Hey y’all,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a blog, and I’ve really been searching God about the direction I should go with this. There haven’t been any significant events to record, and that was exactly the thing God asked me to write about: about how He has spoken into this, and what He really seems to be asking for in times like these.
I think coming into the Race I had fantasized expectations about how ministry would look, and the expectation of results. I had dreams of seeing people come to know Him, and of seeing miraculous healings. However, these dreams haven’t come to fruition, and it’s been frustrating at times, but God keeps showing me that it is pride that would like to boast to you about the work I’m doing.
And in this part of my sanctification, I’ve felt Him nudging me towards Isaiah 6, with the famous verse “Here I am send me”. God has really drawn my eyes past there to verse 9 and 10, which says:
“He said, “Go and tell this people: “ ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”” (Isaiah 6:9-10).
What a command, to seemingly say “here have a fruitless ministry”, but God isn’t concerned with that. God’s plan stretches much further than our human minds can take, and it’s here that God has shown me that it’s not about the results I see, it’s about obedience to Him.
Over and over God has reminded me that in times of obedience, it is not my glory at stake, but His. And God has beckoned me to meet Him on this playing field. My glory is not at stake. I may look foolish for following God’s marching orders at times, but they are just that, HIS marching orders. I think a place I always find myself fearing is that I will make God look bad, that I may present Him wrong, that I may not be good enough for the calling, and I think in a lot of ways I belittle God in this.
In 1 Kings, Elijah calls upon God in a battle against Baal, to set fire to a set of logs. Before doing so, he drenches them in water. If anyone could have done something significant to put a roadblock in God’s work, it was Elijah, and yet we see God set fire to the logs. Elijah could never be praised for this, because it was never about his glory, it was about God’s. When I take steps of obedience, it is never about my glory because God asks us to do the unprecedented, the things that don’t make sense. It’s there that we see His glory at stake, and it’s there that He comes through in miraculous ways.
Obedience is not, nor will it ever be, an easy thing; it is a constant surrendering of ourselves and our agenda, and as I’ve found in the first month and a half out on the field, you won’t always witness the results. But it’s in obedience that we suspend our right to our glory and we ask to see His glory, and its in that place that God meets us, and it is the purest place to see the true supernatural glory of The Most High King revealed.
My invitation for you is to make a step into obedience, and I don’t know what that looks like for you, but I do believe in a Holy Spirit that convicts and directs. My invitation at the deepest level is to point you directly to Him, and ask you to join me in submitting to Him. Let’s take some steps in faith and believe that God knows what He is doing, and that His invitation is into a plan that is more magnificent than we could ever imagine, whether we see the results now or not.
I love you guys so much,
Andy
