The Whirlwind...

It's the end of the year again and it's time to do a stockcheck... It's been almost one year when i received an sms from one of my friends wishing me a happy new year but also telling me something like this year would be a difficult year for me but God will see me through... i took note of it but at the first half of this year, i didn't quite take it seriously.. after all, God gave me John 10:10 for the year.. that Jesus came to give life and life abundantly.. and the first half was spent enjoying that abundant life.. in my studies, in my spiritual life, in eating an abundance of food.. :P and i was really cruising through all those blessings... So much of it being a difficult year huh...

Then sometime this year, i read the book of Acts and after a scene of persecution, the apostles were charged with telling of the full message of this new life... and then through a lot of things that God brought along my way, i learned that this abundant life that Jesus came to give is also filled with an abundance of testing, suffering, trials, etc... muahahahaha... God has recently impressed upon me to read the book of Philippians and Paul writes there that he wants to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.. haha... we can't separate suffering from the Christian walk.. it's part of our portion together with righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.. :)

We need a change in perspective... the book of Philippians is a book about crazy people.. it's a book about a bunch of suffering people who probably know the joy of the Lord more than any other New Testament church.. it's also a book about having a radically different mindset and perspective from the rest of the world... i recently prayed and told God that i really wanted to know the joy of the Lord.. and guess wad... can you imagine true joy coming in the midst of suffering and trials?? muahahahaha... i was telling JK that the entire adventure with God is a painful but fun experience.. it's certainly thrilling.. my middle name by the way is Buenaventura which means good adventure.. and really my walk with God is anything but short of a roller coaster ride..

We need the change in perspective cos many times, our own mindsets keep us from seeing Jesus... Because many times we want Jesus to come but when He does, we don't see Him cos He comes differently from the way we expect Him to.. The abundant life is also filled with an abundance of testing and when we confess that He is a God who can do immeasurably above and beyong all we can ask or imagine (Eph 3), we would never have asked or imagine that the abundance of blessing He bring us is heavily disguised under the fires of affliction!!! Muahahahaha.. we need the mind of Christ to see and to understand what's going on and not to simply judge it as it seems to us with the natural eyes... many times, the afflictions that come have been ordained by God to move us into faith and prayer, beyond our natural circumstances and beyond where we have insofar touched in God...

Earlier this year, i kept on seeing whirlwinds.. and i knew that meant the winds of change where God would do such a work and we'll never be the same again.. recently, i kept seeing them again... but after what God has brought me through this year, He has dealt with enough of my mindsets for me to be free of certain things that obstruct me from having a clearer perception.. so with my vision somehwhat clearer, recently i saw a whirlwind again.. i think it was the same whirlwind that i saw from the beginning of the year.. but this time, i could see clearly enough to see Jesus in the midst of the whirlwind!!! Hello... what a surprise! It didn't hit me until yesterday to know the full implication of what this means...

Haha... wow! surprise... here we go crying out, "Draw me close to you!" "Take me deeper!" "God i want to know you more!" "I want more of You Jesus!" ... Little did we know that drawing closer to Jesus would mean drawing closer to the whirlwind! haha.. surprise surprise! it was almost as if Jesus was right in there smiling and waving at me.. :P Many times we ask seek and desire Jesus to come but what if He doesn't come the way we expect Him to? What if He comes to us disguised in a whirlwind? we need the eyes that see, ears that hear and hearts that understand what He's really up to... cos the whirlwind will leave your life changed, never the same again.. it may leave your life, environment, circumstances topsy turvy... and as you draw closer to the whirlwind, it's gonna tear you.. it's gonna rip apart your flesh until the core of who you are is exposed and you're left truly vulnerable.. muahaha.. "draw me close to You".. and then we're one step nearer the whirlwind... does it blow your mind away? Does this mess with your mind? Cos when we draw closer to Jesus and the whirlwind comes, it messes with our mind and we're never left the same again.. our perspectives change and we see things differently! It destroys our mindsets and messes up our Little-Miss-Perfect life and leaves us... crazy. I mean seriously! When Isaiah encountered God in His glory, he was left undone!

One of the things that God dealt with me this season was my perfectionism... haha.. and it had to go.. cos perfectionism meant self-reliance which is an enemy to relying on God... muahaha.. and He's not done yet.. and we cry "more of You, Jesus" "i wanna draw closer!!!" and then we find ourselves even more closer to the whirlwind! Surprise! muahahaha.. our walk with God sure is dangerous.. but it sure is fun too! :)

And God taught me several lessons from Job... Job was in his own near perfect world, having his own near perfect form of religion, etc... but God allowed satan to bring in the affliction and he was tested... after that period God appeared to him... in a whirlwind! (Job 39) God spoke to him out of the whirlwind and gave him a reality check.. Could Job subdue the great beasts like the Leviathan or the Behemoth? Who was Job to justify himself against the God of creation? And Job had to repent in dust and ashes... Job himself confessed... at first he had only heard of God.. but after the trials of affliction, he has seen Him for himself... Early this year, i've been asking God for the double portion and i've been talking about it.. Do you know that Job only got his double portion after the trials of affliction and after the whirlwind?

We need to see with God's eyes... Remember that Job's household was destroyed through a great wind that satan sent?? If Job had looked at God's whirlwind with his own natural eyes in Job 39, he might have blamed it for causing the death of his family... but he was so humbled and his mind so dealt with in his affliction that he had the gace to see God in it... we, too, need to recognise the difference between satan's wind of destruction and God's whirlwind of conviction that brings that much-needed change, wakeup call and reality check in our lives!

"Shall we accept good from God and not trouble?" Job told his wife.. many times, our view of the abundant life becomes restricted to blessings and living the "good life" that when adversity comes having been ordained by God, we blame Him.. Or maybe we scream "spiritual warfare" instead of submitting ourselves to the high fires of God.. in our culture, we never run out of anybody or anything to blame except ourselves.. that's why we need His perspective, His reality check, His mind.. even as he brings us through the high fires to deal with our religious mindsets...

"perfect" Job had his "perfect" life ruined through the affliction.. including his religious record cos he ended up justifying himself instead of God... and later he finds that he's not that perfect after all... after he recognised his dependence on God, he was brought to the next level.. and that speaks of our promotion.. but little do we know that the next level can only be reached through the whirlwind and through the fires of affliction... Inorder to promote us, God first has to test us!

Job opened his mouth and became negative when he sursed the day of his birth.. do you know that when you start cursing, the more you dwell on a negative, the more you're stuck in it and it drags you down deeper and keeps you from seeing God clearer. But it shows just how much un-aligned Job was with the purposes of God before His reality check and trials of affliction... cos if he knew the plans of God well enough, he wouldn't curse the day of his birth.. cos the day of his birth represents the day his spark of destiny is born.. and God saw that sometime down the road, Job was going to be a deliverer, a blessing to many and God had a plan for Him, a destiny and a purpose to reach out to many people... if we start getting negative, we lose sight of God's purpose in the affliction.. Blessed was the day that Job was born cos it was the day that God brought someone into the world to lead other people to Him.. and blessed was the day of his affliction for it was only through that affliction that he could be aligned with God, His mind, His plans and His purposes to better steward his call and destiny.. and God used that affliction and that place of utter ruin and devastation to bring Job to a place of promotion... Job received an encounter with God through the whirlwind, his perspectives changed and as God dealt with his mindsets, Job was able to see Him and recognise Him...

having said all that, God wants to deal with our mindsets so we can see Him more clearly.. we pray "I want to see You" and His answer might be "Yes, son/daughter! Step through the whirlwind!"... and through it all, it's a journey that probably barely just begun... i thank God for bringing me into this season that He did! For so dealing with me and continuing to do so.. for grinding me, crushing me, humbling me and continuing to do so that Christ may be formed i me and that i come through by His grace and be able to better steward the purposed of His Kingdom... That's how God is so real to me.. that's how His Kingdom and His power is so real and it becomes more and more real each day that i walk with Him even in my everyday life.. And that's how His Kingdom is formed in my life...

The later part of this year has really been a roller coaster ride.. I thank God that in His wisdom and mercy, many times He doesn't answer my prayers the way i expect Him to... But despite the pain and the affliction and the adventure, i still cry for more! "More God, more of You! More of Your fire!" "I wanna draw closer" "I wanna come deeper"! He might respond "But you know that would mean having to draw closer to the whirlwind." But i don't care! i want Jesus and if Jesus is in the whirlwind, i want to go through the whirlwind! How many of us are willing to be a generation of radical laid-down lovers willing to go through the high fires in our pursuit of God? God's not done with me yet.. and it's probably gonna get harder.. but oh well :P certainly through it all, God has and will show Himself faithful through and through!

Deep calls to deep...
Into the next year

Chris=)
Dec 31 2007