Nobody Likes a Wad
I bought some new towels the other day. I placed them, perfectly folded, on the counter for the sales associate to ring them up. I saw it before it happened. She reached for the barcode tag tucked away in the very center of the towel. You can’t just grab the corner of the towel without unfolding it first ... at least not the corner she needed. When she grabbed and pulled... she got a wad... and frustrated.
And it was here at the check-out counter with a wad of towels that Holy Spirit said
That’s what happens when you try to unfold things without me...a frustrating wad.
Have you ever done that?
A situation arises and we go slam off the deep end playing and replaying outrageous scenarios that couldn’t even happen in the movies. We become exhausted at trying to figure out “what God might be doing” all the while Holy Spirit waits patiently for us to ask Him to shed some light.
Psalm 119:30 (AMPC)
The entrance and unfolding of Your words give light; their unfolding gives understanding (discernment and comprehension) to the simple.
Light. Light is a person, His name is Jesus
John 1:1-5 (AMPC)
In the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ) and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. He was present originally with God. All things were made and came into existence through Him and without Him was not even one thing made that has come into being. In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men.
Jesus is called the Light and the Word in John 1. In 1 Corinthians 1:24 He is called the Wisdom of God. His entrance into our situation brings wisdom and understanding, discernment and comprehension.
I know Jesus isn’t still walking around down here having face to face conversations with people. BUT Jesus told His disciples in John 16:13-15 (AMPC)
But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth). For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future]. He will honor and glorify Me because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you. Everything that the Father has is Mine. That is what I meant when I said that He [the Spirit] will take the things that are Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you.
Holy Spirit is here. He is here to glorify, reveal and unveil Light, the Word and Wisdom of God; Jesus.
Colossians 2:3 (AMPC)
In Him all the treasures of the [divine] wisdom (comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God) and [all the riches of spiritual] knowledge and enlightenment are stored up and lie hidden.
Luke 8:17 (AMPC)
For there is nothing hidden that shall not be disclosed, nor anything secret that shall not be known and come out into the open.
The Father doesn’t want you worried, anxious, confused or frustrated with life here, on our way to Heaven. Everything we need for understanding has been given to Jesus and we have access to it by Holy Spirit.
What gets us most of the time is the unfolding. Our God is a God of order. I loved the use of the word unfolding in Psalm 119:130.
Unfolding is an opening, a revealing, to blossom. I think of petals of a flower. The innermost petals are always the last to open. God always starts with the basics, the foundation; precept upon precept (Isaiah 28:9). In Mark 4, the parable of the sower, Jesus tells us, first the blade, then the ear and then the full grain.
The unfolding requires time in meditation. I’ve been thinking a lot about the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10. As Martha busied herself serving, her sister Mary sat at Jesus’ feet. When Martha expected Jesus to chastise her sister for sitting at His feet, He responded with
One thing is needful and Mary has chosen that good part
Of course there are things that we must do; we must take care of our families, we must work, we must buy groceries... but what are we doing while we do those things. What is our mind fixed on? What are we meditating on? I think that the story of Mary and Martha absolutely has physical implications as to what we spend our time doing, but I also think there are symbolic implications here as well.
We must purposefully choose to set our minds at the feet of Jesus, meditating on His words and allow Holy Spirit to do what He came to do; disclose, reveal and unfold. When we do that we worry, anxiety and confusion have no room to play.
Satan, the enemy of your soul, thrives in worry and anxiety. That was his tactic with Eve in the Garden of Eden and it worked so well he uses it today. He persuaded her to worry about God’s plans for her; worry that He was holding out on her, worry that He wouldn’t take care of her. So she took matters into her own hands and what a wad we are still dealing with today.
Will we allow Holy Spirit do the unfolding? Will we allow Him to peel back the layers?
Nobody likes a wad.