Life Out of Death 2021

 

Ohia Growing in Lava

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It's been a while. 

So finally, here is another honest heart to heart sharing with you… and most importantly, a sharing of what God our Abba Father has been speaking to me lately. 

Eighteen months ago, a historic event changed our lives, and nobody was really prepared for it. 

Things would be much different if it was a hurricane that swept through the Bahamas, or bush fires that burned for weeks in Southern California, or the rat plague that has recently affected thousands of homes and farms in New South Wales. 

Sad events, yes, but such disasters do not affect us on a global scale. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the whole world and lives are forever changed. 

In recent months, the virus has even struck so close to home. Some of us have lost a parent, a husband, a wife, a sibling...to Covid. We all know someone who has lost a loved one. We all know a family whose business has suffered great loss. 

The lockdowns in this nation began in March last year, and have continued up to today in varying degrees. 

This pandemic may have caught us all by surprise, but it is not an isolated event. Rather, it is part of the story that God has written in His book for you and me. Psalm 139:16 puts it this way:

Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed 

And in Your book they all were written, 

The days fashioned for me 

When as yet there was none of them. 

Whether or not we are prepared for it, whatever happens doesn't knock God off His throne. He has seen it coming and is part of the greater story that He is writing. Some of the chapters may be quite messy, but the ending is always glorious.

The story is interactive. We are invited to play an important role. And we have two responses to choose from: 

- to say Yes to God's invitation to join Him in what He is doing, or 

- to say No and turn our backs on God, and live life the way we want to. 

LOCATION STATEMENT 

In the summer of 1997, twenty one years ago, I was given the privilege of spending one month in Rasa, a little village up in the Swiss Alps. There, together with twenty-two other people from different nations, we learned the importance of the spiritual disciplines of solitude and contemplation. For four weeks, our anointed Swiss retreat master, Hans Burki, walked us through the principles and practice of listening prayer and redemptive journaling. 

One important lesson I have not forgotten after all these years is how to take a regular spiritual inventory by asking just one question and searching your heart for honest answers. The question goes like this: 

Where are you now in relation to God? 

The answer to that question is called a location statement. It locates you. It is like you have lost your way, and somebody on the phone is trying to find you by asking you to give landmarks of your surroundings. 

At strategic times in our lives, we need to make a location statement, telling ourselves our spiritual whereabouts. This leads to what one author (Rick Howard) calls “the finding times of God.” 

Our spiritual location statement is first of all determined by our natural, physical circumstances. Paul refers to this when he writes:

However, the spiritual is not first, 

but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. 

- 1 Corinthians 15:46 

Here Paul explains one of the most consistent divine patterns in Scripture: "The spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.” 

Paul was referring to the resurrection, but he also was showing us a new way of seeing and understanding. 

God has purposely embedded spiritual truths in the natural world, which only those who have the eyes to see will recognize. 

Determining our location statement works the same way: the sequence would be first the natural, and then the spiritual. What are our present physical circumstances? That would help us see where we are also in the spiritual sense. 

The lockdown that began in 2020 was not really anything new to me. In a manner of speaking, after my husband passed away twelve years ago, I found myself in some kind of a lockdown. Ernie and I had an open relationship; we could talk about almost anything. When he died, my world suddenly became very quiet. 

There were many other changes.  For one, financially I was on my own. Then in June 2018, my fifth grandchild passed away, just two weeks after she was born. A few months later, my best friend also unexpectedly passed away. 

In September last year, William Su, national coordinator of Family Foundations International in the Philippines tested positive for Covid-19 and died just one week after. He was a spiritual father to many of us, a strong and dependable pillar of support. I mourned his death for months. 

During the course of the 2020 lockdown, I noticed a kind of numbness taking over my emotions. 

Maybe it is a defense mechanism… you don’t want to feel the pain, so you choose to look the other way. It is not denial; it is most probably just a subconscious refusal to feel so emotionally involved. 

Truth be said, I have not lost my faith, nor have I turned my back on God. No, I have not backslidden. 

But what was going on? 

I was losing my spiritual appetite. Good Bible teachers I used to listen to no longer appealed to me. Everything tasted bland and insipid. 

So a few weeks ago, I asked the Lord to help me find my location statement. What's going on, Lord?

It didn’t take long to get His reply. He was direct to the point: You are in the process of dying.

It made so much sense to me. I did not struggle with the answer that I received. In fact, believe it or not, it gave me a sense of relief. It was an accurate diagnosis given by the most reliable and credible Doctor; I felt that I was in good hands.

UNLESS A GRAIN OF WHEAT...

This passage from John 12:24-25 immediately came to mind: 

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat 

falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; 

but if it dies, it produces much grain. 

He who loves his life will lose it, 

and he who hates his life in this world 

will keep it for eternal life. 

So that was my location statement! 

Looking at the circumstances of my life the past months, and my emotional response to them, I was indeed like a grain of wheat planted in the soil. I was alone, everything around me seemed cold and dark. 

And yes, it made so much sense to me. I was in the process of dying. 

Not in a physical sense. But in a manner of speaking, God was stripping me of what used to give my life meaning and significance. 

And this is what I wish to share here... the comforting realizations that followed after God revealed my location statement. 

I have no doubt that this is also where many of my friends and family find themselves in this unpredictable and uncertain season of global lockdowns. 

My prayer is that anybody reading this post will receive much encouragement and comfort.

I DIE DAILY

The apostle Paul writes: 

I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have 

in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. 

- 1 Corinthians 15:31 

One of the dictionary definitions of “die” is to disappear or to subside. 

This is not the normal desire of a human being. On the contrary, man’s natural tendency is self-preservation, self-promotion, self-gratification. 

Paul, in saying “I die daily” is simply stating a Kingdom principle, and that is to become hidden, to be willing to be unrecognized, away from the bright lights of center stage, but working behind the scenes where no one is looking. 

Every day we are faced with many opportunities to die. 

To be disappointed. 

To have plans that do not materialize.

To have dreams that do not become fulfilled. 

Or to be misunderstood, falsely accused, yet being willing to leave things as they are, giving up the need to defend yourself. 

Or it could be a failed business opportunity, a legal battle, a marriage breakdown, a health issue, a wayward son or daughter. 

Disappointment comes in many forms and shapes. We never know what tomorrow brings. 

To die daily is to realize what Jesus Christ himself has said in the John 12:24 passage quoted above. Jesus said that His hour of glorification has come, but before that could happen, He has to be as a grain of wheat that is planted into the ground and dies. 

This global pandemic is one good opportunity God has given us to be willing to die daily. The giving up of what we believe are our inalienable rights, the letting go of many things we used to take for granted.

A grain of wheat that is not planted remains alone, it is practically useless. But planted into the dark, cold soil of opportunities that we find in our present circumstances, the hard protective cover we have placed around our lives softens and begins to disintegrate, the roots develop, and the seed begins to sprout. 

The life within the seed is unlocked, and before we know it, the harvest season comes where that single grain of wheat has produced much grain. 

Christ is our forerunner, our model. 

He willingly gave up His life on the Cross, and He rose victorious from the grave. In the same way, unless we are willing to die, we cannot truly live. 

Out of death comes life. 

That is one Kingdom principle that Abba Father has shown me again and again. Death is never the end, it is only the door through which life enters. 

God said to Saul on the Damascus Road, 

It is hard for you to kick against the goads. 

- Acts 26:14

So He also says to you and me in our dying seasons, “My child, say Yes to My invitation to join Me in what I am doing and producing in Your life. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” 

DIVINE EXCHANGE 

When I understood that being planted like a grain of wheat was my current location, I began to appreciate anew the spiritual process of dying to self. 

Willingly cooperate, and embrace what we are going through. 

Befriend the season we are in. 

God is sharpening our spiritual senses through our difficult circumstances. 

In relation to this is another Kingdom principle at work in our spiritual lives, the principle of the Divine Exchange. 

God is the God of the Divine Exchange. 

He is always smarter than the enemy. He is not ahead by just one step, God has it all planned out to the very end. Before we even pray, God has already prepared the answers. He knows the end from the beginning.

I am God, and there is no one like Me.

Declaring the end and the result from the beginning.

And from ancient times the things which have not [yet] been done,

Saying, "My purpose will be established,

And I will do all that pleases Me and fulfills My purpose."

- Isaiah 46:9-10 (Amplified Bible)

 

In a difficult season of my life many years ago, when I thought I had reached rock bottom, I discovered that the Savior of my soul was there, waiting for me. I fell not on hard rock, but into His gentle loving arms. 

The same is still true today. God our Creator and Sustainer is at the end of our life stories waiting for us. 

What the enemy intended for evil, God has turned around for good. 

The Genesis 50:20 principle is what I call the 50:20 vision – where Joseph says to his brothers, 

 But as for you, you meant evil against me, 

but God meant it for good… 

What the enemy intends for evil, God turns around for good. 

In the seeming dead end situations of our lives, God is our Way Maker. When the Israelites faced the Red Sea, God made a path for them. 

God allures us, brings us into the wilderness, and it is in the dry and barren situations of our lives that God speaks comfort, gives us back the vineyards we thought we have lost. 

I will give her her vineyards from there, 

 And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope. 

- Hosea 2:14-15

In our valleys of trouble, God opens a door of hope. 

The psalmist writes, 

As they pass through the Valley of Baca 

They make it a spring; 

The rain also covers it with pools, 

They go from strength to strength… 

- Psalm 84:6-7

Even in the dry valleys that we pass through, God enables us to turn it into springs, God sends His refreshing rains, and in place of our weakness Abba Father exchanges it with strength to endure and overcome. 

One of my favorite passages about Divine Exchange is in Isaiah 45:2-3. 

I will go before you 

And make the crooked place straight, 

I will break in pieces the gates of bronze 

And cut the bars of iron. 

I will give you the treasures of darkness 

And hidden riches of secret places, 

That you may know that I the Lord 

Who call you by your name 

Am the God of Israel. 

God spoke those words to King Cyrus, but He is also saying them to us today. He straightens our crooked places, He breaks in pieces the gates of bronze that stand in our way. And out of our darkest night, God says He will give us the treasures of darkness, the hidden riches of secret places. 

For one reason alone, that we may know that He is the Lord God of Israel. 

There is a coming day of restoration, the Lord promises again and again. He will restore the years that the locust has eaten. The best wine is reserved for the last. He brings both the former rains and the latter rains, in our planting seasons, and at the time of harvest. He brings us to green pastures and quiet waters. He restores our soul. 

On that day I will raise up 

The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, 

 And repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, 

And rebuild it as in the days of old. 

- Amos 9:11

God has created you and me for a purpose and a destiny. But  the road to getting there is not the easy road. We are called to die that we may bear much spiritual fruit. 

The broken pieces of our lives will be restored to be used for His glory. 

 God is the God of the Divine Exchange. 

We read the job description of Jesus Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith, in Isaiah 61:1-3, and it is the same job description that God has given us: 

To preach good tidings to the poor, 

He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, 

To proclaim liberty to the captives, 

And the opening of the prison to those who are bound. 

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, 

And the day of vengeance of our God, 

To comfort all who mourn, 

To console those who mourn in Zion, 

To give them beauty for ashes, 

The oil of joy for mourning, 

The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; 

That they may be called trees of righteousness, 

The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. 

I love what Isaiah 61:7 says:

Instead of your shame you shall have double honor 

And instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion, 

Therefore in their land they shall possess double, 

Everlasting joy shall be theirs. 

A NEW THING 

God is doing a new thing in this season. We have not passed this way before, but God promises never to leave us or forsake us. 

And though the Lord gives you 

The bread of adversity and the water of affliction, 

Yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, 

But your eyes shall see your teachers, 

Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, 

“This is the way, walk in it.” 

- Isaiah 30:20-21 

Just a few closing thoughts as I end. 

Because we have not passed this way before, what is the best response we can have to the invitation Abba Father extends to us to join Him in what He is working out in our lives? 

We need to remember that a dying person needs a lifeline. These are perilous times we are in. The barrage of misinformation is overwhelming. The enemy is relentless in seeking to sow division and confusion in our midst. We remain hidden in the soil for this is a crucial season of growth. But we stay close to Him, never letting go of the lifeline, keeping communication lines open. 

Prayer is our lifeline. 

Intimacy with our Lord is the ultimate goal. 

Only a fool would say No to the invitation. 

Many are called, many are invited, but only a few are chosen. 

May we be among those who delight in the season of hiddenness and obscurity, cooperating with God in the process, and looking forward to the day of harvest. 

Behold, I will do a new thing 

Now it shall spring forth, 

Shall you not know it? 

I will even make a road in the wilderness 

And rivers in the desert. 

 - Isaiah 43:19 

 Those who sow in tears 

Shall reap in joy 

He who continually goes forth weeping, 

Bearing seed for sowing, 

Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing 

Bringing his sheaves with him. 

- Psalm 126:5-6