Proverb 15:9 People do their best making plans for their lives, but the Eternal guides each step. [VOICE]
Is your year not going as planned? Yeah, mine neither. I had such great plans for this year. None of them have worked out. In my booklet 5780-5789 A Decade of Peh Part 2 – The Rollout, I wrote that 5780, the current Hebraic year, would be like packing for a trip. I further stated that 5780 would be a time of accumulating the necessary elements and shifting focus. So much for the prophetic. I want to clarify something. Just because we get a prophetic word it never means that we know how it’s going to actually play out until it happens. Anyone who says otherwise is just blowing air up your skirt.
Here’s the thing, I don’t know about you but this year certain has been like packing for a trip; only we didn’t know it was a trip to the sofa. No one knew what was coming. We see in part and we prophesy in part. (1 Cor. 13:9) Despite having gotten a word about having to pack for a trip I had no clue that within a few short months I would have to pack up my life and shift to Virginia.
Last year, 2019 doesn’t seem so bad now does it? Anyway, last year was a time of accomplishment. I made tremendous progress. It was a time of building. I spent all of 2019 focused on developing my blog and writing books. I wrote my first blog post in January 2019. By the end of the year I had three sites and needed an assistant.
Then along came 2020. My year, like many people’s, started out okay. I made a plan. I set goals. I had a strategy all figured out. Then suddenly in April all that changed. It didn’t change because of COVID. Although it coincided with the timing. It all began at Passover. Yeah, Chuck Pierce called it. There was something going on that definitely started around Passover 5780. I got a phone call that week from my stepmom.
My 86 year old dad had just that week gone for his first visit with an oncologist. My 95 year old stepmom needed someone to come and stay with her while dad was in the hospital. It was only supposed to be a couple of weeks. Corona virus just started sweeping through the U.S.. Travel was already difficult. I really felt led, in light of this, to plan on staying for a few months rather just a week or two while dad recovered.
Two days after arriving at my folks, Dad was diagnosed with stage four cancer. It was a bit surreal when the doctor told me they were measuring his life expectancy in days to weeks rather than months. Sure enough one month to the day of my arrival, Dad was gone. That day I became the live-in caregiver to my 95 year old stepmom. Can I go on record as saying that my focus shifted. I don’t know about you, but life suddenly wasn’t going as previously planned.
There has been a number of shifts since Passover. Geographic relocation was a big one. But the bigger shift was in my daily focus. I just simply no longer have the time to devote to working on my site like I did last year.
See that face? And what a smile! This is my focus these days. While I would love to give time to writing blog posts and uploading content, I cannot justify spending my days shut up in my room pecking away at my keyboard. I want to. Believe me I want to. Making the shift hasn’t come easily. I fought it for the first few months. I didn’t want to be here. I hated that I was thrust into a situation in which my agenda got kicked to the curb. But God wouldn’t let me remain in a state of frustration. He pursued my heart. He won the struggle. It was not on my agenda to become an elder caregiver, it was however, on God’s list of shifts Betty would make this year. He didn’t just want me here. He wanted me to enjoy it. He wanted to give me joy despite the circumstances. I couldn’t see that happening. But God made a way. He plowed through my heart with His love.
God’s agenda is always infused with His love. As much as building a website has the potential to reach thousands, one person is standing right in front of me, and she needs hands on love. She needs someone in her life. No, I’m not having a codependent reaction to the situation. While I am not codependent; I have learned to lay down my agenda for God’s, and surrender to His will for my life. I am committed to following the leading of the Spirit despite how I might feel about the situation. I didn’t want to do this. Once I made the choice to let go of wanting my way, God shifted my heart. And now I can’t not do this. (If that makes any sense).
It wasn’t my plan but it did become my choice. My mother, God rest her, used to say, “Betty, submit to whatever God is requiring from you. Surrender yourself to His will. He will always give you whatever you need to carry out His will.” Grandpa trumpeted the message of love my whole life. He not only spoke it out, he lived it. “Love your neighbor, love your neighbor, love your neighbor.” He lived what he preached. Any time someone needed a ride, 
Grandpa drove out of his way. Any time someone needed help moving, Grandpa was there with the roof rack on his car and a willingness to help out. Often Grandpa was the only one to show up when it came to helping others. Nobody wants to spend a beautiful summer day lifting furniture and lugging boxes. Grandpa was tuned to a higher frequency. He listened to the voice of love.
That voice is Jesus’ saying: “Whatever you have done for the least of these, you’ve done unto Me.” (Matt. 25:31-46 see below) And you know what? Even though it wasn’t always fun, Grandpa seemed to have joy in the midst of it. That joy came from doing the will of the One who sent him. It was a joy that came from the Spirit of God flowing through him. By watching Grandpa I learned that if you ask God to show you His will and the ability to perform it, God will do just that. Grandpa prayed for the joy to do God’s will. God answered by giving him joy to do the mundane.
Both Mom and Grandpa dragged me to Charismatic meetings when I was a kid, where I got exposed to the gifts of the Spirit in operation. When the meetings were over and everyone went their own way Mom and Grandpa lived out life in the Spirit by showing love in practical everyday kind of ways to those around them. I’d like to think they are looking down on me and smiling. But more than wanting their approval, I seek the heart of God. I seek His approval. I seek after His heart. His heart is one overflowing with love. It’s so full of love that it spills out on all of humanity. His love took Him to the cross where He poured out the fullness of His love by shedding His blood for the redemption of mankind. He loves so much that that He gave us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. (Romans 5:5)
The things of the Spirit cannot be separated from the love of God. When we separate the Spirit of God from love we separate ourselves from God for God is love. (1 John 4:16) So, I may not be building my website or enlarging my audience. I might not be expanding my brand or posting prophetic words every day trying to build a platform. Instead, I choose God’s agenda for my life. His agenda right now is caring for the woman who loved my dad.
If what God is doing in your life is building, then build. If God has you in a season of rest, then rest. If you are in a season of shifts and changes, then submit to the shift and change. Last year for me, was a time in which God had me building and growing. All year I spent building and growing. This year God has had an entirely different focus for me. I’m no longer trying to accomplish my agenda. I’ll leave saving the world to Jesus; after all, He died for the sake of the world.
All that God requires from any of us is:
But he’s already made it plain how to live, what to do,
what God is looking for in men and women.
It’s quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,
be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don’t take yourself too seriously—
take God seriously.
There is a time to build and a time to plant. There is a season for rest and a season for work. Don’t imitate what someone else is doing thinking it might please God. Don’t try to impress Him with how much work you’ve done to build and expand the kingdom. God is the one who causes the increase of His kingdom. We just do whatever it is that God calls each of us individually to do.
May the Lord bless you as you discover His purpose for your life and the focus He has for you in whatever season you happen to be in at this time. May He infuse you with joy and blessing as you walk out His will.
The Lord bless you and keep you,
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 The VOICE
What if I speak in the most elegant languages of people or in the exotic languages of the heavenly messengers, but I live without love? Well then, anything I say is like the clanging of brass or a crashing cymbal. What if I have the gift of prophecy, am blessed with knowledge and insight to all the mysteries, or what if my faith is strong enough to scoop a mountain from its bedrock, yet I live without love? If so, I am nothing. I could give all that I have to feed the poor, I could surrender my body to be burned as a martyr, but if I do not live in love, I gain nothing by my selfless acts.
MATTHEW 7:21-23
THE VOICE
Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven. Simply calling Me “Lord” will not be enough. Only those who do the will of My Father who is in heaven will join Me in heaven. 22 At the end of time, on that day of judgment, many will say to Me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name? Did we not drive demons out of the possessed in Your name? Did we not perform miracles in Your name?” 23 But I will say to them, “I never knew you. And now, you must get away from Me, you evildoers!”
THE MESSAGE
“Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance—isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.’ And do you know what I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of here.’
:31 – When the Son of Man comes in all His majesty accompanied by throngs of heavenly messengers, His throne will be wondrous. 32 All the nations will assemble before Him, and He will judge them, distinguishing them from one another as a shepherd isolates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put some, the sheep, at His right hand and some, the goats, at His left. 34 Then the King will say to those to His right,
King: Come here, you beloved, you people whom My Father has blessed. Claim your inheritance, the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of creation. 35 You shall be richly rewarded, for when I was hungry, you fed Me. And when I was thirsty, you gave Me something to drink. I was alone as a stranger, and you welcomed Me into your homes and into your lives. 36 I was naked, and you gave Me clothes to wear; I was sick, and you tended to My needs; I was in prison, and you comforted Me.
37 Even then the righteous will not have achieved perfect understanding and will not recall these things.
Righteous: Master, when did we find You hungry and give You food? When did we find You thirsty and slake Your thirst? 38 When did we find You a stranger and welcome You in, or find You naked and clothe You? 39 When did we find You sick and nurse You to health? When did we visit You when You were in prison?
King: 40 I tell you this: whenever you saw a brother or sister hungry or cold, whatever you did to the least of these, so you did to Me.
41 At that He will turn to those on His left hand.
King: Get away from Me, you despised people whom My Father has cursed. Claim your inheritance—the pits of flaming hell where the devil and his minions suffer. 42 For I was starving, and you left Me with no food. When I was dry and thirsty, you left Me to struggle with nothing to drink. 43 When I was alone as a stranger, you turned away from Me. When I was pitifully naked, you left Me unclothed. When I was sick, you gave Me no care. When I was in prison, you did not comfort Me.
Unrighteous: 44 Master, when did we see You hungry and thirsty? When did we see You friendless or homeless or excluded? When did we see You without clothes? When did we see You sick or in jail? When did we see You in distress and fail to respond?
King: 45 I tell you this: whenever you saw a brother hungry or cold, when you saw a sister weak and without friends, when you saw the least of these and ignored their suffering, so you ignored Me.
46 So these, the goats, will go off to everlasting punishment. But the beloved, the sheep (the righteous), will go into everlasting life.
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