There are times when God just blows my mind. I know He’s wonderful, I know He’s good, I have the adjectives, the adverbs and the superlatives, but sometimes, sometimes, I am lost for words. We worship a transcendent God who became immanent, and my, sometimes He does get personal. This great love we sing about translates into individualized attention and extreme kindness, tenderness and love towards one person. Two beautiful conversations brought it home to me afresh these past two days.
Yesterday someone called and we talked. We recalled how several months ago, I had walked up to them towards the end of the service one day and begun to prophesy; I spoke of God’s commitment to their success, the fear of failure, and other issues in their life; it was strong, it was definite, and, it was a surprise. I mean after all I had heard glowing reports of how all was well with them, and I thought, what’s up with this word? Well, I was to find out later that all was far from well; a couple of days before they had experienced a major setback and were now concerned about their future.
For two days they had been asking God what would become of them, feeling lost and bewildered. And so they were utterly stunned, albeit relieved when I walked up to them and began to speak. They were deeply moved and grateful that God would give them such personal attention and speak into their situation even though I had no idea what was happening. As they walked through the tough period that followed, even when hope seemed scant, they would remember that God had Himself been forthcoming and given them an unexpected promise that all would be well. All because He cares. And when they called yesterday it was to give me news of breakthrough. Oh the extreme kindness of our loving God.
The other occasion was two days ago, again a case of extreme kindness and personalized attention. I was minding my business in prayer at our prayer meeting when God gave me a prophetic word for one of my close associates. It seemed to have a life of its own, it was one of those words that gushed forth unbidden, flowing and beautiful. The tenderness of the heart of the Father was near tangible, the content was unexpected, the style most intimate and caring. As I prophesied I marvelled, God seemed so determined to speak, and i felt later that had I shut my mouth, it might have still come forth anyway, don’t ask me how; it was that powerful. The recipient of course was in tears. I thought okay, prophecy time, want to talk to someone else like this Lord? Nope. He was done. Hm.
And there I was thinking afterwards, what a humdinger; God, what is the deal; okay, we love them, they are beautiful, they are faithful; they are all that, but that word, my, and, why single them out for such a humongous word? Don’t you think the others may feel left out? Saturday I was still marvelling, even spoke of it with someone else, both of us still awed by the depth and tenderness of the word. Well Sunday, I had my answer. They came to speak to me about some stuff they had had to deal with during the week, the God honouring, covenant honouring decisions they had arrived at, despite the price to be paid. They had been crying out to God for encouragement; and my, did they get it.
It was an Ah! moment for me. I had my answer, and I was humbled, humbled by the kindness on God, His insistence on letting them know that He was personally watching over them, that they were not losing out by choosing the path of excellence and faithfulness; I was grateful that I had been in a frame of mind to receive the word of the Lord whereas I had myself come under spiritual attack the night before. That God would take such trouble in such a situation to encourage His child about their life! With the war in Afghanistan ongoing and the rebel problem in Eritrea to resolve, plus the fate of the Uyghurs, He still leaned over and whispered words of love and encouragement to one lone child in a music studio in Paris. This is nothing short of extreme kindness.
He’ll give you the personalised treatment today if you open your heart to Him. Shalom.
“And sometimes the stench gets really bad, and when we feel we are being overpowered by it, we act like the skunk complaining that the river is polluted. We point fingers at others, break off decent relationships, gossip, slander, deepen the grey, and intensify the stench; making others even less inclined to seek us out.”
I love this! Now if we can just get this from our heads to our hearts we might actually begin the journey toward transformation.
I was the recipient in that little music studio last saturday. For more than a week I had had one of my most difficult tests with God. I was being offered what I had always prayed for, but I was convinced in my heart that it was not the perfect will of God for me, that He had better. But this looked so much like what I had been praying for that I had to pray and cry to God to keep me from accepting this offer. Thank God, he helped me say “no” with many tears. I said “God help me be faithful to you, and to Your call on my life. So many lives depend on it. God help me to even forget about my dreams” But God is so good, he indeed, in the middle of our prayer meeting, wanted to personnally tell me he had seen my faithfulness and that my dream was not over… Pastor said things that were so deep in my heart and that nobody knew but God. Wow, as Ps Bola says it : “That God would take such trouble in such a situation to encourage His child about their life! With the war in Afghanistan ongoing and the rebel problem in Eritrea to resolve, plus the fate of the Uyghurs, He still leaned over and whispered words of love and encouragement to one lone child in a music studio in Paris. This is nothing short of extreme kindness.” I am speechless. I just want to encourage each one of you to make the right decisions even though it may cost you your Isaac, because God is faithful and cares about your sacrifices. HE CARES! WOW!