RUBBISH ON THE RIVER

Early on the morning of Monday 20 March, I had a short but very clear vision.

I saw people coming to a river and throwing all their junk into it. Their sin, struggles, and burdens.
What was thrown did not sink into the river, but floated on top of it, as black blobs, rather like oil.
A huge demonic creature stepped over the river and stood on the far bank.
He began to scoop up the black blobs, coat them with mud from the river bank, and lay them out to dry like bricks.

Instantly the words came to me “He is building strongholds” and then the vision ended.

I have prayed into this and believe the following about what I saw.

The river was the one spoken of in Ezekiel 47 and Revelation 22. This is the crystal clear river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb. The thing that stands out about this river is that it is pure, clear, bringing life.

The overwhelming sense I had was that the rubbish thrown into the river did not sink because the river is not designed to be contaminated by such things. Our sin, struggles, burdens are to be brought to the cross. It was on the cross that Jesus Christ dealt with these things. God has a specific order in things and this is shown by Jesus taking care of our sin at the cross, His resurrection from that death, and then the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The life of the Spirit was not released until sin had been dealt with at the cross. There must be death before there can be resurrection.

In some areas this order has been overlooked, or perhaps not even taught or preached. This is not an issue of legalism, but of God’s order. Therefore people are bringing their sin to The River instead of to The Cross.

Because the stuff just floats there and is not actually scripturally dealt with, the enemy is beginning to gather ammunition against those who have mistakenly thought that their sin, struggle, burdens can be cast into the river and dealt with instead of being brought to the cross.

I believe the Lord is calling us to begin to focus on His order in our lives, families, churches AND for those to whom He has given the responsibility, to teach it. Where we have mistaken the place of dealing we need to ask Him to show us what needs to be picked up and dealt with in His way.

There is a strong sense that this call is coming in order to make a way for the healing the Lord is wanting to release in these days.

VISION OF A WARM WIND

Recently I had a clear vision of a large, deep canyon. As I looked down on this canyon I became aware of a very strong warm wind blowing through it. As I looked down on it the wind was coming from behind me, in the southern hemisphere that would be from the south – but contrary to what would be expected in this hemisphere, the wind was very warm. This canyon seemed to be travelling across the globe and was not limited to one place or country.

Ahead the canyon narrowed considerably and there were rocky outcrops either side of the narrowest point. On the right hand side was an old wooden house painted dark red. Many little rooms had been added to this house. At first glance I wondered why on earth this house had not fallen into the canyon as it was teetering on the edge of the outcrop; however it clung precariously to the rocks.

Beyond the rocky outcrops, the canyon widened out so far that it was impossible to see any limitations to it at all. There was a sense that as the wind burst out through this narrow point there was limitless expansion and increase.

The strong wind continued to blow, and I had the strong feeling that as it passed the old house it would draw from it everything that was good and useful, and carry this on out into the wide new space.

The sense I had as I looked at this was that the wind was a thread that had been woven through all that God is doing in this time. Even though there were things either side of this thread that looked as if they would disintegrate, the Lord was moving in such a way that He would extract and take all that was good and lovely and carry it on into the future that is held in Himself and known only to Him.

I thought of the Song of Songs, with the knowledge that the wind blowing on the garden would carry its fragrance to the Beloved. In the northern hemisphere where the scriptures were written, the south wind is a warm one, and that fitted with what I had felt and seen.

It is my personal belief that what I saw and felt was a HARVEST WIND. It was bringing change but at the same time picking up what was useful to the Lord as it moved through the old towards the point where this change will take place and its outworking will be seen.

I sensed that what was taken on was beyond our ordering. The Lord would choose what was useful and pleasing to Him in this time.

Song of Songs 4:16
Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden that its fragrance may spread abroad. Let my lover come into his garden and taste its choice fruits.

Subsequently as I prayed it seemed as if I was almost ‘inside’ the wind that came through the canyon. It was a place of crystal clarity, great strength, and great peace, and was flowing very fast. As I looked out from that place, it was as if the surrounding areas were caught in a whirlwind and I could see people and all kinds of debris being flung around in this dusty wind. I felt that the ‘thread’ was a very powerful movement of God’s Spirit, drawing everything that was of Him into the safety of this ‘eye of the storm’.

The strong feeling I had was that previous moves of God’s Spirit have been about the work He wanted to do in His people to prepare for this time. Now it is as if He was gathering all that had been done into Himself and would draw people into this central, peaceful place of safety in God. This would be very necessary in the days ahead.

There was also a strong feeling that He would flow powerfully in the areas where His people had allowed Him to work in their lives removing debris that was not of Him – it would be tossed aside and they would be caught up powerfully in His purposes for their lives, and He would be able to flow through them with little hindrance to His Spirit.

TEARS AND UNREST

I have such admiration for those who are able to write drafts, edit them, and produce something that is amazingly coherent - and yet I seem to have been blessed with only the ability to fill up with thoughts and feelings that eventually spill out on to a page in a somewhat incoherent manner - how amazing that anyone ever bothers to read those thoughts - it is a source of constant amazement, and high esteem for those who are so patient!

Today is another of those restless days of walking around feeling like a huge well of unspilt tears. The slightest jolt or rocking of my world is likely to bring forth a flood of Noah-like proportions! What I would like to know is where have they come from, and why are they there, and why do I fill up like this? Crazy stuff isnt it?

Every now and then there is a kind of wave that rolls through. Would they be called waves of accumulated grief?

Wave of grief at having experienced and looked at the end results of man's inhumanity to man, woman to woman, man to woman, woman or man to child, it rolls on and on doesnt it.

What went wrong, where and when did we miss the message that love is patient, kind, loooooong-suffering, endures, lays down its life for its friends? Was it when we took up our RIGHTS? Rights to what? To behaving as we please, or feel like at a certain time? Rights to be what I am, and in the process of all that destroying all that someone else is or is meant to be? I thought when we became Christian's we gave away our rights, handed them over to Jesus, so that He could be in charge and draw us up to something higher and of eternal meaning.

Were we meant to become a Body, or a Church, that was so busy keeping all the rules, making the programmes work, managing all the people so well, growing to such impressive and immense proportions, that anything that put a ripple in the pool should be disciplined or even removed? What well built and maintained white-washed tombs.

Where did we lose our radical and beautiful Jesus Christ. The one who healed people on the wrong day, overturned the money-makers tables, ate with the sinners, walked with a bunch of ordinary folk on dusty roads, and did what He saw His Father (the creator of all things!) doing. The One who refused to judge and had the good sense to leave that to His Father, the only One qualified to do so!

The only building blocks he used were people who had been shaped and strengthened by His love and His presence. When did the presence of the Lord rise up to the threshhold and leave the temple? What will it take to entice Him back into the midst of us - into our lives, into our churches, into our communities and nations?

There are pockets of life - precious pockets or places where He is willing to come and have fellowship with His friends - how incredibly important are these precious pockets right now - they speak to me of the righteous men God looked for in wicked cities, willing to spare them because of the righteous. We read in the prophetic books of those who will be marked by the Lord as righteous and spared in the days to come.

Lord, I pray life into the pockets of life, increase and expansion in their number, that more and more homes and cities would be spared for the sake of the righteous who dwell in them.

As I pray the wave moves again, the desire grows, and the well of tears continues to fill.

THE BEAUTY OF THE CAVE

I am so fascinated by 'the cave' experience at the moment. Today I read an amazing NOW word by Holly Moody and it just resonated in my spirit, and then along came something else from David Orton that did the same.
Everywhere I go I find people who have been withdrawn from what they did previously and feel stripped down, being changed and renewed and restored by the Lord, without a real sense of what comes next.
It brought me to thinking about what happens around caves.
We know that David had been anointed to be king, was persecuted by Saul, and then found himself in the cave of Adullam. It was a pretty awful journey, and there wasnt too much that was 'kinglike' about it all! Still, with all his motley crew, living rough, he had a heart that did the right thing by Saul when he came along - shows that something good was going on in that cave! It was part of his journey to being a 'man after God's own heart'.
What about Elijah up there on the mountain top. He'd had great success calling down fire, killing off the prophets of Baal, praying and seeing the drought break, and running ahead of Ahab's chariot for quite a distance, and suddenly everything turns to custard for him. We find him on the mountain top looking for God. I just love it that Elijah goes into a cave in the rock and God puts his hand over it to protect him - who could say God isnt into caves? Elijah then entered the most fruitful period of his life, where he began to reproduce his ministry and anoint those who would bring great change into Israel.
I hear Him tenderly speaking to those He has called into the cave in this present day "my dove in the cleft of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside, show me your face, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely" (Song of Songs 2:14)
He has called us there to have sweet fellowship with Him. He comes and meets us in the cave, calling us to look at Him, to speak with Him, to hear Him tell us of His love.
Wow, what more could we want? Who cares if the world understands or not, or if the cave doesnt have too many mod. cons. The bridegroom is wooing those who are truly His own, preparing them for eternity.
How beautiful is this cave!