What comes to you mind when you hear the term ‘Spiritual Formation’?
What image is formed in your mind?
For many people ‘Spiritual Formation’ is a ‘step program’ that they undertook when they believed in the Lord Jesus and made the same confession with their mouths. It is an event not a continuous process. This is tragic to say the least.
. . .Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed . . .
(1 Corinthians 9:10/Isaiah 55:10)
If you ever attended Lightie then you must know this entire Scripture by heart – 1 Corinthians 9:6-11. When I attended church there it was one of those we recited during the giving time. I have loads of precious memories of Lightie so many. And they all came flooding back late last week thanks to my Mother quoting that part of the text up there.
So on Friday (5th June 2020) last week, my mum sent me one of her notorious cryptic messages. Her messages are almost always cryptic. They are so short form, short form has nothing on her. The words have no vowels, the consonants are usually merged together like a forced relationship. In most cases she will write a three line sentence to communicate fifty things and you are expected to decipher and action immediately. This particular message was true to her style and I had just one look at it and growled, why can’t she just write full words! I tried to decipher it and was getting mixed up and not understanding most of it. There was however one part of it that was very clear, I was to send some amount of money to a certain Child of God. I was busy trying to beat a deadline on something so I put that message in the ‘to do list’ at the back of my head.
I am the fulfillment of their wildest dreams
My Grandmother
My Mother
My Aunties
My Godmother
My Sisters
My Daughters
My Son
I was running
Running for my life
When I crossed the border I felt safe
But that safety was momentarily lived
Because soon enough fear began to engulf me
Fear that even here, I would be followed and dragged back into slavery
So I began to search for a clutch to hold onto, a shield to protect me
I clung onto the first one that I saw, holding on with dear life
I never felt the spikes that were cutting through my flesh the closer I clung to my new found clutch
The closer the shield pressed onto my wounded body
I was enveloped in the fear of the past showing up at my doorstep
But while my mind grew numb, my body took the battering on our behalf
Soon enough my mind could no longer be numb to the fact that our new found saviour was nothing
But the living breathing mirror image of our past
I love asking questions. I ask a lot of questions. In one of my former work places one of the older employees (who has since died may she rest in peace) got tired of my questions and one day in frustration, raise voice and hands in surrender she told me:
Joyce, you are a walking questionnaire!
As you can imagine, I stopped asking questions unless it was absolutely necessary. Through this experience and many like it, I learnt early on two critical things about my questions:
These two realities are a double tragedy because one of those spaces was at home and one of those people was my parents. The second space was school and the people not to be asked questions was teachers. And the third space was work and the people not to be asked questions was virtually everyone from bosses to the gatemen!
They walk and talk among us. Some we know. Some we don’t. Some are strangers. Some are Friends. But they all have one thing in common; they are healers.
There are those heal with Words. Their voice soothes wounded souls. Their words water quenched souls bringing life and hope. When they speak, dying embers are fanned to flames. Dreams are revived. Vision is refocused. Slopping limbs are strengthened.
There are those who heal with Touch. Their touch calms wounded bodies. Their touch soothes scars and heals wounds. It brings healing and wholeness. When they touch, they restore faith and trust. Calmness of the body invigorates the entire being as one rests in their safe arms.
There are those who heal with their very Presence. Their presence signals that everything will be ok. They walk into chaos, be it physical spaces or human lives and emanate healing all around. We long for these healers. They might be few and far in between, but they are life giving.
There are those who heal with Action. They do no say much. They might even touch much. By when they own a space or a human and what concerns them, you can rest assured they will not rest until everything is sorted out. They will climb mountains for you, for your healing, for your wholeness. They will sacrifice self and property to acquire your healing.
I am grateful for healers. They make life easier. They restore. They energize. They refresh. They refocus. They uplift. They encourage.
Where would the world be without healers!
Where would we be without the Greatest Healer!
He who heals from the inside out. He who knows us as we are, yet still lavishly loved us. He who made a choice to become one of us so that He could make us like Him. I am so grateful for Jesus. He heals with Words, with Touch, with Presence, with Action.
When you are so used to keeping quiet
Instead of speaking your thoughts
When you have been dumbed down
When you speak you follow it with an apology
When you are so used to not being seen
Instead of living your fullest
When you have been made into a shadow
When you are seen you follow it with an apology
When you are so used to not think
Instead of processing your thoughts
When your mind has been caged
When you think you follow it with an apology
When you are so used to not feel
Instead of expressing your feelings
When your emotions have been trivialized
When you feel you follow it with an apology
Whatever you do
However much resistance
Keep speaking
Keep thinking
Keep feeling
The freedom and life that flows from it
Will slowly but surely wipe out the apology
The energy and boldness that flows from it
Will set you free
To Speak
To Think
To Feel
Without Apology!
#ToLiveAndLetLive
Don’t cry, don’t even beg me to stay.
It’s time to leave.
It has been long overdue you know..
Just to imagine you think I didn’t love you enough breaks my heart..
We had good times together.
Is it safe really?
How safe is it?
So I look around
My eyes darting throughout the room
Studying each face
Noticing each misplaced and forced smile
I begin to untie the tights knots around my heart
My head goes off
Sirens wailing, begging me to stop
But my heart is bursting, it needs a release
So the head and heart war rages
The heart is winning and another knot is untied
My mouth follows the heart
It is open now and flowing as the heart pours
My eyes join the party and the tear ducts supply the gush
My head is still in resistance mode, still running the sirens
Then a laughter cuts through the flow between my heart and my mouth
A piercing comment follows the laughter
The recoiling is immediate
The back flow intuitive
The mind goes into overdrive, it is time for coping
The knots are getting tied even tighter this time
The tear ducts have not received the memo though, they are threatening a flood
Not now, not now, as the eyes shut and squeeze
The nose joins in for cover up
The hand fishes out an extension of the scarf
I must be catching a cold, the mouth half laughs half speaks
Mind is having a ‘I told you so’ moment with the heart
Body is going numb, led by the legs that are most needed now for escape
Mind goes into overdrive and marshals the entire being to leave
Safe space?
I do not think so.
Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
(1 Timothy 4:1-5)
A couple of weeks back I was heading somewhere using a cab. As is my custom, I greeted the driver as me and mine settled in. Out settling in is normally an event 🙂 🙂 Bags of clothes, bags of food plus 3 children, sometimes the helper is with us then lastly myself. Guy was very kind to us not those who begin to advise me on family planning methods 🙂 🙂 Car was clean and the music was even more appealing. He had on some Gospel music from the Kamba community. Nothing gospel kapuka, very intentional, slow Scriptural music. So we get chatting:
ME:”Nikuulize, ni nyimbo umeweka tu ama pia umeokoka?”
Driver: Bursts out in laughter. “Nimeokoka madam”
Music was really nice and I knew most of the songs so after he shared his testimony we all got into singing mode. I had some foreign guests with me so I was also showing them some spots on the road.
Me: “That is a public cemetery”
Guests: “Whaaaat!! It is so large”
Then we would go back to the music.
Suddenly the music stopped and some guy came over the radio. He was heaving. Guy introduces himself with titles “Prophet and Apostle XYZ” What intrigued me was that the driver began to slowly but surely increase the volume on the radio. Lots of chitchat was happening at the back of the car now and he was beginning to look irritated.
Guy on the radio continues:
“Tafadhali tuma maombi kwa hii number XYZ, usipige simu, tafadhali tuma message only!”
Then he began recognising those who had tuned in. At this point I figured out, he must be live on Facebook or something as well as being broadcast on TV and Radio simultaneously.
“Nakuona XYZ kutoka Kitale”
Then he started reading the prayer items and it got really spooky
“XYZ kutoka Kitui umesema unataka school fees ya watoto”
XYZ kutoka Mombasa umesema unataka shida za nyumbani ziishe”
At some point I had to re-listen because I felt like I was in a live witch doctor session with a sprinkling of “In Jesus Name” in between.
And of course there was the money part:
“Tuma pesa kwa hii number XYZ”
As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.
(1 Timothy 1:3-7)
The problem of merchandising God and His Word is two way – the unscrupulous wolves in sheep’s clothing and the gullible masses who take in everything they are told hook, like and sinker.
The idea that a mortal man can wave a magic wad or say an incantation that will rid self of all troubles is not new.
But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.
(2 Kings 5:11-12)
Therefore Paul writes to young Timothy inspired by the Holy Spirit to guide him as one leading the flock of God.
I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.
(1 Timothy 3:14-15)
And here we find our ever increasing contrast, the war inside spaces called by God’s name and people called to God: teachings of demons vs. buttress of truth
Which of the two will the Church choose to espouse: lies, mysticism, genealogies,myths, rules, merchandising the Good News, regulations or will the Church be and continuously become a pillar and buttress of the truth.
A pillar and buttress for truth in all spheres of life.
In homes.
In government.
In society.
In schools.
In the media.
In regard to mental, emotional, social, spiritual and physical health.
One of the primary ways the Church can become a pillar and buttress for truth is to Speak out clearly to the people on what God is saying about them, in their current spaces, but most importantly about them in His grand scheme revealed throughout Scripture.
That God loves you.
That God desires to have a relationship with you now and through eternity.
That God has already made the first step towards you in actualizing that relationship.
Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
1 Timothy 4:8-9