Daniel’s Revelation
I was spending some time in worship with my son Daniel who was eight at the time. He is now eleven; but, I have begun to feel his revelation is very pertinent to the day and time we live in.
Daniel became very excited during our soaking session and started describing a picture he saw in his heart of someone carrying a suitcase. I asked him what he thought it meant.
He replied, “God wants us to take a vacation into His heart.”
His words struck a chord deep in my spirit prompting this short conversation with my son.
“How do you take a vacation into God’s heart, Daniel? Is the Holy Spirit telling you something?”
“Yes, Mommy, you do it just like this: Love God with all your heart, mind and strength… spend time with Him in worship and the Word. Don’t even watch bad stuff. Love other people, and honor your mom and dad.”
I was astounded by such a simple truth. The Lord most assuredly wants us to have the faith of a child. Each statement Daniel made is a basic building block of faith starting out with; love God. The last statement about honoring parents threw me a bit until I contemplated it a little deeper. How can you honor your heavenly Father if you can’t honor your earthly ones? Love God, love others and love His Word. What was I missing? I was missing my son’s child like faith and was prompted to pray this prayer which the Lord, in all His goodness responded to.
My Prayer
Lord, Daniel’s picture is so simplistic and sweet. Sometimes I just walk right on by the simpler aspects of Your truth in search of some deeper, more intellectual or physical way into your heart. I allow other things to fill me, leaving very little room for You, becoming like a computer needing to be defragged. There is no room for you and I move slowly, without joy, or a sense of purpose. I become content with a lukewarm life. I allow apathy and complacency to invade me and I put forth little effort. I become lazy, finding myself involved in or running to things which take very little effort. Forgive me.
Have mercy, Lord, and speak to this heart of mine and release it from any bondage or misperception, which keeps me from a deep and intimate relationship with You. Let Your tender mercies fall like rain softening my own hard heart. Open the gateways of my everyday life, transforming them into a place of knowing and newness. I am ready for the vacation of a lifetime. I am ready to cease from my striving and enter Your rest. Let my life be a continual vacation, moment by moment dwelling in the depths of intimate relationship with You.
Word of the Day
Come and go with Me, my child, into the very depths of glory beyond the veil into My beauty…into My Presence where you will be transformed. You are anxious about much that can’t be changed by worrying; it can only be changed by prayer and abiding in My habitation of worship and the Word (Philippians 4:6).
Come and take a vacation into My heart. Come find out what a restful place I am. Come and be immersed in My all sufficient grace and see the bondages of the law break away…fade away. Come in to an experience with Me…one that belongs according to your new birthright in Christ. Many vacation places…time shares and so on give you limited access for X amounts of money. I give you unlimited, unfettered access in every season…in every wilderness experience…in every dark, cold night of the soul…and most of all, in every spring time when you need Me the most but don’t always recognize it as being so.
Sometimes you tend to forget to come and rejoice like a child when all is well…when life is bursting forth like in garden like arrays or when the harvest is abundant. And sometimes you stay away because you feel unworthy in the dark times…in the hard times or when you feel you have somehow missed the mark. Maybe you have missed the mark. All do at some time or another. If given to religion and the law you stay at bay. If given to grace, you run into My arms where mercy triumphs over judgment…Read Complete Love Letter
Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God (Philippians 4:6 Amplified)
Prayer
Lord, I choose this day to come with You into the very depths of Your heart. I choose to acknowledge the veil has been rent and the way is open into Your Presence where I am forever changed each time I come. I know You live in me, but I must choose to recognize this truth in no matter what I am experiencing or how anxious I might become. I am always welcome…for I am hidden in Christ. I am always with You.
It is in my own thoughts, when I mediate on my own shortcomings, that the idea of being separated from You has the power to shape my reality with misconceptions and wrong perceptions. I am in You and that is that.
Therefore, I come this day to the restful place and lay my anxious burdens down. I rest in Your sufficient grace and bondages of religion and law fall away like wax in a flame. I have a new birthright in Christ and am no longer bound to this world or religion.
I declare this. I am a new creature and walk in covenant relationship with the Lord in a rejoicing, child-like manner. All thoughts of unworthiness are lies of the enemy for I am accepted in the Beloved. Today I submit to grace and run into the merciful arms of Jesus where mercy triumphs over judgment. I am a forgiven son of God who is filled with the Spirit. I am loved. Amen.
Reflect and Journal
1. How do you practice going beyond the veil on a daily basis, or in other words, how can you practice being intimate with the Lord in the midst of your daily life?
2. Do you find yourself erecting veils of your own making based on your own behavior or the circumstance in which you find yourself?
3. In what areas and according to what behavior do you let shame and guilt keep you from Him if only for a moment?
4. Describe grace in your own words. Describe being religious in your own words. In light of your answer, where do you live most of the time?
5. Meditate on having unfettered access to God…to His Presence in every season of life including dark nights of the soul?
6. What might you do on a more practical level to express and build a more child-like relationship with the Lord?