IHOP Atlanta

Sometimes my heart overflows with love when I think of those God has put around me. Sometimes He gives me little glimpses of what He sees in a few of His, and my heart can’t seem to hold it. The phrase, “my cup overflows”, becomes so real to me when I think about how He loves me through earthen vessels. He’s put a desire in my heart to learn to love others deeply. Not superficially or conveniently, but deeply. As I walk in the prayer room, He sweetly lays out plans for me to demonstrate His love and I just smile, knowing His plans are so good and prosperous. They give others hope and a future. He has worked plans for our lives before we were even here. How intricately those plans are woven into our lives! Only He knows the value and life-saving qualities He gives when we obey His sweet plans. He has made preparations IN ADVANCE for us to do. Are we running after His plans for our moments here during this short earthly internship He’s given us? Are we asking for His specific plans for us to accomplish blessing His chosen ones? Here is the picture that I’m seeing as I write: In hotels, there is a map on each and every room door that is an emergency plan of escape. There is usually a red line with directions instructing where you are (YOU ARE HERE) and moving towards the outside safe place in the event of a fire or other emergency. Now, there may not be an emergency that we’re escaping, but maybe to someone else, He’s using you to rescue them. He has plans for us showing exactly where we are in Him and directing us to where He wants us to go. Every day, in His new mercies, He lays out a plan of obedience for us. Turns out that it’s also a plan of attack on His enemy - He’s good at that kind of thing- dual purposes. His plan of attack rockets through our lives as we love each other deeply. We EXtinguish one fiery dart after another when we choose to love deeply. When we choose to love unselfishly and when it’s inconvenient to our own schedules, we put out the flames of His enemies. In Paul’s first letter to Timothy, Paul lays out commands and charges to him. He commands Timothy to put his hope in God, to do good, to be rich in good deeds, generous and willing to share. “In this way you will lay up treasure for yourself as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that you may take hold of the life that is truly life.” What are God’s plans for you today? Who will He lead you to love deeply today? In another place, Peter clearly spells it out for us. In chapter 4 of his first letter, he is writing about the nearness of the end of all things. He admonishes us that ABOVE ALL, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins. He instructs us to offer hospitality to others, without grumbling! He goes so far as to say to serve one another with whatever gifts we’ve received and by doing so, we’re faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. Imagine that, we can give out God’s grace through our loving service to others. Does He have plans for us or what? Our only fitting response to Him is to love His own DEEPLY! Let’s practice on each other! Go, get busy loving! Love deeply!

Recently at the House of Prayer, the Lord has been showing me the importance of “waiting on Him.” This seems like such a waste of time to the world and to our souls. Why would I just sit with Jesus when there are tons of other things I could do for Him or study about Him?

This reality baffled Martha, but Jesus tried to help her and make it clear that what Mary was doing was more profitable when He said “only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Even as I read Luke 10:38-42 at this moment, I am encouraged to continue cultivating the discipline of simply sitting with Jesus and listening to Him. In our lives we can get worried and bothered by many things, but only one thing is needed. It is this place of intimacy with Je-sus that true life is imparted. His words are full of grace and truth, and they are spirit and life to us (John 1:14, 6:63, Psalm 45:2). We must learn the simplicity of sitting with our Beloved just to be with Him. Our spirit longs to rest, and many times in the word we are exhorted to rest in the Lord or wait on the Lord, for He is our strength (Psalm 46:10, Is. 8:7, 40:31).

Learning to wait is so hard, and yet, so rewarding. I am becoming more and more convinced about what Paul says in Galatians 6:8 that “He who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap eternal life.” I am seeing that in all that we do in God, whether it is meditating, reading the word, singing the word, praying, or waiting on the Lord, we are sowing into our spiritual garden. Many times I don’t perceive what is happening in my spirit, but I continually set myself before the Lord in these disciplines, knowing that even if I don’t feel or see any results at the time of the activity, I am setting myself up for future encounter. There is such beauty in the principal of sowing and reaping. I sow a little now and I reap a lot later, much in this life and even more in the ages to come.

With this in mind, the place of waiting is also a place of weakness. Many times I will sit with Jesus, but nothing seems to happen. Neither do I hear His voice (the word doesn’t connect with me), nor do I feel Him at all (my emotions are not stirred). I feel very weak in this place of waiting, but each time I sit with Him I believe that He is changing me from the inside out, even when I cannot perceive anything to be happening. But then at a future time, His presence becomes so close, so that all the times of what seemed to be barrenness were worth it when He comes. Thus, whether I can sense His presence or not, I believe that He is changing me from glory to glory as I gaze on Him and sit with Him (2 Cor 3:18).

I have learned over time that He wants to meet with me so much more than I want to meet with Him. We have to begin to believe that He wants to come and touch us more than we want Him to touch us, for He first loved us, and because of His love we now love Him (1 Jn 4:19). An evangelist I know named Graham Cooke once said, “We in the western world get so caught up in our evangelical mindset of reaching out to God, when all the time God wants us to rest in His word and wait on Him so that He can touch us.” As we believe that He first loved us and gave Himself for us, we will be freed up to just sit with Him, be with Him, and not do all of the things we think we have to get done in our time of devotion with the Lord. Jesus declares His longing for us to be with Him when He prayed “Father, I desire that those you have given me may be with me where I am” (Jn 17:24). It is His desire for us that will strengthen us and give us peace to simply wait on Him and find the peace that He left for us (Jn 16:33).

From the place of intimacy with Jesus, we will be able to do all that we do in this life better! As He loves us, we are able to love Him back and fulfill the first commandment of loving God! His love also opens up our hearts to then do the second commandment well. Loving our neighbors is so much easier when we daily encounter His everlasting, unfailing, and perfect love. Let us get back to the simplicity of sitting with and waiting on Jesus just to be with Him, for He has everlasting pleasures (Psalm 16:11)