A Scotsman’s dream come true. At IKEA you can get coffee with free refills and 2 biscuits for 25p and sit there undisturbed for as along as you want, if you have a “Family Card.” IKEA,  consider yourself forgiven for the many miles I have walked in you over the years!

Today I went there to read, pray and notice. It is good to notice where the God who pours out His Spirit on all flesh is at work. I saw Him at work today in a young mum. I saw the anointing of the Spirit resting upon her. When I say “saw” I mean “saw.” Over the years I have seen the anointing many times. It is a shining, a glow, almost an oil that comes upon a person’s face. Sometimes it is literally an oil that you can wipe away only for more to come… and no, ye of little faith, it is not perspiration. It neither looks like it nor feels like it. The person may or may not be aware of what others can see.

So I “saw” the anointing on this young mum as she sat at a table of relative peacefulness, spoon feeding her baby. Regardless of how what I have said about oil and glow may sit with you, let me tell you of the effects of anointing. It is when people know they are doing the thing they have been made to do and are living in the joy of it. I don’t mean this in a male chauvinistic way that need cause the rising up of any hackles, but I believe that particular woman knew she had been born to be a mother. Whatever other gifts, calling, career may be part of her life, the moment I saw her was a moment when she knew that for this perhaps beyond other things she had been born. For that moment at least it was all happening with ease. There was flow as well as glow! Would it always be like that for her? Of course not! For that moment however, she was experiencing an “Eric Liddell moment.” Most of you will know what I mean: He was an Olympic medalist,who tried to explain what he felt when he was running like this: “God made me fast and when I run I feel His pleasure.” (Well, in the film version of part of his life, “Chariots of fire” he says that anyway!) Of course there was agony in that running too, however even that could not rob away the feeling of “This is what I am made to do.”

I do hope that you are able to organise your life in such a way that there is room for what brings a glow and a flow for at least a proportion of your time each day or week. There are things that all of us just have to do. There are bills to be paid, jobs to be done, responsibilities to be fulfilled whether we particularly feel like it or not!  Such things are part of the will of God for us too. However, try and make sure you have some time at least each week for where you flow and where other or even you yourself may notice the glow! If you don’t know where you glow or flow, ask the God of flow and glow to show you that place.

God bless

Kenny