Gabe stirred our faith with an encouraging word that was deposited into the hearts of those feeling stuck in the same cycle of life of copy, paste, repeat – those who can’t move forward or make any progress. It was a powerful and divine wake-up call to a sleeping Church to turn the page into a new thing and season that God has already prepared for us.
Gabe shared 4 reminders from God’s word that when we worship to draw near to Him and have the patience to wait for the new thing He has prepared for us, everything can change.
1. Mathew – There was a long 400-year wait for God’s people between the Old Testament and the New Testament that was promised to them by a Prophet in Malachi that a Messiah was coming. During that time, known as the silent years, there was no divine Word. People lived with a perpetual rhythm of sameness, believing that God had stopped speaking. We too can relate when it feels like our own prayers bounce off the ceiling and come back with no answer.
2. John – Good Friday is a story of living colour that suddenly goes black. Jesus’s followers were expecting the Messiah to become King, yet He dies, which to them was not according to their script. Saturday was a day of huge disappointment for the Disciples, where everyone returned to what they knew before Jesus called them. We are all prone to our default setting of going back to our comfort zones, living a game
of snakes and ladders. We stay stuck on the same page, even when the story hasn’t ended.
Christianity is not a call to die for Christ but to live because Christ died for you!
3. Acts – This disciples were instructed not to leave but to wait until the Holy Spirit had come. They didn’t understand what this meant but had the patience to obey and wait. For us too, the waiting room of God is a hard place to be, where we must not miss opportunities, but to stand firm until God makes the change.
4. Revelations – This book is not about the end of the world unveiling but about Jesus being revealed, hence the name ‘Revelations’. It is the end of God’s Word, where like a wedding ceremony, the veil is removed so we can see our bridegroom clearly.
For those who are feeling stuck in the same cycle of pain, hardship, hurts and grievances, it is time to turn the page from persecution to revelation. When we discover that God is still with us during every season that we find ourselves, it will make it easier to turn the page.
· God was WITH us in Bethlehem
· God was FOR us at Calvary
· God was IN us at Pentecost
· God is OVER us in Revelations
God still stands and He still heals. As we allow God’s Word to wake us up from our slumber, let us take our authority to turn the page on every narrative, both in our family and work situations.
STOP PUTTING A FULL STOP WHERE GOD HAS PUT A COMMA!
It is time to turn the page from your sin, your secrets and your sorrow, to the clean blank page God is waiting to write on.