Dont Miss This
This past weekend, I was reminded of a simple yet powerful truth about our journey with The Great Shepherd. It is normal in the heart of God to gently yet radically encounter His kids with transformative truth, but the older I get, the more I see that those encounters are designed to be whispery-subtle so as to require humble faith and sincere submission to be the way we access that grace. This Biblical truth about receiving revelation in our circumstances is well known, but often overlooked or even ignored. Mostly, this is because assumptions are made through the inauthentic process of self-justification that deceives us to believe we really are pressing in with all of our hearts. Beloved, sadly, much of our heart is still intimately intertwined with the love of the world and temporal life… just take an honest assessment of your time, money, and where your affections lay.
Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.
1 John 2:15-16 NLT
At the conference where Kay and I (and some other Beloved peeps) were, there was a priceless sister whose hearing and eyesight had been severely disabled by the enemy and oppressor of humanity (Acts 10:38). It was necessary for her to be led by another attendee from the meeting room, to the chapel, to the cafeteria, to her personal room, and even to the restroom. When the speakers were ministering, we needed to give special attention to her needs so that our words could get to her hindered ears that needed additional help. Compared to the others around her, she was proportionately blind and deaf… and also one of the most genuine women in the sequestered environment.
I had one of those subtle yet radical moments that our Good Shepherd intends for us all. I could have missed it because it was so indistinct and lacked the thunderous flamboyance that many modern Christians improperly seek after supernatural signage.
After one of the late evening sessions, I was exiting the chapel behind this special sister who was graciously being led by my virtuous wife. She had her hand on Kay’s shoulder while Kay was sweetly, yet clearly, communicating how to navigate the winding pathway toward their unified destination. When they were on straight sections, Kay was lovingly exhorting her and encouraging her in her value and identity regardless of her handicap. She also recognized my voice behind her on the journey inspiring her to ask questions of me and soaking up my words with reverential honor. Kay would gently interrupt from time to time with directional promptings and, eventually, in the darkness of that journey, we all arrived safely at our intended destination.
Can you picture this… do you see the nuanced messaging of the Spirit… can you recognize the personal parallels that apply to us all?
This heroic sister did the hard thing. She came to an event that she had every rightful and legitimate excuse for why she should not and even can not attend. She came anyway… with her heart submitted. She represents our pilgrimage through life… we can make tons of viable excuses why we shouldn’t show up. Equally, when compared to the saints in glory and the divine attributes of our Savior, we are relatively deaf and blind.
All of us had wandered off like sheep;
each of us had strayed off on his own path,
but the Lord caused the sin of all of us to attack him.
Isaiah 53:6 NET
In the chaos or our visual non-clarity and in the anxiety of our deafening quiet, God sends us a helper, a guide, a sibling, a discipler, a covenant friend who will lovingly and mercifully take us by the hand in our dark, lonely, and fearful place. One was sent to walk the path with us, to provide security and corrective guidance. Yet how many modern Christians reject the outstretched hand of discipleship because “they’ve got this”?
You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did. Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One.
Acts 7:51-52a BSB
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!
Matthew 23:37 BSB
In this priceless moment, our sister had her physical hand on her minister with the beautiful feet of a Gospel carrier. Additionally, she willfully tuned her hard-of-hearing ears to my voice as I spoke the truths of our Kingdom into her receptive heart. I was behind them, my soul palpitating with the compassion of God in that sacred instance, guarding every word in holy resolve to only speak the oracles of God… to say only what I hear my Father say.
Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” Whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left.
Isaiah 30:21 NKJV
As I was following behind these two joined pilgrims, watching our sister’s footfalls becoming ever more confident with each step, the light of revelation was dawning upon me to that moment’s impactful opportunity for us all. What was tearfully humbling to me was that I was playing the role of the Father giving the Word to her inquisitive and submitted heart while her minister (Kay) was guiding her in safety. What a clear, metaphoric example of how the symbiosis of the Word of God, the longing heart of a true believer for wisdom, and the humble submission to the covenant relationship of an apostolic (sent-one) minister who deeply loves… all working together to transform us in our journey via the valley of the shadow of death in this lifelong pilgrimage.
And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.
Isaiah 42:16 BSB
We have a necessity to embrace and advance this into our hurting world. The self-seeking church of our progressive present has not done as we ought. In the pursuit of our own carnal, personal desires, we walk past the blind, deaf, and lost masses who are wandering through life in trembling fear of stepping into the dangerous wilderness.
I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father. And I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them in as well, and they will listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock and one shepherd.
John 10:14-16 BSB
I want to be better at this. I want to be like Kay to my embattled neighbor. I want to more clearly see the hurting and bring them hope, safety, and selfless love that will comfort them on the way. I want Beloved to be an outstretched hand and a softly spoken word to those victimized by this cursed world. We were made for this…
One of the expressions of THE Great Awakening rising among us will be the real love of God being released and embraced… it is happening.
Will you help me be a hand and a voice to the blind and deaf world?
I love you greatly,
Steve
