Quickened Billboards
GOD SPEAKS THROUGH BILLBOARDS
It is so much fun to hear the Lord speak and then have it confirmed through glancing at a billboard! He often uses billboards as parables or symbolic ways of speaking His Word. The key is to be Spirit led. When we walk in the Spirit, we have the sensitivity to recognize what is quickened and what is revealed. Those two key elements are characteristics in all the ways God speaks to us.
Billboards are one of the best ways to recognize the experience of quickening and revelation. A billboard condenses everything that is important into one small space. They are simple, profound and to the point. It is either relevant to your life or not. When it applies, the words hit you between the eyes and you connect. You know that God’s Word has impacted your life.
Although they are simplest and most profound way to hear the Lord speak, billboards and signs are also the hardest. Why? Because they are viewed in passing with only a glance. Billboards are not usually set up to ponder. More often than not, they are very clear and don’t leave a person wondering what it meant. When God speaks through a billboard, He usually speaks it as a parable that requires an additional step. It has to be interpreted into spiritual language; like for instance, “Got Milk?” is a parable of the Lord asking you if you have fed from the milk of His Word today.
1 Peter 2:2-3 NKJV
…as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
Thus, if you are not heavenly minded, keyed into hearing the Lord speak through everything in life, or sensitive to the experiences of quickening and revelation, you will miss His Words spoken through billboards. You will whiz through life, passing sign after sign and never know the joy of His hidden treasures right in plain sight. Ask Him to begin speaking to you through these unique means. Ask Him to teach you the experiences of His quickening power and revelation insights so that you won’t miss His treasures.
One of the reasons I love to hear Him through billboards, is that when I suddenly recognize His Word, I am comforted and reminded that He is right here with me. He is knocking on my door saying, “Hey! Gotcha!” I am not alone and He is my ever abiding Companion.
Most often the Words of the Lord through billboards are like little mileage markers along our road. As we move, He brings us snippets that are quickened to us as timely or pertinent at that moment. They are not necessarily larger revelations as to our destination, but their purpose says “You are here.” To me, God is saying, “This is where you are right now, I AM affirming you that you are still on the right road, moving forward towards your goal.”
There are other times when a billboard is so loud, timely and exactly pertinent to that second, that it may be considered a larger sign post – more like an announcement sign from God! He may be saying an important junction is coming up, take note. He may be sending you a warning or saying something loudly to get your attention.
Prov 15:23 NKJV
And a word spoken in due season, how good it is!
Prov 25:11 NKJV
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.
EXAMPLES OF GOD’S WORD THROUGH BILLBOARDS
KEEP A SHORT LIST
One day in the car I was thinking about what the Lord meant when He told me to “Keep a short list” in regards to apologies. I realized He was saying that when offenses happen, we need to keep a short list by forgiving and not bringing up a list of past offenses, and also keep a short list of having the need to be forgiven.
I wondered about the idea of having a list at all, and then I realized that all of us are blind in one way or another and so we all probably have a list of things we are not forgiven of until the Lord opens our eyes and then we make them right.
Scripture says that when we love someone, it keeps no record or having been wronged.
1 Cor 13:5 NLT
Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged.
1 Cor 13:5 AMP
…it takes no account of the evil done to it {it pays no attention to a suffered wrong}.
So, while I was driving in the car, I searched my heart about all the major stumbling blocks that the enemy had used to trip me up this time. I verbally confessed once again with a free heart, that I had forgiven those offenses and I had not even a twinge of feelings about them and barely could remember them. It was a very good feeling to see how I had progressed over deep feelings of loss, mourning and grief.
When I arrived at Fred Meyer, I noticed a large truck that was re-doing their billboard sign. The only words on the sign were, “What’s on your list today?” :o)
Ps 40:5 NLT
O LORD my God, you have done many miracles for us. Your plans for us are too numerous to list. If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds, I would never come to the end of them.
A WORD OF WISDOM
While driving in the car, I was praying about things I had been trying to discern and still not coming to a stable conclusion. Discernment is a wrestling process of separating issues like pros and cons. Good and bad. Sometimes it is a long process and really frustrating.
As I was still praying, I drove past a new freeway billboard. It said, “Gut instinct. Years of research. Same decision.” Wow!… that hit me. I realized that even if I spent years in research and weighing matters, that I would still end up with the same conclusion as just my original gut level instinct told me.
Rom 2:15-16 NKJV
…who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them)…
Rom 2:15 AMP
They show that the essential requirements of the Law are written in their hearts and are operating there, with which their consciences (sense of right and wrong) also bear witness; and their [moral] decisions (their arguments of reason, their condemning or approving thoughts) will accuse or perhaps defend and excuse [them]..
Discernment is a process. But it is also a gift. When the Lord downloads us with discernment about an issue, we may not have all the facts. We may not know anything at all about it, but He puts within each of us the ability to know right from wrong and also know the shame from doing wrong. As I pondered what I had been weighing (for years), I tried to remember back to my original gut level instinctive feeling about the situation and I realized that I had not changed my mind, because I recognized truth even when I did not understand all the parts and pieces.
1 Kings 3:9 NKJV
Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”
LORD, HOW LONGGGGGGGGGGG?
I was driving in the car and praying. In a sigh, I asked the Lord one question: “Lord how long are we going to have to wait to walk in the supernatural?” Immediately upon the word wait, my eyes looked up at a billboard!!! (God is amazing.)
The billboard had a picture of some Premium Ice cream. It said, “Worth the wait”
Josh 18:3 NLT
Then Joshua asked them, “How long are you going to wait before taking possession of the remaining land the LORD, the God of your ancestors, has given to you?
DRAINED: IT’S TIME TO RECHARGE
While I was in the car, I had just been thinking about the Word to Ponder that went out the day before: “Time to Recharge Your Batteries.”
As I was pondering the Word, my eye glanced at a billboard that read: “Interstate Batteries Sold Here.” A few minutes later we pulled into the store called Batteries Plus. In the parking lot, there are 2 trucks. One guy is hooking up to a fellow’s truck because his battery died.
There was a time after totally spending myself in a ministry situation beyond my physical limits, when I was feeling absolutely wiped out. So, I asked the Lord to recharge my batteries while I was waiting for my ride. I turned on my Pocket PC to find a Word to Ponder and a sign popped up that said the battery was low and needed recharging. I chuckled at this quickened Word pun from the Lord!
A few hours later I am driving the final jaunt home from the train station physically exhausted and totally wiped out. I have been reduced to whining and misery. As I was whining to the Lord for more strength, my eye fell on the freeway billboard. It said, “Enough Already!”
I was so tickled at this and found the energy to laugh, when my eye went to the other side of the freeway at another billboard. There was a picture of mother Teresa. The caption said, “Reaching beyond your limits with compassion.”
God is just SO personal.
WORD TO PONDER: TIME TO RECHARGE YOUR BATTERIES
My weary one, you are just like the lap top computer. Your battery can only go so far before you must return to your power Source. You reached way beyond your own limits with compassion for others even weaker than yourself. Now you are totally spent. Enough already! Your batteries need recharging.
You know exactly what that means. You have learned well the secret to My power. It is being plugged into My Presence and My Word. It is leaning upon Me in all that you do, and knowing your Source of life and strength. So, come now and plug yourself in. Spend time set apart with Me, My dear, beloved one.
Ps 71:17-18 NKJV
O God, You have taught me from my youth; and to this day I declare Your wondrous works. Now also when I am old and gray headed, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come.
“Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?” (Song 8:5 NKJV)
WEALTH OF GOD’S WORDS ON THE INTERNET ARE INCUBATING
One time on the same car trip I saw 2 billboards that were quickened to me:
QUICKENED BILLBOARD: Hello! You’ve got money. Free On line banking.”
QUICKENED BILLBOARD: A chicken sitting on top of a huge mountain of eggs. It was an advertisement for “National Photocopy.”
INTERPRETATION: The Lord has provided a huge banquet of heavenly food online. There is a great wealth available 24 hours a day, as He reaches us with His personal life giving Words full of nourishment. A large quantity of His Words are still awaiting distribution to the nations. They have yet to be disclosed and are being protected and kept warm in His incubator oven.
Ps 130:5-6 NKJV
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in His word I do hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning — Yes, more than those who watch for the morning.
THAT MID AIR LEAP OF FAITH
As Wayne and I were driving on the freeway, my eye jumped to a billboard that said, “How do you define success?” The picture was a guy leaping in mid air from one rock to another.
SANDY’S RESPONSE TO THE QUESTION: “As you move through transition, sometimes you have to be willing to risk.”
WAYNE’S RESPONSE TO THE QUESTION: “I define success with 5 letters:
F A I T H. If you still have faith, you have success.”
COMMENTS: Faith is that mid-air part where we believe then act upon His Word, moving from one Word to the next. The 2 rocks are His Word planted in our lives and the air in between is the risk we take to trust Him when nothing is holding us up except belief. The good part of faith is that it MOVES. We may launch off one solid rock Word, but we are not standing still in suspension. Rather we are moving and pressing forward in expectation to His next concrete Word.
Luke 18:8 NKJV
I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE EXAMPLES OF QUICKENED BILLBOARDS
