Here is a picture of what I saw this morning in early morning prayer.  A bowl of flour. Ok Lord, what does that mean? I didn’t even know how flour was made so I looked it up.  Did you know you can make your own flour? I had no idea.  You can take the wheat berries (that’s what they call them), put them in a coffee grinder, and viola – presto, chango – you get your own flour.  Who knew? That’s alot of wheat berries ground up in that bowl. And then we mix it up with whatever stuff we want and together we make something. Bread, cake, cookies, whatever.

So, what if each of those wheat berries were a person?

And we are all in the bowl of God’s Creation?

What if God is making something with all of us together in that bowl?

But first we have to get out of the bag and into the bowl.

Then I started reading in Hebrews. I found out that God’s promises need some faith to make them come to pass.  God gives us all promises. But the invisible still needs to become visible. And we want to see it happen in our lives right?

God gave the Israelites promises in the Wilderness, but they forgot one ingredient in their bowl – FAITH. Most of them never made it to the Promised Land – because they  would not look beyond what they see in the natural – and see the invisible. God’s promises are greater than anything we see or know. And we get to choose to believe the promises and exercise our faith or not. And we get to choose to mix our faith with the faith of those who do believe or not. No lone ranger wheat berries. Our faith needs to be united with those who believe.

 For indeed we have had the glad tidings [Gospel of God] proclaimed to us just as truly as they [the Israelites of old did when the good news of deliverance from bondage came to them]; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not mixed with faith (with the leaning of the entire personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness) by those who heard it; neither were they united in faith with the ones [Joshua and Caleb] who heard (did believe). (Hebrews 4:2 AMP)

What if we could combine our faiths – like the wheat berries turned into flour – and see God’s promises activated in our lives and our sisters and brothers lives?  How about if we added some Moses Faith, and some Aaron Faith, and some Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob faith to the mix?  And how about we add the best one – some Jesus Faith to the mix?  Yeah, get me some of that Jesus Faith – He said He was the Author and Finisher of my faith. So whatever we have, we throw it in the bowl, and He finishes it.

 Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours. (Hebrews 11:39-40 MSG)

Yep, there is going to be some mixing and crunching going on first.  Nobody really likes that part. Refining, shaking, purifying – call it what you will – it still hurts.  But it is necessary. I get that. But we can’t be mixed together without it.  It’s not always pretty. Sometimes things splatter out of the bowl and all over the counter. And we have to scrape it back down, to keep mixing.

I guess what God showed me this morning is that it is not just my faith.  It’s the faith of all of his kids together that activates His Promises – for all His kids.  We really are better together!  And when my faith is weak, I know I have a brother or sister who will pray for me and reignite the fire  in my heart.  And guess what – even the Fathers of Faith are in the bowl right next to us! Now that is exciting!

Don’t give up yet my friends. God isn’t finished creating yet.  And come on in, the water is fine!