While dragonflies and damselflies are no strangers to summer skies, I have noticed many more than usual recently. This morning as I stepped outside, a huge dragonfly hovered in front of me. Making a few playful circles it then “followed” me to my car, hovering back and forth in front of the windshield as I got in. Unbelievably, as I started the car and drove the work, the same dragonfly kept pace with the car, zipping back and forth over and around the vehicle, sometimes disappearing out of sight and then reappearing. As I put my blinker on to turn into the parking lot of work, the dragonfly hovered above the hood of the car, facing the windshield for a full seven seconds before zooming off. As I parked, I began to ask the Lord to reveal what He was trying to say.
“Learn about dragonflies”, the Lord said, “I reveal in parables in the natural many truths about the supernatural”. I remembered Romans 1:20 which tells us “Ever since the creation of the world His eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things He has made. So they are without excuse”. I began to research dragonflies. A sentence in my research caught my eye. Sometimes for years (which seems impressive considering the lifespans of insects) they are in an aquatic larval stage. Then one day they transform and LEAVE THE WATER TO TAKE TO LAND. In the remaining days or weeks, they span incredible distances- sometimes even flying over entire oceans! In their travels, however, they usually stay near a water source.
Immediately this “parable” began unfolding. This is a time of TRANSFORMATION for many of God's people. They may have spent their whole lives- even years and years- living in a completely different “form” or different place. God is calling to many saying it is time to “LEAVE THE WATER where you have grown comfortable”. God wants to continue to grow and transform you in incredible ways and to do so, we will have to step out of your comfort zone. Ask the Lord if this is your time of transformation. ASK the Lord for guidance as to what He is calling you into and what needs to be left behind. The Lord says, “I am taking you into a greater spiritual maturity”. For many these will be journeys and transformations of the heart, while for others the Lord may actually be calling you to relocate. DO NOT BE AFRAID, though it may mean stepping out of your comfort zone and taking a leap of faith.
The Lord has consistently been giving me scriptures in my reading time that show people going through this time of transformation, leaving the water and TAKING NEW LAND. Some did it well, and some did not. Joshua in Joshua Chapter 1 was called to take the promised land. He had to go into a land he and none of his people before him had possessed. God called to him and calls to us “Get ready! Cross the Jordan River! Lead these people into the land which I am ready to hand over to them. I am hanging over to you every place you set foot, as I promised Moses... No one will be able to resist you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not abandon you or leave you alone...Make sure you are strong and brave! Carefully obey all the law my servant Moses charged you to keep. Do not swerve to the right or to the left, so that you may be successful in all you do.” (Joshua 1:2-3, 5, 7). Just as dragonflies, though transitioning to new land, must stay close to the water, so must we stay close to our water! Jesus says “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From His innermost being will flow rivers of living water.' But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive.” (John 7:38-39).
This “living water” of the Holy Spirit is the spiritual nourishment that we get from our time spent praying and reading and soaking in His presence. Truly SEEKING the Lord's direction. This water flows directly from the throne of God into our hearts, as it says, “Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Revelation 22:1). This sweet flow of communication from God's throne to our hearts is the water that irrigates us and allows us to produce “fruit” in our lives. “Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to Him. You WILL EAT THE FRUIT OF YOUR LABOR; Blessings and prosperity will be yours.” (Psalm 128:1-2).
In this PIVOTAL time of transformation and transition into “new land”, we must remember to stay near the Holy Spirit and to not swerve from His leading. Jehu, a king crowned by the Lord in 2 Kings, started off doing just this. The Lord said, “Because you have done right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the forth generation” (2 Kings 10:30). God literally blessed Jehu's fruit because he stayed near the water of God's words. BUT Jehu stopped following the leading of God and strayed later. “In those days the Lord began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazael overpowered the Israelites throughout their territory” (2 Kings 10:32). It is our intimacy and obedience to God that keeps our territory growing, our fruits blessed, and our enemies overpowered. God has the strategies to take the land!! We just need to stay near enough to hear Him when He gives them to us. When God speaks of following His commands, He means following His Word, His callings on your heart and life, and loving God and others, as the greatest commandment teaches.
If God is pressing on your heart that this is a time of taking more “territory”, GET READY. BE BRAVE. AND DO NOT SWERVE FROM THE WATER.