In my personal life, I have been walking through the ancient ruins created in childhood examining all the broken dreams, the broken identity, the broken innocence, the fractured and broken family that was established so long ago and see how it was carried throughout my adult life. It may not look broken to others because I carry it differently. I have learned to make Yahweh my hiding place. But did I just exchange Him for hiding physically, in a closet, under a bed, under a bridge or in my beloved woods. Though we are called to hide or abide in Him, we also must allow that intimacy to expose, cleanse and heal our souls. When I consider these things, it is no wonder I am perfectly formed for the secret place. Trusting people with our pain is always a risk so often we chose to keep it tucked away. But in doing so, it is doing a silent often unseen destructive work.
Scripture tells us in Psalm 139:14 “I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful; I know them fully well”. If you have ever watched a candle burning in a mosaic jar, the light literally dances off it. Unlike a single pane of glass that reflects light in one direction, broken glass that has been creatively, artfully put together reflects in many. When we look around us, even our own lives, we see a lot of brokenness. We humans tend to see the individual broken pieces, but God sees His wonderful creation and each of us regardless of age, weight, skin color, financial status, intelligence, ability, or disability are His representatives on the earth. If must we are going to represent Him well, we must start seeing the beauty of each other just as He does. This is often difficult to do because we cannot see ourselves as beautiful.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”. Something that seems to be missing in the body of Christ as well as the world around us is wholeness. Our Spirits may be alive and in communion with Yahweh, but there is so much undone, so much unconfronted beliefs in our minds, so many wounds in our souls and emotions that even our bodies are broken. Being made whole is more than being healed. Healing may be something specific, maybe for our person, family, or region. But wholeness is health and proper alignment of all of us, our spirits, minds, bodies, and emotions with the Spirit taking the lead. Imagine a world with whole people making up whole churches and whole nations! Imagine as sons and daughters of God we actually live a life where Christ abides in every part of us, not just the Spirit. Where Christ determined our physical health, how we ate, the exercise we got, our emotions lined up with our Spirits, our thoughts were His thoughts. Much of the injustice, sin and destruction that plagues us today would not because we would be a whole and healthy people. Imagine a world where we looked at each other for the beauty of God’s creation in each of us. What a beautiful thought
For Yahweh to fulfill Ephesians 5:27 “And I shall present you as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” we must walk in Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart”. This is surely a season of the Spirit doing a work in our soul for the purpose of aligning us with the Spirit. A pure and spotless bride is one who is made whole. My prayer for myself as well as those around me is that we cooperate with the Lord in this refining process. The work that lay ahead for each of us requires it. #MyGodisYahweh