Creation..... not reaction!

My daughter turned 17 today. Well, if we were to be exact, she will be turning 17 in another thirty minutes. I’m so grateful to God for the precious gift of this one girl child that I have. She is such an amazing blessing. She’s not however the subject of my post today, even though she inspired it. I just couldn’t imagine that my first post in so long would fall on her birthday and I wouldn’t take a few minutes to hail the One Who saw fit to bless me with her in the first place. All the glory is your alone, Lord!

So I had called her this morning, sang a birthday song and then prayed for her from my heart as the Lord led. She smiled her usual quiet smile and said her thanks. Then she said, ‘So I am born on this day 17years ago’. I corrected her and said, not ‘I am born’ but ‘I was born’, to which she smiled and said something to the effect that she knew exactly what she was saying. And you know what, it didn’t take but a minute for the Lord to begin to unpack that simple sentence for me.

Sis, do you remember that when Moses asked the Lord in Exodus 3 v 14 what he should say if Pharaoh asked who sent him, God said to Moses ‘Tell them that I AM has sent me to you’. The Lord reminded me that He is the ‘I AM’. He reminded me that He is the God Who calls forth the end from the beginning; that He is the God Who knew us every before we were fashioned in our mothers’ wombs; the God Who has orchestrated the times and seasons of our lives before the foundations of the earth; the God Who has numbered our days, Who knows us so intimately as to be familiar with every single hair on our heads.

And as the Lord ministered these to me, He told me that my daughter was right because her ‘I AM’ was purposed to be brought forth into manifestation on the 17^th of May 2000, and this had been established from the foundations of the earth. He reminded me that she didn’t come into existence because I labored and pushed her out of my womb on that day. No sis, she came into being in human form on that day because it was the set time that God had appointed for her spirit man, her I AM, to manifest in a mortal body in accordance with His purpose and for His glory.

As the Lord spoke this to me, He also reminded me about something I had read in Mark Batterson’s book ‘In a pit with a lion on a snowy day’. I honestly can’t remember the exact context in which he was speaking, and neither do I have the book close by right now for reference purposes; but I do recall that he was saying something about creation and people’s reactions, and it suddenly hit me that ‘Creation’ and ‘Reaction’ have exactly the same letters in them, though in different order. What has this got to do with anything? Hear me out sis, just hear me out.

Sis, if you and I truly believe in this God that we serve…. If we truly believe…. Then we need to settle in our spirits that there are certain things in our lives that carry creation’s mandate, things for which you and I have no hand in or control over. Do you remember that the Word in Colossians 1 v 17 tells us that He is before all things, and in Him and through Him do all things consist? That all things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him was not even one thing made that has come into being (John 1 v 3)? Sis, if we truly believe the Word, we should settle in our spirits that our lives and times are in His hands, and as such we should check our reactions to the situations and circumstances which we find ourselves in the course of our sojourn on this earth.

The Lord never promised us an easy ride, sis. He didn’t! He was very upfront t about the fact that ‘in the world you will have tribulation’ wasn’t He? But do you remember what followed? It was ‘But be at peace, for I have overcome the world’. Sis, the message to you and I is that in our good times, our quiet times, as well as in the times of our seasons and storms; we should set our focus on Creation’s mandate and allow our reactions be those of submission to a God Who has promised to uphold us with His mighty right hand of righteousness. I was listening to someone minister yesterday who said that if we would consider carefully, none of us can remember at all or in sufficient details, the things that were troubling us on this specific day and time last year and much less the year before. I believe what God was reminding me this morning was to again cast my cares and fears on Him, because He has cared enough for me to have sorted it all out from the foundations of the earth.

Sis, God is saying to you today that He does not need you to try to help Him by your worrying. It’s hard, I know. Oh boy, do I know! But this is why He takes the time to come back to us with reminders and words of encouragement time and again, sis. He knows we are but human, and He knows we can’t do this on our own so He is mindful to speak peace to our spirits over and again. The challenge with God’s peace is that while it is available, we must take it! I love that scripture that says that God’s voice is louder than the sound of many waters (Psalm 93 v 4). It just reminds me that when the many storms of life are raging, I only need to reconnect with the voice of the I AM that is within me, and His small still voice will speak louder than the sounds of the waves buffeting the shores of my life. It is that small still voice that speaks a ‘Peace, be still’ to my spirit and allows me to stay above even when all seems to be falling apart at the seams.

Sis, God is saying that the good things that happen to you are not strange to Him, and the challenges you have and will face are and will not be strange to Him either. He is asking you to gauge your reactions to the things that come at you for good or bad and ask if you are truly walking in faith. I know I have shared with you before something I heard from Pastor Stephen Furtick who said that ‘Faith and Fear have their root in the same thing …in Focus!’. Sis, can you and I come back to focusing on Creation’s word concerning us and take our focus off the fear that causes us to react as though we are not already helped?

A couple of days ago, I was speaking on Facetime with my husband who was away in Houston. I couldn’t see Him clearly and I said as much to him. He had responded to say that the lighting was bad in his room. I remember I had laughed and I said to him that I was going to blog about what ministered to me in that instance. You see sis, he could see me with absolutely clarity because I was enshrouded by light, being in a very bright well lit room. I on the other hand couldn’t see him clearly because the light in the room was above his head. I asked him to lie down, looking up to the light, such that the camera was illuminated by the light flooding from the ceiling. He changed position, and I could see him as clear as day.

Here is what the Lord said I should leave you with, sis. His light is available to illuminate the dark places of your life, to give clarity where you cannot see clearly, to bring you into prominence where situations are preventing your gifts from manifesting visibly. But He needs us to look up, sis. He needs us to change position. He needs us to move into the place of submission to the light of He Who is Creation Himself, so that He can make our pathways of life shine brighter and brighter. He wants us to react less and trust more, sis. That is His word today. He asks that I again leave you with this, ‘My peace is available to you. Take it’

Sis, it is in the place of creation that purpose manifests, that our gifts make room for us to the fullest extent. And in this season, God is looking for us to manifest our ‘I AM’ to the max. There are things God spoke from the foundation of the earth sis, but He needs you and I to be in the position to pull down the spiritual word, the Creation mandate, into a physical manifestation.

I don’t know about you, but I honestly look forward to a daily spiritual growth and maturation that has me reacting less to the ebbs and flows of life, and trusting more in my Creator to work all things out for His glory. The Lord will help you sis, as assuredly as He will help me.

Be blessed sis…. For you surely are!