Entering A Season of Acceleration

Night Runners

photo source

If you have raced with men on foot
    and they have worn you out,
    how can you compete with horses?

- Jeremiah 12:5

 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“When the plowman shall overtake the reaper,
And the treader of grapes him who sows seed;
The mountains shall drip with sweet wine,
And all the hills shall flow with it.”

 - Amos 9:13

Upon arriving in Manila from our ministry trip abroad, I spent three days with my daughter Obedient One before returning to my Bacolod City home.

I had been away from my home for more than a month.

Things happened one after the other when I got back:

there were birthday celebrations,

dear friends to share a cup of coffee with,

the weekly devotional lessons on the book of Daniel for the women's group in church were resumed, 

and First Born's recent accomplishment -  a brand new MBA diploma - called for a special family celebration. 

By God's grace, I also conducted a two-day inspirational retreat for the teachers of our church school in early June.

God alone be given glory for what He enabled me to accomplish.

The first thing I noticed when I reached home was that my plants were all overgrown. But it was only a week after I arrived that I found the time to tend my garden.

Sadly, all my plants near the iron fence of the garden was covered with sticky black soot. They discovered it one morning, a week before I got back. My son's explanation seemed the most plausible one. Probably, while no one was at home, an irresponsible driver had chosen to park by our fence to illegally clean his truck's exhaust pipe, dumping all that black substance into the atmosphere. The white myrtle trees were budding, but had become covered with soot. Many of the blooms had fallen off prematurely. Everything in that part of the garden was ugly - the Australian bushes, the pink myrtles, the asparagus ferns, the potted bougainvilleas.

But rather than be dismayed over what happened, I chose to look at it as an opportunity to prune the affected plants, removing all traces of the soot and the greasy residue. 

My maid and I spent two mornings in the garden and when we finished, I was quite happy with the results. 

The past weeks, I had also been having vivid dreams about death.

However, instead of being weighed down by these dreams, I would wake up each morning with a sense of renewed hope. It seemed like God was exposing to me areas in my life and relationships that He wanted me to lift up to Him.

God is never intimidated by the dark areas of our lives - rather He stands ready to instill strength, courage and hope into our hearts.

He is the God who brings order out of chaos and emptiness.

The day after my 59th birthday last March, I made a fresh resolve to choose my friends carefully.

Father God was bringing me to a season of pruning, giving me the desire to choose the words I speak, and to choose the people whom I will allow to speak into my life.

It  felt good to take such a stand. 

These are the last days; there is much work to be done. It seems like we're only scratching the surface. And, whether people are aware of it or not, the season of acceleration is upon us.

Therefore say to them, "Thus says the Lord God:  

'None of my words will be delayed any longer, 

but the word that I speak will be performed,'

declares the Lord God." 

- Ezekiel 12:28

This is a season of breakthroughs upon breakthroughs, a season of cleaning up, and removing what stands in the way.  It is also a season of knowing what God considers His kingdom priorities and partnering with Him in what He is doing.

This is why I had a sense that I was tired of hearing unnecessary words, either from my own mouth, or from others.

During our eighteen days of ministry, God spoke specifically that He will work powerfully through the worship connection - deep is calling unto deep, He wants to strengthen the heart to heart connection.

He also spoke specifically through Isaiah 61, that we are called in this season to receive

a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
the oil of joy instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair (Isaiah 61:3).




The garment of praise is never to be taken off, because in an atmosphere of worship, gossip and evil speaking cannot co-exist.

A filter around my mind is my safeguard against evil thoughts and evil speech:

...whatever things are true, 

whatever things are noble, 

whatever things are just, 

whatever things are pure, 

whatever things are lovely, 

whatever things are of good report, 

if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—

meditate on these things. 

-Philippians 4:8

These past years I have been in a certain difficult relationship where I've been wrongly accused, and much as I have done my best to work at reconciliation, I realize that the healing is no longer up to me. Having done all I can, I sense in this season that God is giving me permission to let go and move on.

I have decided to quit trying.

Again this kind of determination gives me such a feeling of  freedom, of being released from my own human efforts to look good in the eyes of men.

Ultimately, it is what God thinks about me that matters.

In this season of acceleration, nothing must be  allowed  to distract or derail God's purposes for my life.

Well, here I am, back in Manila again. My plane ticket for this trip was purchased a few months ago, even before the dates for our ministry trip were finalized.

Now I realize that my time here will be mostly unstructured. What a welcome transition point to spend time in God's presence and seek more of what is on His heart as the first half of this year draws to a close.

God is birthing new things in my spirit -  He hovers, He broods, He dwells in my darkness... the unresolved issues of my life.

I like how Barbara Yoder puts it: "No darkness, no confusion, no problem has the final word.... God, who is Life, and Light, has the final word."

He brought me out into a spacious place;

He rescued me because He delighted in me...

You are my lamp, O LORD;

the LORD turns my darkness into light.

- Psalm 18: 19, 28