Saturday, February 2, 2019

ELEVATION NORTH has NEWS for YOU!



WHAT DO WE SEE WHEN THINGS COME INTO OUR VIEW?  I truly believe that one of the most precious gifts God has given us is our sight!  I absolutely love seeing sunrise color-bursts that bring the morning sky alive with God’s promises for the new day!  I am held in awe when I gaze upon the silvery edged sliver of a midnight moon that illuminates the night-covered earth with a soft luminescence!  And then there are the countless things that come into our view throughout the course of our entire day – for as long as our eyes are open.  And when we see … we think.  We assess.  We judge.  We decide.  Based on all of that, what we’ve seen gets placed into a specific category of our heart, or our mind, or our soul.  We love the sights – and we cherish.  We hold our thoughts – or they hold us.  We bury the images – or we release them.  And all of this occurs … because we have seen.

I share this from the depths of my heart today, because in the past month God has used a favorite plant of mine to teach me a very powerful lesson.  A few summers ago, we bought a less than flourishing plant on clearance for just a few dollars, but I love the tropical flowers of the hibiscus plant, so I could not pass up this bargain!  I am always sad when the outdoor season is ended because I know how much I will miss the flowers!  We have tried transplanting them in our outdoor natural area at the back of our yard, but when Spring arrives, unfortunately, our hibiscus plants have never survived.  Well, it was worth a try!  So after a few years of trying that, each year we would just go and purchase a new plant and start over again ~ being delighted daily with the beauty of these amazing, unique blossoms!!  But, when we purchased this imperfect plant a few years ago and set it out in the front of our house, we were astounded at how it flourished!  In fact, it was so beautiful and filled with flowers that we did not have the heart to transplant it in the back-yard in yet another attempt to see if it would survive the frigid Minnesota winter.  We deducted that doing so would just send it to its wintery death.  So, we brought it inside to winter with us where it was warm and protected.  We did this for the past few years, and the plant would go through a slightly dormant change, but kept most of its leaves which stayed green.  When it came time to go to the greenhouses in the area to choose our outdoor summer plants, we would just set out the hibiscus plant with the others, and the fresh air and warm sunshine and warm breezes brought new life to it!  Throughout each summer it would flourish and become more beautiful than the year before.  This past autumn season, we once again brought the plant inside and did an exact repeat of previous winters.  Only this year, after it had stopped blooming indoors, it began to lose its leaves.  Coming home every day, I would discover there were more dry and shriveled up leaves to greet me, until after three months of loving care, the barren branches sported one lone yellowish leaf.  That was it. 

I actually got down on my hands and knees to examine my favorite plant, not wanting to entertain the thought that it was beyond saving and that it should be thrown out.  After these recent years of enjoyment, my desire was to save it so I could continue to enjoy its beauty again.  Then I began to wonder – does this plant go through a fully dormant state, even though it did not the previous years?  Perhaps there was yet hope.  My eyes peered closely over the stark, dead-looking branches … and when I thought I saw some tiny bumps beneath the bark, my heart leaped with excitement!  Could these be buds forming with new life?  And then over the next few days I saw the faintest sign of green bursting forth from these swelled bumps.  Soon there were baby leaves emerging from these hundreds of spots all over the branches!  I was seeing life … new life!  Abundance was springing forth from what had looked dead!

It was like God was speaking to me in this miraculous transformation:  “Debbie, whose eyes are you looking through when you see things?  Are you seeing with your natural eyes … or are you looking through My eyes?  There’s no comparison in what you see and understand on your own to what you can see and know if you will seek to see through My vision!  That’s what I want for you … and for all of My people!  Open your eyes to see what is beneath the surface, to what is hidden below.  That’s where true life is ~ with all of its truth and treasures and wisdom, and greater depths of beauty than you can ever see on your own!”

Somehow I just knew that God was revealing this – not just for my love of summer plants and their magnificent beauty, but for something much deeper.  I knew He was teaching me a lesson to equip me for these days we are living in.  Our world seems to be imploding in every arena:  the extreme weather with massive fires and frigid cold and devastating tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis … the extreme hatred consuming humans until they explode with words and bullets destroying lives … the extreme volatility and fear in the swinging financial markets … the extreme push to end life in the womb or just out of the womb - before it can ever be lived … the extreme demands of politicians who want it their way instead of God’s way for our nation … the extreme escalation of evil in the war-torn Middle East countries – in an ongoing attempt to take out Israel, God’s chosen nation … the extreme and relentless attacks of the enemy upon God’s people and God’s churches – those who choose to not waver and give in to a watered-down Gospel, but to stand true to the message of Jesus Christ – because Satan wants us to give up and quit!  And I could go on and on …

But you know what?  There is MORE than meets the eye in all of the above extremes I’ve just listed.  We see the obvious of what the enemy wants us to see.  But don’t you ever forget that he is deceitful and he is a liar and he is out to kill and destroy anything and everything that is God-related and holy and righteous and pure.  We need to stop looking at things in life with our own eyes and seek to see what our God sees!  If we ask, He will reveal the deeper meanings and hidden plans to our hearts.  His wisdom will help us be discerning through the power of the Holy Spirit; and as His people, we will understand things that we never have before.  If we ask, He promises to hear and answer our prayers.  He knows the longing of our hearts to see and know what He sees and knows, which is His Truth.  Our prayer is that God will always keep us on track with Him, and that in the midst of the chaos and turmoil and death, we will experience His promised peace – and a life that is lived as He designed for it to be lived as His children.

So from this day forward, my challenge to you is when you see what you think you see, ask God for an extra measure of HIS vision and understanding.  What you first see as hopeless and dead, is really just a time of preparation and transition to the reality of God’s plan to burst forth with hope and new life on the stage of this groaning world … in people, in circumstances, in homes, churches, and nations!  Dear ones, we can shudder at the unleashed evil all around us … or we can embrace the righteousness of God!  In the end, God WINS!  In the end, we WIN!  When we know Jesus personally, we can be assured that Heaven is our Home!  But, let’s not go there alone, let’s get down on our hands and knees and search for the hidden signs of life amongst the dying!  Let’s declare that we will be engaged in rescuing those living as dead – and seeing them emerge from dying into living the new life that Christ came to give!!  We can do nothing greater than this!  Onward through 2019 ~ let’s continue to “AWAKE!  ARISE! and SHINE!”

REMEMBER . . .

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; 
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.”

… and lo, I am with you always [remaining with you perpetually—
regardless of circumstance, and on every occasion], 
even to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:20b 

Joyfully Serving Christ . . .

Pastor Doug and Debbie










0 comments: