For the last few weeks I have been absorbing Psalm 91. I have found myself longing to stay in the secret place of God; under the shadow of His wings and in His pavilion. Lord knows I have been going through some things, but as my Bishop and spiritual father told me yesterday I Must be a VIP. Then my spiritual mother came along and sang to me and reassured me that as long as I stay in the secret place with King Jesus, I don't need nobody else and I can't be touched. She explained that there is freedom in God's pavilion. Then God revealed to me that I have the choice to throw one of two kinds of parties. I can wallow in the pit and have a pity party of one, or I can stand on the Word of God and have a praise party where God will inhabit and dwell; and where the spirit of the Lord is . . . there is liberty!
I called this Under the Cover because my Bishop reassured me that through my steps of obedience and of returning to serve that God has restored me and has kept me under His covering. We must choose to stay under the covering and in position under the leadership and tutelage of those who God entrusts to watch over us.
I thought and asked God what it meant to have position and to stay in position and He brought to my memory the story of Jacob and Esau. Esau sold his position or his birthright for a pot of beans. In other words he gave away the rights to his future to try to satiate an immediate feeling of hunger because the hunger had become magnified in his mind--that's the kind of thing that can happen to us when we are not under the covering and getting that reassurance from our spiritual parents.
But God is looking for some individuals who can endure and who won't trade their future divine appointments to try to satisfy immediate flights of fancy. He wants us to rest in Him for all our needs. What we must realize is that our physical desires, needs, issues are temporary and must be brought under the subjection of the Holy Ghost. We can do this through God's process for our lives, through listening to our spiritual leaders and through losing ourselves in the Word of God through consecration and dedication.
There's another reason that we must stay in position. Consider the story of David at Ziglag. David and the party that was with David could have just fell out because the enemy had stolen all of their possessions and had taken their families as slaves. David cried and the men with him cried and considered killing David, but David sought God and asked God should I pursue this enemy? God assured David that he should pursue the enemy and that he would recover all. Now if David hadn't decided to head toward in the direction of the enemy when he did then he would never have run into the servant that they had left for dead. That servant was in the position to help David to recover all. David caught up to the enemy and got all of his stuff back and then some!
With what i have been going through I have asked God to just let me rest. I keep telling friends that I need to lean on somebody for a change. I'm tired for being the strong one. I laugh to think about this all now because God has surrounded me with people who are not buying any of what I was trying to sell! They told me to keep it pushing! God told me that there is no time for slowing down, resting or stopping because kingdom work is still at stake. He also told me that if I rest now, I won't be able to recover all. I have to keep pushing in order to experience the richness of God's anointing for my life and in order to recover all and to be properly restored to my rightful place in Him.
I knew this was absolutely true when I saw my pastor after a long time of not seeing her and the first thing that I did was fall into her arms and experience her mothering and nurturing me and giving me words of love and encouragement. She may be younger than me in age, but her anointing is that of a mother of nations. After she loved on me and bandaged me up, my Bishop gave me a hug and said, "Alright now, we are going to move forward from this Elder." Isn't that just what fathers do! They do not allow you to wallow. They want you to brush yourself off and get back in it. It is nurturing too, but in a different way. See fathers know that in order for us to stay encouraged and to stay focused we cannot allow the fall or the subsequent bruise to become our focus. For example, if we were learning to ride a bike, falling off of the bike and getting hurt from the fall are part of the process of learning to ride a bike. It is not the full part, but we cannot deny that it is a part. But the most important part of learning to ride a bike is getting back on and trying again and again until we are successful.
It helps me to know that I do not have the space or the opportunity to sit around feeling sorry for myself. There is yet work that needs to be done.
Read Psalm 91 and get under the cover today. Stay there and don't be afraid to go through some things. It is all part of the process. Not because God is trying to punish you, but because it is just part of the process just like learning to ride that bike. Why is it that we can accept that we will fall and get hurt learning to ride a bike, but we fall out at the thought that we may have go to through something for the cause of Christ! Listen to your spiritual father and shake it off, breathe, stretch and let it go. There is kingdom work to be done.
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