Power is in God's Word

Several weeks ago, when Matt Unruh was teaching on a Sunday morning while Bill was away, he challenged Gracepointers by asking, “Do you covet God’s power in your life/ministry?” In my spirit, I answered an unequivocal, “Yes!” and I prayed for His power. I was confident that God would answer my prayer, I just had no idea the logistics of how God was going to answer.

Following that Sunday, as the weeks and days went by, God affirmed in me that His power is found in the Bible. Actually, I felt God say to me, as clear as having an audible conversation, “My power is found in my Word.” So, now I know where to get it, but where do I find the time? Like most people, our schedules are so full that even though I have the desire, I just don’t know how to devote extra time into something without something else having to give.

At the end of May, the Women’s Ministry team went away to Sun Peaks (courtesy of Dianne Finn for the use of her condo) for a planning weekend. First thing on Saturday morning, we had an amazing time of prayer where each woman present was prayed for and God opened up the heavens and released a specific word for each woman. Then, after lunch, each woman was silent before God, asking him what he desired that we participate in, and what our involvement in each event/program will be.

During the listening prayer, God asked me to lay everything down for the next ministry year and spend my time in his Word. “Even Fusion?” I countered, “We have good momentum right now, it’s not a good time to take a break.” God said to me, “You are not the catalyst,” and he gave me a verse, Psalm 37:25, “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread [of life].” While, it is incredibly difficult to lay down all Women’s Ministry for this year, I am confident that the Lord is even more concerned about the spiritual welfare of the women and I do not need to be anxious for anything; they will continue to be fed.

I am excited about the time I will have to devote myself like Ezra 7:10, “For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel.” I want to not only know the Word better, but I want to know God more. A few weeks ago, my husband (who is not a believer) asked me, “Why do you always study the Bible? Shouldn’t you know it all by now?” I appreciate his confidence in my understanding, but I replied to him, “It’s a relationship. I don’t study the Bible just to gain knowledge, but to know God more. It’s like my relationship with you. We’ve been married for 13 years, after all this time, I know a lot about you. Should we go our separate ways now? Of course not, because as we are in a relationship and I am still learning things about you. In the same sense, I want to know God more, too.”

So friends, I am taking a hiatus from leading and working in Women’s Ministry so that my roots will grow deep. I am not an annual in God’s garden, but a perennial, intended to bloom again and again. I am abandoned to the Creator, to receive his power. I’m excited about the next year and spending time with God in his Word, but it is not without regret for leaving some of the things I love behind for a year.

i was here...

A couple of summers ago, when Max was five, he decided to experiment with a sharp rock and a shiny black bumper on a brand new Mustang belonging to my husband’s aunt and uncle. Max was two-thirds of the way through his masterpiece when we discovered the little graffiti artist. His handiwork looked something like, MA and I would place a pretty hefty wager you know what’s coming next. He was trying to write his name, of course. In the absence of spite or malice, Max was trying to assert his presence; he exists.

More recently, I read Book of Negroes, by Lawrence Hill. In the book, the fictional main character, Aminata Diallo is an educated black slave who forges her way to freedom, serving the British in the Revolutionary War by registering the names of freed Loyalist slaves who requested permission to leave the US for resettlement in another British colony in Nova Scotia. As she is writing down the names of the endless streams of people, she is profoundly moved by the knowledge and realization that it is the first time her fellow black comrades have seen their name in writing and she’s aware that by writing their name, she is giving them a voice to say, “I was here. I exist. I am significant.”

I am not any different than my son, nor am I different than those characters in the book. I am striving for my own place in this world, for my own voice to be heard, to be significant. And it’s about here, when I acknowledge to myself that I want my life to be something of consequence that I hear my old enemy’s voice trying to put doubt in my mind; taunting me by telling me that seeking to be significant is the opposite of humble, it is self-seeking and proud. It’s true, if I’m not careful it would be easy to spend my life pursuing the wrong kind of things that will give me status. That’s when I have to turn to God’s holy word and ask him where I should find my significance.

First off, I have to answer the enemy’s taunt; is it self-seeking and unholy to desire a life of significance? In reply, God brings me to Genesis 12:1-3. In these three verses, God lays out his covenant promise to Abraham. God said he would make Abraham into a great nation, he would bless Abraham, he would make Abraham’s name great and Abraham would be a blessing. God said he would bless those that bless Abraham and whoever curses Abraham he would curse and all peoples on earth would be blessed through Abraham.

God promised Abraham that his name would be great and that he would be a blessing; in fact, that all peoples – that’s plural, would be blessed through him. I would say that answers the question. Does God want us to enjoy personal significance? Yes, and to prove it he built it into the covenant he made with Abraham and if we belong to Christ we are Abraham’s [spiritual] seed and heirs to the promise.

Personal significance is not exclusive of being used by God. In fact, it is all the more relevant and it’s something we should aspire, since it is promised as part of our inheritance through the covenant God made with Abraham and how much more true because of the new covenant by the blood of Jesus. Jesus came so that we could have [abundant, fulfilling, satisfying, significant] life.

Satan our enemy, a thief who comes only to steal, kill and destroy, and the Father of lies, attempts to deceive us first by saying that there is no lasting significance that we can aspire. If we dare oppose him with the truth of Scripture, then Satan will try to distract us with a myriad of unholy pursuits. Some pursuits for significance even look pretty holy, but always, they are self-seeking. Again, our rebuttal is found in Scripture. Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.” I love this verse because it is essentially saying that personal significance happens naturally when we delight in our relationship with the Lord. The New Testament counterpart is found in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.”

How then, is a significant life defined for the believer? The irony of the Kingdom of God is that whoever is last in the kingdom is first and if we want to gain our life, we must first lose it. If we want to claim, “I was here,” we must first find ourselves in the one who is called, “I am.” God, who is the Great I am, has always been and forever will he be. Why should we settle for simply stating, “I was here,” because when we are found in Christ, we will have eternal life, and we are called by his own name. “I was here,” becomes a moot point because “I am in Christ.”