It's Not For Us To Wonder How

“How shall this thing be seeing that ….”

When Mary the mother of Jesus was told by the angel Gabriel that she was going to give birth to a child that would save the world from sin, she wondered how it was going to happen. She wanted to believe but to her there were several reasons why it was not going to happen. She was looking at the facts that would negate this promise of God. The normal process of life is that for a woman to get pregnant, she would normally have to have sex with the proposed father of the child. However here was God telling her that she didn’t need to be with any man to see the fulfilment of God’s promise to her. All she needed to do was to believe. God would make the rest possible by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In the book of Joel, specifically Chapter 2 verse 28, God promises to pour out his spirit upon all flesh and promises that his spirit will cause the opening of eyes so that men and women will see visions and dream dreams. We all have dreams and visions for our lives and there are some of us who think we need psychiatric help due to the dreams we have envisaged. Like Mary, we ask ourselves, “How shall this thing be?” We seem to be looking for one excuse or the other to let God know that the dream or vision he has impressed upon our hearts are just too impossible to accomplish. The fact is that even when we see dreams about what we are going to be, we want to understand the process. Our finite minds desperately try to grasp and understand how God is going to make it happen. But can I say that understanding how is not really our role.

The story is told in the book of 2 Kings 7 about a famine in the land of Israel. Elisha brought a word from God telling the king about what God was going to do in the land. However the king’s adviser scoffed. Elisha promised him he was going to see what God would do but he wasn’t going to partake of it. Somewhere else there were four lepers outside the gate of the city. They were impoverished men who had no hope. However they reached a decision about their future and they acted on that decision. God used their decision to bring deliverance both to them and their nation.

It’s really not our role to worry about things like how. Ours is to walk in obedience to the vision or dream God has given us. When we do that, the power of the promise keeping God will come to help us become all that he has called us to be. What vision or dream do we have or have we seen? Now is the time to act on it. 

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers, http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.  

We Came With A Purpose: Chase After Him To Find You

I feel sad for anyone who doesn't believe that we are here for a purpose and a reason. Those people who believe that our lives are random happenings that blot the face of the planet for a while before we pass away from the world to go somewhere no one knows. It is my firm belief that the idea that we are rudderless and without direction leads to a point where people do not see the big picture and grand design of the world and end up living selfish, self-centred lives that add nothing to the world. However when we realise that we humans on this planet are all connected and we all have something to add to the lives we come in contact with, and we act on this, the world becomes a better place.

I believe that there is nothing on earth whether created, made or manufactured without a purpose on the face of this earth. We understand the issue of purpose when we understand that there is nothing whether animate or inanimate that does not have a purpose. From human beings to chairs, the air we breathe in to the clothes we wear, everything has a purpose. If inanimate objects without awareness have a purpose, how can we say that human beings, the greatest of the living species do not? Simply put, everything has a purpose for being, for existing. In fact, a purpose is first discovered and then a thing is made to fulfill that purpose. Therefore I believe that there was a purpose that God wanted man to fulfill collectively and individually when he made him. The purpose, then the thing to fulfill the purpose.

When God called Abraham (then Abram) in Genesis 12, he told him him what he wanted to do with him. When he called Jacob in Genesis 28, he revealed what he wanted to achieve in his life. The same thing when he called Joshua in Joshua 1. He followed the same pattern when he called Cyrus, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Elisha and Paul. Wherever in the Bible we are shown the moment God called one of the elders in the faith, we see a process where God calls them by name and reveals his plans and purposes to them and lets them know the part they have to play in the fulfillment of that plan. There is always a big picture and God tells us what he wants to achieve. He never tells us the processes we have to go through but at least he gives us an indication of the end so that we can press forward.

I am of the firm belief that God has created each and every one of us with a purpose and he has a plan for our lives. Our lives are not aimless and neither do they lack meaning. I believe that when God called us, he spoke on our lives the plans and the purposes he desires for us to achieve and fulfill. Whether or not we come to a full realisation of this plan, depends entirely on us. The Bible says that His word is forever settled in heaven. He cannot and will not change. Therefore there is a responsibility placed on each of us shoulders to seek his face and find it. For us to truly have a relationship with the world we live in, we need to have a relationship with him. If we pursue him, we will not only find him, we will also find ourselves.    

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers, http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.