When Nurture Needs Are Unmet

If you would prefer to listen to this message or watch it, (You can see my amazing face in all its wrinkly glory), in the video below. Otherwise! Read on.
As a consequence of being invited to teach the healing approach found in The Quiet Heart to a group of ministers, I became acquainted with some women prophets who are deeply involved in the prophetic movement. Lovely and mighty women of God whom He has called into the office of prophet.
One of the ladies suggested that I am also a prophet, a suggestion that made me laugh as I shrugged it off. Even if she is right, I don’t know what to do with that.
A few days later, I was chatting with God as I drove to the grocery store and I brought up the subject of being a prophet. I told the Lord that it would be really cool to be a prophet, have big gatherings where I proclaim astounding prophetic pronouncements that are always accurate and always true! I told Him, “How cool would that be? All that attention and excitement.”
Here is how the Lord responded. He said, “Sweetheart. There are no prophets or prophecy in heaven. How about you ask me for something eternal and of everlasting value?” (1 Corinthians 13:8)
Alrighty then.
Seriously, I don’t have any ambition to stand in the office of prophet. I don’t have any desire for that kind of attention. It just seemed like it would be fun. Probably not as fun as I think it would be.
But that conversation with God did get me started asking Him what is eternal and of everlasting value? What should we be seeking and what are we seeking that we shouldn’t be seeking?
Short disclaimer here. I fully believe all of us are able to prophesy as the Lord leads. And I believe that prophecy is very valuable. And I do prophesy from time to time. Nonetheless, not many are called to the office of prophet.
BUT all of us have God-given needs—the need to be cherished, nurtured, protected, valued. We all need acceptance and belonging. We all need a secure attachment to a safe and loving person. Sadly, those needs have often gone unmet AND many of us have given up on having them ever met. But we really cannot ever escape the needs that are built into the human design. So, even if we have given up, the needs are there, simmering beneath the surface.
Sometimes we will try to get our nurture needs met by achieving some kind of position or recognition. Oh! If I were a prophet, then people would love me. I would belong! I would be accepted! For example.
1 Corinthians 13:8 tells us that all the spiritual gifts will eventually pass away. I think all compulsion to get our unmet needs met will also pass away, because they will be met by the one thing that endures; that never fails. That one thing is love.
Let me make a distinction here. Not our fallen carnal ooshe mooshe love. Only God’s love will endure forever. Ah ha! I have figured out what is eternal and of everlasting value.
Perhaps it is time for us to ask the Lord some questions. For example, let’s ask Him what we believe deep within our hearts that is pushing His love away. What is seated in the heart that keeps us hungering for recognition; keeps us anxiously performing instead of sinking into His goodness, attaching to Him and resting in Him, secure in the knowledge that He will find a way to meet all of our unmet needs?
If the only thing that never fails is His love, let’s make a decision to invest the rest of our journey here in the fall exploring the heights and the depths of His great love.
nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. ROMANS 8:39
God bless you!
Susan
thepool@thepoolministries.org