So faithfully, Father’s love woke me to more of Himself... His presence searching me and knowing me, to reveal that my soul was yearning for Him, with a love-sick longing.
Empty to receive Him, His presence wrapped the warmth of His love around me, raising the temperature of the room from the cold night hours that had made its way in.
Fall had fallen. The season of winds that chap my lips and strip trees of their color, when the sun is often hidden by hazy cloud cover and dense fog, when much of wild life is busy creating a warm retreat for the months ahead...these were His days of dormancy, and once again they were upon us.
Yet in the midst of their preparation for the death of winter, all of creation was taking center stage to display the way of God’s perfect design, magnifying the character who He IS with adoration. Every leaf danced with joyful delight as it floated to the ground in restful surrender. Every scampering squirrel pursued the perfect hiding place for their nut mix, with a childlike heart that seemed to say, “Thank you Father, for your provision.” The birds sang a cheerful song as they gathered leaves, twigs, and soft down for their nests. Not one moment of fear rose up in them...not one argument between them, no grumbling, and no complaining.
Father’s love held me there in intermission, quieting the hurry in my heart that had seeped in through my want of His fresh revelation. And when my waiting with Him had returned to restful, He broke in on me with a whisper,
“Oneness with Me, IS your victory...”
Do not seek for My victory within the condition of your circumstance to satisfy your heart longing,” He continued in His nature of rest,“All power is Mine, at every staging point of this earthly time of preparation. Whether darkness or light, sun or storm, the ebb of withholding or the flow of provision...whether sickness or health, ALL is for My glory, and for your readiness of My return. Lift your eyes and set your gaze on Me. Fall in love, over and over, with My character and My way, with the intimacy of My Secret Place ~ where I hold you safe, where I tarry with you, and speak volumes in total silence. My victory in you is the greater fruit that comes through oneness with Me.”
John 15:1-2 AMP “ I am the true Vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that continues to bear fruit, He [repeatedly] prunes, so that it will bear more fruit [even richer and finer fruit].”
Like a flip book in His hand, my life rested down in the realized presence of God.
At every intersection of suffering that brought me low, the power of Father’s love clothed me in royalty and lifted me up on the heights of being His glory bearer. In bowing my head to surrender and trust Him, death to self took place...all the while Father championed my heart as the power of oneness grew in its capacity. Unaware of this happening in each painful moment along the way, it was the culmination of His life’s work in me thus far, that revealed the fruit of true victory: to be more and more and more like Jesus.
What did it matter the condition of my circumstance if it brought me so close in intimacy and ever nearer to Him in oneness?
Is it not the sunflower’s greatest hour when it surrenders, drops its head in death and delivers multiple seeds into the soil beneath it? With no color left of its own to speak of beauty, it bows before the King in beautiful surrender to the Master Creator’s design, His will, and His way. This is splendor and majesty before Him; strength and glory in His sanctuary (Ps. 96:6).
Oh my beautiful friend, put your hope in God. Living beyond the veil in intimacy with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will fill us with a light and beauty that is not of this world. Do not be confused about where this power source comes from or how to live in the fullness of it. It is not of ourselves. Our surrender to the Father in intimacy within our suffering is the condition through which we are becoming one with Him and being impregnated with the imperishable seed of God, which is His likeness.
Oneness..intimacy with Him.. my victory.