The Sound of Heaven

After an entire evening of healing the sick and setting free those who were under evil oppression, Jesus was becoming popular and well-known. The people were gathering around HIM. Demons were trembling before HIM acknowledging HIM "the Son of God".

The ministry of Jesus had started with a blast! HE goes to a solitary place to share with the Father what is happening, how people are touched by the supernatural power of GOD. Then the Father begins to speak to Jesus, and HE hears the Sound of Heaven.

People come looking for Jesus, and they realise HE is getting ready to leave. They plead with HIM to stay, but Jesus says: "I must preach the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent" (Luke 4:43). He is leaving the moment of glory, the place of success because HE has heard the Sound of Heaven.

How often success, acceptance and recognition keeps me from going where the Lord is sending me. How often I get distracted from my mission because of the very blessings of God in my life. How often I try to serve HIM within my comfort zone. How often I ignore the difficult or boring missions that God places before me. Far too many!

I had become too tired of serving the people I was sent to, and was waiting for a distraction, when I found one in the form of a friend. One day in prayer, the Lord showed me that I had allowed myself to get distracted from my mission. That Sunday, I returned to the people HE sent me, kicking and screaming in my heart. As I sat there, a mother came and started to share her life with me, and another two joined and as a result today we are preparing 5 young women to be baptised this Easter! What a fool I had been, trying to find a few minutes of enjoyment and ignoring the mission of God!

As I write this, I hear the Sound of Heaven, "be careful not to hold on to the excitement, or the success, because it is not about success or failure, but about being on the journey in the mission of God - because that is why I was sent. Praise the Lord!

Can you hear the Sound of Heaven?

Crisis and a Blessing?

Only God can do it... send a blessing wrapped up in a crisis.

Few years ago, when I was facing a crisis at work I thought everything was over. But it was the very crisis that brought me to where I am today in my relationship with God, His mission for me, and the dream job that I have today.

Jesus is the gift that came wrapped up in a crisis into the womb of Mary, the Mother of God.

The death of Jesus on the cross is a gift wrapped up in a crisis.

The God who says "My ways are not your ways" sends us gifts wrapped up in crisis.

The Blessed Mother who was overshadowed by the Most High saw beyond the crisis in her life to the blessing God sent for the entire human kind, that made her sing and glorify the Lord.

As I started to learn the ways of God, there is a story that comes to my mind whenever things don't turn out the way we want. It is called "The Pony and the Dung Heap"... the story says, when the little girl was taken to a room full of horse dung she got excited and shouted "with all this dung, there must be a pony in here somewhere".

Last November, the day before the Four Steps Retreat when we went to the church in the evening to set up the hall and the sound equipment, we learnt we did not have access to the sound equipment, nor a room we planned to use if we run out of space in the hall. The Parish Office was closed for the long weekend, and there was no one we could turn to. All we could do was enter into prayer. As we entered into prayer, remembering the moments in our lives where God changed every crisis into a blessing and glorifying HIM, praising HIM for what HE did in the past, someone managed to contact the Parish Secretary and she agreed to cancel her plans for that evening and come and get us the necessary keys. While talking to her we learnt that there was going to be a large number of people coming for the retreat, and the parish hall and the room will not be enough. The nice lady, on her own contacted the Parish Priest who was more than willing to accommodate us, and made it possible for us to use the church instead! Another Blessing wrapped up in a crisis.

The crisis that God allows to come into our lives is only a wrapping paper that wraps a greater blessing beyond what we could ever think of.

May the Holy Spirit open our eyes to see beyond the crisis and rejoice in the blessing that is about to unfold. May we realise that "with all this dung, there must be a pony in here somewhere".

Zechariah did not Twitter!

I was reading Luke Chapter 1, and was amazed at the man Zechariah. He was a priest in the temple of God whose duty was to burn incense. He lived with his wife in a manner that was pleasing to God. Luke 1:6 says they were upright in the sight of God.

What made them "upright in the sight of God"?

What did they do to be pleasing to God?

After all, Zechariah's duty in the temple of the Lord was to burn incense.

As I continued to read Luke Chapter 1, I found it more and more difficult to understand what made Zechariah a man pleasing to God. When the Angel Gabriel told him "your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son..." instead of thanking God Zechariah asked "how can I be sure of this?".

Then, I came to verse 23 and suddenly everything became clear to me. Luke 1:23 says "When his time of service was completed, he returned home"

I was shocked! Imagine, if you have been praying for something for a long time, and God sends an Angel to say your prayers will be answered, won't you stop everything you are doing, run and share the news with your family and friends? Get on Skype, Facebook, Twitter, Phone, SMS and let the rest of the world know about it? How often we leave the Lord and HIS mission to go and "celebrate" the good that God sends us?

I thought too little of Zechairah, there is much to learn from the old priest who performed a very small duty at the temple. He did not delegate his duty to someone else so that he can go and celebrate... but continued in his mission until his time of service was over.

Often we forget that God is the greatest blessing in our lives. Often I have second thoughts when I have to go for intercessory prayer. I look at Zechariah, and I see a man who was serving GOD, a man who knew that GOD is the greatest blessing, and being on the mission is the best way to celebrate.

Lord Jesus, I live in a world full of distractions and attractions that sometimes get bigger than you in my eyes. Lord, I ask your forgiveness for the things I left you for, and I come and fall at your feet, not wanting to get up from there. But Lord, in a few minutes I go into the world, and once again I will meet those distractions and attractions, but may your presence go with me, may you become my greatest distraction and the attraction.