It’s been said, and I believe there is only one direction in the Kingdom of God and that direction is DOWN...you gotta go low, hideaway with God if you (wanna go up)...no. I rate we’re pretty much called to stay down there, on our knees and fight the good fight!! Jesus demonstrated leadership by serving...serving...serving. We cannot get away from it :-) Amen...and much joy :-)
I want to illustrate two analogies and somma gooi a scripture at you as well...lets see how this goes and how it all pans out. I learnt a brilliant lesson from TD Jakes at the Global Leadership Summit 2010 – you speak your heart and you trust, pray and believe that Holy Spirit ignites it in the hearts of your audience...yay...its so easy :-) shot Jesus!!
Phillipians 2:6-11 (Today’s English Version)
He always had the nature of God, but he did not think that by force he should try to remain equal with God. Instead of this, of his own free will he gave up all he had, and took the nature of a servant. He became like a human being and appeared in human likeness. He was humbles and walked the path of obedience all the way to death – his death on a cross. For this reason God raised him to the highest place above and gave him the name that is greater than any other name. And so, in honour of the name of Jesus all beings in heaven, on earth, and in the world below will fall on their knees, and will openly proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Amen.
I felt Holy Spirit invoke my heart some weeks ago to blog around this scripture and it has become so powerful to me of late and now when I typed it out, it was look w-o-o-o-o-w again.
But the illustration that came from this was quite a simple one and so I trust by God’s grace I will stick to the plan – cause this passage is jam packed.
Check out that last sentence in bold. Have you ever wondered why believers sometimes go on their knees or rather why you don’t? Cause we can replay the scripture over and over in our heads ‘every knee shall bow and every tongue shall proclaim...’ and be like BINGO...we gotta do it!!
Or is there a ‘deeper’ meaning? Like if you had never heard of Jesus or seen church etc. before and one day you stumble across and auditorium of people with hands lifted up, another speaking from a book in hand and other on their knees speaking out and bowing down...in all respects, seeing this for the very first time you might be totally freaked...
But praise God for His Holy Spirit who reveals these things. Our lives spent in Jesus are called to be lives of supernatural power and embrace. Love and honour. God and well totally just God...
So I felt it like this: we fall to our knees, because Jesus is revealed to us as God, by the Father and through His Holy Spirit. Just like when Jesus asked his disciples who they thought he was and Peter answered he is the messiah and Jesus was like yoh...the Father has revealed this to you.
So when we stand or sit there and just bask in his presence and allow his glory to consume us, speak to God and ask that he might be revealed to you, more and more each time. Go on your knees and just proclaim him, the name of Jesus...that he truly is your salvation, healer, deliverer...friend :-) and when you on your knees, read the first few passages (verses 6 – 9), and allow Him to come and stir up your heart afresh...
Now for some fun and such...
Analogy number one
I spoke about this with some friends last night and one of the girls mentioned it to be quite good. I was like yes and amen, it’s from Holy Spirit cause my made up analogies suck ;-p
Imagine you are in a car driving down a road with like traffic lights. Now naturally you kinda wish and pray for all green lights to make your journey go faster...right, cool.
But on that odd occasion, you want a red light...cause you want to take a bite from your Big Mac, or change the cd or reply to an sms (text message) [or twitter or facebook or msn or mxit or bbm or ...].
Sometimes I believe God wants to give us a red light, a pause break to just kinda say “Hey kid, I’m over here”. It’s in times like these that God desires to re-energise us, to draw us in and down low, it’s a time spent with only you and Him. It’s intimate and personal and yup...so never neglect to sometimes turn down yet another event request or don’t feel too bummed when something you were planning on doing falls through – it might be God giving you a red light...and it’s not that he’s being a party pooper...without Him...there would be no party anyways...BOOM :-)
Analogy number two
Weddings...weddings...weddings. YAY!! I have come to grow very fond of weddings in the past year. I had one in April and then December 2010. Two in January 2011, and one each in February and March = 6 in less than one year...PRAISE GOD!! The word marriage is kinda like (Ryan’s made up) Hebrew for ‘THE GRACE OF JESUS CHRIST IN BRINGING TOGETHER A MAN AND WOMAN.’ Ha ha...but so true.
Those of you who enjoy hanging around me know I enjoy times of soaking in God’s presence. A good way to soak is to lie down in your room or at church whilst being ministered to by worship music and now an alternative to this is to attend a wedding...Jesus loves weddings and it’s really all about God isn’t it...totals, He is the alpha and the omega!!
And so lying on my bed in a time of soaking earlier I saw how a bride would walk down the isle with her father at her side. But I also saw how she would get out of the car, with all the guests waiting inside and walk to the door (alone) and wait for her father to come alongside her and then lock arms (or hands...not sure how its really done).
This was significant to me cause it shows how us, believers, the ecclesia (church)...His bride are not able to enter into the wedding and the feast to come if we do not have the father by our side. We can do everything on our own to get to the wedding, but to take that first step into the wedding ceremony is not something we can ever do alone...we need him, we need Christ!!
And so with that all, I great thee beloved...eish...and wish you a splendid 2011!! God is ready to rock out with you this year like never before. Embrace him, embrace LOVE!!
Yours in this awesome amazing journey of releasing heaven on earth...reezy
