Patterns
Genesis 6 - 8 "As in the days of Noah" God sees you.
"The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had
become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
all the time. The Lord was grieved that He had made man on the earth, and
His heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, 'I will wipe mankind,
whom I have created, from the face of the earth....' But Noah found favor
in the eyes of the Lord" Gen 6:5-8 NIV
Receive favor.
God changes his mind when He gets tired of striving with people ("My spirit shall not strive with man forever" Gen 6:3 NASB)
Genesis 6:8 But. . . Grace. You do not have to fret over the judgements about to come on the world. Make an ark and make a window between heaven and earth. He will give His people new models. He is looking to favor you.Genesis 28 See your ladder. (You have a whole season to find it). He'll show you how to climb out of the pit you've been in. You'll see angels interacting between heaven and earth. No more pit! You are not meant to stay in the pit. You will bring riches and treasures up with you.
Save those around you who are willing to be saved. He will show you who is willing. If they are not willing, move on.
Exodus 3 See your burning bush and make sure you know how God is going to move. God went and found Moses and called him "off the shelf". It is the same for us now, in this coming season. God is going to do stuff. When He does, He wants us to LOOK, turn aside, and find out what's going on. This is the end of the season of spectator sports. Now it's about participation, and it's going to take an act of your will.
Luke 24 Look again. Get past your last traumatic experience and loss. He is there. He is looking for you. (In the next three months, God is going to be dealing with the spirit of trauma. Trauma is like a snapshot that gets stored in your thinking capacity and colors everything else that comes in.) In Luke 24 Jesus comes upon the disciples on Emmaus Way who were despondently discussing the horror and disappointment of the fate of their king. Vs 16 says their eyes were restrained; they did not recognize Jesus when He showed up. Why? Because of what they were focusing on. They couldn't see him because of their emotions. Our emotional state creates the way we converse. Remember that Jesus is always close at hand. He hears what you talk and think about. You will become aware of His nearness. You will become aware of what you're saying and how you're saying it. You'll get to explain to Him how YOU see it.
But also pay attention to how/what others are seeing. The disciples KNEW the TRUTH -- the women who had been at the tomb told it to them, but they chose to believe the lie, just because they had not seen for themselves. So, will you believe what someone SAW? Or what someone (or yourself) did NOT SEE?
After they went on about their perspective, then He told them HIS perspective. {I have found this to be a wonderful, graceful quality of the Lord over the years. He listens to our hurts, anger, and whining, first, and then shows us a far better way, the truth from his vantage point.} Chuck says, when you're struggling with what to believe about something, first of all, at least believe the WORD! Jesus would have had lots to say to these doubting disciples, but he started with the scriptures, showing them how everything that happened was spoken beforehand. Then he suggested that was enough and that He would move on. But they constrained him, asking him to stay with them. They wanted more. Will we be satisfied with the simple explanation or will we constrain him for his Presence, His visitation, His abiding. He WILL take us past the flash of revelation and sit down with us and open our eyes to His presence.
The biggest thing this year: a New Level of Communion
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