This is a call for release…
Release from a captivity of imagination.
Not a call to forsake true identity; a call to take it up!
Ain’t no need to whitewash skill or experience; it’s time to tether these to a new way.
This is a word with intent, determined to call forth hope. A word to look and see what is already here. To lift one’s head and survey the landscape anew. Because although the truth is close, maybe it’s different than you expected…
Look again.
Forget the former things; do not dwell in the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
A new reality has arrived.
The first shoots of spring are breaking through; the early rays of the new dawn are colouring the sky. All that is necessary now is to get down in the dirt and pay attention… to rise from your slumber and be alive.
Awake, sleeper! Get to work, gardener!
… and let the breath of life restore you to your senses, renew your lost vigour, invigorate you with lifeblood, saturate you in splendour.
—
Come. Come and see. Your dreams no longer belong to the night. The hopes that were dashed are alive with new vitality.
Here is the way, the path so many longed to find. Set your eyes to the horizon and get your feet on the road.
This journey has been waiting for you.
Prayer is a present-moment activity. It requires the direction of our energies in fullness toward God, right here and right now.
But in this present moment, faith-filled prayer takes us on a bit of a time-travel. It takes us forward, into a future not-yet-seen. While we are there – actively attentive to a possibility – we take ownership of that place, in hope… before releasing it to the God who holds all time.
And he deals with it. Faith-filled prayer is:
“To enter and engage the future, and render it a past already dealt with.”
– Peter Roberson: Revival Streams
This is praying ’till you mean it,
Then trusting the One who receives it.
Where has aliveness happened?
Somewhere in our past, distantly / deliberately, new life happened. In all sorts of places, through all sorts of people, new things have sprung forth.
These new things were meaningful then. But the past doesn’t speak to the present without a bit of work…
“The nouns of art (the paintings, scores, recordings, information) are tombstones that mark locations where significant acts of aliveness once took place; they await fresh verbs (attention, personal connection, response, discovery) to bring them back to life.”
(The Teaching Artist’s Bible by Eric Booth, p.40)
The past wants to speak to us. There are words of wisdom and life, locked away in a multitude of places, just waiting to be opened. They are ready to warn us, exhort us, console us, scold us. The past is holding out the right hand of fellowship, waiting, waiting… do we accept the dare to dive in?
All that’s needed are fresh verbs. All that is needed is a willingness to engage.
An encounter
Awaits.
There is a great hope.
It is like a huge underground lake of fresh water, a storehouse and spring of courage, life and energy. It is a great treasure source of comprehension and fulfilment.
Hidden throughout all the ages, the breath from our lips can utter of it little more than ” M . Y . S . T . E . R . Y . ”
But pay attention. For that which was unknown
Is now out in the open.