Have you ever started your morning in a half-dazed fog of reflections with aimless butterfly thoughts only to find that your time to spend with the Lord has come and gone?
Thankfully, it wasn't one of those mornings. That was yesterday.
I actually slept well so I was able to identify the foreign white sprinkles scattered about the lawn while I stirred different white sprinkles in my syrup-thick coffee. Some use flat irons...I drink coffee grounds.
I took my usual position at the end of the couch and poured my heart out to the Lord in prayer. When I finally opened my Bible, I read through some of Exodus, echoed David's heart cry in a Psalm and started to travel to the gospels when my Bible dropped. It fell open to Haggai's powerful prophecy in chapter 2:4-9 and THEN my thoughts took flight and reflections of past conversations replayed like a video.
"...be strong says the Lord...for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts. For thus says the Lord...I will fill this house with glory...the glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace..." (excerpts)
These words were given to me by a godly saint many years ago as a word from the Lord for what He was going to do. I remembered all of the ways I thought the fulfillment of this prophecy might appear: the church filled with His glory, greater than ever before? Then the Lord's tender voice grabbed my attention as He said "the former days had thousands in the pews, expansions in construction, problems with space, abundance of activity, infectious joy, newly saved sinners being added..." and as I felt like I knew what would come next, the eyes of my heart turned away because I didn't want to hear about the area of ministry I was responsible for now in comparison to the past. Ouch.
"Shannon, what were your thoughts muttering prayerfully before you fell asleep last night?" (I was reading Ex.33)
"Moses spoke to you face to face Lord. I echoed his desire that craved Your Presence to never leave him. That he would know You and Your ways...and then, because he found grace in Your sight, You showed Him Your glory."
And then I remembered verse 21, "And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by Me..." and as He tucked Moses next to Him on a rock and covered him with His hand, God brought a manifestation of His glory; His goodness, to pass right in front of him.
"Shannon, for an audience of ONE, I displayed My glory. My glory...for the heart of ONE that loved Me, that loved My Presence, that desired to know My ways and interceded for the good of My people...I displayed My glory."
And then the words "for the audience of one" echoed over and over again until it broke me. I understood the glory of His Presence in my own life...this audience of one (1 Cor.3:16, 6:19). And oh my..because of His grace...His Presence, goodness, and glory is continually seen in our church. His peace...not only fills my heart, it fills our home and church as well.
"And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped." Ex.34:8
And so did I...this audience of one.
And so did I...this audience of one.
"For you are the temple of the living God." 2 Cor. 6:16b
