“A wonderful gift may not be wrapped as you expect.”
Jonathan Lockwood Huie
“Now let death become life. Let death be nothing in the light of My resurrection power.” I heard the Lord say to me. The Wilderness had been a very painful place where a lot of the expectations I had were sorely unrealized.
This is true for the disciples too. Jesus did not become the king that the disciples imagined he would be. He was the King of King and Lord of Lords, but He did not become the new Caesar. The disciples felt lost, abandoned, and forsaken at the death of their leader and their expectations of Him ruling in an earthly sense. They had given it all up and walked away from jobs, families, and careers — for what? Jesus was dead!
Many times in the Wilderness season, we have a set of expectations of how we think something should be. We build a business, control a relationship, and set our career goals around our own expectations, only to find them unfulfilled. But God is ready to resurrect something even bigger than we can imagine if we simply lay it down. True expectation needs to be on a God that can and WILL show up. But we need to release our own natural expectancies on HOW it will happen.
Mary and Martha felt the same way with their brother Lazarus. They expected Jesus to come, but now their brother was dead!
Jesus waited. He waited too long. By the time He got there, Lazarus had been dead for four days. Jesus said, “I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe.”¹ God may delay in coming and our expectations are dashed. He has allowed our own expectations to die and be buried ‘six feet under’ our circumstances. Why? So that He gets all the glory!
Jesus told the men to move the stone away from the grave. Martha did not want to expose that which had died in her life. She protested, but Jesus said, “Did not I tell you if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” ² She then agreed to let them move the stone.
If we are willing to let go of our own expectations of HOW He will show up, then those things that are dead will come to life again with greater power and authority in our lives.
We may be in a season of death — death of a dream, relationship, or finances. It stinks! (and dead things do stink) God wants us to open up and give it to Him and trust Him that He will resurrect it!
Today your miracle is wrapped, but it just may not be the paper you expected it to be in!
“Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
John 12:24 (NIV)
1. John 11:15 (NKJV)
2. John 11:40 (NIV)
One fateful decision landed me smack in the middle of my own Wilderness…
Though I was obeying God’s voice, I spent the next several years “walking on water,” even though it felt more like I was treading water. A Journey Out of the Wilderness is for people going through a rough time—a Wilderness experience—where you feel as though you are “down for the count” and ready to give up. Wilderness Wanderers feel as though they are doing laps around the mountain, passing the same tree over and over again wondering, “Will this never end?” However, being in the Wilderness will be one of the most transformational times of your life.
This is an awesome reminder that God is in control; He is ALL, ALL the time. Yes, death stinks and it is painful, but God is LOVE and brings a peaceful understanding beyond what we can image. Thank you for the wonderful reminder.