THE SAP IS RUNNING!
Ian Johnson
Aug 24, 2004
Recently I went into a vineyard and the man responsible for the pruning asked me to come and look at what was taking place.
As I have spoken before our Land has been in a winter spiritually, and the vine has been bare and dead in appearance. In this winter it is not uncommon for the vineyard to look wild and destitute, the fact is however that the vine is not dead but is resting for the harvest to come.
In the natural in New Zealand we have had a cold winter and one would expect that the coming of spring may be a bit late, but the man who prunes the vineyard (who is now actively pruning in the vines dormant state) wanted to show me that although the vines look dead the sap is beginning to flow, this is early but it is the first sign of the harvest to come.
I felt the Lord speak to me of the coming harvest; it is closer than we think! The sap is running in the body of Christ and the winter prune must be completed in readiness for the new growth. We must make haste and prepare for the spring.
We must be careful not to get caught in the winter mode! Perhaps the Lord has closed a door in our lives and we dont understand.
When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one that has opened for us.
God’s best gifts are not things but opportunities. When opportunity knocks, about all some people do is complain about the noise.
There was a man who for 38 years lived a life of hope and regret. In fact when the Lord of all came by he couldn’t receive the blessing of healing
John 5:2-92
Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had. Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me." Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk." And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath.
This man was in the very presence of the source of all miracles and all he could see was that he had never been in the pool before. We need to understand and be excited about the opportunity to be involved in the kingdom of God right now! Its not hard to understand why the man felt the way he did. But Jesus healed him anyway. He is not going to wait until 2023 to move. He is moving now. He is working now! We just need to discern the opportunity to be involved. I want to challenge your level of involvement. Some of our people feel lost without a remote control and a lazy boy recliner!
We worry so much about how its going to be done. How God can perform the miracle, where it will occur, who he will use, etc. We need to understand that if he is here, that is all that matters! He is in control. He will use whatever means needed to fix the problems that we present to him!
The winter of the Spirit has been tough on the body of Christ in New Zealand, but the Devine pruner has been at work and the result of His work will soon show forth. The Sap is running it wont be long now hold on and get ready to enter the pool and be healed!
I am here to proclaim that when you get to that point – when you are fed up to here – when you are consumed with how tough life is – that is the moment when, through prayer, God will open a window of opportunity. When the barriers are insurmountable and it feels like you are a captive of everything, God will open for you a window of opportunity.
Prayer may not always change things. But prayer changes people, who in turn change things.
If it can happen in Fiji it can happen here!
There is much talk about the new Transformation video "Let the seas resound" which highlights the transforming Glory of the Lord on a land that renews its vows with the Lord.
What caused Fiji to turn? They became desperate because the Spirits of the land had held the people in bondage for generations. They came to a point of almost national destruction in 2000AD and this caused the people to cry out to the living God for mercy.
Hosea 14:1-7 Living Bible. O Israel, return to the Lord, your God, for you have been crushed by your sins. 2 Bring your petition. Come to the Lord and say, "O Lord, take away our sins; be gracious to us and receive us, and we will offer you the sacrifice of praise. 3 Assyria cannot save us, nor can our strength in battle; never again will we call the idols we have made ’our gods’; for in you alone, O Lord, the fatherless find mercy."
4 "Then I will cure you of idolatry and faithlessness, and my love will know no bounds, for my anger will be forever gone! 5 I will refresh Israel like the dew from heaven; she will blossom as the lily and root deeply in the soil like cedars in Lebanon. 6 Her branches will spread out as beautiful as olive trees, fragrant as the forests of Lebanon. 7 Her people will return from exile far away and rest beneath my shadow. They will be a watered garden and blossom like grapes; they will be as fragrant as the wines of Lebanon.
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Zec 8:12
For the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things.
Mal 3:11
And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.
Get ready the Sap is running.
Ian Johnson.
