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I Trust You
Joe Killian • May 13, 2016
I sat there wrestling with God's Word. We were challenged to spend 45 minutes in prayer in the middle of the workshop I was facilitating. And I was really struggling. I had returned to this place of questioning God once again. Here is the verse from 2 Corinthians we were meditating on: "My grace is sufficient, for my power is made perfect in weakness." This was happening just last night. I could not accept God's gracious promise. I was too busy and had too much going on so I decided to skip this edition of the Weekly Journey. Then at 5:47 this morning He woke me up to read this Weekend's Gospel.
On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and exclaimed, “Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. As Scripture says: Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me.” He said this in reference to the Spirit that those who came to believe in him were to receive. There was, of course, no Spirit yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. John 7:37-39
But Jesus has been glorified! And the Spirit is with us! What does that mean to you and me? Rivers of living water? Yes! You and I have within us the awesome power to bring life to a dying world. The key? If we try to do it in our own strength we will fail. We have to accept and trust that this power is within us!
I have never completed this blog this quickly before. But after reading the Gospel I had to accept that I had the Spirit in me and I said, "I trust you Holy Spirit." And I began typing.
I am trusting that the Spirit is speaking through me. If you hear from Him please share with me what He said. More importantly, know that if you trust in His Power, His Spirit, living water will flow from within you! That is what Pentecost is to you and me today!
The story continues...I'm still working on the pondless waterfall in our front yard. I shared this project with you two weeks ago in Playin' In the Dirt. Since then I've had to rework sections of the stream three different times because we were losing too much water. I am now an expert on evaporation rates and excessive splash, two causes of water loss. This morning I tore the whole thing apart and I'm starting over.
Have you ever watched DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda? I stumbled across it recently and thoroughly enjoyed Jack Black's performance as a bumbling, noodle selling, kung fu enthusiast, giant panda named P o. Set in ancient China, it is more than a humorous slapstick comedy. The core message of the story jumped out at me as I have been focusing recently on the concept of being. Po is shockingly identified as the Dragon Warrior and he reluctantly enters training. The goal of the training is to receive the Dragon Scroll, which is believed to hold the secret to limitless power. Now I don't want to spoil the big reveal but I will say that what Po realizes is the same as what I speak to in the concept of being and authentic identity. So, where do we find the secret to our "power?" I praise You, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works! My very self You know. Psalm 139:14 God knows it; and we must seek Him with all of our hearts in order to find it. As it was in the movie, the answer is stunningly simple. Our authentic identity is already within us. The challenge for Po in the movie was in seeing himself accurately and not the way others saw him. Even his teacher scoffed at the idea that Po was anything more than an underachieving dreamer who overate when he was anxious. Po's problems are rooted in the fact that he believes the lie of his false identity much more than he does his authentic one. Is it possible that you do the same? Who could have imagined that beneath all of Po's girth lived the Dragon Warrior? What's hidden from view in you? Seek God for understanding as to who He created you to be. Spoiler Alert: the secret of your limitless power is already in you. God placed it there and He wants you to be who He authentically created you to be.
Maria and I have been playing in the dirt a lot recently. First we replaced our French drain and then we embarked on a creative project intended to change the entire look of our front yard. My brother Jeffrey and I installed a new front step.
