My husband and my eldest son are big fans of the Hollywood movie star, Matt Damon. So much so, on our recent European holiday they spent a day visiting locations where some of the “Bourne” movies were filmed.
So naturally when the Matt Damon movie “The Adjustment Bureau” came on television recently, we all had to watch it.
For those who haven’t seen the movie, it is a sci-fi / action thriller based on the idea that every person’s life is determined by a plan written by the “Chairman”. The “Adjustment Bureau” are the people that make sure things happen according to plan even if that means putting obstacles in people’s way to ensure they do not deviate from the plan.
The movie follows the story of “David Norris” (Matt Damon’s character) who glimpses the future “the Chairman” has planned for him – and chooses to fight for his own destiny.
The movie is unrealistic but fun and raises lots of very interesting thoughts. My favourite of these is at the very end of the movie, after the Chairman rewrites the plan for David Norris, allowing him to be with the woman he loves because of the determination and commitment he showed to changing the original plan.
One of the “Adjustment Team” says this to Matt Damon’s character in the final scene:
“Most people live life on the path we set for them, too afraid to explore any other. But once in a while people like you come along who knock down all the obstacles we put in your way. People who realize freewill is a gift that you’ll never know how to use until you fight for it. I think that’s the chairman’s real plan. That maybe one day, we won’t write the plan, you will”.
I love this quote!! A lot of people assume the chairman represents God and the adjustment bureau represent angels – I don’t really know about that – but I do know there is so much truth in this quote.
Many people live unhappy, unfulfilled lives, resigned to the path they find themselves on. They don’t know or don’t believe they can change it.
They accept that’s “just the way it is” or think “I’m not smart enough; I don’t have enough money; nobody believes in me; nobody gives me the opportunity; I could never do that” and so on.
In the natural, all those things may be true, however, when Jesus Christ comes to live inside you – this changes everything!!
When you realize that the greatest power in the universe lives inside you – and you tap into that power – there is absolutely nothing you can not do.
Often, we go through life thinking that the only option we have is to pray and ask God to change the things that need changing, hoping that He will do it – and sometimes this is true; some things can only be changed by prayer.
But I have discovered that for everything else, when Jesus lives in us, we already have the power living within us to change our circumstances and change our lives. We just need to tap into that power.
Just like the quote from the movie, so many of us live life on the path we think has been set for us by fate, or by chance, or by circumstances, but God wants us to know that we can write our own plan. We have His power living within us and – “with God EVERYTHING is possible” (Matthew 19:26).
We are not helpless, weak or powerless. We don’t have to follow the path that life or circumstance has thrown at us or that we happen to find ourselves on. Our plan can be rewritten and our future adjusted.
But this will never be possible unless we believe it and we won’t believe it unless we spend time with God getting this truth into our spirit. The best way I know to do this is to spend time in meditation with Him.
I have been a Christian all my life, so I have always had a “head knowledge” that Jesus lives in me – but it was only after I began to spend time in meditation that the “head knowledge’ became “spirit knowledge” and I had a true revelation that Jesus Christ and His power and creativity lives in me. It was like awakening to the fact “I really can do anything – everything He is – lives in me”.
I wrote in an earlier post about one of my favourite quotes I like to meditate on – “God is with me, God is for me, God is in me”.
If you spend time in God’s presence every day – meditating on this thought – allowing this truth to sink into your spirit, it will totally change your life.
Recently I was reading Psalm 84 and one particular word grabbed my attention.
Verse 5 “How blessed is the man whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion! 6Passing through the valley of Baca they make it a spring; The early rain also covers it with blessings. 7They go from strength to strength…”
The word “they” captured my attention. “as they pass through the valley of Baca” – Baca means weeping, grief, suffering or calamity. It is a synonym or parable of the pilgrimage of life – “as they pass through the valley of Baca they make it a spring.
Amazing! it does not say “He” (God) makes it a spring but “they” make it a spring.
As they pass through the dry, difficult, wasteland of Baca they make it a spring. God knows that when we are in Christ and He is in us, the power is already within us to turn a dry, barren, unfulfilled life into a beautiful place of refreshing springs where life grows and thrives; where we go from “strength to strength”.
I am not diluting the power of God or suggesting that meditation alone gives us this power. Quite the opposite – it is because of the power of God living inside us that we have this same power.
Ephesians 3:20 says “Now all glory to God, who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” – not the power of the universe – not fate or chance – but by the power of Jesus Christ living in me.
I am also not trying to make a statement about whether God has given us complete free will or whether he has a specific plan for each person. My point is simply that, as Christians, we already believe Jesus lives in us.
But when we really get a revelation of this; when it goes from being something you know in your head and you get a revelation that the creator of the universe, the all-powerful living God, the One who raised Jesus from the dead and the God for whom nothing is impossible lives in you – then you will begin to see that nothing is impossible, nothing can limit or stop you.
Everything you need is already in you because God lives in you. You just have to tap into it. God-centred meditation is about “tapping” into Him, the source of everything you need.
I can’t write this blog without touching on the famous Bible verse, Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”.
Yes, God’s plans for us are good. But too many people are waiting for God’s magnificent plan to just fall on them. They are waiting for it all to unfold; to wake up one day and find themselves in the midst of this amazing plan. God is waiting for us to take hold of the power at work within us and make it happen. His is a broad plan. Within his plan the power and opportunities are limitless.
I will finish by going back to Psalm 84. How do we change our valley of Baca into a place of springs?
The King James Version of this verse reads “Who passing through the valley of Baca, they make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools.”
God himself is the well; when we meditate on God, he becomes the well of living water that we drink from that turns our valley of Baca into a thriving, refreshing spring.
When we are in Christ and He is in us our plan is rewritten and our future is adjusted.
Do you have “spirit-knowledge” that Jesus lives in you? Do you really believe that the greatest power in the universe lives in you? If so, what can you do today to rewrite your plan, adjust your future and step into the greatest plan for your life?
There is always something you can do to take steps towards your amazing future (no matter how small those steps may seem). If you’re not sure what you can do or you don’t have a revelation about the power that lives within you, spend some time with God today in meditation and He will begin to reveal it to you.
Praying blessings on you as you discover this truth!
Recent Comments