Caught Somewhere Between a Rock and a Tree

I can´t even begin to capture the essence of what God has been doing in my life and in my teammates´ lives in words. The growth in a single week has been so evident, and the crazy thing is this is only our second week in Peru. God is calling each and every one of us into that secret place between the rock and the tree to teach us to stand on His rock, as a tree united in Him, one solid family, our roots in Christ, planted beside His streams of life, giving birth to new life everywhere we go, and our fruit being the fruit of the Spirit, which falls from the limbs into the water and causes ripples, that even as we move from place to place, the ripples are spreading, taking the fruit with it, and spreading life and love everywhere they go.

 

This was the vision given to our team at training camp. Each person was given a part of it, and it spread out over the course of several days. Benny was given the part about the ripples even before training camp began by someone speaking it over the Peru team. This team was birthed in prophecy, and we are going forth, dreaming with God about changing a nation, one little ripple at a time.

 

Let me explain in a little more depth the imagery that I´ve been using and where it comes from. In our very first team time at training camp around the campfire, we were giving testimony and bearing witness to what the Lord was doing in each of our lives, and what we were thankful for. As we went around the circle and shared, the Lord showed me a rock that was sitting at my feet. I picked it up and ran the rough edges through my hands, letting my fingers experience each nook and cranny. The Lord began to speak to me about the rock. 

 

Look at the rock. It´s solid. Try as you might, you´re not going to be able to break it. You can shake it all you want, but nothing will be able to crack it. It is strong, it is mighty. But at the same time it is beautifully crafted, a creation of mine that is strong but look at the delicated crystals in it, each one of which I formed by hand, just to show you my beauty.

 

This is a picture of how each one of us are when we are living Christ, standing on the solid rock. We are strong, we are mighty, nothing can break us, and shake though we might we are solid. But at the same time we are beautifully hand crafted by the creator, formed from the dream of God when He said ¨Let us make man in our image.¨

 

The second image of the tree came when we were spending some time soaking in God´s presence listening for words of how to paint our canvas, what vision we were bringing to Peru. The very first image that popped into my mind was a redwood tree. I thought I was just tired and so I asked the Lord again what He wanted to show me. I couldn´t shake the image of the tree. As we went around the circle, people were given words about unity, about all these things that were incorpoated into our tree image, and then they expressed that they didn´t know how those themes would play out visually. That´s when the tree image made sense, and I spoke it out. The most insane thing was many of the other teams, who weren´t even in the same building also had trees on their canvasses, and spoke about bringing life to their countries, and how the unity of their teams in Christ, the true vine, was going to shake their nation. Yes Lord! Even writing that gets me jacked up!

 

The past week has been mind blowing, in a very real way. We´ve only had one and a half days of ministry so far here in Iquitos, but the Spirit is moving in a powerful way both in our team and already here. We are colaboring with what the Lord is doing here, and just that act of getting on board with what He´s already got in motion is so powerful and brings the Kingdom is such a real way.

 

So in this moment I´m exploring and dreaming with God about what it looks like to live my life out of the place, between standing on the rock of Christ, and the tree of life. The secret place, the place where nothing but spending time with Daddy matters. The place where I´m so madly in love with my lover that I forsake all else to follow His voice.

 

Matt shared with me something that makes the redwood tree image even more significant. Redwood trees form a network of roots with the other redwood trees around them. So even when the winds come, every other tree is holding it up. What a beautiful image of community, and of brothers living together in unity to hold each other up.

 

Back to the nitty gritty for a moment. I feel like all of this is completely inadequate to share with you what has really been going on here, and what all the Lord has been teaching me, and the words, and vision and dreams He´s giving all of us. This team has been truly handpicked by God to do some crazy ridiculous stuff both here in Iquitos and in the jungle, and it´s going to be a ridiculous time this summer. As I told my roommate last night: ¨We´re about to spend the next two months getting trashed by God in the jungle in a good way; and it´s going to be awesome!¨ That about sums it up. We haven´t even gotten to the jungle yet, but God is moving in powerful ways. For real. I´m very grateful for the wisdom that the Lord is imparting to us, but even more so for the grace to step out and try new things.

 

We´re here in Iquitos until Monday, and then we´ll be moving on to Nauta, and from there all I know is we´re getting on a boat and heading into the Amazon. The unknown, following God, dreaming with Him as we go, and just seeing the Kingdom come to Peru. More to follow on our first week of ministry (if we get the opportunity to blog again. Just thnkful for this one!)

 

Gloria Dios!