Walk On Through

Walk on through.  I will walk with you.  I will show you where to step.  I will illuminate what might trip you. I will hold your hand and catch you if you stumble.  Just walk and let me do the worrying.  Which of course is unnecessary.  But if you leave it to me you need not know that I am not doing it.  You see, everything that needs to be being done is being done.  Just walk next to me.  If you walk over there I will be with you, and you will not utterly fall, but you will fall.  If you walk next to me you will not fall.  When you walk over there you still have to lean, but you choose over there to lean on reeds that will not support you when you stumble.  They will break under your weight and the ends will pierce your flesh.  The reeds over there are a false comfort.  They lie about their ability to be there when you need them.  I don't because I can't.

Oil serves many good purposes.  Illumination is a key role.  There are lamps all around to light your way as you walk on through.  I am the oil in every one of those lamps.  These lamps have to consent to carry the oil, have wicks placed and prepared, and lit.  They have to consent to be exalted for the purpose of providing illumination for the benefit of others.  More intimately, wicks have to consent to be rested in the oil and to have the oil displace the emptiness.  Then they might be impatient to be lit, content to sit and soak until the right time.  Burning is good.  Shining is good.  Showing the way is good.  Sitting and soaking and being ready is good, too.  A burning wick makes them bright.  A resting wick they can touch and they get oily.  It might be their first touch of oil.

Walk on through.  The way is lit and more lamps are ready along the way.  Carry your fire and light ready wicks.  The way will be brighter and more will come out into the light and onto the highway raised up in the wilderness.  Walk on through and stay oily.

What I am afraid of

Sometimes it takes me time to figure out what is going on. I have to look at what I am being tempted with to figure out what I am holding back from my Father. It is so easy to stay in the habits of pride. All I need is to turn to my Father with what concerns me, and he will perfect it. I can not do what will matter in the issues that I am assaulted with. I get a chance to be reminded of how small I am, and how great my Father is.

There really is a special spiritual thing about fathers and sons. And the key stories involve fathers trusting God with their sons. Father, I am tempted to worry about my son. So all the more, I surrender my Isaac to you. I trust your plan because I want to trust my plan. I need to trust you more than I need to trust my plan. All of my plans without you seemed so well reasoned until they broke under my weight and cut me. Who can compare leaning on the arm of God with leaning on the marsh reeds of Egypt. Have mercy on my son and his mother. Grant us the grace needed to bring to you the Glory that is yours. Restore my soul. I need you, Daddy.

Faith in Christ

Clinging to nothing else is not enough. That just means adrift.

Clinging, leaning all on Christ is enough and all. The Word, the message of good news is that there is a place to lean, it is a place worthy of your trust, and it is the only place to lean on that matters. So that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

What is the purpose of having eternal life? For the healing of the nations. For the manifestation of the Kingdom of God.

Bring the Kingdom of God into your places, and see life, love, flow into Kingdomless corners and hearts. Having eternal life, bear eternal life into the waste places. Only Kingdom people can bring the Kingdom. Only vessels of perfect love can make it available for the removal of fear.

Plenty of nice religions out there for those who need one. Only one place to trust, rest, heal, hope. And then walk out, carrying water to the thirsty.

Daddy, thank you for Your Word of Truth.

Trust God

I do not trust my self. But I trust God. That makes the entire difference.

Still too noisy. Stillness, to sit and rest, is needed. I am okay. Just have to sit here and lean.

Got to stop doing and planning to do.

http://www.bethelministries.com/LONELINESS.htm

So close

This wilderness path requires clinging to Jesus. Today I found out that trail runs right on the edge of my old rut. At least it does right now. I had a foot slip off the edge today, and I was almost all of the way back in that old grave, walking by habit rather than by faith.

I have gotten accustomed to clinging to Christ, and that makes all the difference. Thank you, Father. Help me to become entirely dependent on You.

Doctrine is Hard To See

The Heart is beating, beating, beating. Right here. I approached and I got swept up in those arms. I got pulled in close. It is a closeness that is never found in human society. There are close approximations. But there is only one Holy Embrace. And it is the very best distraction.

I was trying to think about doctrine, but I got too close. I fell into the gravity well of Love. I was not trying to stay away from my Beloved. I just was not trying to get near. But there I go thinking about doctrine and the divine, and before you know it my head is lifted and there is no resistance. My face is plastered against Him, and he is soaked with my tears. This is the one place that was made for me, so I can rest. This is the safe stable place where nothing is missing. It takes so little effort to enter the presence of the Most High, now that the veil is rent. Now that the blood is spilled.

The really, really cool thing is that He can hold me, and He can hold you. He can hold us both right in the center of His attention, and neither of us is short anything. And neither of us notices the other. Father, you draw me and you catch me. You let me listen to you breathing. Thank you.

I went adventuring with my King this weekend. I had two distinct opportunities to stay at home "on the porch" or go adventuring. In both instances, my soul said I should stay home, and my Lord said I should go out walking with Him.

Adventuring was better. And He kept me. So I am okay, and I am stretched by daring to trust Him. He said that He would never leave me nor forsake me.

Decisions of the magnitude made this weekend will never appear so big again. Now what will appear big, and will require leaning on the arm of my Beloved, will be the next arena for growth, and the next, and the next. Each marking parts of my life that I want to retain control of.

Father, I know there is a day coming when all of me is resting on and trusting all of You. I thank You for the promise of that day. In the meantime, thank you for each moments mercy, grace, favor, wisdom, patience, love, courage, and hope.

Resources

What a stunning thing. There are parts of me that are done for the day. And maybe rightly so after a couple of hours of exposition. But at the same time I feel so much like a king's kid. The surface gets worn away and the core is revealed. I am so strong in Christ. The foundation is unshakeable and not subject to storms. I may forget to stay on it, but it is not going anywhere.

When you go walking in the Wild, look for parts of me dropped along the path. In fascination and adoration of the Great King, I do not miss them. They are parts of me that are not needed for clinging, leaning, trusting and following,

Father, thank you for believing in me.

I am tempted in this process to respond to the world around me. Not what the Spirit reveals of the Kingdom advancing, but just the things that happen around me in the name of anyone but Christ.

I am in training here in the Holy Wild to be entirely about gazing into the face of Love. Life apart from love just serves as contrast, part of the darkness that calls for more light. Whatever happens in the darkness is simply a result of Lovelessness.

I do not need to leave Love to pour Love out where He is needed. In fact, I have to stay leaning on my Beloved so that I am able to pour Love out. Love never fails. Love Wins.

Father, I am your vessel. Fill me or don't fill me. Pour me or don't pour me. Break me or leave me as I am. I do not want to touch what you are doing with any part of my pride. It has to be you. I will cling to you and you will lead me where you want me to be.

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Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms. Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

Absolutely worthy of total trust. I do not know what the future holds, but I know Who holds my future.

Deeper and deeper. No worthy answer but Surrender. Free falling becomes soaring. The moment of soaring becomes the only moment that matters. There is the thought that the soaring will stop some time, in some fashion. The greater the focus on the wind beneath, the less the change to a new mode is even considered. There will be a new mode, and a new wind, a new provision for that moment and that circumstance. The promise of love never fails. There is a wind, a breeze for every mode.

Thank you, Father for your Holy Spirit.

Call on the Name

I saw my boy do the only thing he could do tonight. He needed to do something, there was nothing in the natural he could do, so he did what he has been taught. He called on the name of Jesus.

When he did that, he walked out into the wilderness and came back leaning on the arm of his Beloved. It is that simple.

I know that in the world of rationality, it does not "compute." It is not supposed to. If it made sense to humans, it would be a human thing. The thing is, when a human runs out of things that can be explained, they have nowhere to turn.

What is really joyous for me is that calling on the supernatural is not a place to turn in time of need. It is the normal place of abiding. It is the trusting place where all of the Christian spiritual life rests. My boy did not go panicking, desperate for an answer to a crisis. He just externalized the conversation that his spirit and the Spirit were already having.

Thank you, Father for this perfect place you have made, full of healing, wisdom, peace, joy, love, patience, goodness, kindness, longsuffering. Like a hot mineral spring where all of the various helpful minerals just soak into the pores and become part of the soaker. And thank you for my boy.

Even surfing has too many control issues.

I think there is a dying squirrel in the attic.

My ceiling fan is moving a plastic sack.

Based on the sound and the sound two days ago of a running squirrel somewhere above me, a squirrel is dying.

Based on turning around and looking for a movement that matches the sound I hear now, the fan is moving a bag.

It does not mean that a squirrel is not dying. Maybe just not in my attic.

All of this is the evidence of my physical senses. The response in my mind is the question of what action I will take to change, no, control what I am sensing. The control of my environment, so that what I sense is no surprise, so that what I sense is always pleasant, so that nothing that I sense tempts me to fear. This is one of my great addictions.

The really kicky thing about the whole bit is that the addiction is a counterfeit and a distraction from what is available. For what has already been made available to Father's kids.

Even surfing has too many control issues.

Out here in the Wilderness, nothing of my humanity has any effect. I can not control the God Wild because nothing from earth works here. My will, my intellect, my endurance, my terror, my rage. None of it works. I can not control my environment. Only worship, surrender, leaning, trust are even interesting here. And no employment of them, making holy things into human tools, has any effect. As soon as the things that are, always have been and ever shall be about and for the King are turned to be about me or anyone else, they lose what they had, become perverse in a place where perversion can not survive, and they flee from the presence of Holiness.

Father, thank you for you Holy Wild. Thank you that you like company. Please continue to teach me to lean everything, to rest everything.

Room

You have to lean. That is the only price.

You have to admit that you can not do what has to be done, and lean on the One, the only One who can and did.

The words are, "The Blood of Jesus was, is and ever shall be enough and all."

I am smart, but not smart enough. I am strong, but not strong enough. I am not a bad looking human, but I can never be handsome enough. I am rich, but I can never have enough money to defeat the Wild. The only way I am coming out of this place is leaning on the arm of my Beloved.

Leaning everything.

God forgive my pride. God forgive the pride of your Church. Have mercy on her today.