As I was praying for the Drenched Retreat coming up at the end of this month, the Lord impressed on me that many people are carrying an overload of bags right now. These bags were mainly distractions, distractions of the mind designed to pull us away from our main purpose.
The enemy has been trying to overload God’s people with a bag here, a bag there… none of them were heavy on their own, but the accumulation of them became the onslaught of discouragement. A wave of discouragement and confusion has been experienced “on repeat” by many people in the last four weeks. Even “OLD MAN” stuff has reared its head. Old ways of thinking, old patterns of comfort, old negative emotions that you haven’t had to face in a long time. Even the old feeling of fatigue.
Although I was praying for the people coming to the Portland Drenched, I knew this wasn’t just a tactic against these attendees only, but an attack on the body of Christ.
But this is where it gets good.
Here is what happened to me a few nights ago. I wish I could find the words to share the impact it had on my spirit so that you could experience it at the same degree I did. I am extending my faith here that YOU TOO will feel what I felt when this happened.
In my sleep, I heard a question come from who I know to be the Holy Spirit. My spirit came to full attention, like a soldier taking orders. Here was the question He asked me:
“What if this WHOLE THING is about receiving love (pause and reflect) and giving love to others?”
The only way I can describe what my spirit felt like was to say it was tuned – I felt it harmonize with the spirit of God and his purpose for me. I had the thought in my sleep, “This is the gospel.” My spirit felt like it was soaring. My load felt so light.
God wasn’t really looking for my answer to help him out even though this was formed as a question. He was aligning my purpose, my focus. It was a God-wink giving me a heavenly tuning.
I felt that the solution to the tactic of the enemy to distract us from our purpose here on earth was to get back to the main thing – agree with it – come IN TO TUNE with it. Align with it.
LOVE IN (receive the Love of God for YOU)
LOVE OUT (give out the Love of God to OTHERS)
(Side note: when we GIVE out Love to others, they in turn are given a chance to receive God’s love. It’s a baton pass!)
This purpose applied to every area of life may seem too simplistic. Or it could feel extremely solid, giving you an anchor for your existence here on earth. If you’re a parent, your BEST practice would be to PRIORITIZE your time with the Holy Spirit where your only focus is to receive His love for you through worship, prayer, meditation on the word. Take walks, soak in worship music, write a love letter to Him… these are all the things that open up the flood gates of His love. And then, after you have been filled with His love, you are able to give selflessly to your children out of an abundance of the love that has been lavished on you. But if you are just trying to be a “good parent” from a place of dryness, fatigue, and depletion, you won’t get too far in the love game. You know the concept: the empty gas tank won’t move the car forward.
I also heard that some people are doing wonderfully with the first half: receiving love. However, they are feeling a little bottled up because they aren’t outpouring the love to others (giving love.) They need to step OUT and INTO seeing behind the surface of other people and aim for loving other people on purpose. Some unanswered prayers are contained in this piece right here.
The answer to this momentary battle of baggage overload is to refine our purpose with the purpose that God has designed for us. As an American, we’re told by our culture that we should live out our own purpose and any other purpose would be a threat. This purpose for living may present a risk of losing out on seemingly “bigger things.” This is really a trick of the enemy because this is what the Bible says,
“So above all, constantly chase after the realm of God’s kingdom and the righteousness that proceeds from him. Then all these less important things will be given to you abundantly.
Matthew 6:33 The Passion Translation (TPT)
Simply stated: YOUR WHOLE LIFE PURPOSE can be summed up this way:
“Receive the Love of God… and Give it to Others.”
Let’s agree with this! Will you? This is the key to dropping the bags of distraction and running your life race with the EASE and REST of God!
Jenny
