It's a long one tonight, so be committed.
On the hottest day so far in Haiti, I feel like it's time for this thing I've been brewing on for months to be released. I've shared this a few times with short-term teams, a writer today, and a few team mates. When I mean hot, I mean I haven't stopped sweating all day. I woke up sweating, I filled up my water bottle and I was sweating, and then I used the restroom and sweat even more. It's getting hot. Some long time missionaries here told us the hottest month is September so I'm bracing myself for lots of heat.
So here is a new thing that I've been mulling over for months now.
A few months ago I started reading through the book of Exodus. Exodus is the story of a nation being delivered from oppression into a promise of God to make them a great nation. In so many ways I really believe that this is what God has for the nation of Haiti. I believe with all of who I am that God has a plan and a purpose for Haiti that no one fully knows or understands, but there is a coming day when the nation will be delivered from generations of oppression. So I started reading Exodus for that very reason. I wanted to read and gain wisdom for how Haiti was going to be delivered.
Well much to my surprise, probably not yours, I Amanda Cook was not given the blue prints or the master plan for the deliverance of Haiti. This will not happen. I did receive some key places of revelation of how to pray for God to move. What shocked me, as it always does, was how God spoke so clearly into my own heart and my own journey here.
In the book of Exodus the people, right before they leave, basically loot the Egyptians; if you don't believe me read Exodus 12. They take that loot, cross through the river (where the waters are parted) and they settle in the desert. The original promise for them was to enter into the promise land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and that they would conquer these lands. Unfortunately they got a little impatient in the desert and instead of waiting for God to dwell among them, they decided to create a golden calf. They repented, but this happened to push their entering into the promise land date back 40 years.
So, you have this nation of people, who unfortunately caused their entrance date to be pushed back 40 years, walking around a desert and eating mana and quail every day. This is the thing I had never noticed until being here. While they waited in the desert for 40 years they built the ark of the covenant. The ark of the covenant was built with these amazing jewels that they had looted from Egypt. God gave them specific measurements, specific materials, and called upon specific people to craft-fully create the ark. The purpose of the ark was so that the presence of God could have a place to dwell among the people. Eventually this ark, or the tabernacle place of the temple, became a place where only the holiest of people could enter. So in the middle of a desert a people who messed up not long before built the dwelling place of God. Seriously????
This is amazing. I hope my amazement and wonder is fully being communicated. Basically, God created a place in the desert for the nation of Israel to create a dwelling place for the presence of God. Wow. They gripped and complained about waiting for Moses to come down from the mountain and so decided to create their own God when God's original intention for them was to create (and probably with the exact same jewels) the actual dwelling place of the presence of God. How often do I gripe and complain and try to hasten the coming of a promise when if I stopped and waited, it just might be a time where He's inviting me to experience more of his presence.
Here in Haiti I don't live in the desert. I actually live in the Caribbean. There are palm trees and mango trees in my courtyard, but a lot of days my perception is that I've been stranded here on this Island. The exact opposite is true. I have not been stranded nor abandoned. I have been lured into the desert with God where he has made a space for me to create a dwelling place in my heart and life for his presence to dwell. What an opportunity. Lord, make me one who sees you for who you truly are and not for what my perceived reality is.
Now guys, here's the kicker. This ark, this dwelling place of the presence of God, was carried into the Jordan river to make a way for the original promise of God to Abraham to finally be fulfilled. The space in the desert allowed for the creation of the home of the presence of God so that the promise of God could ultimately be fulfilled. This blows me away. At the end of Joshua 21 a statement is made that once the Israelites had entered Jordan they had rest on every side and, "not one of all the Lord's good promises to the house of Israel failed. Every one was fulfilled."
What if this time here in Haiti is a time where I have the space and ability to create a dwelling place for the presence of God within me? What if this time will actually usher in the promises of God spoken over me that I am waiting to see fulfilled? And what if this is an opportunity to sit and admire the specifics of what the dwelling place of God really means? What if?
All I know is that I've never known him the way I have met Him here in Haiti. I think Haiti is my place where he has "created a space in the desert so I might create a dwelling place for his presence."
Oh this great adventure with an almighty yet lovely King.
On the hottest day so far in Haiti, I feel like it's time for this thing I've been brewing on for months to be released. I've shared this a few times with short-term teams, a writer today, and a few team mates. When I mean hot, I mean I haven't stopped sweating all day. I woke up sweating, I filled up my water bottle and I was sweating, and then I used the restroom and sweat even more. It's getting hot. Some long time missionaries here told us the hottest month is September so I'm bracing myself for lots of heat.
So here is a new thing that I've been mulling over for months now.
A few months ago I started reading through the book of Exodus. Exodus is the story of a nation being delivered from oppression into a promise of God to make them a great nation. In so many ways I really believe that this is what God has for the nation of Haiti. I believe with all of who I am that God has a plan and a purpose for Haiti that no one fully knows or understands, but there is a coming day when the nation will be delivered from generations of oppression. So I started reading Exodus for that very reason. I wanted to read and gain wisdom for how Haiti was going to be delivered.
Well much to my surprise, probably not yours, I Amanda Cook was not given the blue prints or the master plan for the deliverance of Haiti. This will not happen. I did receive some key places of revelation of how to pray for God to move. What shocked me, as it always does, was how God spoke so clearly into my own heart and my own journey here.
In the book of Exodus the people, right before they leave, basically loot the Egyptians; if you don't believe me read Exodus 12. They take that loot, cross through the river (where the waters are parted) and they settle in the desert. The original promise for them was to enter into the promise land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and that they would conquer these lands. Unfortunately they got a little impatient in the desert and instead of waiting for God to dwell among them, they decided to create a golden calf. They repented, but this happened to push their entering into the promise land date back 40 years.
So, you have this nation of people, who unfortunately caused their entrance date to be pushed back 40 years, walking around a desert and eating mana and quail every day. This is the thing I had never noticed until being here. While they waited in the desert for 40 years they built the ark of the covenant. The ark of the covenant was built with these amazing jewels that they had looted from Egypt. God gave them specific measurements, specific materials, and called upon specific people to craft-fully create the ark. The purpose of the ark was so that the presence of God could have a place to dwell among the people. Eventually this ark, or the tabernacle place of the temple, became a place where only the holiest of people could enter. So in the middle of a desert a people who messed up not long before built the dwelling place of God. Seriously????
This is amazing. I hope my amazement and wonder is fully being communicated. Basically, God created a place in the desert for the nation of Israel to create a dwelling place for the presence of God. Wow. They gripped and complained about waiting for Moses to come down from the mountain and so decided to create their own God when God's original intention for them was to create (and probably with the exact same jewels) the actual dwelling place of the presence of God. How often do I gripe and complain and try to hasten the coming of a promise when if I stopped and waited, it just might be a time where He's inviting me to experience more of his presence.
Here in Haiti I don't live in the desert. I actually live in the Caribbean. There are palm trees and mango trees in my courtyard, but a lot of days my perception is that I've been stranded here on this Island. The exact opposite is true. I have not been stranded nor abandoned. I have been lured into the desert with God where he has made a space for me to create a dwelling place in my heart and life for his presence to dwell. What an opportunity. Lord, make me one who sees you for who you truly are and not for what my perceived reality is.
Now guys, here's the kicker. This ark, this dwelling place of the presence of God, was carried into the Jordan river to make a way for the original promise of God to Abraham to finally be fulfilled. The space in the desert allowed for the creation of the home of the presence of God so that the promise of God could ultimately be fulfilled. This blows me away. At the end of Joshua 21 a statement is made that once the Israelites had entered Jordan they had rest on every side and, "not one of all the Lord's good promises to the house of Israel failed. Every one was fulfilled."
What if this time here in Haiti is a time where I have the space and ability to create a dwelling place for the presence of God within me? What if this time will actually usher in the promises of God spoken over me that I am waiting to see fulfilled? And what if this is an opportunity to sit and admire the specifics of what the dwelling place of God really means? What if?
All I know is that I've never known him the way I have met Him here in Haiti. I think Haiti is my place where he has "created a space in the desert so I might create a dwelling place for his presence."
Oh this great adventure with an almighty yet lovely King.
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