TODAY’S PROPHETIC NUMBER – 8/13/2023
Genesis 8:13 – And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry.
It’s time to get out of the boat and do the hard work the Lord planned for you long ago (Eph 2:10). It’s good work, but it will not be easy because better is never easier. Yes, the ground is dry and hearts this day are parched. Break up this fertile soil with the word. Water it with kindness. Love God and people as you plant seeds of faith and salvation today.
Declaration: I want a harvest for the Lord. I will plow and plant so the Vinedresser can reap a harvest 100 fold.
SOMETIMES, FEELING GOD IS FEELING PAIN
There is only one way to make a difference in someone’s life: to have compassion on them (Jude 1:22). The only way to have compassion on someone is to get involved in their world and to see them the way Father God sees them.
Many times, it takes pain for us to have compassion. Take for instance the witch I met on my first mission trip to Costa Rica. I was with two local boys who had been saved and baptized the night before we trekked into the jungle in search of this notorious spiritualist.
Roseanne was the real deal. For a fee, she would read your fortune, give you a message from beyond the grave or pronounce a curse on your enemy. As we got closer to her hut, my spirit bowed up. I knew there was going to be a showdown. One of the boys with me called out to announce our arrival, but Roseanne yelled through the jungle that she didn’t know him and he had to leave.
“She’s known me all my life,” he said, confused. I told him she didn’t recognize him anymore because the Holy Spirit now lived in him.
Roseanne was a pitiful creature. She never called the devil by name. Instead, she referred to him as “my lover” and said that on a full moon, he would visit her bedroom with “distorted music.” It turns out, she was tormented and bound in a way I couldn’t imagine. I saw a woman so lonely and self-loathing, she’d voluntarily taken up company with a demonic spirit! I began to see her as the Lord sees her. He wanted to help her. I was filled with compassion and I felt her pain.
I told her God loved her and wanted to help her, but she said it was not true. She said, “He has never seen me.”
Then out of my Spirit, I said, “That’s not true. He saw you when you were a little girl and your father molested you. Jesus cried when you cried.” I began to tell her the Lord didn’t accuse her–that she was blameless. I told her God had always been there, but the devil had tricked her into thinking God didn’t love her.
She said she knew the devil was a liar, but feared he would kill her if she humbled herself to Jesus. We told her the truth–the devil is a defeated wimp–and before long, she was on her knees alongside us, lifting her hands to the Lord as she received Jesus.
What touched her heart? The fact that Jesus knew her pain. Sometimes, feeling what God feels means feeling something very painful. Sometimes, it means getting acquainted with grief. Roseanne’s pain was tremendous, but her joy at salvation was tremendous as well.
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” – James 4:8-10
It’s good to let God take you to places that don’t feel good, especially when it produces a harvest of souls.