Job

Set Your Minds on Things Above, not on Things Below

Colossans 3:2

Today, I was driving to get my coffee and I began to feel something nudging at my Spirit.

It was a sublte kind of nudging, but one would that have me to inquire my Heavenly Father what it meant.

On the drive home from the coffee shop, I prayerfully asked Jesus why I felt somewhat ill at ease....

Before I give you His answer, I would like to expound upon my love affair with my coffee.

I love my coffee. There are days when I will drive any distance and go completely out of my way to have it . I love the aromas, the flavors, the effect. It is my drug, in a sense. I love the ambience of coffee shops. The experience. I love the baristas. I love the colors of the walls. I love everything and anything about coffee.

For a while, I was experiencing Spiritual Warfare in a very real and great way. I still do. I went through a period when I felt the need to fast and pray for relief. So what did I give up?

My coffee. My iced teas. I gave up the things that I enjoyed the most.

All beverages except water.

During these 40 days, I felt unmotivated, uninspired. I felt in a word, "blah."

During these 40 days, attacks from the Enemy were few and far between. I didn't feel the "heaviness" that I often feel.

But now I am forced to wonder if the reason that I didn't feel the "heaviness" is because of my prayers or because I wasn't doing much for the Kingdom of God. We are fought, when we truly pursue Him. During this 40 days, I don't feel like I was truly pursuing Him.

I know that all of this may sound strange to some people, but fasting and praying and spritual warfare are in the Word.

Today, as I was delighting in my coffee experience, and asking Jesus to speak to me about His gentle nudging, He spoke to me.

Rachelle, there are days when I desire for you to delight in Me and Only Me.

My Spirit can and will Satisfy you like nothing else can.

I then began to think about the Spirit of Sacrifice. I began to wonder if I could be content with nothing but Him. I thought of Job. Truthfully, the book of Job frightens me. Job lost everything. Job suffered! He experienced devastation, and yet, in the end, He praised Jesus.

I began to think about the word, "praise." Praise elicits joy. In the end, Job was joyous.

Job had lost everything and he was still joyous. It's very humbling to think about Job.

Lately, I have felt a gentle nudging in my Spirit regarding earthly possessions. I keep hearing, "Less is more."

I began to think about when I first truly committed myself to Christ. I found such solace in silence. I remember turning down the radio and turning off the televison and truly learning to appreciate the sound of laughter and the sound of the wind in the trees. The sounds of the birds in the air. I began to appreciate stillness. There were no distractions. There was me and there was God.

I remember one night lying in bed. I was wrestling over whether or not to go on a vacation I had booked. I booked it during a time of chaos when I was looking for rest in my Spirit. But I remember one night a few days before I was scheduled to leave....I began to sing. In the still and quiet, I sang my Savior a song, and I was inudated with a very surreal and supernatural type of Peace. And I thought, There is no place on earth or any "thing" that could give me this type of peace. Nothing else compares.

Apart from Jesus, anything else is noise. Anything else is cacophonous. Jesus, is the One true source of rest.

I began to think of people who had no home. People who had lost thier homes to storms.

Jesus gave me a message for them: The earth is your home. The world belongs to you. Every tree, every flower, every good thing that this earth produces is yours. The wind belongs to you. Rest in the silence. Find comfort in the daisies of the fields and the fruit of the earth. Wood and brick make a house, but let Heaven be your home. Set your eyes on the things above, not on things below. Learn from Job. Praise Me and do not curse My name, and I will provide for you.

Right now, I do not own my own home. I am staying with my parents in order to pay off my student loans. Sometimes I wonder if I should ever aspire to own one? Lord, what is that You would have me to do?

We should ask before coming to any conclusions in this life...Lord, what would you have me to do?

To settle in one place and start a fire, or take fire to many places?

We don't ask Him enough. We don't let Him be our wind and guide us into His Truth.

The other day I was reading, "Come Away My Beloved" by Francis J Roberts and a particular quote stood out at me. It read, "Do you expect to be made perfect without the pruning process?"

I began to wonder what it meant to "prune" something. I am not a gardener so I have never pruned anything. I had never even seen a pruning tool. After reading this, I went to my Aunt Donna's house and on the table, lying there gleaming was an unopened, brand new pruning tool! I looked at it and i immediately felt a slight discomfort.

It looked like a razor almost. It is a very sharp blade meant for cutting. I began to realize that only by cutting away our dead parts, our selves, can He make us perfect.

The process of pruning is painful.

There have been times when I wondered why Jesus wants us to suffer so much...Today, I asked Him. This is what He told me.

Rachelle, this world is marked by suffering. But you can choose to suffer for me by carrying your cross, or you can choose to suffer for a world that does not love you the way the I do.

Set your eyes on the things above, not on the things below.

There is no suffering in the Place of your destiny.

Suffering can take us to new levels, if we allow it.

A few months ago, I had a heartfelt conversation with my sister-in-law. Her dad was killed in an offshore explosion. We spoke of suffering. She told me of people that had been through immense suffering. She said that they had been overcomers and still found rest and peace despite the hardship. We both agreed that we would never want to reach that level of suffering.

A week later Melonie's mom was murdered and Melonie was forced into that dreadful level of suffering that most of us would never want to be. I am grateful for the example that she has set to others. Through the pain, she has never once cursed God. Right now, she is wearing the cloak of Job, but I now that in her praising and thanksgiving, she will reach a point of restoration and renewal. I know that in the silence, she will find her peace.

So why am I writing about suffering? It is a topic that I usually like to avoid.

But I know that as long as we are in this life, we will suffer.

We can choose to suffer with Him, or we can choose to suffer with the world.

Choose Him.

He provides rest,even in the midst of the chaos.

He has messages for many if you will take the time to hear,

To the fatherless He says,

I am your father.

To the motherless He says,

I am your mother

To the widows and the ones hurt by relationships, He says,

Take comfort in Me and I will be as a husband or as a wife.

I am what you need.

I provide rest to the weary and water for the thirsty.

I will never leave you, nor forsake you.

I died for those, such as you.

My arms are open,

come to me

and I will hold you.

In my arms, pain ceases to exist

For, I exist in a realm

where pain is unheard of

and tears do not live

To those whose children are lost, He would say,

Your children are safe. They are resting in My arms. They are free and unbound. Set Your Eyes to Me, and I will lead you to the Place where you will find them once again.

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one more word on suffering,

I don't like the word "suffer", It is not a place that I want to be. But it is good to look at the life of Job and see that in the midst of loss and despair, there is restoration. In a spirit of Praise, there is joy. There is a peace that transcends all understand. Even natural understanding. Our human minds cannot grasp the things of God, but our Spirits can soar though our bodies be tied to the ground.

Sometimes when we are lying on the floor bleeding, the only place to look is towards Heaven.