Uptil recently, I held the view that when God gave a prophecy, He would open the opportunities to fulfil that prophecy in our lives. It's easy though to sit back and not do anything about this. By this i mean that, usually when God gives us a word of knowledge, it has usually been preceeded by a vision or desire which is in line with the word. This has been my experience anyway.
The easy option at this point is to sit back and look at our circumstances, and say "it's just not possible" or "I have too many commitments for me to make a change in my life". Indeed I said that too. We have bills, commitments, responsibilities in Melbourne, and frankly the trip to Colombo was just not feasible at this point in time. There was also a challenge for us to get out of a comfort zone. The weather, the traffic, the dust... it doesn't exactly paint an inviting picture. As I write this, the electricity has just gone off, and no ETA on when it will be restored. So no fans either :)
So what brings us here? Other than the desire to see others blessed through us, our faith in God compelled us to put our trust in Him. We have heard many-a-time over the last couple of weeks sentences beginning with "but what about...", "but what if..." Let me be honest, it almost made us change our minds. But we pressed on, knowing that God wanted us here.
God reminded me of that beautiful psalm, where, in chapter 23 David begins with.. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack for nothing". The key point being "the Lord IS my shepherd". If we are not following the Shepherd (and His will and plans), the we cannot expect to lack for nothing!
"He lets me rest in green meadows, He leads me beside peaceful streams" - It's important to recognise that the Shepherd here allows us rest, and also leads us beside peaceful streams. It's not of our own choosing.
"He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to His name" - Wow. If we are centred and focussed on following the Shepherd, we need not worry about burn-out, of our physical needs, and we can be certain that everything we do will bring Glory to God! Isn't that awesome??
"Even when I walk through the dark valley of death, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me..." - No doubt there will be trials and testings in our lives, however we can rest assured knowing that our Shepherd has gone before us and knows the way out! He is always there close beside us ready to pick us up and guide us before we even ask!
Verse 5, "You prepare a feast before me in the presence of my enemies, you welcome me as a guest, anointing my head with oil. My cup OVERFLOWS with blessings" - our obedience and allegiance to our Shepherd will also have it's rewards. Rewards which we cannot measure - as it's says, it will OVERFLOW. A feast in the presence of our enemies.. I personally think that God will do this so that we can show His love and blessings to our enemies! Hence, when we do this, our cups will overflow!
"Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever." - I dont know about you, but if I have God's goodness and love pursuing me for the rest of my life, then what else do I need in this world?? Like David, I too want to dwell in His presence forever.
This is where it's at my friends. When God calls, we have to know that He has already gone ahead and prepared the way. There is no "rushing ahead" of God. There can't be, b'coz in Psalm 139 David tells us that even before we were formed our steps were ordained!! So how can we say then that God's timing has to be right? We can't fortell and forsee the timing of God, we can only keep our eyes fixed on Him, our Shepherd, and walk into the days that He ordained.
Before I was born, he knew I'd be sitting here typing this blog, without electricity and a fan, in Sri Lanka. If you'd asked me 2 months ago, I would've laughed as in my vision, us being here was very unlikely. Such is God, HE is BIG, He knows everything about You, indeed he has planned Everything good for your life, but we just have to make Him our Shepherd and follow him with our whole heart, mind, soul, strenght, and surely goodness and mercy WILL follow you - and you will begin to live out your destiny and a life that brings Glory to Him. What's stopping you today?
