The Tabernacle

Yesterday I popped in on a friend who is due to have her 4th baby anyday now. As we were talking she shared how she has noticed that it seems her body’s way of delivering a baby is thru a long pre-labor. (My friend has been experiencing contractions since 20 weeks – 1/2 way thru pregnancy). Her actual labors previously have been quite quick with her last child being born in 1 1/2hours! Made my supposedly ‘quick’ labor of 6 hours for our son, look long!

This caught the attention of my spirit & I reflected on how birthing in the spirit in my experience had a similiar pattern. I wondered if this was true of how God made things generally work in the spirit  by having long pre-labor? I also pondered how in the last weeks (months too) of pregnancy waking frequently during the night is part of the terriority. Rolling over is not quite so easy! (yep expectant fathers this is all part of it!!!!!) I noted how every time God has bought something new to birth in our journey, night watches (regualry waking at night & prayers tumbling out of our spirit) was a common experience. This is spiritual pre-labor! These are the marks of God bringing to birth what He has concieved by his spirit in us.

Funny how due dates mean so little in child birth.. true in God’s kingdom also! We may have our dates, but He alone knows the day & the hour. And so today as I sat for a brief moment to enjoy a coffee, I declared these words in this time of pre-labor… “Rest in the Lord; wait patiently for Him to act. Be patient, like a farmer who waits until autumn for his precious harvest to ripen. It is good to both hope & wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” (Lam 3:26, Psa 37:7, James 5:7) The birth is imminent!

I was spending time in the Tabernacle the other day and I was praying and asking God about some relational stuff that I was going through and I heard Him say to me “Don’t pray for peace in your relationships pray for Health”. At first I was confused by the first part of this, don’t pray for peace?? I thought surely I heard that wrong. But then as I thought about it, the absolute profoundness of this hit home. If ‘peace’ in a relationship is your main thing or main goal then your responses and what you allow people to do are very different than if ‘health’ in a relationship is the main thing. I started to think about different relationships that I have with people, and how I believe that I have been for years having ‘Peace’ as the ultimate aim. The outcome of this is that I have allowed and participated in unhealthy stuff that I was uneasy about but allowed because doing as the other party wanted bought ‘peace’ or at least avoidance of conflict. Now as I have walked in this new revelation for a couple of weeks, I do truly believe it was a word from God as I believe it is profound and it has bought great freedom and health to me.

When I have ‘health’ as my ultimate goal I am not afraid of or manipulated by a little ruffling of feathers or other people not getting what they want from me, like I would have been if I was looking for peace. When Health in relationships is my goal, I am finding myself to be freer to be myself to say what I truly believe and to be more forthright and honest. I can say that I am enjoying this revelation and that I love healthy relationships. Interestingly enough, ‘true peace’ comes when you know that you have acted in open healthy ways, the false peace or calm may be disrupted along the way, but the true peace that comes from healthy relationships is well worth it. Maybe I have finally learnt what ‘peace’ in relationships actually is??!!
I am also cautious that I need to keep pride in check as I do this, always acting in humility otherwise I might find myself pridefully disrupting relationships or not caring enough for the feelings of others, but I have a new main thing that I aim for in relationships, it is no longer Peace but now HEALTH.

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A month ago, the Hebrew calendar clicked over from 5768 to the year 5769. Numbers in Hebrew carry meaning.The number 8 is always linked with a “new beginning,” where 9’s communicate a “bringing to birth what has been conceived.”

This is a birthing season & here downunder we are right now in Spring… that exciting time of birth in nature.

On Friday I had a meeting in a cafe. I had walked to the cafe as it was just over the hill from home & on the way pondered over what God is doing in world systems at this time, with the Stock market shaking in a way it never has, rumors of a world recession, a US election just days away, always impending war in the middle east & the current world leader, the USA, tilting in a way it hasnt since the great depression. As I walked in the door of a bustling, noisy, overcrowded cafe where drink & food lay abundant on tables, the words “As in the days of Noah” whistled through my spirit. I found a seat, knowing that I was 10 min early for my appointment & begun reading Matt 24 from where these words had come.

“What will be the sign of your coming & the end of the age?” asked Jesus disciples. Jesus reply is stunning. “Watch… As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating & drinking, marrying & giving in marriage,buying & selling, up to the day Noah entered the ark; & they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came & took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man….All these things are the beginning of birth pangs.” (24:4,8,37-39)

Again I looked around me. Surrounding me were newspapers broadcasting “World on the brink”, tinkering teaspoons in cups & a seemingly ‘oblivous to reality’ chatter of people. “As in the days of Noah”… “All of these are the beginning of birth pangs”…

This is not a time of doom according to the words of Jesus. It is a time of birth & that’s a completely different thing! Expectancy, anticpated joy, watchingfulness & preparation. These are the actions in a birthing period.

What is being birthed? Alot of things. But most importantly the coming of the Son of Man! Noah built & invested all he was & had into the very thing that God asked of him & he was asked to do so by faith. Again, the question is being posed.. what are we building & investing into in these days of Noah? If this is a time of birth upon the face of the earth, then what are we birthing? Is the Son of Man coming up in your thoughts, discussions, preparations & decision making?

The Spirit & the bride say “Come Lord Jesus. Come!”

We got to see Misty Edwards live at the International House of Prayer IHOP in Kansas City earlier this year, where she is based.

She is a very gifted, prophetic singer. We love and have endlessly played her Album Relentless. (available from www.ihop.org)

Her music is very focused on the Lord and great for times of worship or for playing in a Tabernacle space. We highly reccomend her music as a great aid to drawing into the presence of God.

Here is one of her songs Awaken me recorded at the 24/7 prayer room in Kansas City.

“Come, my shy and modest dove – leave your seclusion,

come out in the open.

Let me see your face, let me hear your voice.

For your voice is soothing and your face is ravishing.”

Song of Songs 2:14

An invitation from the lover of your soul – Jesus.

A response to His wooing:

“Let both grow together until the harvest & in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “Gather together first the tares & bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” Matt 13:24-30

This is a stunning thought. At the time of harvest, God gathers both the tares (false grain) & wheat! This is what God does at harvest time.

This is the hour we live in.

We are on the advent of a new harvest time, one perhaps never seen like this in the history of the world, & God is indeed gathering first the tares from the harvest fields.

So if the fire of God is at work in your life, purifying & bringing new dimensions of freedom & fear of him, He is gathering in the tares.

He is shaking the heavens & the earth. He is shaking things that will not remain to leave that which does. His shaking & his harvest often come at the same time. History speaks this to us.

Jesus is coming! People get ready.