This is a follow up of sorts to my "Moves of God" post. And by the way, it's also my first post using Windows Live Writer. I just began trying it out, so we'll see how well it works for producing blog posts!
The title of this post actually may be somewhat misleading. The "at a time" part, that is. To explain what I mean, let me start by quoting another line from Barb's "What If" post:
What if there was no big "Move of God" but just God pursuing people – sometimes seemingly in the same location at the same time?
I think God "moves" in people individually - one heart at a time. However, at times it may just happen that He is doing a larger "movement" of the same or similar work in the lives of many individuals at the same time or in the same physical location. And at the same time that He's doing this work in larger groups of people, there may be individuals in the same place in which He is not doing the same or similar work. And that's ok!
The body of Christ is one body, and at the same time we are a bunch of individual parts who make up that one body. We may be doing different things, or sometimes doing the same things, but we still make up one body.
As one example, my wife and I are one. But yet this legitimate "movement of grace" that God has been doing in my life since the mid 90's is not the same as what He has been doing in her life during the same time. And that's ok. We're still a unit. We still communicate with each other and love one another. We are not divided.
Don't get me wrong - my wife loves the grace of God! But the way in which I've been led in sharing it and teaching it and learning more about it and living it out is different than the way she's been led. It would be so easy for each of us to think less of the other because we don't see our "missions" in life as the same as each others'. But we've realized that it's absolutely all right to let God do what He is doing in each of us individually and to celebrate it! As an example, I've grown very discontent with what I and many call the institutionalized church. I've not "been to church" (other than visiting my dad's church) for over a year. At the same time, my wife is actively involved in our mega church.
As long as she loves what she's doing, I don't have a hard time with that at all. And in the same way, she knows I love doing what I do. For some time now I've really enjoyed connecting with people online from all over the country and world. She has absolutely NO interest in it! But she knows it's my heart's desire right now and she hasn't been trying to get me to "go to church" with her. We're still one. We're still a unit.
I say all of that to say that it's the individual hearts of people that matter. If God is doing a "big" thing in a church, a city, a nation or even worldwide, that's a GREAT thing! I most certainly hope that I haven't come across as saying that I'm against "big" moves of God! But what is He doing in your heart? Is He doing something that is on a larger scale that involves lots of other people? If so, great! If not, then just be content with what He's doing in you and don't worry about what other people think of you when you're not jumping on the bandwagon!
Also, what is He doing in the individual hearts of those around you, whether it's one or two, or ten or a thousand or more? Sometimes the saying is true that we miss the forest for the trees, but maybe even more often in a great big thriving forest we miss the individual trees.
Either way, I think it's good to remember to not judge one another or look down on one another for the legitimate things that God is doing in our lives. He's got the forest as a whole and the individual trees in His hands!
