Earlier this week, Lord brought yet again a revelation of the importance of times and seasons to my heart. Indeed, as Christ-followers, we call Him 'Lord' for a reason and in the most simplistic understanding, it is that we are here to do His will above ours. Which in its turn implies that as His followers, we are to eagerly inquire what is it that Lord wants us to do and carry out.
As a Lord and King, and a Father, understandably He expects us to do His bidding, not assisting us in pivoting our lives the way we want. It seems to me that this nuance might be lost on some of us though (it was certainly lost on me in my first steps of faith) hindering the whole process of our maturity and advancement in Him and seeing results of our lives and prayers. In the Kingdom, everything works by obedience to the will of God, expressed through His Word and His voice, and there is a huge benefit and freedom in discovering this truth.
Image: Some of you perhaps know how fond I am of systems, algorithms and having a plan in place and how much peace and order I find in them. Our God is after all a Tsar of Shalom, isn’t He? Having said that, I'm fully aware though how legalistic those systems, if not taken properly or too far, can become, especially without His Holy Spirit, so be aware of that too. Now, here I’m kindly sharing with you a little flow chart that is somewhat fitting for the content here.
Now, when we have this one settled, i.e. we are here to do what Lord asks us to do. What’s next?
As believers, wherever we don’t have a vision, we are lost. To be honest, this truth is equally valid for all people at large, but I feel for believers in Jesus Christ it is especially correct and even dangerous not to abide by, because we literally live by what we don’t see, but what we believe and receive in the invisible. This way, people in this world might very well find solace and meaning out of the visible by observing and interpreting events and circumstances of the visible world, whereas to do so for the Christians is completely un-biblical.
There are seasons and fitting times for everything under the sun and as long as one certain activity comes under the umbrella of the themes and topics of a given season, it has an extra boost and grace for its fulfillment. For instance, if you were to do gardening in a meter-high winter snow, I think it’s very clear that you would not be going very far with it. Spiritual seasons are also like that and depending on how Holy Spirit blows and hovers over us individually and as a Body, our activity will either succeed or not. ‘Alignment’, i.e. coming under the guidance of Holy Spirit, is our best response having us found out the will of God and the theme, the lesson, that He wants us to cover with Him in this or that given season.
So what is this current season all about then?
A couple of days ago, on our small group chat I shared a video recently released by Pst Shawn Bolz (here) and from where I stand, I too believe that there are so many brothers and sisters who are commissioned to build right now according to God’s calling and blueprint. I of course say this for The Mountain of Arts & Entertainment as commissioned by the Lord, but also for the Body of Christ as a whole. We can clearly see how old ways no longer work and therefore, the way we build needs to shift as well. Ironically with fashion though, our need should be contrary for these “old ways”— The Ancient Way that we forsook—because with everything going on and where we find ourselves at, we are way off the course. And it is clear now in hindsight how a lot of things that were initiated in the name of progress, beauty and comfort have led us astray to the land of idolatry and complete perplexity, so that we are no longer able to know our head from our tail.
In this new season which is here even now, we will see the glory of God flowing unrestrained through the hearts and works of the devoted ones. Our fashion projects, brands, and various kinds of causes, functions and businesses will be saturated with His love, intent, redemption and wisdom. Many of us right now somewhat in waiting or training because we’re all being prepared for what is next and how this next will exactly look like and be brought forth, we don’t know, because it will be done by His Holy Spirit Who always guides us one step a a time.
Let us continue to yield to the training that we are in right now, not skipping a step and “knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by all sisters and brothers throughout the world" (1 Peter 5:9). Let us continue to passionately seek Him, bringing the dreams and impressions that we have consistently been having on our hearts to Him, so that He can test and purify them and empower us to run with those that are indeed His and not ours. Don’t we dare to throw in the towel with the vision and desires that have stayed with us for years, and may we have the eyes and courage to discern that those must be, at least to some extent, from the Lord. And with that, voilà, right there in us, we carry a part of Him (not to mention The Wonderful Holy Spirit Who lives on the inside of every believer).
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." Psalm 139:13-16 NIV
A month ago, we introduced a new branch to our Ministry and School and it is a faith+fashion Consultancy. The intent for such an addition, which is somewhat natural to what we have already been doing (isn’t God great?), is to serve and accompany all those brothers and sisters who feel to be commissioned by the Lord to build in the fashion industry and yet do not know how to do it exactly—how to build FOR His glory by HIS glory.
The world intimidates us into compromising the originality that God has put on the inside of us. And I am not talking here about the originality that the world calls fun or pretty or..., but the one that is a problem solver and solution to what we face as an industry, society and individuals. Trends and “the way it works” kinds of dogmas have made it incredibly hard for us to be different and to build differently from others. And to that end, I could name at least these three reasons why it is so.
Number one, it is hard psychologically because the one who is different (in the Lord) is rejected, often misunderstood, undervalued and lonely at times; and humanly, who’d want some of those? Number two—to build differently is always more expensive because there are no prototypes, precedents or some kind of a well-trodden ‘track record’ path before you and R&D is always more time-consuming. Thirdly, one building FOR the Lord BY the Lord would have to constantly renew his/her mind as to how God does things in His way and economy, and His way is so different to what the world and religion teach us (honestly, you will be surprised!). Why is doing things God's way hard though? Because our obedience to His ways would often look foolish, "not making any sense", not-promising to the most (remember Noah?) and even oneself. For instance, ponder these little examples—what God calls a success and how the world defines it, what God says about provision and money and how the world urges us to address these subjects, how He sees prosperity and fulfillment of one’s in life ....or even these, e.g. how to serve others and not being recognized, how to not give up and persevere, how to forgive and let go of those, even the close ones, who oppose your God-given assignment, how to be courageous and not react in times of darkness, failure and opposition, how to stay with a process forfeiting the desire of instant gratification...
All of these things are rarely spoken about and taught in the format of (fashion) business; many know of them, I’ll give you that, but rarely apply and hold on to them as if their dear life depends on them. Why? Because such a way of supplication and humility is a way of suffering and it is not fashionable or advertising, or popular amongst all of those flashy stories of overnight success that the media feeds us with. I am sorry to burst that bubble, but those are never the way they seem.
Going back to the Consultancy, we’d just want to say that we are here to serve you and carry your burden as the Lord leads. If you have an idea for a fashion project or you are already working on something we are here to help and assist you as much as we can (for a number of other potential scenarios, please see here). If you need a community of faith+fashion people, we are happy to become one for you too. Indeed, For Such a Time as This…
Before we go, a couple of things that might be helpful here below:
A Consultancy landing page may be found on the website through here.
A video, dedicated to the launch of the service, is here for your attention on our Youtube Channel.
Community-wise, our nearest faith+fashion meet-up, The Book Club, is happening next week on Thursday, August 10th @ 7pm (UK), please feel free to join us.
If you are interested in taking one of our Courses, the next one is coming up in September. To check a full list of our Courses, please click on 'COURSES' on the top menu bar.
And at last, not to miss anything going on (because indeed, we have things happening all the time), please sign up for our newsletters through the Contact Form at the bottom on the main page.
Thank you, and LOVE ... always God's enormous love to us all...♥
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