Cleaning Out Cobwebs In My Soul
As I sit in the group of young believers in the beautiful mountain town of Pagosa Springs, I find us waiting patiently for the Lord to descend on this meager band. I say young, being from ages of mere adults to seventy plus years on this earth. I guess if we consider, we will all have endless millennium to yet live, even a seventy or so life span, would be but a blink in the totality of what is to come.
First of all does He descend, as so many of us eager Christians have been led to believe by a church who presents to us the interpretation of His Word, or is He ever present?
I believe the latter, as any good Father would do, sometimes just keeping his face just out of our immediate sight, for one purpose and one alone, to promote our growth. As to when He does show up, in a more experiential way; 1) He will manifests His presence in a real way when we present ourself as a pure and unblemished sacrifice to Him, or two) He just shows up when ever He feels like it, as to benefit the Kingdom.
The long weekend had been a mixed bag of mountain top experiences, mostly finding us serving the needs of various peoples longing to taste a bite of the feast that we have been so privileged to dine. When I say serve, each of us rests in, better yet takes upon themselves, the privilege of service. How sweet is the taste of service for the Kingdom, especially when you are in the service of the King, and not only yourself.
Splintered off into various fractions of the whole group, each in his turn being drawn into the conversations of which weaves the fabric of the lives of those who have come to visit.
As guests come, these interactions propel us into a realm of His word, commissioning’s occur; coins are handed to officers in His End Times Army, healing’s descend from above; not all clearly seen on the physical, but undeniable in mind, heart, or combining-ly the soul. Wisdom gets poured out like cool clear water from the sweet vessels of children who again obediently submit, what is clearly amazing is who are the ones learning, that is not exactly clear.
As I think back throughout the weekend, and examine with more of a distant view, it is clear to me that preparations were all made not by us, but from above, and as such, in each of us as participants, the only prerequisite was “a willingness to obey, to show up.”
First a man obeys, makes the trip, submits and puts down any and all cloaks of pride allowing the Holy spirit to work a cleansing stroke through his soul. What is missing, for some reason something seems to be?
Then there is a listening stage, in which the toughest part is pushing out the deep routed desires to sleep, and grasp an idea that even as we see people in need around us, there is a possibility that these people are being presented in front of us as to show the possibility of the same need in ourselves.
This is the essence of giving up the cloak of pride, because if we listen through the veils of our own church wisdom, we might actually hear the very Words the the Holy Spirit will deliver to us individually, there might be a new message, something new to see, a revelation, in each and every experience we have witnessed throughout the day.
We all were being transformed through reflection, words, teachings, visions, tongues and interpretation of tongues, prayer, acts of giving, opportunities to heal and be healed. Not as much of a change, as a final cleaning up of the rooms that had been built by the seeds of those present only moments before this wonderful coming together occurred.
What would be a greater sin; going out and using the little piece of this great world that God has created, to manufacture some kind of reactionary response in ourself, trying desperately to fulfill one or more developmental insufficiency that we have taken into our self through either actions of our own, or those perpetrated against us outside our own active choices? We do this often by fulfilling soft spoken desires with just an element of the complex gift that God has presented before us.
Or, and I believe worse, seeing us missing the ball completely in regards to a particular gift God has blessed us with, out of His most generous graces, just to have us ignore it all together, mainly because we were to busy stuffing another short term pleasure in our insatiable gap, then to see the roses we so casually tread on without even reverent acknowledgment?
Case in point; let us suppose God created everything, and if the scriptures are to be taken literally, when Jesus said in Luke 13:34; “… if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.” God drops blessing upon blessing in our laps throughout the day, and at the end of the day someone else will ask us; “how was your day?”, and all we can say is; “It was ok!” If we just stop to hear, I believe the screams would be deafening to what we have missed.
I hear the Voice of God speak softly in my ear; “When someone asks you; How was your day?”
“And you answer; It was ok, hardly remembering but a moment or two of the very last day, you have just demonstrated to Me, and yourself, that you have wasted the gift of an entire day.”
“The gift of a day that I have given you, not to mention all of the gifts within the day that I dropped into your lap.”
“When I say wasted, what I mean is you failed to completely discover all of the gifts I had given you, and more importantly any and all messages, teachings, healing’s, precious gems I may have had for you, or the world for that matter through them.”
Are we not called to discover Him in all of His creation?
Ok back to the weekend, so much learning can take place when we sit down and truly discover the gifts in front of us.
And to try to write about every lesson that presented itself would be like trying to describe a flower in its entirety with mere words. We can print an image with words, like a artist paints a picture, a mere representation of what he sees in his mind. While the image can be beautiful, bringing understanding into the observer, it is but a shadow of the original experience, lacking depth, volume, sound, smell, all of the emotional contact that plays in each and every gift we receive.
So let me give but an image of what was seen his weekend;
“Before you can be used to slay demons in others, you must slay your own.”
Bottom line we can not come into growth with Christ, and make a difference in the live’s of others, unless we are willing to clean out the cobwebs of our own room, making this temple a Holy and presentable offering to Him. That includes being used to our fullest potential or facilitating healing’s, teaching, preaching, etc. to others.
When we are so busy considering these but pieces of His creation, worrying about the fragments of this physicality that only represents a fraction of the total creation He gives us, we miss the boat. We not only miss it for ourselves, but we as believers miss it for those brought into our proximity, and ultimately miss it for The Kingdom.
I find myself standing in line at the grocery store, and before me sits a one year old or so child. He is sitting in a grocery cart, and his mother hands him a plastic relish bottle, then proceeds to continue gathering her groceries.
I watch in amazement as the child examines the gift his mother just handed him. Over and over in his hand he turns the relish bottle, quietly examining, a smile of satisfaction, and joy not only crosses his face but mine as well. There is a peaceful gratification on the face of the child as he holds the precious gift. Precious because his mother, someone who loves him, handed the bottle to him for his discovery.
The child becomes enthralled in the examination of his new find as he turns it in his hand over and over again. He holds it examining every crevice, every contour, the texture shape, and eventually, yes, even the taste as the little precious child places a small corner in his mouth.
Only after minutes of contemplation and examination is the article set aside, result; the child has discovered all there is to know about this particular gift, and it is only then, that he moves on to the next point of interest.
I’m not sure if it is the purity, the sweet goodness of his examination, the honor he pays the giver with a complete examination, or just the peacefulness demonstrated in such a beautiful face, but one thing I do realize is the child’s activities are all good, pure, encompass everything that speaks love, gentleness, and most of all the main thought that comes to this father mind; “what a good boy!”
Did Jesus not say; “come to me as little child”?
We miss the supernatural gifts God would have given the Kingdom, because we were to busy taking care of earthly things we believed we needed.
“Saul, why do you persecute me?” could apply to each of us, as we squander the treasures of the moment. We kill the gifts!
How many times have I passed on a gift from God, just to continue in the indulgence of the world, some useless activity that I happen to be wasting time with.
The glance of a friendly smile from the lonely soul reaching out in desperate need, as I chose not to return even a look. What a fool the angel that may have been looking to give me an opportunity to give. Being to busy to realize how much that person may have had for me.
The missed opportunity to reach out to someone in need as I cross the street to avoid the homeless child who happens to have fallen. Not realizing by giving we receive, oh so much more.
The Word I could have received had I looked past my ego to think I could maybe receive from someone below my so-called station. Sitting on my pedestal never fathoming the people below that place I felt I had earned, could have had anything for me. All the missed Words!
How many times was I to busy eating, had I opened my eyes and saw the gift in giving, the opportunity to change the world?
How many times did the most significant person in my life walk by, because I was to busy worrying about the few grains of sand I happen to have clenched in my hand?
How many waisted days did I eat, or just casually smoke, or drunkenly drink, or greedily spend, or haphazardly screw, or lazily sleep, or just lay on the floor and give up because I felt sorry for myself, how many perfect plastic bottles did I miss?
How many spiritual beautiful Godly blessings did I substitute for mere physical dirt.
How many perfect loving relationships of lifelong significance did I exchange for a dirty cigaret?
The blessing in every creation, grasp it and discover it before it passes by our view, that is the goal, and in doing so we display the face of a child,
the Face of Christ.
By Peter Colla
“Lord Jesus help me to clean out those areas in me that I have neglected to see, make me a more pure and acceptable offering to You, and in turn become a more complete representation of You. Give me the wisdom to not miss a single gift You bless me with.”