“Whatcha Up To, God, & How Can I be a Part of It?”
One of the big influences in my life was one of my “spiritual grandpas,” the late Norman Grubb, for a generation the International Secretary of the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade (or WEC). Not only was I influenced by his many amazing books, including Rees Howells: Intercessor; Once Caught, No Escape (his autobiography); God Unlimited; Who Am I? ; The Spontaneous You; The Law of Faith; Touching the Invisible; and Yes I Am (available at TheWalkShow.com), but I was personally impacted by his amazing life. He worked 20-hour days, and at age 90 when he last stayed in our house, he could still work circles around any four or five guys my age in our 40’s, speaking four or five times a day as for years he travelled extensively throughout the United States and England.
NORMAN GRUBB’S SECRET
Norman had a secret to living that made his life so contagious that all of my kids — including even one “rebellious teenager” at the time — came to me individually and corporately, veritably begging me that Norman be adopted as our grandpa and “live with us forever!” I believe Norman’s secret unquestionably contributed to his eventual 98-year longevity. Norman’s secret was really not a secret, however, for he declared it from the rooftops for several decades, yet it was at the same time a mystery that was extremely difficult for thick-skulled people like myself to grasp.
Yet, his life also demonstrated his secret, as when he first walked into my sunken living room without perceiving that it was sunken and did a complete somersault flip! Thinking I would have one busted-up, upset 90-year old on my hands, you can imagine my surprise when Norman bounded to his feet with a grin on his face and a spontaneous joke springing from his lips?!
Although there might be many ways to state Norman’s secret, perhaps one way was, “He recognized he was the cup and not the coffee!” He saw himself as a container, or channel, of divinity, not as divine — as “Jesus in the Norman form,” as he would often say. In essence, his secret was the same as the Apostle Paul’s: the “mystery of the gospel, which is Christ in you” (Colossians 1:27).
Accordingly, Grandpa Norman said he woke up every morning for decades with this prayer on his lips:
“What are you up to today, God, and how can I be a part of it?”
After several years of periodically and mechanically imitating Norman’s prayer when I awoke, recently I found the prayer itself welling up from within me without effort as my first waking thought. What a joy! And, let me tell you: when the Holy Spirit pours that prayer through your “container” and back up to God, there is so much of a flow left over that it spills out on the situations and people your life touches!
The overflow turns the seen unreality all around us into the unseen reality. It takes the flips into the “sunken living room of life” and converts them into hilarity! Why, it has even messed with my interpretation of the Scriptures, for I distinctly thought I heard the Holy Spirit say, “You have heard it said, ‘Where there is good, evil lurks close at hand’ (Romans 7:21) but I say unto you, ‘Where there is evil, good lurks close at hand,’ as well!”
So, let’s not be altogether esoteric here; let’s convert this mysterious secret into the life of the common day — today . . . er, in this case, my yesterday!:
When I first awoke yesterday morning, there it was: “Lord, whatcha up to today, and how can I be a part of it?” The next thing the bank called me and said that all night someone in France had been making charges on one of my business credit cards! Uncharacteristically the words welled up within my spirit, “Hallelujah! What an opportunity to see God move!” I had no idea what God was up to here, but by faith I could be certain it included conforming me in my responses to the image of His Son in me. I am also grateful that the Holy Spirit guided me to pick a bank with a robust fraud-alert system, plus Pre-Paid Legal’s Identity Theft Shield that can clean up all the mess that my bank might not be able to.
In the meantime, by day’s end the bank had actually done a favor for me that helped me solve a cash flow challenge I had been pondering the night before. I wouldn’t have been able to sleep like a baby that night before had I not long-since learned that Christ in me was not worried about either the economy or my finances. There it is again – that secret mystery of Christ in me! I am, after all, Jesus in the Ken form, and where there is evil, God’s greater good “lurks” close at hand!
Hey, that was but the first of several volleys of good and evil that hit Jesus Christ in me yesterday. The long-anticipated implosion of the Lakeland, Florida, healing revival (predicted on our July 14th radio show at the TheWalkShow.com archives) required that I now switch gears from a ministry to the deluded to the devastated and disillusioned. The legal notice that I was not allowed to state the clear and evident truth on The Walk Show about the healing effects of various nutritional products provided the embryo for a whole new strategy for returning to freedom of speech in the midst of the medical despotism of our government. And on and on. In each of that one day’s challenges, our Lord Jesus Christ proved faithful to live His life through me to the degree that I would just remain a container and let His life flow through mine.
I admit that several times during yesterday’s long day with its multitude of problems, I felt very weak, overwhelmed or confused. Yet, as I walked forward by faith and not by sight — passing through what I like to call “the weakness threshold” — problems gradually morphed into breakthroughs, and sometimes almost irrationally I actually felt myself becoming excited when I got hit with yet another really bad-looking volley! “Wow! The power of the universe backs me as I (a little Christ in Him) convert each evil into God’s good, better and best!”
The day that started out in weakness with “Lord, whatcha up to today, and how can I be a part of it?” progressed with a living demonstration that “Through Him who strengthens me I am able for anything,” and ended up with the prayer, “Thank you, Lord! You certainly do ‘work all things together for good’ for those who love you and are called according to your purpose!”
