“And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind and the tree that yields fruit whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good”-Genesis 1:11 -12
From the moment we are born the battle begins.
This battle isn’t over the things that we own, or the people we love. This battle is over what we carry.
The battle is a fight for our connection to the Source of our power, our position, and our destiny in the earth.
Our connection to God was originated when God breathed His DNA into Adam’s lifeless dirt and Adam became a living being.
Now, each of us carries a piece of the Creator in seed form. When activated, this tiny piece of God in us has the power to transform the world around us, to restore our communities, and to declare to those who haven’t received the memo that they are free. But this connection to our Creator has an enemy who desires to keep us at odds with God and with one another, thereby rendering us ineffective and harmless
This adversary was given a place that day in the Garden when Eve surrendered her place of power for what she didn’t need to have; the capacity to be her own determiner of good and evil.
Adam and Eve had once enjoyed unfiltered access to God as He walked with them in the cool of the day, but they didn’t realize what they had until it was gone.
And because they had listened to a voice other than the voice of the one who loved their very souls, they now saw themselves as imperfect and were ashamed. Does this sound familiar?
Now they carried two seeds: One was a lie and one was truth. Their future success or failure would depend on which seed they fed.
“And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind and the tree that yields fruit whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good”-Genesis 1:11 -12
Throughout the generations, God kept His original intention alive through men and women, who were not much different from you and me, and who choose to press into the heart of God and surrender who they were into His hands.
Through Abel, who was so connected to the heart of God that he knew the sacrifice that would please Him more (Leviticus 1:3).
Through Seth, who carried the seed of Abel- “For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel whom Cain killed” (Genesis 4:26).
Through Enoch, who walked so close to God that God took Him back (Genesis 5:21). And Noah who had the faith to believe God for what he could not see or imagine. And Shem who saw that it was right to cover the nakedness of his father, or Terah the father of Abraham who got up to take his son out of the thing that was familiar only making it half-way.
Through Abraham, who trusted God for the complete journey while he stumbling along the way.
And Jacob, who tricked his brother out of his birthright, but finally surrendered to God and became the father of a nation.
Through Moses, the deliverer, who brought God’s people out of bondage, but whose disobedience kept him out of the promised land.
Then Tamar the well-known prostitute, who forfeited her own fame for God’s purpose and landed in the direct lineage of Jesus.
To Ruth, who walked away from her people to follow her mother-in-law and became the great-grandmother of David (“Your God will be my God and your people will be my people”).
Then David, who committed adultery and murder, but was a warrior and king, and a man after God’s own heart.
Through Mary, the unwed virgin who had to endure the stigma of a pregnancy outside of marriage, but was entrusted to carry God’s Seed of restoration and redemption for the world (Luke 1:30).
And finally, through Jesus, the Restorer. Our Lord, our Savior, and our God, who was born in a box in a place where animals live. He is the faultless Lamb of God who gave His life so that we could live.
“Jesus came to accomplish what a billion bulls and rams could not, then threw His mantle at our feet and returned to heaven.”
Jesus stepped into humanity and pushed aside the facade of man, thrust Himself in the face of the opposition, and immersed Himself among the outcasts and those who were on the fringes of society.
He touched those who were deemed untouchable and mingled with the out crowd.
“Instead of surrendering to God, we are afraid that He will find out who we really are.”
Jesus became a counterculture inside of the prevailing culture. Jesus showed us how to respond to a culture opposed to Him. He taught us how to love one another and how to connect with God through continual fellowship.
He taught us how to live by faith and to trust God no matter what things look like.
When He was done with His work, He offered up what no one else could, demolished the very thing that had kept us away from God, accomplishing what a billion bulls and rams could never do. Then He died, rose, got up out of the grave, threw His mantle at our feet and returned to heaven.
As the church and the body of Christ, we have no more excuses.
So why then is it still so difficult for us to pick up the mantle of Jesus?
Why do we struggle to live our lives like He showed us?
Why are we, as Christians, confused and worried and fearful?
Is it because we continue to feed the wrong seed?
As Christians, we drift through life like snowflakes caught in the wind.
Instead of being focused, we allow our thoughts, our circumstances, and the voices that are not of God to determine how we think and what we do.
Instead of going after the glory of God, we chase after the money.
We crave the fame and the notoriety. We desire the shiny things, and the stuff that make us happy.
We work to be comfortable and try desperately to avoid the very people God has sent us to.
We settle for what is popular and surrender to the familiar. We relish the path of least resistance because it’s easier to let someone else fight the battle.
Instead of reverencing God, we are afraid of Him. We don’t want Him to know who we really are. And because we are afraid of the One who loves our souls, our connection to His power is weak and ineffective while that which He has entrusted us with lays dormant.
I often wonder what would have happened if Adam and Eve had not hid from God, but had run to find Him before He called for them? Genesis 3:9
The God that I know would have worked it out. Of course there would have been consequences- Jesus’ sacrifice proves that sin has to be repaid- but maybe, just maybe, things would have been different.
God knows our weaknesses. He knows that we are going to fail, but what do we do after the fall?
“It is only when we surrender our authentic selves to God that we become true representatives of Him.”
Do we blame everyone else? Do we deny it ever happened and continue on our own broken paths when we should be running back to Him?
It’s only in the arms of God where we find everything that we need and everything that we crave.
You won’t find a more loving and forgiving God. You won’t find anyone who loves you like only God will.
He doesn’t care that we’re fragile and flawed and needy. He cares that we don’t keep coming back to Him for the answers.
The moment that I stopped trying to get what I wanted, lost interest in what everyone else thought about me, and began to ask God what it was that He wanted from me, God began to change my perspective.
I am convinced that when we surrender our authentic selves to God is when we become true representatives of Him.
I don’t have all of the answers for my life, but God does. I still have fears and doubts about a lot of things, but I know that as I walk toward Him either they won’t matter as much or He will re-purpose them for His glory.
With everything that God has given us to succeed, there is no way that we should be standing on the sidelines along with the crowds pointing and shaking our heads.
We have the power of the Most High God behind us. We have the answers to the world’s issues.
When God gave Moses the seemingly impossible task of confronting the most powerful man in Egypt and demanding that he let the Israelites go, Moses tried to make all kinds of excuses about why he wasn’t the right choice. But God refocused Moses so that he could see what he already had in his hand. Exodus 4:2.
I love the part in the movie The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and her friends finally make it to the Wizard. They believe that if they can only see the Wizard all of their problems will be solved. Instead, what they find is a tiny little man who is actually afraid of them. Everything they had heard and believed about him was a lie.
The Wizard didn’t have the answers for them because he didn’t even have the answers for himself. There are a lot of people running around today pretending they have the answers for you, but only God has your answer.
What Dorothy and her friends had been putting all of their efforts and passions into wasn’t even real. What they discovered was that they had what they needed the entire time.
So I want to ask you, what do you have in your hands? What is that thing that you possess that is unique to you?
Is it a talent for writing, a mind for math, or maybe science or engineering? Maybe you are good at cooking or managing people or handling money.
God is so vast that that piece He gave to you doesn’t quite look like the piece He gave to me.
But as you begin to submit that gift to God, He will activate it, and when your activated piece comes into contact with my activated piece, then we experience the kingdom of God.
I want to experience all that God has for me. I don’t want to miss one thing.