In His Likeness w/ AntTBri

Are we proactive participants or passive recipients of promise?  When God gives us a Word are we required or do we have to do anything to prepare for the fulfillment of that word?  If anything what is the buy in, the work of preparation? Should we prepare for the promise? If so, how and what should the preparation be?

There is much debate concerning (if God said it He will do it). There are a segment of people who believe they have to do nothing but believe it will happen and it will happen.  Is that God’s perspective of what we should be doing while waiting on the fulfillment of what He said would be?  Does God work in conjunction with humanity to bring about His purposes and promises?  Does the length of time alleviate us from consistent daily prayer… seeking God’s heart and in the moment direction for what we should be praying, proclaiming, and praising Him for while we are waiting?  Does what we feel and think in the present register more than what God said? Does it excuse us from the responsibility of remaining in faith and being loyal to the outcome God declared would be because it is not reflective in our today?

Then there’s a segment of people who believe the work of one’s faith is demonstration. They believe that if s/he believes God to do what He said… they are to live in expectation of it being so despite the length of time, current realities, and the things undergone in the process of fruition.  If anything what should we be doing?  What side of the equation should the believer land? Do we stand in faith or sit in faith? Participate or passively wait? Have we erroneously understood “God doesn’t need your help”? Or are we to be praying as it is in heaven let it be on earth?  Does God need us to pray forth His purposes? Should we be praying the promise? Is the blessing, the promise, the expectation heaven’s realities manifesting on earth?

I understand the thought process of both sides of this debate… do we or don’t we help to bring about the purposes of God in the earth realm?  If I don’t actively pray the Word over my present does it nullify the promises of God to me tomorrow? If I do search the scriptures, pray the Word (God’s heart: purpose) concerning persons, places, and possibilities is there an advantage?  Can you feel the tension and struggle from both sides of the equation? Mentally it feels like a tug of war between the comfort of one’s flesh and the constraint of one’s spirit (DOESN’T IT?).  The faith infused heart is compelled to pray for the purposes of God despite the actualities of the present while the fearful consciousness fights to comfortably compromise why it is not actively praying over or to the Word God purposes and promises to be.

Our human mind always wrestles the spirit in an attempt to maintain the greater influence.  Our humanity never willingly submits to the workings and will of the Holy Spirit in our living and loving.  We have to intentionally live and love opposite our feelings and alongside of our faith.  It’s no wonder we’re often thrust into opportunities that afford us time to come to a Developing Yes.  What better way to prepare, find our position of prayer and posture our hearts in the center of God’s will than to proactively participate in the process of a Developing Yes. While in process, we are often refreshed, re-energized, and revived in faith as we peruse the Word and passionately Worship God while living and loving in His likeness according to His way.  In our own strength, through our own understanding we cannot and will not survive or be sustained in faith…let alone stand, stay or stick with it until fruition.  Maybe staying in communication with God throughout the entire process is the Developing Yes.   It is said that inquiring minds want to know…should we be inquiring of the Lord as we live and love.  Are their preparations, perceptions, and passions of a Developing Yes?

If so, would the bible be the best place to begin our journey of faith, fellowship and friendship with God?  Should we devout time to discovering how God revealed himself to man and how man responded to God as s/he lived and loved.  Maybe we would see ourselves through the depictions of their experiences and expressions.  Maybe we could learn from those individuals that went through life and love as they came victoriously into a Developing Yes.  Maybe this would afford us the opportunity to ask several questions of the text as we discover the good news for our bad news.  Just maybe by intentionally looking for the pros and cons of their beliefs and behaviors, and making mental notes of what worked for them and what didn’t in terms of a Developing Yes we will be given an advantage to living and loving in His likeness.

Biblical accounts attest to the struggles, strengths, and situations of humanity as we succumb to the realities of a Developing Yes.  We are privy to sharing in the experiences of persons very much like ourselves (personalities, passions, and purposes) and given the opportunity to avoid, adapt or amend characteristics that will directly impact our expression of life and love in His likeness.  We are given the opportunity to proactively read, passionately relate and purposely repeat positive and advantageous mindsets, mannerisms, movements and missions as a result of a Developing Yes.

For example, we can all agree that Abram (Abraham the father of faith) struggled with the element of time as he waited for the fulfillment or manifestation of the Word God continually spoke to him.  Was he a proactive participant of promise or a passive recipient?   Is it possible that his story magnifies the process of a Developing Yes?   Are their stages to a Developing Yes?  One would have to wonder if the continual communication between God and him through the process assisted his Developing Yes.  Did prayer throughout the process keep him believing, expecting and preparing for the Word God spoke?  It is interesting to me that even his (Abram’s) mistakes were in effort to protect and position himself for the fulfillment of that Word.

Is it during prayer that we buy into the promise personally?  Do we become more vested in the outcome the more we hear God say it?  Does God talk to us in detail about the promise during the wait? Do we want to hear what He’s saying?  Do we believe or keep believing by these specific purpose or promise discussions?  It seems the longer time went on the more God appeared to Abram until a change transpired in him. Yes what God said would happen… happened assuredly.  Yes, Abraham hoped against hope and it was attributed to him as faith. He had moments of great strengths and struggle but God was faithful that promised and helped a Developing Yes come out of and from the man once known by his biological connection, identified by his fears and frustrations (Sarai/Sarah), and associated with loss, lack, and limitations.  Finally, after all that time… as a result of a Developing Yes he became Abraham the Father of nations. Who are you called to? How do you feel in relation to the persons you  are called to serve?  To father a nation he had to be prepared, his heart posture toward God and the blessing that would in turn be a blessing to others had to be secured in faith and his position had to be solidified.  None of this would have happened without his participation in the process of a Developing Yes. Abraham like many others in the bible attest to the fact that we work in conjunction with the plan of God.  We are collaborators of purpose and promise.

Like Abraham we have to come to the place of a Developing Yes.  Yes I will forsake all I know in exchange for your heart for me.  Yes I will leave the comfort and convinence of my family and friends for your hearts unveil toward me.  Yes I will be who you purposed and called me to be with your heart in me.  I will do the work of becoming (be your heart) to the nations you purposed would be blessed through me.  The stages of yes are participative, proactive, and passionately pursued as God’s purposes prevail while you live and love in His likeness.  May we continue to pray and praise God for the proceeding Word before us and boldly proclaim God realities into this earth realm.  What shall be already is…as God decides, designs, and designates for our living and loving in His likeness. May you buy in completely, be totally invested in the God plan for your life and love. May the Developing Yes prove to be scholastic (in that you learn lessons pertinent to your life and love) sensational (in that you experience every dimension of life and love), surreal (in that your life and love expression is every facet of authenticity), and lastly but not the least seriously supernatural (in that the living, loving, lasting relationship you have with God produces Spirit lead, directed, and empowered works and worship as you live and love in His likeness according to His Way. ~AntTBri