THRESHOLD CALL

“The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2)

Living your God-given life involves remaining faithful to your true self. Over and over during my journey, I’ve heard, “there is more! This “more” is the reality of God drawing near, opening the heavens to speak to me. When God says, 'Draw near to Me and I will draw near to you' (James 4:8). God is inviting us to remove the false layers we wear to reveal our authentic self, to awaken the “seeds of true self” he has planted within us. Getting to your core requires following God into the unknown, into a relationship with him that turns your present spirituality upside down.  He is describing a threshold dynamic. The threshold does not limit God — it orients us.

The drawing near is a movement, a crossing, an intentional entry. 

It is not automatic. 

It is not passive. 

It requires something from us: intention, and willingness to leave where we were standing in order to arrive somewhere new. 

“…Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” Revelation 4:1

Notice the invitation in the word “come” requires a movement. Every genuine invitation from God contains within it a threshold — a place where the old gives way to the new, where the common gives way to the holy, where the human crosses into the divine. It is a threshold call.

Initially, the pathway is very hard but we are given clues along our way.  Have you been paying attention to your clues? 

Allow me to share an example because it’s a biblical fact that God has revealed Himself in His creation, and we can see Him through it —- so it’s not surprising after a long work week, I am resting on the couch, I close my eyes with thoughts of thankfulness when I am given a brief picture of a colorful toucan sitting in a tree. His bold colorful feathers make me spirit leap —a song of joy! I feel a witness about his unique colors. The Lord wasn’t done because I was shown a second toucan the following day. This one was the exact opposite in color with black feathers and a bold yellow, blue and orange beak. He was hidden in a wall of jungle forest when he poked his head out just as I was waking up. 

Both birds have a message, but what is the Spirit of the Lord saying? 

Notice that these brief and yet powerful encounters, could easily be dismissed as my imagination, but I am awake to them now. It’s important to get quiet to listen to the Holy Spirit who is trying to provide another layer of truth in His Creation. 

Most of us have never paid attention to this space. We move from activity to prayer without acknowledging the threshold between them. We arrive in the inner room still carrying the noise of the outer court. And wonder why the secret place feels not-so-secret, not-so-present, not-so-encountering. 

The answer is we have bypassed the vestibule.  

So in order to enter this space, we have to contemplate what are these beautiful birds conveying?

The powerful forces around and inside us work to smother the process of nurturing the seeds planted in each one of us. It takes a threshold call from Heaven to awaken them.

I believe these birds have been sent to dismantle the false self and allow our true self in Christ to emerge. Hallelujah! 

Why? Because many have been following The Lord for years but have come to a standstill; you have come under arrest. At some point in your journey, somewhere, something of yourself, your old self came up, has come into evidence and has gotten in the way of The Lord.

That is exactly what the apostle is saying to the Hebrews: "You have come to a standstill. You simply ceased to go on. You went so far, now you have got to a certain point and for years you have not budged a bit from that position. You have never got past foundations, you are not going on to full growth. You have not settled it once and for all that you died when Christ died. You ended the whole system and order of the old creation religiously and otherwise when you came to Christ. Christ is the end of the law and Christ is the end of the old creation, and He is the beginning of everything new. Do not be wearied at repetition of old truths, they are very important as foundations, and this is foundational."

We are destined, whether we accept it or not, whether we like it or not, we are destined to discover that God’s foundation stands. 

This is true, and no one will ever get through in relation to God and His things while we are still bound by the old creation, on the old creation level. 

This new way of Life is so narrow that we cannot take ourselves into it, we have to leave ourselves behind.

Let us then be eager to know this rest for ourselves, and let us beware that no one misses it through falling into the same kind of unbelief as those we have mentioned. (Hebrews 4:11 Phillips)

So we can see why the colors of these easily identified birds stood out. And I found there are over 40 species that live around the world. As I prayed about these wonderful birds, I felt the Holy Spirit leading me through Scripture to discover the meaning of these lovely birds. And lucky for us it’s a positive message. Thank you Father!

1. The colorful toucan is calling our attention to express your true colors [self] not the soul filled self but the self soaked in Christ. This is who God has called you to be.
2. The colorful toucan reminds us to have BOLD faith and to live in connection with The Father every day!
3. Toucans are known for their ability to fly through the dense rainforests of Central and South America with grace and agility. This is a symbolic to fly not standstill. The enemy of your soul cannot contain you any longer. God has called you.
4. The dark feathered toucan represents not only protection from the enemy but you are protecting areas within your soul that need uncovering.  (Psalm 91:1; John 16:33; 1 John 5:18; Proverbs 25:2; Colossians 3:3; Matthew 24:13-15; Matthew 6:1).

The Holy Spirit has been given to empower us —-so that we might break free into our true selves in Christ. By God’s grace we are to be the freest people on earth like the toucan who flies happily through the dense rainforest. (Galatians 5)

The problem is not that we don't want to be free — it is that we rarely give ourselves the space to encounter something truly amazing. 

If we are honest, we fill every silence with noise, every pause with activity, every approach to YHWY with busyness and never arrive at the threshold with enough stillness to actually perceive what is there, waiting to be discovered!

We rush through the vestibule without pausing, without lifting our eyes, without allowing the weight of the holy to settle upon us. 

The soul that comes without pretense, the worshiper who knows that every moment of access is gift and not achievement — this is the posture that finds the door wide open.

Again and again in Scripture, we find this pattern: God waits at thresholds. He meets people at transitions. He tests hearts at entry points. The threshold is not incidental to the story — it is often the very place where the story turns.

When Joshua crossed the Jordan River, God commanded something specific: the priests were to step into the water first, carrying the Ark of the Covenant. The moment their feet touched the threshold of the Jordan, the waters parted. The entry point required faith-filled action. The threshold had to be engaged before the miracle was released. God did not part the waters while the people stood safely on the bank, watching and waiting. 

To experience a genuine encounter, truth is not optional. We cannot approach the YHWY who is Truth through the corridor of self-deception. 

To answer our threshold call requires honesty — honesty about who YHWY is, honesty about who we are, honesty about the gap between the two and the only bridge that spans it. Jesus, as the Truth, is both the standard by which we are measured and the grace by which we are enabled to cross it.

How developed is your spiritual awareness? 

Are you regularly perceiving the activity of God in your daily life, or does God seem largely absent from the texture of ordinary experience? 

What one vestibule practice — journaling, lectio divina, silence, or another — could you begin to cultivate this week to train your heart to perceive more of what God is doing in your life?

Let this message encourage you to start in the threshold with an authentic approach to truth  — And the One who is the Truth meets you there, in your honest imperfection to lead you further in….🕊️

Lord, I pray you speak to every individual here today to reveal what has arrested him/her. Fill each one with your light like the beautiful colors of the toucan so every color in your Creation shines over their heart to mark their threshold by Fire. 

Allow your fire to burn away the darkness that has kept their story at a stand-still and let this place be where their story turns. 

I thank you Father for your son, Yashua for in him we are set free! In Jesus Name I pray, Amen.