For days I keep looking at the clock as it reads “10:10.” It drew me right to John chapter 10 and opening in verse three is says, “The watchman who open the gate for Him, listen to His voice.” John 10:10 speaks to us of the thief that comes only to steal, kill, and destroy, but Jesus has come as a GATE for us, that we may have life to the fullest. That is a tension that we must live with…pressing in to receive the fullness God has to offer and yet aware the enemy of our soul leaves us no rest in His schemeing. There is a verse in Isaiah the Lord has put with me in regards to the 10/10 tension, it’s in Isaiah 21:12 (see the transition in those numbers) “The watchman replies, Morning is coming, but also the night.” As God brings increase and more to His people the enemy is right alongside trying to distract and distort us from the good that God has and the places He wants us to go.
I felt the Lord speaking to me recently about asking for “the more that He wants to give.” To diligently ask and expect and believe for more as I press in to His plans for the future. I find it superb that the name on this clock is “new gate” becuase gates give us access to pass through where we want to go, and likewise Jesus makes reference to Himself as The Gate in John 10. The plans He has for us and the places He is directing us to go will come through Him and His ways. I believe there are many of us heading into places that haven’t been forged yet, we haven’t walked the road where Jesus might be asking us to go and do the things He is asking us to do. Perhaps, as the clock reads, it’s a new gate to walk through but not a road that we’ve been down before. It’s both fun and scary and there is tension in both of these things. Both hope and heartache that holds what is next and new/ and yet scary for what we have to let go of and leave behind. Here are some great words from a good doctor as we move ahead this season:
“There are things down the road between hither and yon, that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on. But on you will go though the weather be foul. On you will go though your enemies prowl. Onward and upward a frightening creek, though your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak. On you will hike and I know you’ll hike far, you’ll face every problem whatever they are. You’ll get mixed up of course, as you already know. You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step that it’s with care and great tact and remember that life is a Great Balancing Act. -Dr. Seuss
Let’s keep in mind the tension of 10/10 and choose to push through, expectant for more…believing that where we are headed is a gate of new access where our God “will do a new thing and make a way where there seems to be no way” (Isaiah 43:19).
What do umbrellas and songs have to do with each other? Thanks to Mary Poppins I barely have to explain…though I will!
I was praying the other day with a friend and I saw her getting lifted off the the ground by an umbrella. The Lord began to explain to me what He was doing with her, and it was both exciting and full of wonder. Every day since I have been seeing umbrellas everywhere; commercials, the back of a magazine, earrings at the checkout. I started to ask the Lord if this wasn’t just a singular picture to my friend but maybe a word for His body and after His smile and her agreement here we are.
I asked the Lord what He wanted to share about this picture that stirs up so much awe and I heard Him whisper for us to “pay attention to the songs in the night” (Job 35:10) and the other songs that are in repetition around us that are going to take us higher and let us see from His perspective.
That made so much sense to me becuase I was doing the dishes last week and a song came out of my mouth that I haven’t heard for at least several years and I knew it was God’s reminder to me of the things to come. Then I noticed a song my husband has been singing (that now my sweet daughter is also singing) from “The Five Stairsteps”- ooh child things are gona get easier…and when I asked him where he heard it, he answered with “it just kinda came out of me and now I can’t get it out of my head,” I wasn’t surprised. I’ve been paying more atttention to what I’m hearing in repetition around me, so by the third time I heard the same song when I got in my car I took notice…and I’m so glad that I did.
Umbrellas are symbolic to covering or protection, which I think is apt becuase for some of us these “songs in the night” are going to stir up hope for us in an actual night/dark time. For others the “songs in the night” will be literal and it’s a sweet thing to wake with a new note our spirit has picked up on while our mind is at rest. The verse God has put with me comes from the book of Judges out of “Deborah’s song” in chapter five. “Wake up, wake up, Deborah (insert your own name) and break out in song! Arise, O Barak!” Ok, wait for it..in the Hebrew the name Barak is “lightning.” Psalm 29:7 says “the voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightening.” There are other verses that also associate lightening with His presence. (1 Sam.22:13/ Ex.19:16/ Match.28:3 etc.) I have a strong sense that the Lord is using songs around us as His way to release and reveal His words to us. He stirs up and speaks in all kinds of creative ways (“For God does speak-now one way, now another, though man may not perceive it.” – Job 33:14). Let’s lean in this season and get caught up in what He is saying. Ask Him as David did, “put a new song in my mouth.” Psalm 40:3
-“for anything is possible..even the impossible is possible” (Mary Poppins and Jesus in the Gospels)
Last week I had a dream and I saw a pile of old glasses. They were all the same kind more or less and the lens of some were cracked, others broken in different areas and they were piled on top of each other.
I knew God was speaking to the fact that our “old” ways of “seeing” are no longer working for us. Where there has been a famine of vision or a loss of expectation about what we thought God was doing or things have become cloudy, I feel He is extending an invitation for us to put on a new lens and frame our seeing solely from what He is saying and from His perspective. “Hidden and disclosed things are being made known to us,” (Luke 8:17) and we are going to need fresh vision to realize it.
In 1 Kings 18 Elijah could hear the sound of rain coming, although the sky did not give shape to it, he perceived something from far off and remained insistent that his servant continue to check for what he knew was coming, even if it wasn’t yet made visible. The Lord is re-arranging and reorganizing so much in this season which is wonderful, but it is also cause for us to recognize and perceive the new things He is doing in our midst.
There is an account in the book of John that is stirring within me when it comes to some strategy. It goes as follows;
In John 11:39 Jesus has just removed a “hindrance” for one of His own but there was some resistance in His midst because they couldn’t SEE what He was doing. Jesus responds in verse 40 by saying “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would SEE the glory of God?”
Step one: Identify what it is we are wanting Jesus to do for us and let Him work accordingly
Step two: ask God diligently to reveal and remove any hindrances from us so that we are freed up to see what’s in our midst and to believe for what He has.
Step three: Jesus closes that account in John 11 by saying “take off the grave clothes and let him go.”
He speaks a word of release to come out of the old and all Lazarus has to do is come forward. If only it was always that easy!! We too will need a word for what He is saying about our own “coming out” this season.
Removal; take away or abolish the unwanted.
I bet he didn’t keep the grave clothes around after that encounter, for there would be no reason to let the old linger.
If what we have been wearing is no longer fitting for us, let’s be diligent to let God call something new forward. Would you put yourself under the same prayer of Elisha from 2 Kings 6:17 “O Lord, open our eyes so that we would see.”
*Even though it may seem distant, I can see it forming like the shape of a man’s hand…Blessings, DeAnn
Recently I was making a list of “returns” I had to make at the store and I heard the Lord say to me “pay attention to that…I am bringing returns to the Body of Christ in this season.” Returning, reminding, and stirring up all kinds of things that have been dropped or dormant. For me personally, I’ve seen Him bring back promises He’s spoken and physically returning me to places where He has started something sweet in my life.
Later while I was praying, I had a specific picture of the little mermaid and her voice being restored and returned back to her through the seashell that held it. I thought of the way Ursula wooed her to get her to make an exchange for her voice because it was the thing that held so much power.
I believe that was a picture for Gods people, His girls especially. That at this time, He is returning, restoring, and bringing forward the voices of His daughters that will carry His messages with ownership and authority.
There are all kinds of different ways our voice has been lost or stifled. There have been injustices and intimidation, loss, pain, generational trial, and just plain hard circumstances that have affected how we both carry and move with authority in our voice. I believe God is shedding light in the places of our lives where we have made unnecessary exchanges and compromises, so that “hidden things can be exposed and made known” (Luke 8:17) for the sake of renewal and restoration in our life.
Where the enemy has also stolen from us concerning the area of our voice, I saw the Lords hand “giving back” more than what was taken. A bigger platform, an expansion, and a widening of influence where voice has been beaten up, held back, lost, hidden, or stolen. I feel a reminder in His whisper that we won’t have to make a way for ourselves, God will bring the elevating and the turnaround as He sees fit for us. We get to remain tucked into His arms with the confidence that our King brings our platform for us in due season. All week I’ve seen 2:22 on the clock, it makes me think on Isaiah 22:22, “He opens doors no one can shut and closes doors no one can open.”
Pay attention to the ways He will bring reminders to what He is doing concerning your voice; Sea shells, the number 22, different ways things are being “returned” and so forth.
It’s exciting to see how God will elevate His words through His daughters in this season in all kinds of creative ways and also at unexpected times. (Some will be in the grocery store in line and have a word or picture for someone next to them, a truth will arise that needs to be spoken at the school or in a meeting.) Correction and Encouragement with your kids or co-workers, these simple things aren’t little to God and will make an impact when a lie is being replaced with truth, when we are sowing encouragement instead of deficit.
I heard the Father say that new nouns and sounds are over us right now, let’s pay attention to what He is saying so we can start releasing what He’s so graciously extending over His people. “The Lord announced the word and great was the company of those who proclaimed it.” Psalm 68:11
Our voice will be the vehicle He uses to awaken these words over others so let’s stay alert and take the time to lean into Him this week. Your voice is needed, and will be needed all the more in the days ahead but staying close to His heart is the key.
If we make any exchanges or compromises at all this week, let it be our words for His.
If you feel like your voice is having no affect, be encouraged that Ariel’s story ends well. Her voice is fully returned after her trial, her sweet song is restored, and her inheritance is realized!
