to "expect" means...
* to consider something very likely to happen.
* to believe someone or something will arrive soon.
* to look for something from someone as rightfully due.
Today I was overwhelmed, to say the least. I was overtaken by the Power and Presence of God in a way that caught me quite by surprise. The worship time was phenomenal. It always is at The Harvest. It's not because the worship team is stupendous -- even though they always are. It's because the entire church gets involved. Everyone participates in worship. The worship team isn't performing for the congregation. No!
The worship team AND the congregation
-- TOGETHER --
perform for God!
They all lift their voices in unison, giving glory and honor to God Almighty. How great is that?
Today we must have worshipped well over an hour. I'm not exactly sure, because I completely lost track of the time. When I closed my eyes to sing, it wasn't long and I was gone. I disappeared into the Presence of God.
The Holy Spirit has me pre-occupied, these days, with my upcoming marriage plans. I don't even like to admit that because I know how crazy it sounds. It sounds crazy to me too! -- especially since I haven't been formally introduced to the one I will be marrying yet. But I know who he is and he knows who I am.
This morning I went to church to worship the Lord, but the Holy Spirit kept pouring endless love into my heart for this particular individual. It was uncanny! Now, it's not that I mind God doing that, but it's not what I went to church to do. I went to church to pour my love out to God, not to receive love from God for someone else. I kept saying over and over again... "Lord, we can do that later! Right now I want to focus my attention on YOU!"
But no, He was relentless.
I couldn't believe the level of detail God was going into about this marriage-to-be. He showed me glimpses of this and glimpses of that. I saw the blueprint of how my life was destined to perfectly meld with another's and how that fit perfectly into God's overall plan. All the while, mind you, I saw the most amazing video playing in my mind. It was a vision of Jesus holding a key on a grinding wheel, perfectly shaping it to fit the lock of a door to someone's heart. Am I the key to someone's heart?
Eventually, worship time ended and we moved onto the preaching. What a powerful message Carlos Sarmiento of Orlando House of Prayer delivered. You'll never guess what he spoke about.
The entire message was about
The Bride of Christ.
Ok... so that almost knocked me right off my feet! The minister was, of course, referring to the preparation of Christ's Bride: The Church. But what blew me away was when God spoke to my heart personally of how this entire year was not just a journey towards His heart, but a time of preparation for marriage to someone very dear to Him.
Okay... so there's so many things I could say right now, but I'll just mention two. First of all, I'm floored that God would love someone that much that He would flip my life upside-down and inside-out to prepare me for a lifetime with him. How crazy is that? How awesome is that? How amazing is that? I'm thinking of the Book of Esther and how she was set apart in preparation for marriage. And what about the key? Jesus was grinding that key so it fit perfectly! Is that what He's been doing with me this entire year?
Secondly, I am mesmerized by the fact that as I have been traveling down this Yellow Brick Road to get closer to The Father's heart, He has been preparing me to journey with another on this very same road.
When did He do all that?
I knew it! He did it when I thought He was doing nothing! All those times when I said to myself, "God's not doing anything! Why isn't anything happening?" He was hard at work making sure that His multi-dimensional plan for me would ultimately be fulfilled exactly to His specifications!
So why am I even telling you all this? Why don't I just keep it all to myself until I see what happens? I'm realizing that this is way too detailed for me to not embrace it. Remember this... at the beginning of the year, I thought it would be just Me & Jesus for the rest of my life. Marriage was the last thing on my mind. No, I take that back. It wasn't on my mind, period!
I'm sharing all this for two reasons. First, I want you to see how detailed God can be.
My hope is that you will realize
that if He can be detailed with me,
He can be detailed with you!
Second... when everything comes together down the road, I want you to know that God had already told me it would happen.
Perhaps that will provoke you to
trust Him more when He speaks
to your heart about something.
Maybe it will cause you to wait better and longer, if necessary, for the fulfillment of His promises in your life!
I must say... Today was a good day in RED shoes!
Gail
