Chris Lewis Blog

I mentioned in an update from Inspire 08 that God had really messed me up Thursday night. Tabitha experienced some similar stuff and wrote a great post about it here. Here are some of the thoughts I have collected in the aftermath of the spiritual surgery God orchestrated this week. It’s pretty raw and real stuff…you’ve been warned.

• Vision – I found myself challenged to the core as I remembered dreams that I had from God in my teens. It is so easy to allow the passage of time to dilute the power of a vision from God or convince us that it’s too late. A vision inspired by a timeless and unchangeable God does not get stale! Sometimes, God uses time as His teacher…chiseling and chipping away at our rough edges to prepare us for the realization of a vision we could never face if He left us in the state He found us.
• Fear – I was reminded that God is all about our capacity for Him and cares little for our capabilities. God smacked me hard with this one! When we fear because of personal inadequacies in our abilities, that’s really a pride issue. That’s believing it has something to do with me rather than everything to do with God. If God inspires the vision, the only way to fail is to depend on me instead of God. If He’s driving, failure is not an option!
• Timing – At the same time God confirmed the reality and magnitude of the vision He placed within me, He pressed into my consciousness the sensitivity to His timing. There is a season for everything and a purpose in the journey. We can’t let the excitement of the future cause us to elude the present!

This may be a shock for some of you who read this blog…but I have a history that includes a stint of running hard from God for as long as Roosevelt was in office! I have been broken.. discouraged.. hurt.. lonely.. tired.. rejected.. and often times plagued by guilt. This causes, at times, diminished capacity to see God do amazing things in your life.

I promise I am not having a pity party!  I am having a celebration!  God blistered a reality into my soul about this.  I realized this week that more than any of the things I may have been in the past…I have been FORGIVEN! I have allowed my past to disqualify me from embracing the vision God gave me long ago for my life.  No more!

(1 Kings 18:41-44) And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.” So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees.

“Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked.
“There is nothing there,” he said.
Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.”

The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.”
So Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’ “

I hear the sound of distant thunder.  What do you hear in your own life?  Your own ministry?  What dream has the God of this universe placed in your heart that He’s whispering in your ear today?  I hear the sound.  I am looking for the clouds.  Don’t lose that vision!  Put your “face between your knees” and watch what God does!