February 20
2017
A Season of Intentional Living
This is a message I shared at The Lutheran Church of our Saviour in Dartmouth on February 12th, 2017. I thought I would share it here as well.
ENJOY!
ENJOY!
A Season of Intentional Living!
“Where there is no vision, the people perish” Proverbs 29:18
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10
A couple of weeks ago when Anne was in touch with me about speaking, she said she wondered if I had something on my heart to share. I had just finished a post in my blog called Back to the Beginning. And I knew that there was something there that needed to be shared. Since then, as I have spent time in prayer, the Lord has continued to expand on those thoughts
So, although the initial thought was called Back to the Beginning, what I would like to share with you I have entitled A Season of Intentional Living.
The beginning of a New Year is a great time to look back at the way things have been with the intention of looking forward to how we would like things to be in the future.
At the end of January the Lord impressed upon my heart to go back to the beginning of my blog, way back in 2013 and to see what the intentions were at the beginning. What was the driving force, the passion, the purpose?
As I read my first blogs I was reminded of my disillusionment during that season, of striving for the mountaintop while missing the blessings in the valley. And at that time I called forth a new season of intentionally watching for unexpected blessings and being thankful.
As I read forward about 6 months in my blog I declared yet another season in my journey. I called it my season to: “live the arms and hands open wide, twirling barefoot in the grass, head back, abandoned laughter, don’t care who is looking, kind of living”
A season in which I lived with unfurled, unclenched hands, allowing grace to come in and release that protective posture of clenched fists, unfurling those fingers and releasing those palms to:
Open and receive grace
Reach out to another and lift them up
Raise up and praise the Creator, and to
Open up my body, mind and spirit to the possibilities of truly living
And as I continued to read through the years of blog postings, the intention and purpose and passion changed with each new season I found myself in.
But even as I read through my thoughts kept moving back to those first two seasons, both very intentional seasons. Seasons in which I had a purpose and a vision that I woke up with, walked in during the day and slept on at night.
In my blog a few weeks ago, I talked about returning to those two seasons, going back to the beginning and getting refocused. Unfurled, unclenched, intentional, thankful seasons that demonstrated truly living.
And so I asked the Lord what this really means. What season is this and what does it look like?
And He has answered: A Season of Intentional Living!
This, 2017, is a shift season
A season in which we shift from allowing life to happen to us
To living an intentional life
A life in which thankfulness
Unfurled, unclenched hands
And arms and hands open wide, twirling barefoot in the grass, head back, abandoned laughter, don’t care who is looking, kind of living
Is the norm, not the exception.
A season in which, finally, Christ becomes, the center of our lives
And His plan for our lives matures and comes to fruition
As we begin to walk in obedience and faith.
What does this living intentionally look like?
There are 3 steps:
1) Press in
2) Write the Vision
3) Step out in Faith
Press in
I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected. Habakkuk 2:1
How much time are we spending in the presence of the Lord?
How much time are we spending in prayer and in the Word?
One of the challenges in the Church today is that we have lost our identity. We have lost sight of the fact that we were created.
Created for a purpose
By a Creator.
And because we fail to look to that Creator, we have forgotten who we are in Christ.
This causes a myriad of problems: we lack direction, we lack confidence in who we are and what we can do in the kingdom, we feel out of place and purposeless, and we work hard to fill the void we find in our lives with things that were never intended for that purpose.
Christ calls us to relationship. How can you develop an intimate relationship with someone you never speak to or spend time with, someone you don’t even know?
2017 is a shift season
A season to shift from filling the void with things that will never fill
To opening ourselves up to intimacy with the Lord – who will fill every void that we experience
Spend time in the Presence of the Father
Seek His heart
For you
For others
Press in.
Write the Vision
Then the LORD answered me and said: “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Habakkuk 2:2-3
Now that we have begun to establish that all important relationship and have begun to spend time listening to and watching for the Lord in our lives, we will hear Him
He won’t begin to speak to us. He has been speaking all along
But we will begin to hear Him and see Him at work in those most unusual and surprising ways and most often in the most mundane moments
Remember He is a God of the valleys as well as the mountaintops. And it has been my experience that I have learned more of His faithfulness and love for me in the valley experiences.
As we begin to hear and to see it is important to begin to record
We live in a busy time and our minds quickly fill like an ongoing “to do” list. The world whirls around us like a whirlwind and even if we experience God, we quickly lose track of what He has shown us
I challenge you today to begin to write the vision
Get a journal for yourself – something that you can carry with you
And when the Lord speaks, jot it down. Write it in words, in pictures, in sketches, in colour or black and white; write it neatly line by line or haphazard as it comes. Whatever it looks like – write it.
God speaks until He gets our attention – over time you will look back and see repeats and trends – words, phrases, scripture that keep coming up – that is the vision.
2017 is a shift season
A Season to shift from missing His voice in the midst of the whirlwind
To writing it plainly so you can run with it!
Step out in faith
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10
What is God calling you to?
What did you hear when you spent time in His presence?
What part of His heart did He share with you?
Intentional living calls for action on our part.
Not allowing life to happen to us an innocent bystanders but causing life to happen before us according to the vision. Intentional living calls for an intentional stepping out in obedience and faith.
We were created for good works
We were created to step out and meet others where they are and show them the love of the Lord
What are you waiting for?
Do not delay for “today is the day of salvation”
Small, big, seemingly insignificant, great works – it is all in our perspective
To you it may seem insignificant but to the one you reach out to it may be life changing
But I don’t have the time…
Make the time.
When you have sat in the presence of the Father and He has shared His heart with you
When you have taken the time to write the vision – what He shows you, what He speaks into and over you, what He calls you to
That is the thing that will take priority in your life
The housework will wait
The t.v. and social media will lose their mindless draw
You will be energized and empowered to act
But I’m not qualified…
God does not call the equipped, He equips those He calls
He has created us for the works He has prepared for us before hand
We are supernaturally qualified when we are walking in His will for our lives.
What will people think….
Remember intentional living calls for a number of things including that “don’t care who is looking” kind of living
There will always be naysayers
But there also will always be lives that you specifically are called to touch
And if you don’t, who will?
If you are walking in intimacy with the Lord, His love for you and for those around you will help you to overcome any reservations you have about stepping out in faith in spite of what people around you think
2017 is a shift season
A season to shift from our self protective, self preservation stance
To a season of unfurled, unclenched living
A season to shift from allowing life to happen to us
To a season of living intentionally.
Let’s look back at the verses we began with:
“Where there is no vision, the people perish” Proverbs 29:18
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10
What do you hear differently from the beginning when I first read them?
Now you know the importance of the vision.
Now you know you need to press in and develop that intimate relationship with the Lord, in order to hear the vision.
Now you know that you need to write that vision down and then you need to run with that vision – in an intentional way.
And what will all this lead to?
Abundant life.
Jesus did not say that He has come to give us life and life more mundane
Jesus did not say that He has come to give us life and life more status quo
Jesus said He came to give us life and life more abundantly.
Isn’t that what you want?
Abundant life?
My prayer for all of us this evening is that we would embrace this new season
That we would go out and live the arms and hands open wide, twirling barefoot in the grass, head back, abandoned laughter, don’t care who is looking, kind of living
And that in doing so we would find that abundant, intentional life that the Father has called us to.