2012 December 9 (Sunday) : Re-Gifting

Re-Gifting

We had a wonderful breakfast of cereal, coffee and orange juice and a delicious donut and went as normal to church.  We heard the words of God speaking through Pastor Kevin Kringle about the concept of “Re-Gifting” which was the first time I had heard of it.  For those as unschooled as I, re-gifting is the taking of an unwanted gift and re-wrapping it to give to another.  I understand that sometimes unwanted gifts are received and instead of the receiver taking the gift back to the shop [perhaps they do not know which shop to take it back to], they “re-gift it,” That is, they wrap it up again, and they give it to someone else.  Obviously care has to be taken, since if the original giver of the gift finds out that the gift has been re-gifted, they may take offence and this may harm the relationship, 

Since all of real life, whatever matters most in life, whatever we remember on our deathbeds is made up of true relationships with our friends and family, the ones who made a difference in our life, the ones who stood by us when we suffered, the ones who “raised us up so we could stand on mountains” – the true heroes in our lives, obviously the Lord was saying that whatever it takes, guard relationships with our lives, 

The second thing the Lord was saying was that we are to “re-gift ourselves.”  That is, we are to recognize that part of God’s will for us is to give us as gifts to other people.  We are not to be self centered, because a person wrapped up in himself is a very small package.

We are to realize that God has got us – He has “got our backs” and if we say we are Christians, we are to live that confession – we have to know that we know that He is watching our every move with the eyes and the power and resources of a benevolent King who sees what we need before we do, He knows the desires of our heart, because He was the One who gave them to us while He was knitting us together in our mother’s wombs. 

Worries appear in the minds of UNBELIEVERS, not BELIEVERS.  If I could imagine myself as one of Jesus disciples, or even as one of the crowd that followed Him around, I would KNOW that He was different – that there is something special about one who NEVER sins, who KNOWS the Father as intimately as a loved Son knows a loving Father.   He also said don’t be small and broke and busted and disgusted, but if you cannot give money, there is ALWAYS something you can give – time, labor, interest, care, whatever you DO have.  

As Craig Groeschel says, if you aint DEAD, you aint DONE.  The key of course is to seek FIRST the Kingdom of God – you become God’s agent and be obedient to the last thing He told you to do, He will come through for you in ways you cannot even IMAGINE.  He will be able to create a piece of heaven right here on earth for you – I have seen that happen with my own eyes, and I KNOW it to be true because it happened to me on the 9th December 2012.

I spent the rest of the day with Kim, working on her book.  We went over what she learned on the Heart Dynamics retreat outside Harare, Zimbabwe.  God told me that the process should be gentle and that I should go where Kim is willing to go and do what she is willing to do.  If she doesn’t want to relive the past, she should not. 

What she does need to do is concentrate on her future, because that is where she is going, not to her past.  So when she is ready to talk about her past and her parents are ready to let that happen, that is when it will happen, not before.  I am ecstatically happy to spend time with her, since I know that is what God has put in my heart – building blocks of the happiest moments in my life so far.  The thoughts that will come back to me on my deathbed, wherever that may be will include the times with Kim, getting to know her, hearing her heartbeat, her telling me her hopes, dreams, ambitions, frustrations, victories and triumphs.  Times that I spent sitting next to a princess and just listening to the most beautiful voice in my world.

What is a princess?

Michelle Strydom of Eagles Wings ministries explained princesses for me.  She is a Doctor with a vision from God on His will for the medical profession in Zimbabwe. 

She said from the time a girl is born, the absolute truth of her existence is that she is a daughter of God.  Since God is the King, she is a princess, since the daughter of a King is a princess.  It’s that simple.  She said that all men need to realize this, before they meet a “girlfriend,” she is a princess already.  Before any man met his wife, she was a princess.  Any woman that a man meets in the street is a princess.  The Lord gave me a revelation of this and the reason why it is so simple is that He created men simple and women complicated, because opposites DO attract.  Therefore, no matter what a girl or a woman’s age, color, weight, personality, voice, talents, beauty, heart is like, she is still the daughter of the King, and she is to be treated like the princess that she is.  Simple.

Open doors

Jeff Hidden explained open doors for me.  He said many men pray along the lines of “Lord, open doors for me.”  There are many variants of this prayer, but basically it is a selfish prayer.  The correct way to pray is to pray along the lines of “Lord, help me become a man who You can open doors for.”  I need to realize that God had a plan and a purpose in mind for me when He created me. 

It is crystal clear in God’s mind what that plan and purpose is.  The only place it is not crystal clear is in the mind of man, due to our fallen nature.  We need to seek first to understand rather than be understood, to see the need in order to be part of God’s plan to fill it, to seek to be a blessing in each other’s lives rather than to fulfill our own needs. To realize that in the words of Craig Hill, God has the equivalent of a multi-trillion dollar account and He is looking for someone who He can invest in who is worthy of the investment.

Craig speaks of a GOOD plan – a Get Out Of Debt plan, part of which is we become accountable for our finances, where a potential investor can look at the last x months of our lives and see what we have been doing with our financial resources.  Where a mentor can keep us accountable for those resources, to be excellent stewards of them – THAT is the kind of man God opens doors for.  I confess to have seen this with my own eyes – I thought that the only way I could ever visit the land of the free and the home of the brave was to pay for it myself, but yet, here I am, sitting in Rockton, Illinois, with a princess sleeping upstairs and seeing my wildest dreams come true literally while I watch, living a charmed life and I am certain that in part, it is because I found the courage to start doing that.

Lord, I pray that I am not a gift that is crying out, “No, I’m not ready yet!”  Here I am Lord, send me.