The modern day plight of God’s chosen people
Anointed in Obscurity
Article by Jo Nketiah
Yesterday, I took to my WhatsApp to show evidence of God’s goodness towards me this year by granting me a scholarship to study a diploma course in becoming a professional life coach. Thank God for technology and Steve Jobs, I could take pictures and other documents to support what God has done. Frankly, it is not that I needed to prove anything but I wanted my story the credibility of my story inspire someone to keep hoping and expecting miracles.
But how can I take a picture of the subtle newness of heart I feel God is mould oh inside of me? Will there ever be an invention that can help us know the testimony of man’s soul? And yet the greatest blessings we will all will come to know isnt the ones inscribed on our certificates, or framed on walls or engraved on award plaques or yearly membership of both our small and big size ministry growth or our wealth —but rather the deep work of change that happens in a frail heart- the new heart God offers to His beloved children. God has clearly said to us”
And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.” Ezekiel 36
I can measure my growth and success by what’s happening in my life. Last week I told a bunch of friends, “ I feel so left behind in life because I haven’t noticed any new milestone in my life.” And it may appear that I was complaining or being ungrateful but truthfullly I was soo overwhelmed with the feeling of being stuck at the same routine from day to day many years almidst the unfulfilled longings of my heart.
Then as I began to speak to a friend about it, there was this quiet assurance that suddenly came to me. “ You are changing Jo- your heart is. And just because you do not have anything to prove for it now doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”
And just because you do not have anything to prove for it now doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
I was reassured again and my friend Amanda will later add to that seed of hope during our soul and food community monthly meeting, an initiative by mycousin Barbara that seeks to bring freinds together once a month to cook and have heart felt conversations, that our greatest identity is in who God made us and not what He blesses us with. Blessings are like titles and If it is about a new job, a new location, a husband, a child, a promotion,then I can lose those things because of its fraility but what will remain is who I am as a child of God.
This morning as I read the first book of Samuel, I realised that Israel had demanded for a king and God has chosen Saul. Samuel instructed Saul to tarry for a while because he had a special message from God but to him while he asked his servants to go ahead of him. Then he anointed him and gave him instructions for what He was to do.
The truth is that Samuel anointed Saul in obscurity. In the absence of no one, with no human validation or approval. And that was needed in the process of Saul becoming the first king of Israel.
Then after he had done that, He asked Saul to go and wait for seven days while giving him directions and telling ahead what evidence will take place as he journey back home to his father. The anointing had taken place but the workings of the anointing needed some time of waiting.
Oh how often we desperately seek to prove that we have truly been called and how with great expectation we long for the entire audience of Heaven and earth in order to feel validated of the purpose God is calling us into, Of that which sometime ago I was a chief of them all and still God isn’t done walking me that path of stripping me of earthly validation because truth me told, silently most days I still desire them.
“As Saul turned and started to leave, God gave him a new heart, and all Samuel’s signs were fulfilled that day.”1 Samuel 10:9 NLT”
Saul was given a new heart but it was entirely hidden from the whole tribe of Israel and he didn’t go about broadcasting it either. Saul was anointed as king but it was entirely hidden from Israel until the appointed time. When the people saw him prophesying , they began to doubt what he was doing because an outward garment can tell that a man is a king, but a changed heart can only be seen by God.
“When those who knew Saul heard about it, they exclaimed, “What? Is even Saul a prophet? How did the son of Kish become a prophet?
1 Samuel 10:11 NLT
We can take pictures of our new houses, our cars, our buildings and our achievements ( just like I recently did) and prove to the world the blessings of God in our lives but who can take a picture of their changed heart, a picture of a loving heart, a picture of a discipline soul, a picture of a gentle spirit, a picture of overflowing joy or the fellowship of suffering or a picture of increase hope or faith and hashtag the world? And the temptation to prove to the world what God is doing in our lives hasn’t been this much stronger in our generation than any other because we are a generation that feels the urge to prove everything because it almost appear that the only way to believe a thing is to see it.
And I can’t even lie that human validation feels good but sadly it isn’t any stronger than a weak tree, soon the big storms of life will blow it away and the people who validate you today will not be the same people that validates you tomorrow.
Yesterday one friend said to me “ Jo, I have a friend who told me she feels you are now doing too much churchy stuff”.
To be honest I have seen such sentiments and concerns of no intended harm coming and I have been thinking about it too but the more anxious I get about this clarity of this transition, ironically, the more sure I become of my truest identity- a child of God.
I have come to realize that there are seasons that God will anoint a person in secret or quietly before He shows them to the world. And I am not speaking of people who willingly wishes to keep their businesses out of the witnesses of the world. Such people do it with their own personal reasons and sometimes might be for godly reasons, the same way others will choose to share their joys and even pains with the world- for the same reasons. None is superior in terms of modesty of character than the other. It is call preference and we must learn to appreciate people for how they choose to celebrate their life journey.
But here, I speak of the deep change that God constantly does in our hearts. From the moment of our acceptance of Christ to our conversion journey, that work that’s first evidence in our spirit- that work that catapults us into our truly divine purposes. Sometimes God does that in obscurity and we may become change persons inwardly even and the world will not know it yet. But it is only for a while that people will see your good deeds and give praise to the father. Just like a city on a hill can not be hidden for too long, when it’s finally built, everyone will see it. And neither do we light a lamp and hide it, for its light will be evidence to all men. God wants to give us a new heart. A new anointing for our ministries and purposes and journeys.
An old unchanged heart with a new anointing is not any better than an old unchanged heart without anointing.
For the Bible says, who pours new wine into old wine skin ? Will it not break ?
Love this season that God is working on your heart. It is of great reward.