Waiting in the Wings

For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.

Tag: obedience

To Love and Fear God

“No Other Gods” – by Meghan Williams of Dyed4you Art

Deuteronomy 10:12 (VOICE) And now, Israel, what is the Eternal your God asking of you? Only that you fear Him, live as He wants you to, and love Him; serve Him with every part of you, heart and soul;

For much of my faith journey, I have struggled to understand how a believer can both fear and love God. It always seemed that fear and love were an antithesis to one another. Through many preachers I had been told that God had the right to wipe me from existence for any one of my sins. How could I love and get close to someone who had the power to take my life?

Yet God’s sovereignty is multi-dimensional. He has supreme authority over all of existence, and that means He has as much power to command life as He does to command death. As Judge and King, He sets the rules for what is permissible and what is not permissible. And like the laws of physics, the firmness and truth of His existence and His commandments are not dependent upon our acknowledgement of them. YHVH our God has been, is, and ever will be. We can’t help but have reverential fear for God when we are able to grasp the breadth of His sovereignty.

However, our love for God can also be found as we acknowledge who He is in both character and power. He has a deep understanding of the forces of existence; therefore, He knows which forces bring about life and which ones bring about death. As His children and His heirs, He hasn’t brought us into being only to abandon us to the chaos of creation. He is a Father who has loved us enough to give us His instructions—His Word. That Word is our guide, meant to show us how to remain in God’s light where we will always have access to life.

Our Father and King, calls us to follow Him and walk in the Light. And yet, if we are to follow Him, we must do so with fear and respect for who He is and the authority that He holds. We are to acknowledge God just as we acknowledge our earthly authorities—our parents, teachers, pastors, police officers, military, and so on. We fear these authorities because they have the power to discipline us when we are out of line. And yet, we also love them because they provide for and protect us—our livelihood, future, and safety rest in their hands. How much more ought we both love and fear God, our ultimate Father, Teacher, Judge, and King?

Covenant Partnership

Deuteronomy 7:9 (VOICE) I want you to know that the Eternal your God is the only true God. He’s the faithful God who keeps His covenants and shows loyal love for a thousand generations to those who in return love Him and keep His commands.

As I have walked with God, there have been numerous times when He reaffirms His personal promises to me. When He does this, it is always in a time when my hope in those promises needs some resuscitation. God is so gracious. He knows how hard it is for us to hang onto His promises through the storms of life. He sees all and knows with certainty that His plan for us is good and well worth the wait. But God also knows that we desperately need His strength to hold onto His Word. As difficult as waiting on God can be at times, I have to say that I am always challenged and changed as God reveals Himself to me throughout the waiting process.

One time, when hope was waning in my heart, God showed me how invested He was in His promises to me. In an instant, I saw that the manifestation of my dreams were more than a way for Him to lavish His love and blessings upon me. Yes, He is zealous for me, and I am humbled that He cares enough to have even made such promises. However, I was reminded that through those promises, God had become my covenant partner. Like Noah, Abraham, David, and so many others, God invested His own desires, hopes, and dreams into my promises. And because I love Him so, I gladly made room for Him.

Through the years, I have watched God nurture my dreams like tiny seeds. They have flourished in His hands into something far larger than I could have ever imagined on my own. But in order to continue holding onto His ever-expanding promises, my faith has had to grow too. I am like a woman with child, and my womb has been stretched to capacity! Being pregnant with God’s promises suddenly means that more than just my own life is involved. If I stop believing in God’s promises, I will literally prevent the manifestation of His kingdom on earth.

I often wonder if Abraham understood the gravity of God’s promises to him. Even after the birth of Isaac and facing the sacrifice of his son, could Abraham have imagined what God would do through his descendants? Because Abraham chose to believe and obey God, his faith led to the birth of the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel led to the birth of the Messiah. And the Messiah ultimately has paved the way for the birthing of the sons of God. If Abraham had let go of God’s promises, there would be no gospel. There would be no outpouring of the Holy Spirit. You and I would not get to delight in covenantal union with God.

And this is basically the point of being God’s covenant partner. His kingdom come, His will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. God cares for us so much that He has invested all of Himself in His promises. He is all in. God’s promises are just as much a risk for us as they are for Him. If we do not uphold them through faith, then who will? This means faith in God’s promises is about more than mental ascent—it is about mutuality, trust, loving sacrifice, and it requires radical obedience.

Romans 4:3 (VOICE) because as the Scriptures say, “Abraham believed God and trusted in His promises, so God counted it to his favor as righteousness.”

The Many Dimensions of His Word

Vision 10/16/2017: I felt like I was in space and confined within an invisible box. I moved around inside of the box bracing my feet along all the borders; I wore Wonder Woman’s boots (representing standing on God’s Word). Suddenly, I grew angel’s wings, and I took off out of the box as if it were not there at all. It was as if, by growing wings, I had found a way out of the box. “This is meant to encourage you to grow in seeing details,” the Lord said.

This vision reminded me of videos I watched a few months ago about dimensions. They say that each new dimension in our universe or multiverse is at right angles of the last one. I saw that there was a pun in my vision between the word angel and angle. As I was rotating in the box, it felt like I was rotating and looking for that “right angle” (or righteous angle) until I found a new dimension I could go through concerning God’s Word. I also sensed this represented me growing wings of faith as a messenger of His Word.

Recently, the Lord has been teaching me things about the greater works as I meditate on His Word. He has been allowing me to turn things over and over in my head so that I can ask Him questions. I have looked at the mighty acts of His people in both the Old and New Testaments. I have thought about His saints in recent centuries. I thought about how each new “act” could at times be met with resistance to old religious mindsets. The coming of Christ Himself is just one of many things broke religious boxes.

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Running the Course of His Commandments

Psalm 119:32 (NKJV) I will run the course of Your commandments, For You shall enlarge my heart.

In a vision about a week or so ago, I felt I had come to a new place, something the Lord has called a “short stop”. There was a track and it was in a beautiful wooded area. I felt like this track belonged to a military training school. I knew I was an alumnus of this school, and an officer already. I had come back to this place to rest and prepare for my next assignment.

As time passed, the Lord revisited this vision with me. He reminded me of the above Scripture from Psalm 119. I also had a vision of Him running beside me on the track. “Keep tracking with Me….I shape you. Calm down. Leave these fears alone. Listen to Me and obey. I’m your friend. Where you go, I go. Where else could I be but with My friend? We do everything together.

During this time, I truly feel like I have been running around a track with the Lord. That track has been a place to rehearse His commandments in my mind and to gain a new level of obedience. There have been many words, dreams, and visions I have received over the last few years. I have not had the opportunity to sort through all of them; this has been important since He’s been telling me that some of the promises embedded within them are about to manifest. Also, the events and testing over the last few years have left me feeling a bit shaken. Truly, the Lord knew that I needed this season to heal, regroup, and regain confidence. I needed to weed out the fears that were left rattling around in my head and causing me to hesitate. I needed to be able to hear His voice much more clearly.

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