There’s a ripple in the water, I know it.
It’s been so long since we’ve seen movement we’re hesitant to even believe it. We feel the shifting of the earth beneath our feet, the stale wind brushing our cheek, see the still trees slightly sway. We know the water is about to move, not because of what we feel, not because of what we see, but because of what we believe.
I believe our prayers have broken the ceiling, the barrier that sits above, a horizontal wall between us and the heavens. I believe God has been watching this whole time, seeing our reaction to the hits from the world and the temptation from those who don’t believe. I believe God has been there all along, even when we didn’t feel it, see it, taste it or, even, believe it.
Our God has been watching and waiting. Waiting to see who He could trust. Waiting to see who He can call upon. Waiting to see who He can send. For, things have become murky, the water dirty, which made it unclear who is true, righteous and pure. Who fully belongs to the Lord, and who belongs to the world.
God used the stillness, the thinning that His followers have felt, to separate the righteous from the unrighteous, the good from the bad and the patient from the unwilling to wait. For, we have waited. We have waited and waited for our God to speak to us, to save us from this still dry place.
We have watched so many turn from Him, unwilling to wait for His promises to come to pass and instead took the temptations offered to them by the world. They have left, one by one, and turned from all they knew in order to take all they wanted.
So, here we wait, by the motionless water. Few remain, but those that do are those He can trust and those He will use.
If you have been standing by stagnant water, know that though the water may seem still, the earth is moving beneath your feet, the breeze is brushing by, the trees swaying from side to side. Look at the water with newfound expectation, for God has landed, and He is about to move in a mighty way.
Lord, like the three hundred bowing expectantly beside the water, your people are waiting for your movement. You have thinned the crowd, made them wait and made them pray in order to see who will be bowing in the end. You have your three hundred, your warriors and your captains, your servants and your shepherds. You have separated the wheat from the chaff, thinned the crowd and released those who could not be trusted.
Move, Lord, your people are waiting with great anticipation.
“Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.”
Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.
The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.”
-Judges 7:5-7 (NIV)
A Woman Standing 