New Day Dawning

Here's a little story about the changing of seasons, I pray it is encouraging to all who are currently in a challenging season.

For at least 18 months, possibly longer, I have had this password on my computer, 'new day dawning.' (Now I'm going to have to change it!). Given that I frequently use my computer throughout the day, I was often typing these words and saying them quietly under my breath, 'It's a new day dawning.' I probably declared them at least 30 times a day over our family. 

It was a prophetic statement that God was bringing our family into a new season. It started as a faith declaration as our actual circumstances were not reflecting that in anyway. But there was a sense in my heart that we were on the cusp of something new.

 

A few weeks ago it was my birthday and I was having some time for myself and was hungry to hear from God. At 47 years old, after some very difficult years, I wondered what was He going to say to me? I was reading Luke 5:37-39 from The Passion Translation. Jesus is talking to his disciples.

And who pours new wine into an old wineskin? If someone did, the old wineskin would burst and the new wine would be lost. New wine must always be poured into new wineskins. Yet you say, 'The old ways are better,' and you refuse to even taste the new that I bring'. Luke 5:37-39 TPT

I felt God challenge me with these words, 'Are you open, really open to taste the new things that I am going to bring into your life?'

As God was asking me these questions I was reminded of the new song from Hillsong, New Wine. So I sat in bed listening to that song over and over again,

Make me a vessel

Make me an offering

Make me whatever you want me to be

I came here with nothing

but all you have given me

Jesus bring new wine out of me

The more I listened, the more those words became the cry of my heart, totally surrendering my life and my plans. There was a growing desire to do all that God wanted me to do.

It was as though God was asking me, Are you ready to take all those years of crying out to Me, pressing in, hanging on and trusting that I would bring you through, and lay them down and let me do something new?

A big question. Am I? Can I? Will I? Yes. Yes. And yes.

So why am I sharing this God encounter with you? Simply to encourage those who are still in a night season, possibly feeling like David was in Psalm 13.

How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever?

How long will You hide Your face from me?

How long shall I take counsel in my soul?

Having sorrow in my heart daily?

How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and hear me, O LORD my God;

Enlighten my eyes, 

Lest I sleep the sleep of death;

Lest my enemy say,

I have prevailed against him";

Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.

But I have trusted in Your mercy;

My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.

I will sing to the LORD,

Because He has dealt bountifully with me.

Psalm 13 NKJV

Over the years people have said to me, 'This won't last forever' and at times I struggled to believe that. As when you are in the night season it is so difficult to see beyond it. In that season Ephesians 3:20-21 was one of the scriptures I spent time daily meditating on ...

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21 NKJV

Amen. So be it - in your life and in mine. 

Hebrews 11:1 was on the back of our toilet door, a reminder to just believe ...

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 NKJV

Even as I am writing this post today, sharing the hope that a new season will arrive in your life and mine, making the declaration that a new day is dawning, there is a niggly voice trying to get into my head, saying, 'What about that upcoming scan for Victoria? You know this could all be a lie, perhaps you haven't heard this from God. What a fool you are making of yourself.'

But to that voice I choose to say, 'No, you are a liar,' and declare Ephesians 3:20-21

Never doubt God's mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for his miraculous power constantly energises you. Now we offer up to God all the glorious praise that rises from every church in every generation through Jesus Christ - and all that will yet be manifest through time and eternity. Amen.

Ephesians 3:20-21 The Passion Translation

I pray that you will be able to recognise the enemy's voice when he comes to kill, steal and destroy your dreams and your declarations of faith to move into a new season. So that you can declare God's goodness and faithfulness over your life, and trust that a new season is on the way.

Podcast 14 - What's in your heart AND do you know you are loved?

What's in your heart AND do you know you are loved?

On ANZAC day this year we had afternoon tea with Ken's parents at a local park. Something very special happened that afternoon. As we were chatting with Ken's dad, John, he started talking about a hymn he had written. I asked him if he would sing it for us. He generously let me video him and gave his permission for me to put the video on my blog.

As John sang his lovingly created song, tears came as I felt God reminding me that He always looks at the heart. 

But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7 NKJV

John's life has not been easy, and he is currently not in the best of health, yet his heart is so tender towards Jesus. Even now as I listen to him sing this song, there are tears. He knows that he is loved by God. 

So a couple of questions for us to consider, firstly what does God see when he looks into our heart? 

If we are honest, this is a very sobering question - no one has a pure heart. We all have some motives in our heart that don't align with God's heart for us. 

For me, over the past month I feel that once again God has been challenging me about what is in my heart - that strong desire I have to get all the tasks done, to have all the boxes ticked and everything neatly ordered! 

He has been gently asking me these questions, will you put people first Wendy? Will you lay down your agenda for the day and take time to connect with those I want you to connect with? Do you trust that I, your Heavenly Father, will make a way for everything I want done to get done?

Yes, very good questions for me! Reading 2 Peter 1:5-8 earlier this week was another way God reminded me of His priorities.

So devote yourselves to lavishly supplementing your faith with goodness, and to goodness add understanding, and to understanding add the strength of self-control, and to self-control add patient endurance, and to patient endurance add godliness, and to godliness add mercy toward your brothers and sisters, and to mercy toward others add unending love. Since these virtues are already planted deep within, and you possess them in abundant supply, they will keep you from being inactive or fruitless in your pursuit of knowing Jesus Christ more intimately. 2 Peter 1:5-8 The Passion Translation

The spiritual state of heart is central to getting us to the place where God can do what He wants to do in us and through us. There is a great need for us to be continually praying Psalm 139:23-24. Here it is from The Passion Translation.

God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart. Examine me through and through; find out everything that may be hidden within me. Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares. See if there is any path of pain I'm walking on, and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting ways - the path that brings me back to you.


The second question to consider is, do we really know that we are loved by God? Despite the pain and disappointment that we have experienced in our lives, do we know that there is a God in Heaven who loves us and has carried us through those times? A God who has a plan for you and me and desires to spend eternity with us in Heaven? 

Jesus said, 

"For this is how much God loved the world - he gave his one and only, unique Son as a gift. So now everyone who believes in him will never perish but experience everlasting life. God did not send his Son into the world to judge and condemn the world, but to be its Saviour and to rescue it." John 3:16-17 The Passion Translation

A final question, if you wrote a song about God, what would you write? What love and truth from your heart would be revealed? Why not have a go? You may just find that your song touches other people's hearts, drawing people closer to God, just like John's song did for me.

Podcast 013 - Beyond the storm - Part 2

Beyond the storm - Part 2

In the seasons of smoother sailing, as well as keeping that hunger for intimacy with God growing, it is important that we take time to understand what God has taught us during the storms, and ask Him how He wants to use us as His vessel to minister to others. 

As the season for our family is changing from survival mode to more normal living, I am getting greater revelation of this truth. Here are a couple of scriptures God has recently highlighted to me,

But you are God's chosen treasure - priests who are kings, a spiritual "nation" set apart as God's devoted ones. He called you out of darkness to experience his marvellous light, and now he claims you as his very own. He did this so that you would broadcast his glorious wonders throughout the world. 1 Peter 2:9 TPT 

Every believer has received grace gifts, so use them to serve one another as faithful stewards of the many-coloured tapestry of God's grace. 1 Peter 4:10 NKJV

So why not ask God who He wants you to help, and if they aren't in your life already, ask Him to bring them to you. 

I love the movie WarRoom. Yes, it is fiction, however I wonder how many true stories it reflects. For those who haven't seen the movie, it is a beautiful story of an elderly widow who has learned so much from a living in a less than perfect marriage (normal!!!). She asks God to bring a younger wife into her life so she can come alongside her and impart wisdom. In Paul's letter to Titus we find him talking about this type of helping.

Likewise with the female elders, lead them into lives free from gossip and drunkenness and to be teachers of beautiful things. This will enable them to teach the  younger women to love their husbands, to love their children, and to be self-controlled and pure, taking care of their household and being devoted to their husbands. By doing these things the word of God will not be discredited. Titus 2:3-5 TPT

Imagine what would happen if we all prayed that prayer, 'Lord, bring me someone I can help.'

Perhaps you might be thinking, 'I am not equipped to help anyone. I don't have the time and ability.' Be encouraged, you have all that you need to start now. 

Years ago I remember hearing someone say, 'just use what is in your hand'. In the early years of Victoria's illness I had a desire to do something more for God, but I was quite limited in time, resources, and location, as most of my time was spent either at the hospital or caring for Victoria at home. 

But God reminded me that I had a computer, an internet connection, the ability to write, and that He was doing plenty of things that I could write about. 

Throughout that period when I started blogging, and with other projects I have started since, He always reminds me of Zechariah 4:10,

Does anyone dare despise this day of small beginnings? They'll change their tune when they see Zerubbabel setting the last stone in place! Zechariah 4:10 The Message

Another way that God might be wanting to use you and the the wisdom gained from the storms could  be by serving in a new or different way at church or elsewhere. This might become evident by a prompting of the Holy Spirit, or an invitation.

Last year I received an invitation to do something new, being a reader/writer for the HSC exams. When the invitation came, despite a busy work and family schedule, I felt the Holy Spirit say, 'say yes'. So I said yes.  

Press pause - as you may have gathered, during the past seven years my prayer life has changed dramatically, my hunger to spend time with God, and hear his voice is continually growing and impacting on every area of my life, and hopefully by the grace of God, the lives of others around me.

Back to the story, during one of the exams, while I was in the room, I was not actually required to any reading or writing. So I started praying in my head for the student, perhaps 15 minutes or so, and then I started to pray for our family. But I felt the Holy Spirit say, 'No, I want you to pray for the student', so I prayed again for the student. Then after a little while I start to pray for our business, but again the Holy Spirit said, 'No, I want you to pray for the student'. So I prayed again for the student. Then I thought about praying for the children's creative ministry at church, but then I finally realised that my job today was not to read and write for the HSC student, it was to pray for them - 2.5hrs of dedicated prayer. 

I learned a couple things from that experience,

1. When an invitation comes, we need to ask the Holy Spirit what our answer is to be, as God has probably got far greater plans for that invitation, than just what we can immediately see. 

"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 NKJV

2. God really loves us and will go to great lengths to help us in all situations. It amazed me that He loved this student so much, that He would arrange for someone to come and physically sit alongside them and pray for that length of time. I guess it shouldn't have amazed me so much, especially when we remember that God gave up his only Son, Jesus, so we could have eternal life, but I am human and it did.

But that thought does bring us back to Jesus, the anchor, where this little series on the analogy of the sailing voyage and the storms of life began. Jesus, our hope in all things.

And now we have run into his heart to hide ourselves in his faithfulness. This is where we find his strength and comfort, for he empowers us to seize what has already been established ahead of time - an unshakeable hope! We have this certain hope like a strong, unbreakable anchor holding our souls to God himself. Our anchor of hope is fastened to the mercy seat which sits in the heavenly realm beyond the sacred threshold, and where Jesus, our forerunner, has gone in before us. He is now and forever our royal Priest like Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:18-20 TPT

I pray that this series has been a blessing to you and regardless of whatever season you find yourself in now, Jesus will be your hope. And that in all seasons your desire to draw closer to Him will grow, and that the outworking of that desire will be a blessing to many.

Podcast 12 - Beyond the storm - Part 1

Beyond the storm - Part 1

So what happens when you make it through the storm and you are at anchor in a safe and peaceful location? A few things. 

Firstly there is likely to be a feeling of relief, we made it! Thank you Jesus. 

Then if you are process-minded like me you may start to do a mental review of how you could have been better prepared for the storm, or consider what could you have done differently in the storm

Finally you may ask that important question, what did I learn from the storm and how can I use that knowledge in preparing for the future?

And so it is with the storms of life, how do we take what we've learned about ourselves, God and our relationship with Him, and move forward? How do we at the very least maintain and hopefully build on the new level of intimacy with our heavenly father, that has developed through the storm?

It is easy when we have a deep personal need to cry out to God, petitioning Him to move in the circumstance, to heal, to provide, to help us through that minute of the day. The Psalms express these cries so well.

Oh, Lord God, answer my prayers!
I need to see your tender kindness, your grace,
your compassion, and your constant love.
Just let me see your face, and turn your heart toward me.
Come running quickly to your servant.
In this deep distress, come and answer my prayer.
Psalm 69:16-17 TPT


But what happens when by His grace and mercy that desperate need is gone and life moves to a new normal? How to you make sure that you don't revert back to that self-sufficient independent life, forgetting to do your day with Jesus because there appears to be no immediate need for Him? 


Over the past couple of years as our family has transitioned from survival mode to a more normal life, here are some of the practical things that I've done to keep growing the hunger for a deeper relationship with God.


1. Read a different translation/version of the Bible
For me this has included reading different translations of the Bible. I am currently loving reading The Passion Translation.  I have also been reading a NKJV Bible with that includees leadership commentary from John Maxwell, The Maxwell Leadership Bible - Lessons in leadership from the Word of God, by John Maxwell. His commentary includes thoughts ont how God used the trials people faced to build character to enable them to do what He had planned for them.
I believe reading different Bible translations/versions helps to keep God's word fresh, and can help us to get greater revelation of His truth to help us move along the maturity path.

For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energising, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of the joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 AMP

2. Get a new devotional book, start listening to a new podcast 
God speaks through so many different people, in different ways for different purposes. I sometimes go to Koorong, knowing that I want to listen to someone I haven't listened to before, and I stand in front of the audio book section and say, "Holy Spirit, please show me who you want me to learn from," and he always directs me to exactly what I need to hear.

3. Reading about or listening to other Christians who have done similar journeys
As Victoria has grown older and started to process her journey in new ways, we have sought out the stories of other Christians who have faced challenges, particularly physical challenges. We are currently reading, Joni, by Joni Eareckson Tada. As we read how she coped, what God taught her, it has prompted discussion about what we have learned. It has also given us another example of how God has used what happened to her for good, just as He promises in Romans 8:28.

So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together to fit into God's perfect plan of bringing good into our lives, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose. Romans 8:28 TPT

4. Sing a new song
How blessed are we today to have access to a multitude of  scripture based, Jesus inspired music. Again, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you to something new. So many times, in my private worship time, I have heard a song for the first time and it has been like God has unlocked a little more of my heart with the lyrics and music. Or perhaps it is time for you to write your own song .... just a thought.

Go-ahead - sing your new song to the Lord!
Let everyone in every language sing him a new song.
Don't stop! Keep on singing! Make his name famous!
Tell everyone every day how wonderful he is.
Give them the good news of our great Saviour.
Take the message of his glory and miracles into every nation.
Tell them about all the amazing things that he has done.
Psalm 96:1-3 TPT

5. Experiment with the times and places you talk to God

I love routine. But I know that routine can stifle what  God wants to do, because the truth is I can sometimes loves my routine (code word for control) more than God! So it is good to sometimes change it up, to have your quiet time in a new place, perhaps out in the garden or on a balcony. Look for a different time in the day to do a devotion, maybe while you are waiting in the car to pick up children. Give God space to talk to you in new ways.


I am passionately in love with God because he listens to me. He hears my prayers and answers them. As long as I live I'll keep praying to him, for he stoops down to listen to my heart's cry. Psalm 116:1-2 TPT

So in your life, if the storm is finished, and you are entering a new season, and you want to continue to grow your relationship with Christ, I pray that these practical ideas I have shared today will be a starting point. Even if they are just a prompt for you to say, "God, I want a greater intimacy with you, please show me how."

He will answer you, because he wants that closer relationship with you. Be expectant and have courage to do what he shows you. He loves you.

Look with wonder at the depth of the Father's marvelous love that he has lavished on us! He has called us and made us his very own beloved children. 1 John 3:1 TPT