Dancing with Jesus…

As I sit at my computer and type in these words below from my prayer journal, written and prayed almost 3 years ago, I marvel at the intricate details God places in our lives.  I will never cease to be amazed at how these simple prayers have not only been heard by him, but how we see his answers unfolding before our eyes.  

At the time of this writing, we felt like an onion, being peeled away one layer at a time, each time exposing the next vulnerable layer.  We felt so raw and so depleted, there were days it was difficult to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and trust that He had a plan for us. 

Fast forward to today;  Our lives are being redeemed.  We are not only serving Jesus is full time ministry, which we have been praying for, for so many years, we are serving together.  God has picked us up and moved us to a remote community 10 hours North of where we began this journey. 

As I read these words taken from my prayer below: “Thank you for writing Your instructions on my heart.  Thank you for giving me a desire to serve You with what remains of my earthly life.  Continue shaping us and preparing us for the adventure You have ahead.” My heart explodes in gratitude.  

When we were asked to consider taking on this ministry position, believe it or not, our first thought was a HARD NO!  We had zero desire to head North, and every plan to go West… looking back I feel a little bit like Jonah, running away from Gods plan.

Needless to say, after two more days of prayer and seeking Gods plan, we began to recognize that He was doing something far different than we had been thinking, and more importantly He had been preparing us for this for the last 8 years.  

The complete confirmation comes as I read the words written in my prayer… “Preparing us for the ADVENTURE”, this is where I absolutely Love Gods unique and intimate detail for His Children.  Since we chose to take this position, all the way up to today… totally unaware of words previously written & forgotten, I have daily used the term “ADVENTURE” to describe the new road we are on.  

But it doesn’t stop there, God continues to show me his details that He is writing on our hearts.  A few lines later, I wrote: “Open our eyes to see Your purpose and plan and meld our hearts together to follow You wherever You lead”.  

What’s so amazing about this? Once again, when we were offered this position, we had 3 days to make a decision or they were going to have to move on a search for someone else.  On Day 1, as mentioned we were both a Hard No.  Day 2, God was moving inside me that He was up to something new, Mike remained a Hard No, and was somewhat concerned of my change of heart. 

Then Day 3 happened, and God opened Mikes eyes to see Gods purpose and He melded our hearts together to follow His plan, and on Day 3, we accepted the position… stay with me here friends, this particular prayer was prayed almost 3 years earlier, we were experiencing the answer of that prayer, and today God has opened my eyes to once again see His perfect timing and detail.  

God has continued to provide ,down to the most minute detail.  In the days that we were being peeled like an onion;  we had our home stripped away, we gave up many possession and a business that we could no longer attempt to sustain.  

Today, God has provided back ALL that we had lost, maybe not in the same excess but definitely ALL that we require.  He has opened our eyes to the absolute Truth that is written in Gods Word, it is written for you and for me;  If we search we will find… He has written His instructions on our heart… and we (who are His sheep) will hear His voice.  

The part that amazes me the most was the last portion of the prayer, for the life of me I have no idea why I would have written that, none of my Bible readings that day were from the Book of Ruth.  Yet, my words to the Lord were; “Your people will be my people… Your ways will be my ways”.  

Looking back, it almost feels prophetic.  Here we are in a new community, vastly different than anything we have experienced before.  We are surrounded by believers in Jesus, amidst immensely different cultures.  Jesus has been opening doors of incredible hospitality within this community, where we have been overwhelmingly invited into… these are His people and they are now My people!

We have no way to know what God has planned here for us.. for others.  But we know with absolute certainty that He is IN it.  He has chosen to use us to work out His plan in this community that He has placed us.  What an honour to see both sides of a prayer;  the one spoken to the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, and the one He is answering before our very eyes. 

I truly hope and pray that you will choose to continue the Journey with me.  I may not understand why God has placed you on it, but just as I’ve seen answers to prayer unfold, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He has connected us for just a time as this…

Journal Entry:  

But from there you will search again for the Lord your God. And if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him.     Deut. 4:29 NLT

I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your instructions are written on my heart.”  Psalm 40:8 NLT

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  John 10:27 NLT

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for Your Word.  Your Word that is the same today as it was thousands of years ago, and will remain the same thousands of years from now.  It is constant and never changing, even when the world around us is in constant flux.  

There is so much comfort in TRUTH that remains TRUTH.  Today “truth” in our world is being redefined to a personal individual type of truth.  “It’s truth for me“, or “this is my truth”… has become a common mantra all around us. How incredibly convenient and incredibly wrong, how easily we can get sucked into these new realities if we are not careful.

The reality is, there is no truth in something that changes with the wind.  So when I read verses like “Your Word is hidden in my heart” and “Your instructions are written in my heart”… I can trust that to be just as true today as it was when David first wrote it down, because You Lord, are the author of Your Word.

Thank you for all the men and women You inspired and used to put pen to paper.  Thank you that You showed the guarantee and truth of Your Word through fulfilled prophesy, and we have courage today, because the prophesy yet to be fulfilled in the future.  You left us with everything we need to know You.  All You ask is that we continue to seek You to know You better.

Lord Jesus, as we sit on this precipice of so much change, I have a peace that You are totally in this.  Thank you for writing Your instructions on my heart.  Thank you for giving me a desire to serve You with what remains of my earthly life.  Continue shaping us and preparing us for the adventure You have ahead. 

Teach us with Your wisdom to check what we hear and desire, against Your Word for confirmation that we are following Your plans rather than our own.  Open our ears to really hear You Lord, and what Your Will for us is.  Open our eyes to see Your purpose and plan and meld our hearts together to follow You wherever You lead.  

Help us Lord, to leave in the past all that belongs there, to take with us only what You would have us take.  I pray that we would take the time to search for You… to listen, and hear Your voice… to experience Your peace within our hearts, which would be our confirmation Lord that we are on Your path. 

Thank you Lord, for Your daily provisions to us, for Your answered prayers…even those we cannot yet see.  Everything we process comes from You and You are showing us that even when it feels like everything is being stripped away…You are still providing.  Praise You Jesus… thank you!

Lord God, as the Moabite Ruth stated to her Mother-in-law, Naomi… these words I declare to You; “Your people will be my people… Your ways will be my ways”

In Jesus name ❤️Amen

My Final Thoughts & Encouragement:

Where do you find yourself today my friend?  Do you feel the pain of layers being peeled off revealing tender spots in your life, open to the elements?  Maybe, you are like I was… a believer that just didn’t believe God answered MY prayers. You know the type, the ones that seem to hit the ceiling and bounce right back down at you again. You’re left sitting there feeling the reverberations, yet hearing silence.  

I spent much of my life in this place, I had a knowledge OF God and a heart FOR God, but I lacked an intimacy WITH God.  That intimacy only comes with a life giving relationship with His Son, Jesus.  This is one of the reasons I love the verse from Deuteronomy 4:29 so much, it reminds us to continue searching until we find Him.  If we search with everything we have, we WILL find him. 

Gods Word constantly points us to Jesus, if you search and study, you will find the scarlet threads of Jesus laced throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.  Everything that God had purposed and planned culminated in the birth, death & resurrection of Jesus Christ.  

I’ve come to learn that this intimacy is somewhat like a dance, we allow him to lead and we follow.  Sometimes we will know the next move, other times we will not and need to trust His leading.  But herein lies our responsibility: during those times of following, we need to pay attention to the pattern.  We need to make notes, look back and practice the dance, until we instinctively know the next move. 

I can’t begin to guess where you are on this dance my friend.  Maybe you’ve just walked onto the floor for the first time, maybe you have been stumbling along with two left feet for many years, or maybe you’re starting to feel his gently guiding, and hear the soft whisper under his breath as he leads you forward.  

I know I am far from at the point where I can even pretend to instinctively know His next more.  But I have begun to hear his voice, I have begun to follow when I hear.  Rather than trying to understand why, I am learning to trust Him to lead me in perfect Truth as I follow His plan for my life. 

This my friend, is what it’s like to have Intimacy with Jesus, to feel the presence of the Father.  Keep records of the dance, so that you too can look back and be surprised at how often He actually responded to the prayers of your heart.  Watch the pattern of this dance emerge, continue to practice and grow so that you may experience the beautiful journey He wants to open the eyes of your heart to. 

Blessings, Janet ❤️Journey4Jesus

Do you know Jesus ? He’s waiting for you… ( click the link to learn more) 

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