Two weeks ago I began my usual walk down by the river at Tinaroo. The water was flowing fairly fast because the powers that be were releasing it from the dam not more than a couple hundred metres upstream.
Not feeling like walking my usual Torpedo Bay track and tired of the old landscape, I said to Papa, “I feel like there’s another landscape here that I need to see, but how will I see it if I’ve no idea where it is?”
“You will see it when I reveal it to you. You need to have eyes to see it. When you’re ready, I will open it to you,” He said.
“Uh-huh,” I said, a little sarcastically.
Two days later, I walked alongside the river at Tinaroo again, across the bridge, and down the dirt road towards my usual Torpedo Bay track, but when I arrived at the track’s entrance, I was apprehended by a sign. The sign had a ‘stop’ icon on it and said that I could not enter because there was burning off taking place.
I decided to walk back to my car and after a few small steps, a strong “no” rose up in my spirit.
I stopped and stood still in the middle of the dirt road. Trees beside. Sky above. Birds quiet. The voice of Holy Spirit roared loudly in my spirit.
“Turn around,” said Holy Spirit.
I turned in the opposite direction of my car and instantly felt a “yes.”
So I followed the “yes.”
Roughly 20-30 metres down the dirt road, hidden from my sight and to the left, I stumbled upon two car tracks that lead down a slope. I followed the tracks for not more than a few meters and found myself walking out onto a landscape that had been there all year. All year! The new landscape had been here ALL YEAR and I hadn’t realised it!
The pre-existent landscape had been revealed to me in a ‘suddenly’ moment. Because of the nature of the sudden reveal, I literally forgot to breathe for a few moments.
Large, elongated rock from old lava flow ran alongside and beneath the river. There were no trees above me or beside me—it was a wide-open space—but trees lined the banks on the other side of the river. The gurgling, bubbling chatter of water as it ran over rocks and in front of me was melodic and brazen all at once and I found myself mesmerised.
“See? I told you I’d reveal the new landscape to you,” I heard Papa say. “It’s completely different to what you thought and how you thought it would be, isn’t it?”
“Yes Papa,” I said, teary.
“Many have tried to bring about their new landscapes according to their own efforts—there is no judgment in that.”
“Yes Papa,” I said.
“Many have been asking me what their new landscape looks like.”
“Yes they have, Papa. Me included.”
“Their landscapes are not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit,” said Papa. “I led you here today by my Spirit. I will do the same with others.”
“Yes Papa. I’m hearing You. I’m sorry I have tried to make ‘the new’ come about in my own strength. I will be led by You. I choose this minute to soften my heart to Your leading again.”
“This new landscape is not only about seeing something new out here at Tinaroo, daughter. This new landscape symbolises what I am about to bring into view for many in my body of believers.
Many have been struggling with partial sight. Many have had a ‘sense’ but not a complete ‘knowing’. I am about to walk some people into full view of ‘the new.’ It won’t necessarily outplay how they thought it might, but it will be right and in my timing,” Papa said. “They have felt the new wine coming. They have intuited movement. They have longed for change. It is all at hand, but it might surprise them. It might look, sound and smell different to the tracks their minds have been pondering, but it will be beautiful. It will flow completely in line with my Spirit. They might even attempt to walk one way, but I will lead them in another direction just like I did with you today. Remember: ‘When you turn to the right or turn to the left, you will hear his voice behind you to guide you, saying, “This is the right path; follow it” (Is. 30:21).
As I have written this today, I feel the fullness of this. I know you are all on your own journeys with Papa and that you are hearing Him for yourselves. I know that you’ve all connected into Him and that you are led by Him. I’m cheering you all on—it’s so good to run / walk / meander alongside the body of believers.
If nothing else comes from writing this, I want to encourage you as your sis: I get things wrong a whole lot, but in Him, everything is made right. In Him, what was hidden is made plain in the fullness of time. What is not seen today might be seen tomorrow or next month or next year. But always, always, we are embraced by the arms of our Father who sees and knows all. Everything.
He wleads us into ‘suddenlies’—into moments of ‘I felt something coming but it totally was not this, but now that I’m here, I am undone by the beauty of how this was all woven together by Him.’
Because Souls Are Like Gardens 