He is predictable in that He is faithful and will do the best thing.

    
     It has been said that if something does not work the first time, trying it over and over guarantees more failure.  Yet, it took seven of the same dips in the dirty Jordan river before Naman was healed.

     Who can win a battle by decreasing the army?  Why not wipe out Pharaoh's army before the Red Sea?  Why not just pre-plan and provide carts of food for the multitude?

      Soldier of The Cross, you crossed the Line when you told him He could do anything with your life.  That means that you are committed to wait for Him and do it His way, and in His time.  It might mean a long wait or it might mean a decision without the usual time to mull and analyze.  He is preparing us for heaven.

     We do not have the capacity to understand why, but we were created to agree with Him and to love His ways.

     We tend to want Him to approve of our ways, and often we mistake that waiting for His approval to be the wanting of His will.

     Those who have decided to follow Him have learned that He will answer in ways that are out of the ordinary.  No matter what He does, it remains new and there is Glory in it.

     Most of us tend to limit Him, especially as we grow older. 

     Lord, in spite of my craving for the familiar and the predictable, I tell you in prayer now that I want you more than anything.  Please teach me to submit and to recognize you.  Do whatever needs to be done in me in order to bring about your own likeness.

     I want to learn to move or wait according to your leading.  I want to be available to move into anything and follow you anywhere.  I want your way at any cost.  

     Here is a heart that heard God:
 

    " But none of these things move me; neither do I esteem my life dear to myself, if only I may finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have obtained from [which was entrusted to me by] the Lord Jesus, faithfully to attest to the good news (Gospel) of God's grace (His unmerited favor, spiritual blessing, and mercy)."

   Acts 20:24    (Amplified Bible)

     As a matter of fact, many of the miracles we know about don't seen so impossible, simply because we are so familiar with them.

 
   
    In daily living, I must remember that my limited concept of  the outcome is just that – limited.   If I am led to pray about a thing and if it makes no human sense I must then make sure that it is not out of line with His Word.  If  I sense it is from Him, I must take it to Him as the One who does much through the prayers of His Own.  And then, I must leave it with Him. I may need to do this daily.  

     In the meantime, there is much to do and loving and prayerful, faithful attention must be paid to those who are immediately before me.

     I so often hear Christians saying they won't even pray about a thing because they can not see any possible way it would happen.  I suggest this is the way most think.  We pray about the things we can see happening.  We just can't figure out how.  And even then, if we could have seen how to get it done, we might have just raced ahead and done the thing without prayer.  

     Most of the time, we only ask for the impossible when there is a desire to escape hardship or when there is a threat of grief.

     He is the God who creates something out of less than nothing.
     He is the God who is not limited by time or anything else.
     He is the God who said He would withhold no good thing.

     He is the God who said I do not have because I do not ask.

     Soldier of The Cross,  we must be content in Him.  He has said so.

     We must be about His business.  He has said so.

     If there is something that we are led to pray about,  it is up to Him, and prayer will release Him to move that  mountain.  He has said so.

    We must initiate tirelessly to every person who is without the Lord.   Children are almost always eager to hear the Gospel.  Even today, nursing homes are clamoring for anyone who will come in and read a Psalm and sing some hymns.

      Neighbors need the Lord.  The person who bags your groceries needs the Lord.  So do your pharmacist and your physician.    

      Most folks will not risk rejection.  Being cool and fitting into the listener's concept of acceptable often takes place over that one's  need for salvation.

     Soldier of The Cross, it is not about being sensitive to the needy one.  Rather it is about being sensitive to the Holy Spirit.  I am eternally grateful for those who were relentless in going after me.  

     It isn't necessary to sell the Lord to anyone. It is about letting the Lord love through us and giving Him the results.

     During the years I was so sure I knew better than my Christian friends, I was impatient with those who loved me enough to refrain from censoring Him out of their speech.  Yet, as He began to melt my heart, I could see through the haze enough to know there was something  real and I wanted it. I was just afraid it couldn't be true.

     It was the Lord Himself who did the convincing.  It was supernatural.  But for all eternity I will appreciate and enjoy those who overlooked my bristling and plowed on.

     We have been commissioned.   

     Learning to follow the Lord is not something that happens quickly.

     Young people are always asking to learn God’s Plan for their lives.  My usually unwelcome answer is that it is His Plan that we get to know and recognize Him.

     There can be no following of the Lord until there is recognition of Him.  This recognition results from the faithful and prayerful delving into His Word.  It comes from being consistently with His Body.  It comes from seeking Him in the private prayer life.

     It is the Holy Spirit who reveals Jesus and it is also the Holy Spirit who reveals the hidden things.

     His work in us is a process and was never intended to usher us into the next safe building block of this life.  He is preparing us for eternity.  He is making His own likeness in us, if we are available. 

     When I was little, we were quite poor. 

     My father was in seminary and my parents were preparing for the mission field.  I knew we did not have a car, but I thought only millionaires had cars.   My bed was first in a closet and then next to the table where we ate.  It didn’t seem to me to be a problem.

     When I was four, I remember being taught to give to the Lord first.  I had a big allowance - six cents.  I had a little globe bank and each week, one penny had to go into that globe bank.  My father taught me that I must give to our church first and then to missionaries.

     I thought I was giving a fortune when I put fist full of pennies in the offering plate.  It was expected and it was good training.

     Then, there came a time when we did not always have enough food for dinner.  During those weeks, my deep and creative father would take the little we did have, make it look fancy on a plate.  Then, he and I would go to the home of someone who was “poor”, set the plate down, ring the doorbell and scoot as fast as we could. I

     I thought we were rich.  After all, we still had something to give.  How grateful I am for my father’s example.

     Paul pointed out how rich the Macedonians were because they gave out of their lack.

     The deepest things are simple things.

     The adventure of faith is not some complex gauntlet that can only be successfully run by the strong and the smart.  We were designed to walk by faith.  We were designed to take Him at His Word and put our weight down on it, simply because He said so.

     I have seen Christians try to get the unsaved to believe they can exercise faith.  That is a mistake.  Faith is not the result of being convinced something is right.  Faith is the result of having met a Person.  The Indwelling Holy Spirit gives witness that He is who He says He is, and He empowers that Believer to move into what cannot be otherwise seen.

     Why does it often seem so hard?  Because we must be transformed.  The storm swirls around and the wind brings things that crash into us.   Things hurt, are frightening, and most often, we fear the unknown.

     The motto for living by faith?
     God’s Word is more real
     Than the way that you feel.

     His Love for you is so vast that it far exceeds your ability to draft a solution for the situation.

     Yet, He has told us to come before Him, ask for rescue and look and wait for Him.

     So much of life seems to be tension and release.  The flesh craves distance from all discomfort because it wants to survive on its own.  But we who are His know that He has asked us to launch into the unknown, put our weight down on the unseen and love the unlovely.  All by faith.

     You do not have the capacity to design a plan for any part of the journey.  He alones it the architect. His skill is infinite and His Love for you is beyond comprehension.

    These things are either reality or fable:  He knew you before you were born; He counts the hairs on your head; He named you; His heart is ravished when you think of Him; He will not withhold any good thing from you; He is preparing a Place for you.

     He who gave Himself for you does not have to be won by you.  You were won by Him.  He had His hand extended all along and wants to lead you with His eyes. 

     We were created to bring it all to Him.    Without asking, there is much we will not receive, including direction and relief.  The issue is His will in the scope of eternity.

     That is why we can come boldly before the Throne of Grace.  We are assured that the One who died and rose again is eager to listen and quick to respond. 

     His response is often unseen in our own time slot, but some golden day, we will get to see it all.

     In the meantime, Soldier of The Cross, look at Jesus. 

     Let’s tackle this head on:

     Many teach that the gifts are not for today.

     I know the arguments, but I can’t find that anywhere in my bible. Nor do I find any verse that instructs every Christian to exercise the same gift.  The gifts are given as the Lord wills.

     The problem lies with both polarized positions.  Those who so desperately want the experience can often fall into deception.  With some it is hard to fellowship at all, because there is a constant hunt for the feeling and there is no calm spirit.  With those folks it is often hard to pray because they have little experience praying in their own language and less experience listening.

     The opposite extreme draws a line and refuses anything that is not familiar and safe.  Only the proper and predictable will do, and so the Lord is often not free to move.

     What is the balance?  The pursuit of God.  Agreeing with Him and letting him know He can do absolutely anything.   The gifts must not be a project or a goal.  To know the Lord must be the goal.  To serve Him.  To reach the lost.  To build up the Brethren.

     Soldier of The Cross, look to reveal Jesus in His way.  Then the Holy Spirit is never quenched.

     If you are a Soldier of The Cross, it means that you have relinquished some of the rights that are assumed to be automatically yours.

     If The cross is the place of the death of the flesh, and if the goal is to have less of me and more of Him, something has to go!

     Like the right to be right.
     The right to be highly thought of.
     The right to be treated well.
     The right to earthly success.
     The right to be understood.
     The right to have comfort.
     The right to quit when you feel like it.
     The right to complain.
     The right to have a smooth life.
     The right to be offended.

     It is not out how I am treated or about my sense of satisfaction from what I have set about to do.  Otherwise, Hebrews 11 would have to be taken out of the bible.

     I am always struck by Mary, who even though it could be assumed all including Joseph would regard her as having fallen, said to the Angel, “I am the handmaiden of the Lord. . .”

Soldier, if we are willing to be prepared for heaven, these are things that we must learn.  And, we learn them by going though the deep waters and making choices that reflect our agreement with Him.

     There is nothing else.
     There is no one else.