Isaiah 55:8-11 (NIV) -
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my way," declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."
I know it's been a little while, but I believe that now is the time to continue the series I started with The Ethereal Ones. Like I said at the end of that Thought, I really feel God wants to say something to all of us about how we truly live as spiritual beings in a physical world, and to do that, we must first get our perspective right. If we cannot see ourselves as God sees us, how can we really know who we are? If we cannot see the world around us as it really is, how can we hope to navigate it effectively?
Perhaps a couple of months ago now, I caught up with a couple of close friends for lunch. We met in the city, found somewhere to eat, and began to chat about what had been going on in each of our lives. Before long, we were quite deep, helping each other find a new perspective on the situations we had been wrestling with individually. Eventually, we started making our way back to the car to go our separate ways, but before we left we decided to pray together - which is when the real event began. God's Presence was in that car very strongly, and each of us ended up receiving a prophetic word from both of the others. While I was receiving a word from one of my friends, God used her to start speaking to me in a powerful way and shifting my perspective for the better.
I see you walking through a beautiful garden maze. There are roses everywhere, and you keep stopping to look at them, but when you reach out to touch them the thorns hurt you. God's standing there, reminding you, "Look at me. I know the roses are beautiful, but I need you to focus and look at me so I can lead you through this maze." While there was far more to the word than just this, this is the general gist. I am someone who is very prone to distraction, and that's been causing a lot of issues for me in terms of my time management over the last several months. The word that my friend spoke over me spoke directly into the situation, reminding me that I need to keep my focus on him instead of looking at all the pretty things around me which, in the end, would do nothing but damage me. It was, and still is, a word in season, and it touches on something that I hope to cover soon. While she was speaking, however, a different but connected image started playing in my mind as God started speaking to me through the picture she shared.
I had been imagining myself standing in the garden, looking at all the roses as my friend was describing, until she started talking about focusing on God. When I turned to look at him in my mind's eye, he started speaking. "You've been walking around through all the twists and turns, feeling like you're walking in circles. You've been wondering why it's taking so long, why nothing seems to be changing. Through it all, you've kept walking. Let me show you what I see." I found myself floating, being lifted up and above the walls of the maze, and God told me to look ahead. I looked, now seeing things from above, and I saw the end of the maze clearly! Although there were still many twists and turns to go before I reached it, I realised that I was so much closer to the end than I thought I was. I felt God renewing my hope, and giving me the strength to keep going again. But God wasn't done. He told me to look back, and as I did I saw the same maze, stretched further than the eye could see. I looked and I saw all the twists and turns and circles I had gone through for such a long time, and I was lost for words. I couldn't believe it. It looked infinite, but here I was, right near the end!
As I stared, dumbfounded, at this garden maze, God started speaking again. "You are far closer than you think, and you've come much further than you realised. In all of the winding and circling and wandering, I have been leading you closer and closer to the end of the maze. You've hit dead-ends at points and had to turn back. You've gotten distracted and stuck at other points. But each day, each step, has brought you a little closer, and now the end is in sight. So now that you see, it's time to focus and get moving with a greater purpose. You know the direction you're travelling in now, and you know that it is within reach. I have far greater things planned for you once you're out of this maze, you just need to get there."
When I was looking at the world from my perspective, I could only see the endless cycles of the maze. I couldn't see where I was going, and I couldn't see where I'd come from. But when I looked from God's perspective, suddenly everything became clear. The end came into focus, and I saw just how far I've come. In many ways, it's like a rainbow, a symbol of God's promises - when seen from the ground, we see a beginning and an end, and we wonder when, or even if, God is going to keep the promises he made to us and bring us out the other side of our struggles. But when you look at a rainbow from above, you see that it's actually a perfect circle with no beginning and no end - it is eternal, just like our Father's promises (you can see an example here). The Scripture above from Isaiah puts it so clearly. God's got a higher vantage point than us - he sees our situations as part of the bigger picture, when we tend to get so stuck in the moment. But in the end, his word will always be fulfilled, for his Word does not return empty.
I don't know what situations you are going through at the moment. I don't know what you're struggling with, what you're waiting for, what you're trying to push through, what walls you've been coming up against again and again and again. What I can tell you is that I've had my fair share of struggles too, and I still have plenty more to deal with, but God has brought me through every single time and he will do the same for you. Whatever promises God has made he will keep. Whatever battle your facing will be won, not by you, but by him, so that you will learn to trust and rely on him in every situation. Whatever cycle you're in which you wish would break will be disrupted, and you will suddenly find a clear path to move forward on, because God will intervene on your behalf and make a way where you saw no way. All that he asks from you is that you learn to trust him, and that you allow him to show you life from his perspective, because when you see things from up there, the whole world changes. It's not because your situation is different, but because you finally see where it's going and how God will use it to shape you.
He will lead you through. Just ask to see how he sees. Ask for a heavenly perspective.
Bless you Brother