"Power Supply Line" by Gabriel AllonThe one who breaks open
will come up before them;
They will break out, Pass through the gate,
And go out by it; Their king will pass before them,
With the Lord at their head.
Micah 2:13
In the Bible, a person's name was synonymous with his nature. Part of my excitement in my spiritual journey was getting to know another aspect of God's nature through a new name He would reveal to me in a particular season.
In 2003 I turned 50. It was the year of jubilee for me. This was the year when I sensed God personally speaking to me many words of restoration that He spoke in the Bible. I would read promises such as those found in
Hosea 2:14 - I will give you back your vineyards, you will sing again as in the days of your youth;
Isaiah 40: 1-2 - I speak comfort to you, your warfare is ended, your iniquity is pardoned, and you will receive double from My hand for all your sins;
Isaiah 58:11 - You will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters do not fail...
and know in my spirit that they were being spoken to me.
The song of Robin Mark "Days of Elijah" has always been one of my favorites, and for this season, it spoke deeply to my spirit. Each of the names mentioned in this song were men in whom God had worked a deep restoration - Elijah, Moses, Ezekiel, David, people with whom I felt a certain closeness at that time.
Whenever I would sing this song, I would feel my spirit soaring!
Behold He comes, riding on the clouds
Shining like the sun, at the trumpet call
Lift your voice, it's the year of jubilee
And out of Zion's hill, salvation comes!
What awesome promises the year of jubilee holds! For me, my fiftieth year was a door that suddenly swung wide open and God's acts of restoration were ushered in.
This is not to say that the pruning came to a complete stop. On the contrary, it seemed that God brought me to another round of pruning. But because of the cushion of many promises of restoration given by my heavenly Father, I viewed these new trials as I would a surgeon's knife. They were a means to my deeper healing and restoration.
Just as this year was ending, God gave me another word: frontier. 2004 was to be the year that I would go into uncharted territories. I sensed God calling me to move up to a higher level, and that it would mean a major "going out" for me.
For the past years, there had been a call to leave my comfort zone and go to a place that God would show me. He was calling me to radical obedience.
It is easy to obey when what is being asked is not so difficult. But when God asks me to leave a ministry behind, and doesn't tell me what is in store for me, it's not really that easy.
Oh, I knew. This was my season for a breakthrough. There were new lessons to be learned. Nevertheless it wasn't easy. I needed to be sure I was hearing God right and to be certain that I was acting on faith, not on presumption.
I was the head of our church's school ministry then, and had been principal for almost 18 years. But circumstances around me were changing. I felt like I was in a very tight place. There was pressure, there was fear. Mostly fear of the unknown. I was aware of new plans being conceived, and somehow, I sensed that I was not to be a part of these plans.
When the school year 2003-2004 ended in March, I already knew that "my season at the school had come to an end."
Those words caught me by surprise one day as I was pouring my heart out to the Lord. I was asking Him to reveal to me the next move, for increasingly I had felt boxed in. I am not judging people's motives, but to be honest, I felt surrounded by enemies, and they were closing in on me.
"Your season at the school has come to an end." This was what I clearly heard from God.
But there was no one around to take my place, and as each school year ends, the two months of summer preparation for the next school year are quite crucial. So I kept asking God, "Who will You send to take my place? What will I do? I can't just leave everything in the middle of everything...."
"Can you trust Me with your life?"
I remember that question. He always seemed to ask me that whenever I found myself in a tight place.
Years before, when the head position at the school was thrust upon me without my being prepared or even willing to do it, I saw a poster in a bookstore with these words:
I did a counted cross stitch wall hang of those words to put in my office the day I became principal of our church school. That was in November 1989.
Only a few of my very close friends really know this part of my life story: when I took over as the principal of the school, a very difficult season in my life was just beginning.
But God does have a unique sense of humor. I don't mean this to say that God is laughing at my predicament. It's my way of saying that the way He operates is quite contrary to this world's system.
"There must be some mistake, Lord. I'm not the person for this job."
"Can you trust Me with your life?"
It was always about trusting, and obeying.
A deeper faith requires a deeper obedience. That phrase sums up the story of my life.
And for a woman committed to obeying and growing in faith, there really was no other way... but "to trust and obey."
Oftentimes, the obeying did not require any tangible step, but simply to say in my heart, "Yes, Lord, I trust You with my life."
By faith, Abraham obeyed...
Another schoolyear was about to begin but it felt like I had reached a dead end. I didn't really know what to do, or where to go. And I couldn't imagine what God would do to help me in what I was going through. "Why am I still here, Lord? Lead me to the next step, Father... I don't want to go ahead of you. Show me the way out."
There were nights that I literally felt a hand around my neck, trying to strangle the life out of me. Fear gripped my heart. It seemed that someone wanted to snuff the very life out of me.
Then one day it happened.
One early evening in July 2004, barely a month after the new schoolyear had opened, a fire broke out in the school building.
An Ancient Paths seminar was scheduled for that evening at our school. Many participants had signed up to attend it, and the ministry team who had committed to help out was to meet for prayer that afternoon. Early that morning, during my devotional time, I sensed God speaking a very specific instruction to me. He said, "When you meet for prayer this afternoon, tell your pastor not to have the airconditioning units running all at the same time. Don't use the airconditioning on the second floor together with the ones in the seminar hall."
Well, when we met for prayer, there was no time for me to tell this to my pastor as he had already instructed the different small group facilitators to go to their specific rooms and be in prayer.
All I could do was run from room to room, telling them to turn off the airconditioning. As I reached the ground floor, the maintenance man met me to say that the control panel seemed to be overheating. I told him to switch off the power at once.
It was silly to do that; the video seminar teaching had already begun and to turn the power off would plunge the whole building into darkness. But I knew we needed to act fast.
I was on my way to the sanctuary where the seminar had just started, when a part of our electrical lines suddenly burst into flames! Everyone ran out into the street; I stood by the gate asking God to intervene.
The amazing thing is that it was only the service entrance power line that burst into flames. In a few minutes, part of the electric post which supplies power to the school was also in flames. I thought that the fire would quickly spread to the rest of our building's electrical wires and burn the whole school down.
But it didn't happen.
When the control panel was inspected the following day, it was discovered that only the portion leading out to the electric power service entrance was burned. The other half leading in was intact, not at all burned.
The fire broke out at the exact moment that the main switch was turned off. A second too late and the fire would have burned the whole building down.
I still shiver whenever I remember this.
That night, I asked God, "What is your message for me in this, Lord?"
His reply: "My daughter, I am giving you brand new power lines in your life."
"...The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer
My God, my strength in whom I will trust;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold;
I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised
So shall I be saved from my enemies.
The pangs of death surrounded me
And the floods of ungodliness made me afraid
The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me
The snares of death confronted me;
In my distress I called upon the Lord
And cried out to my God;
He heard my voice from His temple
And my cry came before Him even to His ears...
He sent from above, He took me
He drew me out of many waters
He delivered me from my strong enemy,
From those who hated me...
The Lord was my support
HE also brought me out into a broad place
He delivered me because He delighted in me."
Psalm 18:1-19
Daybreak
And go out by it; Their king will pass before them,
With the Lord at their head.
Micah 2:13
So they went up to Baal Perazim,
and David defeated them there.
Then David said, "God has broken through my enemies
like a breakthrough of water."
Therefore they called the name of that place
Baal Perazim.
1 Chronicles 14:11
and David defeated them there.
Then David said, "God has broken through my enemies
like a breakthrough of water."
Therefore they called the name of that place
Baal Perazim.
1 Chronicles 14:11
In the Bible, a person's name was synonymous with his nature. Part of my excitement in my spiritual journey was getting to know another aspect of God's nature through a new name He would reveal to me in a particular season.
In 2003 I turned 50. It was the year of jubilee for me. This was the year when I sensed God personally speaking to me many words of restoration that He spoke in the Bible. I would read promises such as those found in
Hosea 2:14 - I will give you back your vineyards, you will sing again as in the days of your youth;
Isaiah 40: 1-2 - I speak comfort to you, your warfare is ended, your iniquity is pardoned, and you will receive double from My hand for all your sins;
Isaiah 58:11 - You will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters do not fail...
and know in my spirit that they were being spoken to me.
The song of Robin Mark "Days of Elijah" has always been one of my favorites, and for this season, it spoke deeply to my spirit. Each of the names mentioned in this song were men in whom God had worked a deep restoration - Elijah, Moses, Ezekiel, David, people with whom I felt a certain closeness at that time.
Whenever I would sing this song, I would feel my spirit soaring!
Behold He comes, riding on the clouds
Shining like the sun, at the trumpet call
Lift your voice, it's the year of jubilee
And out of Zion's hill, salvation comes!
What awesome promises the year of jubilee holds! For me, my fiftieth year was a door that suddenly swung wide open and God's acts of restoration were ushered in.
This is not to say that the pruning came to a complete stop. On the contrary, it seemed that God brought me to another round of pruning. But because of the cushion of many promises of restoration given by my heavenly Father, I viewed these new trials as I would a surgeon's knife. They were a means to my deeper healing and restoration.
Just as this year was ending, God gave me another word: frontier. 2004 was to be the year that I would go into uncharted territories. I sensed God calling me to move up to a higher level, and that it would mean a major "going out" for me.
For the past years, there had been a call to leave my comfort zone and go to a place that God would show me. He was calling me to radical obedience.
It is easy to obey when what is being asked is not so difficult. But when God asks me to leave a ministry behind, and doesn't tell me what is in store for me, it's not really that easy.
Oh, I knew. This was my season for a breakthrough. There were new lessons to be learned. Nevertheless it wasn't easy. I needed to be sure I was hearing God right and to be certain that I was acting on faith, not on presumption.
I was the head of our church's school ministry then, and had been principal for almost 18 years. But circumstances around me were changing. I felt like I was in a very tight place. There was pressure, there was fear. Mostly fear of the unknown. I was aware of new plans being conceived, and somehow, I sensed that I was not to be a part of these plans.
When the school year 2003-2004 ended in March, I already knew that "my season at the school had come to an end."
Those words caught me by surprise one day as I was pouring my heart out to the Lord. I was asking Him to reveal to me the next move, for increasingly I had felt boxed in. I am not judging people's motives, but to be honest, I felt surrounded by enemies, and they were closing in on me.
"Your season at the school has come to an end." This was what I clearly heard from God.
But there was no one around to take my place, and as each school year ends, the two months of summer preparation for the next school year are quite crucial. So I kept asking God, "Who will You send to take my place? What will I do? I can't just leave everything in the middle of everything...."
"Can you trust Me with your life?"
I remember that question. He always seemed to ask me that whenever I found myself in a tight place.
Years before, when the head position at the school was thrust upon me without my being prepared or even willing to do it, I saw a poster in a bookstore with these words:
Don't think of it as a job, think of it as your life.
I did a counted cross stitch wall hang of those words to put in my office the day I became principal of our church school. That was in November 1989.
Only a few of my very close friends really know this part of my life story: when I took over as the principal of the school, a very difficult season in my life was just beginning.
But God does have a unique sense of humor. I don't mean this to say that God is laughing at my predicament. It's my way of saying that the way He operates is quite contrary to this world's system.
"There must be some mistake, Lord. I'm not the person for this job."
"Can you trust Me with your life?"
It was always about trusting, and obeying.
A deeper faith requires a deeper obedience. That phrase sums up the story of my life.
And for a woman committed to obeying and growing in faith, there really was no other way... but "to trust and obey."
Oftentimes, the obeying did not require any tangible step, but simply to say in my heart, "Yes, Lord, I trust You with my life."
By faith, Abraham obeyed...
Another schoolyear was about to begin but it felt like I had reached a dead end. I didn't really know what to do, or where to go. And I couldn't imagine what God would do to help me in what I was going through. "Why am I still here, Lord? Lead me to the next step, Father... I don't want to go ahead of you. Show me the way out."
There were nights that I literally felt a hand around my neck, trying to strangle the life out of me. Fear gripped my heart. It seemed that someone wanted to snuff the very life out of me.
Then one day it happened.
One early evening in July 2004, barely a month after the new schoolyear had opened, a fire broke out in the school building.
An Ancient Paths seminar was scheduled for that evening at our school. Many participants had signed up to attend it, and the ministry team who had committed to help out was to meet for prayer that afternoon. Early that morning, during my devotional time, I sensed God speaking a very specific instruction to me. He said, "When you meet for prayer this afternoon, tell your pastor not to have the airconditioning units running all at the same time. Don't use the airconditioning on the second floor together with the ones in the seminar hall."
Well, when we met for prayer, there was no time for me to tell this to my pastor as he had already instructed the different small group facilitators to go to their specific rooms and be in prayer.
All I could do was run from room to room, telling them to turn off the airconditioning. As I reached the ground floor, the maintenance man met me to say that the control panel seemed to be overheating. I told him to switch off the power at once.
It was silly to do that; the video seminar teaching had already begun and to turn the power off would plunge the whole building into darkness. But I knew we needed to act fast.
I was on my way to the sanctuary where the seminar had just started, when a part of our electrical lines suddenly burst into flames! Everyone ran out into the street; I stood by the gate asking God to intervene.
The amazing thing is that it was only the service entrance power line that burst into flames. In a few minutes, part of the electric post which supplies power to the school was also in flames. I thought that the fire would quickly spread to the rest of our building's electrical wires and burn the whole school down.
But it didn't happen.
When the control panel was inspected the following day, it was discovered that only the portion leading out to the electric power service entrance was burned. The other half leading in was intact, not at all burned.
The fire broke out at the exact moment that the main switch was turned off. A second too late and the fire would have burned the whole building down.
I still shiver whenever I remember this.
That night, I asked God, "What is your message for me in this, Lord?"
His reply: "My daughter, I am giving you brand new power lines in your life."
A few days later, I received an email from my friend Jeff. Jeff lives in Penang, Malaysia, together with his wife Ann. They are the Asia-Pacific regional directors of Youth With a Mission. Though Jeff and Ann are close friends of mine, we don't hear from each other regularly.
I wrote him a brief email that week asking him to pray for me. I didn't give details. So I was surprised when he sent me a reply saying that as he was praying for me, he sensed God giving him Psalm 18 as His word for me. Then Jeff added: "I believe God wants you to have a new spiritual environment in your life. It seems that you need to move on to the next level."
I wrote him a brief email that week asking him to pray for me. I didn't give details. So I was surprised when he sent me a reply saying that as he was praying for me, he sensed God giving him Psalm 18 as His word for me. Then Jeff added: "I believe God wants you to have a new spiritual environment in your life. It seems that you need to move on to the next level."
He did not know about the fire. He did not know about my struggles.
As I was reading Psalm 18 I couldn't stop the tears. Once again, my Father was speaking specifically into my life with His words:
As I was reading Psalm 18 I couldn't stop the tears. Once again, my Father was speaking specifically into my life with His words:
"...The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer
My God, my strength in whom I will trust;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold;
I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised
So shall I be saved from my enemies.
The pangs of death surrounded me
And the floods of ungodliness made me afraid
The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me
The snares of death confronted me;
In my distress I called upon the Lord
And cried out to my God;
He heard my voice from His temple
And my cry came before Him even to His ears...
He sent from above, He took me
He drew me out of many waters
He delivered me from my strong enemy,
From those who hated me...
The Lord was my support
HE also brought me out into a broad place
He delivered me because He delighted in me."
Psalm 18:1-19
Clearly, a new day was breaking for me.
DaybreakBy September 15, just a few weeks after the fire, I was out of the school.
It was a ministry I had loved and which had provided me with so many opportunities to grow. It wasn't easy to leave behind people I dearly loved - the students, the staff, the parents. Together we had grown, struggled, worked, rejoiced...
It was a ministry I had loved and which had provided me with so many opportunities to grow. It wasn't easy to leave behind people I dearly loved - the students, the staff, the parents. Together we had grown, struggled, worked, rejoiced...
But God had called me to obey, and He had prepared the way for me to enter into a higher level in my spiritual journey. The old power supply lines of my life were overloaded and would not suffice for the next move of God. They needed to be replaced with new ones in preparation for bigger kingdom assignments.
I was indeed entering uncharted territory. And it was in this season that I would get to know God more as my Baal-Perazim, the LORD of the Breakthrough.
It may be that as you read these lines, you find yourself in a tight place, and you wonder what the next step is. You are waiting for the Lord to show the way.
Could it be that God also wants to replace your life's faulty wiring with new ones that will carry His new anointing for your next assignment?
Will you call upon Him in faith now, and declare His name, Baal Perazim? God is true to His name, He always lives up to His promises. He honors the faith of His children and will reveal Himself to you as the Lord of the Breakthrough. Surely He will meet you at your point of need.
Read Lord of the Breakthrough, Part 1
It may be that as you read these lines, you find yourself in a tight place, and you wonder what the next step is. You are waiting for the Lord to show the way.
Could it be that God also wants to replace your life's faulty wiring with new ones that will carry His new anointing for your next assignment?
Will you call upon Him in faith now, and declare His name, Baal Perazim? God is true to His name, He always lives up to His promises. He honors the faith of His children and will reveal Himself to you as the Lord of the Breakthrough. Surely He will meet you at your point of need.
Read Lord of the Breakthrough, Part 1
1 comment:
Dear Maria, just wanted to let you know that I have a note on my whiteboard for next Sunday the 28th. Actually, for me more like the 27th because you're ahead of me. Thank you for your tender heart towards Jesus. Much Love, BG
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