I have been in one of the best seasons of my spiritual
life. I know the end; however, it feels like heck right now. Although, most days I feel
like God is dragging me through the valley and He definitely is, I know that He
is my Rock. As He is growing me, I
remain steadfast knowing He is faithful and keeps His promises. I am reading through the Old Testament
(OT) and am loving every single second of it like a novel you picked up and
read through in one night.
This month I’ve read Exodus through Deuteronomy, and now I’m
currently on Joshua. I remember
when I was younger I wouldn’t even bother with the OT. I thought it was so difficult to
understand and a waste of my time to hear Him speak. Now that I have grown in my walk, this year of reading
through the OT has been so encouraging and eye opening. It is like the whole piece of the
puzzle is coming together and I can’t wait to start the next book. God knew I was ready for it and He knew
I was in the perfect season of my life to read through it.
Rewind and recap:
the Israelites (descendants of Abraham) have been in Egypt in
slavery. God does a million crazy
things to get Pharaoh to let them go from slavery and let them return to the
Promised Land God has for them.
Finally, the Egyptians let them go because God slaughters all the first-born
sons of every single family and all the first born of their livestock. Pharaoh literally told them to GET OUT
(Exodus 12:31) when this unfolded.
They wanted them gone so badly they sent them off with their belongings
when asked for items (ain’t that a God moment? Get out and we will give you our
stuff, too!)
God guided them during the day with a pillar of cloud and
provided light at night with a pillar of fire. For some crazy reason the Egyptians forget what God is
capable of, HOW? I DON’T KNOW after the crazy plagues, but they do and they go
after the Israelites. Moses splits
the sea with his staff and the Egyptians were thrown about the Red Sea as the
waters returned and covered their chariots. Not one of them survived out of there. Right before this happened, the
Israelites saw the Egyptians coming and started to complain to God, “Why did
you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us? Why did you MAKE us leave Egypt?
(Exodus 14:11) Are these people
complaining they want to be back in slavery!?? Then, they don’t have water and complain. God provides miraculously (Exodus
15:25). Then, they complained that
God should have killed them, that they had ample food to eat in slavery and now
they are going to starve to death (Are we not this way, too? A bit ridiculous
and dramatic). Then, God provided
like a Boss by raining food down from heaven in the form of quail and manna. (Ex 16:4). I am not going to list how many times they grumbled and
complained wondering if God had abandoned them or was going to do anything to
help them out. My Bible is filled with
side notes that include, “What is wrong with you guys!” “Just obey Him!” “How did you forget all the crazy junk
He did!?” “Here we go again!”
Then as I was sitting on my porch this week, God said, “Hey,
Phil, you’re an Israelite.”
OH.MY.GOSH.
I am.
Well, that is scary.
As I got into Deuteronomy and Moses tells us everything that
has happened up until this point, I thought, “This entire book cannot possibly
be just Moses repeating what miraculous things God has done to the
Israelites.” Why is God repeating
all of this?
Why? He knew
they needed reminding before He took them further. Before they ever get into the dirty, hard part of going into
that land and fighting their butts off!! He had to remind them who He was
again with the previous generation. In just chapter 1 of Joshua
it says “be strong and courageous” 4 times.
Look at Deuteronomy:
5 The Lord will hand over to you the people who live there, and you
must deal with them as I have commanded you. 6 So
be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For
the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither
fail you nor abandon you.”
Three things I see God repeating throughout some of these
books is “Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid”, “I am with you,” “The Lord your God
will deliver, hand over, give you (victory of the unforeseen task).” This sums up what He says over and
over and over again. I started
counting and finally gave up with the amount of times He says it. It is A LOT. You know why?
It is not easy. Following
God will never, ever be easy! You
will have to wait for Him. If you want to be a part of the crazy miracles team, you will have to wait it out. Hard, I know.
2 days ago I sat on my porch early, early
morning and said, "speak Lord!! Please!! I need something!!" He
said: I direct your steps. I am specific. Holy Spirit gives you discernment when
abiding ----> conscience. You think you know yourself, but I know
you better and I work accordingly.
That last one was such an
“aha.” How can that possibly
be? I know me. Of course He is God and He
knows me even better even though I will never wrap my head around that. He knows how I will react
and how to grow me for what is to come.
I think I can have things now and do certain things now, but I can’t. I am not ready spiritually to deal with
what He has prepared.
In
Joshua 9:14 So the Israelites examined their food, but
they did not consult the Lord. 15 Then
Joshua made a peace treaty with them and guaranteed their safety, and the
leaders of the community ratified their agreement with a binding oath.
I
was laying in bed the other night and thought, “Ok, God, I see we should go ahead
and make decisions about …. without You because we are waiting.” (WHY WOULD I THINK THIS IS OKAY I HAVE NO IDEA.) Then, as I accepted that, I felt a pull
to read the study note below:
“Joshua failed to seek God’s guidance and rushed ahead with their own
plans... then they had to deal with angry people and an awkward alliance.”
Okay,
God, I hear you! No moment until you HAND IT OVER. I started laughing so hard. God cracks me up!
I
couldn’t see it then, but before I moved, I wondered why God blew up the entire
scene of my life with ridiculous miracles. He stretched me to wait out things until I would cry to Him
that “He was no where around and wouldn’t come through for me and make me look
foolish.” I would lie in bed in
tears for Him to please figure out this whole thing He started. I would bring my Bible to school with me. I would bring it everywhere because He was telling me verses to read often. Things I had never read before. I WAS CRAZY. SEEKING. READING. CRYING. As I sat on the porch yesterday, He
started to show me THINGS I forgot!
How did I forget these things?
How did I forget my school paying me for 3 full months after I move out of
the country from sick days banked??
So He listed things I could no longer easily recall. The last one was my flight here. He told me not to buy one and made me
wait until 5 days before my fly out.
Someone paid for it. He
told me that day 2 years ago, you will recall this and stand on WHO I AM BY THESE
ACTS. I screamed from my lungs as I opened the email from Sharon saying I want to buy your flight, jumping up and down in Summer's kitchen like it was yesterday. I could never have had an
easy time leaving without miracles and be here today. Ya know why? My
faith needs some serious OT miracles to stand on in order to wait on the LORD
right this minute. I can sit here
and say, okay, I know exactly who You are and what you are capable, I have seen
it. I know. It isn't a maybe you will, maybe you won't. It is a yes.
The
sad part is I know that this is the time that most Christians make
decisions. I hate knowing that
many have no idea what I am talking about because under the pressure, they
acted and missed out on God’s miracles. Next time, wait until you are positive that it is God. The longer you wait, the more you grow.
Last thing, look at this:
Joshua8 Before
the spies lay down for the night, she (Rahab) went up on the roof 9 and
said to them, “I know that the Lord has
given you this land and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all
who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. 10 We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea[a]
for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two
kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed.[b]
11 When we heard of it, our hearts
melted in fear and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.
Rahab and the people of the land were scared. They heard about this God. They heard WHAT HE HAD DONE. What power He has... There was no denying everything God had done. They knew the stories.
Evidently, this is not just for us. It is for you, too. When you hear our stories, there is no
denying "For the LORD MY GOD.... IS GOD!”
We are waiting.
Promised Land is ours.
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