Well it has been a few years now since God told me to go to the other side of the road. I meant to keep a blow by blow record of what was happening but as usual wrote a lot in my head but not on virtual paper.
Just a quick re-cap. God asked me to go to the other side of the road, not because there was anything wrong necessarily with the side i was on, but just to see things from a different perspective.
The left-hand side (being British) was were i was at. Main stream Christianity, with a love of God and Jesus, a belief in the Creeds, grateful for what Christ had done for me on the cross etc. I was a bit different in that i believed myself to be ‘charismatic’ in my faith and belief, but in reality there was only a sporadic noticing of the gifts in my life and not really a lot of the supernatural, although i did hear God talking to me from time to time and had an off and on gift of discernment.
I had gone through the Wow! Everything is exciting stage, to the falling in with the Status Quo, to apathy, to that great longing that there must be more. Please let there be more and can i be a part of it. All this over about a 25 year period, how time flies.
Then the offer of going to the other side. Well i was ready for it and over i went. It turned out that i was already reading some of the books of people that were already on ‘the other side’ so it wasn’t totally new to me, but had been taught that this was really wacky stuff and should leave it alone.
Now i was being asked by God to take a look for myself with Him by my side.
What did i learn. Mostly that there is so much more to the Christian life than we are ever led to believe. Much, much more. So much more to the cross and why Jesus came. The Father heart of God. What the kingdom and being in the kingdom is really about. Who and what i have in Christ. What authority i have and carry as a royal person. The place of angels. Heavenly encounters. Carrying the presence of God. Living the supernatural life. Living as a daughter not an orphan. Grace, glory, honour, love, kingdom living, resting not striving, i could go on.
I have seen where we fall short in our teaching about the things of God, and to be fair it is because most people do not know, or have not been to the other side of the road. Or more scarily they have had a glimpse, but drawn back to a safe place and/or convinced themselves it is the devil’s work and not of God. You cannot teach what you do not know. People just scratch the surface and don’t know there is so much more.
But, but, there are down sides to both extreme positions. There is the person who goes to church on a Sunday and that is it for the week, and all they think they have to do to get their place in heaven, to the other end of extreme. This end of the extreme is the person that looks to the experiences and phenomena more than to God. Being drunk in the Spirit all day, looking to have the heady feeling of being in the presence, or glory and if you don’t get it… Looking for gold dust, glory clouds, etc. as the be all and end all of the supernatural life.
Now there is nothing wrong with any of these things, but when you spend a whole conference looking for gold dust because you think you saw a speck, instead of listening to the teaching… Judging how spiritual people are by how drunk they get and how often. Talking about ‘feeling the glory’, and it’s all about the glory and never mentioning the name of Jesus. When these things seem more important than God, have they taken the extremes and made these their God, rather than these are just some of the things God does when you get really close to him but are not of themselves to be looked for and put above God.
So where does that leave me now. Well i have seen that their is nothing wrong with what i would class the extreme things of God as long as they are kept in their right place. But God has said to me, now you have seen things from both the furthest points of either side of the road i want to take you to another part of the road. This is the middle of the road. Now that might not sound like a good place to be. A bit like sitting on the fence. Middle of the road, not one thing or the other. But then God said to me, ‘What do you see in the middle of the road’. Thinking about it for a while i suddenly saw the white line.
Take the white line God said. Take the middle path, walk down the white line. Just like either side of the road is broad, the white line is narrow. It is the narrow way, the unnamed road.
God said, ‘One side of the road puts me in a small box, shapes me to accommodate their fears, worries, expectations and comfort zones. Tells me what i cannot do. They use their heads not their hearts to find me. They are missing out on the so much more that i have for them and in doing so stops me from helping others. They quench my will to save, heal and deliver my people. They use words and arguments to make me in their mould and what they find acceptable. The other side puts me in a box, a box that has no side, no restraints, no boundaries, no discipline. It gathers in everything whether it be of me or not. It seeks to have ears tickled and highs fed. Mixes good and bad together.
I do not fit in either box. You cannot make me out. That is why I AM God. I cannot be found with the intellect and the study of words, and then made to fit. I am not chaos, or false humility or theologian’s systems. But neither am i weird and wacky, anything goes as long as it is different and other worldly.
Yes i am supernatural, and my words stand on revelation, prophecy, the supernatural gifts of the Spirit. Yes i do do things that in the world look strange. Yes there is so much more to me than you will ever know. But i call you to seek me, not the experience. Seek me and let the word be a guide and check and balance, because i won’t contradict my word, but i will reveal the truths in it that will not always at first be seen by the natural eye.’
So that is where i am, walking the narrow white line, that takes the best of both sides. I can never lose what i have gained from the ‘other side of the road’ and i never want to go back to the worst of the side i started on. I want to keep on seeking the, so much more, that God holds out to me. Explore the fullness of the supernatural life. Enjoy the experiences when they come, but not seek them rather than God. Not chase phenomena, but find God, his Father Heart, The fullness of Christ’s sacrifice, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Be a full citizen in his kingdom. The next part of the journey begins.
