"The desert and the parched land will be glad;
the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom;
it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;
they will see the glory of Yahweh,
the splendor of our Elohim (God)"
(Isa.35:1-2, NIV).
Three days ago Yahweh opened up a most interesting vision to me. What I saw is very hard to describe because I have never seen anything like it before. The scene was some hot desert but one that had more rock than sand, so not a typical desert scene like the Sahara or Sinai.
A machine, which I did not see, was rapidly dragging this long, flexible, jointed tube-like apparatus across the desert. It must have been over 100 feet long and very heavy. At its end was a spherical-like object which I understood to be some sort of 'drill bit head'. At first I thought it was some kind of drilling equipment but it made no sense dragging it along the ground where it likely would get damaged. Instead, this heavy spherical bit-head (I call it that because that's the word that came to my head as I was watching the vision) seemed to be pulverising the rocks over which it bounced, presumably turning it into sand. The vision lasted about 20 seconds.
As usual, I have delayed sharing this before I had some kind of an explanation to offer but what I have been able to glean so far is that this is the action of Yahweh on the overcomers, grinding the last rocks of character defects out of them that would impede the planting of the new and last generation of Sukkot seed. First the soil has to be rendered good and then, when the ordained season comes, rains from heaven - the Sukkot Anointing - will cause this desert to bloom.
If you are an overcomer and are wondering at the seeming barrnness of your life or ministry right now, and the roughshod way that things seem to be going, it is because Yahweh is slowly grinding you into a fine powdery soil so that He can bring forth a rich and bounteous harvest of souls out of you when the time for planting comes. It is not necessarily because you are being punished even though it is true that sins must be worked out too, for chastisement inevitably follows in the wake of sin.
Don't, moreover, be deceived by the lifeless desert. Don't be deceived by your circumstances which seem 100% non-condusive to the work you feel you have been called to do. Yahweh turns deserts into fertile fields and when the time comes the people will come to you, to the most unlikely places, because the prophets live in most unlikely places. Ask John the Baptist.
Patience is perhaps the first lesson the overcomers must learn - patience in the wilderness while Yahweh does His perfecting work. The wilderness made Joshua and Caleb, the twin-arms of the end-time work, corresponding to the two houses of Ephraim and Judah under the leadership of Ephraim (Joshua). This same wilderness will make you.
Be encouraged. The grinding and levelling is for something very glorious indeed!
