I just wanted to share with you one of the major lessons I learned this past year. This one was really important and absolutely vital in my spiritual growth and walk with the Lord and with others and I’m so thankful to Jesus for speaking to me and for constantly leading and guiding me each step of the way.
To start off this story I think I should probably give some background history into this situation. Sometimes understanding a little background really helps in understanding where a person is and why the react the way they do etc ...
First of all for those of you who don’t know I’ve been living in South Africa for over 10 years now doing missionary work. Now there are so many amazing things about living this way and about giving your all to serve the Lord but I must admit that it has been a journey and as all journeys go there are sometimes bumps along the way. But that’s part of life and it helps to grow us up. But overall I’ve never had so much joy and been so free inside and out! Jesus is so good and living for Him has honestly been the best decision ever! He’s given me all my heart could ever hope for and I sincerely believe that it’s because the word says ‘Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.’’
I love living communally and I wouldn’t ever trade it for living on my own. I tried living for myself and found it boring and dead and sometimes even lonely. The more I seemed to focus on myself the more unhappy I became which is why I have chosen to live the way I do. To live a life of giving.
However in saying this there have been times when communal living has had its struggles, but thankfully now I can honestly say we have such wonderful unity and are all the closest of friends and we’re very attached to each other and plan to work together as long as we can.
I’m an idea person, kind’ve like an inspirational sort where I have all sorts of crazy new and different ideas. I hate monotony and too many rules, regulations and repetition. I believe that a life fully lived for Christ should be adventurous and exciting and different, ever changing. There are so many different ways to serve the Lord and minister to others as well as just to live ones life. Why be bound by too much monotony which always ends up in boredom and religion? (pointless tradition.)
Anyway, in saying this I’ve had a lot’ve crazy ideas over the years and sometimes it was hard for others who had different personalities to have faith or believe for the un orthodox or sometimes very different things and ideas and plans that I had on my heart that the Lord showed me to do. At times my ideas didn’t always go down so well and eventually this led me to just pursue what I wanted to do somewhat independently. I’m the kind of person that will do something if I believe it’s what I’m supposed to be doing even if I have to do it alone and I won’t stop until I’ve completed it.
Of course I wanted to do it with others but there are times when the Lord is giving you a picture in your mind’s eye and it looks really real and incredible to you ..but sometimes others can’t see what you see ..and at times it was frustrating for me so I gave up trying to share my ideas with others and just began to work towards certain projects mostly on my own, still living with others but moving forward to do what the Lord had laid on my heart even if it meant just doing it myself. Not to say this lasted for long as in general we all work closely together and are very close friends which is awesome and a beautiful gift the Lord has given us.
After awhile though I started to become quite independent and started to distance myself in a way at times from certain people fearing they wouldn’t understand and not wanting to put down what the Lord asked me to do.
Then one day the Lord gave me this beautiful revelation. He lovingly showed me about that scripture where it says the hand can’t say to the body ‘I have no need of thee’. We all need each other and we need to do whatever we can to constantly sow into love so that we have consistent genuine unity. If someone is going thru something we need to communicate build each other up and speak the truth in love.
The Lord was so faithful to speak to me right when I needed Him most and He gently led me to the path where I was supposed to go.
At the time when I had this revelation we were overseas (our overseas trips was really incredible by the way and we always communicated about everything especially us girls, and we had a genuine bond which made things easy). Anyway, this was the time where I started listening to Justin Abraham who brought some incredible new truths to my attention about honouring each other and he just had such humility and love and I knew that he was speaking truth and at the time it really opened my eyes in the spirit to the way Jesus really wanted us to be.
The revelation about the body which the Lord was revealing to me was just about how much we need each other. To build anything or get anything done for the Lord we need each other. There’s almost no way around it. The more we know how to work with people the more we can get done for the Lord because many hands make light work. We need to really respect each other, and build each other up in the body of Christ and see the value in each other. It’s easy for all of us to at times forget our own value and the value of each other sometimes and that’s why we need each other so much, to lift each other up and help each other to move forward together. Everything just came to me so clearly and beautifully! It’s not that there were huge problems but the Lord was showing me that this change of mindset that I needed would be essential in moving forward for Him and He was right!
He showed me to be inclusive with a spirit of humility and drop what I was doing that I thought was so important and that this would bring us close together like a real loving family and that this is how we would be able to move forward together –If everyone felt included and a part.
He also showed me to be honest about why I started to be more independent and also to forgive and ask for forgiveness. In this life for the Lord one of the worst things is not being real. I really believe that we need to live the things we teach and it needs to show by our sample and if we see something thats not right we need to work in humility and love to correct it right away so that we will be transparent and truly living as His body and living like Him.
Its not that our home was so messed up or anything, it was just little things and that when we changed them it made a huge difference. He also taught me a lot about letting go .. of my pride, my ideas, my way, my plans and just totally leaving things in His hands. He also told me that I was holding the ball of ministry too tight and that I just needed to let go. So I did! The Lord showed me to just focus on our home and team and just to love people and honor them and I did and it worked wonders! He’s the One that’s running this show anyway and He’s the One that will complete it till the end.
When working with people sometimes there are misunderstandings and both parties get hurt there are times when I felt the Lord just saying for me to apologize and do all I could to make things right and fix things. Nothing is beyond repair and it’s amazing to see how the Lord is able to turn around the most complicated of situations if we obey! He is faithful!
Sometimes when you have a ministry like we have it can put some strain on the home team as many people clear out for mission trips. It takes faith to send teams out for sure but it also takes faith for those staying home that the Lord will take care of everything there with less people and bills to pay and for the local work to continue etc. I always had perfect faith that He would make a way and He did! But as you can imagine, there are some sacrifices especially on those that stay back.
Overall during our years together things have been generally pretty smooth and we have enjoyed such genuine love for each other and we know we’ve been so blessed and speak about it regularly. Sometimes its little things that can appear to be bigger than they are when really they’re just molehills that’s why communication is so essential.
Anyway, this revelation was so incredible to me and I’m so thankful for this amazing change in my perspective. Sometimes you don’t realize something until the Lord or someone speaks to about it. That’s why I really believe in constant communication and listening to the Lord. It truly works wonders!
Also another thing the Lord showed me was about placing each person in their place of greatest expertise. Sometimes one person is really gifted in one area and they need to be true to their calling and as Hiedi Baker has shared in her story, not ‘wear another man’s armour’. Of course there are things that everyone’s interested in and in those areas people need to be given a chance to flap their wings and fly. We just need to be sensitive in the spirit to each situation.
God is not controlling, though He gently guides us, still He gives us humans so much space to live and be, to grow, change and make decisions and though we can guide people through life there are also times when we just need to let people make their own decisions and if they make a mistake then they’ll learn from it. Of course there also has its boundaries especially living the way we do but in general I feel that its space,(another word for this is grace)...the space we need to be able to make mistakes, the mercy we show to one another, patience, guidance, coupled with the word and an intimate relationship with the Lord as well as speaking the truth in love (even if it sometimes hurts) that help grow us up into all things.
These are just a few lessons I’ve been learning in my journey and walk with the Lord. I hope you find them helpful
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