Recently, one of the things I have been thinking about again is the 30 years of hiddeness that Jesus experienced. I was thinking about how He lived in Nazareth, and had to watch people become sick, had to watch them die, had to walk by blind men, had to remain obedient to the Father's timing. I can barely imagine His heart ache, seeing people in difficult straits, but being hidden. I imagine He had many heartfelt discussions with the Father, asking pleading, desiring, in His humanness, to step in and release the Kingdom. There is definitely a perfect time and season for the Lord's anointing to be released, and waiting for teat perfect time doesn't indicate anything about the Lord's desire or heart. The Father loves us all equally, every last man, woman and child. He desires to touch our lives, to reveal himself to us, and to have us enter into relationship with Him. Period! That is who He is.
He, however, does have plan, purpose and timing for every move, every revelation, every promise fulfilled. We are so limited in our understanding and perspective. We, in our humanness, would never had made Jesus wait 30 years, so that He only actively ministered for 3 years. When we see gifting and anointing we want to jump right in and release everything we have, or have seen. Not so the Father. He has a perfect plan that involves billions of people, celestial beings (angels) and purposes that fulfill His plan. Not only that, but He can adjust on the fly for any glitch, mis-timed, or plain missed opportunity. We are not just chess pieces that He moves around, but rather all of us have free will and can change to follow His direction or not, and regardless of what we choose, He can deal with it. He is operating both in time and outside of time, and from that vantage point everything is possible for Him.
The Lord whispered something to me this morning that is quite profound - "He is not bound by space or time!" In other words, He operates freely inside and outside of both. His Kingdom is not just earthly, but also eternal, spiritual and heavenly. On earth there are time and space limitations most of the time, but then we see how He transports Philip 40 miles in an instant (Acts 8:40) and how Jesus healed the woman's daughter from a distance ( Matt 15:21-29). He clearly is free to do what He wants, where He wants, and when He wants. That is why it is so important to gain His perspective. Jesus said that He only did what the Father was doing (John 5:19). He had learned in His years of hiddenness to discern the Father's plan, and activity. He made Himself perfectly obedient to the Father, and because of that He was the perfect representation of the Father (Heb 1:3).
Our invitation is to enter into this same stream of awareness and discernment of the Father's will, through relationship with Him. Jesus said that as His friends (relationship) we would be told His Father's plans (paraphrase of John 15:15). What an invitation, what an opportunity! We just need to press into relationship with Him, as His friends, and He will reveal the Father's plans to us through the Holy Spirit (John 16:12-15). As we become adept at hearing and seeing what the Father is doing, we will see more and more glorious wonders. Jesus said we would do greater things than He did (John 14:12). The reality of this is really beyond our understanding and logic, but it is true. I go back often to the verses from Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. [9] “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
That is good news! Who would want to worship a God that is little better than man! Again, the invitation is to enter into this world of mystery, majesty, relationship and revelation! The Lord desires that we would continue His ministry to the ends of the earth, and the only way to do that is to walk in the will and purpose and timing of the Father, just as Jesus did while here on earth.
Let us accept this invitation and press into relationship with the One who loves us, who created us and who has an awesome plan that we can join ourselves too.
Amen!
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