I wake up and look through the dark of my room to the green neon shinning in my face, bright. It is 6:42 am. The five o'clock wake up and quick swipe of my finger turning off my alarm seems like a distant dream. I overslept. Give me the first fruits of your day. I remember His command, that my first early hours of morning, fresh, belong to Him. I calculate the time and I know my sleeping has robbed from somewhere. I know I will shower, get dressed, eat breakfast. I know those things are so secure and routine that I will not compromise them. So this time passed has been stolen not from me, but from Him. Just turning to 6:43 and already my mind is racing. What can I squeeze into this hour? A quick half hearted devotion, a silent prayer, maybe a psalm. Yet I will fully devote myself to makeup application and matching socks, hair pinned. I realize that already, in this small clump of 60 seconds I have been deceived and convinced myself that my day is ruined. Spoiled by my disobedience. Pleasing Him, impossible. The enemy, my deceiver, whispers failure and taunts me to give up. In my early morning blur I rebuke him and the coffee brews. Awake now I say "Oh my soul, rest". I slow myself and sit, wrapped in blankets I feel His love move around me. Even still my mind spins a wheel of thought. As I read about Him the fullness in my mind fades and my heart finds rest in Him, in who He is. Beholding Him I pray to be transformed to be more like Him. I remember the words we will be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. I know He has filled me afresh as the Word takes over my thoughts and memorized scriptures are brought to light. I let my worldly thoughts leave me as His word takes power over my thinking. I know in this place I shall hear from Him afresh. In this place of communion with His Spirit when His written word fills me, so now I am surrendered to hear what He longs to speak over me. I thank Him that He is alive, always speaking and moving.
I look in my mirror across my room lit dimly and I see the marker lines forming words on my mirror, bold black reminders that stare me in the face and speak truth of His love. Miraculously the lines form letters and those form words, I read. "The Father is Love", so often heard, but even still I preach it to my soul as the sun begins to rise. The fog outside, and inside my heart leaves as His light penetrates my soul. The sense of unworthiness I somehow picked up in a few minutes in the early day is gone and I sense His pleasure and love. I just love you, it's who I am. I let His truth call my other thoughts captive.
The same green neon numbers, digital, tell me 7:21am. What felt like hours spent resting with Him has really been minutes. Time multiplied by the Spirit, a gift from the Father. There is time now, time for jeans and boots and hair and black eye lashes. I am ready for the day, the 6:42am sleep in and the chaotic thoughts that took over in that first minute are gone because my God speaks love. He did not hold out a checklist, comparing me to it. He held out His arms and said, come to me. He looks with love and when I look at Him, by the Spirit, the Father's eyes reflect Jesus. I know the blood that covers me and that I have been bought at a high cost. I know the price, the power that now surrounds me and holds me in this intimate place with the Father.
That same grace is here in the pages I read, Jesus speaks to the Father in the book of John: the glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them as you love me.
I listen again as the Father whispers love over me, and the Spirit reveals the depth of the love the Father has, the same love He has for His Son. Perfect unity, for the sake of the world. I give thanks to the Spirit by whom I participate in this sacred fellowship and I pray His presence over my household.
Jesus prays: that the Love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.
How great is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of our Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Here is the place I will abide.
I open my door and ask the love of Christ to flow out of my heart, out of my bedroom and into my brother's. I brush my teeth and whisper, with you I do abide. How mundane, yet how sweet?
Clothed in peace and righteousness by the grace of Christ, this is the fullness we are offered as Christians. To dwell in His house forever and ever. Who ever said forever starts when we die? We can live in the heavenly places with God now. Each day. Of course our flesh will wage war and the world will try to stop us, but we can take heart, for He has overcome the world.
I am wondering how many days out of this year I will live and abide in continuous communion with Christ Jesus our Lord?
I certainly don't all the time. But in the quietness and victory of a chaotic and then restful morning, I am realizing there is nothing in my day, in this world that can pluck me from His hand. I will not claim that promise any more without the lived out evidence that I spend my whole day actively abiding in His hand.
I can say Oh yes I abide each day in Jesus Christ. But until I experience continuous abiding, have I really received my inheritance?
Let us lay down our unbelief, our complacency, our routines, and let us live for the upward call of God in Christ. Let us claim our inheritance and children, heirs, and saints, and let us actually show the world what we have. The fruits of the Spirit, healing, life spent with God, communion with the Spirit and His power, a promise land. Maybe as we rise up to the heavenly places and live a life walked by the Spirit, then God will impart heaven onto earth. Maybe as we rise up as an army of believers who actually dwell in His Presence, then maybe His presence will come down.
Heaven coming to earth means so much more than I know. But I do know it means sinners saved and turned into saints. I know it means God here. I know it means glory increasing and the power of God made manifest.
So then, let us consider our calling, let us no longer settle for a few thoughts of God each day, or for a bedtime prayer list and online devotion. Let us look at the joy set before us, the marriage supper with the Lamb, and let us give every bit of our lives to seeing that same kingdom descend. That we may live heaven now, and that those of the world may see power and authority in our lives and that they may come drink of the Living Water. Let us actually be vessels who are always full of water, always filled with God's presence, so that all who come close to us may drink and never thirst again. Let us be the royal priesthood we are named to be, and let the commonly claimed promises become a physically inheritance and realm we abide in day by day.
If I, with all my imperfections and past sin, can dwell with God for an hour and eighteen minutes in the stillness of my bedroom, I think we can all learn to abide with Him all the time. Surely there is enough grace in the heart of Jesus to keep us in the place He has called us to dwell.
I wonder what this city will look like when it is full of abiding believers who impart Christ to the people around them?
I don't think it will be normal, I don't think we have any idea the fullness that is coming for us, and I certainly don't think when He pours out His Spirit that I will be sleeping past my alarm.
Martina Sobey
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