Recently, I was in Central Oregon speaking at a men's retreat. I enjoyed the drive over the Cascades and was looking forward to speaking to this group of men. The previous Sunday, on the way out of the sanctuary, one of the women in our church stopped me and said, "Garris, I believe I have a word for you about the men's retreat - you are to go unprepared." I thanked this faithful woman for sharing this word with me and then I went home.
Later that day I realized what "going unprepared" meant for me. This meant that while I would go unprepared in a traditional sense I would not go without a word from the Lord.
Sure enough in the next few days, while in prayer, the Lord gave me an image that would become the word for these men. I share this image now because it's truth touches all of us. The image was of one of those old hour glasses that measured time by draining sand from the upper compartment to the lower. In the image it looked like the last few grains of sand were trickling downward and the hour glass was about to run out of time.
As I looked at the hour glass I saw the hand of God enter the image, pick up the hour glass and turn it over. Then the Lord spoke and said, "Tell the men that some of them feel like their time has run out, but I am about to change that. I am turning over their hour glass and giving them a new season."
As I thought of this word I grabbed it for myself. Never before, with all the cultural change and financial crisis going on, have I felt like time as we know it is running out. For days I kept seeing that image whenever a faithless lie would try to rear it's ugly head. I kept seeing the hand of God come into the scene and change everything.
Do you feel like your life, your marriage, your ministry or (insert your unique situation here) has run out of time? God is reaching into your situation and His hand is picking up the hour glass of your life and He is turning it over. I believe the church is entering a new season when we will see the hand of God do this very thing on both a personal and corporate level.
There was one final word the Lord spoke concerning this image - as God turned over the hour glass He said, "You have another season - I am not done with you yet!"
