I have never understood this statement with more fervor than i have this week. I have drunk of the world and yet still feel drier than ever. It is as though i was drinking drought with taste buds craving rain, taste buds that know the difference for they have tasted the taste of rain. Any moment outside the presence of God, even a slight moment, feels like death. Have you ever felt that way? As though you're being suffocated even though you're surrounded by what looks like brilliance and celebration? Well, if there is something that has helped me put these feelings into perspective it is 1st Corinthians 15:45 which says 'The first man Adam became a living being (an individual personality); the last Adam (Christ) became a life-giving spirit (restoring the dead to life)
What does it mean life giving spirit? Does it mean that without Him we have no life? Does He have to give us life for us to have life? Are all things dead without Him thus restoring the dead to life? The answers to these questions are yes and unashamedly so. Even the biggest successes we can ever have in life are dead without Jesus.
This week i finally got my certificate in Inclusive Leadership; a course i had taken to equip me on what is to be a long, tiring but fulfilling journey on the path to being fully ingrained in leadership. I was happy, but i did not celebrate. I wondered why. In the very same week, at my work place, i managed to have the breakfast show i host as a top trend for 3 consecutive days. I was glad seeing as i had been quite low in the days leading up to that. I was glad, yes, but i did not have joy as a result of it.
On Thursday, during my spontaneous conversations with God, i heard these words in my spirit, 'you will not trend tomorrow.' I thought i had heard my own things and i even tried to rebuke that voice but somehow i had peace about it because it sounded like the tone a father would speak with to a son He loves and wants to give a heads up to. Come Friday, i put in the same amount of work as i did during the week and to some extent even more but i never saw what my eyes were eager to see. 1 hour down, 2 hours, 3 hours, 4. The show was over, What i had heard came true. It actually felt as though there was a hand putting a ceiling on all my efforts. It felt so tangible. My heart dipped but i remembered a conversation with my boss the day before and how i told Him God will at some point ensure that we do not trend so as to test our hearts. Who knew it would be this soon? Don't get me wrong, it may sound like i am making a big deal out of something 'worldly' but in my field, this is gold. I even had my overall boss summon me the day before and tell me good job, something many, including myself, were surprised by and yes it felt good but i still had no joy. There was something mussing and in this one day God did test my heart and i found out something that the Lord wanted me to learn again practically and not just theoretically: He is the only source of my joy. affirmation, and the only source of that which gives me life. I feel dead without Him and as a matter of fact i am.
In this one week of many highs, i have still felt dry. Some would wonder why or how but i know it is because i miss my moments with God in my very own 'cool of the day' and at times i feel there are places and situations when i am separate from Him yet He does not go away. He is there but not there and this is not done in abandonment but to show me His standard of Holiness and for me to seek Him even more.
As i write this, i look at almost every aspect of my life and the trend (no pun intended) is the same. I feel dead in every area when i am not in constant fellowship with God. The times i fellowship with my own worries, i partake from the death giving spirit. I surrender my life and receive death in return. I worry about whether i will amount to anything career wise and as a man, whether i will be a good husband, whether i am going to have enough money to soon provide for my wife and i or even pay for the wedding with no hassles and so many other thoughts. Most of my days are spent wishing i could just lay flat in the tangible presence of God forever and do nothing but drink of Him but that is not ordained for a life on earth but one in eternity. Here, we must work to bring the kingdom to the earth, we must be sanctified, we must be consecrated, we must endure for His sake in the same way we crave to glory for His sake and in a world where we have been called to be salt, things can end up being so overwhelming that we crave to remain in that salt shaker. I need the life that only Jesus has. This life calms me, it steadies my heart, it is my only source of sanity, it keeps me Holy and helps me overcome. It gives me joy.
I have never had a desire to be famous and i still don't. My desire is to live for the Lord and to love Him ever so deeply as my years go by. However, as reminded by my friend and colleague Jessy, God does say He will make our name great. I am all for that but the problem is that most times we substitute God for us and instead live life with the mantra 'I will make my name great.' There is one that makes names great because His is the name above EVERY other name. If i had a choice, i would want to spend eternity with God now so that i never have to feel dead again even when success or its doppelgangers surround me but i have been put on earth for a reason, tough days and less tough days and the only thing that will give me joy is to have the life of Jesus living in me. I am unashamed of the gospel for in it is not only power but to me, in it is life evermore and where there is life there is joy. I am a simple man, i ask for nothing else but to have life and life more abundantly.
As i write this, i look at almost every aspect of my life and the trend (no pun intended) is the same. I feel dead in every area when i am not in constant fellowship with God. The times i fellowship with my own worries, i partake from the death giving spirit. I surrender my life and receive death in return. I worry about whether i will amount to anything career wise and as a man, whether i will be a good husband, whether i am going to have enough money to soon provide for my wife and i or even pay for the wedding with no hassles and so many other thoughts. Most of my days are spent wishing i could just lay flat in the tangible presence of God forever and do nothing but drink of Him but that is not ordained for a life on earth but one in eternity. Here, we must work to bring the kingdom to the earth, we must be sanctified, we must be consecrated, we must endure for His sake in the same way we crave to glory for His sake and in a world where we have been called to be salt, things can end up being so overwhelming that we crave to remain in that salt shaker. I need the life that only Jesus has. This life calms me, it steadies my heart, it is my only source of sanity, it keeps me Holy and helps me overcome. It gives me joy.
I have never had a desire to be famous and i still don't. My desire is to live for the Lord and to love Him ever so deeply as my years go by. However, as reminded by my friend and colleague Jessy, God does say He will make our name great. I am all for that but the problem is that most times we substitute God for us and instead live life with the mantra 'I will make my name great.' There is one that makes names great because His is the name above EVERY other name. If i had a choice, i would want to spend eternity with God now so that i never have to feel dead again even when success or its doppelgangers surround me but i have been put on earth for a reason, tough days and less tough days and the only thing that will give me joy is to have the life of Jesus living in me. I am unashamed of the gospel for in it is not only power but to me, in it is life evermore and where there is life there is joy. I am a simple man, i ask for nothing else but to have life and life more abundantly.
I write this not as a poet, a leader, a radio personality working to make a name or as any man of any standard, i lay these all aside to show my true disposition as a broken man desperate for the breath of Jesus, the Life giving Spirit to fully dwell in me until it overflows. To breathe life into me, accolades or none, recognition or none, to be forever in the presence of my King, the one i chose because i was chosen when deep in my dead state. I want Him and if all other things pertaining to life are indeed added, they shall be a bonus unto the everything i would have ever wanted, needed, craved and desired, and i will lay them down at His feet, always. What more do you need when you have the source and sustainer of all life living in you? All other ground truly is sinking sand, even those that have lifeless castles built upon them and this hollowness has reminded me of the deepest cry of my heart: that i would rather be a temple hidden away in a desert but full of the life of God than a castle built with the most precious of jewels and visited by all the worlds kings yet have not the life of God in me.
So come Holy Spirit, dwell in me. Take me deeper into the heart of the Father, into the life giving spirit, into the place of my joy and desire, into my utmost prize. You say if i shall seek you with all of my heart you shall be found. Today, i seek you again and i crave to find you. You have laid before me the path to life and death and you have asked me to choose life, to choose you. I do. It truly does start with me.