The main character trait of a Christ follower/collective of Christ followers that is tied into God and His love through prayer, is their focus on hearing God’s voice instead of telling Him what to say or do. The faith they possess is not a way to get God to give them what they want but instead it’s the basis for trusting Him for everything they need…They demonstrate perseverance, waiting for God to act so that they can react as directed by Him. Their sense of urgency for the lost is aligned with God’s plan for the lost.

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” Romans 5:6 (NIV) (emphasis mine).

At just the right time Jesus was born.

At just the right time (about thirty years later) Jesus began His ministry.

At just the right time (about three years later) Jesus was nailed to a Roman cross and died so that we could be rescued from our sins.

At just the right time (three days later) He rose from the dead and later, at just the right time, He returned to heaven.

Those who are connected to God and His love pray, “your will be done in your timing, for your glory, it isn’t about me.” Their faith and prayer are not considered a currency used to buy God’s action. For these people, faith and prayer are the security that carries them, supports them and allows them to rely on God, believing that He is always carrying out each part of His plan, at just the right time…

In my days as a world renowned scientist…

…well not so much days, more like hours. Well not so much hours but instead it felt like hours when I had the dream. Okay, I really know very little about science, but I do know that this little thing called gravity cannot be defied while living on the earth.

When a plane takes off it must have more power from the engines and lift from the wings than the force exerted by gravity. It flies not because it defies gravity but instead it overcomes the force until it runs out of fuel. Once it is out of fuel, gravity, the law that no plane can defy, does what gravity does, pulls the plane back to earth.

It is the same with our Christian walk.

We can hold up the basic day-to-day living of a Christ follower’s life. We can hold up the day-to-day operations and programs in the collective of Christ followers. The problem is, we were not designed to defy the laws of spiritual gravity. There is a constant strain on our lives as Christ followers and on the collective of Christ followers. Continuing with the plane parallel, to overcome the forces that pull it to the ground, a break must be taken to refuel and maintain the plane.

Most Christ followers, most collectives of Christ followers actually do this.

We take time to make sure that we do things to keep us going. We read the Bible, go to church, sing songs, listen to Christian radio, go to Christian events and many other rest stops that we use to fill up the tank and perform maintenance. The problem is, we are slaves to the limitations of the plane when it comes to distance travelled and durability and we are slaves to the limitations of our knowledge, resources and strength when it comes to work done for God.

When we live from fill up to fill up, we live wrong.

We are not tied into the foundation and footings, God and His love, we are tied into events and services, motivational speakers and emotional highs and lows. That is what keeps us going…

Often I have said to people you need to make sure you are going to church, reading your Bible and maintaining your Christian walk. I have used parallels like recharging or refueling and I will continue to use the same metaphors but with one difference.

We don’t recharge or refuel so that we can be strong enough to carry the load, we do it so that we will better understand God, which will lead us to give Him the load… if we are truly encountering the living God we become more and more aware of our inability to bear the load and of God’s willingness to take it from us…

If God is going to be the centre of our lives, the foundation of our churches, the footings that bear the load, we need to make sure that the load is secured to Him.

It is not our job to take action on His behalf.

It is not our responsibility to make our lives and our churches into something that is presentable to God. If we could do this then we would fully know everything about God. We would be God. Instead we must understand that:

God has a way to transform us into the people He wants us to be.

God has the plan to make each collective of Christ followers into the ambassadors He designed us to be…

He is the only one who has the strength and the knowledge to make this happen.

We need to pass the load onto Him instead of carrying it ourselves.

“if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV)

From time to time my blog will include abridged excerpts from my book “Blueprint.” Like any author/blogger, I find it difficult to leave the words I have written in my computer until a publisher can be found. Maybe it’s because someone somewhere needs to read these words now.

Blueprint excerpts

A Little Understanding – Above Ground

A Little Understanding – The Footings

A Little Understanding – The Foundation Walls (Part 1)

A Little Understanding – The Foundation Walls (Part 2)

A Little Understanding – The Foundation Walls (Part 3)