Skyfall (The Movie) :He did All of that to save her...!

Disclaimer: If you have not seen the new Bond movie “Skyfall”  but plan to see it, you may not want to read this post (It’ll give away the ending).

Ok God speaks to me in the most unusual instances. So recently I was watching the new 007 movie “Skyfall”. I won’t go through the entire plot (I’ll assume that you know enough about 007) but I’ll say that Bond had a special relationship and love for M who in the movie plays the head of the Secret Intelligence Service. In this movie a former agent turned on the agency and M and was seeking to kill her. Because 007 loved her so much he went through extreme measures to save her life. There was an intense battle scene at the end and just before the double-crossing agent killed M, 007 killed him. As 007 ran over to M, she said a few words and died. – My friend with disdain said “He did all of that to save her and she STILL die”. At that moment, the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said “That is exactly how we (the God-head: Father, Son, Holy Spirit) feel. We sent Christ down to die a brutal death for humanity because we love you SO much, We liberated you from the slavery of sin, We offered you abundant like and yet, they STILL die eternally”. Wow, Oooook Daddy…I hear you!

Yo! Don’t let the death of Christ be in vain. He did all of that to save you…chose life.

For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life! – John 3:16

With love,

Kristin Sarai

When God Hurts Your Feelings

Yes, God will absolutely hurt your feelings but for your own good. Hear me out…

This is where I am mentally/spiritually:

My greatest desire is to do God’s work, to be His hands and feet, to demonstrate His love, to reflect His glory, to be obedient to His plan and perfect will. I say this with all sincerity. I want to do the work that God has for me, I want to have relationships that God wants me to have, I want to spend my money on what God wants me to spend money on, and I want to be righteous. The bottom line is this; I want to govern every aspect of my life according to the will of God. I understand that the only reason that I have life in my body is to make the name of Jesus great. I have asked God to mold my desires to be the same as His desires.

The blessing of that mental/spiritual standing:

God speaks to you! When we become completely focused on Christ and we are interested above all else in doing His work He will began to develop us, speak to us, and the Holy Spirit will be powerfully at work in our lives. Often times God will give us the inside scoop about the task that He is preparing us for. He may tell you a clear picture of what your life looks like in the future, what your life will accomplish, etc. It truly is a blessing to know exactly what God is preparing you to accomplish.

The dilemma:

So God has great things in store for you and he has given you a glimpse of what it looks like and of course, in your human nature you are excited (nothing wrong with that)! The problem occurs when you attempt to speed things up. You want everything to be manifested in “your” time, after all, it’s all for God’s glory. We become anxious and unfortunately anxiousness often leads to fear, doubt, distrust, frustration, disappointment, etc. God calls for us to rest in Him. The scripture that states this most explicitly is Philippians 4:6

“Do not fret or have anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite request), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God”.

God wants us to REST in HIM. Being anxious demonstrates unrest and distrust which ultimately will destroy the blessing. This is seen in James 1:6-8

“But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷ For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸ he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

This scripture in James helps us to see the importance of resting in God. To put in it 2012 language God is saying “I’ve got this under control. I created you and your life. I really don’t need your help…I just need your obedience. Who are you to determine the time-frame in which I make something happen??! Did you create yourself? Can you see what’s happening behind the scenes? Can you see into the future? No! You don’t even know what will happen in the next 30 seconds yet, you think that you are an expert on time?! Psssssh! Sit down, shut up, all of the time and WAIT on me to move. Trust my love for you. Trust my purpose for you. And trust what I have put in your heart. Don’t ask me for something and then be all anxious about it. I’m your daddy and I love you more than your finite mind can understand. Just chill out and let ME be God. I love you”. Ok, that, my friends is the “feelings crusher” part of this. God will straight shut you DOWN! And rightfully so, you see, feelings have little place in what God needs for us to have. Feelings and emotions move with the circumstances but God needs for it to be a heart/spirit thing. When everything is for His glory…our feelings should have little influence on our behaviors.  He will knock you to your knees to help you understand that He is God alone. I know it’s hard for us to believe because we are so great but, God does NOT need our help in determining how things should be done. He actually needs for us to just submit and be obedient. What IS fair for us to ask however, is the strength to be patient. And He will provide that, His desire is not to hold any good thing from us but to work His perfect plan in our lives.

Christians, we have a horrible habit of giving things to God and then snatching it back and we get into this vicious cycle of giving and taking back and this does not please God. Don’t we understand that God likes cheerful givers?! We have associated that to finances only, but that is with EVERYTHING (our concerns, burdens, gifts and talents, money, etc.) God’s desire is for us to cheerfully give him our burdens and concerns, hopes and dreams, and finances and gifts with full confidence that He can handle it all. We looked at Philippians 4:6 but there is a beautiful conditional statement in the following verse. Philippians 4:7 says,

“and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

So, IF we do not fret or have anxiety about circumstances but rather ask God with thanksgiving, THEN, the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds through the strength of Christ.

Is not that a beautiful promise?! There is something about having peace that is so sweet. Peace is a universal treasure. Ask a celebrity how important peace is and ask a poor person in Liberia who have absolutely nothing but can still lift their hands with a smile on their face and say “God is good, and I am thankful for my blessings”. The answer is universal, peace is so valuable, its price is above rubies. Peace says, no matter what the circumstances are, all is well with my soul because I know and recognize who is in control of not only my life, but the entire world.

The bottom line is, sometimes God hurts our feelings to get us back on track and put things in perspective and PRAISE GOD for that! It’s all for our good! So, if you have experienced something similar, lift your hands and tell God “Thank you Daddy”! When you ask God to mold you into the image of Christ…we better be in full expectation that God will do just that! Jesus bootcamp ain’t over, he’s molding you into His image. And that my friends, is complete elevation!

Daddy thank you for loving us enough to hurt our feelings. You are amazing and your love is amazing. Our desire is to be more like You. You are our best example because you are perfect, blameless, and without fault. Help us to trust you more and to feast off of your faithfulness. Thank you for giving us a glimpse of what you have in store for our future. Give us the patience to trust You and Your timing fully. We get so excited that we often try to jump ahead of you, but thank you for your divine purpose and plan. Give us peace and patience. Give us Your wisdom. We love you with our whole hearts, purify our love and purify our lives for Your glory. You are everything! Amen.

With love,

Kristin Sarai

The Stress of Plans

2012 is swiftly approaching its end and boy what a year it has been!! I have experience God in such a profound way this year and although it is almost over, I am still pregnant with expectation of what more God has in store for his children. One of most valuable lessons that I have learned this year is that it is critically important for us to allow God’s desires to become our desires, to allow His will to become our will, and to allow His thoughts become our thoughts. Now, this is not new knowledge….I would venture to say that I have had this understanding (God’s plans are higher than my thoughts and His ways higher than our ways, etc.) BUT it wasn’t until this year that I got the divine revelation of that truth.

Often we go through life making plans for our future. We determine what we will accomplish, where we will work, the type of person we will marry, the amount of children we will have, where we will live, how much money we will make even down to the details like how we will celebrate our birthday and what we will eat for dinner tonight. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with planning, planning is actually a wonderful practice however, the danger in planning is doing so without the direction of God. You see, God is the author of our lives and we are merely vessels to carry out the purpose for which He created us. One thing is for sure, we can trust that God is crazy in love with us and He promised that when we submit our lives to Him, He would bring us to an expected end. One of my favorite verses in Psalms 139 gives us an explicit demonstration of the love, concern, and detailed thoughts that God has towards us.

¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!

Psalms 139:16-17

So here is where the confusion begins….We realize that we are NOT the authors of our lives, we do not know what God’s intent was when he placed us on this earth, yet opposed to seeking purpose and developing plans through Him, we decide to create our own path. In the laborious task of developing our life’s plan outside of God, we become weary and burdened. Things don’t seem to ever work out or perhaps they do but even in your plans working, you still don’t have peace or fulfillment. God is calling you to give up your plans and submit to His plans. His desire is to give you Complete Elevation and to teach you how to Live in His Abundance! There is a familiar passage of scripture in Matthew that offers believers a beautiful gift if only we will take hold.

²⁸ Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ^[o]ease and relieve and ^[p]refresh ^[q]your souls.]

²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (^[r]relief and ease and refreshment and ^[s]recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls.

³⁰ For My yoke is wholesome (useful, ^[t]good—not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.

Matthew 11:28-30

God is SO interested in giving us the rest that we need. He is interested in being our helper, our peace, and truly being in control of our lives without our interference. In the arms of God we can be vulnerable; we can express our fears, hopes, aspirations, and be completely transparent.  It is in the arms of Christ that we are fulfilled and where the transformation occurs.  It is at this point that we have run, we are tired, we have planned, we have fail, we are unfulfilled, we are bruised and wounded that God is standing with arms of love waiting for us to wave the white flag and surrender to His plans and His will. After God has clarified our identify, transformed our hearts, breathed the word of life into bodies, molded our desires to His desires, at that point, we can plan with the understanding that our plans must be God’s plans and that they MUST yield honor God.

As you prepare for the holidays, as you continue to make plans for your life….remember the words from Psalms 139:16-17. God is more than capable of handling your life, I’m a living witness. This truth requires sacrifice and relinquishing control but God is saying, “My desire is for you to live in My abundance”. Answer His call today, stop running, stop planning, run into the arms of the Maker of the heavens and earth, the creator of our soul, the ONLY sovereign God. Again,  God’s desire is for you to live in His abundance. And that my friends, is 7 Degrees North, Complete Elevation.

Lord, thank you for your grace and love. Forgive us for the times that we have planned without you, the times that we have doubted your ability to bring us to an expected end, that we have gotten so caught up in life that we forgot that YOU are the only life that matters. Lord, mold our hearts to yours and give us the grace to submit our desires and plans to you. Let our lives be as sweet sounding music to your ears. Our desire is to serve you through obedience and live in your perfect will. Lead us down the path of righteousness for your name’s sake. Lord we love you because you first loved us on the cross of Calvary. Amen.

With Love,

Kristin Sarai