Look Forward

Look Forward

Stop. Rewind, playback. Now Fast-forward!.

Stop the rewind, the playback, forget the former things. Adjust your focus. Look forward, look forward, not back. What are you looking forward to? What are you excited for? Look forward, fast forward to the best bit.

To look forward to – “to feel pleased or excited about something that is going to happen” or “you hope to hear from someone or you expect something from them”

Acceleration, feel the rush. Go faster, pick up the pace, feel the wind, feel the rush. Get excited about the speed, not fearful of it.

Focus not on the loss, get excited about the gain! Look forward, seriously “look forward”, with joy look forward.

We are going to speed through the adds, and go straight to multiplication. You know that expanded nursery you are building – well it is going to be full. You are going to feel the push, but then wake up and find yourself multiples. In the place of multiplication, in the room of multiples, in the dwelling place of multiples, in the presence of multiples. Once empty, filled with barrenness, filled with lack, now packed with multiples.

Isaiah 54:1-4 Spread Out! Think Big! “Sing, barren woman, who has never had a baby. Fill the air with song, you who’ve never experienced childbirth! You’re ending up with far more children than all those childbearing women.” God says so! “Clear lots of ground for your tents! Make your tents large. Spread out! Think big! Use plenty of rope, drive the tent pegs deep. You’re going to need lots of elbow room for your growing family. You’re going to take over whole nations; you’re going to resettle abandoned cities. Don’t be afraid—you’re not going to be embarrassed. Don’t hold back—you’re not going to come up short. You’ll forget all about the humiliations of your youth, and the indignities of being a widow will fade from memory.

Do not fear, for I have summoned the mid-wives, the nannies, the grandparents, the extended family. Fear not, just be the Dad! Just attend to the building, just keep the power on.

What do you see on the faces of your new children? Is it not joy, is it not a smile, is it not vulnerability? Each to their own booth, each to their own space, one adjacent to another. Many joyful in unison. Not the crying of pain, the sound of laughter shall be heard.

You are kind, be kind, demonstrate my kindness. Be confident, exuberant and expansive. Lead with confidence, not fear, with exuberance, with passion, not insecurity and alarm. Be expansive, be enlarging, not diminished. Act like you are bigger, you are enlarged, and be enlarged, grow! Think BIG!

Take a breath, all around children crying, and yet be chilled, be focused, relax. Receive my peace, receive my joy, receive my calm. Be not wound up, be unwound, be loosed, be free, be free of it. Put your baggage down.

1 Samuel 17:22 David left his packages in the care of the baggage keeper and ran into the ranks and came and greeted his brothers.

Be my peace in the storm, be my calming presence in the storm, rest in the storm. Float above the storm, like an eagle. Be elevated by the storm. For the speed of the wind will elevate you as you adjust your wings and find the right current. Feel the wind of my spirit. Lean into it, flow with it, feel the rush.

Isaiah 40:29-31 He gives power to the faint and weary, and to him who has no might He increases strength [causing it to multiply and making it to abound]. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and [selected] young men shall feebly stumble and fall exhausted; But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired.