When the Lord is about to speak a “change” into my life, He generally prepares my heart in advance.
It is kind of Him to do so.
He almost always begins the change with a restlessness of spirit.
So, in my journal in the fall of 1991, I began asking Him why I was feeling so very RESTLESS!
What is going on with us, Lord?
The last thing I expected was a transition from Africa to the U.S.
I loved serving in Kenya.
I’d never felt more fulfilled.
I considered the role I played at RVA (Rift Valley Academy), not a big role in the scope of things, but the best joy-job EVER.
Over the next month, my journal chronicles the prayers and the seeking…
Then, there was the day all became clear.
We were camping on a river, in the middle of a working ranch, somewhere in central Kenya.
Journal in hand, I watched the river flow in front of me, as I sat relaxed and at peace under a huge shade tree.
There were these verses in Acts 26, where I just happened (?) to be reading.
The Lord had spoken these words to the Apostle Paul, and he was re-iterating them to King Agrippa.
All of a sudden, Paul’s calling became my calling.
I can’t explain it.
I just knew it lit up my soul.
I have
I began a list that morning.
It fills three pages of my journal.
That list was meant for the Lord’s eyes only.
It states all the many, many GOOD and WISE (in-my-own-eyes) reasons why the Lord should NOT send me back to the US.
I thought they were BRILLIANT.
I was certain I had convinced Him to change His mind.
But, there by the river, my reasons dropped one by one into the waters and floated away.
When I was finished, I sensed the Lord say to me, “Look again. Those are the very reasons WHY I am sending you home.”
Sigh.
I re-visited those reasons this week.
They’re still valid.
And, yesterday, as I took a walk along another river through the middle of my hometown, I sensed I was to step up to my calling with renewed purpose.
So, here I sit, beginning a little mini-series on the book of Nehemiah.
It is a great way to approach Advent.
No, it’s not about the Christmas story.
But, it is about the NEED for ADVENT (a coming)…
…the need of revival in God’s church.
We desperately need Jesus to come afresh in the here-and-now!
Oh, that NOW/SOON might be the fulness of time.
Today, we need the same.
My heart has been breaking for God’s church: corporate and individual.
I feel a weight of heaviness.
We are a people divided.
Loyalties, theologies and politics split us smack down the middle.
Jesus came at Christmas…
He was birthed as a man.
Then, He died as the Savior of man.
But, Jesus lived in order to bring three things:
Yet, to a lost world looking on at His church, His bride…
He is a weak God.
He is a divisive God.
He is an impotent God.
He is incapable and unable to unite His people, protect His people, bring peace to His people, and do great things through His people.
These were the very reasons, Nehemiah left a potentially dangerous, but cushy job, serving a King who extended him great trust and numerous benefits to return to Jerusalem.
His heart broke when he received a report from his home-land.
All was not well in Jerusalem.
The walls were broken down and the gates non-existent.
Why is this important?
The walls left the city open for continuous attack.
The people of God could accomplish nothing.
No work in the name of the Lord was having lasting benefit.
Because the walls were broken down, the enemy of the people, looked on God’s people with scorn and ridicule.
More importantly, the walls represented the character and the strength of the one who held the authority within the city.
Because the Lord God was the AUTHORITY, the enemy looked on Him as weak, divisive, important, incapable, and unable.
(Hmmmm……)
Nehemiah heard the report (see chapter 1) and his heart broke.
He sat down and wept.
He rose up and fasted.
He knelt down and prayed.
(What a SPLENDID GO-TO response for restless, broken hearts!)
He was to be the voice of God.
He was to be the one to stir the hearts of the people on God’s behalf.
He would be the vehicle of restoring the GLORY OF GOD to Judah.
And, here is where I sit….
…weeping over God’s people in a broken church.
…committing to a “fast” over the holiday season that the Lord might re-Advent.
…prayerful.
…and listening, what would the Lord have me do to be a micro-voice for Him?
How in my small way, might I be a useful vehicle?
How I’d love to see God’s MAGNIFICENCE restored in the US, and the American church, united in purpose to share a strong, able, loving, glorious God —-
