Keep Out

I realize it has been awhile, but life has been a blur lately and I haven't had the time or energy to devote to writing. Work is a struggle, more so than usual. I had to fire an employee last week for being ridiculously lazy and unproductive, and his mother's response was to text another employee's wife that she hoped I fall off a dock roof. I was thinking about that curse today when working alone on the roof...

I was awake in the night last night, and talking to God after waking up from three disturbing God-dreams in a row. They were distressing enough that I wasn't anxious to go back to sleep right away, and so I was praying about the dreams and about stuff on my heart. While I was praying, God showed me a vision.

I was driving in my car at night or in the early morning hours, and it was quite dark. I was in a very large parking lot. When I say it was large, I mean it was football-stadium large. Event-center large. I wanted to turn left into a certain area, but there was a temporary chain-link barricade there, like they put up to separate paid parking for that particular event from the general parking which is free to the public. "No problem," I thought. I will just drive around. But as I drove, I was astonished to see that the the temporary chain link fence was lengthening as I drove, and was keeping pace with me. In fact, I could see heavy machinery behind it that was unrolling it as I drove along. It didn't say "Keep Out" exactly, but it was implied.

But why, God? In trying to reason through it, I came up with two possible rationale. Either it was a timing issue-- it wasn't time yet and I was too early and this location wasn't ready for me yet, or it was a place that was off limits to me. I find it interesting that even though I was trying to look through the fence while I drove, I couldn't see anything other than the heavy equipment moving around, silhouetted by the construction floodlights . As I considered the matter, several scripture passages came to mind. The first is in Jeremiah 45, quoting from The Message:

This is what Jeremiah told Baruch one day in the fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign as he was taking dictation from the prophet:

"These are the words of GOD, the God of Israel, to you Baruch. You say, 'These are bad times for me! It's one thing after another. God is piling on the pain. I'm worn out and there is no end in sight.'

"But GOD says, 'Look around. What I've built, I'm about to wreck, and what I've planted I'm about to rip up. And I'm doing it everywhere-- all over the whole earth! So forget about making any big plans for yourself. Things are going to get worse before they get better. But don't worry. I'll keep you alive through the whole business.' "

In this passage, God spoke to Baruch through Jeremiah and assured him that he would make it through "the coming unpleasantness," as a YouTuber I follow refers to hard times to come. (He is riffing on a historical euphemism for the American Civil War as "the recent unpleasantness" and is deliberately describing our possible future in those stark terms.) Could it be that this place is off-limits to me because it represents an "Event"-- a bad thing-- that God is keeping me away from to preserve me, like in the Jeremiah passage above? Or perhaps this upcoming Event is a good thing, and is for me! I am supposed to be there for it, but it is not ready yet. Heavy equipment is still working and my poor car would be in the way, would inhibit progress, and could get crushed! (Could it mean both, at the same time?)

Some time ago, I was lamenting a situation and God interrupted my thoughts to say emphatically,

"My timing is PERFECT!"

Ouch.

Sometimes God deliberately hides things from his servants, just as the view beyond the fence was blocked from me. A great example in scripture is found in 2 Kings 4, where a woman comes up to the prophet Elisha for counsel. Here is verse 27, quoted from The New International Version:

When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, "Leave her alone! She is in bitter distress, but the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me why."

I find this fascinating. Elisha was a prophet, who spoke out what God told him verbally, but he was also a Seer-- one who God communicated with visually. And here is a situation where he was expecting to see into the situation spiritually for insight-- it was his job as a Seer!-- but he said that God "hid it from him." (That's a reference to God communicating visually.) He further explained that God didn't tell him verbally either! In my own life, God sometimes allows me to "see" things spiritually like this, as a common means of communicating with me. But there have been specific times where He showed me someone in great distress but didn't reveal the reason until much later. It wasn't my privilege to know why at the time! My job was simply to intercede for them.

So maybe in your own life, you have come to a Keep Out sign-- a barricade that you can't get around. It even moves with you! Maybe God is protecting you from something. Or maybe God is preserving you for something, but it's not time yet. It's still dark outside and the show doesn't open until 10 am.

Either way, keep praying, keep asking, but see if maybe there is somewhere else God wants you to go right now while this place is off limits?