would’ve led Him there.

You and I spend our lives trying to avoid the desert. We want to head straight into our Promised Land that flows with milk and honey, endless provision, and rest. But we fail to realize that we’ll never make it into our Promised Land without traveling through the desert. God uses the wilderness to strengthen us in His Spirit so that we can defeat the enemy camping out on our inheritance. We will need to conquer the enemy to take our ground.

So what must you and I do to become empowered in the wilderness instead of defeated by it? We do what Jesus did. We must choose to stand on truth when faced with the enemy’s temptations.

When Satan challenged Jesus to take the easy way out and turn a stone into bread to end His hunger, Jesus replied, “It is written: Man does not live on bread alone” (Luke 4:4).

Over and over, each time Satan tempted Him, Jesus quoted Scripture to refute him.

Beloved, you and I are not strong enough to defeat the enemy on our own. But when we choose to challenge him with God’s truth and stand on His Word, something beautiful happens. The Spirit within us perks up. He rises within us to give us the strength we need to remain standing.

Unfortunately most of us don’t exit our wilderness experiences victoriously. When the Spirit leads us into the desert, instead of drawing on His strength to stand against the enemy’s fiery darts, we succumb to them. We allow the enemy to govern our thinking instead of standing on truth. We feel defeated and remain that way because we haven’t ignited the Spirit within us by choosing to claim and believe the truth of God’s Word.

Many of us even prolong our stays in the wilderness by allowing the enemy’s lies to control our thoughts.

What if you and I learned to do what Jesus did? What if we chose to respond differently in the wilderness? What if we determined to stand on Truth instead of bowing to the enemy’s lies?

I think we’d find what Jesus found. Each time we exercise faith by standing on truth when we don’t feel like it, the Spirit will equip us in our need. We will become stronger and stronger in Him. And when it’s time to exit the wilderness and head toward our destiny, we won’t just follow the Spirit. We’ll go in the power of the Spirit. And we’ll be equipped to claim our ground.

Kind of sheds new light on James 1:2-4, doesn’t it?

 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

That’s the point of the wilderness, beloved. God doesn’t want you leaving any of your blessings behind.

Strength in My Weakness

God amazes me.

Two and a half years ago, God directed me to write a Bible study, Tested by Fire. In April of this year a revised version of that study will become available for distribution to bookstores across the country. I have no idea where God will take it, but I remember well where Jesus had to take me to get here.

I recently came across this post from January 2012, written as God was preparing me to speak at my very first women’s conference outside of serving my church. I am humbled to remember the steps of the journey and where God has taken me along the way. I pray that reading it will encourage you to take your own steps of faith with Jesus, trusting that He’s with you even in the hard times. It just may be those moments of great brokenness that allow you to experience all Jesus wants to be in your life. When you let His strength overshadow your weakness, His glory surely follows.

 

More Than a Conqueror

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. 1 Corinthians 10:13, NIV (1984)

In two and a half weeks I will have the remarkable privilege of sharing Jesus Christ with hundreds of women at the new “Women of Purpose” conference in St. Petersburg, Florida. It astounds me to think of the plan God has chosen for my life. One particular verse comes to mind as I consider my story. Romans 4:17 celebrates “the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.”

Recently, Karen Hickam, the founder of Strive for Greatness who is hosting the conference, challenged each of the speakers participating in the event to consider the raw, painful moments of their journey. I prayerfully asked the Lord to take me back to some of my own struggles and allow me to feel them again. I asked Him to help me describe them in a way that others might feel them too and relate to my experience. Here’s where the Lord led me.

  • I sat under the shelter of my covered porch watching the rain wash over the earth around me and wondered briefly if God had opened the skies to match my tears. Thunder shook the heavens, literally rattling the chair beneath me. I felt each crack shudder through me, every pounding blow echoing the ache in my own fragile heart. Doesn’t obedience bring protection and blessing, Lord? Could I have been wrong about Your will for me?
  • I swallowed hard, attempting to quiet the churning in my stomach by sheer will. It would be easier if I could just retch. Maybe then, it would at least be over. But it wasn’t over. It hadn’t been for . . . How many days, Lord? When will it end? . . . I can’t do this anymore . . . I’m not strong enough . . . forgive me . . .
  • Reeling from the sting of betrayal, I sobbed until my face hurt. Darkness hovered about me, undaunted by the break of day. Life had turned upside down. Everything would be different now, the comforting familiarity of my routine stripped away from me by one who claimed to love me. How could this happen, Lord? Of all people to do this to me . . . how could it be her?

Tears flowed freely as my fingers moved across the keyboard, the vivid memory of my darkness flooding back in poignant waves. This time, however, my tears did not find their source in anguish.

They fell in worship of the One in whom I overcame.

My story isn’t marked by perfection, success and glory. Far more consistently, my story revolves around the breaking of my heart. But you see, my heart was bound in chains that needed breaking, and Jesus loved me enough to allow the pain so He could set me free.

Dear one, in your moments of greatest darkness, Jesus has not abandoned you. He is there with you, holding you, even when you can’t feel Him. Very often, what keeps you from recognizing His presence in your difficulty is the very chain in you He seeks to break.

In those moments of weakness, temptation comes. The enemy hisses in your ear that Jesus doesn’t love you . . . that He doesn’t even exist. He will do everything He can to convince you to turn back and abandon God’s plan for you. After all, just look at you. God has obviously already abandoned you.

His lies, dear one, come at you in those moments with such ferocity out of his own desperate fear. The enemy knows what lies on the other side of your victory: your freedom.

As you press on, taking hold of Jesus by faith, and allow Him to show you your way out (1 Cor 10:13), the enemy’s grip on your heart is broken. The oppressive chain that once bound you to him—your fear, your pride, your need for significance—falls idly to the earth with a thud. And you, dear one, will discover with elation that you are free—free to experience the all-surpassing joy of Christ’s fullness dwelling within you unfettered by the enemy’s chains.

 “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.” Psalm 126:5

Will you let Him turn your broken moments into a song of praise as He ushers you into the beautiful purpose He’s planned for you? Nothing compares to the wonder of living in your God-given Promised Land.

When the LORD brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed.  Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.”  The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. Psalm 126:1-3

Enter In

Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. Psalm 16:5-6 NIV

Last week we turned our attention to what it means to live by faith. By God’s design, faith isn’t something we merely hold in our hearts. Rather, we express faith as we trust His commands through obedience. Each time we actively trust Him, we move one step further into the blessing He has planned for us. There we will witness the outpouring of His grace.

A delightful inheritance awaits you in Jesus Christ. Ground lies ahead of you that Jesus means for you to claim in His name. And yet many of us are stuck floundering in the desert while the promised blessings available in Jesus lay just beyond the river of life. Perhaps it’s time we dip our toes in and let the current of the Spirit carry us into our Promised Lands.

The Israelites once stood where you now stand, their feet camped on desert ground while their Promised Land of blessing lay ahead of them. God had answered their cries for deliverance from Egypt and led them to the banks of their inheritance. Then Moses chose a representative from each of the twelve tribes to explore the land God had promised them and bring back a report.

They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit.”  Numbers 13:27

Imagine that! They found the land exactly the way God had described it. God had called them to believe by faith, but now they had witnessed it with their eyes. Surely they would run toward their allotted inheritance!

Unfortunately they also witnessed something else with their eyes.

But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. Numbers 13:28

Suddenly their adversary seemed bigger than their God.

Fear overshadowed and erased their witness of God’s faithfulness. It didn’t matter that God had once again proven Himself Faithful and True, that He had kept His word and led them to a beautiful land. They quickly forgot that God had vanquished their Egyptian enemies before their eyes. In that moment, they chose to focus instead on the powerful enemy that lay ahead of them. Rather than fight and believe God for victory, they chose to remain in the desert and grumble against God for bringing them there in the first place.

So much for “seeing is believing.”

Dear one, how often do we think that if only we could witness the miracles described in Scripture, we would believe? We’ve convinced ourselves that we would easily trust and follow if we could see the things the Israelites saw. Yet the Israelites saw, and still did not believe.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1

True faith comes from being certain even when we cannot see. In reality, if we do not possess the faith when we don’t see, we won’t likely possess it after we do. Just look at the Israelites. Seeing didn’t translate to believing.

But one among the crowd did believe. His lone voice rose to proclaim God’s faithfulness.

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” Numbers 13:30

Caleb chose to trust that the God who redeemed them was stronger than their adversary. The rest of them argued, claiming they couldn’t win against this much larger enemy. They spread a bad report throughout the camp, and “that night all the people of the community raised their voices and wept aloud” (Numbers 14:1). Their fear led to this conclusion, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt” (verse 4).

Really? After all that they had seen God do an their behalf, they thought their best option was to head back to the slavery they had cried out for deliverance from?

You and I can be quick to accuse Israel when we read their story as history. But we also just as easily behave just like them.

Jesus stretched Himself out on a cross to redeem us, not just from sin’s penalty but also from its power over us, “For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.” Romans 6:14

He has promised us victory over sin and the enemy’s power in our lives, but He calls to take up His Word, the Sword of the Spirit, and go to battle to claim it. He guarantees victory, promising that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

Yet we often see our enemy as too powerful to overcome, so we refuse to go to battle. Instead we choose to grumble at God from the desert, or worse, run back to the slavery from which He rescued us.

What if you and I determined instead to be like Caleb, choosing to believe God’s promises even if no one else around us agrees? The world may tell us there’s no point in fighting, but God’s faithfulness remains sure. If we will trust Him for His promises, even if we have to stand alone, He will prove Himself. He did to Caleb.

Caleb’s faith ushered him into his inheritance. He was one of 600,000 men who left Egypt to journey to the land God promised them. He was one of only 2 that actually entered it and took possession of it. The rest of them died in the desert because of their unbelief.

Dear one, let’s not die in the desert when our Promised Lands stand within reach! 

Living Water Flows

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”  John 4:10

I love the story of the woman at the well. I can’t help but relate to her experience. Like her, I spent years avoiding people. It just seemed safer keeping to myself. And like that broken woman, caught up in sin and existing in isolation, Jesus met me in the midst of the mundane to offer me living water. With a hopeful heart, I drank.

Soon that water began to bear the fruit of life. I discovered true forgiveness, healing replaced brokenness, and love drew me out of my solitude. The joy of restoration kindled a passion in me for God’s Word that remains insatiable. And while I remain faithful to feast on His Word, the living water within me continually produces new life. Oh, how I love Jesus!

Do you know the gift of God Jesus speaks of in John 4:10? Does living water flow through you? 

If you have put your faith in Jesus and received Him as your Lord and Savior, He has given you His Spirit. But Jesus didn’t give you the Holy Spirit to settle into your soul like a puddle. He is not just a possession given to seal you for salvation. He entered your heart to flood your entire being with His presence. He means to flow through you in a way that makes people take notice. And as He flows, He produces life.

. . . Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. John 7:37-39

How does Jesus describe the Spirit?  He is like streams of living water that flow from within.

Take a moment to picture a flowing stream. It differs greatly from still water. A stream bubbles and swells with life, changing the landscape as it flows. Have you ever stumbled upon a stagnant pond and found junk collecting on the surface of the water? Not so with flowing water. Moving water carries debris along and eventually washes it away.

Has the Holy Spirit left His tangible mark on your life, dear one? Can you see evidence of His movement? You’re meant to. The Holy Spirit within you initiates change. His movement will stir up waste and debris until He clears it right out of you. Then He’ll plant the fruit of abundant life in its place.

Beloved, if you want to activate the flow of the Spirit within you, you’re going to have to feed the stream.

Psalm 1:2-3 teaches,

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

Scripture links our ability to prosper and grow while fed by streams of water with our delight in His Word. Meditating on His Word and receiving it into our hearts gets the stream flowing within us. Likewise, the absence of time in the Word brings spiritual drought, and the living water will cease to flow.

During my family’s recent trip to Maui, we took a van ride through the rain forest to Hana and around the eastern coastline of the island. The breathtaking drive took us through lush green jungles, around hundreds of winding curves, and over 56 one-lane bridges that crossed over tropical streams and waterfalls.

Hana fallsEach time we reached one of the bridges and the flowing water came into view, our driver—a native Hawaiian who hadgrown up there and been giving tours for years—would exclaim over the amount of water bursting forth through the rock formations. The area had received much more rain than usual, causing water to flow in torrents in places where a small trickle had existed before. Even she took pictures of the sites!

As we reached the coastline, we saw the result of the heavy flow. The ocean waters surrounding the cliffs of the island on that side didn’t display the usual turquoise green and blue that reflect the beauty of the sky. Instead, we saw brown, brackish waters. The heavy rain and increased flow of the mountain streams caused debris, mud and soil to wash out to the sea.

Dear one, Jesus gave us the living water to make us holy, to cleanse us from the sin that lies within the depths of our stony hearts. That living water has the ability to wash it right out of us, but the flowing stream can only be fed by the rain of the Word.

Ephesians 5:25-26 tells us, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.” The Word and the Spirit must unite to wash the remnants of our sin out to sea. And as the obstacles blocking the flow of the Spirit are removed, the Spirit can swell and increase in power, producing His glorious life-giving fruit.

Will you exercise your faith by feeding on God’s Word and allow His Spirit to flow with life in you? Your Promised Land waits.

For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills.  Deuteronomy 8:7

 

 

 

 

The God of Miracles

Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.  Habakkuk 3:2

Do you ever think it would be easier to trust God if you lived in the days of parting seas and pillars of cloud and fire? You may rationalize that if you saw walls of water piling up and witnessed God destroying your enemies before your eyes you would never struggle with trusting Him.

That’s what the Israelites thought too. After experiencing His miraculous deliverance from Egypt and witnessing His awesome deeds on their behalf, they stood before Him at Mt. Sinai and proclaimed,

“Everything the LORD has said we will do.”  Exodus 24:3

Well, I believe they at least had good intentions, but intentions aren’t what God was looking for. Let’s join them for a moment on their journey to their Promised Land.

Imagine what it would be like to watch your daily bread fall from the sky and pile up on the surface of the ground. Each day God proved His faithfulness by providing His people with food while they lived in the desert. The Israelites would awaken to a blanket of white glistening beneath the morning dew. God instructed them through Moses to gather just enough to provide for their families for the day.

 “No one is to keep any of it until morning.” Exodus 16:19

You might suppose that seeing God’s power displayed for them again as He fed them with manna from heaven led to their wholehearted obedience, right? One would think so, but . . .

. . .  some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.  Exodus 16:20

So much for the idea of witnessing God’s great deeds helping us trust Him more. No matter what they saw with their eyes, their hearts still rebelled.

God gave another opportunity to trust Him when the Sabbath came. He instructed the people to gather twice what they needed on the sixth day so they would have enough for the Sabbath because no manna would fall that day.

I bet that instruction raised some eyebrows. They had already discovered firsthand that the manna wouldn’t keep overnight, and I imagine they didn’t have much interest in eating stinking maggots. But for those who trusted, God showed His might once again.

So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it.  Exodus 16:24

Imagine that.  Even food will spoil or keep from spoiling in obedience to the Word of the Lord. If only man—the crowning glory of God’s creation—would be that cooperative. He told them,

“Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”  Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none.” Exodus 16:26-27

And I’ll bet they were surprised.

No wonder anger kindled within God’s heart toward His covenant people. He chose them to be His own and bear His Name. He selected them out of all the nations of the earth to walk with Him and follow Him to a place of blessing He had prepared just for them.  He performed miracles in their midst. Yet over and over, even when they saw His mighty power poured out on their behalf, they refused to trust. They didn’t obey, and no matter what God did, it was never enough.

“But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”   Numbers 11:6

You see, God’s people had a heart condition. No matter how many times they saw His arm of power move, they still grumbled. They still disobeyed, refusing to trust Him, and insisted on their own way. Dear one, even with all that they saw Him do, they continued to lose the battle against the pull of sin within their hearts.

But God knew they would struggle. So He had a plan in place before Creation itself sprang forth from His mouth. He would perform the miracle of miracles. He would offer His Son on a cross and provide a way for mankind to exchange his wayward nature for that of God’s.

We will spend the next few weeks exploring the miraculous together through Scripture. Psalm 77:14 rings as true today as it did when the Israelites crossed through the Red Sea on dry ground,

You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples.

My heart echoes Habakkuk’s cry in our opening Scripture. God stands ready to reveal His mighty deeds in our days. But we just might miss the miracles if we keep our gaze fixed on our outward circumstances. You see, the cross shifted the focus of God’s wonders from the external to the internal. Now, He works the greatest wonder of all; He’s changing the human heart.

You are the miracle He seeks to reveal now, dear one.  Will you allow Him to display His power in you?