Onions Have Layers

This morning, I'm feeling burdened. There's heaviness in my spirit, and it seems fitting as there's a lot happening today. A national day of fasting and prayer is set for Sunday, October 25th, and Sean Feucht's #LetUsWorship celebration on the National Mall will also be happening this afternoon. This week is where Amy Coney Barrett will be confirmed to the Supreme Court if all votes come in. Obviously, next week is the presidential election. Many things are happening in the limelight, as well as behind the scenes in the spiritual realms where our struggle is. I have a headache, and I've learned that while I often have headaches for a variety of reasons, sometimes my headaches come as a result of spiritual oppression, and I wonder if that's not the case today, given the weight in my spirit as well.

Please understand with these comments that I am not endorsing one side of the political spectrum or the other. I'm not telling anyone who to vote for; the true Gospel of Christ does not hold a political candidate up as savior. That's heresy, and so if you are reading this as "She said to go vote for Trump, or she's obviously favoring Biden..." you're hearing me wrong. I'm only laying out the fact that there is a lot of activity happening, and I believe much of it is a result of the spiritual struggle behind the scenes.

Okay, moving on. When I opened the Scriptures this morning, they fell right to a new verse. I'll just say this: it's been an adjustment using a new Bible. My other one is in the "shop," getting a new binding, so I've been making do with a spare Bible. I'm finding it hard to adjust, because I love the familiarity of knowing right where the verses I want to look up are. Also, my other Bible is a study Bible, and it's easy to glance down and find cross-references and notes about verses. This Bible I've got doesn't have that, and it also falls open to unfamiliar places.

Which, on the flip side, can be an opportunity. It's forcing me outside of my comfort zone. I'm seeing new things.

So today, my [new] Bible fell open to Isaiah 21, and verses 11-12 immediately caught my attention: "Someone calls to me from Seir: 'Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?' The watchman replies, 'Morning is coming, but also the night. If you would ask, then ask, and come back yet again.'"

The idea of "watchmen" has fascinated me for a while now. My husband and I watched BBC's Robin Hood series, and in an episode or two, a "night watchman" protected the people. I read through Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series and found all sorts of analogous potential (unintended on the author's part, I'm sure) in the story threads involving the Night's Watch. Ezekiel 33:1-6 explains a watchman's job to warn the people of portentous danger coming upon a city. I've kept my eyes open to "sons and daughters prophesying, young men seeing visions, and old men dreaming dreams" (Acts 2:17). There are many warning calls out there. 2020 has not been silent. 

All of these things combined were my backdrop when I read these verses in Isaiah: "Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman what is left of the night?" The emphasis seems clear; the question is repeated twice. It's not a "Hey, what's up?" greeting; it's a "Tell me because I need desperately to know."

And then: "Morning is coming, but also the night." 

Morning is coming, but also the night.

This spoke to me powerfully. It's the dichotomy I've been struggling with for months as I've prayed and interceded for our country and the nations around the world. People all over are turning to the Lord in record numbers. And yet there's a spiritual oppression over the land that seems to warn of hard times coming.

The Lord spoke to my spirit and said: "I don't just do one thing." He doesn't work in only one way, does He? He is the Master Puzzler! He snaps together a million pieces to create His portrait; He weaves a hundred thousand threads to form His tapestry.

So... Sean Feucht's #LetUsWorship movement can exist right next to Dana Coverstone's November 2020 calendar fist-punch dream, and it could all be a part of God's working. He is not limited in how He can move!

This morning, the Lord gave me a picture. It was... an onion. (I admit, I laughed. An onion?)

The onion was perfect for supper preparation. The outer paper was bubbly and loose, ready to be stripped away.

Now, I've been praying for two months for a stripping down of the church, for refinement, for a return to the crucible, for a remaking, a renewing, a re-casting of our souls in the shape of Jesus, who lives in us.

I know (thanks to the movie Shrek... and because I've cut a few onions...) that the vegetables have layers, and that the farther down you peel into an onion, the firmer those layers become. I thought it was an interesting and unusual analogy for the strengthening of the church. As God strips away, so God makes us stronger. What seems at first to be undesirable (stripping) is actually desirable, because that's what gets us to the portion that is hearty and strong. The papery layers need to be peeled off so the harder layers can be exposed.

The picture I saw was focused on that outer, bubbly paper layer. It was so loose, so... ready for stripping.

I think the Lord was accenting the readiness of it, as though the peeling of the onion is imminent, as though the first layer is about to come loose.  

Honestly, I don't know how, or even if, this applies to current political events, elections, the #LetUsWorship movement, Coverstone's #BraceYourself dreams, or anything else. I simply think God was saying: I'm getting ready to peel back that first layer.

"Morning is coming, but also the night."
Hope is coming, but also hard times.
The end is coming, but also the beginning.