Life and ministry seem daunting, overwhelming and yes impossible.
There are a few people in life who have found the peace that God intends for His people. God desires that His people have peace in the midst of the storm, strength in the midst of weakness and a deeply settled rest in the deepest part of their souls. The people who have found this deep peace are people of great faith, though I imagine they did not begin that way. These persons who are firm and secure and cannot be shaken are only created after having been shaken, broken, re-molded and reshaped by the Lord Himself. I want to be one who has His peace within!
God has promised that His people can enter His rest. He has promised that all who are weary and heavy laden may come to Him and He will give them rest. God has told us that we can take His yoke upon us which is easy and light. And yet most often we take these Bible verses to be nice spiritual platitudes rather than actual, tangible promises that God will pour into our lives. But I want to be one who enters His rest!
I have been searching over the course of my life for meaning, purpose, calling, love, peace, joy, contentment and rest. I have sought in different ways and have settled for many pitiful expressions of these things, because ultimately all of these things are only fully realized in the presence of the Lord. And let me clarify: meaning, purpose, calling, love, joy, peace, contentment and rest are not gifts that are given from the hand of God, but rather present realities that are experienced in the Presence of God. I want to live in the presence of the Almighty!
All along my journey of life and ministry I have chosen many lesser things and meanwhile there was always someone along the way who knew that what I was really hungry for, what my heart and soul were really yearning for was the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. These people were humble and gentle with me, shepherding my soul trying to guide me, lead me and push me to Jesus. These were men and women who poured the life of the Spirit and the faith of God into my life when I was too arrogant to hear, too stubborn to listen, too self-sufficient to ask for help and too driven to stop and wait. These people modeled for me Isaiah 53 and the suffering Messiah as they listened to my pathetic schemes to find full and abundant life and loved me in the midst of my foolishness. They watched as I headed down many wrong paths and fell into many pits and yet they simply continued to pray and pour their faith into me hoping and believing that one day I would call out to the Lord. I want to never stop calling out to the Lord!
Perhaps these men and women know the impact they have made on my life, perhaps not. But for all of you who may read this post and wonder whether your prayers, words, attitudes and actions make any difference, let me assure you: they do! My mom and dad modeled faith in the midst of trial, sacrifice in the midst of scarcity and that God’s truth is everywhere if we will look for His revelations. Greg Wood, Richard Reed, Don Boesel and Don Cowan believed that God was working in me in spite of my impetuous, arrogant, stubborn, always have-a-plan-and-an-answer attitude that I approached life and ministry with. They were patient with me and let me stumble into new areas of faith and growth and for that I am thankful. Aaron Coffey listened, sympathized and encouraged me with no personal benefit in return. Corey Jones and Tim Kellerman had faith that God would show me His glory when I didn’t even know what they were talking about. Their few words and simple faith-filled prayers lifted me in ways that words can not express. Dan and Doug Bohi have spoken life into me and my wife by the Spirit of God and have allowed God to flow through them as a conduit while probably not knowing the direct, personal affect they were having on me and my wife and yet they made themselves available to the Lord and to us nonetheless. I want to be a conduit of God’s grace and a vessel that God’s Spirit lives in and through!
This is a brief and incomplete list and a pitiful attempt to convey the deep debt that I owe each person who has prayed and believed, but I want each of you who have asked and believed the Lord to work in my life to know that your prayers have not been in vain, but the Lord has been and is continuing to answer what you have lifted before Him! God is shaking me, breaking me, re-molding and remaking me!
And so now I want to commit that to those around me who don’t know what they are looking for; for those around me who are scrambling, grasping, reaching for things to fill the emptiness: I will lift you before the Father; I will seek to pour the life of the Spirit and the faith of God into you, so that whether you know it or not, God may begin to reveal Himself to you as He has revealed himself to me because of the faith of other men and women who asked and believed! Thank you Father for your faith-filled children who had faith enough to bring me to you! Bless and honor them I pray for their sacrifice and their faith and obedience! Lord help us to call out to you that you will be our All in all and that you will bring peace to our troubled souls!!
I want to dedicate this song to all those who believed for me when I didn’t know enough to believe or couldn’t or wouldn’t believe for myself:
I have found a deep peaceAuthor: Haldor Lillenas Refrain My wonderful Lord, my wonderful Lord I desire that my life shall be ordered by Thee Refrain All the talents I have I have laid at Thy Feet Refrain Thou art fairer to me than the fairest of earth Refrain |
Pastor Michael Johnson 