Joy When Your World Turns Upside-Down

I've been told many times to view prophetic words of encouragement as invitations into prayer rather then as guarantees from God that He will bring about what was prophesied. Perhaps they are an invitation into deeper intimacy with God; into getting to know His heart and into giving time to ask God to bring to pass what has been spoken in the given word of encouragement. If this is true, friends, tell me how you would pray upon receiving a word like the one I'm about to share.

Before I give the explanation that was given with the work of "prophetic art" shown, it's interesting to note that in the past two months three other people have approached me to share very similar words, impressions, or visions they felt the Lord had given to them for me (most of these words were unsolicited and from people uninformed of the details of the things I had personally been laying before God and processing with Him). If ever I doubted, there is no longer any room for me to deny that the Lord truly knows me, sees my heart and circumstances... and cares enough to help prepare my heart for what lies ahead.

Several of the young women I know like to regularly take time to ask the Lord to use them to give words of encouragement from His heart for others. Two weeks ago these ladies got out their art supplies and used their creativity to portray what He brought to mind. Only after the art was completed did the ladies exchange names to discover who their prophetic art piece was for (all of the recipients were to be people that were not present). The one who created the work pictured here chuckled when she saw my name on the paper she'd chosen, confessing that I had come to mind a few times during the exercise, but she had told the Lord she hoped it wasn't for me because my world had already been turned upside-down a few times recently and I probably wouldn't like hearing about more to come.

She sensed that my world was about to be flipped on its head in surprising ways, but that I would be filled with laughter and joy as I followed Jesus in the midst of it all. It was as if the more extreme the intensity of the change, the greater the release of joy.

Friends, I'm not a big fan of frequent change. On the Myers-Briggs personality test I'm an "ISTJ". They claim that I have a "deeply driven desire to promote security and peaceful living," and they are so very right! But God is bigger than personality types and really good at bringing each of us beyond our comfort-zones. He's been doing that repeatedly with me over the past five years and I've learned new things each time the winds of change come along. If this lesson is coming around again, I would love to contend for this prophetic word to be true; that my response would be joy that flows from a heart the trusts that the leadership of my God is perfect and loving.

Another friend recently thought of me when she read a quote from Heidi Baker's book Compelled By Love in the chapter entitled "Blessed are the Meek". "We must all be pliable in the Master's hands. For He wants to turn you upside down in order to turn the world upside down (Acts 17:6). God is saying, 'Lay down more. Lay down.' So there is only one direction in ministry: Lower still."

Lord, as I seek to say "YES!" to the invitation to go "lower still," I pray that You would continually fill my heart with joy and laughter, confident that You alone are in control and completely trustworthy.

Still Want to be Hungry for God?

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Matthew 5:6

Have you ever looked back on heart-felt, yet "dangerous prayers" you've prayed in the past and realized you had no idea what you were really asking for? Back in December I wrote an entry entitled Hungry for God, in fact, this entire blog is intended to be all about the pursuit of a hungry heart after a loving God. While the path I've walked since writing that entry in December has included many rich times with the Lord, there have also been significant challenges... a mini-crucible, if you will.

In the midst of this season I have been increasingly convinced that the Lord is pursuing my heart infinitely more than I am pursuing His. While praying for me recently, one friend said she felt as if God had a big bullseye on my heart and I just needed to sit still and allow Him to hit the target. In God's wisdom and love toward me He seems to be using some testing to increase my spiritual hunger and dependence upon Him... perhaps right on target in answering my very own prayers.

Reading Bob Sorge's Pain, Perplexity, and Promotion A Prophetic Interpretation of the Book of Job, has helped me gain perspective on how and why God uses the crucible to refine those who are pursuing Him. I've found Sorge's principle true in my own journey: gaining understanding of God's purposes for the trials we face helps us respond with a trusting and open heart toward Him. "If you will cooperate with Me... I am giving you the opportunity to discover what extravagant love is all about."

The following excerpts are what prompted my writing of this post today. I pray that they will encourage you on your own journey of growing in hunger for God.

"Perhaps you've prayed. 'Lord, make me hungry for You,' or perhaps you've asked God to make you desperate for Him. I believe those are good things to ask, but we're rarely prepared for how God answers them.

All of us instinctively collect comforts around ourselves to make our lives as free of stress and pain as possible. That's normal and not necessarily wrong. However, some of us have become so comfortable with the good things of this life that we don't feel a compelling need for God's help and intervention. Often it takes sovereign acts of God to pull out from under us the props that keep us comfortable. We pray, 'Lord make me desperate for You,' but then when He removes our support system, we say, 'That's not what I meant, Lord!'

God knows how to make us desperate for Him. He knows how to place a cry deep within our souls. He puts the cry there with the intention of answering it.

I have defined grace as 'God reaching out to man.' Grace is God taking the necessary initiative to draw man unto Himself. It is grace and grace alone that causes man to raise a desperate cry to God, and then it is grace that empowers man to respond and take hold of God. In other words, our coming into the higher things of God is totally His initiative. All we can do is express our need and cry to Him for help. How He answers that cry is all of grace."