Insight Prophetic Community

ESTUARY REFLECTIONS - PART 5 THE QUIET WORK

KINGDOM THEME: TRANSFORMATION

Across the water, the chimneys stand.

They are hard to avoid noticing when I’m looking that way when the air is clear. Tall and unmoving against the sky, puffing out their white plumes. The mill has been there for generations. But it somehow announces itself. It dominates the horizon, unmistakably present.

The estuary doesn’t announce itself at all. It simply receives what arrives and gives what it has. It filters and nourishes and shelters and renews. It does its work without fanfare. Tide after tide. Season after season. Year after year.

I have found myself thinking about these two presences and what they represent. Not to diminish the mill, which has its own dignity and purpose. But to notice something about the estuary: that its influence is everywhere, and almost entirely invisible. The water that leaves it is cleaner than the water that arrived. The birds that fed here carry its nourishment across the planet. The fish that sheltered in its nursery will feed creatures far out at sea. Its work is real and lasting and immense. You just can’t see it happening.

Jesus seems to have a particular fondness for this kind of power. Mustard seeds. Yeast. Hidden treasure. A lamp placed not under a bowl but appropriately, without ceremony, where its light can reach the corners. Again and again he pointed away from the dramatic and toward the ordinary. Away from the tower and toward the root. Away from the thing that announces itself and toward the thing that quietly transforms everything it touches.

The still small voice. Not the earthquake. Not the fire. But after all of that, something quiet.

I think we carry an instinct, understandable and very human, to believe that the most important things must be the most visible ones. That the work that matters most will make the most noise. That if something is not noticed, it is not significant. And so we can accidentally find ourselves straining to build chimneys. To measure our faithfulness by the height of our plume against the sky.

But the estuary offers a different kind of faithfulness. Day after day receiving what comes. Giving what it has. Quietly purifying, sustaining, making life possible in ways that no one is there to celebrate or record.

The deepest transformations usually happen beneath the surface. I believe this about the natural world, and I believe it about the human soul. Usually the most significant things that happen in my life, I don’t feel happening. It happens in the way that roots grow, in the way that yeast works, in the way the tide slowly reclaims a mudflat: gradually, then all at once, and more often than not, only visible in retrospect.

Most of the time God seems content to work like the estuary. Present everywhere. Dominating nowhere. Changing everything. Announcing nothing. Taking time.

I don’t think the estuary’s call is a call to smallness. I think it’s more a call to faithfulness. To trust that the quiet work is real work. That the unseen transformation is transformation nonetheless. That what happens beneath the surface shapes what appears above it, sooner or later, in ways we could not have predicted and would not want to miss.

The chimneys are visible across the water. I understand their language. But it is the estuary I keep returning to. It is the estuary that changes me.

The deepest transformations usually happen beneath the surface.

I know I've already posted an article this morning (please read that too :-) but I really want to share this encouragement that I received last night, I think for many, blessings, Jill

Don't Wrestle - Rise.

Last night as I prayed, I became aware that just as storms were whipping up massive waves that were crashing against Wellington’s south coast yesterday, spiritual storms had been raging over people’s lives. Where in the natural, the threat of the tide and the damaging winds led to calls for evacuations, the enemy had been intimidating people to “evacuate” their God given “territory” with waves and winds of harassment. That there had been storm after storm that had eroded people’s shoreline and confidence.

I sensed the Lord said that some (perhaps many) have endured storm after storm of disorienting challenges washing over their boundaries, threatening to drown them. Then our national anthem came to mind: God Defend New Zealand. And the Lord was saying, “Trust me to be your protector and provider, don’t surrender your faith, or your territory in the middle of a storm, shelter under the shadow of my wing.” There was a reassurance, that as you firmly align with Him as your protector and provider, He is faithful to guard the boundaries assigned to you and watch over the “shoreline” of your life.

With that I was aware that there is a call, a condition that relates to your position, so take your stand strengthened by God’s strength, aligned with his wisdom and word - not your own, or anybody else’s, but put your trust firmly in God. Stand in the faith of God, positioned in His peace and protection remembering Christ is within you, beside you, before you, behind you, above and beneath you. Don’t negotiate with “terrorists” and don’t entertain demonic intimidation that urges you to “evacuate” your calling, your faith, and your territory. Don’t focus on the wind and waves of circumstances that may buffet you but run into the strong tower of the Lord’s presence and promise, and you’ll be secured and strengthened by the Spirit.

There’s also an encouragement not to forget or neglect the basics: Pray in the Spirit, let Holy Spirit pray through you, shifting you out of the natural mind into the mind of Christ, and out of the atmosphere of the “storm”, into the atmosphere of the Kingdom of heaven. Proclaim Scripture, declare the promises God gave you, speak out loud the prophesies you’ve received, there’s breakthrough in your mouth as you align your speech with God’s will and word. Put on the garments of praise as a prophetic act of alignment and trust that God is the watchman of your boundaries, your life, your marriage, family, finances, business… and yes, our nation.

Many have been so distracted by personal, political, and provision storms, that prayer and faith in God for our nation, has been crowded out. But the Lord reassured me that he has faithful watchmen and intercessors positioned in prophetic prayer who are faithfully flowing with the Spirit. If that’s you, I sense He is sending refreshing and reinforcements to strengthen you too. Fresh revelation to refocus your prayer in His good plans and promises for our land and people. And that as you pray, the Lord is releasing fresh strategies, spiritual keys that unlock the wisdom and grace of heaven for these times. But also I sense a fresh stirring and increasing arising of faith-filled prophetic prayer and praise all around New Zealand. Prayer that stands in the gap, not only for our nation, but also flowing from this place to Oceania, and far beyond.

Regardless of storms, there’s a shift in the Spirit freeing God’s people from a survival mindset and shifting them into a sending movement and mobilisation again. The wind of the Spirit is blowing, displacing demonic opposition to God’s plans, the clouds of oppression, intimidation and confusion that have hindered people, and replacing that with a fresh sense of zeal and momentum to arise and go in the Spirit of the Lord. So, I pray that you’ll sense Holy Spirit’s stirring and be lifted and shifted into the God’s presence and purpose in a fresh way today.