It’s a Perfect Day for Catching Bubbles
June 26th, 2009 | Michael Q. Pink
“The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound thereof, but can not tell from where it came, and where it goes: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8
Continuing on from where we left off, I was sharing that I believe we have had many “eth’s” (divinely arranged timings) that we simply didn’t recognize or we did see them but either didn’t know what to do or felt it would appear silly or unwise to follow that. Don’t think it didn’t seem a little strange when I told folks we were going to Panama and they would ask “Where in Panama” and I had no idea. Then they would ask, “Why” and I really didn’t have a solid answer… just something to do with the financial realm and impacting the world.
I know you have missed a lot of “eths” and so have I. They have been laden with incredible opportunity and favor and we simply missed them because we didn’t recognize the “eth” of God. It seemed too strange to us so we let it float by. HOWEVER… I do have some good news here. We were on the beach recently. There was a strong breeze blowing and a family had one of those giant bubble makers. You dip this thing in a special bubble solution and hold it up to the air. The wind would blow through the instrument producing bubbles about eight inches across. Lots of bubbles.
Those bubbles were just floating by people one after the other. It seemed that few people even noticed them, but I guess I’m a kid at heart so I was fascinated the whole time. But here’s the deal… The “eths” of God are like those bubbles. There are no two alike and when they are gone, they are gone, but the good news is that God has lots of bubbles for us. So if you missed a bubble, fear not, God has another bubble for you. He’s not short of bubble making solution or of wind to blow the bubbles.
Don’t live in regret for missing the diving bubbles God sent your way. They are gone. Be like the child on the beach who upon missing the first few bubbles because she didn’t know what they were or what to do, eventually caught on and spent the rest of her time, trying to catch the bubbles. God doesn’t want you to waste time or allow corrosion on your soul by soaking in the regrets of missed opportunities. There are plenty more bubbles where they came from. Get up from your slumber. Leave your regrets behind and go catch some diving bubbles (”eth”) today.
June 26th, 2009 at 6:52 am
love the analogy. simple, and it gives me “heart” for today.
Thanks MP
June 26th, 2009 at 8:02 am
Thank you for the encouragement, Michael. I can’t say I wasn’t a little discouraged wondering what “eths” I’ve missed (or when the next one might come) and what the ensuing blessings may have looked like, but now I’m looking for bubbles and ready to run to catch them.
Blessings RB
June 26th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Michael!! What a fantastic analogy - Thanks so much for that!
Blessings!
June 26th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Amen. Listening to that “Still small voice” will direct you to the “eths” of God. Very easy to ignore, but extremely rewarding when you listen. I think of Leann Thieman who listened to that still small voice back in the ’70s and as a result, helped rescue 300+ orphens from Vietnam during the war. Had she ignored that quiet call to buy those muffins, she would not have been there and the rescue would not have happened. Hmmm. Praise God for His goodness!
June 26th, 2009 at 11:07 am
Be a bubble seer. Sort of like a happy intercessor.
June 26th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I’ve become more aware of not missing the “eths” of God. I was thinking of examples in my life and the Lord brought to remembrance one. My husband and I rented this house owned by a man living in California, but rent, repairs, etc. were handled by his uncle’s friend Jerry. This uncle who had lived in this house for years now had moved into an assisted-living place. It so happened one day that an old pipe to the water heater broke while we were at work and literally broke through the wall which was the same one to the living room. When we came home there was a hole in the soggy sheet rock and our TV, VCR, and the TV stand, not to mention the rug were drenched. We called Jerry about the problem as he had men to work on his other rental house repairs. He responded aggressively saying that it was our problem and we were to have it repaired at our cost. My husband and I decided to leave it to the Lord and cleaned up as much as we could. That Sunday I went to get the newspaper and was VERY drawn to the obituaries which I NEVER read and happened to see the owner’s uncle had died in the assisted-living home. I notified my neighbors who knew him and asked them that when they went to the funeral home to please let the owner know that we needed to speak to him. When the owner came in the front door it’s like the Lord, without us saying anything yet, drew his eyes to the hole in the wall. He was shocked and angry. After we explained he took steps to bring a solution. Needless to say, he had the wall fixed, our TV, etc. replaced, rugs were replaced at no cost to us, thank the Lord. After we talked with the owner we compared notes (and receipts) and found out that Jerry had been doing some very under-handed things, not reporting income from us and saying we hadn’t paid for some things. God brought all things together that were unbeknown to us and brought justice. Had I ignored the leading of the Holy Spirit to read the obituary I might have missed the “eth” of God and no telling what the outcome might have been. God is so good. God bless you.
June 26th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Bubble watcher alert to bubbles here. I am aware of the many “eths” I missed, but more keenly concentrating on the ones to come. As Paul says, “looking forward, not behind!” Bless you MP! K
June 26th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Michael,
Once again you have touched on something I am going through right now. I’m 45 and am just replaying in my mind the last couple of months all the things I did wrong, bad investments, bad relationships, bad jobs I took - JUST BAD DECISIONS I’ve made over and over.
I know God builds back that which was destroyed and I thank Him for that. I do slip into my pity party a lot lately and let Satan play with my mind. So many things are right in front of me reminding me what I missed or did wrong.
I started telling myself this - My best days are today and forward! I know 95% of the time this is true, I just have to fight those pity battles once in a while.
Thank you again for your insight!
Scott
June 26th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Very good word Michael. God does indeed build back that which was destroyed for all mankind, and not just for Christian believers.
It reminds me of the Lamantations of Jeremiah the prophet where he says, “He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me to pieces; he hath made me desolate, He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. I was a derision to all my people. and their song all the day. He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood. He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes. And thou has removed my soul far from peace: I fogat prosperity. And I said my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord: Remembering my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remeberence, and is humbled in me.
This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. It is of the mercies of the Lord that we are not consumed, because his compasions fail not. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.
I think St. Paul was drawing from these words of Jeremiah and also from the words of King Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes, when he wrote Romans 8:20, “For the creature itself was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope.
St. Paul ends his commentary on the vanity, sufferings and hope of all mankind and all creatures on earth by saying, “As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is the unversal word of God for all mankind who were all created in Christ Jesus unto good works as per Ephesians 2:10. Jesus is the very image of the invisible God.
It is God’ s will that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of this and all truth. God’ s salvation is not limited to only those who believe in Jesus and have professed him as personal savior. For as in Adam all men die so in christ Jesus shall all be made alive.
Those of us who do believe in Jesus know we were able to believe only because of the power God has given to each of us through his Holy Spirit to believe in Jesus. God has imparted to every man a measure of his faith that we might believe unto the saving of our souls. Jesus said with man, God’ s salvation is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
I recently heard of several testimonies from people in Iran who, out of the clear blue, God revealed to them that Jesus is Christ the Savior of the world and the king of God’ s kingdom on earth. This occured without the benefit of Christian missionaries who are not allowed in Iran. These Iranian people have become saved and will come to the knowledge of the truth that they are now citizens of the commonwealth of Israel which, spiritually, is the kingdom of God on earth. But now their lives are in great danger in Iran and we should pray fervently for them and for all their leaders and for all leaders everywhere that God will deliver them all from the power of Satan who has a strong hold especially on the Iranian leaders such that they would imprison and kill any who profess Christ and depart from the satanic evil religion of Islam.
In His Majesty’ s Secret Service,
David Thompson
June 27th, 2009 at 8:49 am
Michael, One of the bubbles of God,(eth) came to me in the form of Mary Ellen whom I will wed tomorrow.
God has placed her in my life and me in her’s and sent the Holy Spirit to see that we recognized each other in a different light from our prior knowledge or each other as family friends.
His blessings (eth) abound and by his grace we accepted the bubble and caught it in time.
PTL,
Henry
June 27th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
In this discussion of the signs and timing (eths) of God, I have noticed evidence of both carnal thinking and spiritual thinking. Carnal thinking, which is self absorbed, wants to know, How does this all relate to me and my life?, while spiritual thinking is concerned with how God’ s timing relates to the whole world God has created. The Pharisees, who were mostly carnally minded, asked Jesus for a sign that God’ s kingdom was at hand. Jesus once reponded saying,”Destroy this temple and I will raise it up in three days.” (He of course was speaking about the temple of his body. When the Phaisees understood this they felt Jesus was deceiving them.) At another time he responded, “A wicked and perverse generation seeks a sign but no sign shall be given it but the sign of Jonah.” Both these responses seemed a bit cryptic and deceptive to carnal mindsets but to spiritual mindsets, it was very clear what Jesus was saying and why he said it. (I speak from experience having operated from both a carnal and a spiritual perspective (or mindset).
It was from of this same experience that St. Paul and all men will learn that “To be carnaly minded is death but to be spiritualy minded is life and peace. (see Romans 8:6)
In the early Church, spiritual mindsets were the norm and it was recognized that the salvation of God was for all mankind even for all his creation that were in the grip of satanic, selfish, carnal thinking. The gospel writers made the universal nature of God’s salvation in Christ Jesus very clear, but only for the spiritually minded. St. Luke recorded the angel speaking to the shepherds saying, “For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to ALL PEOPLE. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a SIGN unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
How did St. Luke know what the angel said to the shepherds? Did the sheherds tell everyone they knew and met and St. Luke found out by word of mouth of the eyewitnesses. Or did the Holy Spirit reveal it to St. Luke. Carnally minded men, who are not tuned into the spiritual, could only say St. Luke must have found out by word of mouth of the eyewitnesses, the normal way people learn the news of the day.
In the first three chapters of the Revelation of St. John, Jesus warned the angels of the early seven churches that the evil doctrines of nicolaitan, Jezebel and of Balaam had already infected the churches. The fact that Jesus warned the angels of the seven churches points up the role of angels in God’ s great salvation work. In each message to the seven churches, Jesus emphasized the rewards for those who overcome these evil spirits.The prophet Daniel refers to these overcomers as the saints of God.
The carnally minded man reads these verses and wants to know how he can be an overcomer while the spiritually minded man knows in his heart of hearts that in God’ s plan He will empower all men to become overcomers so that all men will be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth of what God is doing to restore his kingdom on earth and thereby save the whole world from the evil clutches of Satan. The Bible speaks of many many signs and wonders by which the spiritually minded will be able to detect and determine the times and seasons of God’ s progress in carrying out his plan to restore his kingdom on earth. But God gives these signs and wonders for his sake, not for the sake of the carnally minded man who who wants to know what’ s in it for him so he can personally benefit and prosper from knowing God’ s times and seasons.
In His Majesty’s Secret Service,
David Thompson