The other night I woke up feeling restless, I scooched over to Dan in bed, and I began silently praying for a bit about the things on my heart. As I laid there on my back, tucked under his arm, the Lord decided to shift the atmosphere. I started to smell a stormy, salty sea air and the soft bed felt like damp, splintered, wood being tossed around in deep water. It reminded me of a cheap wooden raft, quickly constructed after a shipwreck. I sat up in bed to see our clothes wet and torn, to seeing a storm all around us and feeling hard drops of rain pelting my face like rocks. Instantly I was filled with fear, and an eternal trepidation as my husband laid calmly asleep right beside me. There was nothing I could do, but my mind was scrambling going a thousand miles an hour in a panic.
The waves began rampantly moving us through the water as we were approaching a rock sided cliff with one small cave opening that was headed straight for us. I threw myself on my back next to Dan (who by the way, was still quietly sleeping through all of this) as we barely slid through the entrance of the cave, our faces only inches from the ceiling. Then I noticed we were being tossed back and forth with no where else to go. It was pitch black, hard to breathe, and with each wave of the stormy sea rising the water around us, I could feel my body, nose, chin and forehead scraping the jagged cave ceiling, pressed more and more with each rising inch; all while my husband Dan was calmly sleeping there beside me through the exact same experience. He could not be moved.
The water kept rising and the pressure was getting more and more intense. I was suffocating, barely able to breathe, filled with panic, worry, and dread running through my mind thinking of everything all at once. Everything that I could have, should have, and would have done and said, to everyone, at every moment of my life. Pondering if what I have done for the Lord was enough. If I loved Him enough. If I loved others enough. If I shared Him enough. If I forgave enough. If I repented enough. If I believed enough.
And then there was nothing I could do. I prayed to Jesus, I surrendered and I let go, accepting the fate that our time here was up. That this was it. But as we were pressed into that cave ceiling, suffocated, overcome by the raging waters of the storm, the pressing of our bodies poured out of us what was needed to calm the storm around us. As our blood combined with the water it changed in an instant; from the churning blue black of the deep relentless ocean, to a calm thick burgundy red likened to a mixture of blood and red wine, the water now still as glass, the surrounding atmosphere serenely at peace.
The panic stopped, the adrenaline stopped, the racing thoughts stopped, the what if's stopped; and all within what felt like a mere second on the clock...the entire storm stopped. The water receded, the cave blew open, and we were encompassed in a sunlight that I can hardly find the words to explain the glory and magnificence of, as it healed every part of us that was damaged by the storm.
Whether the grapes are freaking out or whether the grapes remain calm, They are going to be pressed to make wine. The posture of the grapes isn't going to stop the press. It's not going to stop the pressing from being initiated, followed through or stopped. It's going to happen, ready or not. So is it with life. We may have no control over the pressing wilderness season(s), how it's operated, how long we are in it or how swiftly it's started or stopped, but we have the ability to be patient through it, saving ourselves a whole lot of energy, dignity, doubt, worry and wasted time we just hand to the enemy by letting him steal our joy in the process of life.
I have the same Jesus my husband has. I have the same access to be calm through the same situations because I am rooted in the same Christ. The storm was the same, the pressing was the same, the ending was the same, the mental and physical experience was different. All due to my husbands deep level of faith and his ability to rest and trust in his relationship with the Lord. His ability to take thoughts captive. He could not be moved. We are to have that same level of faith and steadfastness through every trial and tribulation we face as Christians. It's what Jesus died for us to have access to.
The pressing produces a pour out of us that has the ability to calm the storms or feed them. It's what comes out of us that has the ability to change the atmosphere around us. It takes having enough of the Lord in us to have His nature and His word be what comes out of us, no matter how hard pressed we are. We have the ability to rest in Christ through the trials, the wilderness seasons and the pressing. We have the ability to trade panic for peace. Jesus is the prince of peace, not the prince of panic. Every interaction you are engaged in, every day, has the ability to cultivate the fruits of the spirit or contaminate the crop.
When I asked the Lord what scripture went with this vision, He led me to Revelation 12:6 and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days. He reminded me that there are wilderness seasons that he orders for healing. Many of us think that wilderness is a bad thing, but it's a gift from the Lord. A gift to nourish growth and a deeper relationship with Jesus. To press out of us every part of our flesh that does not align with the will of the Lord for our lives and what His Spirit calls righteous.
This is your reminder that if you find yourself in a wilderness season, it could just be a time the Lord has ordered to pull you away to be nourished, prepared and restored. Wine is worth more than grapes. Diamonds are worth more than coal. What comes out of you when you are pressed will be worth far more than the pain of the pressing. Jesus loves you that much.
Isaiah 26:3 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.
Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Psalm 107:29 He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.
1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Exodus 33:14 - And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
Psalms 46:10 - Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
Jeremiah 31:25 - For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul
Psalms 91:1 - He that dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
Comments
Post a Comment