November 25, 2018
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We can truly only rest and enjoy the journey if we understand His plan for getting us to where He is taking us. The key to understanding God’s plan for the journey is in knowing how He thinks. God doesn’t think the way we do, but we try to relate to Him according to our way of thinking. He’d rather we understood the way He thinks so that we can enjoy fellowship with Him.
We tend to get fixated on the destination when God is more interest in the journey and the process.
Is. 55.8 (NKJV) “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.
Is. 55.9 (NKJV) “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Is. 55.10 (NKJV) “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater,
Is. 55.11 (NKJV) So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
I am beginning to SEE what God is doing. I see now that He is raising up a people group (not just here at new day but around the world) who will step into the ministries and callings and identities that He has placed before them. Outside of these walls. No longer business as normal. No longer do we go about our week as normal. We are ambassadors. We are sent ones. Lights in a dark world. That’s who we are!
The enemy knows he doesn’t have to beat the church, just deflect her from her own God-given destiny. A people without inheritance or identity have no substance. New Day is in the business of growing and developing people. And introducing them to their Father and their identity. A people who come as they are and soon Rise up to be all that God has called and is calling them to be!
Jer. 29.11 (NKJV) For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Do you believe this about yourself?
Do you believe He has a future for you! A specific future designed and laid out by your Father. And He has given you everything you’ll ever need to succeed.
I SEE Him wooing all of us into a place of greater intimacy and pleasure.
Into a relationship of enjoyment!
Of delight.
& of promise.
He is calling you UP to your rightful place In Him!
He is speaking to WHO you are in Him. NOT to who you used to be or who you should’ve been by now.
Our Father is attempting to get our attention and cause us to SEE all that He has for us.
Paul goes on to write these words to the Corinthian church…
1Cor. 2:7-10
7 Instead, we[h] continually speak of this wonderful wisdom that comes from God, hidden before now in a mystery.[i] It is his secret plan, destined[j] before the ages, to bring us into glory.[k] 8 None of the rulers of this present world order understood it,[l]for if they had, they never would have crucified the Lord of shining glory.[m] 9 This is why the Scriptures say:
Things never discovered or heard of before,
things beyond our ability to imagine[n]—
these are the many things God has in store
for all his lovers.[o]
10 But God now unveils these profound realities to us by the Spirit.[p] Yes, he has revealed to us his inmost heart and deepest mysteries through the Holy Spirit, who constantly explores all things.
Remember this about God. He SEES and deals with you from a Future/present perspective rather than a past/present.
Which simply means He SEES you here (destiny) and is calling your present to enter all that He has for you.
If the outline of our story is already written, isn’t it time that we understood it; stepped into it; and began partnering with God in its unfolding process?
It is so easy to become dismayed about our future. It can seem out of focus or out of reach. One reason is that some of us are discouraged about where (any maybe who) we are in the present.
Our vision of tomorrow must impact who we are now.
When we start with the future and work back to the present we get to understand the outline of our story and we can partner with the Holy Spirit to walk the path of that particular process.
Identity is not just about you seeing something about yourself; it is about you becoming that person in reality and truth.
Now let me go back finish talking about the two seasons –
1. The season of His presence/fruitfulness. (a time where He refreshes and renews our souls)
2. The season of His absence/pruning. (where He builds and strengthens our faith)
What do we do? How do we follow God? How do we grow in our trust of Him and His ways?
1. Our SURRENDER
2. God’s TIMING
3. Our TRUST
4. God’s GRACE