Perfect Timing part 5
I don't necessarily like to start a Rant by quoting a Bible verse, or passage. So I usually ramble a little bit and then quote it. Like so. "...we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better. We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light" (Colossians 1:9-12 NLT). Pretty much all I want to say today. But it's kind of a lot, so let's focus on a few keys. The first being prayer. My favorite verse in the Bible is 1 Thessalonians 5:17, "Pray without ceasing." Not because I think we should neglect everything and anything else and spend all our time in vain repetitions, but because I think we need prayer--talking to our heavenly Father and LISTENING to Him--to be a central theme in our lives. The more we focus on that relationship, the more everything else in our life will sort itself out. Seek first the Kingdom and all the things that have been added to you will BE added to you. The next is COMPLETE knowledge and understanding. Because we have an unction from the Holy One and we know all things. But we don't always understand everything we know. It's an everlasting-life-long journey into the heart of the matter. Which is God's heart beating in our chests. Beating with love. We continue to learn and grow as He continues to reveal His love to us, and in us, and through us, and as us. It's a maturation process as we go from glory to glory. Next is patience. Because God's timing is absolutely perfect. He knows what you need, and almost just as importantly He knows WHEN you need it. When you can handle it. So there's an aspect of patience that comes into play. God is a now God. And everything we need is available to us. The trick is for US to be available to Him. To know and believe the love of Christ. To know what's inside and in that way let it come out. Which is where joy comes in. Drawing from the well (which WE are) with joy. We don't praise God in order to get Him to do stuff. We praise God because He's already done stuff. Because He is worthy of our praise. When we try to take the Kingdom through the violence of human effort we miss out on the gift we've been given. When we bang our heads against the wall we only end up with a headache. And the last part: Enabled to share in the inheritance. If you don't know what you've got you can't enjoy it. Or experience it. But we are being led--by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth--into all truth. We are discovering what we've got. Not by trying to get it, but by walking in faith and giving it away! By SHARING it. By giving (because love IS giving) what we've got. And in that way proving to ourselves that we've got. And that we know what to do with it. God's timing is perfect. And it manifested in fulness over 2,000 years ago. So now we can receive it... and release it!