I was at a prayer and worship meeting a few weeks ago now, and the person leading asked if anyone had a prophetic word. And so I enquired of the Lord and had quite a vague sense of a small yellow flower. Hmmm.... Now, flowers are something that I really enjoy, but the whole flower thing was a bit too common for me - was this really from the Lord for this situation?? I had my doubts but I took a deep breath and shared my vague and brief vision - and the interpretation alongside.
Firstly, I don't particularly like yellow flowers. I finished up my job just 2 weeks ago to start a new one elsewhere - and they gave me some yellow flowers. Hmmmm. I thanked them (of course) and commented how much I like gerberas. They were indeed lovely and bright, but the colours didn't really match. My personal preference is a fairly strongly one - towards the purple, pink and white varieties. My own garden is quite significantly biased in this direction.
In the brief vision I had, the flower I saw was a small, ordinary kind of flower - nothing too special really. Although yellow often reminds me of the glory of God (this is special!!). God reminded me in that moment that his glory is often present in ordinary ways and in the small things that we often are not too fond of - such as a smile, or a compliment or in saying something that is God given, without us really even being aware of it. We can find his presence in the mundane things that maybe we are not particularly excited about.
This is what we actually have in our hands to take care of and to steward. The average person we come across on the street is probably not going to respond too well to a grand and theatrical style of prophecy. Especially if the prophetic is new to them. It is in the small things that might take us unawares or warm our hearts, that the glory of God may be found. The fruit of the Spirit is love peace and joy, after all. A smile, a gift, an act of kindness, a small sacrifice of our time or effort, or a word of encouragement. These things will win us favour in the eyes of men and in the eyes of God.
Proverbs 3: 3-4
Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart.
Then you will win favor and a good name
in the sight of God and man.
1 John 4: 11-13 The Passion Translation
Delightfully loved ones, if he loved us with such tremendous love, then loving one another should be our way of life! No one has ever gazed upon the fullness of God's splendour. But if we love one another, God makes his permanent home in us, and we make our permanent home in him, and his love is brought to its full expression in us. And he has given us his Spirit within us so that we can have the assurance that he lives in us and that we live in him.
And so with small yellow flower in hand, the very following week, amongst the same group of people, I found someone quote Ezekiel and the call of God to prophecy to dry bones.
Ezekiel 37: 1- 6
The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
The immediate thing that struck me, was that it was likely that no-one in that room was going to take the idea of prophesying to others on board. The prophetic was not something that was commonly practiced (or taught) and I don't think anyone else had a particularly clear idea of what that meant - even at its most basic level (I could be wrong in this).
Which is where the small yellow flower comes in play. At its most ordinary and basic level it represents to me the small acts of kindness, creativity, encouragement, sacrifice and worship. The prophetic is an act of love that might be ordinary and might go against the grain of what we feel like doing or get excited about - a bit like me taking the plunge and bringing up the yellow flower thing in the first place (I don't really like them and I really wasn't sure about it!). Mustard seeds are yellow too (on the inside), aren't they? But all so that the glory of God may be revealed.
And so that evening I found myself talking to people at length about possums and lemon trees, and then I just stopping to put my hand on the shoulder of another aquaintance - someone who I probably wouldn't normally give too much time and effort to socially. It is indeed in the ordinary and mundane acts of love - that is where God can truly work. The prophetic can be verbal, or a physical act (such as this sacrifice of connecting with someone who I normally / otherwise wouldn't). This is a great starting point. I have engaged in prophetic booths in the past and have been surprised at how God can move and speak to people in powerful ways. Although this night, it was nothing like that, but there were indeed some prophetic words spoken and acts undertaken. Words and actions laced with kindness, sacrifice and love. The Spirit of God was in the room and there was an energy and sense of fun that was palpable by the end of the evening.
We love because he first loved us, even if we don't quite feel like it. If I want to see the glory of God revealed, I will carry the yellow flower - it is not something too heavy to bear, and I know His Spirit, and the life that he can breath into all of us, is so delightfully worth it. It has been a wonderful reminder these last 3 weeks. I think I needed it.
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