“In the year that somebody you loved died, you go into your temple (your secret place with God), if that is your taste, or you hide your face in the little padded temples of your hands, and a small voice says: ‘Whom shall I send into the pain of a world where people die?’ If you are not careful, you may find yourself answering ‘Send me!’ You may hear the voice say, ‘Then go, just GO!’ –Frederick Buechner
Kingdom journeys are not something to take lightly in any sense. They are meant to test your spiritual boundaries, to push you way beyond your comfort zone, to stretch you in new ways that will be painful at first. If you are new to listening for God’s voice, and still feel some sort of restlessness as if you need to go do something outside of your normal routine, lean forward intently and give God the benefit of the doubt and GO! Remember though, if you are still unsure and your confidence and boldness is waning, consult at least one other believer, if not more, because iron sharpens iron. Plus, it also gives God a chance to speak to you through the other person if He sees that His voice isn’t getting through quite yet. Now, what is the point of a Kingdom journey? Simple; to learn that life itself can be filled with such radical dependence on God, so much so, you will never want to return to a “normal” life ever again. You will be wrecked for the ordinary, and consistently seek out the extraordinary.
Stepping into a Kingdom Journey is also willingly venturing into a whole new world of building relationships with any/all different kinds of people. Or, are you too much of a religious rule follower? Don’t worry, I was one too; just accepting that I was meant to go with the flow, attend service on Sunday, only do community outreach when the whole church was doing so, going on occasional short-term missions and everything in between. The thing is, we spend so much time just doing, going, and still feeling like we aren’t enough; eventually, we start pushing that onto other people in the church. All God wants from us is for us to love Him! That’s it! So simple, so freeing, yet we don’t just do it: we over-think every step of the way. Our heart has to be for him, our desire has to be for Him.
“The Lord says: ‘These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.”-Isaiah 29:13
If you didn’t know this, let it sink in and let it convict you, let it make you uncomfortable; overall though, let Him change you MORE because you do know this now. His grace will/does cover all of my/our/your failings,short-comings and imperfections; this is a treasured gift! Choose relationship over religion, and find the freedom of living in His grace. The fields are ripe for the harvest right now, so why are we so focused on things we can’t possibly hope to change? It may be exactly how we think something is, or maybe it’s nothing like we think it is. Either way, that isn’t the reason God has commanded any of us to go out. He is sending me (in specific) out to find the lost souls who are earnestly seeking Him, those who are in the unreached places, that have never heard the name Jesus. I am meant to be out here, serving Him; I am not meant to be back home, completely focused on situations that I cannot hope to change. The chips will fall where they may, but I know that God’s plan will be done regardless of any circumstances we throw at Him. He is a perfect God, no flaws are found in Him.
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.”-1 Peter 2:24
Do we believe that we are worth His sacrifice? I know that I don’t, nearly on a daily basis. But then He reminds me, in the sweetest way, by sending me a butterfly or two, sometimes more than that in order to show me that it’s okay to feel that way; He sends them as a kiss of reassurance, a simple symbol of His love and His everlasting promise to care for me, to heal me, to provide for me, to be my God of abundance! God knows that we aren’t perfect, he acknowledges that so many times! However, we are still made in God’s image and one day, we will BE that image. He knew us long before we were formed in our mother’s womb, planning out all the days of our life, all that He has in store and all He wants us to accomplish in life; y’all, He knows how many hairs are on your head! What an amazing God we serve! He is far more gracious to us than we are to ourselves; He grows us individually on a daily basis, working on and molding our hearts, chipping away the hardened parts and polishing us up all the time. He works on us endlessly, so why are we so harsh towards ourselves? Tell Him all of your thoughts, even the ones that are positive, and let Him point out where He is in all of them. He freaking loves us, just ask Him!
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.”-1 John 3:1
Taylor, it sounds like you and God have been talking (and you have received some kisses from the King)! Thanks for reminding me of some basic truths that we can so easily forget without constantly abiding in Him. This picture girl, it looks like a picture out of a magazine and you are the supermodel. What???