1. It's not dead until He says it's dead. And even then, He can bring anything back to life.
For the past couple years I've had this recurring dream where I discover I've had a baby I'd completely forgotten about. I discover this baby in different places in my home, sometimes the basement in a crib behind furniture (I know, right?), other times a bedroom behind a closed door and each time I was shocked and terrified.
Babies can't survive very long left on their own. And who forgets their own child? In the dreams I'd stare at the baby in shock and horror, wondering if the baby was ok and how I could have possibly forgot I'd had a whole child and then, the baby would move and cry...do baby things and I would pick her up and begin to tentatively, fearfully at first, care for her.
In one of the dreams, I remember driving to where God worked (don't ask me to make it make sense), because I wanted to show Him my baby. "Look what I have! Can you believe this?"
Abba has shown me that no situation is dead, over, finished, and through until He calls it. And then even when we think something is done, He has power over life and death.
He will sustain things for you that you have no idea about or think are long over until it's time for you to know.
When Yeshua called Himself the "resurrection and the life" I believe Him. His power over death has extended over all areas of my life since I decided to follow Him and watching it unfold has left in me in dumbstruck wonder just like it did in my dreams when I discovered this child whose life I could not explain through my own efforts.
“I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction?” Hosea 13:14
I would like you to know, it's not over until God says it is and Jesus has power over death.
2. Deceit and Delusion Are Real. Stay Close to Him.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,' says the Lord. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." - Isaiah 55:8-9
Every one of us has met a four or eight year old (these ages are when my kids have been the most oddly confident) who thinks they *know* things. It's maddening to get locked into an argument with someone younger than some of your furniture. They really think they're going to tell you about life. So wrong and so loud, they get at that age. The audacity would be funny if you didn't to use real energy trying to correct it.
If I had to give a name to the season I see so many people, myself included, in I'd say it's one where people's eyes are being opened to things they thought they knew the truth about but did not. Delusion revelation season. Like a sunrise after an extended period of darkness, God is exposing things, especially wrong thinking. I've seen it up close and personal. And there will be two responses to this: to continue going forward as if one didn't see and doesn't know, or stopping and asking for help.
The thing about people is that we're often all like proud four and eight years olds. These times tell us to worship our own souls and hearts and anyone, anything that says differently is our enemy and oppressor.
How long I believed that. I believed in myself, my wants, my right to have whatever I wanted. I was my own god. There was no peace in it, only a consuming compulsivity to keep burning things at my altar to myself.
The truth is that there one all-powerful, real, holy and loving God who made heaven and earth and breathed life into every living being in it who will not dance to the music of any of our imaginings. He is wholly uninterested in our esoteric ideas and haughty conclusions and while He loves us fiercely, so fiercely in fact He let his own Son pay with His blood so we could be made right with Him, He lets us make the choice between Him and our ways. But we can never, ever have both.
There will be two responses to people waking up to the knowledge that they were wrong about something. One group will keep going the way they were going. The other group will humble themselves before God, say sorry (meaning it, wanting to turn) and ask for help and guidance.
It's really hard to admit that you're wrong. I find it deeply uncomfortable as I don't like changing course. Perhaps you have built a life on a lie. Made money off of it. Built a community in it. Crafted a name from it's thread. That's a lot to sort. But God is loving and will help anyone who calls out to Him. That's one of the things I love best about Him, He never makes you sort it out by yourself (as if I even could).
How badly we want to feel like we *know* it all? This week He's dismantled some of my thoughts and I'm so grateful He did. It's an unsettling feeling at first, but when God is your rock, you really don't have to be afraid. In fact, those times you feel adrift or suspended are the best because it's in those times you feel Him doing all of the work. The swimming turns to floating, in a sense, knowing that He directs the winds and waves.
My prayer in those moments is, "I surrender, Abba. I'm sorry. Take control. Show me what I need to do and do what You want. All I desire is Your peace. Your will not mine, be done in Jesus' name."
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and he shall direct your paths." Provers 3:5-6
3. He truly does work all things for good.
God is a master architect. When we have the chance to look back and see how He worked out every single detail- it's mind blowing. And that only scratches the surface of what He does every single day, all day, without sleeping.
Sometimes I think about how He doesn't sleep, how this has all been one long unending span of time and I feel in awe. The amount of love and patience, He has. The amount of heartbreak He's endured, and for how long...
And in all that, when you choose Him, He arranges things, moves things, plans through generations to work all things for good for those who love Him.
"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28
I don't know how He does it. Any of it.
Oh yes, there's a fourth I just remembered! It's that we really do need to choose Him in all areas. He challenged me to trust Him in my work and exposed to me that I believed the world or even I could do a better job taking care of me than He could. I didn't know I believed that, but deep down I did. He asked me, "Am I a good Father or not?" and I know He is.
Sometimes, there are small ways we believe we must stay in control but there is no domain in a child's life that a parent is unwilling to let their love/healing flow and God is the ultimate Parent. He will never force you to give a part of your life to Him. But if you're His, the parts of yourself you keep away from Him will deteriorate as you shade them from His Light. Give it all to Him.
It might feel scary but the thing about Abba is that He'll expose a lie, give you a chance to renounce it, if you do, He'll heal the places it has ravaged in you and your life, and prove the lie wrong. But one has to let Him. You can ask for help letting Him.
So these are the three things He's teaching me right now. My prayer is that He works in your heart and mind and brings You to the truth in all areas of Your life beginning with the truth of who Jesus is and then saturating it all. It all starts with Jesus. Look at Him and nobody else.
love, Bunmi
This is one of my favorite verses. He doesn't change or shift. The Father of lights.
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." James 1:17
If you're going through hard times, don't give up. God loves you. Jesus loves you.
"Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name, you are Mine. When you go through deep waters, I will be with you." -Isaiah 43:1-2 (read the whole thing, it's so beautiful)
The promises of God begin and end with Jesus because He is the reconciliation. If you've been walking through life on your own and want to walk with a Shepherd who will never let go of your hand, here's how to start.