A Prophetic Sign
I had an incredibly clear moment of hearing God recently where He spoke through a very tangible “sign.” I was meeting with Rich and Martha Seidler (elders at The Almond Branch) when a fox crept into their yard. As this happened, we talked about the verse from the Song of Songs that warns about the “foxes” that come to “ruin the vineyard” (Song 2:15). It’s a verse that speaks to distractions – the things in life that pull us away from the areas of focus God has for us.
A week later we met again and I brought up that verse toward the beginning of our meeting. Right at that moment, the fox appeared in the same exact place in their yard (an area, they explained, that is not common for such an animal to show up). Upon seeing this, we continued to ask the Lord to expose any foxes of distraction.
Now, that same day, I came home from work and sat on the couch where my father-in-law was watching Jeopardy. I took a moment to quietly pray in my heart, asking God to again speak to me about this whole fox thing. And I kid you not: the next question in Jeopardy (right after I prayed that prayer) was about the second chapter of the Song of Songs. The exact chapter where the foxes show up!
Ok. So obviously God was saying something…
Of course, we took even more time to process this. We began to pray more intensely into the vision of our church and the focus God wants us to have. I even shared the whole encounter with some of the intercessors in our community. During this time, God began to speak to us about vision and the primary focus of enjoying the finished work of His Son — as well as the call to awaken others to that reality. Everything else needs to revolve around that. And in this, God spoke about other areas of the church where we needed to guard against specific foxes of distraction.
But the Lord brought something else to my heart during this time that I want to share here…
A Fox in Washington, D.C.
Several weeks after this incident, my wife and I planned to take our kids to Washington D.C. A few days before we left, news came out about the capture of a rabid fox that had bitten nine different people in the Capital (see cover photo). Considering what had just happened with these other fox encounter, I took time to once again pray and ask God if there was more He wanted to communicate here. In that moment, I felt Him cautioning me about political “foxes.” To explain this, I’ll have to share one final fox sign that happened later that week…
After we returned from a wonderful trip to D.C., our church had a special Good Friday worship service. Right as the worship began, the image of a particular political leader came to my mind. It hit me out of nowhere, which is often a signal God is saying something… Now, I won’t say who the person was. Suffice it to say that this individual gives me a lot of agita when I think about them and their dealings. But what happened is that right after that person suddenly popped into my mind, one of our worship leaders started singing out a chorus about “catching the foxes in our vineyards!” It was so very clear that God was establishing this word in my heart.
As I prayed further, I felt like God wanted me to be careful about allowing my heart to engage with the political and cultural drama of our day … things that so often bring me to a place of frustration. (And don’t get me wrong, it brings me to a place of prayer as well, but it’s often mixed with frustration, which is the opposite of what Paul talks about when speaking to Timothy about praying for political leaders . . . see 1 Timothy 2:8 in the KJV).
Boundaries (Fences to Keep out Foxes)
In light of all this, I have made the personal decision recently to draw back significantly from my news intake, even including what I feel are good and healthy news sources (ones that do not hide areas of corruption happening in the political sphere). I still plan on keeping track of world events, but I want to do this in a contained way; setting apart specific (and limited) time to catch up on news instead of letting it hit the gates of my eyes and ears on and off throughout the day.
And I have to say, since doing this, I have felt an evident shift in my spirit. I have a lot more internal peace.
With this, the Lord has continued to speak to me about the key *focuses* for my life. A lot of it has to do with the harvest and a new wave of grace-filled evangelism, discipleship, and church-planting, which will soon sweep every side of the political aisle.
Now with that said, let me add that many Christians are rightfully engaged in the political sphere. I am not one of those people who avoids politics. Real decisions that impact our lives (and the lives of our children) are happening in the political sphere, and we need to be engaged.
But.
More than this, we need to be sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit.
I trust that as I create more quiet space for my heart to reflect on the goodness of God (and not on the next drama unfolding globally), the Holy Spirit can speak to me and show me if I need to increase my political participation in a certain area. And even if I am engaged in one area, that doesn’t mean I need to let my thoughts be consumed by every detail of the political battles enfolding around me.
As I seek the Lord for myself personally (and let me reiterate that this was a very personal word), I simply feel His heart for me to focus on the Good News like never before. And with this, to focus on relationships and the harvest of people coming to know Jesus in this hour. And that is the ultimate way we change the world, by the way. Yes, we need to bring reformation into the political sphere, but unless we reform the human-heart-sphere, we’ll only be left with righteous laws that are devoid of a Righteous Spirit who can sustain and breath life into them.
And so, may the Lord speak to your own heart. Whether through a sign, a Scripture, or a quiet whisper in the heart. He has MANY things to say! And He is calling you to a deeper focus in this hour. Be at peace…and listen.