WOW how the Father works all things together for good!! I was reflecting on my last 4 years of college and I realized how much growth God has given me over the years. This season specifically has been one of walking in deeper intimacy with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I mention all three parts of the trinity because they’re ALL important!
I came to the realization today that I used to focus too much on Jesus to the point where I almost had trouble praying to God the Father and inviting the Holy Spirit in to my everyday life. Don’t get me wrong, Jesus is AMAZING, but all three parts to the trinity bring different aspects to our walk with the Father. The best way I can try to explain this phenomenon: it was easy for me to see Jesus as a tangible friend and always talk to Him and about Him, but it was weird/uncomfortable at times to call upon the Father or to think much about the Holy Spirit because they’re less tangible and visible…
But DANG how cool was the moment when God revealed those issues to me and showed me more of Himself. He has started to show me how all three parts of the trinity work together in perfect unity. How we need the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to fully understand our new identity that we live in as Christians! These past few months, I’ve learned so much about identity and what it truly means to walk in new life with Christ and tuning into the Spirit.
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come.” [2 Corinthians 5:17]
Like seriously, we are no longer defined by our sins or struggles or anything else. When the Father looks upon us, he sees holy, blameless, righteous, beautiful, perfect, CHILD. We have the freedom to walk in new life and become more like the Father every day. How cool is that!?
Sorry, I like to get off on preaching tangents…anyway, it’s been cool to look back and see how God has been drawing me deeper since freshman year of college. It’s cool that he doesn’t take us deeper until we’re ready (even though we may not feel ready, He knows when we’re ready). God is not a forceful Father; rather, He loves to slowly draw us closer to Him. For example, I look back and see how God has been pursuing me for years through live, spontaneous worship music. For years, I would listen and worship spontaneously to United Pursuit and Housefires in my room and on long car rides. I was experiencing the presence of the Holy Spirit and I didn’t even realize it! But at the same time, it was very personal to me and I was scared to share it with others. And then, when I was ready, God brought me deeper on that worship journey and showed me that I don’t have to keep Him in a personal worship box. When I went to a United Pursuit concert back in October, it was one of the first times that I felt like I was worshiping freely in public, and the Holy Spirit totally filled me that night and brought me into deeper intimacy with Him.
My point is, God is pursuing each and every one of us in different ways. It’s just a matter of us saying “yes” and allowing Him to take us deeper. Because we can always go deeper. It took years for God to take me deeper into worshipping freely and not caring what people around me think…and it’s still a constant battle! It also took years for me to be quick to pray. And just when I started getting “comfortable” praying out loud and in groups, God showed me a whole new realm of how I can step out in prayer (i.e. praying on the spot, praying for healing, quick to pray for people specifically, etc.). And it’s revealed to me a whole side of the Father’s love that I never even knew about!
That’s why it’s sooo important to not get comfortable with where you’re at in your walk with God. Because when is faith ever supposed to be a comfortable thing?? If faith was supposed to be comfortable, here’s how it may have played out in Jesus’ time:
—
Jesus spends majority of his time with his twelve Christian friends and doesn’t really branch out. The outside world is just too dark ya know?
When it comes to the crowds, Jesus simply teaches what he’s prepared and nothing more. Leaves no room for the Spirit.
Jesus walks past a sick man on the street and instead of stopping, he walks by and prays in his head instead of trusting God on the spot.
Jesus knows this man has a demon, but prays from afar because what if the demon jumps onto Him or something?! God would never call Jesus to sacrifice his own safety, right??
Feeding the five thousand is wayyy too out there. Just nix that from the Bible because it’s way too uncomfortable to trust God for something like that.
—
Okay maybe I exaggerated those a lot…BUT SERIOUSLY that would be absurd if Jesus acted that way!! Instead, Jesus reaches out to the world, teaches radically, heals on the spot, casts out demons, feeds five thousand, turns water into wine, sacrifices his own life. There’s a reason that the Gospels focus so much on Jesus proclaiming the kingdom of God through words and actions. Jesus was constantly taking risks because he was so rooted in his identity in the Father that he didn’t worry about whether the signs and wonders and miracles would work. Jesus was fully surrendered and fully walking in the Spirit, and he left no room for fear or doubt to spring up.
And you may be thinking, “well I’m not Jesus, so I can’t do these things,” or “oh, only super spiritual people do those things…”
But I’m here to tell you that YOU can do the very things that Jesus did!
If you are a follower of Christ, then you have the power to walk as Jesus walked and live as He lived. Jesus literally says “whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these he will do, because I am going to the Father” [John 14:12]. Once Jesus ascended into heaven after his resurrection, his human ministry on earth was finished, but his supernatural ministry on earth continues today through us!! Now, because Jesus gives us the Holy Spirit, WE ARE EMPOWERED to do the works that He himself did! We are not taking the place of Jesus; rather we are acting on behalf of Jesus! I love that even though the Father doesn’t need to use us, he chooses to empower us as his children.
All that being said, the moral of the story is that walking with the Father through life is a constant journey. An uncomfortable but oh so exhilarating journey! We can always learn, always grow, and always see the Father in new ways. He wants to take us deeper!! We just have to be open to receive from Him.
THERE’S ALWAYS MORE.
So excited to continue to receive and go deeper on the Race!
.
.
.
And here’s a random pic of me and my roomies before graduation 😀
