A Purveyor of AWE!

Well, it happened again!  I was speaking the Word over my wife yesterday morning when I unexpectantly received a revelation!  I had just finished sharing Jeremiah 1:12, Mark 16:20 and Luke 4:21 and suddenly realized the validity of God’s plan given to me about five years ago when He instructed me to flood my wife with the Word concerning His will for the healing of her body.  His reasoning’s were so simple it caused me to pause and then burst out into the joyful laughter of understanding.  

In these verses of scriptures the Lord tells us that He constantly watches over His Word to perform what it says, that He works with and confirms His Word with His miraculous signs and wonders accompanying them and that we will see the Word that we constantly hear fulfilled in us!  So with that I, looked over at my wife and could simple say: “Like Duh!”

Then I recalled the different folks that had made the off-handed comment directly to us or to our kids saying that “If they (Piper and I) were really serious about her healing, then they would have done…” (and named some activities that were different from our obedience to the Lord in saturating Piper in the Word!)  That is one reason I will hardly ever contradict what another brother or sister in the Lord tells me that the Lord has instructed them to do… unless it is obviously opposed to the truth of God’s Word.

This morning the light went on once more as I read from Colossians 2:7 where Paul encourages his readers to “Sink your roots in him and build on him.  Be strengthened by the faith that you have been taught, and overflow with thanksgiving.” (God’s Word ©)  I love the descriptive words that this translation uses to convey Paul’s thoughts.  We are told to sink our roots, build and strengthen and to overflow with thanksgiving in our quest to seek and grow in our faith.  These actions make a lot of sense when you consider Paul’s earlier comments when he emphatically declared that “God has hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Christ.” (Colossians 2:3 God’s Word ©)

With that verse in mind I had another “Like Duh!” moment as I leaned back in my chair, took a sip from my steaming mug of Hazel Nut coffee, grabbed my pen and quickly wrote down “So why would you have any excuse about NOT going to Him first, staying focused on Him, and then expecting Him to set your situation at AWE with His truth?”  

Yesterday that small-still voice deep inside me caught my attention when I heard “Jim, only allow the right things, the truth, (ie; the Word) to capture your awe.”  So the use of the word “awe” definitely caught my ear again today!  You and I have the choice as to what we will allow to catch our awe and move us to take action.  Action that will work because it is in line with the truth of His Word instead of action that may end with questionable results because we have sought first the world’s solutions (be they good or not) and not His proven answers.

I also had to ask myself if my conversations and interactions with others enhance (or set at awe) their faith or suck the life out of it?  Am I an encourager of people’s faith and joy or a thief that steals it away from them?  I have been on the reciprocal end of the latter part of both of those questions and believe me, it is not a good place to be.  There is nothing worse than leaving the presence of those you needed encouragement from feeling empty or sucked dry!

Therefore, I have learned to always lead myself and the others I interact with through personal encouragement based on the truth of God’s Word.  In our current situation, it is way too easy to get caught up in the natural progress of the attack on my wife’s health when talking to others about it.  I am not talking about denying what is going on here, but I am talking about always pointing the conversation to the expectation we have in the Good News which is the message of truth. (See: Colossians 1:5) 

So… my suggestion to you this weekend is to be a purveyor of His awe to everyone you see!  Speak the Word of encouragement to them… or better yet… BE the Word of encouragement to them.  Fill ‘em up instead of sucking them dry!  Take a moment to think about your words and make sure that they bring light and life into the situation.  Have a terrific weekend, and as you do keep asking yourself… “Through Whom am I expecting to be AWE inspiring today?”