The fuel for
such desire is love, and the breeze that fans the flame of such desire is vision—the imagined future,
yet to be brought to solid form, that you (and I), along with God, “see” in the
lives of the beloved, those precious ones for whom you and I (as a “WE”) pray.
When SUCH desire is present, the ability to persevere in prayer becomes nearly limitless. That’s how Grandma can pray JOYFULLY, day-in and
day-out, for thirty-five years until all her grandchildren have come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. I had a Grandma like that, and what a legacy of prayer she left for me.
Perseverance
shows you and God—and the beloved for whom you are praying—the full extent of your love and desire for
that one. This is nothing but the jealousy
of God (which is an often misunderstood trait of The Divine) finding expression
in and through you.
Is there anyone
in your life that you pray for jealously like that? I sure hope so.
Is there
anyone like that in my life? Yep. And, while there are several, there is one in
particular. And I am exceedingly jealous
for that one to experience God’s absolute best for her in every nook and cranny
of her life. If there’s anything in her
life that is not God’s best, my jealousy over whatever that
thing, condition, person, or circumstance might be knows no bounds until it is
eliminated and replaced with God HIMSELF (or, if you come from where I was raised, "with God His very Self").
As I struggle
with God over these things, and as He and I share in His jealousy, I become a little bit more like me than I was just prior. For, as I wrote
about the other day, it is during these extended battles with God where I discover my
true name…the name and identity God gave me…the man God, in His
Imagination, destined for me to be long before the foundations of the earth were laid.
My name is,
in many ways, representative of two things:
endowment and skill learned or acquired over time. To have endowment with
little skill is like having a dull saw.
Will it cut wood? Sometimes, but
not very well. To have great skill
without the framework of endowment is like owning a bunch of razor blades that
are just strewn across the garage floor. Are they
sharp? Yep, but they’re dangerous (in a
bad way) and pretty much useless.
BUT…what happens when you combine the two? Basically, the framework of a saw with the sharpness of razor
blades?
Well, amazingly, you get a fabulous tool that will enable you to accomplish much if you’ll use it in the manner in which is was designed.
That, my friends, is what it means to be endowed and trained by God and then to live ordinately from that place of skilled endowment.
Using a tool as it was designed (and letting it do the work necessary to its design) is like obeying the laws of God. A lawbreaker is simply one who is using oneself in a manner that is unfitting...much like using a spoon to clean-out your ears or using shoe laces to jump-start a dead car battery. To the Mind and Heart of God, our sin and rebellion makes about as much sense. That's one of the reasons God's so jealous for us, because our rebellion is so utterly REDICULOUS. It's also offensive to Him and to everyone and everything else in the whole of creation, and it's why some of us (the more Spirit-sensitive among us) feel so miserable a good part of the time. I don't want to get too much off the subject here, but, sometimes, baring chemical imbalance, those who are most depressed are the ones with the guts and attention span required to face the messiness inside them and in the world around them and want to do something (or have something done) about it. To those of you, my readers, who struggle with guilt, regret, anxiety, and depression, you're the kind of people I wish to hear from. For I believe you have some extremely valuable things to say to me about the human condition and our total and abject need for God to do for us that which we cannot possibly do on our own. Despite what Oprah or Depak Chopra or Eckart Tolle or, even, believers like Joel Osteen or Benny Hin might want (and try) to lead us to believe. The inane psychobabble they're spewing forth is worth about as much to me as used toilet paper. And that's about all I have to say about that.
Okay…
By sharing with you my name—my true name, which was given to me by God as one of His beloved—I'm going to take a risk here and let you in on a very private part of my life.
By sharing with you my name—my true name, which was given to me by God as one of His beloved—I'm going to take a risk here and let you in on a very private part of my life.
So here goes...(BTW, this is a part of what I tell myself during my morning walks and then several times throughout each day)...
Behold,
I bear a new name…
My
name is…
Jonathan-David,
Gift and Friend of God, Tender-hearted Warrior, Catcher of Tears and Lifter of Hearts, Beloved Lionheart of God, Loyal Servant of
the Good Shepherd, Samurai of the Most High.
I
was fashioned and trained by God in the outback of creation. Beware! For my spirit is fierce. I will not run; I will not back down. In
Christ, I will make my stand.
This is the
name God gave me before I was born, and it took me 40+ years to learn it. Even though it’s comprised of many names, it’s
really just many facets of one and the same Name, and that is, the Name of God as it is reflected in and through me...uniquely, presently, and situationally…
…as HIS beloved.
THAT, my
friends, is who I am in God!
And THAT is
who I am when I’m on my knees fighting like a man and jealously begging daily
bread (God’s Rhema) for those who, in my life, comprise “The Prayer Scroll of the
Beloved.”
I’m so
looking forward to dropping a few more dots on the table.
May God
bless all of you, my dear friends, in ways that exceed even your wildest of imaginations.
Peace-out, y'all, and good hunting!
Daver
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