This will be a brief one. Plus a little bit of an explanation. Some may build on others. From my perspective, some of them build. Others are just like puzzle pieces that you set aside (but don’t lose), because you know as more pieces come together they will be needed.
One day, a friend came over to borrow a tool of mine. We are good friends, and because of Covid-19, we hadn’t seen each other much. He has a gift of prophecy. As far as I know, He is growing in it. But, at the base of all of it, is that He listens for the Lord, a lot.
I don’t know where he got his start, but a lot of people seem to think that you can’t listen to God in the everyday, and for everyday things. Nothing could be further from the truth. The one who counts the number of hairs on your head, and who knows when every sparrow falls, knows every detail of your life, and knows when you lie down and when you rise. Ps 139:3 “You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways”
David and Karen Mains spoke locally on the ways that God communicates to us. They were probably the first to expanded my vision that God is in my everyday, and what is more, cares about it. They wrote the book “The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found” which covers the different ways to see and hear Him. I also have benefitted from Walking With God: Talk to Him, Hear From Him, Really by John Eldredge. Most recently, I have gone through the video curriculum corresponding to the book by Mark and Patti Virkler The 4 keys to Hearing God’s Voice. (If you have a resistance to anything that hints at a surefire method of anything with God, so do I. God is unpredictable. And He certainly can modify these 4 keys, but God seems to bring a lot of truth through this book.)
But, back to my friend. He listened and spoke to my son and I. He said “First, know that the house is yours. Just don’t miss all the lessons along the way to the house. They are the important part.”
One of those lessons has to do with knowing what I want. That may seem rather surface, but it is not. Ps 37:4 affirms the desires of our hearts can be part of His kingdom plan “Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.” (NASB). Prov 13:12 says “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.” (NKJV). Gordon Dalbey in his book Religion vs Reality: Facing the Home Front in Spiritual Warfare, includes the chapter on the spirit of deprivation. In that chapter, he talks about the effects of deprivation, one of which is not knowing what we desire or want. He also describes how God works to restore those deprived. Gordon’s wife also has an excellent audio resource on the AbbaFather.com website on the Tree of Life. We know that tree was in the garden, and we know that Prov 13:12 speaks of it. But, she paints a full picture to the tree(s) of life all point to the tree of life which is the cross of Jesus (as in “cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” and “I am the way, the truth, and the life“)
So, I have noticed desires that God seems to have put in me, and reawakened. Some of them are simple, and others are practical. And some are relational.
The Simple Ones
- A screened in porch
- An office and library
- A pool table (maybe even a carpet ball table)
- A glass shop
- A woodshop (maybe even a metal shop)
- Barn door style room doors
- Wood and stone on the interior
- The ability to look down on the first floor from an interior balcony
- Badminton court
- Urinals in the bathroom (not necessarily all bathrooms)
- (A place for) fruit trees and berry bushes
The Practical Ones
- A kitchen that is big enough to have more than 2 people working on something.
- A workout area
- A fenced in area for the dogs to run and get exercise without being on a leash
- A place in, out of the snow to park the snow removal equipment (e.g. truck or tractor with a plow.)
The Relational Ones
- A kitchen that is big enough to gather and chat
- A stocked pond so we can grab our fishing poles any time.
- Close enough to my friends and my son’s friends for some informal times
- Room for wives, and any simple and practical desires that they have
- Room to separate, as my son “leaves and cleaves”
Today, I noticed that a house with the most of the desires went off the market for the 2nd time. I also found that one other house that had quite a few of them, which came on the market only 5 days ago, already has a pending offer. After all that “bad news”, I realized that whatever house God has in mind, I don’t have to worry about someone else getting it first. God is able. He put the reserved sign on it.
Jesus Day by Day 