Yesterday I had the opportunity and blessing of being a part of a group from our church to join in the annual effort and outreach of a urban city church in their ministry of feeding the homeless which is something they have done for the last 23 years on the Saturday following Thanksgiving. This was quite an organized event that was made possible by the joining of many hands and hearts of other churches throughout the Body of Christ. It was an expression of the love and charity of Jesus to the needy and homeless. To be honest with you it was quite overwhelming to me to see such a massive need of poverty, lack and homelessness just within a small area in our own city. My heart was heavy but grateful at the same time, grateful for seeing the generous hands and heart of Jesus through His Body being extended to them.
During the orientation time for the workers and servers the leader and speaker prepared our hearts letting us be aware that many of these people that we were about to serve were so desperate for food that they would often dig in dumpsters to find food to eat. I was grieved by the picture of that, but the Holy Spirit pricked my heart as the speaker led us to Matt. 5:3 "Blessed is the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." and he reminded us that we, as a Church, should have this same spirit of desperation for God, a sense that we are poor in spirit and in desperate need of Him. The speaker challenged us by asking, "Are you desperate like they are? Are you poor in spirit and desperate for God and for His presence and the food and life of His Word?"
As a prophetic intercessor the Lord took hold of that word and began to show me His heart for His people and His Church. He showed me the darkness and desperation of the times and how He was using it to draw His Church to Himself, out of the clutches of the world and all its enticements and distractions and drawing our hearts and lives back to Himself. He began to show me my secret place, my prayer place, like it was a "secret place dumpster", a place that I was climbing into with a hungry and desperate heart for more of Him. It was a place that I could dig deep into His heart and into the deep things of God and feed upon His Word and promises and soak in His presence. I wanted to go back there. I was hungry and desperate for Him. And after the event of serving and ministering to these precious people I did. And in that secret place I began to meditate on this picture that the Lord had given me earlier, and as I meditated and leaned into His heart, I began to see thousands and thousands of people (almost like ants) coming out of the things of the world and climbing up into this "secret place dumpster", and as we joined our hearts together in desperation for Him, a spirit of repentance began to fall in there, and we began to pray, "Search me, O God, and know my heart and see if there be any hurtful and wicked way in me, and lead me in Your everlasting way." Then I began to see places in my heart that I had been blinded to before, remnants of the world and remnants of my old man that seemed to yet remain, things that did not glorify God and stood in the way of the full flow of His blessing and likeness in my life. I saw remnants of religion, of materialism, of idolatry, greed, pride and selfishness. I wanted it all gone, every bit of it. Some of this was of me and some of it was of the Body of Christ as a whole, for I was feeling the heart of God and the desperation of His longing Bride to be with Him in the pureness of her heart.
But His love seemed to look past all of these things that had gotten my attention, and His love took hold of my heart and brought it close to His and into His divine embrace. And then His blood began to flow and wash over me and over everyone in that "secret place dumpster". Then His love and glory began to fill and illuminate that place and shine out of the top of it. His light and glory was shining forth into the darkness of the world from which we had come from.
It was a beautiful experience. It was an experience of healing and redemption, an experience of His love covering a multitude of sins and His love never failing....never failing to heal, restore and redeem. I praise God for this experience and this picture that He used to encourage me in what He was doing during these desperate times. He let me see from His perspective as I touched His heart and stood in the gap for His Bride.
We are His Bride, and Jesus is drawing us out of the world and into His divine embrace, into His presence and power that we may be His life partner to glorify Him here on the earth. By His anointing we are called to lay hands on the sick and they will recover. We are called to preach the gospel and set at liberty them that are captive. His anointing to do this is received by grace alone through His presence. If you have not yet found or set aside a place for your "secret place", your personal prayer place, I encourage you to prioritize that and begin to seek God with all of your heart, to come into His divine embrace and know Him personally and intimately. Your life will never be the same, and He will use you for His glory and kingdom purpose, for He has brought you into the kingdom for such a time as this.
Ps. 91:1; Matt. 6:6
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