Joyfully Sober

(Note: This is a copy of newsletter I sent out quarterly-ish out to my email list. If you you’re not on it and want to be you can sign up here.) 

First, I want to express my gratefulness for the rain that has fallen on Southern California this month. We’ve been in a severe drought and have had almost eight inches of rain in December, half of that yesterday. Our average rainfall is about thirteen inches per year. So, this has been a bit much for some locales, but we’ve needed this water desperately, and it’s a joy to sit here and type, watching the rain continue to fall. It is spectacular!

Now, let me share a question I received a few weeks ago. Today seems like a good day to answer it. This was from Robin:

A few months ago, you received “It has started.”

Have you seen or heard any more from Father about this? I know my Spirit is waiting for a move from Father, don’t know what it is or what it will look like, knowing Him it will be something that is not what we thought. Have seen Him prepare and place the same thing in people’s hearts all around the world, they are sitting under rocks, unseen.

Some are growing impatient and moving on or going with their own agendas thinking that’s it. So I am curious to hear what you are hearing.

I’m sure he is referring to a video from last April, from a recent burn scar in the Sierras with my grandkids. That devastation I witnessed stirred in my heart over the next couple of days. As I held those emotions before God one day, I sensed him saying, “It’s time.” Immediately my mind filled with the words of Romans 8. Paul writes about the Creation and its eager expectation for God to be revealed through the glory of his children so that it could be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into its own freedom and glory.

Yes, Robin, I have heard and seen so much more that excites my heart. It has begun, and like a tiny seed planted in a dark void, it will continue to grow in ways that won’t draw attention to itself. I see it in my times with Father, and I hear it reverberate in almost every conversation I have. There’s a hunger rising and with it a freshening wind of spiritual insight. God has prepared many people over many decades for this season. I also see it growing in the hearts of young people, even though they may not know it’s Jesus at work in them yet. I recently talked about this on a podcast a The God Journey. If you missed it, you can hear it here.

It may only be a stirring in our hearts at this point, like yeast spreading through the bread dough. It will not look like the revivals of the past because it will not be in the hands of any one person or spring up in any location. You won’t read about it in the Christian media or see it in flashy Sunday gatherings. His work is hidden now, as it has to be so that would-be leaders won’t try to take possession of it or attempt to market or manage it for their own gain. You won’t find by looking to someone else to show you the way but by looking inward at the seed of his glory growing in you. Lean into that reality and ask him to show you how. Hold that space before him for weeks, months if need be. There’s no hurry here, just the sweet invitation to come closer and connect with his heartbeat that is growing inside you.

So, yes, it is time! God’s glory is growing in the earth so that people can know who he really is by the way we demonstrate his reality to others. As 2022 begins, I find my heart is growing joyfully sober. There’s a seriousness growing in my heart, and I find myself praying a lot of whatever-it-takes prayers. You know the ones—”Whatever it takes, God, I want to know you as you are and be transformed into your image.”  In recent years, God’s name has been disfigured, not so much by his enemies by those who claim to be his followers while only seeking glory, power, or comfort. Their selfishness, anger, fear, and greed have made people turn away, disgusted by their perception of God. It is time for God to show himself once again as the most endearing presence in the universe, and that, through lives, transformed to reflect that glory in their daily interactions.

That’s how Jesus encouraged us to face troubled times by being sober and vigilant, but don’t read fear or anguish into that. Those awaiting the bridegroom do so with joy and anticipation. Joyfully sober. We are on the precipice of something fresh God is seeding into the world. If this isn’t the end of the age, this is one of those seasons that foretell it. There is trouble afoot; great anger and hatred rule humanity, and severe days of reckoning may well be at hand. But against that void, the light of God’s character will shine even brighter as he reflects himself in you. Even in the most painful circumstances and moments of great stress, Jesus’ reality will put a song in your heart and wisdom to our course.

That’s the conversation I want to be in over this next season. I want to find ways to encourage that process and equip hungry hearts to live more securely in his love, more at rest in his work, and more at play with his wisdom. I have no idea of what’s to come, just a growing desire to wake up in him each morning and see what he allows to unfold in my heart. Yesterday morning, I outlined what may be my next book in a couple of hours. It’s a guide to help people understand how Jesus works in us so that we can ride the wind of the Spirit in the truth of what God speaks to us.

So, blessed New Year, everyone! This is a good time to lean into your heart and see how Jesus is making himself known to you and how he wants to take shape in you. None of that will come by human effort, but as you simply make space in your heart for what he reveals to you and believe him as he transforms you with his glory. He will show you what it means for you to become one with the love he wants to reveal to you and pour through you to refresh the hearts of others.

Jesus told us that such days call us to be sober and vigilant, but that isn’t with fear and anxiety. Sober, yes, but joyfully so! God is on the move. The wind has freshened; the fog is lifting, new adventures await.

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