Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
A few months ago I had a very powerful dream. In the dream I was walking down a white road. I noticed some stones on the side of the road and one of them was glowing. I picked up the glowing stone and wrapped it in a white handkerchief and placed it in my pocket.
The scene shifted and I was at our church and we were praying for people. I placed my hand on the first person and this irresistible compassion rose from within and the man experienced an immediate miraculous healing. I continued praying and some of the people I would uncontrollably weep over, but the results were all the same – healing was flowing like a river.
People began to come out of the woodwork and the power of the Lord was flowing in miracles and healing. They even showed up at my house and I could not look at them without the compassion rising up in me – it was an irresistible force. People stopped me on the street to pray for their sick babies. There was nowhere I could go without the sick approaching me for healing and every time the compassion would compel me to pray for them.
The dream was awesome and sobering. The white road and the glowing stone stood out as being supernatural, so the supernatural as always is key. The other thing that stood out was the inconvenience and disruption to my lifestyle. I have thought about that a lot.
The price we would have to pay for the compassion of Christ to flow through us at that level would be greater than any of us know. Can you imagine waking up in the morning and looking out your window at people lined up at your door waiting on you to come out and pray for them?
On the other hand how awesome would it be for the compassion of Christ to flow through a whole church body? It would make a mess of our church services, but it would be worth it. Just imagine babies, children and adults being healed of mental illness, cancer, diseases and deformities. That is the kind of mess I will sign up for.
In Mark 6:30-39 is the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 that speaks much of His compassion and the inconveniences that surrounded Jesus’s ministry. The first thing that happened when He saw the multitude was He was moved with compassion because they were like sheep with no shepherd (Mark 6:34). Only a shepherd can see people as sheep.
So embracing the heart of the Lord our Shepherd is a key to flowing in compassion. That does not mean you have to be a pastor. Think Mother Theresa, who never pastored a church, but had a big heart of compassion like Jesus.
The disciples on the other hand only saw the inconvenience. They saw the multitudes and saw how much it would cost to minister to them. They thought that it would be better to send them away to get their own food otherwise they would be stuck with them (Mark 6:35-36). In other words the only thing they saw was the problem, but Jesus not only saw sheep with no shepherd He saw the Shepherd and that is why He told them, “You give them something to eat.”
Then the disciples objected due to the finances and the logistics of where to buy the food (Mark 6:37). I tell you from experience it is really easy to get trapped in that type of thinking if you do ministry very long. You start feeling overwhelmed by problems and before long all you see are the problems.
I believe the Lord desires us to prepare for the harvest by seeking to grow in the supernatural, embracing His Shepherd’s heart and being willing to be inconvenienced.
Many Blessings, BW