As I was praying last week, the image of a cross section of a bone came to mind. It highlighted the MARROW section of the bone. Since that time, God has been showing me bone and marrow all over scripture. There are many who feel like they are in a place of DRY BONES. Dry bones lack MARROW. Marrow is defined as "a soft fatty substance in the cavities of bones, in which blood cells are produced (often taken as typifying strength and vitality)". God is wanting to breathe some spiritual lifeblood into these situations that will bring new strength and feelings of enthusiasm back! "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." Proverbs 17:22
As we enter into this new month and approach the new Hebrew year 5779, God showed me the image of someone holding a journal of all the words God had given to him/her. The people represented by this person had shed many tears in the past over what were perceived as lost promises. Words had appeared in bits and pieces but never come to pass. As the page was turned (just as the page is being turned with this new month and year), a full page of bold writing was revealed, containing not only the words seen before, but the full meaning and context.
Have you felt like your life has been a whirlwind lately? This is for you!!! I came across the passage in Hosea 8 about reaping the whirlwind. I had always read this passage as a wrathful one, but this time God began to download something I had never heard before. Now I read it as a tender, pleading call back into His arms. Whirlwinds come in your spiritual life; times when obligations and events and heartaches and busy days are swirling around. Merriam Webster defines whirlwind as "a small rotating storm of limited extent" or "a confused rush."
As I drove home from church yesterday, Michael W Smith sang "I lift my eyes...I look to the horizon now." At that exact moment my eyes met the word "horizon" printed on the back of the truck in front of me. I felt God pressing me to seek Him more about this word. In my quiet time the next morning, I asked Him to reveal more to me about horizons and did a little digging. "The horizon or skyline is the apparent line that separates earth from sky, the line that divides all visible directions into two categories: those that intersect the Earth's surface, and those that do not." (Wikipedia)
It's the season of woodpeckers. Recently I see multiple of these red-headed beauties each day, which seems like more than I typically notice each spring. The beautiful thing about woodpeckers is that they SEEK OUT areas of DISTURBANCE. Areas recently affected by fire, land that's recently been CLEARED (God just recently spoke about clearing), or places where trees have died are just a few places they choose for their NESTING GROUND (allaboutbirds.org). How beautifully unexpected. They seek for their place of BIRTHING new life the places that have just experienced disturbance. Google dictionary defines disturbance as "the interruption of a settled and peaceful condition."
The past few days I have been finding dimes everywhere. Today when I found one on my seat as I began my time in the secret place, I began to ask about the symbolism God was speaking for an upcoming season. This will be a time of peace that passes understanding. That current conflict is going to come to an end. Olive branches also Biblically symbolized the end of flood. "When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth." Genesis 8:11 NIV
Many are in a time now where they are on the THRESHING FLOOR. Feeling painful waves of refinement separating the pure from the chaff. It may feel like blow after blow in the natural, but let me share what God also says about the threshing floor. During the threshing process the ears of the grain are literally torn from the stalks and they are loosened from the outer part of grain. This can feel like shaking, that all you know is being shaken in the natural.
Very clearly this morning I heard "It is time to make reservations of faith." By definition, to make a reservation is 1) to put something on the books, 2) to set aside an area of land for occupation or 3) a right to an estate being conveyed! There are, however, other kinds of reservations. When you have a reservation about something it signifies DOUBT. This is why the reservations we are to make now are ones of FAITH. Let me share what the Holy Spirit unpacked about each of these.
When a pregnant Mary came up on the inn, ready to deliver, I doubt she heard "there are no rooms" and thought, "oh perfect, things are going exactly as planned!" We have no way of knowing, but in my own experience with God I think more than likely this detail was not one she expected. Don't we all hit those unexpected hiccups on the way to our destinies? In fact, in the midst of the very MOMENT OF BIRTHING God's plans. She could have questioned God and why He wouldn't provide a room for her. She could've even second-guessed that they were in the right place or that the timing was right. She could've even doubted her calling entirely because of how DIFFICULT the situation had become.
The past week the Lord has been pressing on me a simple but profound image. It being fall with harvest themes all around, He showed me a farmer who, instead of planting and watering seeds, was watering his picked baskets of fruit. It seemed silly until He told me, "Don't keep watering past harvests." We are always somewhere in this growth cycle, and we can tell by our lives. Are we seeing lots of fruit or progress? It's harvest time! Are we sowing a lot of ourselves into callings? It's planting time! Are we pressing through the waiting season? That's growing time! Sometimes these seasons even overlap.
Follow Up
