Roughly 5 years ago I found myself at home on a weekend afternoon laying on the couch trying to take a nap. Like most people I don't sleep well in a room full of light and I noticed that the sunlight was coming in through a window, reflecting off of the T.V. and shining right in my face. I got up and walked over to the window and while attempting to lower the blinds I found myself unable to do so seeing as the 4 strings that made up the cord had wound themselves into a knot. You know the ones I am talking about. They looked similar to the ones pictured right, although the ones on our blinds had 4 of them. They were all so bound up with one another that I was unable to completely lower the blinds and so there I was spending a few minutes trying to untie this huge knot. After a bit of wrestling I got frustrated, walked over to my wife's sowing table and picked up a pair of scissors and proceeded to cut the knot off. I cut so much string off of that I came close to completely ruining the blinds.
Now let's do the spiritual application here. This happened at a time in my life when the Lord had me deeply entrenched in a season of what we will call prophetic riddles. Look at the following scripture.
"When a prophet of the Lord is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord." Numbers 12:6-8The word used for "riddle" in this passage is Chiydah. It means a puzzle, a hard question, a proverb or riddles. Chiydah is derived from the Hebrew word Chuwd. Chuwd means to put forth a riddle or to tie into a knot.
Over the years I have heard the Lord speak to me in a multitude of ways as I am sure you have as well. Dreams, visions, clear spoken words into the ear, wisdom and understanding within the heart, .....But I have to tell you the most demanding way I believe God speaks to his people is within the realm of riddles.
I say riddles because the Lord will often set his words in front of us in the form of some type of riddle and then force us to wrestle with it for extended periods of time until we get peaceful understanding on what He is really telling us. He will pull us out of our comfort zone (taking a nap) and set something before us (a knot) that requires our focus, steadfastness, repentance and spiritual determination in order that we might understand it. He gives us knots to untie. He speaks to us in riddles and then tells us to look to him for understanding to solve them. Some knots are untied quickly. Some take years to get unraveled. I did not plan on saying this but this comes to me as I write. I think we, as people, are like knots and riddles to the Lord except that he completely understands how to untie us. He knows how we got in this mess in the first place and therefore he has complete understanding on how to help us get untied inwardly and see us through to complete repentance. That is why the scripture says:
"If any of you lacks wisdom he should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." James 1:5The Lord has every intention of unraveling the complexity of our souls if only we will give ourselves over to him and let him lead us in continual levels of repentance and grace. Humans can be complicated, sensitive, impatient and unforgiving. Jesus offers us simple truth, a tender touch and patient forgiveness. We need to accept these opportunities for grace and power before the door closes on us and the times of the Gentiles is fulfilled (See Romans 11:25). We should be wise virgins and fill our lamps with the oil of repentance while there is yet time.
"As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For he says, 'In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.'....I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation." 2 Corinthians 6:1,2We are confined to the realm of time and within that time we need to take advantage of our opportunity for repentance and get unraveled inside ourselves. We need to get untied. We need to be solved and repent while there is still time. We need to humble ourselves now so God doesn't have to retroactively force humility on us. Let's take advantage of the time we do have and ask the Lord to search us inwardly.
"Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Psalm 139:23,24I will leave you with this. In the late winter of 1997 the Lord took me to Midland, TX for six months to begin untying some of my internal knots. While out in the desert I began to see the complexity of my soul and how the enemy had complicated my life over the years. It began with a spirit of rejection in my childhood, led to ambition in my late teens and resulted in a consistent spirit of anger when I didn't get my way. Through the years the unfulfilled gaps of my soul were filled in with alcohol and bad relationships. The Lord began to untie me and continue the multi-year process of solving the riddle of my soul. What I couldn't see before I could now see.
"I was blind, but now I see." John 9:25This internal unraveling, this process of inward revelation is an ongoing thing. It's a multi-year process that spans decades with many of us.
I guess what I am saying is that the Lord wants to shower us with prophetic riddles to solve (Dreams, Riddles, Prophetic Symbols and Similitudes). But he only does this in accordance with the level to which we allow him to solve the complexity of our own selves internally. Before he can trust us with riddles that relate to other people he must work on us first. First he solves our inward puzzle and then we shows us the prophetic puzzle of the world around us.
It was in my time in Midland, during that season of internal revelation and cleansing, that the Lord started giving me outward prophetic riddles that pertained to other things, both circumstances and people. So riddle-solving starts inwardly and then God moves outwardly into prophetic ministry. First inward, then outward in various forms of ministry.
In the next post I will talk more of some of the prophetic riddles the Lord has given me to solve over the past decade and how one in particular applies to events in the world today.
Be Blessed,
JEB
www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com.
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