THE FRUIT OF DESOLATION

In recent weeks the Lord has been taking me through a process that began with my reading of John 20.

As I read it was as if I 'was' Mary Magdalene coming to the tomb to look for the Jesus she knew and loved. She found Him gone. Suddenly He allowed my heart to feel the desolation of that place, her despair, agony of heart, pain heaped upon pain. She had seen Him crucified, and now even His body was gone! He began to teach me about the place of DESOLATION and the FRUIT that comes from this place when He brings us to it.

First Mary ran to her friends. They came and looked, and far from sitting with her to seek comfort and help together, they ran off back home!

Mary did not leave the place where desolation had met her, instead she remained there weeping and crying out. She had no Plan B, and there was no business as usual for her. She stayed where she had last seen Him.

As she wept before the Lord, His heart was moved to comfort her and SUDDENLY she opened her eyes to find two angels where Jesus' body had been.

SHE HAD ANGELIC VISITATION IN HER PLACE OF DESOLATION.

She turned, and SAW THE RISEN JESUS CHRIST.

JESUS SPOKE TO HER AND GAVE HER INSTRUCTION of what to do next.

She then RAN FROM THE PLACE OF DESOLATION to her friends and was able to say to them "I have seen the Lord!"

The end result of Mary remaining was that she could say "I have seen the Lord" just as Isaiah did in Chapter 6, when he was desolate because King Uzziah had died. Isaiah also was able to say "I saw the Lord".

There is revelation of Christ to be found in the place of desolation as it is found nowhere else, if we will remain and not run from it. Mary's sorrow was out of her great love for Jesus even more than her thoughts for herself, she continued to lookf or Him in her distress. What did she find: His clothes! In the natural scheme of things there was nothing but a remnant and a memory, but as she stayed with that, Heaven saw and found her, spoke to her and led her forward!

GOD'S FAMILY

For a long time I have held a great concern in my heart, but because of age and position have found it impossible, or at the very least unwise, to speak of it. However, recently someone much younger and wiser than I am has given expression to my heart even better than I could, so I feel a liberty to post it here in the hope that others will read and understand!

So here is a quote from a young person I love and respect who wrote about the current focus on youth initiatives:

"And what is the role of the older generation....?
As a young person I love my generation, but I see how necessary it is that we have wisdom, leadership and input from the older generation. It is vital to our success and survival that this happens. Our generation is already unbalanced in its views. The world has put emphasis on us by giving us 'liberation' in so many areas, sex, drugs, lifestyle etc.. we are given so many things and take for granted so much. We are the generation burdened with choices. We have little respect for those that may be in authority or who have gone before us and may have paid a price for us to live as we do. By annihilating moral absolutes the world has declared war on this generation. There is no sense of family unit which adds to the unbalance. We needs spiritual mothers and fathers, leaders in the body. The church needs to even the score and balance rather than further emphasise the imbalance by enhancing the inflated sense of how precious young people are. We need to be understood, released, inspired and given opportunity in the context that this world is not all about us and our generation. Every person alive on the face of the earth is precious as far as God is concerned. A point to remember is that my generation can't be seen through rose-coloured glasses either, as much as the world or people within the church limit our opportunities or put us down and are responsible for shutting us out or down in different areas, we are responsible for our own inability to commit to anything, respect anyone, our laziness and selfishness. We create as many issues for ourselves as the world and church creates for us. We must own our issues, not be excused from them or have someone pass the blame for us."

Ephesians 2:14-18

For he himself is our peace, who has made the TWO ONE and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. By abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to CREATE IN HIMSELF ONE NEW MAN out of the two, thus making peace, and in this ONE BODY to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father, BY ONE SPIRIT.

In the Complete Jewish Bible the word for barrier is 'm'chitzah' - the divider between men and women in the orthodox synagogue, or metaphorically the 5 foot high stone wall between the Court of the Gentiles and the Inner Courts of the Temple where the Jewish people could go. What a wonderful picture this gives us of His great desire to bring together men and women, Jew and Gentile, all to be ONE in Him.

We must take care in placing a stronger emphasis on one part of the Body than another - we could find ourselves breaking down the Family of God rather than building and strengthening it for His Glory.

SHALOM

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

I have a feeling that an answer is coming, but not as we expect – just as the Messiah Himself did not meet the expectations of the religious establishment.

What truly will be the effect of what Joel prophesied? It is so wide open in possibilities and so boundless in God. I think we will only survive if we let everything go into God’s hands and let Him have His way with our screaming flesh.

What does my flesh scream? “This is not the way it is supposed to be…” (Says who?) “This is painful…..” (He knows that!) “I cannot see an end to this….” (He does).
Then we turn around and look at the head with blood flowing where the thorns have torn His flesh, and the scarred hands, the blood and water pouring out of a wounded side, the back torn to ribbons with lashes……..”This is My body broken for you…” takes on new meaning for me in this place, and I run towards the One who is THE ANSWER to all of my pain and all of my questions.

I feel full of tears, but what am I weeping for? Is it that things are not as I think they should be? Is it that my flesh cannot cope with the pressure of it’s own death? Is it that I cannot bear watching others in the same process?

Lord, you know the seasons and times that You have appointed for us. Help us to run into You, again and again and again, for truly You alone are our hiding place, our refuge, our strength. Be the ‘all in all’ that only You can be for us. Be strength in our weakness. Be our light. Be our salvation. Be our deliverer. Over and above all of this Lord, be our PEACE.

THE ANSWER

What does it mean when those who had walked closely with Jesus, had been at many of His prayer times, and seen most of His ministry, suddenly ask Him to teach them how to pray?

Maybe they are just like most of us. We start of with tremendous energy and zeal, willing to take on and move any mountain that presents itself. Little by little we find that the words we have are inadequate, there seems to be no clear way to express what is in our heart with words, the energy is a little less than when we started out.

King David (the warrior, worshipper, and man after God's own heart) comes to a place in Psalm 109 where in the midst of great difficulty he simply says "I prayer..." - how can we get to such a place? A place where there are no clever words any more, and where we begin to reflect all that God is back to Him and realise that He is the One who moves to bring change, He is the only answer we will ever need or find.

I call it the difference between horizontal and vertical praying. When we pray horizontally our focus in on the object of the prayer which we bombard with everything we can find in the Word and in ourselves until we have a sense of something changing. However, vertical prayer pushes us to our knees before a God who is ALWAYS ABLE to do more than we can ask or imagine. He has promised never to leave or forsake us. He is the same, yesterday, today and forever. He never sleeps. He created all things. He still today sustains all life that exists. He is great, majestic, all powerful, all knowing - suddenly we are no longer looking at the problem but have come face to face with THE ANSWER!!

As we gaze upon THE ANSWER and our hearts fill with love, faith, and joy in His presence, we have drawn near to Him and He draws near to us. His presence begins to invade what we are holding before Him and bring His order into the life or situation - after all He is the One who created everything. As we are in His presence, we begin to become like the One we behold and we are changed, even as He moves to change those things we have lifted before His throne.

We find ourselves now poured out as prayer before the throne of God. The answer Jesus Christ gave to His questioning disciples makes perfect sense to us now:

"Our Father in Heaven,

Holy is Your Name,

Your Kingdom Come,

Your will be Done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive our sins

As we forgive those who sin against us.

Lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil,

Now and forever.

Amen.

A DREAM

This week I had a powerful dream.

I had been invited to speak in a very big church, as I stood there in the midst of the ocean of faces there were probably about 1000 people.

The speaking was not from a stage or podium but from the midst of the people. The message I had was the message of Jesus Christ to His disciples in John 10 when He called them to Him and gave them authority (this was given to those who had walked with Him..knew Him intimately) and told them to "Go".

In Matt. 10:7 He says:

"As you go, preach this message: "The Kingdom of Heaven is near."

As I spoke this out, it felt as if the Holy Spirit came over my shoulder and began to proclaim through me "This is Life, this is Truth, this is Bread, this is strength....." It came with the power of a trumpet blast over and into the gathered people.

As this happened I felt a tap on my arm, stopped, and looked down. Beside me stood a man with a clipboard, and he was wanting me to sign something for my message and write down it's scriptural reference!

I sat down and saw in front of me a bundle of church newsletters tied together with string. As I looked inside them I saw that this message had been brought to this people many times.

Saddened I walked outside and my attention was drawn to the carpark. Row after row of cars, neatly parked, locked, going nowhere .... He gently said this was the state of the people inside the building also.

A CRY FOR LOVE

The church reaches towards me

She grasps at me with gnarled fingers

And tears me from the One I love.

She has become like a widow woman

Lost in a world without the touch and closeness

Of the One she once so passionately embraced.

May Love Himself come again and soften her

May Love Himself embrace and draw her to Himself.

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!