Month 1 of the World Race has come to an end. This month in Colombia has been nothing short of incredible. I learned a lot from the Lord and from my leadership team about who the Lord created me to be. As you have read in previous blogs, a huge thing that the Lord has been revealing to me a lot lately is that I do (in fact) hear from Him. He speaks to me on a daily, personal basis. I just need to open my ears and give Him the time and space to speak.
As I have mentioned before, when I first accepted the Lord into my heart, He began to speak to me and through me. These things were usually either confirmed by the person I spoke to or by people who were known to walk in prophetic giftings. Still, for the longest time, I was not really sure if the Lord was really speaking to me or not. I had a lot of questions, and no one seemed to have any answers for me. What I was experiencing was way different than what other people had experienced; I had a sense of *touch* often (but not always) accompanied by an image. I wasn’t sure if these experiences were visions or not. I was afraid to talk about the things I felt the Lord putting on my heart because I had no way of proving it was really from the Lord. So I did what any other confused new believer would do: I unknowingly silenced Him. In other words, I built up a dam to block the flow of the Holy Spirit in my life.
Fast forward to last week. We arrived at our debrief site and started unpacking some of our experiences from the past month. Our squad mentor, Teresa, began by casting vision for debrief. The title? “I Won’t Be Dam’d.”
Imagine the world immediately after the Lord created it. See the rivers flow uninhibited, winding and rushing through the landscapes. The waters bubble, the rapids crash. That was how the Lord created them: to flow freely. Nowadays, humanity takes advantage of natural water flows and builds dams. Don’t get me wrong. Dams serve such a great purpose: they provide electric power to the areas, create new habitats, flood control, and so much more. They can be beautiful things, too! As Teresa said, when a builder is inspired by the Lord, they can create things of true beauty. HOWEVER, no matter how beautiful or how good a reason you may have for creating a dam, it obstructs the original flow of the river, leading to destruction of some habitats and flooding in others. Something has to give when a dam is built. No exceptions.
When we believe in the Lord, John 7:37-39 says that out of our hearts flow rivers of living water, a phrase Jesus Himself uses to describe the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit functions just like that in our lives. He runs wild and flows effortlessly as the Lord originally intended. However, we have the potential of building up spiritual dams that stop the flow of the Holy Spirit. In this case, dams are always a hinderance, no matter how “good of an idea” it may seem at the time. Some examples may include: “I don’t want to offend anyone,” or “I don’t want to be called a weirdo for moving as the Holy Spirit has led me.” For me, the number one excuse I used was that, “I wasn’t being discipled in my gifts, so I didn’t want to be wrong about it.” Whatever the reason is, there is NEVER a good reason to completely stop the Holy Spirit from flowing.
After the session, we were advised to ask the Lord about what He has to say concerning the dams we have built in our lives. That has been a recurring theme so far on the Race. Don’t just take someone else’s words for it; ask the Lord yourself. So we sat there in silence, meditating on the Lord and seeking His direction. After a few minutes, the Lord showed me a vision.
I saw a HUGE dam and a tiny stream of water coming out of the bottom of it. At first, the word that I received concerning this was “stifled.” As I sat there contemplating, my vision zoomed out, and I saw the “river” from an aerial view. What I thought was one massive dam was actually a whole SERIES of dams. I thought, “Wow. This is ANYTHING but beautiful. It’s a concrete river!” Suddenly, I understood the meaning of what I was seeing. I have silenced the Lord time and again. I used “lack of discipleship or affirmation” to excuse my mistakes. What I need to do is trust that the Lord will disciple me in the workings of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our helper and guide in understanding and walking in His power anyway!
That was when I realized the gravity of my mistakes from so long ago. But this realization didn’t do anything to change the vision. So I asked the Lord how to get rid of them. I immediately got these words: Pray, “Holy Spirit, crash into me. Break my walls down. The walls I’ve built up to protect myself have stifled You. Flow free.” And just like that, the dam broke.
Water started GUSHING OUT of the opening which was getting wider by the second. Concrete blocks started piling up where the dam once stood, and the water started to erode it. Suddenly, I began to understand another truth. Water erodes stones over time, but the Lord does not work in bounds of time! Centuries can pass in mere seconds!
That small trickle of water that I saw before the dams broke suddenly wasn’t so small anymore. It was MASSIVE- thousands of times bigger than before! But what’s more amazing is that even as small as the river was, I have seen the Lord move so powerfully in my life (and even through me). Imagine how much more powerfully the Lord can (and WILL) move when all of the dams are completely gone! The thought alone is incredibly inspiring!
This promise isn’t true for me alone. This is true for SO MANY people in the body of Christ. We have dammed the Holy Spirit in our lives, and it has become much harder to hear Him or see Him move in our lives. We blame God or others for not being able to see the Holy Spirit moving in our lives, but we are the ones stifling Him. But don’t worry: God has a plan, and He WILL bring it to pass! He’s going to break them down and eliminate all traces of them in our lives. Join me in praying this out: Holy Spirit, flow FREE in our lives! AMEN!
In all things, be blessed!
AG
