CROSSING TO ACHAIA

Blessed be the longing that brought you here And quickens your soul with wonder. . . . May you come to accept your longing as divine urgency. May you know the urgency with which God longs for you. —For Longing by John O’Donohue

It’s clearly a season to recognize not only our preconceptions, our limitations but our desires. It’s in these moments of reflection, I have the distinct impression of God’s voice telling me that we are no longer bound to our past and it’s time to cross over. For he has made everything [us] beautiful.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11

ACHAIA a region surrounded by waterways, and known for its intellect & philosophy but also a place where the Apostles learned to persevere through much opposition [pride]. Many theologians say this region became one of Paul’s greatest missionary work. 

This is what The Lord is doing right now within His Elect. He continually invites us to look at ourselves, our desires—our longing, in depth ——for God Himself has placed them in our hearts.

For many …His waterways has been capped off like a wellspring to keep Him from over-running and flooding the areas of our heart, but holy water is a powerful thing and only with great force can it be held back. And when it rises, it flows fast and wide so even the most brilliantly engineered structures of intellect cannot stop its movement. Eventually, it finds its way to the surface, sweeping everything in its path so that something deeper and weightier can emerge into our consciousness.

It’s no coincidence the Lord has been leading us here and it all started when we recognized the underlying misalignment of our assumptions, our false prejudgments we’ve made of ourselves. 

No worries, the biblical referenced is found in Isaiah, “When you pass through the waters,  I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you……. “  

I love the work of the Lord as he teaches us that we are the key to crossing to ACHAIA, but the Father determines the time.

The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. (Acts 1:7 NLT)

And the Lord says, "It is not the church, the mission, the organization, the society, the institution; it is you." These men in Acts 1 were waiting for something to happen outside of themselves. They called it the restoring of the kingdom, perhaps a movement in which they would find their place. And the Lord simply swept all those ideas away and said, "No, it is not that, it is you." That is how its works.

We individually are the key to everything in the purpose of God. Even with all of our imperfections…. we discover that our cracks make us stronger and worthy to cross. Believing is important and each one of you will experience your own crossing to “Achaia” so let me share mine while hiking near Snow Peak.

My Crossing

I live among avid yet expert hikers and so it felt natural to get out and enjoy the woods with them. Right now in North Idaho our snow level is at 5000 feet which means we are at the peak of runoff. The warm temperatures accelerate the melting process filling the streams with raging waters. This in turn creates different water surfaces called laminar flows. Many people have died in stream crossings because they underestimate the risk as streams seem deceptively easy to cross. It takes an experienced hiker to know when it’s better to turn around than risk a dangerous crossing.  

 

There are 3 of us headed to Snow Peak which is in the upper North Fork of the Clearwater River drainage. We had to drive 22 miles of  forest service dirt roads before arriving at the trail head.  Initially, the wooded trail was dry but filled with small streams of water that required our crossing (like 19 of them). I enjoyed the challenge of following my husbands safe footsteps across each one.

I believe it was around 4000 feet, when we had to search for a safe crossing as the stream was swollen with raging snow melt. We found some large boulders but they were slippery being too close to the waterfall as well as a log jam a previous hiker tied in place, but neither were safe options for my experienced hikers. I wasn’t alarmed initially but once we decided our crossing required us to enter the freezing water barefoot, I knew instantly this could be dangerous. 

Water is powerful, even in seemingly calmer sections, so we found a place that moved a bit slower as the lower layer of water moves slower than the top layer and the fastest part is just below the surface layer. This meant our feet would have traction on the stream bed apart from stepping on any sharp rocks, but our knees would take the brunt force of  the water flow and could possibly knock us over. Since I had never crossed a stream barefoot before, I quickly figured out, how important my hiking poles were to steady myself. I had difficulty placing them in the stream bed and later learned three points of contact while crossing helps relieve the waters force on your knees. 

 

In our case, the depth of the water was a big concern and it was rising quickly. The others made it across first and I followed making it across in one piece! I did almost loose my hiking boots that were tied together and flung over my shoulder. My sunglasses did not fair as well nor one of  my hiking poles! Thankfully, my son quickly intercepted the floating pole as it hit the water, so it was saved!

Once on the other side, I was liberated from any thoughts of inadequacy and I suddenly saw beauty with a new expectancy of what I am becoming. 

I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around my stream crossing as it was happening but as the days followed the Lord gave me a powerful revelation of our inner fears and blindness. Soon or later we discover a well intended but lifeless spirituality is just a cobbled together matrix filled with emptiness. 

God’s stream of rushing waters comes in waves just like the mountain  stream waters to wash away every layer of blindness. In fact to cross safely we must each take an authentic laminar course to include layers of Grace, a layer humility and scripture while maintaining three points of contact with God, Holy Spirit and Jesus.

My crossing won’t be like yours nor yours like mine, but each of us must understand for ourselves why we repeatedly do what we don’t want to do —— both to ourselves and to others. We can stop floating in the sea of chaos if we are to make our own way to Achaia [which means wounding, grief or difficulty]. 

Allow for Holy Spirit to teach you about every layer whether it’s wounding, unforgiving or some other layer you are blind to — because you have direct access to YAH himself.

In that day you will ask in My name…for the Father Himself loves you… John 16:26-27

I pray your crossing looks like Apollos in Acts 18:27. He was only aware of the baptism of John but once he found out about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, he become a fearless disciple of Christ.

It is not the baptism of the Holy Spirit that changes us, but the power of the ascended Christ flowing through His Spirit and we are awakened to the deep desire to be known by GOD!