RECALLING an impromptu holiday
period, we set off in the car for an eight-hour drive to spend a week with my wife’s
parents in beautiful Esperance. My father-in-law was serving as the Baptist
Church’s interim pastor.
When we left our house, I had no
idea what I would receive on the visit.
It was a time in our lives when our
young family really felt in the dark. I had lost my job, and reality was about
to strike in a very dire way. Indeed, the next few months great challenging
change was about to rain over us, which included me taking work I once thought
I would never need to do again. It was a time when, as I look back, we had no
idea what was going to hit us — even though we had been pushed to the brink
during the previous months. This time in our lives was harder than losing
Nathanael.
At the time my father-in-law was a
mentor, someone I would spend time with wrestling spiritually.
One morning during our stay, as I
was writing in a little office set-up they had prepared for me, he came in and
gave me a piece of paper, deliberately not saying a word. My father-in-law loves
a chat, but he has another mode when an instrument will do his talking for him.
The photo above is that piece of
paper. As I read it I thought, what an amazing story. Imagine Bach succeeding
from such brittle beginnings. As it is with me, it took a few moments to
realise I was in the story. Then I knew why he gave it to me.
He gave me more than a piece of
paper. It was more than a collection of words, a concept, a story. It was more
than interesting and stimulating. The typed words on the paper was an
instrument of God.
With this single sheet of paper,
God’s Spirit unearthed in me a vision I think I’ve always had — an eternal
purpose God placed long ago into my heart.
This rectangular oracle spoke a Heritage
Seed. That Heritage Seed spoke into the existence of my consciousness that
something lay ahead of ‘failure’; something of massive encouragement that meant
that failure was always part of God’s plan.
What I learned in the receiving of
my Heritage Seed is that such things are spoken from eternity into time to fill
us with an all-sustaining purpose. I cannot go into details about my Heritage
Seed here, but I can tell you that once God reveals it to you, it changes
things. The Heritage Seed inhabits you.
Back in that moment of receiving
this revelation from God, for my life, knowledge of the existence of my
Heritage Seed, it wasn’t complete. I still had to take it; own it. That took a
process of time, but it started by my claiming that instrument as an important stake
in the ground.
A Heritage Seed is spoken from
eternity into time in a way that we know is from God, related to our specific
purpose on earth.
God is never more real to us than
when He joins His purpose with ours.
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