In the Wilderness Of Shur By Luz Cintrón December 13, 2001 Web Site:http://www.thepearlsofwisdom.net

 
 
 
 
 

Allow me to sing a little, for this is a message to be sung.

“Sing unto the Lord,
For He has triumphed gloriously!
The horse and its rider
He has thrown into the sea!”
Exodus 15:21(b)

There is a theme rising within me that  wells up unto those  called to head the purpose of God at this hour. I see the hardship in which you have moved out of your love for Him. The calling was glorious and there you sang unto Him praises of deliverance and gratefulness, but after that,  you have crossed a desert pursuing Hope. In crossing  that desert all you held dear in you  heart, in hopes and expectation was treasured, long for with expectation sustaining you through all. You have looked up to Him and He has been your strength. Even through complaining because of the  pain you still trusted Him. There you are still from His hand.

You have thirsted and waited, and thirsted some more. Oh how sweet seemed to you His word, His promises, the desires that He planted in your heart. You have pursued them in the hope to witness His goodness in the land of the living and counted all joy for His kingdom.

Like Moses and the children of Israel you followed deep into the desert on His word and His presence. But in drawing near, you beheld that which seemed sweet to desire as it lingers,  it becomes bitter to swallow. You have tasted the bitterness when you tested the waters, the ones  you longed for so deeply. And now what?

This is what the Lord prompted in my spirit.

So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the  wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.

Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah.

And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”

So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He tested them.

Exodus 15: 22-25
 

Some years ago the Lord showed me the church as an arrow. He said to me: What do you see? I told Him : I see an arrow. He said: How many parts you see in the arrow? I said: I see the arrow has  three parts: the head, the body and the tail. He said the head are those  entrusted with the vision, they serve leading, they see ahead. The body is what  follows closely to the head. The tail are those slow to move, the last to catch the vision, those sometimes considered as less  “spiritual”.

He said look again. I looked and there it was the arrow was broken in three sections. He said: Can you shoot that arrow? I said: It is no good to be shot, its torn to pieces. The best I can do is throw it as far I can but ,  I can’t shoot it.

Sometimes that is how it gets with us.

He said to me He gives a vision and those destined to receive it first catch a glimpse of it. But the vision is for whole of the body not just a few. Nevertheless, those who receive it first are there to brake through with it, but sometimes the timing  of the other parts drains them. I was told to warn about it. Each part of the body has its timing, each member is placed in the body in its corresponding place. The head of the arrow should strengthen themselves in the Lord and receive  in respect the timing of others. For the head alone  is no good to be shoot, the body and even the tail is what enables it  to fly through air and hit the target. That which seems slow is what  by its weight defines the path, it is made so.

The head should not despise the  tail thinking of them as less spiritual, because they move with what seems a “slower” pace, but be thankful for they provide a time for the vision to mature and us to grow with it and in it. He asked me to warn about it, warn against elitism. We need each other to  become effectively shoot into His destiny for us.

That was the context and place into which  the  waters of Marah were prompted to me this morning. The head of the arrow is a lonely place. Few  stand there, they break through for the rest of the arrow. As they brake through, it feels lonely and hard, but it is essential.  They taste the waters and will find them bitter, in rejection,  in hardships, in testing, for  it all tests us in our resolve to trust Him and challenges us to trust Him more.

It is in that place  when we cry  out to Him that He presents to us the tree that sweetens the bitter waters. That tree is the cross.

The “foolishness” of the cross remains its hidden power. Hidden to those who do not seek, but open unto those who cry out unto Him. Take hold of the cross, the ancient tree of life in the midst of the garden, in which the Son hung for us, the Lamb slain from the foundations of the world. Take hold of it, because His pains upon it, gave it the power to  make  the bitter sweet. Come cling to it and throw it in the midst of the waters. Because through you pain you are opening a way for the rest of the arrow, way they will follow and the kingdom is there. They will drink sweet what was bitter  in the beginning unto you, and they will make sweet unto those who follow after them, for there is a measure of bitterness in all of our lives that serves the purpose of God and the tree is a witness to it.

But all of us, lets look upon Him, the one who hung on the tree to conquer  bitterness forever, and make it so, that it will turn everything sweet to its touch. In the wilderness of  Shur we behold Him, in Shur we are tested, in Shur is revealed the heart of God for us and in us. Be strong in the Hope of His Glory. He is with us as He remains faithful forever!

Your servant in His love;
Luz Cintrón