Opportunities lost...
Faith, faith, faith…
Why is it so hard sometimes? Do you find it that way?
God challenges us in several direct ways through the requirement of faith:
- Do you trust I AM Who I say I AM?
- Do you believe Me above and beyond your own understanding?
- Will you surrender your will and trust that My Way is better?
- Do you want My supernatural encounters and My Kingdom?
We ALL want our own way sometimes. Our heart position determines so much of what we will hear from and receive from God. If our hearts are hardened in certain areas, we can miss the beautiful fruit God wants to bring forth.
Last week I chatted about the abundance of fruit that comes from winter seasons in our lives. God loves to conceal things in the deep recesses of our hearts, that we can only discover by searching Him out in faith. If you know Christ you are seated with Him and grafted into His royal bloodline, so consider this verse:
““It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out. As the heavens for height, and the earth for depth, so the heart of kings is unsearchable.”—Proverbs 25:2-3 ESV
We have to have hearts positioned to search Him out, not just hands held open for what we can get from Him. Most times the answer we are searching for is actually just simply knowing Him and trusting Him deeper.
Jesus was in perfect alignment with the Father and consequently, perfect rest. He knew Who He was and Who’s He was. That’s the quest before us, to pursue that alignment and rest. It is not what we always get from God. We will always have needs, and should bring those needs to Christ. He truly cares for our needs and promised those needs would be met. Remember He said we are more important than the flowers of the fields or the birds of the air. Only bringing our needs to God is not a substitute for spending time with Him.
Spending time with Him is where real intimacy begins and spiritual power, Kingdom experiences, and Eternal victories flow from.
I was recently reading the Gospel of John when something really jumped off the pages to me and convicted me in this very area.
In chapter 6 Jesus has several thousand people following Him. He performs an incredible miracle of feeding thousands of men, women, and children with a few fish and bread.
After seeing this miracle, and receiving the direct full belly benefits, these followers got to hear firsthand Jesus describing Himself as “The Bread of Life”. He first met their needs, but then Jesus began to speak to the greater. He began to speak about how He Is the Bread sent from Heaven and if anyone comes to Him, they will never be hungry or thirsty again. He shared with them the Eternal opportunity before them and that He was the only Way to have it.
Their response? Give us more bread or show us this power so we can get bread ourselves.
Their hearts were blinded to the very Truth standing in the flesh.
Jesus knowing their hearts position, urged them greater with a hard saying about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. He was speaking directly to the error of their hands. Always coming to God for what they could get from Him, instead of how they can know Him more.
So much of Western Christianity is based on this failed notion, that God is a genie in a bottle that we only come to when we need/want something from Him. He is SOOOO much more than that. He is the Living Water, the Bread of Life, the very Creator of our souls.
Sadly, they really only loved Jesus for what He would give them instead of Who He Was/Is. Many disciples left him that day. The Son of God no longer had a megachurch following Him.
Remember all those apples I spoke about last week? Those trees exploded in fruitfulness when they were cut the deepest on the coldest day. Interestingly enough, the ground had a lot to do with what apples could be consumed and given away, and those that would perish and not be usable. Some of the apples were lost to squirrels, some to birds, some to wind, and some to hardened rocky ground that surrounded the base of the trees. See the pic above…
Sounds like something else Jesus spoke in: Matthew 13, Mark 4, Luke 8), the parable of the seeds. These apple trees were a living lesson of what Jesus described.
The rocky ground was really convicting to me, as countless ripe, juicy apples did not fall on the soft grass, but instead on the hard stones. These beautiful, plump apples went from carrying life and nutrients to worthless, unusable fruit, all because of the rocky ground they landed on. It was humbling to consider what Eternal opportunities or Kingdom possibilities I have I missed because a place in my heart was hardened instead of soft.
Just before Jesus spoke the hard saying to the thousands of people, He did another miracle wrapped in intimacy. Instead of having the people exalt Him and force Him to be a king, He escaped to a mountain top and waited until nightfall by Himself. He concealed Himself. Then something amazing happened. He met the disciples in their place of intimacy too.
The majority were fishermen by trade and well familiar with water. In the dark hours of the night, Jesus walked on water and revealed to His closest followers Who He really Was. He prepared them for the disappointing choices people would make the very next day. Their hearts were prepared and guarded for the hardships of the very next day, through an intimate supernatural experience.
May the quest for intimacy always replace our pre-disposed desire for independence.
Until next week…
Much love,
Scott
