Skip to main content

Grand Design

By
The Lord has been talking recently to me about houses and different states of houses.  Some are quirky with all sorts of really cool things that are happening in them, some are being built and are yet unfinished, some the windows are boarded up and need the boards on the windows removed.  Some don’t yet have the power on and it is dark with a thief in the  darkness waiting.  There was one  that was perfect on pretty much everything except the fridge (often represents the heart) was too small.
The initial plan

In the process of thinking about different houses and the different stages each house was at, I thought about the British Programme “Grand Design”.  I love watching this programme and seeing the ideas and the plans and where it originally starts with the dreams and the vision of how it will be, but along the process the building often takes longer than expected, costs run higher than projected, workers come and go, the question of whether to continue comes up and eventually pushed through as they cannot give up and walk away on everything that has already been invested. Often the owner will end up himself finishing the work as they cannot afford to hire anybody.  Everything is put into finishing the project amidst a lot of stress, a lot of questions, a lot of highs and lows as the journey continues.  But in the end you see this finished house, just amazing and you sit there and say – yes it was worth it to see what they have now.   Just beautiful and amazing and as you watch someones else dream become a reality you wish you had the money you could afford to buy it.  
In the process

I believe at the moment the Lord is wanting to encourage people to keep going and to continue to believe in and see the grand design that the Lord has for you in your life and the call he has on your life. It is not yet finished and as it says in James  that ‘perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything.’   The Lord doesn’t want us lacking anything, and like the Grand Design buildings, each one is unique and different from another, none the same and it takes time to perfect, for it to be all that it is meant to be.

I believe there are people who:
  • feel discouraged for whatever reason whether it be a lack of money or a lack of workers to help finish the job.
  • There are those whose hearts have been hurt and broken in their vulnerability and so in the process have put up walls for protection but the Lord wants to come and replace those walls of  protection and make you transparent again trusting in Him for His protection not in the walls that you have put up to protect yourself.
  • There are those who are lacking the power at the moment and have no light and it is dark and the Lord wants to come and bring the light into the darkness.
  • There are those who seem like everything is great and just about perfect but the Lord wants to expand the capacity in your heart.

I believe The Lord also is wanting to teach and cement in us to be a people who walk in the Truth of the Word and not base everything on how we feel or on what we see.  That we need to be a people who walk by faith in the word and not by sight.  Many of us can function from a place on how we are feeling emotionally and emotions are not wrong, but when they take us down a path that does not line up with the truth of God and what He is saying about you or to you or into life, then you are functioning from an emotional place rather than a place of victory in Christ.
Sometimes you can come into a place of self pity instead of looking at Jesus and giving thanks for your situation and your circumstances which when you do this, lifts you out of the miry clay and sets you on a solid foundation, which is and can only be found in Jesus.

I too am seeing that there are those who live from one encounter to the next encounter in the Lord and so when we are not experiencing that ‘encounter’ we believe we are not in communion in Christ and that is a lie that pushes us looking for the next encounter and discouraged when you are not feeling His presence as you have before.  He is always with you and He has never left you, just because you may not experience him or feel Him in a way you want to, does not mean He is not there.  And I believe He is wanting to take people deeper in this arena and teach people to live from the word and truth of His word and not just from the experience or the encounter.

Prayer:
So Lord I pray for each and every one in the different situations.  Lord come and minister to the broken hearted, to those who have been discouraged and needing your encouragement right now.  Meet them today with you love and your provision and your grace, which is enough to meet all our needs.  Lord release breakthrough where breakthrough is needed.  Lord give them joy in the journey.  Bring around them people who would encourage and help in whatever way they need help today.  Thank you Lord that you hear our cry.
Psalm 10:17;
The finished house!
“You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted, you encourage them and you listen to their cry.
Lord thank you that you fight the battles for us and so we hand them over to you our every situation and we trust you to come and refresh and renew us in your love.
Zeph 3:17  
"The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will renew you in His love; He will exult over you with loud singing" (NRSV)
Thank you Jesus that you are teaching us not only to live from encounter to encounter but from the truth of your word that sustains us and encourages us on in you.
Thank you Jesus!


Popular posts from this blog

Obedience and Commitment are big things in Gods Kingdom

By
Reading in Acts 7 this morning the story through Stephen of Abraham being told by God to " Leave your country and your people and go the the land I will show you"   So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living.  He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground.  But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child." As I reflected on this and the journey of Abraham stepping out in faith into a land that he received no inheritance in but a promise of what was to come for his descendants of which we live in the fruit of that, I thought of todays generations in which often is only doing things that we want to do or that will benefit us personally as we live for 'today' not worrying about tomorrow.  A sense of if it feels good then do it, if it doesn't then we will move on -  perhap...
Read more
By
I shared last night about 1 Cor 15:36 "What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body..." I was preaching on it last night and it will come up in video form later in the week on the GRM sight, mainly reflecting on we can sow things one way, but God raises it up as HE determines how it should look. But this morning I got more revelation which will be quite obvious to some, but to me it struck me afresh. When we sow something it get's buried, it cannot be pulled back up. It no longer has 'connection' with 'me' if you like. It gets 'covered over' unable to be pulled up. And yet I recognise in my own life how we can sow something but there are still 'strings attached' as such as we often are still determining or expecting it be rai...
Read more

What do Kingdom finances look like?

By
I was asked by someone the other day what Kingdom finances looked like and I realised that this is an area that needs some discussion. This is my opinion of what Kingdom finances look like according to what the Lord has taught me over the years and to scriptures I have been shown, but I am not the be all and end all to thinking, so it is something you might want to check out for yourselves. The way of the world is to store up riches, to save for a rainy day, to have enough to protect themselves should something happen, that I have earned this and it is mine and therefore I can do what I want with it. The way of the Kingdom is a way of giving to the poor, giving to God's people in need and practicing hospitality, of not worrying about tomorrow, of trusting God for the future and His provision in that time of need when it arises, of everything is His (God's). I believe that if you see a need in front of you and you have something in which can help with that need, whatever it is,...
Read more

Arise & Shine, let your voice be heard

By
To speak or not to speak – this is the question? Or perhaps it should be ‘how to speak?’ We live in a world where the rights of man are rising, the voices of differences of opinion are growing stronger and louder.   The justice of the world, right and wrong as seen through our own eyes, starting to arise.  I n this nation of NZ where "tall poppy syndrome' has been an issue as the accepted norm of the past, people are breaking out, rising up and learning to use their voice.   As rightly we ought as Christians.  All good things to happen, all needed to happen.   For the bride to stand, awaken and arise and to shine for righteousness and justice.    To stand up for the poor and needy, to speak on behalf of those who can't. With anything new, you have the swings in the spectrums as we all learn how to walk in a new way.   We say things more strongly than we ought, or perhaps we say things weaker where watering it down and don’t come across to effe...
Read more

Position yourself - a declogging of the coffee machine!

By
Something else that came this morning in regards to positioning yourself for the Lord. As I woke up this morning I had some lemon with hot water as as drink that cleanses my system and then I cleaned out my coffee machine with some white vinegar to get rid of all the bits that were clogging it up.  When I did this I felt the Lord speaking to me that I need a bit of 'cleansing', a bit of 'unclogging' the things in me that have got a built up over time that need the Holy Spirit running through me to unclog those things, so that I am completely cleansed and available for Him to do what he wants to do through me.  What are some of the things that are 'clogging up' the free flow of the Holy Spirit pouring out and through you that perhaps you might need some cleansing of?   We are more than happy to cleanse our bodies by doing a detox but how about doing a detoxifying, if you like, of our souls so that we are positioned for all that the Lord wants to do in and t...
Read more

"A man's enemies will be the members of his own household" Matt 10:36

By
Recently we have been pondering how to deal with situations in our family that don't line up with the word. What action do we need to take?  Are we being too harsh?  Do we accept the behaviour or be considered by those around us as "too radical" or "too black and white"?  "Where is grace in all of this? How do we love the sinner but hate the sin?  What about forgiveness?  What is the role of discipline?   What makes that sin any worse than lying?  What is true love?  And there are a lot more questions going through the mind in how to work through this and know God's will and desire for the situation and the person. And firstly to say we have not come to any conclusions and are growing and learning day by day in this but I want to throw it out there. In Matt 10:34-39 says "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth.  I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to turn "a man against his father, ...
Read more