Yeshua

Based on a true story

A chill spread through me as I stepped into the Gospels and walked into the Garden of Gesthemane. I saw Yeshua wrapped in the warm glow of the moon, head bowed, hair hanging off His face. He was in the midst of a fierce battle, lips furiously moving, the picture of the fight that comes with costly surrender.

This was the place where the Word became flesh carried the cross before carrying the cross, where He swallowed the cup of sin and suffering before He suffered.

He lifted His head and I saw blood mixed with sweat pour from His face as His agony becomes tangibly evident even in His voice, “If you will, let this cup pass over me.”

And I think He saw me standing there fragile, frail, flawed and in desperate need of redemption and He added “Nevertheless not my will but your will be done Father.” In His honesty and complete obedience, He was strengthened to suffer for me. That was it. The victory was won before the battle began.

It was finished before it was finished.

He stood up resolute with an ocean of peace brimming over in His eyes.

It wasn’t long before they came for Him and led Him from High Priest to Pilate to Herod and back to Pilate. No fault was found in Him and yet He was whipped till His flesh tore and His back ripped to pieces. The pure divine Son of God exchanged for a murderer.

God is love. Love is patient

A crown of thorns pierces His head

Love is kind

“Father forgive them for they know not what they do”

I wondered if He would call the legions of angels to surround Him as He removes Himself from the cross. I wondered if the grief of momentary separation from the Father would crush Him first before the blood loss and physical exhaustion. But still He stayed till He was emptied of breath. Why?

I think He saw me at the foot of the cross 2000 years later, the reward of His suffering; forgiven, justified by His sacrifice, dressed in His righteousness, reconciled to God and a partaker of the divine nature. I think He saw the Father’s delight in gaining many sons. I think He saw the joy and glory that was set before Him. I think His heart was bursting with love for me and it was love that held Him to the cross.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. This love requests nothing in return just that I abide in His love.

God on a cross chased me down and captured me despite how far I ran from Eden.

Unchanging

The world lulls into stillness all around us. The stillness unbearable for many as it holds resounding silence echoing suspended, deferred plans and imminent danger. Our world held ransom and humbled by a virus bringing us to an unexpected historic standstill. Fear and anxiety threaten to choke our hearts, climb over our walls and sink us.

It’s a different world but it’s still the same. Our position as co-heirs has not changed, we are still branded by the love of Christ, His name still etched on our hearts, we are still sealed by the Spirit for eternity. Our purpose to delight in Christ alone has not changed. God is still sovereign, that has not changed.

God’s wrath has been exhausted on Christ whom we are hidden in. We are hidden in the wings of the Sun of righteousness, safely sheltered. Our lives are hid in Christ in God, this life we live is not ours in the first place, it’s His life He’s living through us so we do not hold tightly to our lives as such, we know that He holds on to us more than we can hold on to ourselves.

We must resist the temptation to replace joy with despair, we insist on joy, whether trouble is far or near. Christ is our peace and our joy. No matter what happens. He is our desire and our destiny. It’s not the outcome that brings joy, it’s His presence with us always. With joy we draw strength and victory from the wells of Salvation.

“Rejoice in the Lord always” Apostle Paul writing from prison and we seem to be caged in by this menance, let us also like him continue to rejoice in our inheritance-Jesus. For He is always with us. Unchanging. Unending. He is with us now and always and that is enough. Here or on the other side of eternity, He remains our song of desire.

So we give our uncertainties and fears to love and watch Him rain down love and healing . Our expectations are not cut short, they are surpassed in love. For all we have hoped and still hope for even in the quiet and the silence , we see Love working a miracle , we see the hand of Providence building mansions from these ruins. For all who suffer, there is hope for life and restoration in the now but also in the hereafter.

Let us hold fast our confession and do the work of Him who sent us while it is yet day that is the ministry of reconciliation remembering that we are redeemed to serve others with everything that we’ve been given. Each day a precious opportunity to do the Father’s will. No matter what happens, Christ is Lord indeed over all.

Christ has defeated death by death and in so doing tasted death for everyone who believes in Him such that we are no longer held in bondage by the fear of death. (Heb2:10 ). This earth will be folded up like a cloth and we will reign with Him forever. This is why our purpose in life is to worship and not store up earthly treasure or put confidence in these things which are physical and will definitely pass away. Our spiritual and eternal security lies in Christ alone.

It’s not a time to mock or talk down on people who are legitimately afraid of death, now is the time to speak the truth of the gospel in love and draw men to Christ. So when we are asked the reason for this confident hope- we point them to Christ. We are not rebellious to the point of insisting that the world must end or we’ll go to be with Lord by force when He says it’s not yet time. We still have territories to conquer in His name. We still have work to do on earth and we are here for these purposes right now.

We are not afraid because we know that Christ has overcome and is Lord indeed. Where does He want us, not trying to propagate the enemies works, not wasting precious time unbundling conspiracies but here in His arms. That’s where He wants us, that our pursuit in life should be this-delighting in Him, just here feeling the warmth of His smile.

Our call to worship, glorify and magnify the risen King has not changed. The name of Jesus is still above all other names. Christ is still Lord over all the earth. The angels and elders in heaven are still worshiping and we must join them in joyful worship for He is still our beloved the most beautiful among thousands and thousands.

Certainty in Uncertainty

In ruminating on the new year, there was a verse that popped into my heart, Paul’s words in Acts20:22-23

“And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me.”

‭‭Acts‬ ‭20:22-23‬ ‭ESV‬‬

As I read, I sought clarity but I realized that what the Holy Spirit was leading me to was not the exact words Paul spoke, it was Paul’s posture. his heart and complete surrender, the resolution and acceptance that he might not know what exact events or the exact timings of the things bound to happen to him in the next phase of his journey but he was ready to go anywhere as directed by the Spirit because he was sold out to Christ.

What’s the point? Not to get troubled or get worked up about every single day, about things that might or might not happen in 2020.

There are some things I could see happening in 2019 and some I didn’t envisage at all. There were many ways that I was stretched and grown in this year, there are things I stumbled upon and the father’s strength and wisdom that I delved into not because I planned or plotted but by simply focusing solely on Him.

So again as much as God will show us glimpses of what awaits us in the new year, as much as we plan and project, we simply cannot account for every second and every minute , we cannot name every challenge we’ll face, every breakthrough that’ll happen, where there’ll be valleys or mountains, the promises that we’ll enter into, the blessings we’ll receive however there are some things we can say with certainty as the Spirit witnesses within us, which is that He’ll never leave us for a second.

That in this world, we’ll have tribulations but he has overcome them all.

That His love will not end. His love will not fail. He won’t let go of us. That His plans for us are good .

That He’ll love us as we are but he’ll change us as a Father that desires to see His children grow.

That the richness and treasure of intimacy with Him will be our pursuit and every other thing will follow behind. That He’ll hold on tightly to us. That every purpose in His heart towards us which is good will be fulfilled.

That the poems He’s written on our hearts will never fade, the love songs inscribed on our hearts will never end. That we’re engraved on His palms, enfolded in His arms never to fall off. That He’ll keep captivating us with His beauty so that worship pours out from us continuously, that we remain utterly surrendered to His mighty ways.

That as we remain anchored in His love, His joy will keep flowing as rivers of living waters flow out of us. Heaven will keep streaming in, eternity will keep being our waitful joy. That as we rest and sit at the throne of grace, we receive so much more than we could have ever imagined.

Dear co-heirs, as He has called us into a season of rest, let us rest from our works and focus on Him.

Diversity in the body

Hey there co-heir👋🏽. There’s something that keeps you awake at night, it’s purpose burning in your bones- a place God has called you uniquely to stand, love, serve and demonstrate Him to the world. Pictures of a future that God has planted in your heart keep flashing, there’s a tug on your heart, a burden you can’t quite shake pulling you in a particular direction. For some of us it isn’t conventional and we’re eventually bullied out of purpose by traditions and expectations of men that make us take what God has shown us and try to fit it into a particular frame of what the world, even believers consider mainstream but your purpose is your purpose even if no human understands it.

“Think of it this way. If the whole body were just an eyeball, how could it hear sounds? And if the whole body were just an ear, how could it smell different fragrances? But God has carefully designed each member and placed it in the body to function as he desires.”

1 Corinthians 12:17-18 TPT

If my entire body was filled with ears and I didn’t have a tongue I wouldn’t be able to taste ice cream( that’ll be terrible), I wouldn’t be able to taste the varieties of dishes that leave me breathless. If I didn’t have ears, I’d never be able to feel the sonorous percussion of Steffany Gretzinger’s voice hit my eardrums or have such ethereal experiences listening to music.

The same way in the body of Christ, God has created us with diverse giftings and contributions to the body so we all grow into full maturity but this is designed in such a way that we are edified by you fulfilling your specific purpose. We are strengthened to fulfill our own callings when we experience the distinct kind of beauty and wisdom from God that you display. Sometimes people look at you as weird and ask questions but all that matters is God’s instructions, following the leading of His Spirit while rebelling against the tide. Don’t hide because the world cannot comprehend it yet, dive deep into the fullness of all you were created to be in Christ

The body was fashioned to be interdependent, we’re to come with our different, diverse colors and shapes painting masterpieces for the kingdom demonstrating His love and grace in the capacity that He’s given us.

Don’t rob us of the magic you carry, don’t hold back no matter how unconventional your calling looks. It is God that has called you knowing your background, experiences and personality, He called you with all these in mind to edify us. We really do need you.

Learning Joy

A while ago, I was studying the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians. I dashed through the list trying to figure out which ones were evident in my life and I got stuck on Joy.

I kept asking myself “Do I have joy?”

It had never come into my consciousness that I had not really dwelt on Joy as a fruit of the spirit.

Trust the Holy Spirit to always hit hard, He said “They have misrepresented joy to you and now you think you do not have it.”

Why did it take some time for me to affirm that I had joy? If the Spirit has taken up residence in me, doesn’t that mean I’ll always have everything He comes with?

I had been shown a parody of joy, a wrong picture and now I had to exhume the wrong things and focus on the right things.

These Spiritual realities; Love, Joy, Peace are already present in our spirits when we received the new birth, when we received the nature of God but we have to be trained daily in the art of dwelling in them by The Spirit no matter the external circumstances.

Joy is not picture perfect insta stories, it’s not pretty clothes or shoes, it’s not tied to the presence or absence of material substances.

It’s in counting the victories and not the days, it’s relishing the simple things, the many subtle ways we have grown while abiding in the fullness of Christ by the Spirit

Joy is not always ecstatic laughter or giggles. It can be peaceful , reflective, hopeful

Joy is both a state of being and a choice. A choice to accept all that Christ is and all that He has given us, a choice to focus on the riches of Christ above all else.

There’s a constant and consistent flow of joy surging through our spirits. It’s up to us to plug in.

I now find in my journey exuberant joy in suffering and quiet joy in abundance. I find myself learning Joy at the feet of my Father.

Prisoners of hope

Return to the stronghold, 

You prisoners of hope. 

Even today I declare 

That I will restore

 double to you.”

Zechariah 9:12 NKJV

A prayer 

Lord we pray to be so imprisoned by hope that we cannot help but see light where bleakness lies. 

To only see deliverance where others see death. To only see abundance where the world sees lack.

To only see possibilities where impossibilities lie.

To become captured by the higher thoughts of God and our minds washed in His perspective so that we only see beauty no matter how ugly things look.

To be so filled with the knowledge of God, of His past dealings, all the ways He made and how He has always rescued us that the scriptures and our spirits constantly witness ‘He can’t help but save, that He has never broken a promise and none of His words have ever fallen to the ground.’

To be so filled with the thoughts of God that we see the future the way He sees it through the our redemption by the blood and know that only glory lies ahead. To be so captured by hope that there’s only one option no matter how heavy life gets, that our God will burst through with glory and bring double for our troubles. 

Amen

The Journey Begins

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton