Wow, what a 6 months since I prophetically declared the year 2018 (Jewish year 5778) to be a year of ‘overflow’, which is the Hebraic meaning for the number 8 (A Change is Coming…A God Word for 2018). To recap: the number 5 in Hebrew means grace and favour. The number 7 means completion, the double 7 represents double portion and the 8 tells us to get ready for overflow in our lives as children of God!
It came to me the other day, there’s one thing I love more than preaching God’s word and that’s living it!
I could never have anticipated the battle and overflow that would follow that word. Overflow in Hebrew from the number 8 means “to bursting point, to make fat, to super abound, and new beginnings!”
Following our heating oil being stolen in January/February, our home was without hot water or heat for three weeks at around -9 degree temperatures. On moving back in, unknown to us there were slow leaks that resulted in pipes bursting throughout our beautiful home, culminating in a burst water tank.
Our baby suffered an allergic reaction to the damp environment and as dehumidifiers moved in, we moved out and have been living between 2 bedrooms in hotels ever since.
As my daughter summed up so beautifully during yet another hotel move due to hotel availability last week “Mummy, home is where Jesus is and we are all together”! A great life lesson right there! Our home has literally been overflowing, pipes bursting at the seams… get ready, first the natural then the spiritual. I smiled up at heaven the other day, I guess I did write the book “Burst the Dam it’s double portion time”!
What the enemy means for harm, God always works for the good in our lives. The Lord spoke to me one morning in the midst of quite a battle going on. Have you been there when it looks as though the enemy and circumstances have you hemmed in on every side and you’re between a rock and a hard place? Remember, on Christ the solid Rock you stand, He is impenetrable and will not fail you. God caused water and even honey to OVERFLOW out of rocks that the Children of Israel faced. He will turn those hard places into refreshment, something sweet and ultimately what was sent to weaken and diminish you will be the means of strengthening and blessing you!
Psalm 121:1-4 (NKJV)
[1] I will lift up my eyes to the hills— From whence comes my help? [2] My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. [3] He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. [4] Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
On returning to our hotel recently, on a Sunday afternoon, feeling pumped after a great message from Psalm 23 on “God preparing a table before me in the presence of my enemies, my cup overflows…)”, we were approached by a very panic stricken Reception staff who informed us they had our family of seven on the system as checking out that day. We explained our stay had been extended a further week. The manager then contacted us to say the hotel was full, indeed overbooked, and we needed to leave immediately. Stunned, we were able to evidence our extended booking and I learnt, just like David the shepherd boy who penned the words “I look to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth”, that sometimes we have to shift our gaze higher like David did: higher than the hills he would have known, loved and trusted so well. Hills can be good and pleasant, but just like David I had to shift my gaze above the hotel booking system I had trusted, the hotel management, to God, the maker of heaven and earth. To God, the one who again David said in Psalm 90:1 “Lord, YOU have been our dwelling place in all generations”. To God who promises in the verse above, “He will not allow our foot to be moved” (except to move us onwards, upwards and in progress). To God who goes before me to prepare a place for me and my family. I have learnt to stake my life, family, calling, health and business on God’s word above any and everything else.
I trusted God’s purposes for our family when it was deemed by the Room Reservations Manager we needed to move out on our extended date. Whilst checking some details with Reception I ran into a familiar face, someone I hadn’t seen for a couple of years, ‘a Divine Appointment’, who now worked at the hotel in Business, Conferencing and Events. As my husband and I drove away in two cars fully loaded to another hotel booked for 4 nights, tears were in my heart for my family, I’m just being vulnerable and honest with you. I told God the truth “I didn’t understand why we were being ‘moved’, (it didn’t feel like an onwards, upwards or progress step, more like an eviction), the upheaval again was unsettling and my heart was pained that my children had to sleep in yet a different bed that night. Through gritted teeth I finished with “but I trust you Lord”!
That night a lovely young mother of three from housekeeping came in to set up the sofa bed in our room for my daughter. She poured out her heart and I poured in Jesus. Soon after that, my Mama had joined me at the hotel one morning for breakfast and we were heading to the lift, when I ran into my special housekeeping friend. My Mum watched with tears in her eyes as I prayed with Anna in her desperate situation. We hugged as she wept on my shoulder. As Mum and I carried on our way, Mum told me how God showed her that this broken heart would not have come to Church, but the Church and Jesus came to her broken heart through our stay. In that moment all the upheaval, inconvenience and moving was more than worthwhile for our loving Heavenly Father to move another life onwards, upwards and to pour in His love, purposes and wholeness to her broken life!
In the meantime, God was working in the unseen, behind the scenes in our lives. Remember the ‘divine appointment’ I ran into? I received an email from the corporate department of our favoured hotel to provide special rates, a long term booking to give continuity for our children that was so important to me, and get this, upgraded to two Suites!
No matter what “lows” you go through, God will always bring you out on top!
For the second half of this year friends, expect overflow, double for your trouble, blessings to bursting point, because no matter what circumstances that dirty devil throws at you for your harm and alarm, it will rebound to bless you and you will be a blessing to those around you! There’s purpose in your pain, triumph in your tears and overflow everywhere you go!
OPTIONAL PRAYER
Father God, I will rise and shine – this is overflow time! I will get up again, go again, believe again and receive all you have for me. I look to you alone as my source and resource. I look higher than the hills in my life, regardless of how good those hills may look, I look to you. I lift my head and look higher than my husband, my partner, my friends, my job, my doctor, my lawyer; they may well be good, bad or indifferent but you alone have the best for me. Where does my help come from, my help comes from the Lord. I will love and trust you with all my heart! Thank you for your overflow, in Jesus name. Amen.