Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
Jesus Christ makes all things new! He is into renewal. He is the ultimate alpha. Because of this, I am excited about 2012 in spite of all the forecast of continued and increased trouble. One of my personal mantras is, “I will go on to dreams, visions and revelations of the Lord.” And it has made a huge difference in my life. It enables me to live from vision versus living from memory. It is a very renewing way to live.
One of my dreams for this year is to grow as a co-laborer with Christ. Here is how I plan to make this dream come true.
First, Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing. This is fundamental to co-laboring. I am going to continually commit to the development of my spiritual senses in order to see and hear spiritually at a higher and more accurate level. I also need to develop more skill at interpretation and application of what I am seeing and hearing. This will not happen if I do not give it priority, time and space in my daily life. The picture I have for this is Psalm 1:2-3. We plant ourselves in His presence and we will prosper spiritually.
The other thing is the really challenging part. It says the person who is planted in His presence will be prospered in his doing. I need to cultivate the art of taking more grace inspired initiative to do the work of the Lord that I was created for.
There is a conversation that took place at a wedding in John 2:1-5 that illustrates this. It went something like this. Mary: They have run out of wine. Jesus: Woman, why are you telling me this? My time to act has not yet come. Mary (to the waiters): Do whatever He tells you. And Jesus turns the water into wine. How many of us would have responded like Mary? Most of us would have likely said “okay” and waited for His time.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe in waiting on the Lord. Waiting is a part of walking with God. God does not give us every answer, nor does He always commit to us the outcome. As followers of Christ, we must learn the graceful art of waiting, but what would have happened if Mary decided to wait in this instance? Maybe nothing. Maybe the wedding guest would have gone home early and Jesus’ first miracle would have to wait for another day.
If Jesus’ time to act had not yet come when Mary first approached Him either it came in the next few moments or Mary reached into the future, into the time of fulfillment of promises concerning Jesus and brought it into the moment. Either way, Mary took the initiative and wound up being a key part of the miracle.
There is no wisdom in taking the initiative to do the work of the Lord if you have not invested in knowing the Lord, for apart from the Lord we can do nothing. But the people that do know the Lord will be strong and do some mighty exploits (Dan. 11:32).
Many Blessings, BW