What the...Oh Yeah!...Abundant Life!
"To come alive spiritually we must meet God.To live abundantly we must know God."
(This quote was on one of Claire’s posts back in January.)
Imagine an open field as far as the eye can see a great sea of tall grass blown by the divine purpose of the invisible wind. Wildflowers, Lavender, Jasmine…filling the Earth with God breathed fragrance and bringing the green blanket to life with pops of color. Now, imagine a clear blue sky with a sun so big that the whole Earth is covered in its amber glow. The sun and the wind make it a perfect 75F. The only shadow that is cast by the sun is a silhouette of a girl with long flowing brown curls being tickled by the wind…I’m uncertain what she is wearing but let’s say a soft blue summer dress. She is smiling, taking it all in and she is content to live life abundantly.
This is a fictionalized telling of a vision my good friend Teresa had of me. Most times Teresa is tormented by what she sees, but in this instance she was blessed. Upon asking God what this vision meant she got the reply, “This is what I want; I want peace, joy…and abundant life for all my children.” (There again that isn’t the exact words she got from God but that’s the jest.)
I almost entitled this post “What the Heck am I Gonna Do Now?” I have always had a precise clear cut plan for my life. I always knew where I wanted to end up. And while I still have very conflicting desires, sometimes that seem to get all jumbled up in my imaginary “Utopian” world of perfect happiness, I’m at a real crossroads because I honestly and truthfully DO NOT KNOW where my next step will be nor where it will lead. I have a great fear that somehow I’ll make the wrong choice, take the wrong step and end up in misery, but I know that God has a divine destiny for my life and it has absolutely nothing to do with who I am, but who He is! I think for the first time in my life HE is actually going to be able to do something with my life because I’m realizing that HE isn’t given me answers because He wants me to rely on Him completely. I’m terrified and the most excited that I have ever been. (I’m so afraid of screwing it up again, but I have to remind myself that it really isn’t about me.)
This year I have made a promise to lay down my dreams to God. Oh I’ve laid them down times in the past, but never at His feet. What I did is I hid them from myself, and kept them well out of His reach. I didn’t trust Him with them, and like a small child who is fascinated with a piece of shiny metal in a field of grass I slowly picked back up those dreams as something new and precious. So, with trembling hands I take my dreams to the Father’s throne and lay them at His feet! Take them Lord and burn them up!
"'Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.' The altar means fire - burning and purification and insulation for one purpose only, the destruction of every affinity that God has not started and of every attachment that is not an attachment in God. You do not destroy it, God does; you bind the sacrifice to the horns of the altar; and see that you do not give way to self-pity when the fire begins."~ Oswald chambers
(This quote taken from Marcia’s blog, she goes onto say that the only true safe place to be is in the midst of the flame!)
I’ve learned so much reading your posts. Becky is talking about grace… which is absolutely undeserved! Kat shares about how God isn’t afraid to step on our toes, He has plans for us, He truly loves, loves us enough to put us up to a mirror and show us the bath we need. Gayla is talking about the sovereignty of God, which is a difficult pill to swallow. Everything good or bad goes through the Father first, and many times is ordained by the Father.
12 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Matthew 3:12 NKJV
Many of us have really never experienced LIFE! We are merely existing, but it is about LIVING!...He wants us to have life abundantly!!!
What is LIFE? Think about that for a moment chew on it if you will! What do you come up with?
We often think we will get through life by addressing Christ as part of the crowd. I know it is something I’ve done all my life. Generalized my faith and based my faith on others actions. Christ wants to talk to me…it isn’t about anyone else!
1After dark one evening, a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus, a Pharisee, 2came to speak with Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are proof enough that God is with you."
3Jesus replied, "I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God."
4"What do you mean?" exclaimed Nicodemus. "How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again?"
5Jesus replied, "The truth is, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven. 7So don't be surprised at my statement that you must be born again. 8Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit."
9"What do you mean?" Nicodemus asked.
10Jesus replied, "You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don't understand these things? 11I assure you, I am telling you what we know and have seen, and yet you won't believe us. 12But if you don't even believe me when I tell you about things that happen here on earth, how can you possibly believe if I tell you what is going on in heaven? 13For only I, the Son of Man, have come to earth and will return to heaven again. 14And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so I, the Son of Man, must be lifted up on a pole, 15so that everyone who believes in me will have eternal life.
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.
18"There is no judgment awaiting those who trust him. But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God. 19Their judgment is based on this fact: The light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20They hate the light because they want to sin in the darkness. They stay away from the light for fear their sins will be exposed and they will be punished. 21But those who do what is right come to the light gladly, so everyone can see that they are doing what God wants." John 3: 1-21 NLT
My Pastor a few Sunday’s back preached on Nicodemus; it was and is powerfully moving to me:
1. Must be born again! (Be born of the water and spirit!)
2. It is a mystery you cannot explain! (The day you got saved you don’t know where the Spirit came form or where it is going to take you, but you know it is a powerful force!)
· It’s painful thing to come to the point when you have to crucify your hopes and dreams!
3. “The wind was still blowing in Nicodemus’ hair as Jesus to Him this story in Numbers 21…in the end as the serpent was raised up and all people who had been bitten by a deadly snake had to do was look to the serpent and be healed so will Christ be raised up…JUST LOOK TO JESUS! It is not in what I can do! Look at the cross of Calvary!
4. The Light (Why won’t people come? Think of the excuses…I’m fine, I’m just not ready, I want to do so many things before I give my life over, I don’t need God, it’s just not for me, one day not now…etc…) * If you love the Lord you’re gonna do what HE asks you to do…some are waiting for the Light to wake them up. Christ says, “I am the Light.”
Oh Father let me live abundantly!
(This quote was on one of Claire’s posts back in January.)
Imagine an open field as far as the eye can see a great sea of tall grass blown by the divine purpose of the invisible wind. Wildflowers, Lavender, Jasmine…filling the Earth with God breathed fragrance and bringing the green blanket to life with pops of color. Now, imagine a clear blue sky with a sun so big that the whole Earth is covered in its amber glow. The sun and the wind make it a perfect 75F. The only shadow that is cast by the sun is a silhouette of a girl with long flowing brown curls being tickled by the wind…I’m uncertain what she is wearing but let’s say a soft blue summer dress. She is smiling, taking it all in and she is content to live life abundantly.
This is a fictionalized telling of a vision my good friend Teresa had of me. Most times Teresa is tormented by what she sees, but in this instance she was blessed. Upon asking God what this vision meant she got the reply, “This is what I want; I want peace, joy…and abundant life for all my children.” (There again that isn’t the exact words she got from God but that’s the jest.)
I almost entitled this post “What the Heck am I Gonna Do Now?” I have always had a precise clear cut plan for my life. I always knew where I wanted to end up. And while I still have very conflicting desires, sometimes that seem to get all jumbled up in my imaginary “Utopian” world of perfect happiness, I’m at a real crossroads because I honestly and truthfully DO NOT KNOW where my next step will be nor where it will lead. I have a great fear that somehow I’ll make the wrong choice, take the wrong step and end up in misery, but I know that God has a divine destiny for my life and it has absolutely nothing to do with who I am, but who He is! I think for the first time in my life HE is actually going to be able to do something with my life because I’m realizing that HE isn’t given me answers because He wants me to rely on Him completely. I’m terrified and the most excited that I have ever been. (I’m so afraid of screwing it up again, but I have to remind myself that it really isn’t about me.)
This year I have made a promise to lay down my dreams to God. Oh I’ve laid them down times in the past, but never at His feet. What I did is I hid them from myself, and kept them well out of His reach. I didn’t trust Him with them, and like a small child who is fascinated with a piece of shiny metal in a field of grass I slowly picked back up those dreams as something new and precious. So, with trembling hands I take my dreams to the Father’s throne and lay them at His feet! Take them Lord and burn them up!
"'Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.' The altar means fire - burning and purification and insulation for one purpose only, the destruction of every affinity that God has not started and of every attachment that is not an attachment in God. You do not destroy it, God does; you bind the sacrifice to the horns of the altar; and see that you do not give way to self-pity when the fire begins."~ Oswald chambers
(This quote taken from Marcia’s blog, she goes onto say that the only true safe place to be is in the midst of the flame!)
I’ve learned so much reading your posts. Becky is talking about grace… which is absolutely undeserved! Kat shares about how God isn’t afraid to step on our toes, He has plans for us, He truly loves, loves us enough to put us up to a mirror and show us the bath we need. Gayla is talking about the sovereignty of God, which is a difficult pill to swallow. Everything good or bad goes through the Father first, and many times is ordained by the Father.
12 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Matthew 3:12 NKJV
Many of us have really never experienced LIFE! We are merely existing, but it is about LIVING!...He wants us to have life abundantly!!!
What is LIFE? Think about that for a moment chew on it if you will! What do you come up with?
We often think we will get through life by addressing Christ as part of the crowd. I know it is something I’ve done all my life. Generalized my faith and based my faith on others actions. Christ wants to talk to me…it isn’t about anyone else!
1After dark one evening, a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus, a Pharisee, 2came to speak with Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are proof enough that God is with you."
3Jesus replied, "I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God."
4"What do you mean?" exclaimed Nicodemus. "How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again?"
5Jesus replied, "The truth is, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven. 7So don't be surprised at my statement that you must be born again. 8Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit."
9"What do you mean?" Nicodemus asked.
10Jesus replied, "You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don't understand these things? 11I assure you, I am telling you what we know and have seen, and yet you won't believe us. 12But if you don't even believe me when I tell you about things that happen here on earth, how can you possibly believe if I tell you what is going on in heaven? 13For only I, the Son of Man, have come to earth and will return to heaven again. 14And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so I, the Son of Man, must be lifted up on a pole, 15so that everyone who believes in me will have eternal life.
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.
18"There is no judgment awaiting those who trust him. But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God. 19Their judgment is based on this fact: The light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20They hate the light because they want to sin in the darkness. They stay away from the light for fear their sins will be exposed and they will be punished. 21But those who do what is right come to the light gladly, so everyone can see that they are doing what God wants." John 3: 1-21 NLT
My Pastor a few Sunday’s back preached on Nicodemus; it was and is powerfully moving to me:
1. Must be born again! (Be born of the water and spirit!)
2. It is a mystery you cannot explain! (The day you got saved you don’t know where the Spirit came form or where it is going to take you, but you know it is a powerful force!)
· It’s painful thing to come to the point when you have to crucify your hopes and dreams!
3. “The wind was still blowing in Nicodemus’ hair as Jesus to Him this story in Numbers 21…in the end as the serpent was raised up and all people who had been bitten by a deadly snake had to do was look to the serpent and be healed so will Christ be raised up…JUST LOOK TO JESUS! It is not in what I can do! Look at the cross of Calvary!
4. The Light (Why won’t people come? Think of the excuses…I’m fine, I’m just not ready, I want to do so many things before I give my life over, I don’t need God, it’s just not for me, one day not now…etc…) * If you love the Lord you’re gonna do what HE asks you to do…some are waiting for the Light to wake them up. Christ says, “I am the Light.”
Oh Father let me live abundantly!
Comments
Melissa, you are so full of life! It is a joy to read your posts! Your heart to be right where God desires is so evident through all your writing. You just keep pressing in to Him and you will find yourself filled to overflowing with Him! :)
He is so good!
With God, you give all you have up and He gives you exactly He knows is best--I still struggle with that--even though I know in my head it's true!