Crossing Your Jordan

"How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word." -Psalm 119:9

This last month, the Lord has gotten stern with me in some areas. You know, when the Lord has been, ever so gently, nudging you in a certain direction. But then one day, gets a little tired of waiting, and like a good Father, lovingly grabs you by the shoulders and says, "Okay, I'm going to tell you one more time, and it's time to listen". This process of consecration is responding to the Lord's calling us out by preparing and setting ourselves apart from sin. It is necessary of us as believers because the more sin we hold on to, the more resistance we will have when stepping into whatever the Lord has asked of us. And the last thing I want is to look back and realize the Lord had to ask somebody else to do something that he first asked me to do. For this reason, I have been reflecting on the question, what is holding me back from more intimately pursuing the Lord? This also forces the question, how much of an effort am I making to listen for His will or His direction? I urge you to consider taking these thoughts to the Lord to see what He reveals to you. 

In Joshua 3, we see the events that led up to the Israelites crossing the Jordan river into the promised land. God gives Joshua His plan to ensure their safe passage opposite of Jericho. After the priests step into the water with the Arch of the Covenant, the Lord would stop the flow of the river to allow the nation's passage on dry ground. But all before this took place, the Lord gave Joshua a command, "consecrate yourself". Why? Because the Lord would do wonderous things soon. Before they even took their first steps out into the current, the Lord instructed them to prepare themselves. If I were an Israelite at the time, I may have remembered the generation before who had passed through the Red Sea in a very similar exhibition of the Lord's might and faith. Perhaps I would have felt the call to release any worry or doubt by remembering what had already happened. Maybe this preparation would have been examining my heart for any misalignment with the Lord before stepping into this new life. What was your last "Jordan River" you had to cross. Did you feel prepared? And if not, did you call on the Lord to reveal to you HOW he needed you to prepare?

You may find that as you more deeply purify yourself in preparation for His next steps, some of those next steps you've been hoping for may begin to fall into your path. When we make sure our hearts are aligned with God's desires and what He delights in, we can have confidence that He has already placed some of these blessings in our path, just maybe a little further down the road. We can also trust that with Him going alongside and before us, He has placed those things to come into our way at a certain time, and when we are a certain version of ourselves. What's next for you may require more development of a certain virtue or releasing your grasp on a certain fruit of the flesh. Just as God gives, He will withhold until He knows His will will be carried out to completion just as he desires.

So how do we make sure that we are stepping into exactly the version of ourselves God requires to carry out his way?  Titled "A Lamp to My Feet", Psalm 119:9 makes it very clear. When we walk according to the word of God, we can't help but become more like Christ, and who else better exemplified carrying out God's mission for them? To know the word of God, of course we have to be in scripture reading or listening to it, but we also must be in prayer. In prayer is where we can be in conversation with God the Father. And the thing about our Father in heaven, is he WANTS to speak to us. Now, listening for God's voice might be considered silly to some; talking to an empty space, trying to hear a voice that makes no audible sound. But waht if we remembered that listening may mean to simply be aware and seeking? That prayer is talking to our Father and not a religious practice? Something that He wants so much that He made sure we never had to sacrifice for it again? If our Father could speak the stars into existence, why don't we believe that he can speak into our lives? Are we embarrassed of looking vulnerable? Are we waiting for the clear, audible response that we can make sense of? Or are we keeping him at the front of our hearts and minds enough that when we hear a song, or a piece of scripture posted on social media, or receive a word from a friend, we see the Lord using that to speak into our hearts? 

He is Lord of Lords, He will say what he needs to say and take us where he wants us to go. Let us do our part by preparing ourselves, loosing sin, breaking chains, and consecrating ourselves for His wonderous plans.