I was blessed to be able to awake this morning and head to church to hear my new dear friend, Wini, speak on God's pattern for our lives. Of course, the time went by way too quickly.
A few notes from the gathering:
There are 4 parts of the the pattern that God establishes for us.
Pattern 1. God is Holy
Pattern 2. God desires to dwell among His people.
Pattern 3. God's people desperately need the presence of God.
Pattern 4. God's people need each other.
Her talk was based on the book of Exodus, when God delivered the Israelites from Egypt.
Pattern 1: God is Holy
Exodus 3:2-5
God is totally holy. We have a very limited understanding of His holiness and faithfulness.
Our idea of holy, loving, & faithfulness is tainted.
God is perfectly holy, perfectly loving, and perfectly faithful.
Pattern 2: God desires to dwell among His people.
He doesn't want to be distanced from His people. He wants to be close to us.
Exodus 25:8-9 (NIV)
"Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you."
God is expressing to the people that He wants the people to be aware of Him in their camp.
John 1:14 (NIV)
"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
Jesus pitched his tent among us. Instead of His Holiness killing us, He died for our sins.
The God that is so Holy lives within us if we are believers!!!
1 Corinthians 3:16
"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?"
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."
Pattern 3: God's people desperately need the presence of God.
Exodus 33:15-16 (NIV)
"Then Moses said to him, 'If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?"
I have nothing without my God. I may think I want something, but if God isn't on board I don't want to go there.
I spend a lot of time looking at everything else going on in my world. I look at and worry about the job I am doing as a wife, mother, sister, friend, daughter. I do all of this without focusing on Him. I worry about my ability to do what He has called me to do. He has the strength and the ability. Our eyes must be on God. He is with us and within us. He is sufficient and good.
I know who I am without God. I remember the person I was before I truly asked God into my life. I know that I need His presence in my life all of the time. I cannot be wife, mom, sister, friend, and daughter without Him. For anything truly important to happen, He must be a part of it.
All of my frustration and feeling discouraged and impatient over the last several weeks have been because I am depending on myself and waiting on others. I wait until the last very second before I crack to call out to Him. Why? If I would just do it first thing, I would save myself (and my husband) a lot of grief. Why do that when God can just give me the simple reminder that even though I may be forgetful, scrambled, and downright crazy; He is not. God wants to keep a teeny bit of that desperation there so that we come searching Him out.
6 ways our lives are to be distinguished by the Spirit
1. study the word of God-we can't recognize Him if we don't get to know Him
2. yield to God's control-don't be stiff necked, have to be teachable. You can't be so sure of who y
you are so that God can't mold you.
3. pray for clear leadership and specific directions
4. pray to recognize that direction
5. make plans but hold them loosely
6. learn to recognize peaces as a sign of God's will
I want to live a life that God approves of. I want to please Him.
Pattern 4: God's people need each other
No one person could accomplish/finish the tabernacle. It involved all of the skills of all of the people.
Exodus 35:29
Exodus 12:35-36
1 Corinthians 12:4-6
"There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.
There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.
There are diferent kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men."
Take note of the people in your life who follow the pattern.
Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 11:1, "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ."
Look for the pattern in others who are following the pattern of our Lord. A pattern for how to be a more godly wife, mom, daughter, sister, friend.
As soon as Wini said that I immediately wrote down 4 women who have been that for me in my life since the moment I met them.
People are watching you to see who you're imitating...even if it's Christ in someone else.
A few notes added to the end of the conference:
1. Sometimes God leads us into the wilderness. It's a way for God to bring you to Him so that we
can focus on Him. He will make us desperate for Him so that we can be more intimate with
Him.
2. We don't have to be "here" (in the santuary) to be in the sancutary. Wherever you are you
can make it a sanctuary. God is right in the middle of whatever you are in.
Make it a sanctuary.
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