“Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come” (Rev. 4:8).
Notice how God establishes time as both unitary and segmented - He was, and is, and is to come. Also, we can see this concept in our lives - night & day, solar calendar, Hebraic calendar, family, community, nations, tribes, birthing, dying, planting and harvesting land, sabbath rest, creation, etc.
These are:
Cumulative - like school subjects that build and have to be relearned in certain segments of life’s experiences
Possesses a Cadence - intended to move smoothly in synchronicity towards an objective (like a birth)
Permeable (like a normal cell) - able to carefully and exquisitely filter in and out to keep balance
In life, we have some large transitions to make:
Eternity into time
Womb into the world
Outside the covenant of God to legal sonship in Christ
Earth to eternity
Today we will look at birthing, the finality of the process of coming forth from the womb. This natural progression comes with waves called contractions, most often a painful crescendo of muscular exercises designated to aid in forward movement across a beautiful and living threshold. No one asks for this to happen, it just does. The process, laid out over segments by time; internal coming into sight and into the awaiting world, every action which cannot be reversed.
As a woman passes through the phases of birthing, each point of that journey must be completed, so that the next transforming activity can come and be completed. The ending of one phase ushers in the prompting of the next to begin. The more the mother leans into the rhythm of the processes of birthing, the more leverage she gains in synchronization with the process to be complete.
This is not to say that there are not times when a shortcut is required due to one condition or another, however, this entire process is a divinely pre-set time of fulfillment. Hidden in the Greek in the word ὥρα (ōra) is a meaning “to receive time, season, or a year”. Commonly referred to in the Bible as the 12 hours of daytime between sunrise and sunset. All this can help us grasp the concept that with pain, there is a beginning and end. The most real pain which happens in both a natural birthing or spiritual delivery of something new has a start and a conclusion.
“A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born, she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world" (John 16:21).
Moving through the ‘tunnel’ of birthing to carry forward what is to be brought forth requires us to learn not only what is to be left behind, but also what needed parts of the process are to be brought across the threshold. Synchronicity has a cumulative quality; a Father-filtered gift to be unwrapped so that receipt of all the intention can be gleaned in preparation for the journey ahead. Perhaps you find yourself somewhere in the continuum of a strained relationship with God, mother, father, siblings, or a special friend. There is value to be found at every milestone. Both the grief and relief which shows itself can become a treasure when we welcome God as the ‘prime mover’ of the elements necessary to align forward movement in the birthing of our Sonship in Christ.
The outcome of any birthing process and the hard work it entails deserves celebration. That being said, there are times when the outcome is not what was first envisioned, far from it. Finding the purpose of the pain and the God-given treasure sometimes requires us to be willing to mine for the vein of Heavenly gold which is often unseen to those who don’t give more than a brief and superficial glance. Birthing God’s investment within requires us to learn to language our situation through renewed sight.
“I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see” (Rev. 3:18).
In the midst of our current conditions, how is it that each of us is meant to give birth to ‘life’ and then ‘life more abundantly’ from the currency which each one has been dealt? This begins with taking the position of not disdaining the process, thereby shifting blame with complaint of those things which have not come to fruition as we would have imagined. The secret is how we choose to embrace the segments of time provided to us with each phase of this culmination of transition. Today, will you choose with me to purpose with all your heart to squeeze out every last drop of intent, favor, and synchronization as a matter of lifestyle, so a flow of life can transport us towards the completion of new birth?