the great shifter

I’ve cried many tears over the years. I’ve been stifled, blocked, discouraged and shamed creatively. All of us have experienced shame, defeat, and discouragement through our imaginative and dreaming processes as children and young adults. A lot of the opposition comes through other people, leaders, and creatives. Many times those manipulative lies slimed their way into our minds, and eventually our hearts, through our own vulnerabilities to those we respected or believed are like God. In my experiences, I questioned many thoughts, beliefs, and doctrines I held dear; many of them being transformed by the Holy Spirit as He revealed His simple truths through the Gospel of Jesus Christ to me.

I’ve learned not to take opposition as an offense. I’ve learned to dwell in the secret place with my Heavenly Father, who affirms, establishes, strengthens, and encourages me with His words of freedom and truth. The obstacles we face, as children and maturing adults, shout, “Sinner!” or “Failure!” or “Not good enough!” or “Look at what he made! It’s so much better than what you’ve done.” Some of those lies, I ignored. Others, I embraced, laying prostrate upon them as if to say, “I cannot deal! I cannot possibly climb over you!” The devilish lies that creep in at night, saying, “You cannot heal- look at what you’ve done!” or “You will not overcome- look at what you haven’t done!” became tormenting. I’ve fought many soul battles, shouting out praises, and have devoured His Word like an orphan would a bowl of hot chicken soup. I’ve screamed out my true identity with weeping, refusing to agree with the teasing and taunting. I’ve rested in His promises, when it would have been easier to seek out others’ opinions and wisdom. I’ve slept, when it would have seemed more spiritual to strive. Though we aim for that red circle in the center of the target, the arrow doesn’t always land. But, we have to keep shooting those arrows in faith.

In spite of external resistance, and even my own internal hostilities, the Godhead has drawn me, away from a path filled with hurdles to jump, and devils to confront, to a narrow way, filled with wonder. Opposition? Yes. Devils? Yes. They’re everywhere. But I don’t push, pull, strive, and strain to move them out of the way anymore. He has revealed His strength to me, as I surrender, and as I, with child-like admiration, trust in His power and might to smooth out my path ahead of me. He has proven to me my weakness made strong through the following of His voice.

The Christ, Jesus, made the way for us. His life demonstrated what a surrendered and holy life can look like. But the most important task He accomplished was the redemptive work on the Cross, the dying for our sins, the accumulating of all the punishment, the absorbing of all the sickness, and the assuming of all the darkness onto and into Himself, so that “it is finished.” The “it” He referred to was this, as we read in Colossians 2:13-15: “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.  When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.”

When He rose from the dead, and ascended to heaven, and poured out His own blood upon the mercy seat, He cried out, “MERCY!” Hebrews 8:1-7 demonstrates the totality and omnipotence of the ministry of Jesus, saying, “Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.  For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; so it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer. Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law;  who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, ‘See,’ He says, ‘that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.’ But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.’ For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second.”

Colossians 1:9-14 says, “we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

THE GOSPEL IS GLORIOUS. The blood, body, and word of Jesus is our everything. It is truth. It is freedom. It is liberty. It is health and healing. It is strength and endurance. It is joy and peace. It is bravery and authority. It is everything, as children, we dreamed it to be, and far more. It is prophetic. It is wisdom and knowledge. Anything that opposes IT is foolish, and is to be hurdled, climbed over, confronted, spit on, destroyed, and broken down. There is nothing held against us anymore, those of us who have made Jesus Christ our Lord, and have been baptized into new life through His Holy Spirit, whom we choose to commune with daily.

I MUST WELCOME HIM into my heart. I must welcome His creativity and His child-like imagination into my workspace. I must let Him be who He is. I must have fellowship with Him; if I don’t, all will be lost.

He is the Great Shifter. He wants to shift us from offense into liberty, from being in debt to becoming conquerors, and from slaves to sons and daughters.