The 'More' of God

I want to encourage you. Whoever you are and wherever you have come from.

Don’t be afraid of experiencing the ‘more’ of God.

True Christian Faith will lead you along a journey that walks a path not yet seen. A path that you’ll be unprepared for, and most of the time, unwillingly expecting.

However, whether you are a Christian or not, you instinctively have faith… Just in something else. We all have faith because we all naturally trust that there is a greater force directing the movements of the universe... We all look to something, someplace or someone else who is beyond us for some area of our life. But, what if that force beyond what we can control was indeed a deity, and not just a deity, rather King, a mighty ruler whose Word never failed. Whose Word has stood firm since the moment He stood and created the heavens and the earth, simply by being.

“The Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born. He assigned the sea its boundaries and locked the oceans in vast reservoirs. 
Let the whole world fear the Lord and let everyone stand in awe of him.
For when he spoke, the world began! It appeared at his command.”
Psalm 33vs6~9

But imagine if this Mighty force was not some lofty being high in the skies demanding my happiness and threatening a punishment if I fall short… Instead, He was a kind and gentle Father who wants the best for me because He wrote out the best story for me. He knows how this should all go (even all the times I fall short) and His plans are good and great because they’re not just plans for my life but rather plans for how my life is part of a far greater plan.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.
Ecclesiastes 3vs11~12

Don’t you want more to your life? Don’t you long for deeper satisfaction? Don’t you hope for greater?

The “more” in life means surrendering to the more of God.

Submitting to His governance and trusting his sovereignty. Trust doesn’t always have an answer but it does have an author. You don’t read a book and hope it has an ending. You trust that the author wrote a beginning, middle and end and you trust that they had your best intentions in mind. You may not always like or agree with the plot twists but you can’t change them because you're not the author! And when the author crafted the universe into existence and it works and functions perfectly, you can most certainly trust that the book holding your story is pretty perfect too!

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8vs28

Yes! You can walk forward in confident reliance that the author holds your best intentions or you can try and argue with the plot line and miss the blessing. The closer you follow to the script, the more seamlessly this story will unfold. That doesn’t mean you stand and wait for life to somehow effortlessly unfold before you, but you get up each day and turn the page. You inquire the route, you seek out the way to go, you dedicate the day to extraordinary outcomes.

“But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever; the purposes of his heart through all generations.”
Psalm 33vs11

For we brought nothing into this world and nothing we will take, therefore, why would we focus on the things, places, people and positions we see. Wouldn’t we want our eyes set on what is ahead. We can’t afford to be weighed down by all that the world wants us to carry. If we full our arms too full of the books still to come, we won’t have a hand to read the one set for right now. Focus on the path you’re on, the author you're with and you will be seamlessly lightweight and alive.

“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life  will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”
Matthew 16:24-26

It’s known that the Kingdom of God is an upside down Kingdom. You give to receive. You lose to gain. You become less to find more and that’s precisely because the Kingdom is not about me, myself and I. It’s far greater than I and belongs to a story collection beyond my own.

The Kingdom of God belongs to the story about Jesus. The story is about how He is the Alpha and Omega, He is the love and redemption, the sacrifice for my soul and the resurrection for my eternal life.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
John 1 vs1~5

My faith for the “more of God” is exactly that walk of life I was created for. Being continually cultivated and crafted to follow His design because I am His design. This faith is when I put away all else to concentrate on turning each page of His story. This faith is when I abide in Him, directing my attention to being close to Him, learning to hear His voice and His promptings for me and my heart and how He is creating me to impact His world for good.

This is not a life clinging to flaky worldly principles but deeply rooted in eternal promises. Because He doesn’t go back on His promises and when His Word says He has plans for you, you can trust it. When it says He has a purpose for you, you can trust it. When it says He has come to bring peace, you can trust it.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Jeremiah 29vs11

So this all sounds lovely, but where exactly does it leave you? How do you step into learning to see and hear all that God has masterfully planned for your life? This is the part that excites me, because I get to tell you about my favourite way to be with my God. It’s not some ritualistic regime or religious duty. It’s called History Booking and it’s a method I have learnt from Jonathan and Melissa Helser with the 18 Inch journey at Cageless Birds. History Booking is simply a visual journey that homes in on remembering and celebrating life with the Lord. It’s a powerful artistic time of abiding that allows you to reveal what’s hidden in your heart while opening a gateway of artistry to avoid the logical stammering and restriction and rather invite the heart to speak.

On a piece of paper, take a pencil or pen and a bunch of colours in whatever medium you feel the most comfortable with. (I’d highly recommend painting because there’s something so beautifully soothing about painting!). You think about the moment you’re in and words that encapsulate this moment. Around the page, begin to jot them down in all sorts of different fonts. Now take a colour and begin to create a pattern that links one word to another. As you bring colour to your canvas, open your heart and mind to pray. Talk to God like He’s in the room. Ask Him about what you’ve written. This can take as long or as short a time as you want. As colour fills the page, take a pen or pencil and begin to record on the page, along your colours, what the Lord is saying. In words, sentences, verses, sayings and lyrics. Simply write what you hear and feel. There is no right or wrong, this is communion. You can take out your Bible or put on Worship music to inspire your connection.

This is not a task, this is time with your maker. Tim to explore what you are experiencing and feeling. Notice the negative but do not wallow in it. Observe where you feel hope and ask Him about it. Do not rush on, do not judge. This is not meant to be an artwork, but a conversation.

If you want a deeper look at more processes through which you can walk through journaling and artistry with the Lord, check out these videos

Step out, step up and believe you have so much more in you!

~ X ~

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