Any of us who have been changed by the love of God are going to remember when that transformation began. Every person can describe where they were when the message hit home.
Where did You find me? It was in a place of warm light.
I had been far away, eschewing all that was of You. Not quite cursing You – but done with what had been fruitless. I was ‘over with church and all it encompassed. My own wants and desires would be first and foremost now. ‘Free’.
In a room of warm light, amidst a conversation, You spoke into my spirit with conviction – I heard the message and it forever changed me. Sanctuaried.
What brings a person to God?
To accept God’s offer of grace and forgiveness?
To ask God to come in and dwell?
Something was heard within the soul..
HEAR
(verb) – to perceive sound, discern source.
What was heard caused the soul to listen.
LISTEN
(verb) – to give attention, to be attentive.
It is a message that asks much of us but gives infinitely more. I have watched as people come to the place in life where they recognize the need for Christ, to lay down everything at the altar.
THIS consent to have the very Creator of all things come in and dwell has ramifications.
God has placed his DNA into each of us ~ into all creation. That spot on our DNA turns ‘active’ only by request. It WILL change us once activated. Like when you drop Alka-Seltzer into a glass of water (“Plop, plop, fizz, fizz”) and the water becomes alive with effervescence.
We don’t know the language of God.
We cannot speak in His tongue.
We don’t seem to even know how to hear His voice
…without giving consent to for activation.
ACTIVATED
God calls us by the Holy Spirit to first HEAR and LISTEN. Only after we accept, repent, and let Him come in and dwell can we begin to learn.
Then to understand.
Then to crawl.
Then to walk.
Like I wrote a few lines back, consent for activation redefines who we are while offering something life ‘outside‘ of God’s perfect plan does not.
We can abide in Him. We can rest in Him. We can trust in Him.
“In the world you WILL have trouble but take courage – for I have overcome the world!”
When we give our lives to Christ, He dwells within.
Life will continue along with the certainty of trouble, trials, and challenges. Yet IN Christ we will have the ability to go through these storms with abiding contentment and peace while everything around us is crashing down. It is to me as if a Post-it note was embedded into my every breath saying –
‘I AM your stronghold, your strength, your peace and shelter. I will NEVER leave you.’ – Jesus
“These things I have spoken to you so that IN ME you may have peace.”
John 16:33
To the reader: As with most of the articles in ‘NOTES’, the words typed are straight from what was jotted down in my notebook during daily devotions, while out with God, or pulled over to the side of the road to scrawl something given to me that ought not be forgotten. The writing therefore is typically raw, unstructured and taken as-is. So if it reads rather loosely, please forgive me.
