Pathways

London is an amazing city. I'm a scouser and love Liverpool more, but London comes very close.

I love the fast, vibrant activity that spins around you 24/7.

It makes me function better somehow! Its almost like it puts everything into HD, 3D, and Blu-Ray all at the same time.

On this occasion, sitting in my car, in a car park in London, the city seemed far from inviting.

It was a fair few years back now.

Dawn and I were dropping our daughter Bailey off at her placement for her gap year.

My little girl was leaving home!

And in my heart I knew it was forever.

There would be university straight after the gap year, then as it turned out marriage, so on that day? It was saying goodbye to my precious baby and releasing her into the realities of life.

And that realisation hit my heart badly.

And suddenly London, a place I adore, seemed big and brash and bad!

As she walked up the path towards the door of her new apartment where she would be staying. I smiled as I waved, trying my best to appear calm and kind of not too bothered. She waved back (she really wasn't that bothered!) we pulled out on to the road, drove about fifty yards and had to pull over because the tears were blurring both Dawn and Gary's vision, which isn't a good thing driving in London!

Sitting this morning in a deep dark corner of Starbucks, I began to reflect on why God had kind of presented this picture? A picture I'd rather forget really?

The one thing I thought clearly was how my daughter has survived the gap year, then the university, and is now married and working and still serving God.

She is doing great!

I thought how amazing it is how God carves out our pathways?

If we trust him enough that is?

I remember the day I realised Jesus was my only hope in life, I opened the bible and I read a scripture. It was the first time I had ever read from the pages of the bible and been hit with a kind of electric jolt. A drab, going nowhere existence that I led suddenly became transformed. A grey hazy life suddenly metamorphasised into shockingly bright technicolour!

The scripture was Isaiah 45: 1-3.

“This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of
to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor,
to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:
I will go before you and will level the mountains ;
I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron.
I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places,
so that you may know that I am the Lord , the God of Israel, who summons you by name.

I know all the theologians say you must never "just open the bible and read it, that's not the way to do it." How sad that ultra-limiting stance is? It's the LIVING word of God for goodness sake!

And a living God speaks living words.

As I read these amazing words about God going on before breaking through impossible blockages like mountains, and gates of bronze, and bars of iron. I kind of saw a pathway clearing before my very eyes. It wasn't a self created pathway, it was a God created pathway that led somewhere amazing?

Direct to the City limits of the new Jerusalem.

Heaven itself.

As I stepped onto that pathway right at the start of my journey as follower of Jesus, I understood something simple but essential.

God is going before me!

You know that is so fantastic it's too much to try to express that in words.

These simple biblical truths that we know don't always sink in.

But it's true.

And in my corner of star bucks,(incidentally I've just found five pound coins down the side of one of the comfy chairs! Yeah man! I can afford a blueberry muffin as well now!) I am thinking about the future.

There are some exciting times ahead for Dawn and I.

God has led us both along a particular pathway in our ministry. One that seems full of blockages and risks.

But yet another door has opened this week! New possibilities are on the way, exciting and earth shatteringly life changing for Dawn and I and others!

I shouldn't be surprised because God says in this scripture, he will open doors before us that gates will not be shut!

I needn't have worried about Bailey. Even though it was hard to just let her go? God had it sorted.

He carves out pathways.

Obviously this doesn't mean we can sit on our posteriors ( sorry I couldn't think of a better word, well I could, but I guess it's best not to write it here!) and just do nothing. We need to push doors, move forward, test stuff. That means that sometimes we will hit closed doors and gates of bronze etc that God doesn't want us breaking through. But if we keep trusting that God is going before us, and he is, because he has declared it and spoken it over us in his word, then we will soon pick up the God carved path once again.

I don't know why God wanted me to write this on my blog today?

I suspect that maybe there is someone out there who can only see a massive blockage in front of them?

That blockage seems like it's an impossibility to shift?

Listen, you may not be able to move the blockage!

BUT GOD CAN!

Fix your eyes on the God who can level mountains.

Try trust! It works!

If you have to let go of something that's hard to, trust God and let go! If you need to push a door that is seemingly closed, push it anyway! If a decision needs to be made that you are struggling with, make it!

Why?

Because It's been spoken. The mightiest power, the highest power, the most adorable, amazing, incredible power, the father, the son and the Holy Spirit, the electric trinity, is going before you.

And I would never trust my future to anything other than that.

Massive blessing on your life today!