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?
