Partnership, Compassions, & Rocks

Rocks

Last month and the team met together one of the first questions asked was, “What are you hearing from the Lord? Responses included, “Get your armor on.”  “Do not leave gaps in your armor.” Additionally, following right along that same idea I was hearing, “Get the rocks out of your soil. Do not leave anything that the enemy can use as a weapon against you.”

Reading out of Mark 4, we talked about the soil of our heart. Is the soil of your heart a hard packed path that cannot receive the seed of the Word? Is it rocky with many things that need to be dug out of our lives? It is it full of the distractions and worries of weeds and thorns? Or have we allowed God to work the soil of our hearts until it grows a harvest 30, 60, or 100 fold?

What are those rocks? Could be unforgiveness that allows rocks of bitterness, resentment, hurt, jealousy, anger, or hatred to settle deeply within the soil of our hearts making it hard for seed to produce a harvest. Not impossible, but difficult. We talked about unforgiveness in the last blog post.

Maybe the rocks are a sense of rejection that leads us to believe that we are not worthy or able to receive from God. A direct counter to the sonship that He desires for us. The very identity as a beloved child of God with a God given purpose. And the inheritance to fulfill that destiny and purpose. This spirit of rejection is one God has been speaking to me about. How do we get rid of it? By replacing it. By accepting the identity of who we are in Christ. A son or daughter of the Most High. A brother or sister of Christ. Eligible to receive all that Jesus received. Seated in authority with Him.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Romans 8:14-17

'even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ' Ephesians 2:5-6

It’s when that knowledge drops into our hearts it becomes revelation.  We become grounded in that fact that we are His children and have that delegated authority that we can stand firm in our faith. We can stand firm in knowing who we are. We can catapult that identity into our destiny and purpose with confidence. The more we allow God to work that soil, the more quickly and deeply that seed can drop in and produce a harvest of revelation and results.

Working the soil. That sounds like a great metaphor and parable, but what does that look like practically? First it means that we have to spend time with our Father. We have to spend time in the Word, in hearing what the Holy Spirit breathed out in the scriptures revealing Jesus to us. As we take that in, He begins to breathe into us the seeds that begin to grow and flourish. Time just sitting with the Father. Time is also seeds that are sown in prayer, in listening, in asking questions. Sometimes I get those answers in scripture. Sometimes I hear that answer. Sometimes I just look back and realize that He has been revealing it slowly to me over a few weeks in daily life. 

It’s in that carefully protected time that God shows us where something has blocked the soil of our hearts from allowing the seed to grow. He showed me where the rocks of rejection were still in the soil of my heart. I meditated on who the Father said I was. His daughter. His heir. With delegated authority backed by heaven to fulfill the purposes He put me here for. 

Compassion

He reminded me lately of a discussion we had in October of last year. Intercession. I don’t necessarily think of myself as an intercessor, but I prayed for His compassion. I had been praying for that for a while. What grew in me from those seeds was a desire to pray for the people around me more. This included the people of Uganda as well as those in my family and daily life. The desire to be the hands and feet of Jesus. 

In my own life, I found that compassion is one thing that allows us to start removing the rocks of unforgiveness, bitterness, rejection, anger, and other things that control us. When I view myself and others through a lens of compassion, I begin to recognize that people are often acting out of their own wounds, fears, limitations, or misunderstandings. This doesn't excuse harmful behavior, but it can help us release the emotional burden of carrying resentment. Choosing compassion creates space for restoration and peace. Not just with others, but with the Father as well. Compassion doesn't change the past, but it can change how much power the past has over me.

Compassion is what drove Jesus to action. He touched them, healed the sick, made them whole, clean, fed them, comforted, and raised the dead. Luke 15 has the parable of the Father who sees His son who has been in prodigal living and is moved with compassion and runs to him. 

My own prayer that as I continue to seek after the compassion of the Father, that I am moved as Jesus was moved, to act as Jesus acted, because He heard His Father’s heart, and He did what His Father desired. The Kingdom of God is at hand.

Partnership

Intercession is the partnership with the compassion of the Father’s heart for people. I was reading in Isaiah the last few weeks. 

Isaiah 59:16-17 He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.  

Ezekiel 22:30-31 TPT - ““I searched for someone who would repair the wall, one who fills the gap, an intercessor to cry out for mercy, but I found no one. There was no one found who would keep my justice from destroying the nation. So, I will pour out my fury on them, and like a fire I will destroy them. I will punish them for the evil they have done. I, Lord Yahweh, have spoken.””

The one thing that I find in these scriptures is the desire to partner with us on the earth. It’s the original mandate to have dominion and subdue. To spread the kingdom of God (Eden) throughout the earth. To use His armor and authority (Galatians 6, Ephesians 2) and to partner with our Father in the work of diminishing the Kingdom of Darkness and it’s hold on the earth to establish the Kingdom of God. (Psalms 82, Psalm 83, Psalm 85)

This is what I, we are armoring ourselves with as we prepare for Uganda. By working on these her at home, we are grounded and able to be effective as we hit the soil in Uganda. To be armed with His armor, and to remove the things the enemy can use against us so that we can be Jesus’s hands and feet as His body here on earth.

Updates

We, personally, are 70% funded at this moment for our portion of the trip. Any funds that come in after we are fully funded will move over into the trip fund to allow us to provide Bibles, wells, farm animals, and meet other needs of those that we are ministering to.

Upcoming Fundraisers include a bake sale and participating in the Yard Crawl in Winchester, VA in August. October is not that far away, and we continue to be excited for what God is preparing both here and in Uganda for us.