Connecting Hearts to God
This morning I was praying about where I am with the Lord and the things He is lighting up these days, and also where One Accord is in restarting, and what He wants to do there. As I was praying I had a vision that speaks to these questions, personally and more globally.
I am going down the trail with the Lord, and we arrive at a point where the trail is blocked by a body of water in front of us. It’s like an inlet or something. Not a huge body, but no trail through it or boat either. What is this body of water, Lord? What does it represent? What do we do at this point? I look to You and ask You, because I don’t know at all, Lord. I’ve had an uncertain feeling about One Accord. What is the truth, Lord, and where do we go from here?
This body of water is not My river of living water. It is ocean water; you can’t drink it or be refreshed by it.
Yes, that is what it looks like, one of the inlets of the ocean, wide enough to need a boat, and it can’t be walked around very well, as it ends in a kind of marshland full of growth and bog. What are you showing me, Lord? It feels so impossible. There is no way to have a path through it. Does the path resume on the other side? Your path can’t just end! What is this?
This kind of inlet happens because of a low place that lets the ocean encroach and keep making an inroad, cutting off the way of God. We have come to these places in lives, and it is a formidable task to restore the path. It is the condition that One Accord must address in lives. My children let things encroach and keep making an inroad until they cut off the way of the Lord. Those things must be identified and removed if you are to continue with Me.
Suppose the mouth of the inlet were built up, so the encroaching waters were prevented? What would happen?
The water that had encroached would dry up and the way would be opened again.
You cannot have a revival of the sort you are asking Me for with all those inlets in place. The encroaching waters will have to be closed off, and My children who agreed to the low places, will have to want to close them off and be alarmed at what is being stolen from them by the undrinkable water pouring in, making an ever widening gap in their progress with Me.
Do You want to show me what the undrinkable waters are specifically, Lord?
I will show each person in answer to prayer and earnest response to this vision. The difficulty is not in Me identifying the encroaching waters and the nature of them; the difficulty is in getting My children to want Me to identify these things in their lives and cry out to Me to do so. Then I will both identify them, and give them ears to hear, as many of these waters are embraced as good things in which hope is invested. Your hope is Me.
So it is a clear picture of where the move of Your Spirit brings us—right up to the inroads of other things in our lives, that will have to be closed off if we are to continue with You.
This is kind of unnerving, Lord. I know it is true, and I know we do not see them or call them what they are, and I know that they do indeed block the way into the deeper realms of Your kingdom. So I can hear this, Lord, and am already prompted to ask You what those inroads are for me, and how I cut off those waters in order to continue. What are the encroaching waters for me, Lord?
Believing that My calling on your life is not possible to fulfill is a sizeable inlet.
Seeking some acceptable way to live out that calling rather than announcing it boldly and clearly is a sizeable inlet.
The fear that if you do, you will be prevented by resistance from even ministering is a sizeable inlet.
These are all held together by unbelief, based on assessing your ability to carry out these things rather than relying solely on Mine. You have allowed that inroad of swamping waters and called it truth.
Do you think that My ability to work revolution in the hearts of man has ceased? Do you believe that I do not have the power to carry out My word, no matter the size of the obstacles? You must STOP letting unbelief serve as a protection from continuing with Me.
I stand before You justly convicted, Lord. That is so true, and my way with You has been hindered by fear and unbelief. I must close off those inroads, so I can continue and know the fulfillment of Your word to me. I’m sure it has a hundred faces that I have let through. Give me discernment every time I am doing that, Lord, and courage to close those inroads and be about Your business full of faith that what You say You are able to do.
This goes with the vision You gave me years ago about the wedges—the wedge of faith, and the wedge of doubt and what each produces. Oh, Lord! How long You have been trying to get my full attention!
Help me share these things simply and honestly, and help me respond completely, Lord, to the inroads You are identifying in my life!
Copyright 2006