She Dances Over Graves

There is a call to go deeper…to come in closer, and to remain in intimate fellowship with our Heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus. It is echoing in the Heavens, reaching down into the hearts of believers everywhere. We are preparing for His return. The Bride is being made ready.

Necessarily, there is a deeper separation taking place. Attachments to ordinary, lesser needs and things are being severed. Those who are known by Him are being drawn into a place of such communion in the waiting that their hearts are beginning to rejoice already at the distant sound of horse’s hooves. We can feel Him. We can sense Him. And we are getting our lives in order, around one priority: making sure our lamps are filled with the oil of His Spirit. We are tending to Kingdom things in our lives, and in the world around us. We are consecrating our hearts, minds and lives, intentional in making certain that we are wholly devoted to Him in everything. We are breathless in our anticipation, longing to see His face, and to be with Him forever.

The Scriptures tell us to live this way, as the end of all things draws near. We needn’t look far to see and believe that the last days are upon us. The earth is groaning, waiting for her Redeemer, aching to be free from her bondage once and for all. Even nature can sense the coming of her Lord and Maker, and is already heaving in her contractions, preparing for her deliverance.

But before the deliverance of this earth comes to pass, there is a greater deliverance which must take place: the deliverance of the sons and daughters of God. The church, the bride, must arise and take her rightful place. She must be awakened and seated in the place of readiness, to wait for her Lord. And while she waits, her heart must be aflame with devotion for only Him. Her life must burn with His passion for other souls, for the rest of the Bride to come into her fullness. This is what is stirring in the air right now.

Dear Woman of Breakthrough, is your heart longing for your Heavenly Bridegroom this way? Are you longing to be connected in the beating of your heart for His coming, with the rest of the Bride, the church? Or are you in danger of being cut off from the life of Promise? This is a serious question, indeed. Though we live in this world full of distractions, the Scriptures are clear in telling us that we must live with an anticipation of Heaven. We must be diligent in our pursuit of God and His Kingdom, longing for the day when its fullness will finally come. And coming it is…quickly!

Matthew 6:25-33 lays out not only this directive, this command, but also that which hinders us from obeying it:

“This is why I tell you to never be worried about your life, for all that you need will be provided, such as food, water, clothing—everything your body needs. Isn’t there more to your life than a meal? Isn’t your body more than clothing?

 “Look at all the birds—do you think they worry about their existence? They don’t plant or reap or store up food, yet your heavenly Father provides them each with food. Aren’t you much more valuable to your Father than they? So, which one of you by worrying could add anything to your life?

“And why would you worry about your clothing? Look at all the beautiful flowers of the field. They don’t work or toil,  and yet not even Solomon in all his splendor was robed in beauty more than one of these! So if God has clothed the meadow with hay, which is here for such a short time and then dried up and burned, won’t he provide for you the clothes you need—even though you live with such little faith?

“So then, forsake your worries! Why would you say, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For that is what the unbelievers chase after. Doesn’t your heavenly Father already know the things your bodies require?

“So above all, constantly chase after the realm of God’s kingdom and the righteousness that proceeds from him. Then all these less important things will be given to you abundantly.”

God promises that, when we seek after Him before and above all else, He will provide for our basic needs, which He calls the less important things. This implies that there must be, in God’s estimation, greater things to fix our gaze and aim our pursuits upon. Many of us know this, and yet we continue to get up and go to work each day in order just to provide the basic necessities of our own lives: our food, shelter, and clothing. God is not telling us not to buy such things with the money we earn, but rather not to be distracted and fulfilled by the securing of such things. Securing basic provisions is merely the starting point of our earthly existence. Beyond these things, there is a Kingdom of Righteousness (right living, in right relationship with God…a partnership with Heaven) waiting for our engagement.

In the Old Testament, God brought a complaint before His people, whom He had been so careful and diligent to take good care of. He spoke to them through Moses, saying:

…“You have seen with your own eyes everything the Lord did in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to his whole country—  all the great tests of strength, the miraculous signs, and the amazing wonders.  But to this day the Lord has not given you minds that understand, nor eyes that see, nor ears that hear! For forty years I led you through the wilderness, yet your clothes and sandals did not wear out.  You ate no bread and drank no wine or other alcoholic drink, but he provided for you so you would know that he is the Lord your God.” [Numbers 29:2-6]

God had given His people everything they needed for forty years, in their trek through the desert. The problem was that they had become so focused on the provision of their daily needs that they were never able to go beyond those needs to the reason God met them: so that they would know that He was their God. They had become so content with the meeting of their daily needs, that shoes and clothes and food became their story, instead of the transformation God had intended for them to know: minds that understand, eyes that see, ears that hear…so they would know…the Lord their God.

God was hinting at a future reality He had in mind for them, but they could not even entertain the thought of it, because they were content with lesser things. He had greater things in store for them, but they didn’t even possess the heart to long for them, because they were too satisfied with the shoes He had secured for them.

Dear Woman of Breakthrough, God has broken through to us in this era of history, bringing us into a New Covenant by the sacrifice of His Son, so that we might know Him. Not just His miraculous provision, but Him. He has made a way for us, and is calling us into deep, personal relationship with Himself. His Spirit in us exists to produce a longing which compels us beyond the distraction of daily, temporary provisions, and into the provisions of the New Covenant: minds that understand His ways, eyes that see His Kingdom realities, ears that hear and respond to His Spirit calling, and lives that bear fruit of a personal knowledge of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This was not available to the people of Moses’ Day, like it is to us. How I pray that we will not trade the greater things for the lesser ones, when we are so privileged to be on this side of the cross of Christ, our invitation into the so-much-more of Heaven’s many promises!

Dear Woman of Breakthrough, today would be a great day to invite the Holy Spirit to cut off your affections for that which will have no place in eternity, and to allow Him to produce in you a longing for our soon-coming King and His Heavenly reality. If your heart is tied up with concern for that which God has promised to provide, then simply ask to be untied from that concern, and connected instead to the concerns God has for you. He is longing for you to arise and come away with Him, into the chambers of His love. He is calling us into our final preparation. The stage is being set for a great outpouring of His Spirit, and you have a place in that Kingdom agenda.

Don’t miss it, Dear Woman of Breakthrough! Don’t miss out on your appointed place in His Story! Trade your worries and your earthly pursuits this day for Heaven’s current chapter! Enter into the procession, and prepare to be amazed!

{Photo images courtesy of http://www.pixabay.com}