It`s funny how sometimes it hurts a bit to step out there in different seasons. Sometimes silence is just a bit more comfortable than words that are not confirmed by immediate reality. There is always that little bug behind your ear telling you to wait until reality confirms your words to then say it, otherwise it might really not come to pass and then you`d just look stupid. That little bug is the Devil, by the way. I guess it took me some time to get that.
I haven`t posted anything in a while, and I’ve been kinda holding myself back because even in my personal life there is a major turning point only about 8 days from now, and I still don’t know in a concrete reality what will happen. I only know by faith that the Will of God will be accomplished, but our fleshly man sometimes is not really satisfied with the substance of faith. But faith is as solid a substance as anything else in this world. More even. But for this temporal uncertainty in my personal life, I realized that it would be safer for my ego to just wait a bit and let the reality get conformed to what already is assured in my spirit before I stepped out there and even posted anything of what God has been dealing with me this season.
I guess I’ll start off this post by waging war against my own comfort and declaring that the reality of heaven is much more real than the one of the earth. That even though I am 8 days away of a great unknown I already know the way I’ll walk by because He has whispered that to me at the tip of my ears. Even though the hill i’ve been climbing seems to have come to an end, He told me that He’s made a bridge upon which I can walk. And even though I can’t see it, I’ll just keep walking. It’ll just lead me to the other side again. Jesus, boldly and unashamedly I declare this: I trust you – simply because you are worthy.
There is something so precious to be learned in uncertainty in life. It teaches us to be just like a child. You know what’s cool about a child? There’s that common thing that kids love to play: They climb this high place and then call their dad to come pick them up. The dad holds the arms opened, and say to them: Jump! What i love about kids is that they do. They jump. They jump, climb up again, and keep their dads busy a whole day if they have the chance playing that game of trust.
I don’t know about you but I see the big widely opened arms of my Daddy, and hear his awesome invitation. Jump on son! So many times we have to take that leap in life, we might as well learn to enjoy it.
I’ve been meditating so much about faith on these uncertain weeks of my life, and I feel like there’s a whole pool of it about ready to burst out of me. Funny thing is none of my reality has aligned with it yet. I don’t care. It doesn’t even have to.
This week the faith story that kinda gripped me was Jesus raising Lazarus from the Dead. That sentence that Jesus told Martha, “If you believe you will see the Glory of God” is so deeply being printed on my spirit… I just heard it resounding within me, and I went to read over the text again… And, as I was meditating upon it, God just shone light in a new thing for me, and I’d just like to share that with you guys. It’s in John 11, by the way.
Well, Jesus needed to get to Lazarus, who was dead and needed to be raised so that the son of Man could be glorified. In order to do that He’d have to go back to the Land of Judah, to Bethany, close to Jerusalem. And that was just not very humanly “wise” of him, because all the Religious there wanted to kill him. The religious leaders were angry with Jesus, and were conspiring for his death because He was making too big of a fuss in their midst.
When He says that He has decided to face the uncertainty of that path for the sake of love and to glorify the Father, his disciples flipped. How could he go back there? I mean, there was a chance that the Religious people would find him and want to kill him! And then what Jesus says is so cool.
“Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. “But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”” (John 11:9-10 NKJV)
Before I make my point, let me put here this other verse…
“Moreover You led them by day with a cloudy pillar, And by night with a pillar of fire, To give them light on the road Which they should travel.” (Nehemiah 9:12 NKJV)
It’s so interesting that Jesus did not say “who ever walks by day sees the road.” He said “Whoever walks by day sees the LIGHT of the world”. And there is a big difference between seeing the light and seeing the road. Have you ever walked in a desert? there is no path for you to see. Israel walked forty years in the desert, and there were no streets for them to know how to get there. But God gave them a light.
Looking down towards the ground would do them no good, because in the desert there are no determined streets. Their eyes would have to be on the light. On the fire. In the desert, seeing the ground means nothing. Seeing the light means knowing how to get there. Watching the earth means nothing. Having your eyes fixed on heaven means everything.
That was why Jesus was not afraid. There was no road for him to see ahead of him. He was walking right into uncertainty going back to Bethany on that moment. But he saw the light. He had his eyes fixed on God’s eyes. He saw the light, therefore he could walk right into the greatest uncertainty and not fear.
“A Psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalms 27:1 NKJV)
The book of Revelation says that Jesus’ eyes are like a flame of fire. I believe that the Pillar of Fire that followed the Israelites in the desert were the very fiery eyes of Jesus, watching over the apple of His eyes. Every time the Israelites looked up towards the fire, their eyes locked with Jesus’ – and that’s when they knew they were safe.
Beloved, those who walk without light have all the reason to be insecure and fearful. But we not only walk in daylight, we have the light within us. Jesus dwells in us. How incredible is that? Just like the people in the desert, we can just lock gazes with him and feel safe.
Don’t waste your time trying to figure the road out. It’s not doable. Look to the fire. Look to the light of the World. Look to heaven, and that fire of love will draw the map on the sky for you not to get lost.
