Walk Toward the Light

Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me (Revelation 3:20). 

Earlier this month, my family took me to a special restaurant to celebrate my birthday.  There is nothing I enjoy more than an evening around the dinner table with family or friends.  I love the ambience of the place and the delight of great tasting food.  

However, nothing compares with just communing with those you love. There is a depth and richness of satisfaction in being together that little else can satisfy.  

And so it is with God.  Self sufficient as God is, He wants your love and will not be satisfied until He gets it.  The verse, “…I stand at the door and knock” is an invitation to open the door of your heart to the one Person who loves you most. 

He has let His heart be bound to you forever!  He, too, longs for the satisfaction of just spending time with you and assuring you of His love and goodness towards you. He wants to commune with you. 

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear (I John 4:18).

A right concept of God is basic to your life as a Christian and to your relationship with this one who seeks your love. 

Fear is a painful emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger, harm or hurt.

Fear comes when you feel you are subject to one who does not desire your well being.

But, when you come under the protection of good will……fear is cast out. 

God’s love for you is that kind of love and protection. 

• He loves you with an everlasting love 
• His thoughts towards you are of peace and not of evil 
• His desire is to give you a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11)
• His heart abounds in goodness towards you
• He desires your everlasting welfare.  

His love is perfect.  He is the one Person who loves you most!

We love Him because He first loved us.  I John 4:19

There is something written in the heart of man that yearns to be loved and to know that the deep things in our heart have been heard by the one we love.

Clearly, the whole gospel is built on relationships, first with God and then with others.

The Ten Commandments deals with relationships. The first four commandments speak to our relationship with God, the last six with one another. Marriage, parenting and friendships are all lived out in the context of relationship. The Body of Christ is relational in nature. We were made for love and relationship!

One of the most meaningful aspects of a relationship is the sharing of hearts and a key element in sharing hearts is the desire to be heard. There is something so satisfying about another person saying, “I have heard your heart and I understand.”

God hears the heart

In reading the Psalms we see that David often cried out to the Lord for understanding.  He was confident that God would hear and respond, bringing salvation, deliverance from his enemies, or restoration, as was his nature. 

David said in Psalm 17, “Hear a just cause, O Lord,

                                         Attend to my cry;

                                         Give ear to my prayer…

                                         …I have called upon You, for You will hear me, O God;

                                         Incline Your ear to me, and hear my speech.

To hear means:  to become aware of, to listen to and consider, to take notice of, to pay attention to.  David is asking God to “incline His ear” to him, to take notice of him and to pay attention to the cry of his heart.  Are you thinking, “Now that is bold!”? No, that is the nature of relationship!

It is in the hearing of one another that real relationship occurs and intimacy happens.  It begins with our knowing that God really hears us.  He wants to establish relationship with us.  He wants to have conversations with us.  He wants us to feel safe with Him.  He wants to establish intimacy with us.

David said, “I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry (Psalm 40:1).

He expressed his love for the Lord “because He has heard my voice… because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore, I will call upon Him as long as I live.” (Psalm 116:1-2). When I think of David saying that God inclined His ear towards him, I can picture God bending down and leaning into the conversation in such a relational way. 

David encourages us to “Trust in Him at all times…  Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.” Pour means to give full expression to what is in your heart (Psalm 62:8).

Relationship is a two-way conversation

The Father speaks quite clearly and lovingly about our need to hear Him, as well.

“Blessed is the man who listens to Me, watching daily at My gates, waiting at the posts of My doors” (Proverbs 8:34).

“Whoever listens (hears and responds) to Me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil” (Proverbs 1:33).

Negative voices are loud and persistent

We live in a world filled with negative voices – real or imagined. They are the voices that say, “You didn’t do it right, you are worthless, unlovable, no one really cares about you and what you have to say is not important.” The negative voices are so loud and persistent that they become easy to believe.

But our Father wants us to know how beloved we are, how important we are to Him:

He listens.

He hears!

He does not walk away before you are through speaking.

He doesn’t ignore you.

He isn’t preoccupied or disinterested.

He is not nervous or uncomfortable with your feelings and emotions.

He knows the sound of your voice.

His heart is moved by your words, and touched by your situation.

He is stirred, open and compassionate towards you.

Know, even as David knew, that when you speak, God is listening, hearing, inclining Himself towards you.

Let His voice silence all other voices.

In his 2008 conference message, Graham Cooke encouraged us with these words, “The Father has a dream…a dream, and a passion about people in the earth so radically affected by Him that they are totally vulnerable and susceptible to Heaven.

“He has a dream about a community of people in the earth that are just like Him: unchangeable, unshakeable, unstoppable. He has a dream that people are living in Ephesians 3:20:  Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us….”

Graham asked, “If God is doing abundantly beyond all we can think, what is beyond thinking?  Dreaming is beyond thinking!”
 
A Hunger for More
Do you ever allow yourself to take time out of your busy schedule to just sit and dream?  Do you dream about moving beyond the current confines of your life?
 
We all know how demanding life can be.  Sometimes, just trudging through the day-to-day can cause your strength to drain away. Days become weeks, and weeks months and before you know it another year has gone by and you feel captured by life’s demands.  But something in you says, God wants more for me than this.
 
God has put that yearning and a hunger in your heart for more, because He has more for you than you can ask or think!  I remember my father saying, “Appetite is a sign of health.”  For you to have an appetite and a hunger for more of what God intends is a wonderful sign of your spiritual health. 
 
There are greater revelations about God that He wants to give and often it will come through visions and dreams. Dreaming moves us into imagination. One of the many definitions of the word, dream, is “a strongly desired goal or purpose.” 
 
Naomi’s Dream
Naomi had a dream. She had a “strongly desired goal and purpose” for Ruth that would move her from widowhood and poverty to the place of provision and bridal love.  “My daughter, shall I not seek security for you that it may be well with you?” Naomi said to Ruth.

Ruth was instructed by Naomi to “…wash yourself and anoint yourself, put on your best garment and go down to the threshing floor,” (Ruth 3:3).  Ruth was being encouraged to wash away anything of the past that would affect where God wanted to take her. She was told to anoint herself, putting on a fresh attitude for her future.

Lastly, she was to have a garment change! “Put on your best garment,” were the instructions through Naomi. She was preparing outwardly for what was happening inwardly.

That is dreaming! 
 
Something New
Something new is forming in you. You are carrying something new in the Spirit. Just as the Holy Spirit brooded over creation, so He is brooding over the new creation in you. He is stirring up the depths within you. You are moving beyond where you have been to living according to the power that that works in you….more than you could ask or think.
 
It is time for you to wash away any restrictive thinking from your past, to anoint yourself and to put on a new garment. Change is in the atmosphere.
 
 
Dream Big
God is moving us from our current level of mediocrity up to our rightful level as the bride of His Son.  It is a place where the world will look at us with astonishment because that is the way they looked at Jesus.
 
This is a time to dream. Dream big. We will manifest a magnitude of the Kingdom, as yet unseen on earth. Let Him work exceedingly abundantly in you… more than you can ask or think!

The Lord is speaking. He is saying, “Get ready for increase!”

Blessing, increase, and prosperity are at the foundation of God’s heart for you as His child. The Apostle John prayed, “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things, and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 3).

In his own words, John was repeating the blessing that God spoke from the very dawn of creation. It indicated His original intent towards mankind. It was to be a testimony of His kingdom coming to earth:

“Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth’” (Genesis 1:28).

Blessing means: increase, fruitfulness, multiplication, prosperity, and victory over your enemies.

The area of battle you are experiencing is pointing to the area of victory you will also experience! The battle that is raging over your finances, your health, your relationship, and your ministry is to be the very place where the enemy will stay on his belly eating dust, as God Himself prophesied over him in Genesis 3:14.

Our Portion from God: Favor, Increase, Prosperity

Joseph’s life is a powerful picture of the goodness and favor of God in the midst of very trying and sometimes confusing circumstances. He was taken to Egypt after being thrown into a pit and left to die by his jealous brothers. Taken from a father who loved and doted on him, Joseph was now serving  as a slave in the house of Potiphar, Pharaoh’s captain of the guard (Genesis 39:2). However, the word states that “the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man.”

His master saw that “the Lord was with him and made all he did to prosper in his hand.” So he made Joseph an overseer of his house and gave Joseph authority over all that he had. The Lord blessed the Egyptian leader’s house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in the house and in the field.

Now, that’s favor!

However, the favor seemed threatened due to a lie spoken about Joseph by Potiphar’s wife which resulted in his prison sentence. Can you imagine Joseph’s confusion and discouragement as he is cast into prison? First, a pit, next, favor, and a place in the master’s house, and now branded a criminal!

Yet the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. Whatever Joseph did, the Lord made it prosper (Genesis 39:21, 23). Joseph went from being a successful slave to a prosperous prisoner.

Joseph Changed Garments

Joseph had now been in prison for two full years when God gave Pharaoh a dream regarding coming events that were about to unfold in the land of Egypt. He sent for Joseph to interpret the dream. They brought Joseph quickly out of the dungeon.

Joseph changed his clothing before appearing in front of Pharaoh. This man who had gone from wearing the prized coat of many colors to prison rags is now changing his garment once again, signifying a chance is coming in his life because of the favor of God.

Joseph’s interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream revealed that seven years of plenty and seven years of famine were coming. The famine would be so severe that the land would be depleted. Once again, Pharaoh realized he had no leader as discerning and wise as Joseph, and , in preparation for what was to come, Pharaoh set Joseph over all the land of Egypt (Genesis 41:41).

Pharaoh took his signet ring and put it on Joseph’s hand, and he clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck.

Joseph went from rags to riches in one day!

Each change of garment signified the ongoing work of God in his life, and the testimony of God’s favor in the midst of some very distressing situations.

The Favor of God is on You

Though you may not understand your current situation, the testimony of Joseph’s life is reason enough for you to take another step in believing the goodness of God. Shake off discouragement and disillusionment. Just as God made Joseph a successful and prosperous man, so He wants to show those around you His hand of favor on your life.

Psalm 1:3 speaks of the blessings of the righteous: “He shall be like a tree, planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither;  and whatever he does shall prosper.”

God meant it all for good in Joseph’s life. He is bringing good out of everything that has touched your life.

Get ready for a change of garment.

Get ready for favor and blessing.

Get ready for increase.