A Hunting We Will Go......

Oswald Chambers said in My Utmost for His Highest (2/10) that if we but look up to the heavens, to God, He would speak to us through his creation. 

I went for a walk this morning on my “morning beach” and God was clearly speaking through his creation on that beach.

When I first started out walking I realized the tide was coming in and so I was keenly aware of just where the water was and how far it would come up on the beach, dodging the waves as needed to keep my feet dry.  I realized that for me being keenly aware of water is like second nature.  I am always aware of and respectful of the power and grandeur of water. 

As I was thinking on this I heard God say, that is the way it is with my Spirit.  I want you to be keenly aware of where my Spirit is moving.  As my Son was in a crowd pressing in on all sides, staying with a mode of perception and constant faith that one would rise up, so also I want you to be in the crowds pressing in on all sides coming to receive something, and like My Son I want you to let His Spirit in you be aware of my Spirit, the effect of my Spirit upon others and the surroundings and so move accordingly.

I said to the Lord, “but Lord I do not have this innate sense of the Spirit upon others like I do with water.  It’s easy for me to sense where the water is but your Spirit…O Lord that is harder for me.  So I asked Him to give me this sense of the spiritual.  I realized for some people they just get it.  Just standing there they sense the Spirit moving upon people and situations.  Like my husband, he doesn’t really have to do anything or learn anything he just gets it.  I also realized in that moment that I have had to learn things and there is a reason for this.  I have not been just given this as part of my being and the reason is that in order to teach these things they must be learned. So I figure that’s ok then, for some they just get to stand there, for others like myself we need to learn so we can teach.  Is God in the process of teaching you right now?

As I continued walking along God continued to speak.  I came upon some people in the distance walking toward me with a bunch of dogs.  I turned around to avoid having to speak with them or to come into contact with the dogs, I am not a dog person by any means.  The Lord spoke again ever so gently reminding me it is about the people and I must get out amongst them, be in contact with them not avoid them because dogs are involved.

God reminded me of two things:

One, He reminded me of the cute dog I recently sat across from on the plane.  She was so well behaved, sitting at her masters’ feet without so much as a twitch.  And when it was time to deplane she eagerly got up and followed her master to where he was going.  I thought about the obedience of that dog and how cute she was.  It made me want to get another dog, which is completely out of character for me.  I did not recognize her breed so I asked my daughter when I got to her house about this dog I had seen.  She immediately found it, it is a Viszla, used for hunting.  The pictures I saw were of this cute dog happily trotting back to her master gently bringing in the hunt.  

And two, God reminded me of a book I had read titled Faith Without Honor: and dogs that can’t hunt.  In this book Ben Hardister writes:

Initially dogs were bred to hunt.  Over time people manipulated the breeding process to produce cute, fluffy dogs that no longer have the innate desire to hunt…. their purpose in life is completely different from the original intent of canine breeders…. Christians resemble those fluffy dogs.  They sit in church, groomed and pretty, but they’re unable or unwilling to fulfill the intent, for which they were initially created—to hunt.  Jesus gave His followers an assignment: to hunt out or seek those who are lost.  Fluffy dogs cannot hunt…other dogs can hunt but choose not to.  Neither honors God with their actions or their life.  A life never spent hunting might be fine for dogs, but is that any place for a person to live? God extends His hand down to us to change how we live, but we have to reach up and grasp it…As Christians we profess faith in God and His Son.  But do we honor Him in our daily lives?  Faith without honor is empty faith, a faith that brings God no honor.  It’s belief without action.”

Faith without hunting is fluffy faith and God was saying to me here, take a look around you, perceive with faith and act like a hunting dog, listening and going where the Master tells you to go so you can gently, without maiming the object, bring it in to the Master for His purposes.

I told my daughter that when the time was right and I lived on property I might just have to get another dog again, one of those hunting dogs well trained which sits at its master’s feet.  May I be like the dog I want to get! Going out and hunting, coming in contact with people wherever God may lead and may I perceive with faith and bring them ever so gently into the Master for His purposes, for Him to change their lives.

As I turned to go back my focus was now on the path before me.  The tide was coming in and very little beach was left, much of my path was strewn with obstacles and I was afraid if I looked up I would stumble and fall.  Again God spoke: look up he said, look to those mountains (which were beautiful snow covered Olympic mountains) and trust me to guide your steps.  I am old now and not as nimble as I was in my youth so though skeptical and fearful about the wisdom of this I was reminded of the verse in Isaiah 40:28-31 which says:

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.   Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

It is also said in scripture

He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name. (Psalm 23:3 NLT)

I just need to look up to the mountains and trust Him and I will not stumble or fall.  In fact even in my “old” age I will be renewed like my youth.

Recently I was telling my husband he has not been running with his music as he did in his youth with joy and gladness of heart.  Neither have I been running the race set before me with the lightheartedness of my youth.  It made me sad to realize we were feeling old and tired.  It has not been an easy 7 years for us since hearing the call of God, like the call of the ocean, to “come follow Me” picking up everything, moving to Eugene Oregon, loosing everything but continuing on when we heard the word of God to go and again moving, even farther from family and friends to Oak Harbor Washington.  But today I realized as God, the Creator, spoke through his creation, that we have been in serious training for the last seven years so that we will hunt, not just sit in church, but get out in the crowd, perceiving the Spirit around us and hunt so we can bring in souls to the Master and bring honor to God through our lives. 

If you are going through tough times and are feeling worn out and tired remember God reaches His hand down to us, we have but to take it and maybe when we do we will perceive those tough times are His training ground for us to be trained up to hunt and not just sit as fluffy dogs in church just looking pretty.

May you be encouraged in your trials of today, for they are “achieving for you an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (2 Cor 4:17).