Desolation and Desperation

Beloved, have you been feeling desolate and desperate of late? Has the Lord brought you to the Valley of the Shadow of Death...that desert place of isolation and grief out of which only HE can deliver you? Are you not only in the fire, but it has been intensified to the nth degree? Then you will understand the following encouragement that the Lord gave me this morning....If not now, then someday.....

As some of you know this last year has been a haul....and how all that relates to the vision for LifeCare Ministries....Lately, the Lord has led me to Is. 54:1 and how barrenness/desolation in this scripture parallels the original promise He gave me for this ministry from Gen. 18:14. More are the children of the desolate than the married....Sarah was barren and beyond childbearing age, yet the Lord said at the appointed time, according to the time of LIFE, that Sarah would bear a son.

Here's what the Lord put on my heart this morning with Him:
1) Desolation stokes the fires of desperation.
Isaiah 54:1 In our desolation, the intensity of our desperation is multiplied exponentially to the nth degree. .....Can anyone say 3 Hebrew children and the fire being stoked 7 times hotter at this point?

2) Desperation fuels the intensity of our prayers.
It's not the words we use, but the depth of the heart...not what comes out of our heads, but what comes out of our gut/bellies/heart - Out of our bellies shall flow rivers of Living Water. Allowing the Holy Spirit to pray through us with groanings IS LIVING WATER! Rom. 8:18-26. On the Cross, Jesus cried out, "MY GOD! MY GOD! WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?!"
It is exactly this type of prayer/communication with God which pours out of us with the passion that is only birthed out of desperation and desolation.

3) Righteousness and obedience in the face of desolation reap the harvest.
Believe in God in the desert! In the desolate/Valley places, the choices we make determine the outcome. Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Gal. 3:6 In Gal. 6:9, God promises that we shall reap a harvest if we do not weary in doing good. In other words, in the desert, in the Valley, we continue to be found faithful, conforming to the will of God, trusting in God - THROUGH THE VALLEY/THROUGH THE DESERT - and HE WILL BRING THE HARVEST FROM THE BARREN PLACES.

God bless you....Numbers 6:24-26
In His love always~
Crista