Take Your Place
As I wrote the inaugural post of this blog (available here), I felt a little discouraged. My abilities to miss the point, pursue the form not the substance, and live life head down to the plan rather than up to the horizon had been brought to the surface again. There was comfort in that correction, but even that was eclipsed in what happened as I wrote.
In another tab as I typed away, was this interview between Pete Hughes and Debby Wright. Pete leads KXC, a church I love, and his recent book All Things New is five star. Debby leads Trent Vineyard, Vineyard UK, and is a trusted prophetic voice.
The interview is fascinating all round; perceptive, faith-filled, and honest. Well worth 17 minutes of your time!
Debby shared a prophetic dream of hers, as well as a prophecy from Carol Wimber. And as she did, I was stopped in my tracks.
Months ago, when praying with the team at Saint Philips where I work, I felt God speak to me the words: ‘Take your place in the line-up. Step out of the shadows.’ I sensed it was significant, and the second part made immediate sense. The first, on the other hand, had always been an enigma. Until then.
Debby’s words ‘take your place’ took me right back to that moment, and the meaning of them became clear instantly. Something significant of God is coming, and God is getting his people ready to take our place in that unfolding through the church and into the world, for its transformation and God’s glory. God’s invitation to me months before was to take my place in that, to add my voice to the prayers, my faith to the cry, and my shoulder to the plough. He’d hidden something in me that was uplifting and felt like a commission for the next season.
And it all became clear in a down moment, as I typed my admission that I hadn’t been in that mode already. God met me in discouragement, revealing what he had already spoken, and building me up again with a vision of what could be, and my role in seeing it come to pass.
God’s kindness is overwhelming, seen here in his message, his timing, his care for me. He is always working all things together for the good of those who love him and have been called by him. He is always bringing beauty from ashes, starting in our lives, and then using us to do that for others, so that the whole earth might be filled with the knowledge of him and his glory.
This is my testimony, and it can be your commission too - where is God calling you to take your place? What role has he uniquely commissioned you for?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below or on social media, and if you think someone else might enjoy this, please share it with them.