life full of LIFE: WAIT!

Can you feel The Love tonight?

NO? SOS!!! CALL THE DOCTOR!!! Haha. All we need is Love.

"BEHOLD what kind of love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are!" ♥ 1 John 3:1a ♥

"Wait on the Lord." Say what??? - A How to- (go to the end for summary)

Like I said in the Journey post, this has been an eventful year for me. God brought a lot of freedom into my life and He has been healing and restoring me but at the same time my fears kept popping up and served as distractions that set me back. Set me back from what? From resting in God's unfailing love and the peace He freely offers in spite of what's going on around me, and the joy that comes from acknowledging His presence; intimacy with Him. Resting in my identity in Him. So I would get discouraged my the rest vs. restless cycle I kept going through but God in His mercy kept giving me hope. The solution He kept giving me was to wait on Him. I'll go into that shortly. Let's look at this song first... When I listened to it this stood out to me: [Simba]: So many things to tell her. But how to make her see The truth about my past? Impossible! She'd turn away from me. [Nala:] He's holding back, he's hiding But what, I can't decide. Why won't he be the king I know he is -The king I see inside? - So through that God was telling me that the reason I could not "feel His love tonight" is because I could not See it (Behold it) - I was distracted. I was focusing on my insecurities instead. So it would help if went on a "Journey to my past" to face everything once and for all and to "Remember who I am" because there was a time that I was confident in my identity in Him- His beloved child hence royalty. And He was also reminding me that nothing can separate me from His Love. Not even my fears, insecurities and shortcomings. So I just need to open my eyes and see His Great Love for me :)

"Wait on the Lord"

I already talked about some of my experiences "waiting on the Lord" in past posts like the Remember post. But I'm re-learning to do this that's why I'm doing a new post on it. So... I remember two summers ago I was doing summer school at SB, and I was really dissatisfied with where I was and I was thirsty for change, thirsty for God (that's the summer right before my Prefall experience. post: Hello Africans). I went to New Life Church with my friends and they were having a "Next Gen" service - the kids were leading worship and sharing testimonies. It was really touching to see children with such strong faith (literal "child-like faith") and brought memories of my past. At the end the children, accompanied by an adult or two, were at the front to pray for people.

Moon-lit ocean at Manz beach :-)

I told them my situation and they prayed for me then one of the adults told me that God was drawing me back to Himself and that I should go to a quiet place and just wait for Him. That I should be quiet and God will speak to me. He told me to wait because it could take 20 or maybe 30 minutes before I hear anything so just to be patient. So I went back to my apartment and I was excited to apply what I was told. I wanted to go to the beach but first I ate then I was on my laptop (probably on facebook) then before I knew it the sun had already set but I decided to go to the beach anyway. I got to Manzanita but it was too dark to go down to the beach so I opted to stay on one of the lawns instead. So I just sat there on the lawn with the sound of the crashing waves around me and with the black sky sprinkled with stars and graced by the moon above and before me and I waited. And waited. And waited. And nothing. I remembered he told me it might take 20 or 30 minutes so I decided to stay there for an hour. Occasionally there would be a rustling in the bushes that would startle me- probably a raccoon or skunk. And some people would walk by or bike by. When this happened I would bust out my phone and pretend to be on it or texting - because what would they think of some girl sitting on a lawn by herself at night? I thought. I kept watching my clock and waiting to hear God say something. An hour passed so I left without hearing anything.

* Silence - "Find a quiet place and be quiet." So through that experience and the one I shared in the Remember post I learnt that silence has a purpose. I was waiting for God to speak through the silence but I later realized that His silence also speaks. The first thing that His silence spoke to me was of my insecurities. My fears and insecurities all surfaced when I was by myself in a quiet place. Though I was in a quiet place and not talking I was not quiet within me. I was anxious, worrying about what the by-passers were thinking, worrying that God wouldn't speak to me, that I wasn't listening hard enough... So maybe He was silent so that I could come to an awareness of my insecurities. Maybe He was waiting for me to be still within me so that He could speak. Maybe He was speaking but not in the way that I was expecting. I think it was all three. [You can check out this song and spoken word piece about God's silence and waiting on Him: Silence by Anthony Evans (song) and Your Words by Amena Brown (spoken word piece)]

Let's check out Elijah's experience waiting for God to speak: "And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice." (1 Kings 19: 11-13)

So what God was teaching me through my experience with silence was: I was insecure. I felt alone but He was reminding me that I am never alone. He is always with me. He said that He will never leave me nor forsake me in His Word. I just needed to be still and trust His Word. I was waiting for a loud voice on the outside but He was the still small voice speaking within me, bidding me to rest. This song carries the same message: ♫ Wait! There's no mountain too great! Hear the Word and have faith. Have faith. He lives in You! (ever since you invited Him in)... He watches over everything we see... ♫

How to Wait on God

1. Silence/Be quiet/Be still- It helps to be in a quiet place. But another way of getting silence is by turning off all our media for a while. We are constantly being bombarded by different voices everyday (through media) and that can crowd out God's voice. So it's not that He's not speaking, we are just really distracted. You can check out this clip: Too much Noise -she received a dream about that.

2. Worship Music, Journaling, Word - Like in my case being in a quiet place didn't necessarily mean that I was quiet inside. So listening to worship music (like the song below) helps calm my mind by fixing it on God. Journaling also helps me focus my thoughts on Him. Also the Bible is God's Word so that's another way that He speaks to us. I talk about how I used all three ways as I was waiting on God in my Remember post. (So you can also use media but as a resource instead of a distraction. I use my blog to journal and music online and sometimes the online Bible).

3. Fasting- I spoke of distractions, food can also be a distraction from waiting on God lol. I discovered this the first time I decided to "wait on God" in my apartment. I would be in my room doing #2 then like every 10 minutes I would be in the kitchen getting a snack lol. K I exaggerated a little bit. So that's one of the reasons I decided to fast. Another reason is because of spiritual warfare. I was facing opposition and I was tired of people telling me that I was not hearing from God (that what God was telling me was not actually from Him). Entertaining such reactions left a door wide open for the devil to bring in confusion and to attack my identity so I decided to fast to listen to God's voice only about my identity (He is my Maker after all). Fasting also helps us to hunger and thirst for God more and it's also important in the purification and healing process that God wants us to go through; it also results in deeper intimacy with Him. I'll have another post about that but you can check these ones out: A Call to Fast (March) and September.

4. Praising God and Thanking Him- Yeah I mentioned listening to worship music and what I described is also known as "soaking" -> listening to music about God's attributes or songs that He sings over us (Psalms says that He sings over us with songs of deliverance- Ps. 32:7 ) like in the song below, and just taking it in. Allowing Him to minister to our hearts through the Holy Spirit and to renew our minds with the Truth. So another thing we can do as we wait on Him is to praise Him. We can sing songs of praise, clap our hands and dance for Him whether or not we feel like it. Whether or not we "feel the Love." Because as I've learnt through experience praising God for who He is and thanking Him for what He's done outloud helps renew our minds (by silencing the accuser who likes to infect our minds with doubts and lies) so that we can see the love and it is then that we can feel the Love. "He who sacrifices thank offerings honors Me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God." - The LORD (Psalm 50: 23).

5. Be organized. Delight yourself in Him. Persistence and Patience- So far I've been focusing on breaking off from routine, retreating in order to refocus (to see God's Love and to find satisfaction in Him. To be healed, refreshed and restored in His presence.To draw closer to Him- intimacy). Yeah I know we are busy people; we don't always have lots of free time. We have school, work, kids and other responsibilities. But it's all a matter of Priorities. Jesus says that if we seek God first and the Kingdom of God everything else (stuff we need for life on this earth) will be added unto us (Matthew 6:33) and in Romans 14:17 it says that the Kingdom of God is a matter of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. So for me He was showing me that I've just been disorganized and distracted so I need to get organized. Some practicals for me: Sleeping earlier- Trading my late nights for early mornings and seeking God right from then (I will need His Spirit to make that possible lol. The Holy Spirit gives us self-control). Another idea is to involve other people around me. When I'm home I'm busy babysitting so it's not always easy to retreat I can plan to have stuff like praise and worship sessions with my niece and nephews. And yeah God is always with us wherever we go and in whatever we are doing so we just need to acknowledge His presence and know that we have free access to His peace and joy. So let's wait on the Lord and find rest in His unfailing Love :)

"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him... Those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. (Psalm 37:7a and 9b. God has lots of blessings in store for those who wait on Him. Read all of Psalm 37. Let's press in and press on with patience. He wants to satisfy us with His Love and show us His goodness :)

All we need is Love :) Love gives us wings =)

"But they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." (Isaiah 40: 31)

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Update 1/13/14: Wait on the LORD - A Corporate Command

So I ended this post with the point I highlighted, "involving other people around me" and yeah another important and powerful way of waiting on the Lord is corporately.

"On one occasion, while He (Jesus) was eating with them, He gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit...But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:4-5 & 8)

Yes it's a command because it's an act of love; the greatest commandment is to love God with your all and your neighbor as yourself. So to wait on the Lord corporately really is the the way to go. It's acknowledging our thirst for the fullness of God (more of His love and power, more of Him!) - acknowledging that we can't love God without His love; and also acknowledging that we can't love others like Jesus does without His power.

And yeah this is the way to go because of the time we are in a time of being sent out to change the world and God doesn't want us to change the world with just our natural abilities but with His fire and power. We are generation that will bring down the Kingdom of heaven to earth and in order to do that unity is key - that's why God is creating "One New Man" and that's why it's so urgent and necessary to wait on Him corporately to advance the Kingdom in more powerful ways than this earth has ever experienced.

I would like to invite you all to this event: ONE LOVE: A Night of Unity on Sat, Jan. 25th 7pm and let's get to know each other over refreshments and icebreakers and let us also come together to wait on the Lord through worship and prayer with expectant hearts. We need more of His Love. A lot has been repeatedly prophesied about Santa Barbara you can read more in this post: Let there be Light; but yeah we want to see great things happen here, restoration and transformation but it all begins with us. So let us come together and wait on the Lord. We need His power to cross the red sea and claim the promised land. So let's do this!! :D For more emphasis of this application read: The Desert and FULL Armor of God.

It's ALL about JESUS! =)