Is Confession good for the soul? Well, here goes...

They say that confession is good for the soul, so here goes:

“Somedays, I miss God’s best in my life.”

There, I’ve said it.

I think you may be like me and get hit with something and have to spend a little time working through it. For me, it starts with shock, then I start to go inward, wonder what I did wrong, and finally, when everything is really out of whack, and I have finally settled down a bit, I then turn to the Lord. How about you?

The truth is, that can happen in a matter of minutes. Most people I know go through this whether they are triggered, come under a circumstance or get hit with something out of left field.

The real question is, what’s next?

For me, the most difficult part is sitting long enough in my pain to hear what God wants to heal and or reveal. This is the place where I have to be still. In the quiet, as I lean into Him and ask, “Lord, what are you doing?" and “How do you want to reveal yourself to me?”, He begins to speak. That in and of itself is the reward: His voice and His presence. Did you know there is no word in Hebrew for the “presence”. In your Old Testaments as you reading and see the word presence, it is actually “face”.

You see, when my spirit or mind is in a Bavarian pretzel, I get “righted” in His presence. Psalm 73: 16,17a says this, "When I thought how to understand this, It was too painful for me—Until I went into the sanctuary of God; Then I understood…” My true orientation is in the presence of God. Outside of His presence is a “reality-distortion” field. I see wrongly, I hear through filters/triggers. But in His presence, face to face, eye to eye, breath to breath, I am aligned with Him. He reminds me of who I am and more important of who He is. It is the base line to handle anything that comes my way.

Now, you may have to be very intentional in your pursuit of this. John Wimber used to say this when you needed an answer, “Go into your room, shut the door, get down on the floor, cry, scream, yell, vomit if you have to, but don’t get up until you hear.”

Then, I begin to look from this new perspective at what God is doing, not what He isn’t doing.

Have you ever despaired? Do you realize that when you lose hope, or you despair, you are looking at life through the lens of what God isn’t doing? You are practice the absence of God rather than the presence of God. The truth is, God has been and will always be at work, even in this moment. All I need is a brain that opens and can begin to see! This requires repentance - the change of mind that allows for a different conclusion. This repentance produces both sight and insight; sight to observe where God is and insight to understand what He is doing.

Listen to this verse from Luke 11:34ff - "The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness. 35 Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. 36 If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light.”

The issue here is the eye and it’s ability to see because of light. If God is light and asks us to walk in the light, then it is for the purpose of seeing where He is and what He is.

But what if I can’t see?

The song, “Love Came Down”, addresses this:

"If my heart is overwhelmed And I cannot hear your voice I hold on to what is true Though I cannot see

If the storms of life they come And the road ahead gets steep I will lift these hands in faith I will believe

I'll remind myself Of all that you've done And the life I have Because of your son

Love came down and rescued me Love came down and set me free I am yours Lord I'm forever yours Mountains high or valley low I sing out and remind my soul I am yours I am forever yours"

Love Came Down  Written by Brian Johnson, Jenn Johnson, Jeremy Riddle, Ian McIntosh, Jeremy Edwardson © 2009 Bethel Music Publishing (ASCAP) / Mercy Vineyard Publishing (ASCAP) (Adm. by Music Services, Inc.). Jeremy Edwardson (Admin by Bethel Music Publishing). All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.

This is where the power of testimony comes in. When I cannot see what is in front of me, I train myself to see what He has already done, whether it is through my history with God or someone else’s, I must have testimonies in my life to reorient me, to give me victory and to prophesy into my circumstances that God can and will do it again!

2 Thessalonians 1:10 - "10 when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.” -  When we believe the testimony, we are reoriented to His ways and life.

Revelation 12:11 - "11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.” By our testimonies and the blood of the Lamb, we overcome the evil one.

Revelation 19:10b - “For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” - As we meditate on and release through celebrating and speaking out the testimonies, we prophesy into our circumstances that Jesus is about to do it again!

Finally, I change my speech to reflect & reinforce my renewed mind. I create declarations to help me acquire what is needed to see. Here is one, “There are no hopeless situations; only hopeless people.” This reminds me that every situation can change if I will allow hope to find fertile soil in my faith in God.

A great source for these are from my mentors and friends, Steve and Wendy Backlund at www.ignitinghope.com. There you will find tons of declarations, blogs, resources and more to help you with radical mind renewal.

Once I have repented, renewed my mind, reestablished the testimony and released the declaration, it is surprising how much further ahead I wind up in seeing what God wants to do and partnering with Him. Suddenly, new possibilities and opportunities spring up in front of me. I become creative in a way that could only come from God, and isn’t that what He wanted all along? He is always looking to reconnect me and Him, to take our relationship deeper, onward. “I am my Beloved’s and He is mine.”

So, if you have had a bad moment, day, week, month or years, today is the best time for change. Try it out next time you miss God’s best and get into a Bavarian pretzel! Wonderful possibilities await!

If you don’t have a tribe, community or church to call home, why not come and join us for worship this Sunday? Anything can happen when God is present!