“Accelerating Through Walls of Pain and Sorrow” by Garris Elkins

This week we were in a time of corporate prayer at Living Waters Church in Medford, Oregon.  Our worship pastor, Andy Southmayd, was leading us in a moment of unscripted and spontaneous worship.  Andy began to sing the words, “Break down the walls”. He sang these words over and over.  Something was being released by God’s Spirit into our gathering.

As we sang the words, “Break down the walls”, I began to see an image.  It was of the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.  These salt flats are made up of miles and miles of flat, powdery salt from a long-evaporated lake.  The salt flats are so flat and obstacle-free that they have become the single most significant place on earth from which to attempt land speed records.  These salt flats are free from the debris that could cause a catastrophic event if even a rock the size of a pebble were to be in the way of a jet car running at 700 miles per hour.

As we continued to worship and sing words about walls breaking down, I saw a believer, someone who represents all of us, sitting in the seat of a jet-powered vehicle.  As I watched, the ignition of the jet engine took place and the vehicle began to accelerate, moving towards a record-breaking event.  All of the natural surroundings blurred as the speed continued to increase.

As the driver began to focus on the distant horizon, a wall constructed in the roadway began to appear. It would be impossible to swerve out of its way.  The brakes could not stop the vehicle in time.  Collision was imminent.

From a distance the wall had words written on it – words like, “Abuse”, “Wound”, “Violation”, “Hurt” and “Betrayal”.  As this event unfolded, the Lord spoke and said to the driver, “Speak to the wall and say, ‘I forgive and let go.’”

There wasn’t anytime for human reasoning or justification.  A crash was imminent. There was no time to figure out who was wrong.  There was no time to attach blame.  This was all taking place in that split-second moment between when the driver first saw the wall and a collision was about to take place.

The supernaturally accelerating vehicle continued to gain speed while the driver was still speaking to the wall.  As the last word came out of his mouth the vehicle struck the wall and instead of destroying the driver and the vehicle, as would happen in a natural event, the vehicle accelerated even more as it passed through the wall that had now become a wall of vapor and dust.

The event was not over.  The driver saw another wall with other names on it describing hurtful events from past seasons of life.  Again, the driver cried out, “I forgive and let go”, and this wall also exploded on impact and the acceleration increased again.  This wall crashing and acceleration continued to take place until all the walls had been destroyed and the driver and vehicle continued to move at even higher levels of supernaturally accelerated speed.

I sense this is a picture of what God is doing in His people in this season. We are in a time of supernatural acceleration.  We have entered the equivalent of a supernatural salt flat. The only obstacles in our way are those we choose to allow to remain. Things are about to happen so fast that much of what we have known in the past will become a blurred backdrop to the new work God has planned. These fast approaching walls of past wounds will not allow us time to rationalize or strategize our way out of an imminent collision.

There are two collisions approaching the people of God - collisions that can destroy us because we hang onto an offense or collisions that we will accelerate through into new dimensions of life and revelation because we chose to humble ourselves before God and His people in acts of repentance and forgiveness.