This week's Torah parsha is one of my favorites; it is all about the Tabernacle in the Wilderness (Exodus 25 & 26). In thrilling detail the LORD describes for Moses how to construct this Tabernacle, with all of its furnishings, curtains, coverings and offerings. We know that Moses is being given a pattern of what already exists in the heavenly realm, and this makes me breathless! Yet, what really struck me as I read these passages this year was that this tabernacle is created to be "mobile." It is not a permanent structure - as most places of worship are today. The King of the Universe says, "there I will dwell among you." That too takes my breath away! This tabernacle is to be a place where God dwells with His people, and it is intentionally moving and mobile. Does that not speak a message to us? It does to me. It tells me that clearly our God does not expect us to stay in the same place all through our journey. He expects us to keep moving, from season to season, place to place, glory to glory. And He knows that many of these seasons will take place in the wilderness - even, as David wrote, "through the valley of the shadow of death." I believe this is the shadow we encounter when we have finally come to the end of ourselves.
If the following prophetic word speaks to you, receive it. I believe it is an on-time word for many of us who are panting like a deer for Living Water, hungry and desperate for a visitation from the Living God in the midst of our worship. For me personally, it feels like a very long time since I have experienced this, and as a dear sister described it to me last night, "the place we are in right now feels and looks like a lot of parched, white bones lying in a dry lake bed." And so I cry as the prophet Ezekiel did, "LORD, can these bones live?" And I spoke to my God as Moses did in the wilderness, "If your Presence does not come with us, we do not want to go."
The tabernacle I am in has not moved for a long time. I sense it is time!
Mercifully, He has spoken a powerful answer to me, and I share it here with you:
"You are entering a new season. There is an appointed time for everything, and if you do not understand the appointed time, you may be going in the opposite direction that I am going. I AM testing My people. These tests are unique to each one, but the challenge is the same: are you willing to surrender to Me what is most dear to you? Are you ready to be purged and pruned and don the white robes of My Bride? It is time to go back and re-dig some of the wells from your past. Not all of what you learned and experienced in past seasons should be discarded; much of it was valuable. Re-visit the prophetic words I have spoken over you in the past, and decree them again. Have they failed to come to pass? Then you did not pray them through, nor did you have the faith that I would do it! Boldly declare My promises over yourself again, and only believe!"
I went to my journal, specifically revisiting the pages of January and February, 2011 - the time of my wedding. So many powerful promises were spoken over John and me during those months, and we began to decree them aloud over ourselves with renewed faith and hope. Then the LORD continued:
"This is a new season. The tabernacle is moving. Will you go with it or will you stay stuck where you are? You have spent the last season writing My Word on your heart and mind. You have a great deposit within you. Now what will you do with it - just continue to hash and re-hash it among the same few people? Or are you ready to take it to the nations, to the far corners of the earth? There is an end-time harvest greater than anything you have ever seen! Will you pack up your tabernacle and go again with Me?
"You have entered the Hebrew year 5772. This is the year of the Hebrew letters ayin and bet. The ayin means "eye." Your eyes have grown dim! It is time to restore your vision and stir up new vision for your future! The Hebrew letter bet means "house." People are having issues and great difficulties with houses. This is because I AM calling them to leave their permanent dwellings and allow me to dwell with them in MY tabernacle as we move through the wilderness into the next move of My Spirit."
This last part of the Father's word regarding the year 5772, spoken through Robert Heidler this morning, absolutely stunned me. There is a couple in our fellowship who is going through the pain and difficulty of losing a home to foreclosure, and finding themselves homeless. There is another woman who, two months after burying her son, is being forced from her home by the city council, for the expansion of the library! Just last night I was interceding for these friends and asking the Lord why He is allowing His people to experience such trials. What a clear answer He gave! We are all being tested - and for some, the test requires even the laying down of their homes, in order to move with His tabernacle, depending only on HIM for all provision and shelter!
As hard as these things are, what a difference it makes to know that He finds us worthy of the test. What an encouragement to realize that our Lord and Master is dwelling among us as our tabernacle moves forward to an unknown place, a new season.
Are you going to stay stuck where you are? Or, are you ready to move with Him?
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Want What It Is!
While on our journey in the deep South, someone gave us the gift of a little book entitled Yiddish Wisdom for Marriage. Oh, what precious nuggets are buried within the pages of this little treasure! Today I read this proverb from the book, and after reading it, many things were quickened to my spirit. I believe it is for us all: "If it is not what one wishes, then one must want what it is."
The Spirit began to speak to me: "Stop spending time remembering how things used to be. Don't waste time wishing a spouse or a friend would be more like so-and-so, or pondering how you can change them for the better. Why do you look back at what once was, instead of embracing the new trail that your Father desires to blaze for you? You even cling to things, beliefs, and traditions that keep you in a stagnant holding pattern, instead of shedding the old wineskins so that I can fill you with new wine!
"If it is not what you wish - then want what it is! I am enough. My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in your weakness. Rejoice in what is! Want what you have, and treasure it! Decorate your life with what I have given you and give thanks."
The Spirit began to speak to me: "Stop spending time remembering how things used to be. Don't waste time wishing a spouse or a friend would be more like so-and-so, or pondering how you can change them for the better. Why do you look back at what once was, instead of embracing the new trail that your Father desires to blaze for you? You even cling to things, beliefs, and traditions that keep you in a stagnant holding pattern, instead of shedding the old wineskins so that I can fill you with new wine!
"If it is not what you wish - then want what it is! I am enough. My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in your weakness. Rejoice in what is! Want what you have, and treasure it! Decorate your life with what I have given you and give thanks."
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
The Right Arm of the LORD
We are on a journey - a three-week journey of visiting and meeting each other's family across Alabama and Georgia. Going from house to house, sharing meals, conversations, and memories with children and grandchildren, one thing became blatantly apparent: we all have broken places inside from childhood wounds or failed expectations. Driving across endless miles of highway under cloudy Georgia skies, I prayed over our children and heard the LORD speak: "The key to healing these wounds and mending these broken relationships is forgiveness. Seventy times seven you must forgive - and this represents a perfect, unbroken cycle of willingness to forgive blame and hurt and give it all up to Me. Stuck in shame, rejection and abandonment, the wounded child cannot move forward in spiritual growth. It is only when you stop looking to people for approval, happiness and comfort - and look to ME," says the Lord, "that you will find healing for your souls and release from the bondages that are holding you back."
I woke up in the middle of the night just after all our visits, and my right arm was in terrible, throbbing pain. There was no explanation; I had not injured it or lifted anything heavy, yet the pain would not be quieted so I could sleep. I arose and went to the bathroom, looking for some oil that would soothe muscles, and then as I lay back down in the bed, I sought the Lord for the spiritual meaning of this pain in my arm, and the Spirit said to me, "Find the Scriptures that speak about My arm. Through My Word you will get the answers." It was Isaiah 51 where the answers were profoundly quickened to me. In Hebraic thought the "right arm of the LORD" is the Messiah, Yeshua. Isaiah 51 is a passage written by Yeshua to His people - and it is written to each of us today, to strengthen us and help us to stop depending upon PEOPLE to save us from all the pain that life has dealt us.
"Listen to Me, My people; and give ear to Me, O My nation; for the Torah will proceed from Me, and I will make My justice rest as a light of the peoples. My righteousness is near, My salvation (Yeshua) has gone forth, and My Arm they will trust. Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, You people in whose heart is My Torah: Do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their revilings. For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but MY righteousness will be forever, and MY salvation (Yeshua) from generation to generation. I am the LORD your God, who divided the sea whose waves roared - the LORD of Hosts (Adonai Tzava'ot) is His Name. And I have put My words in your mouth; I have covered you with the Shadow of My Hand..." (Isa. 51:4-5, 7-8, 15-16)
Picture it! Picture yourself in the great and mighty Arms of Adonai Tzava'ot, the LORD of Hosts, who delivered His people from Pharaoh, and who delivers you even now from the memories that hold you in bondage. Imagine it - little you, standing under the Shadow of His enormous, protective Hand! Perhaps there is still a "Pharaoh" in your life, holding you down in a place of darkness and shame - then if someone comes alongside you, to support and help you, but it stirs up your Pharaoh's hard heart against you, do not be afraid! Remember these words of the Lord: "My righteousness is near, my salvation has gone forth, and My arm you can trust. I have covered you with the shadow of My hand." His arm is strong enough to carry you; His hand is big enough to shelter you; His heart is loving enough to keep you.
I woke up in the middle of the night just after all our visits, and my right arm was in terrible, throbbing pain. There was no explanation; I had not injured it or lifted anything heavy, yet the pain would not be quieted so I could sleep. I arose and went to the bathroom, looking for some oil that would soothe muscles, and then as I lay back down in the bed, I sought the Lord for the spiritual meaning of this pain in my arm, and the Spirit said to me, "Find the Scriptures that speak about My arm. Through My Word you will get the answers." It was Isaiah 51 where the answers were profoundly quickened to me. In Hebraic thought the "right arm of the LORD" is the Messiah, Yeshua. Isaiah 51 is a passage written by Yeshua to His people - and it is written to each of us today, to strengthen us and help us to stop depending upon PEOPLE to save us from all the pain that life has dealt us.
"Listen to Me, My people; and give ear to Me, O My nation; for the Torah will proceed from Me, and I will make My justice rest as a light of the peoples. My righteousness is near, My salvation (Yeshua) has gone forth, and My Arm they will trust. Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, You people in whose heart is My Torah: Do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their revilings. For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but MY righteousness will be forever, and MY salvation (Yeshua) from generation to generation. I am the LORD your God, who divided the sea whose waves roared - the LORD of Hosts (Adonai Tzava'ot) is His Name. And I have put My words in your mouth; I have covered you with the Shadow of My Hand..." (Isa. 51:4-5, 7-8, 15-16)
Picture it! Picture yourself in the great and mighty Arms of Adonai Tzava'ot, the LORD of Hosts, who delivered His people from Pharaoh, and who delivers you even now from the memories that hold you in bondage. Imagine it - little you, standing under the Shadow of His enormous, protective Hand! Perhaps there is still a "Pharaoh" in your life, holding you down in a place of darkness and shame - then if someone comes alongside you, to support and help you, but it stirs up your Pharaoh's hard heart against you, do not be afraid! Remember these words of the Lord: "My righteousness is near, my salvation has gone forth, and My arm you can trust. I have covered you with the shadow of My hand." His arm is strong enough to carry you; His hand is big enough to shelter you; His heart is loving enough to keep you.
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