God in the Box

I love it when God shows up! Now, don’t get nervous, I know He is always with us, and He is always right here. Essentially He always shows up. But there are those special times that His Spirit works very intensely, and everyone in the room is keenly aware of that moment. I love it when that happens. Actually, I have learned to love it, or should I say I have learned to notice it and flow with that undeniable moving of the Holy Spirit.

It does, after all, go contrary to what we have all been taught about how things are supposed to go. A good writer has, and follows, a good outline. A good teacher has a lesson plan. A speaker has an outline also. You know, a catchy beginning, three points, (preferably all starting with the same letter) and a summarizing conclusion. You better not get off the track, or you will be accused of chasing rabbits. Point A, point B, point C, and there you have it. But then God shows up, and stirs, and suddenly none of the points are relevant any more, only the moving of His Holy Spirit.

That happened at a recent Women’s Retreat. We had plans. Plans for food. Plans for schedules, and music, and games, and free time, and study times, and group activities. In the third session of the event, however, God showed up. I was just past point A. The next thing on the schedule was a group activity, but the Spirit was obviously present, and the activity and the remainder of the points became unimportant. Everything vanished except the Lord and our focus on Him. He was there and ministering to each one in the room. You could see it. You could feel it. We put points A, B, C, and D aside and went with the flow.

That is so much like our everyday lives as followers of Christ. We have a plan. We know the “points” we need to cover in our day. We too often put God in our box for the day, telling Him when and where and how we want Him to show up for us with His awesome power in and through us. However, God does not follow our rules. We may be in the middle of something we think is very important, when an opportunity for ministry shows up (and not just our ministering to someone else). We may not even recognize it as an opportunity for ministry (us to someone else, someone else to us, or GOD TO US). I have missed too many of those opportunities, thinking they were just little bothers or glitches in my plan. God, however, is not bound by our plan. He is the One ordering our steps, directing our paths, and bringing about His good pleasure in our daily lives- if we are sensitive to it and move with Him. We can ignore His prompts, His invitations to move closer, go deeper, experience more of Him, minister to others. It is called quenching the Spirit. We have all done it, but we are specifically instructed to be on the watch and not do it, because when we do, we miss out on the presence of the Lord, and others do too.

We all want God to show up on Sunday mornings and evenings, Wednesday nights, and whenever else we have some type of ministry planned. What about in between? Do we want Him to show up in the middle of our busy day? In our meetings? In our cleaning, or canning, or planning, etc.? And what if He does (which He always does, by the way, whether we are tuned in or not)? Will we put aside our outline for the day and enjoy the opportunity to do life His way? Too often we do not, but every now and then, we recognize it. We get it right. We submit our will to His, let Him out of our box (like He was really ever in it, outside of our perception of Him) and experience God being who He is- great, mighty, awesome, miraculous, strong and powerful and compassionate on our behalf.

You see, His ultimate plans are for our good, and His glory.

“ For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call to Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. And I will be found by you.” Jeremiah 29:11-14a. He “shows up” because He wants us to experience whom He is, why He is, and what He is all about. Ministry to and through us happens at any time, and place and way God chooses it. Our job is to recognize it and go with it. It is called walking in the Spirit. Most of us have not arrived yet, but each step we take out of the flesh, and into the Spirit makes the next step all that much easier.