Walking in your word- about accepting God's reality

"For the word of the Lord is true; all his doings are reliable."
 (Psalm 33:8)

"For God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold down the truth through unrighteousness[10],
19 Because that which is known of God is manifest[11] among them, for God has revealed it to them[12].
20 For his invisible ⟨being⟩, both his eternal power and his divinity, has been perceived[13] and seen in the made since the creation of the world, so that they are without excuse;
21 because they knew God, but neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but fell into futilities in their reasonings, and their hearts, which had no understanding, were darkened."(Romans 1:20 ff.)

20 "By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people  have always been able to see what their eyes as such can't see: eternal  power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a  good excuse." (The Message, Romans 1,20)            

"My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me."(John 10:27, Elberfelder)

My dear friends, dear women of God,

what if God were still as real today as He was when He led Moses out of Egypt, when He called a shepherd boy to become king, when He commissioned Noah to build an ark, and Isaiah to announce Jesus' birth?

What if Jesus' statement that he would be in our midst until the end of the world was true?

What if his ways and the consequences of his principles were tangible and real, logical, completely easy to understand and real in our lives?

What if God still spoke through analogies to this day, confirming his word in the outside world as a sign?

These are strange questions for a Christian to open an article.

But honestly? Do we believe that? Or do we believe that in the end God is far away, doesn't hear our prayers, or sorts them out in heaven like Cinderella sorts out the lentils and peas?

"This world has its own laws," you may think, "and we have to live with the imperfection that means." Yes, I did, too. Until everything changed.

Almost two years ago, we were interrupted in our daily routine, my husband and me. I remember it must have been May, later April maybe. Something happened that we couldn't grasp, in both senses of the word: it wasn't really tangible-and it left us stunned.

We had a routine during that time.

We listened to a podcast series produced in the States to get people through the lockdown and uncertainty, produced in the living room of a leadership couple who shared with their "friends", as they affectionately call their close followers, their impressions, their thoughts, and their encouragement that they themselves had previously found in their quiet time, in their beginning of the day. It was authentic, simple, unmasked what they offered, and it spoke from our hearts.

The synchronicity of the impressions, thoughts and prayers was amazing, as if there was no distance at all. We were impressed and pleasantly surprised.

That the Holy Spirit, meanwhile, does not nor can contradict Himself is a reality so logical that it was a joy for us, but not an inexplicable thing. The Holy Spirit is a person, is God Himself, and of course He never contradicts Himself. God is congruent, true and coherent in Himself, He is.

After the podcasts, we would often browse the Bible, over coffee and in unity as a couple, and one day my husband frowned and said, "Strange, Mrs. Honey. Really strange. All I've been getting for days is posts saying there will be no wine this year." We set the post aside, and I decided to gather grape leaves from our grapevine in the garden, which entwines the front of our patio and was just starting to blossom. "Vine is my cue," I laughed jokingly, "I still have vine leaves to gather for stuffing."

As I stepped out the door, I could hardly believe my eyes: all the wine that had been healthy the day before had mildew, was dying, no longer bearing.

We judged it a strange coincidence, though not completely convinced.

"No, this year there is no wine," my husband stated matter-of-factly ironically, "we can forget it."

But that was not enough.

I sowed. Radish seeds, tomatoes, cucumbers, pick lettuce. Like every year. The seeds were a gift from friends who are hostile to God and esoterically inclined.

Nothing happened. Nothing even began to germinate. When I told my friend, she was amazed and a little disappointed: "I don't understand, Bille. Everything grows like crazy with me, and it's even the same seed packet! It's Demeter, it's good seed!"

A second attempt was also unsuccessful, and I heard the phrase, "This seed won't come up in my garden."

It was so biblical that doubt remained completely impossible. The miracle flowers I sowed myself, they grew, bloomed, and given away to those same friends and neighbors - they died and stopped growing.

It literally killed my sanity.

We experienced a moment of God's reality that was shocking.

It was as if His reality blended with the Bible and our lives, as if He simply brought levels we always separate together with a wave of His hand. As if what we were doing was a symbolic performance of his word. We said then that we felt like we were being drawn into the Bible like Bastian Balthasar Bux into the Book of the Neverending Story. As if God's Word lived all around us, all the time. I was glad that I was not alone in this experience, because no one wants a religious psychosis. Even our son noticed the change, felt God's presence, and we no longer understood our world.

The last two years did indeeed not bring any fruit. Our wine did not bear, our plum tree did not bear, our apple tree did not bear - only what was not rented and self-sown prospered. Our life was characterized by spiritual darkness alternating with God's peace. All areas of our lives were put to the test, and it was like a call to fully accept and recognize Him and His reality. Not only in prayer, not only as a vague hope- but as the one who directs and controls all events. The one no one can get past, the one who shapes us, guides us, and determines what will and will not flourish in the truest sense of the word.

Do we believe that?

Do we believe that God interacts so directly with us that his signs are not heavenly gates in visions and emerald-colored angel feathers, but concrete confirmations reflecting biblical passages?

In approach, we all know this. The Bible passage that speaks into the situation so that the mouth is open. A funny parallel when a friend in another place heard the exact same words in the sermon as we did. The just-arriving provision when we thought God hadn't heard our prayer.

Alone, it was an accumulation of these signs that was almost uncanny. Eerie not because it was accompanied by unpleasant feelings, by fear, no: eerie because it was so real, so direct, so immediate. Constant, guided, logical, always concerning several levels, like a stone thrown into the water, which then draws waves outward. What he said was true, on a spiritual, on an emotional, on a worldly level, and was reflected back through signs. Like an invasive sword that breaks through all dimensions. Like lightning forming in the clouds and striking the earth. Simultaneous, synchronous, connecting.

At some point in this process, God called me out of a book project and admonished me to put Him first. I can't say I doubted that statement. 2. Chronicles 16:9, the first commandment- the statement is so in sync with the Bible that doubting his voice was simply out of the question. If there is anything Satan does NOT want, it is for us to put God first in everything.

So many leadings followed, so many changes, so many insights, so many times of prayer in which I lost the sense of time and space that I cannot count them.

I began to write, completely unsuccessful, yet guided. A goal was given, a vision, and changed, refined, pruned and expanded. Writing- I always wanted to. But blogging- I could not. Jesus led me through healing, confrontation, and a change in my writing style- not allowing that anything else would have had room.

Today, two years later, after complete overwhelm, I'm writing this.

On Daughter of Zion, which is becoming a blessing little community, more and more each day. God has become my center in everything, in the way I perceive the world, my refuge, my strength, my base from which everything else unfolds.

The way there was arduous. Embattled. But God's guidance was there, as it is in all the stories we read.

When Jesus calls you to lay it all down, when he draws you into his presence so much that you have to let go of what you've been working out for yourself-what do you do?

Do you believe that he is so real? Or is he distant, somehow?

We cannot, and this is what I grasped at this time as never before, fully grasp his plans because he works with us on umpteen levels simultaneously, because we don't see his analogies, because we make his principles doctrine and interpreted human wisdom. But do we follow him? Do you call your friend just because you feel you should? Do you push 20 euros into the beggar's hand just because you feel you should? Do you see the failure of your seed to sprout as an indication that you are drawing from the wrong source?

Is the weeding of dry ground an indication to you that living water is needed to soften those areas of your heart where your bitterness has taken deep networks of roots? Are you asking about God, are you in dialogue with Him? Or do you not believe that his principles, orders and presence permeate the earth as they always have?

With this article today I am opening a series on the topic: Walking in the Word.

We all want to see heaven on earth. What if our eyes have become glued, our hearts hardened and our ears deaf? What if we believe Satan more than God?

For those of you who do not believe that signs of God are concrete, are reflected in this world, I am linking today to an article in which I have worked through the subject biblically. And hope that this will turn mistrust into thoughtfulness.

God leads us, but it is we who come to terms with this world.

It is we who do not trust Him. We provide, we fill our granaries. We control, we decide, we seize authority. What if God calls us to Himself in this crazy time, so that we can become attentive to Him again? What if it were possible, and your circumstances reflect what he wants to show you? That your house, your temple has become untidy, that your garden, your beauty has gone wild, that your relationships need to be examined, that your head hurts from overstimulation, your stomach tells you that you are in conflict?

What if you asked God to reveal the real reasons to you instead of trying to work it out yourself?

Ask God for his reality in your life. Not for signs, but for the revelation of his reality in your life. And be ready to answer his call. There is hope, there is closeness. Because God comes to us- and not we to him. He leans down and opens our eyes to a greatness that only makes us say:

"Holy are you, Lord. And inconceivably great and wonderful."

We have lifted God so far into the heavens and abstracted him so much that we no longer even see that his laws work in this world in a completely comprehensible way, that he is present in everything and uses everything to speak to us, and that he is not gone at all.

We build the gap between him and us, not him.

Be blessed with the presence of the Holy Spirit, who is God Himself, in your lives. Be blessed with the river of life that flows unceasingly from the temple of God. That you may be filled and walk in His ways. In his will. In his grace. In his presence.

With love,

Sibylle/Daughter of Zion.

Article about signs: https://en.zionstochter.de/post/hearing-god-s-voice-about-confirming-signs-a-bible-study

Weekly impulses on this topic as always at: https://www.facebook.com/Sibyllezion & in the associated Facebook Community "Zionstochter. New heart. New spirit.New life" (German speaking members only).

Sources:

Bible. Elberfelder & The Message Translation.

Photo: Wix.com

Worship: "What I really need" Brian Fowler