Last night I saw three pictures that I want to share:
One: There were a gathering of men who had pulled away from the main bunch of people and were smoking.
Smoking often represents offence and so I believe there are people who have pulled away from church due to offence of whatever nature, perhaps church didn't happen like you expected it to be, perhaps someone said something that hurt you, perhaps someone challenged you with something that you didn't want to address, whatever the reason offence has come into the heart and brought separation.
Prov 18:19 An offended friend is harder to win back than a fortified city. Arguments separate friends like a gate locked with bars.
One: There were a gathering of men who had pulled away from the main bunch of people and were smoking.
Smoking often represents offence and so I believe there are people who have pulled away from church due to offence of whatever nature, perhaps church didn't happen like you expected it to be, perhaps someone said something that hurt you, perhaps someone challenged you with something that you didn't want to address, whatever the reason offence has come into the heart and brought separation.
Prov 18:19 An offended friend is harder to win back than a fortified city. Arguments separate friends like a gate locked with bars.
If you find yourself pulling back from the church, pulling away from people, you may find that there is some type of offence in your heart. If you are sitting in an offence, you are actually sitting in unforgiveness and perhaps judgement and in this place you have forgotten the grace that you have received for your mistakes, you have forgotten how much you have been forgiven at the cross because of your sin that separated you from Jesus. And in so doing are holding people in a place of judgement and unforgiveness.
In the picture I saw myself going after these people and I know for myself I have done this many many many times, gone after the offended brother and tried to bring reconciliation and restoration as the word says to make every effort to keep the unity in the bond of peace. But I believe the Lord is saying at the moment to let these people go. If they want to sit in offence and smoke then that is up to them. I do encourage you however to ask the Lord to help you with whatever offence may be in your heart and to not let it separate you from the flock. When it does this you are an easy target for the wolf, the worlds thinking on justice to come in and steal what inheritance you have in the Lord and the place in which He has placed you for your protection and growth.
Prov 19:11 "Sensible people control their temper, they earn respect by overlooking wrongs". (NLT)
Two: I saw people who had been married getting remarried.
Hosea 2:19-20 "And I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice."
When we get married to a person we make a commitment, a choice, that we will work through whatever challenges that come and yet in this picture I saw and like so much of what is happening in the world, people are getting married, separated, divorced and remarried.
This is not to be so in the church. In Christ, we have made a decision to be married to Him, we are His Bride, He is our bridegroom. We have made a commitment to work through the challenges that come. Actually as I am writing this I see there is a correlation with the above picture that like in 'church' we have made a commitment to be a part of a 'church family' but when we get offended we often walk out of that commitment in search of something else. We are not working through the challenges that come and hence we are not seeing the fruit that will come in due season, when we have walked through the season that we are in.
I encourage you to be a people of commitment in Jesus, not to be walking in adultery. Because that is the case when we marry someone and then walk away, we walk in adultery in whatever way that looks like. Adultery can be in many forms when something becomes greater that what Jesus would have us do. When other things take the place of Jesus and His word, then we can easily step into adultery. Last night in church something was brought out by our guest speaker that when we are watching movies or programmes with witchcraft etc in them we are opening up our eye gate to things that are not of the Lords Kingdom, this too can be a form of adultery.
Three: I saw that there were opportunities there but in distraction of other things it is easy to miss out on the thing that the Lord has for you.
This was a picture for Jim and myself but I share it as I know this is a word for many. Distractions can easily make us miss what the Lord has in front of us. There are many things that can distract us, many good things. In fact in my vision I saw Jim was wanting to buy me a wet suit for underwater diving, but in going and buying the wetsuit we nearly missed the boat that would take us underwater diving. So often we have a good motive and a good heart to what we are doing, but if it means 'missing the boat' on what the Spirit is doing at the time then I encourage you to let it go and allow the Lord to provide all that you need.
A prime example of this was last night in our church service, the spirit was moving powerfully but there were problems happening with the overhead and the words getting up on the screen and it was distracting people from the spirit moving. We have a choice in that moment, to forget the overhead and to 'keep in the spirit' or to get distracted by the frustrations, the things not going right and miss 'what the spirit is doing'. God is moving all the time and if distractions come in and take the focus from what the Lord is saying or wanting us to do, then I encourage you to ask Him to help you let go of all that would distract you away from what the Lord is doing.
Another prime example from last nights service, God was moving powerfully but then I asked my guest what He was seeing, and he was seeing some demonic things around the place but I said to Him to look again and see what the Lord was doing and He stopped and looked again and He saw all that the Lord was releasing from Heaven, finance, buildings, dreams, visions, hope etc all being released from the Hand of God. So I encouraged him to release what He was seeing from the Heavens not what He was seeing happening on the 'earth' and things shifted powerfully when he did that. But we can so easily be distracted by what we are seeing in the natural on the 'earth' that we miss out on what the Lord is doing. In seeing what the Lord was doing we saw several miracles take place in the service. When we continue to look at Him and not what is happening in the world we get to be partakers of what He is doing in the earth.
1 Chronicles 12:32 "Of the Sons of Issachar, men who understood the times with knowledge of what Israel should do..."
We need to be a people who understand the times and season of what the Lord is doing and move with it and not get distracted by what is happening in the world.
