I recently experienced the following vision/encounter which I believe is a beautiful invitation to the Bride of Christ:
The encounter ended here but I sensed there was more to discover. Several days later, during another time of worship, the Lord drew me into the garden again. It was lush and green like the previous experience but, as we walked deeper into the garden, flowers appeared - a breathtaking display of beautiful white flowers! They became more and more abundant as we continued down the path until we once again reached a door - a wooden, arched garden door. The garden, the door and everything around us was well cared for and most inviting. The white flowers were stunning and, as I turned my attention to them, the Lord revealed they were gardenias.
The encounter ended here but the Holy Spirit went on to reveal more of what was being opened up to us through these two garden experiences. He began with the gardenias. They are:
* often chosen for wedding bouquets
* can signify a secret or untold love
* given to others to convey "you are lovely"
* used for many healing purposes, including relief from stress
* also associated with: trust, hope, clarity, renewal, alignment and protection
So many promises of who God is for us and what He desires to do for us, and bring about within us, were captured in this stunning, abundant display of beautiful flowers! He is inviting us deeper into His presence where we can receive His healing touch and be renewed. To return to the place where trust and hope are restored, clarity of mind is provided and alignment with His heart is released. To abide in the place where we are covered in perfect and continual protection. He is drawing us deeper into the secret place of His radically persistent, unstoppable, lavish love. He desires to purify and refine us as He saturates us with His love - attentively readying His Bride for the great Wedding Day!
"There is a wide open door for a great work here, although many oppose me." (NLT)
"A wide door for effective service has opened to me (a very promising opportunity in Ephesus), and there are many adversaries." (Amp)
My spirit quickened and connection came as I read the Amplified version. The door the Lord was opening for Paul was in Ephesus. The Lord was creating a wide open opportunity to minister to the Ephesian church. He's offering to do the same today - He will open the door again. The Lord has given this message regarding the church in Ephesus:
"I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don't tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.
But I have this complaint against you. You don't love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don't repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches. But this is in your favor: You hate the evil deeds of the Nicolaitans, just as I do. Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God." (Revelation 2:2-7)
We discover and approach the door by coming into His garden - that secret place set aside within us to delight in His presence and dwell with Him. This brings us to the door and the Lord opens it so we may, beginning with ourselves, walk through and minister to a church who has worked hard and patiently endured, yet left its first love.
The Lord is opening the opportunity for effective ministry to turn an "Ephesian" church back to first love!
In the beginning, the Garden was a set aside location within Eden, not the totality of Eden itself. It was a special, private place set aside for the people God created in His image to delight in His presence and dwell with Him there. It's a place designed to engage with God in joy, gladness, thanksgiving and song. (Isaiah 51:3 describes this beautifully)!
The key to abiding in a continual "Garden" life lies with the choice between Himself and self. God is everywhere at all times and He never leaves or forsakes us, but we must make the choice to be in and experience God's presence. Relationship is secured by Him, (this was done once and for all time by the work of Jesus on the cross), but fellowship is our free-will choice. We make a great deal out of recognizing and accepting that our Father loves us unconditionally, regardless of our performance. It is important that we understand and receive this. But I believe the Lord is revealing the importance, gift and joy of loving Him in the same way! To wholeheartedly love Him just because He IS, not because of His performance. We were created to flow in this two-way love continually - what joy!
In these encounters, the Lord led me to a door in a garden. Jesus wept in a garden and was buried in a garden tomb. He overcame death, hell and the grave in a garden to reverse the curse of the original garden so that we might abide in and experience His presence daily. In the beginning, God placed man in the Garden of Eden to tend, cultivate and keep it - this set aside place of continual fellowship with God. We are invited to do the same today. When man fell, God didn't destroy Eden, but we were separated from it. By the blood of Jesus, the way has been re-opened for us to return to the Garden of God so we can once again cultivate this intimacy with God. It is what we were created for.
Accepting the invitation to dwell with God is a wonderful privilege. With the choice comes responsibility. A river flowed out of Eden forming four river heads to benefit others. The Lord designed His garden with inflow and outflow. The love He pours into us is destined to refresh others and, in so doing, we are refreshed ourselves (Proverbs 11:25). The outflow of our intimacy with God is a life giving river designed to bless all of creation. His river of blessing flows out of our innermost being (John 7:38).
We live in a world where the life giving water of God is desperately needed. So many are completely lost and without hope, having no idea which way to turn. Some start to walk in a measure of clarity, but then they encounter a situation that stirs and muddies the water again, bringing confusion, frustration and a sense that they just cannot move forward. An atmosphere of rush and chaos abounds around us. This is happening both outside and inside the church! Several months ago, I heard the following in my spirit,
"The Lord is releasing clarity to His people. Expect it. There is no river clearer than the river of God."
He directed me to Revelation 22:1-2:
"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as
crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations."
The Lord went on to reveal that He is bringing His river of clarity to us in decision making, creativity, finances, relationships and every area of our lives. His clear river is bringing healing to the tangle of thoughts and brain fog that accompanies anxiety, depression and all manner of addictions. He is clearing all of that away. A river of clarity is what He is releasing to His people to bring healing and deliverance to them and through them.
The Lord is inviting us to return to His garden and run back to our first love! To walk and talk with Him there and walk through the door He is opening and step into His life giving river. He will revive, refresh and saturate us to take His life giving water to those around us in love - it must be dripping with His love!
"If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love." (1 Corinthians 13:1-6, MSG)
We will be exploring the activation of the Church Body in the posts to come, but the foundation will remain His love. Faith and hope will no longer be needed once the Lord returns, but love will accompany us throughout eternity.
"We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us! But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation:
Trust steadily in God,
hope unswervingly,
love extravagantly.
And the best of the three is love." (1 Corinthians 13:12-13, MSG)
In the beginning, the Garden was a set aside location within Eden, not the totality of Eden itself. It was a special, private place set aside for the people God created in His image to delight in His presence and dwell with Him there. It's a place designed to engage with God in joy, gladness, thanksgiving and song. (Isaiah 51:3 describes this beautifully)!
The key to abiding in a continual "Garden" life lies with the choice between Himself and self. God is everywhere at all times and He never leaves or forsakes us, but we must make the choice to be in and experience God's presence. Relationship is secured by Him, (this was done once and for all time by the work of Jesus on the cross), but fellowship is our free-will choice. We make a great deal out of recognizing and accepting that our Father loves us unconditionally, regardless of our performance. It is important that we understand and receive this. But I believe the Lord is revealing the importance, gift and joy of loving Him in the same way! To wholeheartedly love Him just because He IS, not because of His performance. We were created to flow in this two-way love continually - what joy!
In these encounters, the Lord led me to a door in a garden. Jesus wept in a garden and was buried in a garden tomb. He overcame death, hell and the grave in a garden to reverse the curse of the original garden so that we might abide in and experience His presence daily. In the beginning, God placed man in the Garden of Eden to tend, cultivate and keep it - this set aside place of continual fellowship with God. We are invited to do the same today. When man fell, God didn't destroy Eden, but we were separated from it. By the blood of Jesus, the way has been re-opened for us to return to the Garden of God so we can once again cultivate this intimacy with God. It is what we were created for.
Accepting the invitation to dwell with God is a wonderful privilege. With the choice comes responsibility. A river flowed out of Eden forming four river heads to benefit others. The Lord designed His garden with inflow and outflow. The love He pours into us is destined to refresh others and, in so doing, we are refreshed ourselves (Proverbs 11:25). The outflow of our intimacy with God is a life giving river designed to bless all of creation. His river of blessing flows out of our innermost being (John 7:38).
We live in a world where the life giving water of God is desperately needed. So many are completely lost and without hope, having no idea which way to turn. Some start to walk in a measure of clarity, but then they encounter a situation that stirs and muddies the water again, bringing confusion, frustration and a sense that they just cannot move forward. An atmosphere of rush and chaos abounds around us. This is happening both outside and inside the church! Several months ago, I heard the following in my spirit,
"The Lord is releasing clarity to His people. Expect it. There is no river clearer than the river of God."
He directed me to Revelation 22:1-2:
"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as
The Lord went on to reveal that He is bringing His river of clarity to us in decision making, creativity, finances, relationships and every area of our lives. His clear river is bringing healing to the tangle of thoughts and brain fog that accompanies anxiety, depression and all manner of addictions. He is clearing all of that away. A river of clarity is what He is releasing to His people to bring healing and deliverance to them and through them.
The Lord is inviting us to return to His garden and run back to our first love! To walk and talk with Him there and walk through the door He is opening and step into His life giving river. He will revive, refresh and saturate us to take His life giving water to those around us in love - it must be dripping with His love!
"If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love." (1 Corinthians 13:1-6, MSG)
We will be exploring the activation of the Church Body in the posts to come, but the foundation will remain His love. Faith and hope will no longer be needed once the Lord returns, but love will accompany us throughout eternity.
"We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us! But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation:
Trust steadily in God,
hope unswervingly,
love extravagantly.
And the best of the three is love." (1 Corinthians 13:12-13, MSG)
“Moses said, ‘Please. Let me see your Glory.’ God said, ‘I will make
my Goodness pass right in front of you; I’ll call out the name, God, right before you.’” (Ex 33:18-19a)
Let
the whole earth be filled with His glory!
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