Beloved, I would like to invite your spirit to parley.
And by way of this illustration, to understanding.
Spirit, there are lands that have been so beat down that they have not the desire nor the will nor the courage (because they have not been encouraged well, regularly, and properly, nor deeply) to deal with humans in such a way that they are willing to muster a response.
Listen to the Word of G-d for today:
A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish
From Isaiah 42:3
Spirit, like some of your portions MIGHT BE, or the portions of some with which you deal, the lands that form some of your assignments might be inwardly turned through theft, raping, pillaging, or other mistreatments, that they cannot muster a response.
Some land is going to be quite silent and incapable of speaking to you.
I think of Sutter’s Mill and the California Gold Rush, and the land and soil of Northern California that is was so raped by the forty-niners that it does not provide arable soil for planting crops. There is much land in Northern California that will not respond to DRILL SERGEANTS.
Much in the way that there are many of y’all that don’t respond to “I CALL YOU TO ATTENTION AND NOW LET ME DECLARE AND DECREE MY WORD SALAD OF APOSTOLIC COMMANDS AND NOW YOU HAVE BEEN MINISTERED TO SINCE I TALKED AT YOU SPIRIT LETMESELLYOUAHONDAANDBUYMEAKIA.”
Is this making sense, gang?
Spirit, you deserve someone who will converse with you.
And is there a time and a place for the real decree of those who have authority? Yes!
But is there a time and a place to sit with someone who is oozing with pain and is in desperate need of a pastor who will allow them the latitude to weep or be angry or cry or just be present as they process? Absolutely.
So, spirit, I give you freely, the dignity to be present and heard.
I bless you to hear the internal land and to sit with it until it makes the choice to turn to you and opens up at its choice.
I bless you to be sensitive to pieces of land that are so damaged they do not realize their internalizations and the way they have gotten so inwardly-turned that they do not realize they can or should respond.
I bless you to sit with that piece of land as you would with a coma victim and just be present and open to help and serve.
I bless your Servant portion to teach the rest of your portions the depth and pause necessary to just breathe that which is life-giving though barely visible to the piece of land that is inwardly-turned.
And I bless you with the skill to walk in silence as you hear what is happening to the land.
I bless you to know when to life the sword, versus the scalpel, versus the seed driller, and the bare hand to touch the land that has felt so violated by tools and soulish nonsense and avarice that the land is able to trust you because you were loud and stupid.
I bless your trust to increase and I bless you to go to the lands you are supposed to in due season.
I bless you with these things in Jesus’ name.