It is time to run!
Last week, as I flew back across the country from a family visit, I heard God herald another season shift. I heard Him clearly say “put on your running shoes, it is time to run!” To run is to forcefully advance, to take ground, to progress, to push forward, to push your capabilities, to exert one’s self for the finish line. God is calling us to put on our running shoes (yes it can apply on many levels, but I felt it specifically emphasised concerning our callings) and pick up our pace, focus and forward stride. It’s definitely not time to run away or retreat like the men of Ephraim (Ps 78:9) but to go forward towards victory. I believe this is a word for this pioneering and apostolic generation, a generation that God has put a trumpet to my mouth and a passion in my heart for.
God immediately reminded me of the words spoken about the disciples of Jesus in Acts 17:6, “these ones who have turned the world upside down have come here too.” I sensed God say that it is time for this to be said of us- it is time to shift systems and it is time to advance the Kingdom. It is time to shake, stir and turn things upside down if we must- the kingdoms of the world will become the Kingdom of our God (Rev 11:15). The clash of kingdoms is therefore unavoidable and should not make us, as believers, afraid. Now is the time to remember you are part lion in a sense, made in His image, destined to extend the Kingdom!
Each of you has a grace, a gift, a call. It is time to fan those gifts into flame, summon the courage to live out your call and live out Kingdom.
Each of you is called to be a minister, a priest, a king. Each has a “lane” in which to run. There is none born without purpose. So positioned in your lane, it is not time to tentatively crawl or walk, but to run.
For this you have been trained, to run with horses (Jer 12:5). A supernatural grace has been growing on you as you have navigated relationships well, been faithful in hardship and served those around you. The fear of man has left you and you have become free and strong to run with the horses. Now it is time to use your gifts where He calls you. Do not shrink back, do not return to fear’s lair or dis-empowerment’s bed, but run with courage now in the paths carefully laid out for you before you were born. Follow the whisper, lean in ever closer, your heart knows which way to go. Do not delay, it is time.
Courageous ones hear His Roar over you now, turn the “world” upside down, do the impossible- He will meet you there!
These four words by Rosa Parks ring true “without courage dreams die”. Courage now!
But here is the paradoxical beauty of it all: “it is finished!” You don’t “run” alone. To run with Him is to find rest in His victory and His rhythms of grace for us. It is not in our strength that we run, though has made us strong, but in the confidence that He has won already. And then, like Eric Liddell we too can say, “God made me fast, and when I run I feel His pleasure.” It is true for us, there is a pleasure and a bliss as we co-labour with our King. There is a delighting of hearts and inexpressible joy in the journey. If the delight is not there and you do not feel renewed in Him as you run, you may well be running in the wrong direction or alone. Keep company with Him and you will learn to live freely and lightly (Matt 11:30 MSG).
Here’s the song my heart is singing as I write this today, “I see the fire in Your eyes, I hear the roar in Your Voice. My heart says Yes! Yes, I will run with you into battle and bliss and glorious victory.”
Amen