Articles & Words

“ For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.
“ For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways, 

And My thoughts than your thoughts. 

“ For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, 

And do not return there, 

But water the earth, 

And make it bring forth and bud, 

That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
Isaiah 55:8-11

We often make the declaration “The word of the Lord does not return void”, and with that comes the assumption that it always accomplishes what it was set out to do, but is it possible that it just doesn’t return to the Lord?  I don’t think so, it’s not in the character of God to make a statement and not stick to His word.  So where are those words that have not accomplished what they were sent to do and are they accessible?

Recently during a time of worship at our house I had an encounter with Jesus.  We had been worshipping and praying for about two hours, I kept hearing the phrase “still waters” and I kept seeing a vast river of still waters in the Spirit.  Sensing the leading of the Holy Spirit, I pressed in to see what the Lord was trying to show me.  Jesus took me to this place of still waters and said “lay down here”, so I laid down in the lush grass next to the waters.  The location reminded me of the secret place, very peaceful and intimate with a very clear path to revelation.  I laid there for a while in the peace of the moment and then the Lord said “do you desire restoration”?  I answered “yes”.  He then cupped His hands and dipped them into the still waters and then let the water drip down onto me.  As the water gently fell I could see that each drop was full of words and as the drops hit me there was a refreshing and a stirring in my spirit.  I asked the Lord what was special about this water and what the words were, He said “the still waters is the reservoir of the words that I have spoken but have not yet accomplished their task”. So I looked up the only place in the bible that I knew off hand mentioned “still waters”, Psalm 23.

The LORD is my shepherd;

I shall not want.
 He makes me to lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside the still waters.
 He restores my soul;

He leads me in the paths of righteousness

For His name’s sake.
Psalm 23:1-3

The Lord began to show me how he “restores our souls”, by renewing the words and the plans that he had for our lives that we never took hold of.  In other words, God has dreams and desires for each of our lives, and there are certain seasons that we don’t receive His word.  However, His word always accomplishes was it was sent out to do, so those words are still available to you and I.  Decrees and promises of the Lord do not just fade away.  So He keeps them in storage for us until we are ready to receive them.  Much like the rain soaks into the ground and eventually rises back into the air, but not until it has watered the earth and accomplished its purpose.

There is a recent example of this in my life with my brother.  In 1998 he and I went to the Fresh Wind Youth Conference in Toronto, it was a powerful weekend in the presence of God and a great time of renewal for both of us.  See my brother had battled drug addiction for a few years at that point and our relationship had been struggling.  At the conference, however, I really saw the Lord restoring our relationship and doing a work in us individually.  God touched my brother in a mighty way. 

We got back on Easter Sunday, went to church, visited with family and went home to rest.  That evening around midnight I heard my mother screaming for me to come.  I ran into the hallway and saw my mom in my brothers room sitting on the bed holding him and slapping his face, there was a hypodermic needle laying on the ground next to his bed.  Turns out the Lord had woken my dad and urged him to check on him.  We were able to keep him alive until the paramedics arrived to take him to the hospital. It was a crushing moment for me, I didn’t sleep a minute that night.  However, I understood that the devil came at my brother full force after such a powerful weekend in the presence of God.  From that day on I have kept the vision and memory I had of him at Toronto close to my heart and often times the Lord would remind me of that weekend in some of the horrible times that would come during my brother’s battle.

A few years ago, after years of jail, prison and addictions, he cleaned up his life and got married to a wonderful woman.  He still wasn’t really walking with the Lord though.  Just a few weeks ago I gave him a copy of our most recent CD, “Anthem”, he called me the next day and said “I want that kind of passion”.  The lord impressed it upon my heart to share with him that he needed to stop believing the lie that because he overdosed that it relinquished all that the Lord had done that weekend in Toronto.  He cried as we talked more about the Lord.  A few nights later I had the “still waters” encounter with Jesus, and he showed me that he had all of the words and visions for my brother stored up and that he was going to accelerate those things in his life.  I shared that with my brother and broke off the lie that he had missed out on what God had planned for his life.  Over the next few weeks he was drawn into a deep level of intimacy with Jesus and is now on fire for the Lord and extraordinarily hungry for more of Him.  Not to mention that our relationship is restored and better than ever.  God has a great destiny for my brother, and what the devil meant for bad, God will work for good in his life!

Certainly we all have loved ones in our lives that have strayed from the call and plan that God has for them.  Sometimes the loved one is us.  We must never give up on those people and never stop believing God and His promises. This all happened ten years after that weekend in Toronto.  Ten years of prayer and intercession, ten years of visions and words, and ten years of crying out to the Lord.  But God is faithful, and His word does not return void.  Even the words that have not yet accomplished what they were sent to do, God has them in the reservoir of still waters. 

As the Lord dripped the still waters on me I was reminded of words, dreams and visions that He had shown me years before that had been lost to me.  He even showed me deep desires He has for me that had not been previously revealed because some of the unaccomplished words were the keys to unlock deeper revelation.  I would encourage you to press in and ask the Lord to lead you to the still waters.  It will create not only a refreshing restoration in your soul but a holy stirring in your spirit because God will be renewing dreams, visions and prophetic words for your life and with that will come the excitement and passion to accomplish those dreams and visions.  He is longing to lead you beside the still waters and restore your soul with the renewal of the words that He has spoken over your life and the dreams and desires that he has for you.