Missio Lux has a woman who has been led to do an extensive fast: 40 days without food. She wrote this a couple of days before Lent began. We had a 24 hour prayer opportunity on Wednesday, the first day of preparation for Jesus' journey to the cross.
I was the one that kicked off the prayer from midnight to 1 a.m. I was working on emails leading up to my prayer time and her reflection is the last one I read. As I went to pray for preparation for my spirit and for our corporate Missio Lux spirit to be prepared to walk with Jesus to the cross, I was completely wrecked by the reality that Jesus in his human body spent 40 days alone being tested in a desert....I hope it moves you, it moved me so much.
The Lord often talks to me in pictures, some of them moving visions. I have had a number of Jesus in the desert since I began this business. I will tell you of what I saw two nights ago, with some background first.
He is always in the same location. There is an olive tree He sleeps under, and that brown grass you see so much in pictures of Israel. Directly across from His tree is an upward slope of rock where nothing grows except tufts in the cracks. I have seen Him stretched out on a big flat place of stone maybe 10 feet above the grass below. As you face the tree from that spot, to the left there is a lake. You know, we are not told which wilderness area He was in... the assumption is the Negev, but this was more just wilderness than flat out desert. Maybe it was on the edges of the Negev.
He was out there alone under the sky. It was this same time of year and rain and cold were possible and real. Israel's climate is rather like northern California's, which can be chilly and wet in March. He had His warm robe to wrap Himself in and sometimes He'd sleep sitting up against the tree, but lately more often on the ground, wrapped up tight in His robe. He goes to the lake to get water and rinse the grime off Himself.
Why am I telling you this? When I first saw Him He had some energy and was building a fire to offset the morning chill. Now He is much thinner than I am and doesn't move much. He is (was) doing 40 days on water alone and as a perfectly obedient Son, He did not have the extra layer of padding anyway that most of us do.
The water was not pure distilled water that best flushes the toxins away, like I have. Lake water, if a well-drained lake, would be okay but not as good and a lot of energy to keep getting up and going for... He does not have a nice electric blanket like I have and a roof and walls to keep off the rain and wind. He did not get two weeks of breaking in with juices and then lemon and maple syrupto keep Him healthy in the middle.
Right now He is so very thin and guant, very pale, and shivers with the cold. He does not get nice hot showers every day like I do, with soap and shampoo to wash all the smelly excretions off His skin. He has to walk into a cold lake if He wants to bathe and I'd say He probably isn't bathing at all. He did not have anything to help Him cleanse His bowels the first few days (to be blunt) and that can make you very sick... talk about toxins. In the daytimes He has the sun, clouds, rain and wind... and He has His Father. When He is at His weakest, the snake will come.
I could not have done what He did. I am being tested to the point where I can pass the test and have the victory He intends me to gain. He was the Son of God... yes, yes, yes. There are also many Christians who have gone further to reaching His level than I am able to, but...
What is amazing about Him, is that when He looks at me in these visions (and He can perceive me seeing Him), He quickly smiles. He smiles with a sudden radiant love that is so very glad to see me and shows no element of pain or grief.
To Him, it is all joy. He does what the Father is doing. He does not count the days or think about what He is missing. He thinks about what the Father has Him doing... and it is joy.
No comments:
Post a Comment