Everyone knows the story of Pandora’s Box. A woman opens a box releasing all the spirits of men into the world. She is able to hold on to one, which is hope, preserving the belief that despite all the things that go wrong in the world there is still something to have faith in.
I had a box like this but mine was a little backwards. Locked securely away was my heart, with everything God wanted me to experience with him. I’m not just talking a good quiet time, or good worship. I’m talking about the love a HUSBAND has for his wife and GIFTS that are so abundant they flow like oil. In this box was an intimacy with God like non other. My relationship with God was great and I thought I had reached a secure place with it, but like the layers of an onion, I was feeling that God wanted to peel the next layer and reveal more. I was ready for it, but it just wasn’t happening. While the things in Pandora’s Box were supposed to be locked securely, the things in my box were suppose to be released onto the world! If this box was opened I could fully unleash love, peace, and KINGDOM, onto the world. But how do I open it?
This has been my burning question for the past few weeks. God moved in me at launch training, but since I had hit a wall and could not figure how to get past it. I prayed and prayed that God would reveal to me what it was. That he would unlock the box and all the contents would spill forth. The more I tried though, the more frustrated I got because I didn’t have the answer.
We are at debrief right now, getting filled up on teaching and some much needed rest. It is here that God answered my question. The key to my box was intimacy. To know God the way that he knows me, the way a husband and wife know each other. Can you fathom a relationship with God like that? A relationship where you burn for God? Where every waking moment your spirit is crying out? To know God this way is to get oil (Matthew 25:1-13). To be ready when the bridegroom comes so that he will say I KNOW you? This is different than being saved. Yes God knows you and he formed you, but how deep do you let him into your heart? How well do YOU know him? Do you love him like a faithful wife? Do you hear him as plainly as you hear your father?
At this realization my heart wept. I had NOT been a faithful wife to Him. I had made excuses, and tried to do so much on my own. But he LOVES me beyond what I can fathom. As I prayed and repented to him he sent me a gift. A small frog hopped across the path I was walking and stopped before me (if you didn’t know, I love frogs). It was so simple, yet so beautiful. It was a love offering. A gift to show me he loves me!
Without this king of love, every ministry I try to start or serve in will not bear fruit. I will merely be a doer for him, which may look good on paper, but it is the LOVERS that will bring KINGDOM.
