Noisy Neighbours! (Part 2)

I took them chocolate cake! I asked the Holy Spirit what He wanted me to do, and He led me to take my upstairs' neighbours chocolate cake and properly introduce myself. I didn’t want them to have to endure my own baking so I bought someone else’s. The cake and I were received with a warm welcome, and it opened up a lengthy conversation that did not include the issue of the noise. I left knowing I had obeyed the Father.

In these cases it would be natural for us to want our desired outcome to be a change in the circumstances. I believe this is true because we remain the centre of our world and want things to turn out the way we think is best. Most of us don’t stop and ask God what He wants to get out of a situation. Our pleasure is priority, not His.

His pleasure is becoming my priority. That has only come about through a process of purification. How does purification happen? Through crisis. I had another noisy neighbour in the not-so-distant past that I took biscuits to, and my gift was belligerently refused. That wasn’t the only thing that was rejected, but also my unconditional love and grace extended in the midst of blatant persecution. The crazy thing is that is exactly where God led me. Yes, He has a way of leading us right into the fiery furnace. Why? Because He knows that a crisis will separate our flesh from our spirit. The word crisis comes from the Greek words “krisis” and “krino,” which means ‘”a separating.” The root word implies that our crises can be a time of severing from old ways. And would you believe that the Chinese word for crisis is composed of two characters; the one on the top is the sign for “danger,” and the one on the bottom is the sign for “opportunity”? So, we have a choice in any given crisis to either view it as a dreaded place of danger and want to find the quickest way of escape or see it as an opportunity to sever from our old ways of thinking and behaving. If we run away from our crisis then we have missed out on a beautiful opportunity for God to do His best work in us. His desired outcome isn’t a change in our circumstances, but in us! Where we approach our circumstances with Jesus’ life of obedience and oneness with the Father shining through.

I remember praying John 14:31 over my life before knowing that God would lead me into that crisis. In the Amplified Bible it reads, “But [Satan is coming and] I do as the Father has commanded Me, so that the world may know (be convinced) that I love the Father and I do only what the Father has instructed Me to do [I act in full agreement with His orders.]” Little did I know He would take me up on that prayer in such a “in-my-face” way. Despite the intensity of the situation I am glad that He did. Obedience was moving from duty to delight; from “have to” to “want to.”

So what crisis are you in at the moment? Are you seeing it as a dreaded place of danger or as a beautiful opportunity?