I was in the prayer room during worship and I had another one of those moments that cannot be described.
I love these moments. I was singing about believing the Lord for all we have, all He’s promised. And the verse coming to the surface of my heart was this:
Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!
Luke 1:45
So we began to sing, “Oh, I have believed and now I will see the goodness of the Lord.” As we did, it lifted up as a prayer of faith. And as we sang I knew that it would ring into the air, into the hearts and bring freedom for faith and pave the way for promises.
A release was coming. And it did.
In my heart, I saw myself in the mansion of the Father. His great big house, with full rooms, full tables, gifts and abundance for me. In my heart, I saw the warfare of my life manifesting promises, the goodness of the Father and His faithfulness laying out gifts, and the destiny and righteousness that I fought for…being affirmed by the King.
A great big house, with everything I ever contended for. Everything He ever contended for. It was all right here for me and for Him. I laughed and I cried, and it was overwhelming.
What’s interesting about these moments is that when the Lord brings revelation to your heart of everything He has to give you, it’s never “hard to believe”, but it is always overwhelming. These are surprises from God.
God has More in Mind
Recently the Lord started showing me that He has surprises in mind for me. I started thinking about why that is, and I realized that over the last few years, I’ve come to a place where I’ve achieved more, received more and grown more than I had in mind.
I’ve come about as far as I could have imagined, and further still because of the Lord’s leading and faithfulness. However, I don’t know where to go from here.
In part, I feel stuck. But then I realize why God has much more in mind for me that is confined to elements of surprise.
In addition to His undeniable mercies and redemption, I’ve worked as hard as I can to get where I am today. I’ve had a lot of cool things happen along the way, and I’m at a marvelous place. But I’ve worked hard for everything I’ve achieved.
I’ve achieved a lot in my skill, gifting and strategic planning ambition. But there’s more to come. There’s more that isn’t up to me. There’s more that I can’t plan, think of, achieve on my own or anticipate in any way.
Because God’s house, His gifts, His promises, His love is too big for me to know.
The reason He has surprises in store is because it’s not up to me anymore. I’ve done all I can do. He has plans, promises and dreams in mind for me that have to take me by surprise because there
is nothing I can do to achieve them. I will never see them coming because they are too good to fathom.
His faithfulness is too far-reaching to comprehend. His redemption, His mercy, His providence, His goodness…I am in for a surprise.
I am in for a TON of surprises from God.
Imagine this: You’ve spent a full day working your hardest, and you’re at your end. You’ve done all you can do and you’re worn. You’re proud and actually impressed with a job well done.
God tells you it’s good. He even gives you some pointers about how to improve things along the way. You feel good about how well you did to steward your lot, learn and improve upon your efforts, all with a grateful, humble heart.
Despite your mistakes, God continues to go before you, making crooked places straight and making it ALL good. You thank Him, bless Him and continue to challenge yourself and seek the Lord about the direction you’re headed, the plans He has in mind, the work that’s coming, and all the surprises from God that lie ahead.
But then, the unthinkable happens. In a completely unexpected moment He gives you a promotion, a ten figure salary, a months vacation paid time off and fully funded arrangements for world travel during your time away.
What?!
He has surprises. Because you cannot even begin to imagine what He will do, and your only option is to let go of all you think you know and be taken by surprise.
But first, you have to believe that He will.
Believe that He is that good, that He wants to bless you that much and that He has the power to do so. Believe that you don’t have to do anything to receive those gifts, you won’t ever earn them, but He’ll just simply give them.
My job now is to enjoy the work and trust Him with what’s coming as I get ready for the blessing.
That’s the challenge. Have we stopped doing everything we can to achieve all we want? Are we simply trusting that He has more in mind for us and we’ll see that come to pass when we believe?
That’s the part of grace that is a letting go. The part of grace that tells us we need to sit down to have the overflow. Green grass is waiting for you, it’s waiting for me. So I lay down, He lays me down again…and mercy chases me into this BIG house full of gifts and surprises from God that I never imagined I could receive.
And suddenly I know that Him choosing me, predestined for adoption, was the word that brought me into this wonderful inheritance. So I continue to learn, grow and let go of all my plans and get my heart ready for “Christmas morning.”
In the meantime…I’m just laughing over tomorrow.
