Worship
“Heart and Hands” by Sean Feucht
Scripture
“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” -1 Corinthians 15:57-58 (ESV)
Understanding Paul’s Teaching
For the past two weeks, we have been in this Scripture because it’s packed full. Paul is calling the believers to their now and not yet reality of their resurrection. And therefore, from this position, we are steadfast (seated, settled, and established), immovable (not being moved from your place, firmly persistent), and abounding.
Abounding means outstanding, abundant, overflowing, to superabound in quantity or quality, be in excess, having more abundance, exceed, excel, increase. All of this only comes from being in the Lord. It’s in Him, of Him, and through Him! None of it is done outside of surrender and dependence on the LIFE of Christ in you and through you. We can work/produce out of our excellence and giftedness, but the excess and the abundance and the increase only come from Him! And it’s eternal when it comes from Him! It is Christ in me and Christ through me that brings the abounding!
Learning from Paul’s Example
Look at this beautiful picture of abounding in the midst of uncertainty from Acts 28. Paul shipwrecks on the Island of Malta. He swims to shore and was cold and most likely exhausted from the ordeal. As Paul helps to build the fire, he gets bit by a viper. The snake is literally hanging from his hand. Can you not imagine the annoyance of one circumstance after another for Paul? Paul doesn’t get sick or die from the snakebite, which wins the favor the islanders. The poison does not harm him, miraculously. He is welcomed to the estate of the chief official of the island, whose father is sick. God shows up in all of His goodness and heals the sick man! Paul steps into a moment where I could guess that his flesh was weak, but Christ in him was abounding. And not only did God heal one man through Paul, all the sick on the island were brought to him and were healed. Paul experienced abounding fruitfulness in the midst of disheartening circumstances!
You have heard me say, “This is the finest hour for the Bride of Christ!” I wonder if all the circumstances Paul experienced continued to open his eyes to the wonder and presence of God. What the enemy kept throwing at him, God continued to turn for His glory. What if we looked at every circumstance that has been thrown at us in 2020 and looked for His glory—the very story He is setting up for the end time harvest and the return of Jesus.
“There’s a whole lot of shakin’ going on, and God Himself is behind much of it. World orders will rise and fall as convulsions of history collapse upon one another, because the kingdom of heaven is putting unbearable pressure on the structure of hell as Jesus draws near. This is the best hour to be alive, and you need to know that remnants make a difference. Great doors swing on little hinges. The history of acts of God are tied into the little things that make a big difference.” -Lance Wallnau, “God’s Chaos Codes”
The Call to Women
Two years ago, Arise was birthed from the heart of God to call women out of the shadows and onto the front lines. Jesus was the first liberator of women, and it is His desire that we walk in all He not only paid for on the cross for our freedom but our identity as a daughter with the DNA of Jesus pulsating through our blood. We are not second class with a lesser calling or smaller portion of the Holy Spirit. Women have been oppressed all over the world in the name of Christendom, and it breaks the heart of God. It’s His desire that we flourish, thrive, increase, abound, excel, and exceed the limitations the world, the enemy, or even lies we have believed, shout to us. It’s our hour to ARISE and take hold of all God has for His name’s sake and your abundance. I think we all want to take hold of that truth and let it catapult us into a new level of worship, faith, and response. But how do we get there? How do we get from our metaphorical point A to point B?
The Path of Surrender
Surrender.
God has to do exceedingly more. He has to move us from glory to glory. We merely cooperate and respond. We move into a posture of surrender and let God speak and turn and shift and bring forth impossibilities. Every day, in every stage, trial, and season, we have an opportunity to press into Jesus or take the road of least resistance. It’s the cry of my heart to ask the Lord to take me where He desires. Ultimately, I know it will be the most fulfilling. He has the best plans and ideas! Let’s ask Him for new levels of healing and faith to embrace the new place He is taking us. Let’s worship Him longer and choose to not give up in the face of discouragement. It’s not a choice for us, whose hearts are set on Jesus, to choose the ways of the world or our little kingdoms. That type of surrender is not an option. The surrender that comes out of sowing seed, worshipping in spite of feeling dry or conflicted, praising God in pain, or choosing Jesus over soothing our flesh, is where radical responses to the Holy Spirit are born. And out of that response, comes abounding. Paul could have sat in self-pity on that island, out of disillusionment and sheer exhaustion, but he chose to step in believing that God had something there for him, too. Nothing is happenstance. Nothing is coincidence in the life of the believer. And in those shipwrecked moments of life, we either sink to the bottom or swim in the vast goodness of God. Surrender is when we live with the mentality that God is in every detail of our lives and, therefore, can be trusted. Our invitation is to find Him on this treasure island!
The Partnership with God
Beloved, where we are going will require unfaltering partnership with Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit. It will require Him shaking off everything that entangles us, and us letting go. It will require the freedom Jesus purchased for you with His very life. It will require faith for impossibility, that He gives to you as a gift. Do you see that these are things God does, but we receive them? None of these things are possible in our humanity, they are only possible because of the cross. Our resurrection with Christ intersects our surrender; Jesus is allowed to take over, and you come behind Him, anchor yourself in Him, and follow the One your heart truly desires. The life of abounding and abundance follows surrender and dependency. That’s the beautiful dance of partnership with the Lord. There is no striving, straining, or legalistic obedience. It’s about the responsiveness of the life of a daughter to the abundance of her Father.
“You have my YES before you even ask!” This is what I am praying is the declaration written over our lives. I pray that He moves us from one YES to the next YES, all of our days. I wish I could sit across from you and ask you, “Will you invite the Lord to title His scroll of remembrance over your life with these words: ‘She gave me her Yes before I even asked’?” From our position of surrender to Christ, being rooted and built up in Him, we abound with fruitfulness and life we couldn’t ever have done on our own. Surrender and abounding dance together so beautifully. And it’s in this truth, that the glory of God is made manifest in your life and mine.
Would you pray “You have my YES before you even ask,” to the Lord today? And with open hands of surrender ask the Lord to do in and through you what you could never do even on your best day. Ask Him to begin to release the plans He has written over your life before the foundations of the world. He’s inviting us to Arise in this hour to carry forth exploits that are in His heart for you that will shift generations and nations!
“Women, arise and shine for the glory of God is upon you. It is your season, it is your turn, it is your time. Walk together with faithful men and carry this glorious Gospel. I know that Jesus is calling all of us to have more oil and to be His light on earth and His salt in the earth. We call half of the population, which is female, to rise up and carry the glory of God!” -Patricia King, “Arise”
