One of the things that I love about my church is how we interact with the Holy Spirit. Every week there is a time during the service where trained prayer partners intercede on behalf of others in the congregation by listening to Holy Spirit on their behalf. This means that if you wanted someone to partner with you in listening to Holy Spirit you would go up to the front and one of them would come alongside you and listen. If and when Holy Spirit speaks to them they share with you what they received. Sometimes it is a picture, it could be a passage of scripture, and sometimes it is a single word. Every time I have gone up to receive it has always hit me straight in the heart. I think the part that has me so hooked on others listening for me is even when I am in a season of not feeling close to the Lord, someone can come long side me and hear his voice for me.
A few Sundays ago I went up reluctantly to receive prayer. I say reluctantly because I had been in a season where I could see the Lord providing for me in so many ways but I did not feel close to him. I could not hear his voice for myself and felt isolated from him even though I could see him around me in the lives of others and in how he was providing for me. As I was standing up there trying to get myself to be open to receiving from the Lord, one of the prayer ministers came up and put her hand on my back. She told me that she saw a picture of me in a hot air balloon and Jesus was the one giving the hot air into the balloon, He was smiling at me and gave me the confidence to go on a new adventure with Him. The only thing keeping us from taking off were the tethers that keep the basket close to the ground. These tethers were anchored into the earth and the only way to start on our journey was for me to cut them. Typically a hot air balloon has three or four tethers holding it down. As she was praying for me she told me she heard Jesus tell me to “cut the tethers, and trust me.”
What I have learned from this vision is that the Lord wants me to cut through the tethers I have anchored so deeply into this earth and He wants to free me from them. So far in the wrestling with this vision and lots of prayer I think I have figured out the three tethers I have. I am sure there are more but these are the ones that He wants me to stop trying to control and surrender fully to Him.
1. Finances: The lord wants me to fully trust that He will provide for all my needs and not just provide for my trip. He wants me to live abundantly and feel the freedom from trying to control my financial situation. He wants me to steward the things He has given me but also wants me to lean into Him more when I feel the stressed. He has already proven to me that He is a generous and kind God so why do I worry at all? He wants me to give up control, be generous when He tells me to no matter the circumstance and trust that He will always provide for my needs.
2. Relationships: I feel like the Lord is asking me to invest deeply in a few people rather than spread out thin. He has shown me that there are people He has placed in my life for a reason and that I need to be better about fanning the flame to keep those friendships strong. He is helping me think about these long distance friends in opportune moments when I can call them. He is reminding me to pray for them and asking me to dive deep with them and be vulnerable even when it is uncomfortable. It is easy for me to love the people I see all the time really well, but when I am not with them physically it is harder for me to remember to stay in contact with them.
3. Rootedness: This is the one that I am struggling with the most right now. In my previous post I had written about living in the tension of being fully present and preparing well for the adventure ahead. Well in the last week ish I have felt the Lord asking me to give Him Buena Vista. To give Him my thoughts/plans about moving back here and rooting myself in this town. He is asking me to root myself in Him only and not a physical place right now. I am sure that He is asking me to do this to help prepare me for the World Race but it is so hard for me to wrap my mind around giving up this sweet sweet place and my community here.
All in all I know that the Lord has my best in mind in making me work through and surrender these three areas of my life. But it still hurts and is hard. I know that it is for my benefit that I give up control, so why is it so hard to actually open my hands and let go? Why can’t the trust I have in my head for the Lord play out in my actions all the time? Unfortunatly I don’t have the answer to these questions. So friends please pray for me to find the strength, courage and boldness to enter into these spaces with the Lord. To really process all the way through them and not stop short. This way I can confidently cut the tethers and go on the adventure He has in store for me.
