Prophecies

P 2568 The day between.

/ DVH

At 4.30am this morning the Lord woke me up with these words. THE TOMB. And then He said this: There is a space between the cross and the resurrection – it is called the tomb. That tomb is the place between something that has happened to you, that will test your faith … and the ANSWER. The tomb is a place of HEAVENLY SILENCE.” Saturday is the day of helplessness, hopelessness, and all seems lost!

There is no hope in that place. Hope has died. There is no faith there either. Inside the tomb, there is nothing alive at all. Decay happens in the tomb. To get out we must be resurrected!! It is the place where the pain of betrayal washes over us. Can it be the King of all Glory has betrayed our faith? At the same time, all seems lost for everybody on the outside too, while the person inside it is locked in – gone. Hopelessly grieved over. The worst bit is you are not actually dead – you just wish you were! Life is standing still for you – you are held hostage to something you cannot control.

Remember Mary and Martha? Lazarus was three days dead. They told Jesus when He finally came – ‘you can’t get him out of there, he will smell!’  Everybody knows that dead is dead. But not to Jesus – dead is not dead to Him. Dead is merely a possibility for God, His heavenly Father to be glorified. Dead is the place where we will learn to let everything go, and rest. Nothing else is important when we enter the tomb of waiting, and that huge stone closes the gap behind us. Arguments, money, pettiness, dreams, visions, prophecies, all disappear. The question becomes – is there going to be a resurrection? It is a place where new things will open to you – if you will stay dead until He comes to you.

Lastly, there is no light in the tomb. It is not like the pretty pictures streaming with light we see on Easter Sunday. It is deathly dark and quiet. Nobody can babysit you in there – they can’t reach you anymore! You pray and your prayers seem to disappear in front of your eyes. You’ve asked others to pray and … nothing happened. Easter SATURDAY is a reality in a real faith test. It is a place where the things we thought mattered, are gone. New homes, new cars, new jobs, vanish in the reality of the tomb – the place where there is no time, because time squashes the life out of you.

That tomb is the place of ultimate surrender! Job knew it. “Even though He slay me yet will I trust Him.” Lazarus even died waiting for Jesus to come! Paul learnt it as he walked with the Lord. There is no life without Christ. Everything else we grasp at is just an illusion. A child’s story told to calm and soothe us. The tomb is the ultimate NO! The place where prayers and passion seem wasted. Let me tell you this: FOR HIS LIFE TO COME, THERE HAS TO BE A REAL TOMB – A REAL DEATH. Not a ‘nearly dead’ but all dead. Like it was for Mary, Martha and Lazarus.

This is the place where we will learn to let go… even though we are secretly hoping He’s going to do something! And even if it seems like Jesus lied … we decide to trust Him with our last ounce of strength. It is a place where HE MATTERS MORE THAN THE ANSWER. That place is where whether prayers are answered or not, it no longer matters. What we think matters is just so much dust on the floor in comparison to losing Him.

It is a yielded, surrendered and still place. Jesus Himself found that place in the garden of Gethsemane after praying in agony three times. He found peace in the place of acceptance. “Then He *came to the disciples and *said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let’s go; behold, the one who is betraying Me is near!”Matthew 26:45-46. Please note, everyone else in His support team fell asleep – people will let you down when you are stuck in the tomb.

That tomb becomes the place where you no longer care if your answer is yes or no … all that matters is finding Him. And you die to self waiting for Him to come. That place between Friday and Sunday is temporary – whether the answer is yes or no – He will come. Even though the tomb is fastened tightly shut … …Jesus will always come for you.  No stone can hold you in! He died to prove it. 👋

P 2414 Our own private Tutor.

/ DVH

“But when the Father sends the Spirit of Holiness, the One like Me Who sets you free, He will teach you all things in My name. And He will inspire you to remember every word that I’ve told you.” John 14:26 TPT

Just look at Who is always waiting for you and I when we read His book! I have a really bad short term memory, that appears to have turned up with age. It has required a lot of adjustment, for me as well as my family. It effects my family because I can be in the middle of a sentence and forget where I was going with my thoughts… 😂 … hilarious and humbling … all at the same time. Bonus buy! 

Moving on … I love the above verse because it directly deals with that malady in my life. The Holy Spirit is so faithful, He stands by me patiently and hands me verses when I type this blog daily. And sometimes He says: “look that up” Plus He says  … “read around it.”  Context always matters! So I can personally testify that He is an excellent Teacher. I can be reading away in the bible and He says: “Go back, you missed it.”  OR… “pause and think about this!” 

People make a really big deal out of encounters with the Holy Spirit or prophecies they have been given. It’s like they memorialise them or something. They build a statue, put a label on it and they live the rest of their lives camped at the bottom — hoping for more. 😳 To be strictly honest, perhaps I don’t value encounters that much because I have had hardly any! We must stop camping around a word, and start camping around the Teacher.

The one thing I do value mightily is this — I have this incredible Tutor Who shows up, day after day, time after time after time, and He guides me through the Word of God. He corrects me when I am ‘off-line’  and patiently repeats Himself when I am in thick-as-a-brick mode. He’s my Friend Who knows what I need, and He hands it to me. The bible is like a jigsaw puzzle to me – there are bits that make no sense until I have put together a part of the puzzle. And at other times I start with one piece and all the other pieces fall into place. And I do all that with Him guiding me, so patiently!

At exactly the same time, He shows me how what I am reading is relevant to me. He says things like: “you need to pay attention now!”  I often feel like I am watching a Master at work, creating something incredibly beautiful … because the Holy Spirit can’t help Himself! He’s always doing beautiful things. It is like His nature is always on display, particularly when I read the Word, or when I step out in obedience. I love this book! 

Today I was reading in Joshua, and the Holy Spirit pointed out that He told Joshua four times in the first chapter “to be strong and courageous.”  That repetition kind of got at me, so I wondered what it was about… four times is a lot of times! Then I saw that Joshua was the new leader and Moses had been a truly great leader, so Joshua was stepping into very big shoes … leading very disobedient people!  

God was instructing this young man about how to step into that role and how to apply whatever he was told to do. It takes courage to step out in faith and send a whole lot of Israelites marching around a walled city with no weapons, just musical instruments! Plus they did that seven days in a row!  It also took great courage for that young man to tell that army that’s what God said to do. Those men in the Jewish army were reliant upon Joshua’s ability to hear the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes when the Holy Spirit tells me to do something, it is easy to obey. But sometimes He tells me to tell my husband this or that for the person he’s going to speak to – and that takes faith! Because of my lack of physicality hubby often interacts with the people on the road more than I do, and he is more experienced than I am with dealing with strangers. 

There are times I feel to give a specific bookmark, or say this or that, and hubby goes and does it and the results are miraculous and extraordinary. We have over fifty instances of that on this last mission trip alone. This verse spoke to me today, because we both need to be strong and courageous, plus I need to speak up, otherwise I could simply take a backseat and let hubby do all the work and say nothing. We need each other just like that army needed Joshua’s leadership, plus their commitment.

My dear husband listens to me, and follows the Lord’s leading through me, and most of the time it makes very little sense to either of us – until the person in front of us starts crying their eyes out! That’s when we simply stand back and watch Him work. The best thing Christians can learn to do in this life is to learn to trust our precious Tutor. He knows stuff we do not know — about people we’ve never met. It’s AWESOME! 🕊 🙌