Draw me after You and let us run together!!

Last night while talking to a friend, once again, I was reminded that whatever we as children of God do here on earth is not in order to reach the “desirable result” or our idea what it should be and neither is Jesus the “genie in the bottle”. What we do, and in obedience of course to Him, is for Him and only because He is enough. He is the reward. The victory. The Grand Prize. No matter the outcome of the season or the situation. When we have reacted in obedience to Him, keeping our focus on Him and knowing that His ways are not always our ways and definitely not the world’s ways, then whatever the outcome – we are still content. And so this morning as I was worshipping God, I saw me and Jesus running in night time (night time representing this world), me holding onto His hand and just so infatuated and overwhelmed by His awesomeness, we are running through the seasons of my life. I realized three things:

First – This is what it’s about. Seasons come and seasons go. What lasts forever is He. And though, one day “daylight” will break through and I will finally be in heaven with Him forever, for now, I will live from a place of being outrageously loved viewing every season as not my destination but only passing through doing only what I see my Father doing, holding the hand of my King. He is enough!

Second – Eyes on Jesus no matter what. It is vital. In this picture as I saw us running at night, we were also running through long thick grass – which would have been a problem or irritation. They are difficult to move through, they scratch my legs but it didn’t seem to bother me because all of my focus was on Him. Not only did it not bother me but I was so overwhelmed by Him and as a result had so much joy and couldn’t stop laughing. This reminded me of a dream I had a couple of years ago just before leaving on a outreach in the Middle East. I will NEVER forget this dream. I dreamt I was standing on the beach and in front of me was many people facing the sea. It was almost the same setting as in an aerobics class where everyone faces the instructor and follow the moves. In this case, though, the instructor was Jesus and He was teaching the people to walk on water. Some of the people were on the beach, some were ankle deep and some were deeper still. Jesus was standing way out in the deep sea facing them, teaching them. Everyone’s eyes on Him to learn to walk on water. But in my dream, the moment I saw Jesus, I was so excited that it was Him, that I ran to Him and just gave Him a massive hug. I mean, this is Jesus!!!!! Wouldnt you do the same? As I did this, a few seconds later, I realised …wait a minute. I just ran on the water!! I am standing with

Him on the water. He knew my thoughts and then pointed me to a man standing not far from us, and as I looked I saw how far this man had come. He was already walking on deep water. But while watching him, I saw him suddenly looking down at the waves and water beneath him and then starting to sink. It was then as if Jesus was saying to me: Never take your eyes off me. Keep your focus on me. Your joy comes from Me. I AM your Peace. Your protection. Never look at the waves. Stay in a place of romance with Me! 🙂 I loved that idea! Because, I don’t know if you know this yet, but He is THE Lover of our souls, the Author of Romance, there is just nothing and nobody like Him!!!

Thirdly – Back to my picture of this morning where I am running with Jesus through the seasons of my life…As we were running – though eyes on Him, joy in my heart – I still sometimes seemed to peek away and notice some of the seasons we were passing through. These were the really tough, sore seasons. I wanted to cry, pull Jesus back and point to these seasons as a way of asking Him: Did things really have to happen this way (even though I knew the answer). But at the same time, there was also in my heart a silent celebration that with Jesus I had made it through, that it was JUST seasons that had beginnings as well as ends, that I’m still running with Jesus holding His hand. I felt Him saying in my heart: “Even here, keep your eyes on Me. Even as you go through each season, never lose focus on me. Yes, some will be tough but I am with you. We will get through each one – because you are holding on to Me.” Scriptures that pops to mind is “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”(John 16:33) “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”(Phil.4:13) “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John3:16)

What a privilege to be on this journey, this adventure with Jesus. And though in this world we will have wonderful moments as well as troubled and challenging times, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, holding His hand and eyes on Him through it all.

So come on Peter, let go of your boat, forget the waves and walk! The brilliant Prize and Destination is ultimately Jesus.

And as Songs of Solomon 1:4 says, may this be our hearts toward Jesus through every season of our lives: “Draw me after you and let us run together! The King has brought me into His chambers…”