Bush Hogging In The Spirit

We made our way to the mountain ridge today.  Or, at least, we tried to.  The path was totally overgrown… as if it had never been there before.

So we got out the tools.  The hand-held, gas-powered Bush Hog.  The long-handled snips. The hand-held pruning shears.  And we made our way up the mountain, like two trailblazers in the wild.

Make that three.  Skippy shadowed us the whole way.  She stayed well to the rear, thanks to the noise of the Bush Hog.  But she was there — hidden in the low brush, vigilantly watching… and following.

It was hard work.  Leveling small trees and tall grasses.  Thorn bushes that wove across the path like prickly spider webs, all too eager to grab hold and not let go.

The first pass got the Big Stuff, which had to be raked aside… revealing the Little Stuff that was just as problematic.  Hidden snares poised to tear up — and trip up — every unsuspecting ankle and calf.

It proved to be the perfect setting for the real assignment You had given me today, Lord. Why am I not surprised???   🙂

The Assignment was prayer.

To join together with brothers and sisters in Florida who were walkiing and praying through a dead orange grove in central Florida.  A grove stricken with the plague that threatens to destroy the citrus industry worldwide in as few as five years.  A plague for which there is no cure.  A specific grove You had assured us that You wanted to heal.

Not just any healing, but a miraculous healing.  A testimony to You, Lord, that could not be missed or ignored.

We had prayed fervently for months and months.  We had seen evidence of The Miracle unfolding.  New growth coming out of dead trees.  But, something had happened.  Our prayers had faltered.  We had been distracted by other priorities.  Consumed by other battlefronts.  We had left the labor to the owners of the grove.

The healing was declining.  The dying was progressing.  Yesterday, You put those facts in front of us… to see what we would do.

Was that the point of today’s bush hogging adventure, Lord?  To show me that I, too, may be in need of a little bush hogging?  Bush hogging whatever “undergrowth” might keep me from doing my part to help clear the land and keep it clear?  Undergrowh like Complacency?  Lethargy?  Self-concern?  Distraction?  Discouragement?  Doubt?

“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leave no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.  See what this godly sorrow has produced in you:  what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.”  (2 Corinthians 7:10-11a)

So it was that this morning, after much godly sorrow and repentance, we “locked” our Shields of Faith together once again and sought You anew.  And although my brothers and sisters were almost a thousand miles away from me this morning, I know our prayers joined together in the Spirit and wafted upward into Your Presence.

“I call to You, Lord, come quickly to me; hear me when I call to You.  May my prayer be set before You like incense; may the lifting of my hands be like the evening sacrifice…”  (Psalm 141:1-2)

Bush hogging on the mountain did wonders today.  I can only imagine what You will do, Lord, through our Bush Hogging In The Spirit!

“If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”  (2 Chronicles 7:14)

In total dependence…

… and with great anticipation,

Abba’s Girl

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