A Prepared Place Of Witness
Joshua 22:26-29 Amplified Bible (AMP)
26So we said, Let us now prepare to build us an altar, not for burnt offering nor for sacrifice, 27But to be a witness between us and you and between the generations after us, that we will perform the service of the Lord before Him with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings; lest your children say to our children in time to come, You have no portion in the Lord. 28So we thought, if that should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come, we can reply, Behold the copy of the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings nor for sacrifices, but to be a witness between us and you. 29Far be it from us that we should rebel against the Lord and turn away this day from following the Lord to build an altar for burnt offerings, for cereal offerings, or for sacrifices, besides the altar of the Lord our God that is before His tabernacle.
For the past six years since I started back writing the devotional I had not taken any time away from it, unless my God daughter was writing. Last week, started off that my Goddaughter was supposed to write on Monday, but something happened and she became ill, and then she became overloaded. In those moments I worried, for her and then about how I would squeeze writing into this day that was jammed with things to do, and the fact that I myself was suffering with a virus, fever, chills and aches. As I began to meditate, I felt a peace wash over me, and I heard in my spirit you have to let it go and let me do what it is that I must in you. My flesh wanted to rebel because I felt such a commitment and sense of obligation, that I wanted to override what I was hearing, but I sat still and allowed God to do what He needed to do in those days to follow. I had no idea that last week was a week God wanted to use as a time of preparation of another sort. You see for the last few years God has been preparing and transitioning me in many ways, and I did not see it as preparation; I saw it as many things but preparation is NOT what I called it at all! I have come to find that God takes us through levels of preparation that are not all meant to yield the same things. Most people think that preparation is meant to take us somewhere or elevate or move us in some way, but last week, and even this week, I am seeing that God will prepare us as a witness.
Yes a witness needs serious preparation, and being a witness does not always mean the same thing. I am seeing that a witness means many things to God. We can be a witness to attest and affirm to something. We can be a witness that is a spectator, or onlooker and we can be a witness that is a testimony and a reminder, an altar of sorts. For me right now God is building a witness that is a sacred reminder of His faithfulness and His love and commitment towards me. Many times people will be a part of our lives, or we will encounter them during the course of our lives, but faithful, they may not be to us. Many times it is those people that we stretch for, that we literally encounter betrayal from, or become embattled with, but God has been showing me that these battles and situations come to first off cause us to depend upon Him, understanding that we can never win a battle without Him, and that our strength to make it through is sealed in Him and until be crack the seal of intimacy and covenant with Him we will lack the strength and fortitude to make it through. It is also that the victory is in His hands and is His to provide and the glory that comes with that victory is ALL His, not ours to boast about. Often we think that the places we go, the blessings we get and the victories are ours, but they are the Lord’s; and if God doesn’t take the time to sit us down, settles us down, speak into our heart’s and spirits we will lay hold and lay claim to what belongs to God. So God will put us in a place of preparation to prepare us to be that living witness and testimony, that reminder that says not just to others but to ourselves as well, that if it had not been for the Lord on our side this would not be, this could not have been so.
My husband is one who is constantly reminding me of the season we are in, that God is preparing us, that He has us in a status of preparation, I was so frustrated one day, I told him, I don’t want to hear that anymore, but it wasn’t until last week, that I understood that this preparation was not about work, but about the witness, it was about the altar that God is building in us that represents Him, that signifies that every victory belongs to Him, that every accomplishment has only to do with that fact that I am the vessel He predestined to use for His glory. I am not to have a boastful spirit, but I am to boast in the Lord of my salvation and the Lord of my Victories! We are called to be a witness, but it is after you understand whose witness you are to become that your season of preparation will come to an end and you will walk into a place of being the very thing God was preparing you to be! Remember God always does preparation before presentation!
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