We are called to be carriers of His glory. It’s not about standing up and being an eloquent speaker. It’s about being so close to the heart of God that you know what He’s thinking. Then you’re not afraid to go anywhere and say anything. The Lord Himself will do anything for radical lovers. He captivates us so that we can never go back. He wants to shatter your box. Often your God is still too small. It’s His time for whole nations.
Lie down so that He can trust you with everyone. Then when you get up there is revival—when whole nations come to Him, falling on their faces. He changes us with one glance of His eyes, so that we are not afraid to be completely abandoned in His arms. Many want lots of power and anointing, but when you just lie down and let Him kill you, it’s a good thing. He wants to love you to death.
We are finally realizing that we have failed and that we cannot bring about the kind of revival this world needs. In the secret place of Your heart, Jesus, we will rest. We will lie down. We will listen, until You tell us to stand up. When You tell us to stand up, we know that nations will come to You.
He’s looking for union, not occasional worship, so that our natures are transformed. We must walk in His nature, and we must die daily.
Some people say, “Just get a grip. We’ve already done that.” But it’s a daily thing, a continual laying down. All fruitfulness flows from intimacy. There’s no other place to get it. To the degree that we are united with the heart of Jesus, God will bring fruit in our lives. To the degree that you are in love with Him, you will be fruitful.
I (Heidi) don’t know anything else. I’m so desperate to stay in this place of abandonment. From this place nothing is impossible. I only have one message—passion and compassion. We’re passionate lovers of God, so that we become absolutely nothing. His love fills us. When it’s time to stand up, God stands up with us. We focus on His face, never on our ministry, anointing or numbers.
All I want to do is love God and care for His people. I find them in the garbage, under trees, dying of AIDS. I’m just really simple. Jesus said, “Just look into My eyes,” and everything completely changed. His eyes are filled with love and passion and compassion. Jesus always stops for the dying man, the dying woman and the dying child. That’s all I know, passion and compassion. He calls me to love every single person I see every single day.
There are so many tired Christians and burned-out ministers. Go, go, work, work, rah, rah. Why? We don’t bear much fruit running around like that. But when you’re filled with His passion, fruit happens.
Just focus on His face. You will only make it to the end if you can focus on His face. Focus on His beautiful face. You can’t feed the poor, you can’t go to the street, you can’t see anything happen unless you see His face. One glance of His eyes, and we have all it takes to lie down. We’re not afraid to die.
We give our offerings, but our offering is going to have to be us. We have to say, “Go ahead. Take me. Take everything.” The deal is, you have to see His face. You have to be completely wrecked by His love so that you will hilariously give your life away. You start to love the people you didn’t think you could ever love, even the mean ones. But you have to see His face.
Since that time when I saw His face, a nation is coming to Jesus. We have to see Him in His glory, mercy, beauty and love. And then we need to see Him in the poor, in the least of these.
But we can’t make revival happen. I know about all that forty-day fasting stuff. I used to do it so I could pray in revival. Now I do it just so I can be hungry for God. I do it so I can be poorer and desperately hungry and so I can relate to the hunger of a lost and dying world. I do it so I feel their pain and their suffering when I live with them in tents and refugee camps. It’s a whole difference place, you see. I can’t go back.
We need to be in that place. We’re prisoners of love. Some people say, “Oh, how noble. You’re a missionary.” I’m just a prisoner of love. I don’t have any choice. It is joy unspeakable and full of glory. The whole thing. Every part of it. Even as babies die in my arms, there is this incredible joy in my spirit, because they died being loved. They went straight from our love and the love of our precious workers from all over the world, and all the Mozambicans, hundreds of them, and they go right into the hands of Jesus. And He just keeps on loving them, even more than we could. That’s joy. That’s victory.
One week eight of our precious ones died. I was really tired. I didn’t understand. I love them so much. It was just one after another. Why? What do I do? Jesus said, “Either way, you win, because you loved them to life.” I go just a glimpse of the eternal. I got a picture of His arms opening wide to receive those babies and those teenagers and those pastors, and I said, “Wow, just take me! I am so ready!” I so want to be there, because I’ve seen His face. One glance of His eyes and you’re wrecked forever.
His call is for all of our lives. He calls each of us to be an extravagant, hilarious love offering to Jesus. That’s the place where I believe the glory comes. This glory of His presence that we are so desperate for, that we so need, that we’re so crying out for, that we’re so longing for, that we sing about, comes as we hilariously, totally and completely give away our entire being before Him. We are the sacrifices He ignites with His love, and His presence just falls. He just comes. He is looking for people who will carry His glory. He really, really is.
But you have to be dead in order to carry it. And when you carry the glory, you will carry it out to the poor, the broken, the dying and the lost. You will. That’s the call. That’s the heartbeat of Jesus, that we carry Him out to the broken. But you can’t carry Him until you’ve seen His face. You have to know that holy place.
You go from the place where you say, “Oh, God. I’ll write a check, but just don’t make me go to Africa. Please, oh, God, don’t make me sit in the dump. I’d love to write a check. Here it is. It’s a lot. Just don’t make me go there. I don’t like bugs,” to where you just say, “Oh, God, here I am. Take me anywhere. Take me, use me, break me, bruise me if need be, pour me out, fill me up, here I am. I’m an offering. I’m it. I’m the offering. Take me. Pick me up with Your glory and let me be a carrier of Your presence into the darkness. I know You love me, God, because I’ve seen Your face.”
God wants to do sings and wonders like we’ve never seen, but we have to see His face. We have to see what He sees and feel what He feels. Otherwise, it’s dangerous and frightening. He can only release His power and anointing to those who will lie down, who will say, “Only You,” and stay that way every single day.
(…) He’s calling out radical servant-lovers. He’s breathing His life into His sleeping Church. His lovers will carry His presence, and the hungry won’t resist anymore.
-Heidi Baker, “Always Enough”
Chatboard (0)