Psalms 89: Covenant

Covenants God has made with me:

• You take care of my people and I will take care of your courses (circa 2005)

• Don’t ask and I’ll still provide. In fact, give away $1000 of what you already have (2007)

• I will inhabit you. Your thoughts will be my thoughts and your actions my actions (2008)

• I have appointed you to bear fruit that lasts (John 15:16) - 2014

• I will be with you (Jesus, 2016) The road is going to be hard, impossible-looking but I will still be with you.

• Your job is to remain in Me (John 15) - spiritual retreat 2018

My thoughts on Covenant:

A covenant is a sealed contract, written by God. Sometimes it’s conditional, other times it’s unconditional and requires nothing of us. When God gives us a covenant, it will absolutely be challenged. We need to see how God is bringing it to fruition and see what we can do to partner with Him. We need to trust that He will do His part. But even if we don’t, He’ll follow through.

Covenants are very special things. Not everyone has things that God tells them in the form of a promise. But when He does tell you something, you can guarantee it’s important and that it will be tested.

We need to be like Abraham, who in the face of God giving Him a covenant of blessing on Him and his descendants, Abraham was able to still fully trust in God to the point of offering the best land up for Lot’s flocks and offering his son Isaac as a sacrifice. He knew Covenant did not depend on him at all.

What has God promised us? Has He been faithful in the past with those same situations? Am I trusting Him now to still come through? What is holding me back? What are ways I can trust Him more in my life and ministry?

Saying Yes

What did Mary need to do to make the vision happen? Essentially she just had to say yes. She had to say yes at the beginning and every day, even the ones where she was being mocked or attacked or her life threatened by stoning. Every day was a choice not to abort and walk away. Though saying yes is easy in some moments, there are others where yes is hard.

Yes is hard because you are saying no to a normal life. Saying yes to God automatically shoots down so many dreams and ambitions and plans. Granted, most of those plans are futile or impossible, but there is a deep sense of loss nonetheless. Sometimes it is heart-breaking to understand that you will never truly belong anymore.

Saying yes is hard because often you don’t have a reason. “God told me” is the best you have to explain to people but you can’t use it. Now that shouldn’t be bad but so many people have used it to manipulate others that it just seems calloused and conversation-ending to say. Once you say “God told me” you are closing the door to any other opinions or advice, good or bad. No, often you have to just say that you don’t have a reason, or that you may be wrong but you don’t want to miss God.

Saying yes is hard because everyone will rejoice with you in the victory and birth (Luke 1:58) but no one will be there to help to carry it out.

Getting to Bethlehem

Jesus had to be born in Bethlehem. How did Mary get there? She didn’t need to strive and fight to fulfill this particular part of the prophecy; it turns out that there was a government census and EVERYONE needed to travel. It also just so happens that her fiancee's family was from Bethlehem.

God didn’t tell Mary that she needed to find a way to get to Bethlehem; it just happened. God was orchestrating His plans in His ways. Be extremely careful to do things HIS way or you will find yourself using so much effort on things He hasn’t called you to do!

Also, trust that the Lord will bring around the right people at the right time. I have neither the time, not the energy, nor the strength to find the kind of partnerships we need in the US to put the ministry on solid financial footing. But I don’t need to - God has told me many things but that I need to be spending more time trying to find donors isn’t one of them. I need to trust that God will bring the right people at the right time, and that he is calling someone else to carry this standard.

Elizabeth's Place

Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back to her own home. -Luke 1:56

Elizabeth’s place was a place of sanctuary, a place of refuge before Mary had to go back and face her reality. It had people who believed her and believed in her. It had people that were doing things differently, walking by faith and not by sight. It had 2 clearly visible miracles in the house - the one of Elizabeth’s birth and the one of Zechariah’s mute-ness; both awe-inspiring signs from the Lord.

What was one of the keys of Mary’s pregnancy? Be around others pregnant with a vision. It is important to be around others who have also been called by God for a work. This builds faith and encouraged everyone; another sign we were never supposed to do life alone! 

An angel showed up and told Mary what would happen to her. Every day for 9 months, she struggled and fought the what ifs, the condemning stares, the people who thought she was obviously a liar. Every day, she had to wake up and go through life where the reality of what she saw with her eyes didn’t match the reality of what she was told by the angel. She had pain, difficulty, and uncertainty, but her time with other believers of vision helped her. Whenever she hit rock bottom, God would send people to believe in her; first Elizabeth and later Joseph.

So what was the order? The plan came from God, then was given to Mary. It was encouraged by other people with the same calling but of different locations. After she had to go back to her circumstances, God sent her the team (Joseph) that would actually carry out the plan.

I can actually see the same thing with Equip Mozambique… It wasn’t our plan to go back; in fact, we wanted to go anywhere except Mozambique! God initiated. Then we got all of our intercessor friends together and we all prayed about it. We were lifted up, encouraged and blessed, but it was just us that had to get on that plane and actually live out the vision.

While we were here though, the vision was still forming. We didn’t yet have a team of people who had been called for the same mission as us. Slowly but surely God started forming the team. He put the right people in the right places and though they weren’t the ones that were pregnant, they chose to marry the vision and connect their destiny with ours.

Lord, teach me daily how you work. Show me your ways, and help me be an encouragement in the lives of others.

 

Mary's Attitude

The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!" -Luke 1:28

What did God’s favor on Mary mean? In practical terms, she would face stoning. She would be judged and ridiculed for the rest of her life. She would crush her fiancee’s heart and their relationship may never be the same. But she would have a first-hand seat to the most important events in the world, and experience the miraculous life that changed everything.

Often times we have the same choice. Do we choose the same path, a path of comfort and being like everyone else, or do we choose the favor of the Lord, the path of great ridiculed and difference, having a front-row seat as God’s kingdom breaks into people’s lives?

If we do it for the honor that will eventually come, we do it for the wrong reason. If we do it for the blessing, our hope is often misplaced and can fail.

How can we live with the attitude of Mary, saying Yes to the Lord regardless of the cost? Lord, give us vision so big that it takes an angel, older relatives, and angelic visits to our friends to bring it forth. Let us ask “how” (v34) without letting that be a limiting factor. Help us live every day trusting in God and not making the choice to abort the vision God has given us out of convenience.

 

Mary

How did Mary treat the vision that God had given her?

First, the vision was confirmed by God, then by herself. Then it was confirmed by Elizabeth. She was able to stay with Elizabeth for 3 months, with people that believed in her and her call. I believe that fortification was necessary for the pain she would experience when she returned home.

In Equip Mozambique, how can we become a household of Zechariah and Elizabeth? How can we become a place that people pregnant with vision and purpose are safe, encouraged, and ministered to? I need to talk about this with the staff and I need to make sure they understand that we need to be welcoming and inviting.

Earlier in the chapter we see that Elizabeth had her own miracle. She had been faithful for many years, she was older, and married to a priest. Her miracle and vision was lesser, but still she rejoiced with Mary. This is a key factor in becoming a place where visions can mature and be born - lack of envy. We have to be okay if someone else’s vision is larger than ours, if their calling is larger or if they are more talented.