we have destiny on our lives.
you don't have to make it happen,
it will just start taking you,
and you'll never know what happened.
chorus:
all you need is willingness,
all you need is giving up.
all you need is willingness,
all you need is giving up.
are you willing, to give it all up?
are you willing, to lay it all down?
are you willing to never be in charge again?
are you willing?
are you willing?
these are the words i can remember, i hear them echoing in my brain actually. and at one juncture of the song he speaks about kathryn kuhlman and how she changed her life after receiving the call of God. a couple other people are mentioned and don goes on to talk about how these world changers thought
"someone else would be better"
and don sings,
"maybe they're right, but God still made the choice and He chooses you. He chooses you. give up right now."
there is a fine line between allowing the will of God to carry you and being completely lazy. i find myself wondering at times which side of the line i am on. have i given up and am letting the Lord carry me, or am i just a sloth and don't want to do it myself? sometimes i have to trust that the Lord will actually convict me if i am being lazy, and trust that He is still able to make a way where there is no way.
i don't understand any of it. i don't really know what God could possibly be up to, but i know i have a part and my job right now is to sink my roots in deep. no other task is more important than that. when the wave of the spirit rushes by it will pick up and carry away what is not firmly anchored. and there is one kind of carrying away that is good, another that is not.
these distinctions, these many points of trust, are the baffling part of this walk with God. i often ask,
how do i know? how do i know with certainty what You would have me do?
He often doesn't dignify that with a reply, because He knows i know. i know i know, i just keep asking because i want to be sure i know, i know. you know?
destiny is calling though, i can feel it. i can sense it in my spirit. and as far as poets go, i don't know of many others (save worship leaders like don potter, and intercessors), who are watching the horizon for the fist sized cloud. sure there are others, i'm saying, i have no clue who they are.
when it happens, and it will happen, i want there to be no doubt about who it is that is worthy of Praise. for certainly, it is not me.
one thing i've noted of late, the things Jesus was tempted with in the garden are still the things we are all tempted with every day. food, power, bossing God. the little decisions of the day (even mine), to take comfort in something other than God, to let food minister to me (in unhealthy ways), to manipulate God (there is a line in dogma that ben affleck says,
the church makes it policy and God must comply.scary, probably because it is how we act.)
but giving up control is a very disconcerting way to live. it sucks actually. i'm still trying to figure out what the good part of it is (aside from obeying God, that is a given. but as far as feelings go, it is yeucky).
destiny starts now. it starts in the preparation for the calling. behind closed doors. in the dark corridors of the heart. destiny starts now.
4 comments:
Hey there. God keeps on talking to me as you mention Destiny. The novel that I am supposed to be working on is called, Destiny's Child. It's about our children and the keeping power of God. I'm a little more than half way through writing it. It's the third book in a trilogy. So I guess I for one am mindful of Destiny.
I wrote something concerning having roots. I'll email it to you so I don't pirate your blog!
I managed to finally put together my collection of poems. (AND THE GLORY) It's around 100 pages. For over twenty years in the making that's not a whole lot! I'm thinking that I already said that I'm not a poet! I just don't have that gift of the beauty and the abstract, the profound, and the surreal. I'm a storyteller, tried and true.
Have a great day!
well audrey, since i haven't gotten it yet, i trust you'll send it or post it here (i don't mind, truly).
looking forward to reading it. and glad the destiny talk meant something. it is very dear to me and i got the willies after writing about it. too close to my heart i think.
suz.
Suz,
I checked and found what I had emailed you in my Out box. Let me know if you got it as I'm waiting to hear from a couple of different places in the pub business and maybe I'm having problems with my server that I'm unaware...
I'll post what I had sent here. Have a great day! I read your post about your best friend and I hope that you find it in your husband as you are seeking! My husband earned a dedication for my second book of memoirs, "Whose silent support speaks volumes..." Gotta love um! lol (Hubby's not too chatty and doesn't care to read, thank you anyway, says he!)
A Tree Planted by the Water
Last night at a Joy Fellowship at church we had a guest speaker. Her name is Susan Hanson Bates. She told many stories along with her personal testimony but one story stood out to me. It was about a place that she and her family would go on their family vacations. It was a secluded spot in a small mountain town in Arizona. They would always go to a special place there under a very large tree that was standing on the river bank and enjoy the beauty of the wilderness in the shade of that wonderful old tree. One year they returned to their favorite spot and found that the tree had fallen down and had died. They couldn’t believe it. As Susan began to examine the tree she found that the tree had a very limited root system and that was why the tree had been torn down by a summer storm.
The Lord impressed in my spirit that I have stood strong as a mighty oak. I have done well in my walk, and I have stood strong. But it was in my own strength that I had stood and my roots weren’t strong enough to sustain me, that I could easily be destroyed. The Lord showed me that I needed to be pulled up and transplanted into water so that I could grow a new root system, rooted and grounded in Him.
As He spoke to my spirit I cried. I knew He was right. As I surrendered to the Lord and His leading I was filled with a great sense of renewed hope and determination. I determined I would indeed allow the Lord to do the work that was needed in my life. I asked the Lord how. He expressed clearly that it would be by the washing of the water by the word. As I sat there on the front pew that I had made my altar I cried again as I let the Spirit of God minister to my deepest being.
Then a Bible that was sitting on the altar caught my eye. I knew that the Lord had a word for me. I slowly got up and I took the Bible into my hand. I waited a second as I held it, and then I opened it up to “My Message from God.” I have gone into God’s word many times in my life believing for a personal word from the Lord and once again, He did not let me down.
The Bible opened to the beginning of Obadiah. I read down about a half a page and then I quit. I knew that wasn’t what the Lord wanted to tell me. It didn’t make sense. It was speaking of God’s disappointment and of His judgment in a disobedient people. I knew it was what I deserved, but I knew it wasn’t the right message from my forgiving Father. So then I switched my glance to the page on the left. There I found Amos in the eighth chapter. Again I found more of what I had just read. Perplexed, I went back to the page with Obadiah on it and saw more scriptures above the chapter start. Then I found the scripture that confirmed that God was indeed talking to me. I had not turned from the page I had originally opened the Bible up to.
Amos 9:15 “I will firmly plant them there in the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God. “Then they will never be uprooted again.”
I turned to the woman who was sitting in the pew behind me for prayer support as the guest speaker and our women’s leader were both praying with other ladies. I asked her if she remembered the scripture where the prophet of God was listening to hear a word from God. He listened to the wind and God was not there. And in the fire. Finally God revealed Himself in the still small voice. I told the lady that I had looked for God in Obadiah, and then on the other page, and had found my answer where I had turned in the Word.
The lady did pray for me. And one thing that she told me was that I would find my strength and refreshing by the washing of the water by the word. The same thing that the Lord had shown me. God is so good, and I have been refreshed. I will press forward in the race that has been set before me!
God is good. All the time!
Audrey Semprun
Joyful Noiz Ministries
7/15/03
hi audrey, i have finally had a moment to sit and read your piece. very nice. it never came through my email though. so you might have to check into that.
good word. never be uprooted again. yes, i receive that.
blessings,
suz.
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