Friday, April 20, 2012

intensive

My university offered intensive classes in between semesters where you could get an entire class credit in a very short time, going to one class every day, all day long, for two weeks. 

God offers these. 

My experience over three decades of walking with God is that every once in a while, when he wants to push me to do something new, he intensifies his teaching to focus on one thing. 

I’m enrolled in one of these classes right now.  If you were reading my blog posts from earlier this week, I shared with you that God has gotten in my face and asked me to start being obedient in one action.  I’m afraid to say it out loud to all of you, because that makes me even more accountable to obey.  Here it is, though, because several of you have been curious!   

God is teaching me to be bold in telling people about him. 

I have had an intense experience in the last several months where everything I read, everything I hear is all about the same thing –telling every person I can about the good news of God’s forgiveness.  Despite my close walk with God, I have serious fear and anxiety issues about talking to people about him.  That’s stupid, because I love him so much, so he is giving me a spiritual boot in the back side to get me to open my mouth and talk to people about his love. 

Anyway, that’s my own personal lesson.  The point is that sometimes God is ready to shove us forward in obedience, and he comes at us hard when he wants to do this.  I would say only one thing to you today:  Pay attention.  Watch for it.  Recognize the intensive when it begins to occur.  I even keep a journal sometimes, because God’s work in my life comes so hard and fast that I can barely keep up.  I journal because it’s amazing to have him so real and so caring to work in my life on such a one-on-one, personal level. 

Jesus says, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”  (John 14:15  NIV) 

It is my experience, also, that if I perform well in an intensive he escalates them.  It seems like they’re coming more rapidly and with greater magnitude these days. 

It’s thrilling.  And horrifying. 

Are you in one of God’s intensive courses right now?  Get a notebook and make a list about what he’s teaching you in one subject. 

Then practice what you learn.

1 comment:

  1. Good motivating post, Christy. It's a good thing to see what God is teaching us in print, a great reason to journal. Thanks for sharing this on Bible Love Notes.

    ReplyDelete