Disabling your Storm Fronts! (Hourly Emptied!)

1 Corinthians 15:57 “But thanks be to GOD, WHO gives us the victory through our LORD JESUS CHRIST!”

Disabling your Storm Fronts! (Hourly Emptied!)

In the midst of CHRIST’s favor,

withdrawing our hearts

from this life of such

darkened oppression;

so find we the strength

to fight without fail

for our LORD leads the battle

and none…can prevent HIM!

How wondrous this History!

What Victory HE gave us!

Thus past is the outcome

and “Won!” is the day!

So find we the Hope

and Faith, pressing in,

to lead others beside us…

by choosing to praise HIM!

Yes! In storms where our Timing

sees only the Front

still our hearts, which HE holds,

know their MASTER!

Our KING of all things

and LORD of this soul;

who encourages yours to

— Love’s SAVIOUR — chase after!

As his servant pressing onward with you to our guaranteed victory in Jesus,

Whitney  

Devotional: 1 Samuel 17:47 “And that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and HE will give you into our hand.”

In this life we are constantly bombarded by the sights and the negativity of oppression. Often we are attacked and made to think that we are in the middle of a unbeatable storm.

We are confronted on every side, cast down yet not broken, often “momentarily derailed” yet we will see HIM face to face with Perfect’s timing!

Therefore the storm clouds and even the oppressive lightning and harsh rains are but a temporary distraction at best.

Without doubt they seem to be impenetrable at times and their Fierce winds and crashing funder seem to be the final nails which Close our proverbial coffins.

But GOD! HE uses the storms and HIS Potter’s wheel to make us lean and best fit for HIS service.

Obviously, the extras we cling to in this life are actually chaff and dross. These unneeded weights are truthfully contradictory and incompatible with HIS designs…for each of our lives.

But you already know this.

This isn’t a news flash or some “Aha!” moment.

In fact, you may have already scanned down to this point just because of the gaps between sentences, assuming you already know this “so let’s move on”.

As such, this statement about how HE molds us is beautiful… yet sadly, almost cliché. So our challenge are those things which seem ministry-minded and yet are merely a mirage sent to distract us.

Those Martha-like tasks which we’re so certain “have to be done” and yet! Resting together with those needing CHRIST as well as our brothers and sisters…is much more aligned with HIM.

Ephesians 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

As such, my summary prayer for us is for HIS vision to overwhelm ours. I seek the path that you do as well; To stop, walk and run in HIS footsteps without the needless, time trappings of this life.

In opposition, I feel that our flesh even and especially in church settings, demands movement. Therefore STOPPING is not on the agenda. RESTING is something only to be “done” after our “to-do” list is accomplished.

In addition, we label the transformational storms as needless and the mountaintop experiences as those most valuable.

So I submit to you that the greatest value is to be “hourly-emptied” of self and to be sacrificial in HIS service…so that fewer changes need to be made each day.

And by sacrificial service I mean…. whatever requires you to shift the balance from Church defined value to sovereignly ordained action.

This means what HE has called you to do in HIS service. This may very well be different than what the local church wants you to do. “Hey, we have a need in the kid’s ministry!” and then the shoe-horning process begins.

“Sure it’s a great fit! Oh you’ll be awesome at this!” while the person in question has no calling for that position.

So just like trying to put a large, square peg in a small, round hole…it doesn’t work.

What do you feel best at doing for the LORD? More importantly, what gifts has HE given you that you can employ in service others to see HIS face within your own?

Important to note that as my mentor, Russ Sheets, said to me once, “Don’t mistake activity for accomplishment.”

How true! The LORD says that many “Do-ers” will come to HIM and tout WHAT THEY DID…for HIM.

HE will reply that they aren’t HIS children. That HE didn’t tell them to do those things they boast about…because it was their OWN agenda and mission.

Matthew 7:21-23 “It is not everyone that says to ME, ‘My LORD, my LORD”, who enters the Kingdom of Heaven, but whoever does the will of MY FATHER WHO is in Heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, ‘My LORD, my LORD, have we not prophesied in YOUR NAME, and in YOUR NAME have cast out demons, and have done many mighty works in YOUR NAME?’ 23 And then I will confess to them, ‘I have NEVER known you, remove yourselves far from ME, you workers of evil.’”

I share this not as to create fear but to instill focus on what we do and WHY we do it. Too much “church service” has nothing to do with lightening the load of the congregation but rather…it adds to the “to-do” list and those hungry for HIS WORD get scraps at best.

So, as the title of this poem devotional  suggest, “Disabling your Storm Fronts! (Hourly Emptied!)”…serve HIM FOREMOST through silent devotionals and humbled submission.

Proverbs 21:31”The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the LORD!”

Quietly listen for HIS steps and remain in them much longer than the social crowd demanding to go “do something”.  

While our faith is displayed through our works…our efforts are nothing with rock solid Faith built solely on HIS foundation.

Amen and amen.