The Wave Update – 2002
It has been 8 years since God showed me that incredible tidal wave of the glory. Here it is in 2002, and where is it? I admit, I have been discouraged over the last year, because I just did not see that wave coming. In August of this year, I was on my way into church, and asked God that very same question. ”God, I asked, “Where is that wave? I thought that we were going to have a tidal wave of Your glory… Where is it, God? I thought that we were going surfing,”
These were the questions that I asked of God. I went into church, and I don’t think I could have been more down. Our pastor was preaching a sermon on spiritual gifts, and after her preached, he invited people to come up and share what God had put on their hearts. He wanted us to practice what we had learned. One man got in line, and when it was his turn he said that he was a visitor to our church, but he had been seeing this huge wave coming, like a tidal wave! And to get ready, because he could see surf boards… And we were going surfing!
I don’t think it could have been more clear than that. God had answered me back with the same words that I had prayed on the way into church, and confirmed it once more. Hallelujah!
About two weeks later, I was returning from work late at night, and it was pouring rain. Some parts of the road were covered with water, but I made it through. As I passed through Osceola, I could see the city trucks around the Mill Pond. The water from the Mill Pond went directly down to Cascade Falls, where God had showed me about the revival back in 1992. I didn’t know what was going on, and it was late, and I just wanted to get home.
I found out later that there had been a flood. In back of the Mill Pond, upstream a ways, there was an earthen dam. We had an extremely wet summer, and the rains didn’t come like normal rains. When it rained this year, it came down so hard and fast that it was not normal. That day we got 3 inches of rain in a very short time, and it was too much for that old dam. When that dam went, the resulting flood changed the landscape of our little town forever. The trailer court next to the Mill Pond was completely flooded, and some of the mobile homes were taken off of their foundations, and were actually floating. Businesses were flooded, and many people were displaced. The Mill Pond was emptied, and all that you could see as you drove past was a huge mess of mud.
I heard that the DNR condemned many of the mobile homes, and declared that the ground all around there was contaminated, and blocked off the area. They are still trying to decide what to do with the Mill Pond, or what WAS the Mill Pond.
I really did not want to go down to see what had happened to my special place. I really did feel that it was MY special place, because of the water fall, and the word that God had spoken to me there. Not only that, it was a beautiful place… The people in the town would come to that little pond, and have concerts and just generally enjoy themselves, and now all of that was gone. I did not want to look at it, and what I could see was horrible. But God had me stop my car one day, and get out and go to look at that place that the flood had gone through.
What I did see surprised me. I saw that the water had cut through another channel, and it was going in another direction, but it was still going. I could hear the roar of the waterfall behind me, and the water was rushing on, through that black mud and muck.
Suddenly, God asked me a question, and it really took me back. He asked me, “Are you ready for that kind of change?”
And I had to ask myself that question. Was I really ready? To have my whole world turned upside down? Just like in the flood here, there are things that we have created in the natural that are very good. Beautiful things, and some are even ministry things that we are doing for God. But they are done in the flesh, and are just like that dam… Natural earthen works. Are we ready to have those things taken out of the way? So that the Spirit of God can cut through and go where He wants to go? Because when that flood comes, it will go where it wants to go!
My answer is a resounding “yes!” Lord, change me. Do what you have to do!
And what about you? Are you ready for that kind of change? Change that will reshape your world, and the world around you forever. Change that might take out the things even that you love? Things that you have built up and made so beautiful? Are you willing to let God flow in a new direction? His direction, and not yours.
Yes, there is a price to be paid… The flesh must die. We must decrease, and He must increase, until it is no longer US, but HIM IN US. For we will see the Glory of God, and that wave will cover the earth. And there will be the miraculous and the harvest of souls, but there is a price to be paid. So… Do you want that kind of change?