“This is my goodness in the land of the living.” This is something that the Lord told me back in South Africa while our teams were helping out at a children’s after school center the first or second week we were there. And it was one of the most joy-filled, refreshing, peace-giving things the Holy Spirit has ever told me.
Soshanguve was probably one of the, if not the most, dark places I’ve ever been to. Spiritual warfare was more noticeable to me than I’ve ever experienced and it was not something I was at all use to. False prophets, false teachings, drugs, alcohol; you name it, we probably saw it. Every time I walked out of our little house, I instantly felt exhausted by the spiritual warfare going on around me. Every time I went out to do ministry, I honestly felt like I was walking into a pitch black room with only a couple candles lit, low and dim and far away. Losing heart was the easiest thing to do these past two months. And it was also the way the devil had a foothold in my life.
But as I looked around this orphanage, at all the men and women that were devoting their lives to providing children, many whose parents had been taken by HIV/AIDS, refuge from their rough homes and the corrupt school system in South Africa, and was refreshed. I looked around and saw the people who I was their with, people who devoted 9 months of their lives to spread light, to be this goodness. I thought about the people at POPUP, where our ministry sight was, and the goodness and light their also exude. The dark room became brighter, the flames got bigger and the dark started to be revealed the more I thought about the people I was surrounded by.
2 Corinthians 4:4-6 says, “The God of this age has belonged the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light is the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”— This is us! The body of believers! The church! We have been given the knowledge of the GLORY of Christ, therefore we are now lights! That shine out of darkness!
“Rise” by Housefires is the song I instantly start singing when I think of Psalm 27:13.
“Your love will never fail, You’re steadfast?Your promises are true, You’re faithful
You cover all my sins with forgiveness
My eyes have seen Your ways, Your goodness
Love and faithfulness meet
We behold Your glory
Righteousness and peace kiss
Heaven’s all around us”
My prayer for the Philippines: to remain confident that I will see His goodness in the land of the living. When it feels like all I am doing is walking in a dark room, stumbling around, I want to be reminded that Heaven is all around me; that if I really look around, light is everywhere, even inside of me.
