Moving from Healing to Wholeness

I was awake before the sun came up and looking at the clock it was 4:08 a.m., which is definitely not my time to be alert.  This happened several days and my response was okay, God this is something, let me know what you’re saying.

On Monday, I attend an early morning prayer meeting, which means I have to leave my house at 4:45 a.m. to be there on time.  As I was taking the garbage can to the street, I noticed a flashing white light in the distance.  The weather was overcast with a good bit of fog and I was not fully awake.  My senses were puzzled about the light.  It was flashing on a regular interval and my first fuzzy thought was - it’s too bright to be an airplane.  It took me a few minutes to determine that it was stationary and then much later it registered with me that it was the light on a cell tower.

During the prayer meeting, I saw a vision of a boat tossed about on stormy seas with large birds circling overhead.  The birds were like the buzzards or vultures I had seen while on a missions trip in Lima, Peru.

There was a common connection with the events but at the time, I could not see it, there wasn’t anything clear until I had a conversation with someone regarding my plans for the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday.

We all have seasons and storms in our lives, many of them are so designed to cause us to move from one level to another, but in the midst of the storm we can lose hope and become heart sick.  God’s Word and presence is always with us, a beacon of hope, and His light.  We may be tossed; feel as though we’re sinking, wondering if we’re in the right place, questioning and at the time not able to see the light, or Him in our circumstances, but we can know that He is fixed, stationary and He has promised not to leave or forsake us.  On a clear day things can appear one way, such as the cell tower in the distance from my home.  In the midst of fog, it appeared to be moving, but it was a fixed immobile object.

The things the Lord has placed within us - our hopes, dreams and desires can and are affected by the situations and circumstances of life.  If one were in a small boat in a large enough storm, all one would be able to see would be threatening waves and the darkened sky.  Many times in our walk with the Lord, it seems as if all that we have the ability to see are those things that threaten and hinder us from moving forward.

During those dark times where there seems to be no forward momentum or clear direction is when the birds of prey come to snatch the seeds, the Word of the Lord.  The birds are unleashed by the enemy using friends, family, circumstances and events to cause His words and His promises to us to become of no thought or value as we begin to feel it’s impossible.  We all have relationships or circumstances, especially within our own family that just can’t seem to let go of the past, most especially how we once were.  They seek to draw us back into old thought patterns and ways of responding or reacting, causing us to lose sight of the word or vision He’s given us. 

The enemy is ever watchful, always looking for something to cause us to question what the Lord has said, “Hath God said?” or to cause us to give up by saying “I thought …” bringing fear.  He then has effectively stolen, killed faith and destroyed the hope for fulfillment.  Fear/doubt comes from walking under the law rather than grace.  God has called us to walk by faith and not by what we see, feel or experience.  It is in faith, by faith and through faith that we will see the promises of God fulfilled.  God uses the storms of life to draw us into His presence and the enemy uses the very same things to drive us under the law.  

The Lord’s words and promises to us are like the cell tower, fixed, immovable, sometimes clouded and shrouded in fog, but as we continue to look to the Lord He will allow us to see His light.  It may not appear steady, we may be puzzled or even confused by it but one thing we can count on - it is always fixed.  He’s not going anywhere.

We may have experienced healing in many areas, but we also have a need for wholeness, to be made whole - fully restored.  Because of the cross, we’ve been healed, but we are to also be buried in Christ and then move on to resurrection in Christ.  It’s like taking out the garbage, but it’s still there.  By faith, we are seated with Him in heavenly places.  It is in those areas of life that have been taken to the cross and buried in Christ, but not yet raised to the fullness of life and life more abundantly that become targets during seasons of trials or storms.  The enemy delights in using the words of friends and family to cause us to doubt.  These can be like the birds feeding off of dead flesh, snatching away the promises.  There are seasons established by the Lord to bring us into the fullness of what He has already accomplished for us.  We focus on the cross as we should, but we are to look further - to being established in Him and seated in Him in heavenly places.  It is when we see ourselves seated with Him that His enemies become His footstool.  Wholeness could be defined as having the faith to know that if God said it, He will fulfill it, regardless of what we see or don’t see.

In order for us to have life and life more abundantly, we are to move beyond the cross.  Many of us have willingly taken “our stuff/garbage” to the cross, repeatedly.  It was when Jesus descended in order to ascend that He took the keys to death and hell.  God gives us the keys to life as we confront our issues through the cross, moving beyond to seeing them buried and then resurrected in Christ to be seated with Him in Heavenly places.  It is in the heavenly place, in His presence that we are made whole, fully restored to His plans and purposes.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.  Isa.  40:8

I delight to do thy will, O my God Thy law is written within my heart.  Ps.  40:8

So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty,

Without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.  Isa.  55:11

You have tried my heart; You have visited me by night; You have tested me and You find nothing I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.  Ps. 17:3

The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests hearts.  Prov. 17:3

And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, "Behold, the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up.  Matt 13:3-4 Mark 4:2-4

They have closed their unfeeling heart; with their mouth they speak proudly.  They have now surrounded us in our steps; they set their eyes to cast us down to the ground.  He is like a lion that is eager to tear, and as a young lion lurking in hiding places.  Ps 17:10-12

Be of sober spirit, be on the alert.  Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.  And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.  To Him be dominion forever and ever.  1 Peter 5:8-11

"The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.  John 10:10