Today’s Reading:
Psalm 142
Romans 8
For when I was desperate, overwhelmed, and about to give up, you were the only one there to help. You gave me a way of escape from the hidden traps of my enemies.
Psalms 142:3 TPT
In prayer, I was taken into a vision of a cave and I heard the Spirit of the Living God say,
The cave of testing, of shielding, of refuge and of grief has become not only your hiding place but your home. I never meant for this place to become your home. This place that I have provided for you as a shelter, as a refuge has become a place where you have felt trapped, secluded and removed from the outside world. But I Am saying to you, a new day is dawned. Arise and shine, Christ’s light will shine on you.
Please listen to my heart’s cry, for I am low and in desperate need of you! Rescue me from all those who persecute me, for I am no match for them. Bring me out of this dungeon so I can declare your praise! And all the righteous will celebrate all the wonderful things you’ve done for me!
Psalms 142:6-7 TPT
I’m calling many of My children, many of My once-wounded warriors, many of My mighty men who have been hidden in the cave that I provided as a refuge for too long. The place of your refuge became the place of your exile. I’m calling you back to the camp. I’m calling you to leave this place of seclusion and isolation. You will be amazed how I change the scenery as you go. As you go, the place that was the former wilderness you fled — the place that was the place of your wandering and testing will become a lush and fertile ground beneath your feet. As you walk, bright, fresh, hearty green grass will sprout beneath your feet, will become the path on which you tread. It will not sprout before you. It will literally sprout beneath your feet.
So then, beloved ones, the flesh has no claims on us at all, and we have no further obligation to live in obedience to it. For when you live controlled by the flesh, you are about to die. But if the life of the Spirit puts to death the corrupt ways of the flesh, we then taste his abundant life.
Romans 8:12-13 TPT
You have mourned the loss of your former self, your former life, your former goals. The place you stare into looks blank, and the path does not exist. The cave has been the birthing place and the shedding place. It has brought forth something in you and for you and through you that is brand new. But that has also required a great shedding of the past, of the former self and the former ways, the former expectations and even the future for which your former self longed.
The mature children of God are those who are moved by the impulses of the Holy Spirit. And you did not receive the “spirit of religious duty,” leading you back into the fear of never being good enough. But you have received the “Spirit of full acceptance,” enfolding you into the family of God. And you will never feel orphaned, for as he rises up within us, our spirits join him in saying the words of tender affection, “Beloved Father!” For the Holy Spirit makes God’s fatherhood real to us as he whispers into our innermost being, “You are God’s beloved child!”
Romans 8:14-16 TPT
The vestiges of that former life and those former hopes still cling to you. You must shake them off as grave clothes, because I have called you out of that cave, out of that hard place of shedding, transition, refining and birthing, and the new day has dawned. The way forward is here, and you must walk forth with My joy as your strength, with My hope as your conviction that beautiful days are ahead — more beautiful days than you could have ever dreamt, hoped or imagined. The stunning thing that is even dawning on you now is that the former dreams were the dreams that you dreamt in a world of limitation and convention. Shedding those shouldn’t be hard. It should be very easy, because the dreams that are rising in your heart now are the true dreams that have always been part of you. They are the dreams of the unlikely, of the unconventional, of the never before seen, for which there is no roadmap and no model to follow. The dreams I have placed in your heart you can carry in freedom instead of as weights behind the false dreams of convention that stood in their way.
How could you ever reach or achieve or receive the fulfillment of these true dreams if false ones stood in their way? Do you feel the freedom of letting go? Do you feel the true freedom and lightness of carrying the true-you dreams forward into the light of the new day? Now you can fully embody those dreams without hinderance, and you can walk boldly forth as a mature, kingly, fearless lion into this new day.
How to Respond
- Do not fear coming out of the cave of refuge, birthing, shedding and grief. What looks like wilderness and has been wilderness will become a fertile, prosperous place right beneath your feet.
- Pray, Holy Spirit help me to shed the vestiges of my former self, my former dreams, my former ways and expectations. They are grave clothes! I want to come out of this place of hiding and painful transition and emerge into the freedom and the lightness of the glorious new day that You have for me. I want to boldly walk forward in honesty carrying these unconventional, true-me dreams.
- Declare, And since we are his true children, we qualify to share all his treasures, for indeed, we are heirs of God himself. And since we are joined to Christ, we also inherit all that he is and all that he has. We will experience being co-glorified with him provided that we accept his sufferings as our own. I am convinced that any suffering we endure is less than nothing compared to the magnitude of glory that is about to be unveiled within us. The entire universe is standing on tiptoe, yearning to see the unveiling of God’s glorious sons and daughters!
Romans 8:17-19 TPT - Decree, I am leaving the cave of refuge, hiding, birthing, shedding and grief. And I am walking forward into the new day of the Lord. I will not fear re-entry into the wilderness, because the Lord is causing fertile, prosperous ground to emerge beneath my feet as I go. I am shaking off the grave clothes of the former me, and I am embracing the freedom and truth of the real, deeply held dreams that I could hardly acknowledge before. I am walking forth in boldness, without fear into all the Lord has for me.
For more encouragement from The Glory & New Wine, check out the post from this day in years past:
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