“I need an encouraging Word today, Jesus,” I whispered. “I don’t know why, but my soul feels less than hope-full.”
Not more than a few moments later, I received His reply from the Spirit inside of me, FILLING me as promptly as light comes forth from a glow stick when something breaks the separation between the inner core and the outer chamber- mixing the two and creating a magical glow!
“The Best is yet to come!”
“Wow! That’s a great word! Tell me more!”
In my mind, I think I was wanting to know more bits and pieces of my future.
So much of God’s goodness we have already seen: the birth of our babies! And nieces and nephews too!
My rebirth, my husband’s rebirth.
Our family serving the Lord together.
Looking back on life, so many wonderful moments happened, so quickly…
TOO quickly…
while our eyes were anxiously fixed
upon the future.
Childhood and growing up.
Getting married.
Starting our family.
Together-times with our extended families.
Meeting new people, everywhere we were.
Occasional trips to beautiful places.
Daily being awakened on this planet,
looking for a purpose
in a plan or in a project,
totally unaware
that His purpose for us was already unfolding, and had much less to do with what we do than whose we are!
And life since He has SHOWN us whose we are, has been so much better overall.
It’s a JOY following Jesus and having a relationship with Him.
It’s an indescribable JOY watching your loved ones love Him. It’s even better than watching your husband and children enjoying their time together.
Today, the Spirit said to me “No matter how much goodness you have seen, you haven’t seen anything yet because the Best (Jesus) is yet to come!”
Oh to imagine what it will be like when we meet Him face to face!!
In this day and age, when we often meet people online, it shouldn’t be hard for anyone to imagine having an actual, real relationship with someone they have never met face-to-face before.
But when I share about my relationship with Jesus, and how it’s not just religion, many don’t understand. Sometimes even other Christians. So this is how I try to explain it…
When I was a direct sales leader, there were many girls I enjoyed friendships with for years, before ever meeting them in person.
It didn’t make those relationships any less real, but the joy whenever we got to actually connect face-to-face was so much better! In-person connection is the BEST.
That’s why Jesus couldn’t wait for us to feel His connection with us.
Did you know that He could have chosen to stay on this Earth, doing what He had been doing? Walking around and healing people and meeting with them.
But He said that it was BETTER for us, if He went, so that He could send the Holy Spirit- who wasn’t limited by a physical body, to being at one place at one time.
The Holy Spirit is able to indwell EACH of us, so that we can all FEEL the in-person (in our very person) connection between God and us!
We don’t just have to imagine it.
We don’t have to wait for it.
He gave us that gift NOW!
But so many haven’t opened it up.
They haven’t invited him to indwell Him,
because they don’t know,
they haven’t been told
that it works like that.
I lived for many years as a Christian and never knew it! I was missing out!
I was trying to obey his rules,
and I wanted a relationship with Him,
but I was missing the Connector, the Comforter.
I was trying to live a transformed-life,
but transformation doesn’t come by trying-
it comes by receiving a love so deeply inside that it changes you.
And we can like someone long-distance,
but to REALLY love them, really connect with them that intimately, we have to be close.
The most intimate connections come when spirits inter-mingle. It’s why sex is supposed to be saved for one man and one woman. It’s not just physical, it’s spiritual too.
We are the bride of Christ.
And one day we will get to meet him face to face.
But we don’t have to wait for that moment, for the intimacy we long for with Him.
To KNOW Him, and be known by Him.
That’s the reason He sent the Spirit-
So we can have that intimacy now.
And in fact, without it-
We may get to the end of our lives and be told “I never KNEW you…”
Matthew 7:21-23-
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”
{This verse wasn’t about unbelievers- it was about people who call Him Lord, about people who have even used His name to perform miracles! And I’ve been pondering on this verse ALOT the past month, after reading a book about it, because I don’t want to spend my whole life working for Him but missing a vital piece of information, that could separate me from Him in eternity…}
We’ve probably all heard the phrase:
“It’s not what we do, it’s who we know.”
(When it comes to business. As in, connection and networking are even more important than skills. Sometimes, when we don’t feel like we have the right connections, we may even complain about this. We may say “She didn’t even get the job because of her skills, she wasn’t even qualified. It was only because of who she knew!”)
In the Kingdom of Heaven,
He is teaching me that it’s both.
But it’s not like this world.
His ways are higher than ours!
Our position in heaven is TOTALLY secured by who we know! Jesus!
But it also has something to do with what we do…
We have to desire to have a relationship, and to do life together (and His way) instead of independently and whatever way we want.
We have to accept the invitation to get to know Him!
AND not just “know him” as in “I know who He is” (even the demons know who Jesus us.)
The word KNOW that the Bible used meant KNOW INTIMATELY. A deep, personal connection.
And to many, it seems impossible that we would be able to have this kind of connection with someone we have never met, but that’s why we have one more thing to do- ask to receive the Holy Spirit, and wait for Him to come indwell in us.
So many, when they decide to take Jesus as Boss, Lord, and Savior….try to go out, then, in their own power, and live changed lives. They try to manifest the spiritual fruits of love and joy and peace and patience and self-control all on their own… but it’s HIS SEED, HIS SPIRIT in us that makes this fruit-production possible. Just like the birth of baby- a new life- requires both sperm and egg, a REBORN life also requires two parts, our submitted spirit + His Spirit, in us!
In Luke 24:49, Jesus says “And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.”
And the ones who were filled were the ones who went into the upper room, to BE filled! Many were invited, only some of them came. It’s not automatic, it’s intentional.
The Upper Room, today, is a place in the heart. It’s the place that says, more than anything else I want to do or think I have to do…I want to come meet with you, I want to be filled by you, and I will wait here, laying aside all other hopes, dreams, and idols (things that I’m tempted to put first) because I want the BEST- I want to be filled by YOU.
We also need more than a one-time fill, because life will do its best to empty us…in fact, sometimes it kills us inside, and we have to be RE-VIVED…refilled, re-encouraged, resurrected (lifted back up), made alive in Him, again and again and again. Just like regeneration in a video game. There are many opponents- discouragement, death, divorce, betrayal, opportunities for bitterness- that would tempt us to lay there dead, just done – done hoping for more in life, done trying. Defeated. But because we can have the same Spirit in us that abided in Jesus, the same Spirit that brought Him out of the actual grave, we too can be brought out of all those situations in life that feel like they’re killing us.
〰️〰️〰️
Because of Him- no matter how bad it may seem, or how much worse it ever actually gets- it’s not over yet!
Because Jesus is the BEST,
The Best is yet to come (back)!
And this is the flip-side to that Spirit reminder this morning- not only does that message give me Hope everlasting, for endless more goodness to come…
Beyond the vows,
Beyond the babies,
Beyond the bigger houses or more vacations or whatever other daydreams I thought would bring me bigger hope and more happiness…
It also gives me hope, everlasting,
even in the hard times.
It gave me hope in my season of infertility and miscarriage,
Even in the season of fresh grief after losing my dad,
It can give people hope in the unimaginably hard times of crushed dreams,
and grief,
of lost loved ones
and even grief over the passing of parts of life that we looked forward to as well…
Because we do that, don’t we?
We grieve and sometimes long to go back to the seasons where everything felt new and exciting with our spouses.
We grieve and sometimes long to go back go the seasons of babies and snuggles and the pitter patter of little feet.
We grieve and long to go back to the times where life was simpler or sweeter. Especially when we are in seasons of life that are hard and bitter. When our world feels dark.
And also in times when the WHOLE world feels like it’s getting darker and darker.
It gives us hope that
No matter how much darkness we are seeing in this world, we don’t have to despair because it’s not over. The Best is yet to come!
Jesus has promised to come back!
And until He comes, we are called to stay busy getting to know Him better, and urging people to come TO HIM!
Showing them how they can!
Because maybe when we are all face to face with Him, it will be the BEST!
But even now- if we learn how to come heart to heart with Him now, through the Spirit- everything is at least better than it is without Him!
Strength for today.
Bright hope for tomorrow.
That’s what He gives to all who will come to Him to get it!
From Full 