Back in April, the Lord was showing me that we are so good at hiding our hearts, and keeping pain hidden in the dark. We don’t really see that we are keeping it hidden in the dark, but we also haven’t recognized the value and beauty of opening our hearts to share with those around us. I asked the Lord before we started a women’s ministry at church, what was missing from women’s ministries.
He said, “Vulnerability and transparency”.
You see, there has been a bit of surface dealings. Doing assignments, showing up in “community”, doing one more bible study, over serving, all the things, but we were still suffering. We have been engaging in surface level community.
We are called to carry each other’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), but its hard to do that especially if that person sitting right in front of you, is walking through the very thing that you have hidden deep within you and want no one to know about. There is something to be said about sitting with someone, looking them in their eyes and allowing holy spirit to fill us with His compassion for others.
It wrecks us.
It fills us with emotion.
And sometimes we think to ourselves as our flesh speaks, “I don’t have the space for this today”, or “I don’t have time”.
You know what? You are right, you don’t have the space or the time, for 50 people today, but God has graced us with enough capacity for the one right in front of us. Because listen, if we made it that far to be sitting at the table with them, BELIEVE that He has orchestrated this meeting.
When we share, allowing ourselves to be vulnerable and transparent, we are taking the very things that Satan taunts us with and we are EXPOSING him! He wants to do everything he can to keep us from doing that, because that’s where we have been giving him and his minions space to taunt, torment, isolate, and keep us in this box of bondage, shame, and condemnation.
When we expose him, and his schemes, this begins to break things off, giving us access to freedom. Light is able to shine on it, and we become transformed.
This is why being in true community with each other is powerful.
Matthew 18:20 says, "Where there are 2 or 3 gathered in my name, I am with them”.
The key part to that scripture above is 2 OR 3 GATHERED in MY NAME. Meaning its not a gathering with just one person and many gather, but not in the Lords name. Many try to gather in the Lord’s name but actually leave Him out. So when we are gathered in HIS name, he will be right there with us.
Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Its not enough for us to just show up to events, conferences, do all the things in the church, constantly serving, constantly giving off the appearance of holiness, but never coming outside of the building, to opening up our homes for deeper connection and truly making space to do life together with others.
Why is it not enough?
Because we wouldn’t be activating what we have learned, living out the lifestyle we have been called to live. We would be hearers of the word, but not participating in the actual doing part.
We have to intentionally create space, making space on purpose, to invite others in and do life together.
May we drop the hurt that we have experienced in the past, where one or two people may have burned us. But may we open up our hearts again.
When we can understand the truth, that we are going to get hurt from time to time by people, we can shake it off a little bit easier. Its not meant to make us shut completely down, as we quietly build walls around ourselves, not truly letting people in.
Guarding our hearts looks different than building a wall. Guarding uses discernment. We move according to holy spirit’s guidance and promptings, but building walls, is the start of the hardening of our hearts.
When we were renovating our house the past few years, we had just random people showing up on the property, just coming over uninvited and we became really frustrated. We couldn’t stand it. It was eye rolling annoying.
After a while my response was, “I’m building an 8ft fence around the whole property, that will keep them out”. But the message of this gathering is build a longer table. Not build a higher fence. So as I was preparing for this event and sitting with the Lord to hear his heart, I was being checked in my own spirit, with my own mindsets.
Building a fence seems like the easy thing to do because we don’t want to be bothered. We are tired and the last thing we want, is to deal with more people, right? In our situation, we kind of had a reasonable explanation as to why we truly wanted to build a tall fence. People in the country and small towns, family even, think they are entitled to what’s yours. They were literally just being nosy, and actually stealing things off the property, breaking the lock on a shed that was in the back, so ours reasoning was sort of a guarding aspect.
However, at the same time we have to look at ourselves because it goes both ways – build the fence to protect what we have been given, because we are the watchmen of our home, but also to check our flesh at the same time, to make sure that we are not walking in and against what the Lord wants us to do.
As I checked my own heart, I realized there were some hardened areas. So, what did I do, I immediately started inviting some people in, regardless if some of our projects in the house were done or not. And there are quite a few that are NOT done. My space is not perfect, but its where WE get to do life.
I had to combat that, come against the thing that would keep us from living out what the word says, but also to keep my heart open and get back to going first, back to creating a safe space, back to showing others how they can come sit at our table, knowing its safe for the to open up.
Listen, we are leaders, and we have work to do out there in this world. Those around you have an assignment too, and we get to lead the way, and show others Jesus through us. Doing that can awaken them and set them into the Truth.
We are called to bring the will of God down to this earth, but when we are bound, and not allowing ourselves to truly be in the spaces where that brokenness can be mended, where we can be encouraged, where we can sit with stories others share, that assures us, that we are NOT the only ones walking through something, we get empowered, equipped, build faith, and in many instances, the fire of Holy Spirit will drop on the meeting, igniting fires everywhere.
“Everything hidden and covered will soon be exposed. For the facade is falling down, and nothing will be kept secret long. Whatever you have spoken in private will be public knowledge, and what you have whispered secretly behind closed doors will be broadcast far and wide for all to hear.” Luke 12:2-3 ”
When the Lord Dropped those words back in April that I started with earlier, I kept seeing that scripture, but it wasn’t connecting all the way I thought it would as I read it. but I knew in my spirit it was connected, just couldn’t see it. So after looking at them again this week, I asked Holy Spirit to show me how to connect it. What is it connected to? Does it connect back into the old testament? Show me!
I had been studying on how the temple Solomon built actual temple and our temples our bodies) had rooms and its shown between ezekiel and solomon, but to not get into that because that is a whole teaching itself, but Holy Spirit blew on the words and revelation hit me straight in the face!
Jesus was talking to his disciples in the natural, but he was addressing Satan. Im going to read the NKJV.
“For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops”. Luke 12:2-3 NKJV
So there is tremendous power in gathering and being transparent, in being vulnerable. May we learn to build a longer table and not a higher fence.
Its uncomfortable, but may the word of God overpower our comfort and out of obedience, we begin to get comfortable being uncomfortable and in order to allow his light to shine on that darkness.
Much Love, Crystal Keefer
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