It’s hard to believe that the race is now beyond the halfway
point, and that the days are actually getting shorter rather than longer. We
just arrived in Nairobi a couple days ago and will begin the last half of the trip
with three months in Africa: Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. I don’t yet know what
ministry will look like for the month, but nonetheless I am excited. I don’t
know what to expect from Africa, or whether or not I will even like it, but one
thing I am sure is that it is going to be a time of learning and growing in my
understanding of God and myself and therefore it is going to be good. And while
I can’t tell you what it is we will be doing this month, I thought I would take
a little bit of time and tell you some of the things God has taught me on the
race up to this point.
The first and most obvious thing that I have been learning
is based around the fact that God is so much bigger than we ever can grasp or
imagine. He has shown me some things in my own life, how I have unintentionally
limited the Spirit’s power and how I had placed Him in a box. Because of that
it is impossible for me to experience the full blessing of the Lord and live
the life that God has intended us to live. However as we all know it is not as
simple as making a simple decision to allow God to change the way we think, but
rather it is a process of allowing God to change us by the transformation of
our minds. (Rom.12:2) The transformation, which the Lord is continuing to show
me, comes through having an open mind and allowing God to reveal his truth to
me. Three areas he has revealed to me pertain to the love of the Father, our
identity in him because of that love, and the power of the Spirit which we walk
in.
No matter how much God has revealed to any man, nor in any depth
of his understanding, will we ever able to fully grasp just how much the Father
loves us. (Psalm 103:11) For me at least it is easy to understand that God so
loved the world that he gave his only Son for all of humanity, and while that
is truth it doesn’t have the same effect as the realization that God did that
for us individually. It doesn’t matter that there is however many billion
people on the earth but if I was the only one on earth he still would have done
it because that’s how much he loves each of us, from the least to the greatest
as individuals. I understand that God loves the worst sinner and the most
righteous man the same, there is nothing we can ever do that will make him love
us more, and just the same there is nothing we can do that will ever make him
love us less. Obviously because he is a holy God he does not love the things we
do, but as people formed in his image He loves every person one hundred
per-cent, all the time. It is this love of the Father, which we as believers
are to show to the world. It is this love, which also is the most effective way
in bringing people to the Father. It is essential to have this love, because as
Paul says without it we are nothing. (1Cor.13)
Once you have begun to understand and have a glimpse of the love
of the Father you can’t help but start to realize that this completely changes
your identity. No longer can we see ourselves as worthless human beings, but as
we are made in the image of God our worth is far greater. As believers we are
not slaves to sin and the devil but we are sons and daughters, princes and
princesses of the Almighty God! We are a chosen people, a holy priesthood set
apart by God, called out of darkness. (1Pet.2:9) Because of our faith in Christ
our identity is found solely in Him, and through that faith we are declared
righteous. We belong to the Lord and we have assurance that we will spend
eternity with the Father, and when you think about this you realize that there
is no greater reward than that.
I am also recognizing that God only desires good things for
his children, (James1:17) and that every good thing is from the Father. We need
to believe that God desires what is good for his children because that is part
of his nature. He does not desire evil for us or bring it about. The most
important gift that has been given to us is the Holy Spirit. I do not
understand how the Spirit works nor will I pretend to, but what I do know is
that God has given us power through the Holy Spirit and he desires to pour out
this power in our lives. The early church lived with this power and they
understood that the gospel came not simply with words, but also with power and
the Holy Spirit. (1Thess.1:5) My doubt and lack of belief limits this power,
but I know that the Spirit is meant to play a much larger role in my life than
it has up to this point and I am excited to see exactly how as I open myself up
to this inevitability. Jesus says if you seek you will find, and it is also
true that generally you don’t find what you aren’t looking for.
While this trip hasn’t been exactly what I had expected so
far, I can confidently say that God is transforming my life and that he is
changing me as I look to help bring change to others. And while I don’t know
what exactly the future has in store, or even Africa and this ministry for that
matter, I have confidence that whatever goes down, it will be good. We all can
have such confidence because we serve a loving God who is good, and we know
that God works everything together for the good of those who love him and who
have been called according to his purpose. (Rom. 8:28)
