Everywhere The Good Shepherd Leads.

I see hills and mountains everywhere!

"Some are for you to climb, and many are for you to come alongside sharing the climb with others. Do this, knowing that I will give you all, the strength, guidance and provision on your way. And as your good shepherd, I will lead you and the flocks I call you to lead, to cool, calm, refreshing waters when you need it most". -God

Life these days seem filled with angst and challenge for me, many of my friends and loved ones. I find myself at times overwhelmed with tears of sadness, other times with tears of joy, and all the while wondering if The Good Shepherd is trying to gather His sheep, get our attention and demonstrate His power to rescue, protect, and lead us as we wrestle for position, seek our own way, and just aimlessly go about our sheep business. Often the nearby bleating seemingly overpowers the voice of our shepherd in our ears, and could rise to an overwhelming cacophany if we let it. But other shepherds get their instruction from Him, leading us scattered flocks in the way of The Good Shepherd.

It has become my soul desire to listen to The Good Shepherd, and clearly He seems to be asking me to come alongside others to help them hear the voice of The Good Shepherd. Nothing in my life has brought more comfort in angst, more joy in beauty and more strength in my weakness. When I feel lost, He comes to find and lead me. When the seeming power of death pressed against me, He came to heal me. When I need encouragement, He shares His through His people or directly Himself. When I frequently fail, He gently picks my head up, tells me to sin no more, and dusts off or washes my clothes clean. I frequently require bathing, renewal, forgiveness, healing, and every time, He has provided and restored. Forged in this heart is the call to humility, to honor, to let God glorify Himself, in and through me.

I am overwhelmed, but desire nothing less than His best, His call, His leading, His provision, His passion to move into and through this ever growing heart. I long to be His inspiration in the lives of others to desire the same and find the joy of serving, advancing from sheep, to shepherd, formally or in. We can all choose to either just look at the ground before us, eat the grass and drink the water as we 'wander', or discover, together that the greater peace comes from knowing and being close to The Good Shepherd, discovering that we aren't just aimlessly wandering, there is a point, a reason, a purpose in everywhere The Good Shepherd leads.

Rising to the Rigors of His Revelations

Nearly four years ago I asked God to help other men become men of prayer, finding myself being asked by Him to become more of one first. The transformation has taken this long, and I now find myself doing, thinking and walking in prayer more often than ever in my life; His fingerprints pressing on my soul, then reaching out to press on others. Having seen the power of prayer, the miraculous, the magnificent, and monumental response of God to both mine and the intercession of others, this form of communication has moved from casual to imperative.

The imperative nature of prayer has been unleashed upon my soul as the penultimate form of change and transformation for nations, people and friends; not engaging the act, but engaging The Only One who can complete the act of transformation, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, now at the right hand of the Father, and the Holy Spirit; the act being also completing in me.

Rising this morning, I found myself inspired by this question: If prayer is so powerful and truly changes lives, living and circumstances, why is it that we do not spend far more time in prayer than any other activity? The truth being, that we spend the most time doing what we believe to be the most important, and it isn't prayer!

So this morning, I found myself rising to the rigors of revelation; God asking me to become a man of prayer and now coming full face to the quandary of the position and importance of the act. What does it truly mean to be a man of prayer? Five hours a day? Six? Twelve? Twenty-four? Ah, yes, available twenty-four hours a day, nothing less, nothing more (as if more were an option?). Rather than telling people I will pray for them, why not stop immediately and do it now, with them! Rather than relegate it to my 'closet' Jesus time, why not in public? Why not in the moment? Why not any time, any where? For how long? As long as it takes. For what purpose? The purpose of seeing God's glory. For what reason? Because it is and has been what He has asked of me, and may be asking of you.

With the millions upon millions of Blogs out there, all vying for readers, all competing for readership and time, I am humbled that anyone would take the time to read these musings of mine. Yet, even if none read, here stands a tribute to the only wise God, the only God who can change and has changed the world, and is willing to let me be a part of that change, not that I can get puffed up and boast in myself, but rather that I can know that I stand with The Almighty and Glorious King, The Only One who can and has created and continues to create, and The Only God who responds to the prayers of this minuscule servant in The Kingdom of God, rising to the rigors of His revelations.