The Beacons are Lit

This verse has cropped up quite a bit in my quiet times lately, possibly in response to how dark it feels in the wider world: Psalm 119:105: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." Along with that, Romans 12:2: "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - His good, pleasing, and perfect will."

I believe God showed me two things today in the form of mental images: First, I was on a mountaintop, one of those overlooks where you can pull off when you're driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was morning, and the mountains were blue and the sunrise behind the peaks was clear and bright, but soupy fog filled up the valleys. Rising out of the fog were tips of smaller mountains, and I could see them dotting the landscape, like turtle shells breaking the surface of a flat misty lake. I had the sense that I was heading downward into the soup, but for this moment, this point in time, I was breathing in the same perspective that God sees when He looks on His creation, the overall, the vast expanse of His plan.

Psalm 84:7 came to mind: "They will go from strength to strength until each appears before God in Zion." Those mountaintops peering through the mist seemed to me to be the strengths, but to reach them, I had to dip into the valleys and the mist, and I realized that it's so important to take the memory of our times on the mountaintop with us, the memory of the clear perspectives. We get that undimmed perspective during our times where we earnestly seek God, where His word is the lamp to our feet, our headlights in the dark, and we carry that memory through the fog-soup until we reach the next strength.

The second thing the Lord showed me was a little more intense. I was praying: How can we the Church be a light to a nation and a world that seems so embattled? I wrote in my past blog posts about praying and interceding with strategy and specifics. So, I asked, "God, what are the strategic points where You want us to be the most faithful to pray?"

A city near where I live flooded a few weeks ago with flash-floods and ruined a good bit of property in the downtown area. News video showed rivers of water pouring into buildings and through buildings in a destructive surge. As I was praying, I saw this same type of destructive surge pouring through our nation, creating damage and panic and fear. People were terrified and running, searching desperately for refuge, places to shelter.

I thought of 2 Timothy 1:7: "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline." For once, I actually prefer the NKJV here: "He didn't give us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind." People were afraid in this image I was seeing; so much fear was everywhere because of the uncontrollable force of the current.

Then I saw the church buildings. They were all over the place. I heard the word "Truth," and on the outsides of all these church buildings, where the word Truth was spoken, armor covered the boards - waterproof armor that kept out the raging flood waters. The windows were lit and bright, and you could see them clearly through the torrential rain. The light shone through the Truth armor, like beacons. People began running toward the church buildings. The doors opened, and people stumbled inside. They were sobbing and scared, but there were helpers. Everywhere. 

Because Matthew 9:38 says: "Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest," and the Lord answers the earnest prayers of his people. He calls us out of our comfort zones (this blog is a prime example of the Lord calling me out of my comfort zone) and equips us with the tools we need to bring in the harvest. We are the helpers. 

The people inside the church took the hands of those who were lost and led them to the altar. They knelt with them and prayed with them; to some, they gave blankets, others food. They gathered in corners and in the pews and prayed, and as they prayed they relaxed. There was joy, laughter, talking, but the flood of people who came in the front doors didn't stop; there were so many. The helpers kept helping, kept bringing them to the front, kneeling, praying with them.

The rain and storms beat at the windows, but it couldn't get past the Truth armor. It was sealed tightly. The entire night passed that way. When the light began to break in the east, we went to the door of the church and looked out. Everything was destroyed outside the walls of the church, devastation beyond the walls. But you could see other churches everywhere. People were spilling outside, looking around, seeing each other, recognizing their salvation, realizing what they had been saved from. It was light and growing brighter. Day was coming.

Today, I'm praying for the people who are running to the churches, against the fear that they are feeling, and I'm praying for the people inside who are the helpers. May we be faithful, may we live in the protection of God's Truth, and may we work feverishly to pray with those who answer God's call and seek His face.

Psalm 27:14: "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."

Psalm 30:5b: "Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning."