Exercise: Parabolic Signs in the Earth
SEEING GOD’S WORDS THROUGH PARABOLIC SIGNS IN THE EARTH
Below are 3 graphics. Ponder them to discover what you “see” as spiritual parables within each picture. You can be as picky and detailed as you want. Or you can be as broad as you like with only one idea.
The scripture IS a part of the photo, so let that influence your ponderings, as it states the overall theme.
You can say what you literally see in the details of the photo and then what each means to you spiritually.
Or you can say what the overall photo speaks to you as in one generic idea.
Or you can be inspired by the photo and pray a short prayer.
If you have the gift of the Word of Wisdom, you might try expressing each concept in only one sentence. If you are unable to do that, that is OK and does not change the purpose of the lesson.
You are welcome to add a new scripture to the bottom of what you see in each picture.
The concept of looking at a photo and seeing spiritual parables, is to teach us to be perceptive to parables as to how they relate as God’s signs in the earth. He puts His signs everywhere. If we simply take the time to ask Him to open our eyes to see them, He will quicken them to our spirit. After they are quickened and we see they have meaning, we realize God is speaking His Word.
To give you an idea, the following are 3 examples through my using the top banner graphic, “Heaven’s Impact.”
EXAMPLE ONE
I see the tiny speck of a bird at the very top of the photo. That bird is so very tiny and yet God knows that bird and nothing happens to it without the Father knowing. It reminds me of the following scripture and impacts me with how HUGE our God is, and yet He is not so huge to care for one small bird.
Matt 6:26-27 NKJV
Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
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EXAMPLE TWO
Oh Lord, in each day’s sun rise I see Your faithfulness. Thank You.
Ps 50:1 AMP
THE MIGHTY One, God, the Lord, speaks and calls the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
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EXAMPLE THREE
Let the earth look in her mirror and see heaven.
Matt 10:6
Let Your kingdom come and Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
PHOTO ONE: DIVINE APPOINTMENTS
MARKERS OF APPOINTED BLESSINGS
{Sandy’s Example}
Walking in the Spirit is a walk of faith where we know that God has already lined up divine appointments for us. It is during and after those appointments that we receive confirmations that the experience is God ordained and appointed.
As I walk my solid pathway towards His appointments, there comes a time when I have to trust Him and walk in faith. I step off my pier and onto the water. As I walk upon the waters of life, trusting in Him, I have my eyes expectant for His divine signs. These signs are planted one by one, like little buoys in the water. They tell me, “You are here.” These buoys are precious lifts of faith where He speaks to me, may use me to minister to another, or He interrupts my normal routine and I see He left a blessing for me to discover. These beloved appointments are already waiting for me, and I will find them if I am willing to step into deep water and trust that He is leading me.
I can see in the distance that my water is surrounded by mountains. The friendly array of these mountains reminds me that the cloud of witnesses and heaven is surrounding me. They are always there watching me and routing me on, in my journey of trusting God.
Heb 12:1-2 NKJV
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses , let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus…
CLASS RESPONSES
This is a picture of two boat docks on a body of water with mountains or hills on the other side.
Don’t miss the boat…be ready in season and out of season to share the gospel.
Is. 50:4 “The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned That I should know how to speak A word in season to him who is weary……..” NKJ
Proverbs 15:23 “A man has joy by the answer of his mouth, And a word spoken in due season, how good it is.” NKJ
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It is the season of Encounter my Beloved in the stillness and in the storm, I will come to you.
I Am unchanging in my care and tender love for you. This is a new thing that I am doing in that I am opening your eyes to perceive, know and understand I Am there with you and for you, you will see Me. I am coming like the rain. You will smell Me, feel Me and see Me.
Song of Solomon 2: 12-13
The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth and ripens her green figs, and the vines are in blossom and give forth their fragrance.
Arise my love, my fair one, and come away.
Matthew 15:26-31
And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea…But instantly He spoke to them, saying “Take courage! I Am! Stop being afraid! 28. Peter answered HIm, Lord, if it is You, command me to come to YOu on the water… 29. He said, Come! So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and he came to Jesus. 30. But when he perceived and felt the strong wind, he was frightened, and as he began to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me [from death]! 31. Instantly Jesus reached out His hand and caught and held him, saying to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt?
Jeremiah 32:17
Alas, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! There is nothing too hard or too wonderful for You.
Hosea 6:3…His going forth is prepared and certain as the dawn, and He will come to us as the [heavy] rain, as the latter rain that waters the earth.
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We kingdom people have been at sea. We have been learning “the ropes” and how to sail on calm seas and stormy ones alike. In this time, there has been a sense of isolation and of being cut off, even though we have chosen it because God has deemed it necessary.
But now, Divine assignments are opening and waiting. Like open berths and anchorages, we each have a place in a harbor or cove, which represents God’s place for us. We will now be connected with people who are increasingly ready to receive the Lord and his kingdom over religion and the empty promises of secular humanism. Naturally, there will be more challenges ahead, but we are not the same people who set sail a few years ago!
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In the first photo the verse reminds me of the divine appointments I have had over the years. I will just let the Lord lead and he will show me something or I will meet someone who I become very close to in the Lord. He has put me in the right place at the right time and told me what to say. I have also been led by the Lord to places to live as well. I absolutely love those divine appointments!
“You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.” Ps 73:24
PHOTO TWO ENDURANCE
THE ENDURING LIGHTHOUSE
{Sandy’s Example}
Facing the winds of adversity, the dark night of the soul, the storms of life, and the billowing waves, I stand as a lighthouse, planted by God.
My place is to pierce the darkness with the Light of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ Light in my tower sends comfort to those who are lost. Each time I circle and wait upon the Lord, He grants me His Word of reassurance and tells me, “You are here.” As I circle His Words and wait throughout the darkness, His light within me pierces warnings to those who have traveled outside safe boundaries.
As a watchman tenaciously hanging onto the cliffs of life, I endure the elements so that others may find their own route to Jesus Christ.
John 8:12 NKJV
Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
Matt 5:14-16 NKJV
“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Acts 13:46-47 NKJV
For so the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles,
That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.'”
Acts 26:17-18 NKJV
I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light , and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’
CLASS RESPONSES
This is a picture of a lighthouse and the rugged rocks nearby.
Some of us are called to warn others of the rocky places and the consequences of our actions. We can be a huge light to guide others safely to shore.
Mt.10:27 “Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops.” NKJ
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The second picture is strongly quickened to me. This is a picture where we are learning to tip toe >> to dance along the cutting edge (rough rocks) of faith with our spiritual eyes on the Light of the World, His gaze upon us, navigating us through the (narrow) way.
As we keep looking up to the warm comforting light of His eye upon us in sometimes even soundless prayer, to take that next step, its almost like the surrounding threats disappear into the darkness and we follow and ? bask in that loving encouraging Light. Easier said than done though at times..
It is something He is training to do more and more deeply with more and more personal cost/risk. I know some saints personally who are in very narrow places and the Grace of God, grace upon grace keeps their precious eyes upon Him. Imagine having the grace to walk into a furnace like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did. Once we’ve been navigated through these narrow threatening places a few times we build up an unshakeable (solid) peace and trust in the faithfulness of God. Especially when in the natural things aren’t looking too pretty.
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I Am the Lord your Rock, your Fortress, and your Deliverer; your God your keen and firm Strength …your Strong High Tower who has endured the Ages and is well able to keep you and perform through you that which I have promised and destined for your life.
The Rock is the only foundation upon which we can build.
Psalm 18:1-2
I love You fervently and devotedly, O Lord, my Strength. 2 The Lord is my Rock, my Fortress, and my Deliverer; my God, my keen and firm Strength in Whom I will trust and take refuge, my Shield, and the Horn of my salvation, my High Tower.
Deuteronomy 32:4
He is the Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are law and justice. A God of faithfulness and without breach or deviation, just and right is He.
Col 1:26
The mystery of which was hidden for ages and generations[from angels and men], but is now revealed to His holy people (the saints).
Proverbs 25:2
It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search it out.
Phil 1:6
And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ …developing …. and perfecting and bring it to full completion in you.
Hebrews 10:23
So let us seize and hold fast and retain without wavering the hope we cherish and confess and our acknowledgment of it, for He Who promised is reliable (sure) and faithful to His word. (Romans 4:19-21)
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We are destined to take the kingdom message into our assignment place, but how do we know where that is?
God shines a light out to sea to show us the way in to our special place. It can come in various forms – a Divine intuition, something someone said, a rhema word, a vision, etc. When we see the light He is shining, that is the signal to come to harbor from our long preparation sail. We have a lot to share – and the fear of man is gone!
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Some time ago when I was going through a particularly rough time I painted a picture of a girl in a rowboat, exhausted as if she had escaped some peril but barely hanging on. In fact she hangs over the side of the boat with one arm over the side. In the background is the lighthouse on the rock. The implication being that she is safe now if she will only look up and see the lighthouse.
“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Ps 73:26
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I see an empty runway (cant remember the right word for it). God has set a scene and is saying I have been waiting for you to show up. I never get tired of waiting for you. God wants us to call on him for mighty revelations. Appointments signify that he loves us and longs to reveal things to us. These are seasons when my word is going forth. Hear me. Listen. Obey me. Seek me in a time when I may be found. Let the eyes of your understanding be open.
The purpose of divine arrangements is to open our eyes and grant us diving revelations, to open the scriptures to us and grant us the keys to victorious life. Are you ready? Come on up. I am waiting.
Jer 33:3: – Call on me and I will answer you and show you great and unsearchable things you do not know
Luke 24: 31-32. V31
Then their eyes were opened and they knew him; and he vanished from their sight. 32 and they said to one another, “did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us on the road, and while he opened the scriptures to us?”
Eph 1:17-19 nkjv
…that the God of our lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe…
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Like buoys that float in the sea – you must maintain your trust in Me. I am faithful to watch over you, for I have placed you on a rock to anchor and sustain you in every season. Watch.
“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:23
I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. Ex. 3:16b
Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. 2 John 1:8
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The rocks in this picture are strong, hard, stable and enduring. Despite the waves beating on them, they stand strong and tall. God is saying I want you to be like the rocks. No matter the waves of life that beat on you (death, sickness, poverty, stagnation, failure, obstacles etc.), be strong and endure because in the fullness of time you will reap. Be like the man that built his house on a strong foundation. I ask you how strong is your foundation? Where is your foundation? If it is founded upon me because I am the rock, I tell you, you will always come out victorious.
Lu 6:48
He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
(KJV)
Just like the man on the watchtower watches all the activities on the sea, I sit above in my tower and I see all you go through, I see your heart. Do not despair or give up. Stand strong for I will come at the appointed time.
See how calm the water is. My presence calms you and brings peace. Not the peace of the world but my peace that passes all understanding I give to you. Dwell in my peace.
Joh 14:27 peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
PHOTO THREE I DO NOT CHANGE
A BLANKET OF SNOW
{Sandy’s Example}
When my world is covered with fresh fallen snow, life changes, if just for a moment. I enjoy that first breath of fresh cold air. My eyes soak in a landscape lavished in white. I love its silence. If but for a moment, all life is still, as though a soft hush has fallen from the breath of God.
Before I am ready, soon tire tracks go to and fro, the sound of chains clanking past my window. Trips to the mailbox bring mud into the house. Shopping becomes a hazard and I am glad when the weather changes and life returns to normal.
When I find myself looking forward to a new blanket of snow, I remember my life in Jesus Christ. I can breathe in His fresh Presence as I dwell in Him. My eyes can soak in a vision He has lavished in His merciful grace. I love His peace and the quietness of knowing He is God. If but for a moment, my life is still, as though His soft breath has fallen upon me.
And then I remember that God has not changed. He conceals me daily with His fresh forgiveness and I am covered. I am at peace.
Isa 1:18 NKJV
“Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the LORD, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool.
Heb 13:8 NKJV
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
CLASS RESPONSES
This is a picture of a mountain forest in winter, with a little stream that is not yet frozen because the water is moving.
Even though there is no sign of life in the grey trees and bushes, the life is hidden inside and there are evergreen trees which do not change with the season. If we keep moving like the little stream, we will stay fluid. Even when we do not outwardly recognize the life therein, He is still alive because He does not change.
Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” NKJ
Hebrews 13:5 “………”I will never leave you nor forsake you.” NKJ
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This third picture strongly quickens. I know that place. Again its a place of faith training. Training our eyes not to look on the frozen, presumably dormant and un-awakened place (this is not a place of scolding where God is mad at us) which we sometimes focus on with our impatient frustrated natural eye but we remind ourselves of God’s character and His ways.
Both with us in the past and with those who have gone before us like Sarah and Hannah and Moses and for that matter even Winston Churchill !! (laughter) Mr Churchill in British history had a mandate from God to govern Britain during the second world war (Reese Howells interceded for Mr Churchill) but Mr Churchill experienced failure and waiting before he was promoted into that place. Was Mr Churchill forgotten by God, was God unfaithful after all? No. Mr Churchill was being prepared as was, possibly, Mr Howells the intercessor.
Frozen times are times when the ways of God are hidden from us but that doesn’t mean they are unfruitful times. They are perhaps junctions (transitions), where we are catching up with God’s kairos time for Him to complete that work of restoration and healing and preparation for the next season. Our eyes always lifted up, full of trust in Him, His love for us, His faithfulness to His covenant with us, the only wise God who knows all things and will complete all things is the way to wait in that place.
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From the rising of the sun to the setting of the same, seasons come and seasons go, I change not in my affections for you my people. My plan of salvation and love cannot be stopped it is an eternal plan. Every morning the sun rises and tells of My faithfulness, My justice is like the great deep the only place where my lovingkindness can be found, that will bring salvation and My righteousness is like great mountains and where it is I will bring deliverance for many people.
Thank You Lord for creation’s expressions of Your faithfulness
Psalm 50:1 The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and calls the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
Lord You give us such Hope when we see the beauty of each day, in its season, month in month out, year in year out, speaking of Your mercy.
Lamentations 3:21-23
But this I recall and therefore have I hope and expectation; It is because of the Lord’s mercy and lovingkindness that we are not consumed, because His tender compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness.
The mountains speak of Your righteousness and Your mercy and lovingkindness reach to the clouds…
Psalm 36:5-6
Your mercy and lovingkindness O Lord, extend to the skies and Your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God, Your judgments are like the great deep. O Lord, You preserve man and beast.
You are so beautiful to us Lord…
Eccles 3:11,14,17
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [ a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
3:14 I know that whatever God does, it endures forever; nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it. And God does it so that men will [reverently] fear Him…
James 1:17
Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of all light with Whom there is no changing or variableness.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes on Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Luke 4:18
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me …to preach the good news….to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed…to proclaim the accepted and acceptable year of the Lord the day when salvation and the free favours of God profusely abound.
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Being away for so long and not having a “place”, we have sometimes felt disoriented and challenged. God has been teaching us that He is our true home, no matter where we are. Being far out to sea is a good metaphor for learning to walk in God’s supernatural ways and to get to know Him better. It looks “different” out there! However, we have come to realize that we have not missed anything. The land is the other side of the coin – from our finite POV, it is essentially “everlasting”, just as the sea. We have become connected with the everlasting God while out far from land, but when we return (soon), we will look beyond the villages, cities, and the ways of men, to the underlying stage upon which these temporary things are built. We will, in a sense, look right through them to the “land” that, like God, is just the same as when we left! This will be very stabilizing, comforting, and a constant reminder to live and speak God’s lasting Truth!
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The third picture strikes me by the fact that the picture is so very transient in nature. One moment in time. A picture taken at the same spot in another hour would see another scene as the snow melts exposing the green boughs of the evergreen trees and the widening flow of the stream. All things are passing….But God remains. We do not grasp how very transient all things of this earth are. To God’s perspective the ebb and flow of the nations and the passing generations are as the melting snow. But God remains. “I do not change”
“Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” Rev 4:8b
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As sure as the seasons follow each other, I am unchanging. I am not a man that I should lie, I am steadfast. It may snow, rain or be dry. I remain the same.
Numbers 23: 19 God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
Each season brings something for you to learn. Snow time is cold and the tendency is to seek for warmth and hide inside. I want you to retreat at such a time, withdraw and hear my voice, stay within and seek me afresh but know that through all the changing scenes of life, I will be with you. Every word I have spoken to you, I will bring it to pass and I will do that I have said I will do because I am God. I never change. None can break my covenant.
Ge 8:22 while the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. {while…: heb. As yet all the days of the earth}
(kjv)
Mt 12:15 but when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all;
Jer 32:40 and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. {from them: heb. From after them}
Jer 33:19-22: the word of the lord came to Jeremiah. This is what the lord says: if you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night no longer come at their appointed time, then my covenant with David my servant and my covenant with the levites who are priests ministering before me can be broken and David will no longer have a descendant to reign on his throne. I will make the descendants of David my servant and the levites who minister before me as countless as the stars of the sky and as measureless as the sand on the seashore.
