I imagine my heart like a mansion. Sometimes this house is beautiful on the inside and out, but more often than not it’s far from that. The hedges alongside the driveway are often trimmed and the surrounding area is left looking pristine, but if you took the time to fling the doors wide open you might be a little shocked. Most of the time the entryway is astounding and the chandelier might even make you gasp, but what I’m about to do is rare. We’re going on the full tour.
I’ll try not to be as metaphorical here, but here is the truth. God wants our basement’s. Our God craves intimacy and almost always that intimacy is being hindered because of the places in our heart’s that we shut Him off too and sometimes even ourselves.
So often we are told these “truths” about our God. We hear things at church, from our pastors, our family and friends, and the bible as well. You are loved. You are a son or daughter of a sovereign and living God. Abide in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. He has plans to prosper you, not to harm you. These are a few of many. Lately I’ve been realising that more often than not we hear these things and they just stay in our mind. What the Lord has been teaching me and doing inside of me is the transfer of those truths from our mind’s to our heart’s. Whether you have heard these before or if this is your first time hearing them I encourage you to take them to the Lord. Ask God what He thinks about you and who you truly are to Him.
I just recently got back from our squad debrief which was in Pattaya City, Thailand. Debrief was a time for relaxation, catching up with friends, and listening to the Lord. The Lord is doing so much in us and through us, its honestly breathtaking how intricate and perfect His plan is. I thought I was just going to be hanging out and doing adventurous things, which I did lots of, however; God had much more in store for me. There were 3 things that the Lord revealed to me and brought to light.
The first being that I want to get back to a place of being truly spirit lead. I have experienced what life is like when you truly follow the spirit and for quite some time I have been missing out on that. The second thing is listening prayer and getting into the Lord’s presence. God calls us to alone time with Him, time spent being still and listening to what He has for us. For someone like me who loves to always keep going and going, this has been a hard thing to do. God calls us to share his love like it’s overflowing from our heart’s. How can we do that if we aren’t going to that quiet place to be filled up and listen to his voice. Simply put, we can’t. Find your prayer closet and GET IN IT.
Probably the most beautiful thing the Lord could have done during debrief is what he revealed to me towards the end. The front end of this story coincides with my previous point and the fact that it does is living proof of the truth that we must be praying into things. I knew there was a struggle in my heart going into debrief so I began to pray over it, over and over, begging the Lord to reveal what He had for me in regard to this situation. After a month or so of prayer, God showed his perfect timing and revealed some hard, but life changing truths. One night as I sat on the beach talking and listening to the Lord alone, I was waiting for something. As I kept waiting the Lord spoke through me like He never has before, He spoke through me and said “I’m Just Searching.” Wow. What a bold statement that He spoke through me, a statement loaded with so many truths. It hit me in that very moment that I had been searching for comfort in many things, from; sleep, working out, relationships, or even food. I was avoiding this basement the Lord was seeking to fill with intimacy by simply heading to the movie room upstairs, a place I was comfortable with. He answered my prayer with a harsh realisation, that I must lay my life down and all that I am to become closer to Him.
I believe we as humans create these fires in our hearts, fires that we believe satisfy our soul. These fires are of this world and the Lord desperately wants us to put them out so that He can light one blazing fire in our hearts. Sometimes He hands us a fire extinguisher asking us to do just that. I encourage you to ask God where to point that fire extinguisher and get ready for your heart to soon be set ablaze with our Father’s Love.
