Boundary Lines

Hi! Remember me?

I know. It’s been awhile.

But. TODAY, I’m here… with you!

A lot has been happening. God has been moving and speaking. But. It’s all been deep and personal.

Super deep. Super raw. Super real.

I’ve gone to write a few times, even started pieces. Pieces that didn’t end up in this space. Why? Because not everything God is doing in our lives is to be shared with everyone. Everywhere.

I’m an avid proponent of vulnerability. I embrace it. But.

Social media is not my journal.

Social media is not my counsellor.

Social media is not always the best space to bear the deep things of the soul.

Vulnerability. Absolutely. Yes.

Boundaries? Definitively. Yes!

It’s a funny thing. Boundaries are not a new concept. There are multiple books on my bookcase on this topic, and yet my 2019 could be described as “The Year of Boundaries”.

It wasn’t something I went looking for. It just kept turning up. Sometimes in the most unlikely of places. I remember being drawn to a church. I wasn’t quite sure how to get there. It was going to be a hot walk. But I could feel God drawing me.

I made my way there and I explored the surroundings. I entered the building. Taking it all in. I took a seat. I sat in a place of stillness. Aware of others doing the same.

As I was talking to God in this foreign place, my eye was drawn to the Bible tucked into the back of the seat in front of me. I reached out and opened it. The page it fell to? Yep. The same scripture that God had already been highlighting.

It was surreal. Here I was. In a church. To which God had drawn me. Only to read the same thing he had spoken almost 6000 kilometres earlier. Here I was in Singapore reading…

Psalm 16:5-6

Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup;

    you make my lot secure.

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

    surely I have a delightful inheritance.

There it was in black and white. Again!

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.

Boundary lines.

God was establishing the boundary lines required for the next season. God was creating pleasant places.

These boundaries weren’t about fear… built to keep scary things out.

These boundaries were about the pleasant places that God was calling me into.

The territory that God would have me take and inhabit and extend. It was about creating a space for the delightful inheritance God had designed for me and my family. To take the territory required a yes in agreement for all God has for us, but it also required a no to the things that did not belong in this new space.

It required drawing a line in the sand. It required big decisions. It required trust.

 It required keeping my eyes fixed on God. And not taking my eyes off him.

Early in 2019 I had seen a vision of footsteps in front of me… I did not know where they would lead, but God said, “Follow me. As you take each step in front of you, I will reveal another step and another step and another step. Together we will traverse the path set before you.”

As I remember, I simultaneously think about two things…

I think about walls. Unhealthy walls that we sometimes build as barricades to protect us. The walls that certainly keep us safe, but can also keep us distant from friends and family and keep us locked inside ourselves. Walls that keep our world small.

And I think about a vision I saw years ago. A vision of a photo in a photo frame. As I watched I saw the frame break and the glass shatter. Yet the picture remained. With it came the scripture…

Hebrews 11:3 

(Amplified Bible)

By faith

[that is, with an inherent trust and enduring confidence in the power, wisdom and goodness of God]

we understand that the worlds (universe, ages)

were framed and created

[formed, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose]

by the word of God,

so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

It reminds me of the quote on my fridge.

A quote about seeing God.

A quote about speaking God’s words.

A quote about boundaries and pleasant places…

“Seeing what God sees forms the picture; saying what God says creates the frame. A natural frame creates a border or limit for a picture. Prophecy is a spiritual frame that does the opposite; it expands the borders and erases the limits of the future.” (Bob Hazlett; The Roar)

You see it?

God’s call to new boundaries in my life was a call to expansion…

A call to new territories.

A call to take the land of promise.

When we first moved house I happily hung a painting on my wall. For many years it sat in my art portfolio. Last year I framed it and hung it on my wall. Every morning I woke up to see it hanging next to my bed. My kids talked about how they could see God revealing something to them as they looked at the painting. It felt strange. God was renewing my strength through a painting from my teenage years. A painting I was completely unaware had any prophetic significance.

Not long after hanging this now special painting in my new house, I heard a loud crash.

Glass was scattered all over the carpet.

The frame was snapped at the corners.

Broken.

I couldn’t even pick up the fragments myself.

But.

As I stared at the mess, the painting itself remained unharmed. Just like in the vision I had seen years earlier.

My painting needs a new frame.

Ready to be hung in a new space.

As I write, I walk to my new space.

A space set aside for creating.

A space dedicated to The Beautiful Exchange.

I slide open the cupboard door to find the painting.

I’m never quite sure if the purple and orange glow are the setting of the sun at the closing of one day or…

the stunning dawn of a new day. As I look, I think it’s both.

It is the beautiful exchange.

New for old.

Beauty for ashes.

Joy for mourning.

Praise for heaviness.

I know what this painting represents.

I know that it is the new territory.

I know that it is a promise.

I know that it is my inheritance.

I asked a friend to pray for me last week. Amongst other things he said, “God wants you to speak the words. I don’t know what the words are”.

I know what the words are. It’s here in the painting…

I see what God is doing.

God is creating this new space by erasing the limits of the future.

It requires a yes. It requires a no.

 It requires a setting aside.

It requires dedication.

In this space I agree.

I know the words to declare.

Words of healing. Words of freedom. Words of joy.

What are the pleasant places God is calling you to step into in this season?

What are the boundary lines he is asking for you to put into place?

What yes is he asking you to step into?

What no will it require from you?

What word is God asking you to declare to frame and create the world he has intended and purposed for you in this time and space?

 

Let’s see through God’s eyes and take the leap of faith. Let’s stand. Together. Let’s shine!