Moving Beyond the “P” Words
I say I grew up on “church pew.” Many of my earliest happy memories occurred in the community of my childhood local church. As a little girl I sang this song with the children’s choir:
I am a promise. I am a possibility.
I am a promise, with a capital P.
I am a great big bundle of potentiality.
And I am learning to hear God’s voice
And I am trying to make the right choice
I am a promise to be anything God wants me to be.
I can go anywhere that He wants me to go. I can be anything that He wants me to be.
I can climb the high mountain. I can cross the wide sea.
I am a great big promise you see!
I…am…a…promise. I am a possibility…….
I smile as I recall the song and the encouragement of all the adults in my then little life. It It makes me think of a time when anything was truly possible, when I was fearless to dream big and to share my big dream with you! And then I think that in some areas I could be stuck there. Where? At possibility and potential.
Let’s just get the truth out quick: sometimes it is easier to celebrate that ethereal vision than to experience it as a tangible reality. It is easier to share your dream and the “what God told me-showed me” than it is to embrace the process of ascension into which this beautiful vision and amazing dream leads.
More truth: Possibility and Potential FEEL good. We like to know how much God believes in us, that He chooses us for greatness and impact on various levels and in many ways, from Jerusalem to the uttermost parts of the earth. It FEELS good to know we are CAPABLE of doing all things through Christ. Visions, dreams, songs, and other special ways that God shows Himself to us make us FEEL close to Him, aware of His presence, and more willing to submit to His plan.
Why don’t we, then, take these FEELINGS and let them PROPEL us into DOING? Maybe now you get my point. We can get stuck on those “P” words–possibility and potential. Well, it is time to get UNSTUCK. It is time to move beyond being the people who only talk about what “God told me-showed me” and BE (demonstrate) what He said and revealed.
A little more truth: we do not fear the process toward ascension. I think we just like to know our ability, and sadly, that can keep us as inactive as fear. Selah.
On the Path to Reigning we choose to be students of the Master Doer. John the Apostle thought the world could not contain the books if everything Jesus did was written down (21:25). Yet Jesus said we would do what He did and greater works (John 14:12). On the Path to Reigning we bind ourselves to the teachings of the One who began with potential and possibility…but moved on to tangible demonstration and manifestation.
Possibility and potential are not where we camp. They are the seeds of the business, the ministry, the books, the poems, the songs, the medical mission and the mission on foreign soil. What would have happened if all the foundation Scripture gave us as 21st century believers in Jesus was that babe in swaddling clothes–no growth, no parables, no example, no miracles, no blood, no Spirit, no power?! In the same way, I challenge us all to not leave the Body of Christ with just our possibility and our potential.
Selah, and love to all.
Blogs I Follow
The Bereans' Commentary with Shaunta D. Scroggins, Ed.D. 