You call me out upon the watersThe great unknown where feet may fail
And there I find You in the mystery
In oceans deep
My faith will stand
And I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine
Your grace abounds in deepest waters
Your sovereign hand
Will be my guide
Where feet may fail and fear surrounds me
You've never failed and You won't start now
So I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine
Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior
I will call upon Your Name
Keep my eyes above the waves
My soul will rest in Your embrace
I am Yours and You are mine
This is one of my favorite songs by Hill Song . Many of you know it. It's an awesome praise song that we
sing as part of our worship but I would bet the person who wrote it lived it first and then it became a song
We sing it with all our hearts, but do we mean it? Do we really want to trust the Lord without borders? Do we really want to walk upon the water? Do we really want to go deeper with the Lord?
The Lord asked me this very question a while back and I said yes, that was right before we moved onto Storm Road.....
Gems the only way to go deeper with Jesus is to go with deeper with Jesus.
Many times in my life the Lord will use things in the natural to coincide with things happening in my spiritual world.
For example, when Jessica and I first moved to Florida many of you know we moved in with friends. The Lord told me it was going to be a time for me to rest. He said He was putting an umbrella of protection over us where everything we needed would be provided for us. The Lord said I was to enjoy the covering and rest. What I don't think I ever told you was we moved into a house on Parasol Lane.
God has such a sense of humor.
About 5 months ago the Lord moved us into another house but this time we moved onto Storm Rd.
2014 has started with some major storms for me and my family. Storms that cause you to go deeper. Storms that makes me call out to Jesus as I try and keep my head above the waves for fear I will drown.
Storms where the Spirit's leading is taking me deeper and with each wave I remember He asked me if I wanted to go and I said yes....
I'm not going to share all of the storms with you but I want to share one that we are in them middle of right now. My oldest daughter Amanda was called to the mission field in Mbale Uganda. She was very excited about it and I was trying to be. Africa is very far away!
She was only there a few short months before the storm began. Amanda had a small lump on her neck that was rapidly growing into a big lump. It got to the point where it was causing her problems breathing so she decided to see a doctor. It was determined she was going to need surgery to have her left thyroid lobe removed. I of course thought this meant she would be coming home... she didn't.
She said she felt God telling her to stay and have the surgery done in Kampala.
Now if you know me you know my mind can be CRAZY! The vision in my head of this surgery looked something like this. A guy sitting on a stool with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and a dirty knife in his hand. Over his shoulder was a woman holding a flashlight and 2 men at the door holding a cooler to put my daughter's organs in.
I warned you I'm crazy.
I tried my best to talk my daughter into coming home but in my heart I knew the Holy Spirit was telling me she would be staying there. A dear friend offered me her frequent flyer miles to be with Amanda but the Lord said NO.
He was calling me deeper.
My daughter had her neck cut from one end to the other and before either one of us had a chance to comprehend what happened the next wave came, there was cancer and she would be having a 2nd surgery to remove the other side of the thyroid and a tumor. A second surgery in less than 10 days! An ocean away and nothing I could do to fix it. I felt like I would drown! He
was calling me deeper...
I will call upon Your Name
Keep my eyes above the waves.
The only way to go deeper with God is to go deeper.
Gems the thing is we sing about going deeper and we say
we want to go deeper but the truth is we don't. The minute things get a little uncomfortable we bail. The minute we have
to rely on that faith without borders we jump back into our life raft. The minute it's totally out of our control and we can't figure out how it's going to work out we cry UNCLE!
I can't tell you how many times people tell me God told them to do this or that and they are so excited about their upcoming journey with the Lord. I see them a few months later and the plan went out the window and when I ask why? They tell me God must have changed his mind. Really?
It sounds more like your feet have failed. Gems don't ask people what God is thinking. If He changed the plan He will tell you. This is the only way your faith can be made stronger you have to go where He calls you.
The sad truth is we want to go deeper but we don't want to hit any real storms. We want to skip over the hard part and just have all the provision before any waves come. The problem with that plan is you get the glory not God and He is all about His glory!
We want it to be easy but God never said it was easy to be in the center of His will.
What He did say is He will make a way when there seems to be no way, IF we trust in Him.
I don't know what ocean your in right now but I can tell you, you can trust the one who made it. God wants to go deeper with everyone of us. He told me "the bigger the problem the bigger my glory." I'll be honest I'm no super human without fear, my first response was I'm not ready for bigger glory especially when it's my child we're talking about. God knows all to well what it's like to give a child for His glory.
Gems if we are truly going to be the bride of Christ we better start looking like her. These can't just be songs we sing they must be lives we live. Get in the water, go through the storm and let's walk on these waters where we know our feet will fail because it is only then that Christ will carry you. You can rest in His embrace.
So I will call upon Your name
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine
She was only there a few short months before the storm began. Amanda had a small lump on her neck that was rapidly growing into a big lump. It got to the point where it was causing her problems breathing so she decided to see a doctor. It was determined she was going to need surgery to have her left thyroid lobe removed. I of course thought this meant she would be coming home... she didn't.
She said she felt God telling her to stay and have the surgery done in Kampala.Now if you know me you know my mind can be CRAZY! The vision in my head of this surgery looked something like this. A guy sitting on a stool with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and a dirty knife in his hand. Over his shoulder was a woman holding a flashlight and 2 men at the door holding a cooler to put my daughter's organs in.
I warned you I'm crazy.
I tried my best to talk my daughter into coming home but in my heart I knew the Holy Spirit was telling me she would be staying there. A dear friend offered me her frequent flyer miles to be with Amanda but the Lord said NO.
He was calling me deeper.
My daughter had her neck cut from one end to the other and before either one of us had a chance to comprehend what happened the next wave came, there was cancer and she would be having a 2nd surgery to remove the other side of the thyroid and a tumor. A second surgery in less than 10 days! An ocean away and nothing I could do to fix it. I felt like I would drown! He
was calling me deeper...
I will call upon Your Name
Keep my eyes above the waves.
The only way to go deeper with God is to go deeper.
Gems the thing is we sing about going deeper and we say
we want to go deeper but the truth is we don't. The minute things get a little uncomfortable we bail. The minute we have
to rely on that faith without borders we jump back into our life raft. The minute it's totally out of our control and we can't figure out how it's going to work out we cry UNCLE!
I can't tell you how many times people tell me God told them to do this or that and they are so excited about their upcoming journey with the Lord. I see them a few months later and the plan went out the window and when I ask why? They tell me God must have changed his mind. Really?
It sounds more like your feet have failed. Gems don't ask people what God is thinking. If He changed the plan He will tell you. This is the only way your faith can be made stronger you have to go where He calls you.
We want it to be easy but God never said it was easy to be in the center of His will.
What He did say is He will make a way when there seems to be no way, IF we trust in Him.
I don't know what ocean your in right now but I can tell you, you can trust the one who made it. God wants to go deeper with everyone of us. He told me "the bigger the problem the bigger my glory." I'll be honest I'm no super human without fear, my first response was I'm not ready for bigger glory especially when it's my child we're talking about. God knows all to well what it's like to give a child for His glory.
Gems if we are truly going to be the bride of Christ we better start looking like her. These can't just be songs we sing they must be lives we live. Get in the water, go through the storm and let's walk on these waters where we know our feet will fail because it is only then that Christ will carry you. You can rest in His embrace.
And keep my eyes above the waves
When oceans rise
My soul will rest in Your embrace
For I am Yours and You are mine
I love you. How timely and effective... Praying for you and your family xoxo.
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