Jubilee
Recently on my 50th birthday I marked the day with a praise, worship and financial offering. A first fruits if you will.
Up to this point I had viewed the promised land in my mind as being over there somewhere, but during my prayer time early in the morning on my 50th I sensed the line or boarder of the promised land was like at my feet just behind me.
I sense I have truly crossed over into a new season in my life.
Surprisingly it looked much like the day before in many ways and as I found myself pushing away disappointment I saw a picture of the Queensland/Northern Territory boarder crossing from when I lived in the NT in the late 1980’s. It’s interesting to note that the countryside on both sides of the boarder look exactly the same, but as you cross the cattle grid you do indeed enter a different territory and the further you move into that territory the landscape begins to change and the past state fades away.
Years ago I mixed audio for a corporate event at the 4 Seasons Hotel at Circular Quay in Sydney. It was a 50th birthday banquet. The person who was celebrating his 50th had from memory 100+ guests and his Birthday present to himself was a 1960’s fully restored mustang painted with 15 coats of Ferrari red paint! For years in my mind this had somehow become the benchmark of what it should look like when I turn 50, but the last few years and months leading up to this milestone it became increasingly clear this wasn’t going to happen. My birthday approaching had a sense of dread.
31 years ago I remember complaining to God that I didn’t have a testimony like those who hadn’t grown up in church or those who had backslidden and come back to faith through dramatic circumstances. I have since come to realize this is perhaps not the smartest prayer to pray! You know He is going to answer it right?! And not at all the way you’d envisioned!
30 years ago I walked into a Telstra phone box and when I hung up the phone and walked out that evening I found myself with a broken heart in a pit of despair. What I knew to be ground beneath my feet with a lifetime of opportunity before me, had become a glass ceiling above my head that seemed impenetrable. I was seperated from the clear atmosphere I had known and I wondered if I could ever get back there. This lasted for 5+ years and was the first of many make or break circumstances that would follow.
Over the last 30 years it has seemed like the water torture you see in the movies when someone has their head held under water in a bath tub, then pulled up interrogated then plunged back into the water again till they give up some secret.
But over the last 30 years I can testify that God has revealed His presence to me and continues to. He has taught me to trust in Him and not lean on my own understanding. He has taught me to hold fast to the confession of my hope for He who promised is faithful. He has taught me to praise and worship and declare His goodness from the valley places. You see He deserves to be worshiped from every place we find ourselves, not just the pleasant and mountain top places.
The scripture infused songs I have written from the valley places in my life have at times been lifelines and assisted me in strengthening myself in the Lord to get through and they now stand as memorials to His faithfulness as I look back. While I am not where I thought I’d be turning 50, I do have a testimony. Despite the challenges I am still here, I love God more now than before that night when my world fell apart, the circumstances I have been through have given me a spine of steel, not just normal steel but like Demarcus steel which goes through many make or break processes to form its strength, keeping its edge without being brittle and I believe my testomony is still unfolding!
I believe God is going to use me moving forward. I don’t quite know what that looks like, but I believe everything has a purpose. All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose (NKJV)
I believe I have crossed over into a season where He is going to put a new song in my mouth. A song not written from the pit.
Psalms 40:1-3 says:
I waited patiently for the LORD;
And He inclined to me,
And heard my cry.
He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
Out of the miry clay,
And set my feet upon a rock,
And established my steps.
He has put a new song in my mouth—
Praise to our God;
Many will see it and fear,
And will trust in the LORD.
(NKJV)
One week prior to my 50th, Ps Phil Dooley preached about Joseph which seemed unusual given it was the begining of the Christmas season, but the Joseph story in the context of his message spoke to me because Joseph was thrown into a pit and his life became a struggle and the purpose of it wasn’t revealed until his encounter with Pharaoh.
The following Sunday night we had our Anointing Service at church and Robert Fergusson declared that 2024 would be a year of Jubilee! As he spoke this I leaped inside. This was such a confirmation to me as I had been sensing and believing for a year of Jubilee in 2024 and he declared this literally 1 day after my 50th Birthday!
I have already begun to see blessings unfold. The following Tuesday my daughter Amie was elected to the student executive at her primary school for 2024 and on the same day at the corporate prayer meeting Rajneeta wrote in a card that she gave me that songs of joy and victory are in the camp of the Godly (Psalm 118:15 NLT) and she said she believed I was going to write songs of joy. This I believe will be the “new song” and I believe it will be written from places of joy and victory! Again that same day it was announced that Jesse Murray was now our new campus Pastor, something I believe God had shown me months prior and this was confirmation that He had spoken to me!
This is indeed a new season for me personally and as Robert declared, over our church corporately. I look forward to what God has in store. Joy and victory will mark 2024!
Now may the God of hope fill you with joy & peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit