Welcome to the month of September! The year is almost coming to an end!
While I was in prayer earlier today, I saw two scenarios that I believe signify processes a lot of people may be going through. The Lord would have me share both visions and encourage as many who may relate to them.
The wringing and the refreshing:
I saw what looks like a chamber large enough to just fit a person. The chamber was tight and dark and at the end of it was a big handle that controls the turning of the chamber. As the handle was being turned, the person in the chamber was also being turned in different directions. It felt like the chamber was a wringer and the person was being squeezed in different directions similar to how you squeeze water off clothes. After a while, the process stopped and the person came out to the other side of the chamber.
The person looked so dry and depleted from the wringing out process. The person couldn’t understand what had happened to them in that chamber. As they stood on the other side, looking frail and like they had no strength, I saw a hand bring water that was so clean and just so beautiful and began to pour it over the person. As this happened, the dryness started to give way. It looked like the person began to get plump and fresh as the water washed over them and there was a strong feeling that the person was experiencing a refreshing.
The pressing and the release:
I also saw what looked like a giant mill. Things were being put inside and then the handle of the mill would turn to squeeze and press the items that were being placed inside. As this was happening, the items were coming out on the other side in a different form from when they went into the mill. You could tell that the items had been pressed on in the mill but instead of looking damaged or destroyed, they actually looked better than they did before they went into the mill. They had more color and looked way better in texture.
As I was looking at the new form of the items as they came out of the mill, I got the sense that now “they are ready for use”. It seems that in the former state they were just raw materials but after going through the process in the mill, they attained their true potential. Their value had substantially increased and rather than remaining as items just “sitting on a shelf”, they were now ready for use.
Be encouraged:
I believe many people who will read this may find themselves in what feels like a wringing out or pressing out process, and here’s the encouragement for you.
The wringing out process symbolizes God pulling out of you everything that is not in conformity with who He has made you to be. He is removing the past, the mistakes, errors, limitations, experiences, conditionings, false sense of identity, lies and other things that have kept you weighed down.
During the wringing process, it may feel like you are being stripped of everything you’ve ever known and everything that feels familiar and comfortable. You may feel like life is drying you out and there’s nothing left for you but what is really happening is that God is wringing out the “dirty water”.
The Lord would have me encourage you. This is just a phase that is necessary for Him to dismantle everything that has limited you. It may feel tough, dark and dry but the refreshing is coming! The refreshing season where He pours on you clean water and changes your entire outlook to life! The season where you go from drought and dryness to overflow and abundance.
You may be tempted to believe that the dark chamber is where your story ends but this is not so. You may be tempted to believe that the dryness and drought is all you will ever know but this is not so. The light and the waters of refreshing will come upon you. As you hold on to God through prayers, worshipping and studying the Word of God, you will receive new strength each day. Be encouraged, you are not at the mercy of a random happenstance, God Himself is overseeing this process and at the appointed time, you will see His glory.
I prophesy to you today that you will find new strength even in the process that feels like you are being dried out! Your hope will be fixed on God! Your feet will be planted securely in Him! You will not give up! You will not give out! I pray for you that God will release His dew upon you, He will pour out water on your dry places and He will bring you into your overflow in Jesus Name!
While the wringing out process is about God dismantling and removing what is not of Him in you, the pressing process described above is about God molding you into the form that fits His purpose for you. It is about Him releasing to the surface the value that is within you.
Like the wringing process, the pressing process will also feel restrictive and painful. Life is pressing on you from all sides and it literally feels like you are changing form. You may be tempted to think this is a process aimed at destroying you but again God is assuring you that it is a process designed to upgrade you. Just like olives are transformed into olive oil after going through a pressing process, God is using this process to squeeze out and release the inherent value He has deposited in you.
He is using this process to release you from potential into purpose! As you walk with Him in this process, He will begin to reveal the treasures and gifts within you that you had no idea existed.
I pray for you that your eyes will be open to see God even in the midst of what feels like a painful pressing process. That the Holy Spirit will be your guide and teacher! That at the fullness and completion of this process, you and others around you will marvel at the wonder you have become in Jesus Name!
Here are two Bible passages to encourage you
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory
2 Corinthians 4:17 NKJV
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.
2 Corinthians 4:7-9 NKJV
Written by Elizabeth A. Ibiloye