“Soon — and it will not be very long — the forests of Lebanon will become a fertile field, and the fertile field will yield bountiful crops.” Isaiah 29:17 NLT
I have always been taught and have come to believe that the Bible is God speaking to us and that if I were to make Bible reading a discipline in my life, that I could expect to hear God on a regular basis. A belief and discipline that I still hold to after thirty years of following Jesus.
Even as the years go by it never gets old. Disciplined bible reading? Yes! Boring? No! No matter how many times you read the Bible, there is always something new, always something fresh that God wants to tell us. Things about Himself, His character – (Who He is, and what He is like) His ways, His thoughts, what sort of things please Him, and about some of His dislikes. Or what type of things that He doesn’t like. And there are a lot of them.
The truth is we all go through different seasons of the soul and the key is to stay at it and to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you as you read God’s Word. Be sure to get a notebook, or a daily Bible reading journal and talk good notes.
The things that we are hearing from God, become the “sign posts” or the “mile markers” in our walk with the Lord. Prophetic promises “rhema words” if you will, that proceed from God – fresh manna that holds a future fulfillment in the next season that the Lord is bringing us into. Prayer promises we can pray into being as God’s plan becomes manifested in our current realities.
More recently, I have been challenged once again by several verses from Isaiah 29 about “forests becoming fertile fields” and that soon – and it won’t be very long that “the fertile fields will yield bountiful crops.”
As I read from these verses, it’s if the Lord is saying what He is about to do; giving us insight into what is about to unfold in this next season. The “forests of Lebanon” – referring to the dry places in our lives – lets say a wilderness experience, or “seeds” that we’ve sown in the past (in a former season) regarding our children, seeds sown in our businesses, in our work places, and in our current and future ministries are about to grow! He is turning our “dry seasons”, our “past seasons of sowing”, into seasons of “Suddenly.”
Breakthrough moments in God are coming our way! The Lord is tipping the scales in our direction and it’s time to get growing again!
~ Dan Ecker
