With all this new time off I was helping my daughter clean out her bedroom…and good thing we have a couple weeks to work on it. As we were sorting I couldn’t help but notice all of the puzzle pieces I kept grabbing, no doubt the symbolism felt thick. So I got quiet and started asking the Lord for a new “peace in this puzzling time.”
One of our roles as beloved sons and daughters is a “manager of the mysteries of God.” (1 Cor.4) I love this phrase so much, but not just as an ideology but a reality. We get to not only hear what God is up to but we get to disperse His heart and mind to those around us. Just two chapters earlier the writer Paul also tells us that we are a lucky bunch to be able to have “the mind of Christ” as His Spirit leads us into all understanding (1 Cor.2). What an important time to be listening to His Spirit and receiving His strategy as we “weigh our ways” over the next few weeks and months.
A piece I believe the Lord gave me or a warning rather, was to be careful to what we are tuning into. The enemy would love nothing more than for us to hear the sound of panic and then move and make decisions in fear, however I hear the Lord saying that alongside this outbreak He’s going to breakout all around us.
The next piece I received was a picture of stage hands setting up a scene for a play. I felt like a stage is being set for Him to move in powerful ways, like there is a pregnant expectation in the audience to see what’s about to happen. Some in the audience seem to be unnerved, some seemed content, and some excited for the curtain to be pulled back. I personally believe it’s going to be a great hour to disperse hope, lend hands to help, and share stories about all God is going to do in our midst.
I pray that this outbreak is marked by breakout as the Lord moves in power. Get ready, the curtain is lifting.
According to online definitions, a form is defined as “a viable shape of how something distinguishes itself. It’s a particular way in which a thing appears or manifests…a variety of an appearance.” Patterns, profiles, structure, arrangement, category, style, and order are all synonyms of FORM.
I have a strong sense that in these days God is going to be distinguishing Himself to us in a different category or show up in another kind of form than we are use to. If a form is also “a standard or expectation based on past experiences” then I can’t help feel that He is going to change that too. That He will shift our expectations and sift through our standard of Him so that we can both see and experience Him in new ways. What God both reveals and becomes to us will define what He wants to do for us as well as determine what He wants to deposit within us.
In Numbers 12:8, God said that with Moses He could speak plainly to him and not in riddles like others, because he was a man who could see the FORM of the Lord. I’ll admit I don’t know all of what that means, only that it seems to really matter that we have an awareness of Who God wants to be so we can have an idea of what He wants to do.
Psalm 18 starts out by saying that God can be “a strength, a rock, a fortress, a deliverer, a refuge, a shield, and a stronghold.” Many of us also know him to be much different or much more. He can be healer, physician, friend, coach, leader, father, counselor, Mentor, King, lover, Shepherd, provider, chain breaker, and countless other names that hold a depth of experiencial meaning. The Psalm then goes on to say, “The Lord thunders from Heaven and Makes His voice heard.” I’d deduct that a correlation is to be made between who He wants to be and what He wants to say…we’d be wise to make it a practice to be asking! “I will stand as a guard where I am posted, and I will to see what He will speak to me…” (Hab.2:1)
I’ve had to do more adjusting than I’m use to lately, realizing that I need to work on my flexibility, because just like a well choreographed dance between partners that know the moves.. I had an expectation of where He should be while we were spinning. However, I am so thankful for His changing of forms because even though I liked our dance, I’m certainly ready to learn a new one.
I pray God shows up and shows off in greater ways than you can imagine….
Recently I was flipping back through a journal and reflecting on all that has happened and all God has done in 2019. I wasn’t praising or praying as I turned any pages, I was just wondering on the things that might be written with the blank pages still ahead. I felt the spirit whisper to me “IT’S STORY TIME, where the people of God are going to tell stories of things they’d never thought they’d tell, things they would only hope to tell.”
I felt an incredible excitement rise up for 2020 at the thought of all the things God is going to do with, for, and in us. I immediately had a picture of kids gathering around for a story time, like children do when their teachers read to them. I saw the Father about to share but waiting for others to scoot in and sit closer. I believe that’s His invitation to us as one chapter ends and another opens, is to scoot in and sit as close as we can.
I’ve been reading stories of war, reading to my kids about the wild, and listening in to different narratives of others getting free from circumstances that wouldn’t have pointed to a good ending but then the story takes a turn and the unbelievable happens…the unthinkable works. “Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what He’s done for me.” -Psalm 66:16
I have no idea of all that God has in store for us in the coming days but I believe that in 2020 we are going to be able to tell some really good stories to one another about things we didn’t see coming. Stories about the goodness, the faithfulness, and the kindness of God coming through for us.
Twist: A bend in a new direction/ to rotate, wind, or interlace different strands together. Let’s stay flexible friends and let Him direct the narrative this season.
I pray that with the arrival of 2020 we not only see better (2020 vision), we get to say better… “Come and see what God has done” (Ps.66:5) Blessings in the new, DeAnn Carpenter
We got on a plane last week to get away for some much needed respite, and as we landed the captain reminded us to make sure we got caught up in the new time zone. The time read 3:22 and no surprise there because for the last month I have seen, read, or have been alerted to 3:22. So I got quiet and I asked God what He was up to…
The next thing I saw in my minds eye was a clock that turned in different directions, though the time on the clock remained at 3:22 for every turn. I felt this to be different “times” or passages in the Bible that referenced 3:22. Just as some people will sit down to eat at 5pm tonight, it will inevitably be 7pm for those in another time zone. We will all be “fed” by different things and different readings this season, but I wonder if we might benefit by asking God what time zone He might want to take us to. What book in the Bible is He hi-lighting to us right now and then maybe, just for fun, take a glance at the third chapter and let your eyes gaze over to verse 22.
I’m just trying to get on His time, recalibrate, and adjust where it’s needed. I’ve looked up these 3:22 passages from Genesis (where God offers protection) to Revelation (where He calls His people with ears to hear what the Spirit is saying) and I’ve been so taken with what He has revealed in this hour. Whether it’s Him raising up prophetic voices (Acts 3:22), telling us not to fear because He has our enemies handled (Duet.3:22), calling for His priests (you and me) to make repairs (Neh.3:22), or talking about the kind of accessories we will have this season (Prov./Isaiah 3:22), I am so thankful I have checked “my settings.” Maybe your time zone looks different from mine, maybe 3:22 is just for me and your “appointed time” is of another passage…10:10, and so fourth. But let’s pay attention to when we are waking and what we keep seeing, because no doubt He has something to say to us.
Blessings as you re-set your agenda with His this season. There is an “appointed time” for everything and for every season a time to see what He is saying. -When we get up early, we can see things… 2 Kings 3:22. -DeAnn C.
I’m not usually one for playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving, but for the last week I’ve had a chorus that’s been playing on repeat in my spirit. The lyrics are from a familiar Christmas song, “do you hear what I hear?” When I looked up this little number I couldn’t help but feel that this was the anthem on Gods playlist this season. “Do you see what I see? Do you hear what I hear? Do you know what I know? Listen to what I say.”
The beginning of Psalm 81 tells us to “sing for joy to God our strength & lift up a song. I believe that in the beginning of this Holiday season that song is the key to how we are to begin aligning ourselves with what God wants to both do and reveal in a new season. A BEGINNING is the point at which something starts and I believe that as we posture ourselves “to see, to hear, to know, and listen to Him, it will be the beginning of many new things for us.
As I prayed about this word, I saw a Christmas gift being unwrapped…it was exciting and done with persistence and anticipation. I believe that as the same stance is present in us as we sit before God, there will be more unveiling that happens and it will open us up to new gifts and other ways of walking and working with Him.
I pray this season is just as the song says…(in paraphrase). we’d still be able to shine and dance when the night sets in, we’d lift up a song way above our circumstances because nothing would hinder our voice, we’d find ourselves going to those in need with lovely and generous gifts, and we’d be people who carry peace and extend grace.
My daughter loves to tell a joke about why Cinderella can’t play soccer… “because she keeps running away from the ball.” Then she moves on to several other classic Disney characters to keep the laughs coming. (It’s good, I know.) I’ve heard that joke at least twice a week for months, but this week I can’t get a scene out of my head. It’s where Cinderella has to make a run for it after the clock strikes midnight. When my attention seems to be set on something it seems only feasible to ask God what He’s thinking. So I got quiet “and I caught a whisper” (Amos 4).
I thought right away of another read in the Bible that speaks of the midnight hour. When Paul and Silas were in prison they were praying and singing hymns to God and the other men listened in on them. It says that “suddenly there was a violent earthquake and the doors were opened and their chains came loose” (Acts 16:25). That’s what praise and worship can do, it can bring freedom when you’re not expecting it and extend freedom for those next to you. Being caged in could have shifted the perspective of Paul and Silas, instead they sought to give thanks and honor God. That’s not easy when the walls seem to be closing in on you…and yet “suddenly” their worship shifted the atmosphere around them and opened up doors that just a minute ago had been closed. I feel strongly in my spirit God is whispering “it’s about midnight.” It’s time to pray and praise! Things will shift, but not as some Disney movie projects that things will “go back to the way they were.” It’s a different kind of Midnight, where things open up, suddenly’s happen, and a new path becomes clear, as it did for the jailer that was suppose to be keeping tabs on the prisoners. “When the jailer woke up and saw the doors of the prison open, he drew his sword to end his life. But Paul called out in a loud voice, don’t harm yourself, we are all here. The jailer rushed in and fell trembling asking what must he do to be saved.”
I started thinking about “the midnight hour” and the expectancy that develops inside of us as a new day is about to emerge. New days and new decades are marked by the stroke of midnight. Rejoicing happens as the countdown begins and the ball descends. I feel an increase is to be had in our expectation about what God is up to, “It’s coming…it’s coming to pass, that which I have said-I will do, for I am not a man that I should lie” (num.23:19). We don’t put our hope in fairytales, or trust in fallacies, but in the assurance that the living God is actively on the move and still speaking to us today.
Disney didn’t have it all wrong though, Cinderella couldn’t will her way out of being locked up, and no amount of singing with the mice was going to change a hard situation. It took the persistence of other “royal rulers” and others working together to press in towards the prize that ultimately freed the darling princess. I wonder if this isn’t our protocol this season, in this midnight hour, to persist in the pressing in so that others may walk out of locked doors with more ease and be free.
