The lost are found! (The Vanishing: Part 2)

My phone just dinged. It’s a ding I don’t recognise (probably because my phone is often on silent). I see a message flash across the screen. I open my phone and I have no idea where the message has come from. It feels like it is lost in the ether that is the world wide web. I look and look and look. I finally check The Beautiful Exchange emails and sure enough! The message has been found!

Ironically, it’s a message about one of my blogs entitled “The Vanishing” which is all about the lost being found. I find myself re-reading “The Vanishing” and remembering what God had been saying. I read at the end…

TODAY.

I am. MOST. thankful…

…that. with. God.

THE. LOST. CAN. BE. FOUND…

…but that’s another story for another day!

I remember.

And.

God speaks to me again where I left off.

Haha! THIS is the story for another day!

The. lost. are. found.

I love the parable of the lost sheep. I think about the time I taught this story to a group of pre-schoolers. Such fun we had! We made fluffy, little sheep ears, had our faces painted with cute, little black noses and celebrated with a party at the end.

Today, I read the parable in Luke 15:4-7…

“Jesus gave them this illustration: There once was a shepherd with a hundred lambs, but one of his lambs wandered away and was lost. So the shepherd left the ninety-nine lambs out in the open field and searched in the wilderness for that one lost lamb. He didn’t stop until he finally found it. With exuberant joy he raised it up and placed it on his shoulders, carrying it back with cheerful delight! Returning home, he called all his friends and neighbours together and said, ‘Let’s have a party! Come and celebrate with me the return of my lost lamb. It wandered away, but I found it and brought it home.’

Jesus continued, “In the same way, there will be a glorious celebration in heaven over the rescue of one lost sinner who repents, comes back home, and returns to the fold—more so than for all the righteous people who never strayed away.’”

Lately I’ve been praying a lot for the lost. In my city. My nation. And beyond. Those who are God’s beloved children, but have not yet found their way back home to a relationship with their Father. The Father, who is like the shepherd looking for His lost lambs. The loving Father who celebrates their return home, into His arms, with exuberant joy and cheerful delight.

As I think about the stories of all the times I have lost things and God has helped me find them, I hear God whispering, “Declare these testimonies as the Spirit of Prophecy. These are testimonies of the lost being found. If I care enough to talk to you about how to find your lost items that have no eternal value, how much more will I talk to you about how to find my beloved sheep? I am zealous for my children, who are not yet found. I am passionately searching them out. I will not stop loving them. I will not stop drawing near to them. I will not stop until they are found. I will not stop until they find their home again with me and take their rightful place within my family. I will not stop until they know they are my royal sons and daughters. When they are found, there will be a party in heaven. You will indeed experience this day of celebration. Do not grow weary and lose heart. It will come to be in due time!”

I hear another ding. A friend has sent me a message. It flashes on multiple screens. It’s about Jesus and His cross. It’s about sharing with the people we encounter in our every day, about the love of Jesus and the power of His cross to bring eternal life.

This is the fourth time in less than a week that God has highlighted the importance of taking Jesus into our normal. Into our every day.

Like David. Who defeated a giant when he obeyed his father by simply taking lunch to his brothers.

Like Saul. Who was anointed king when he obeyed his father by looking for the lost donkeys.

Like Ruth. Who became part of the named lineage of Jesus when she obeyed Naomi and gleaned in the harvest fields.

Menial. Mundane. Normal. Every day. Tasks.

What does God want to do in your every day and normal today? Those activities and moments that often feel insignificant? Trust and obey. Follow His lead. God is always at work all around us and He directs our steps, even when we can’t see where He is taking us.

I hear the Father say…

“The zeal of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies will accomplish this.”

He really and truly means it. He says it more than once. I think of Isaiah 9:7 and then Isaiah 37:32.

I read Isaiah 37:32 and the NET Bible gets my attention:

“The intense devotion of the LORD who commands armies will accomplish this.”

I breathe out a sigh. The LORD’s devotion toward His children is intense.

I can’t help but smile! I feel like I can even feel my eyes sparkling (maybe it’s the cheeky look in my eyes that my mum told me about last Friday? The look I always got as a child just before doing something crazy?).

God has been talking to me about this word intense!

Last week I read about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead and revealing himself as “The Resurrection and Eternal Life.” I must tell you I stopped at John 11:38-39a for a LONG time:

“Then Jesus, with intense emotions, came to the tomb- a cave with a stone placed over it’s entrance. Jesus told them, ‘Roll away the stone.’”

I finally continued on and read of Lazarus’ miraculous resurrection:

“Jesus looked at her and said, ‘Didn’t I tell you that if you will believe in me, you will see God unveil His power?’

SO…

…they rolled away the heavy stone.

Jesus gazed into heaven and said, ‘Father, thank you that you have heard my prayer, for you listen to every word I speak.

NOW…

…so that these who stand here with me will believe that you have sent me to the earth as your messenger, I will use the power you have given me.’

THEN…

…with a loud voice, Jesus shouted with authority: ‘Lazarus! Come out of the tomb!’

THEN…

…in front of everyone, Lazarus who had died four days earlier, slowly hobbled out-he still had grave clothes tightly wrapped around his hands and feet and covering his face!

Jesus said to them, ‘Unwrap him and let him loose.’”

AND. This morning I read Jesus’ words in John 10 about His own death and resurrection…

“I am the Gateway. To enter through me is to experience life, freedom and satisfaction. A thief has only one thing in mind- he wants to steal, kill and destroy.

BUT…

…I have come to give you everything in abundance- more than you expect- life in it’s fullness until you overflow.

I am the Good Shepherd who lays down my life as a sacrifice for the sheep.

The Father has an intense love for me because I freely give my own life- to raise it up again. I surrender my own life, and no one has the power to take my life from me. I have the authority to lay it down and the power to take it back again. This is the destiny my Father has set before me.”

Jesus’ destiny was to lay down His life and to rise again having conquered hell and death, so that we could be reconciled to the Father. That’s some intense love for the Father’s sons and daughters!

I make a decision… It’s not new… just newly FORTIFIED!

I know the LORD’s love and devotion and desire is intense for His lost sons and daughters...

I choose AGAIN to partner with Him in His intense love and devotion and desire…

I will not despise my every day…

I will trust and obey knowing that the LORD is directing my steps, toward an outcome exceedingly, abundantly beyond all I could dare ask or think or imagine…

I thank my Father that He is hearing my prayers, because He listens to every word I speak. I thank Him that as I delight in Him my prayers bring about His desires…

I commit again to speak the Father’s words…with authority…knowing they have the power to bring resurrection life…knowing the same resurrecting Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in me…

I decree and will continue to decree THE. LOST. ARE. FOUND.

It is the LORD’s zeal, as He commands the Angel Armies, that will accomplish this!