The flow

Written by Michelle West
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Lately I have been thinking about the flow of life.  Can you think of times that you pushed and strained to make things happen?  A relationship, a job, a house... Then there are the times without any effort on your part, the ideas, His voice just flows.  You walk to the sound, the doors open and close, and you end up in the wide open place and you know in your deepest, this is where you are meant to be.  

Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit."  What if we truly waited on His Spirit and committed to only walk in the flow of it?  I think it would make life alot more simple, and there would be an ease to it, not easy but an ease.

When I was giving birth to my daughter, I pushed in the contractions.  I wanted her out already, so I pushed when there was no contraction.  The doctor stopped me and told me not to push except in the rhythm of contractions because I would end up injuring myself. Isn't that the truth in life?  I am realizing now I have pushed most of my life in and out of contractions.  The results weren't always bad either but they trained me to not wait on God.  That life will happen regardless and sometimes something is better than nothing.  What a lie and what a disadvantage to the Spirit adventure.

Yesterday in the sermon at church, Matt asked, "Do you have a backup plan for Jesus?" Selah.  Pause and think about that one!  Why yes, I do, many.  That one question will not leave my head.  In my redesign I am learning to wait on His Spirit; but are you truly waiting if you have a backup plan?  If your faith has a backup plan, is it truly faith?

In the reconstruction of my life, I have been considering what direction to take my life. Maybe it is not about the "shoulds" and more about the "gentle blowing" (I Kings 19). Jesus said that even He does nothing on His own but as the Father instructs Him (Jn. 8:28).  Wow, waiting, stepping in the Flow with no backup plan...  Most of the needs I have right now seem so important, so impossible, some even painful, and there is a fear in me that if I wait, He won't show up.  That is what I have to settle in my heart and my mind, He won't "show up" because He is already here.  He will never leave me or forsake me and if He is here, so is all His power and His person.  What more could I need?  So I listen to His gentle blowing, waiting, and waiting... and walking as It flows.  

UPDATE:  May 16, 2016
At the time I wrote this, my husband had died two years prior and my daughter was six years old.  I was making decisions on where to live, what to do, money, a daddy for my daughter, a husband or not, so many decisions.  I had always made things happen but this time I actually did what I wrote above.  I waited and His Wind came to me and I walked in the Flow.  My Father did provide and I can state beyond a shadow of a doubt that He is faithful and He takes better care of my life than I ever could.

Can you feel it?  That's the Wind of His Spirit.  "You will hear a Voice behind you saying, 'this is the way, walk in it'"  (Is. 30:21).

​Michelle Gill is a writer, barista, editor of Heart to Heart, trail walker sometimes runner, disc golfer's wife, Jesus lover, book collector, mama, old house explorer.  Learn more about her story on her website www.maceyhollow.com.