Engraved

What is your intent?

For I proclaimed my intent, I have revealed my intention.

I intend to act.

My intention is clear.

My steps are deliberate.

I am not wandering aimlessly.

My aim is sure, my intentions are clear.

I am focussed, I know my target, my goal is well defined.

Job 22:21-22 Acquaint now yourself with Him agree with God and show yourself to be conformed to His will and be at peace; by that you shall prosper and great good shall come to you. Receive, I pray you, the law and instruction from His mouth and lay up His words in your heart.

But let your hands be strong, and get on and complete the work.

For in your hands I have placed the flow.

Your hand rests upon the shore, the sure.

Your imprint is evidence of your presence. The flow is evidence of my presence.

Your hand rests, your hand rests upon the surface.

And yet the flow laps around, the waves gently caress the land.

Your hand surrounded by the flow.

Yet what is it you see, what is it you feel, what intrigues you?

There I was driving along on my favourite road, and yet I was transfixed by this vision. The waves moving at my command, gently caressing the land. In the place of disturbance, of turbulence, there was great peace. I breathe You in, I breathe You out, by Your breath there is great calm

Let’s play a different tune, let’s change the amplitude, the heights and depths of the wave.

For you remember well, your fingers playing on the sand, and making melodies upon the sea.

Sing a new harmony, find your peace, announce my peace, say after me, repeat after me “Peace, be still”

For my peace invades your stillness.

For my breath brings life, and life more abundantly.

You see it now blowing on the seed and multiplying it, from the one dandelion comes the many, carried by my breath.

Just breathe a new breath, announce my peace from your lips, say ahhhhh!

For my peace disturbs the enemy, takes him aback, for he shall be taken aback, for I have given you the go ahead.

Here is my intent.

An open door that no man can close.

You see it now, for I am revealing it now, a new door, a special door crafted by my hand.

Clearly if I have crafted the door, my intent is for you to come in.

I say “you’re welcome”, just say you’re welcome, invite them to come forward.

Put your hand out, and say you are welcome.

Extend the hand of invitation.

Hold the door open for them to enter.

Yet I see your focus is still on the scratch.

Well here is my view of that.

I am barely scratching the surface, you see the fault, you see the scratch, you see the fault, you feel the damage, you embrace the pain.

But look again, look again, see again, hide not your face, lift up your countenance, watch out, look out, see, open your eyes and see.

Job 22:26-30 Then you will have delight in the Almighty, and you will lift up your face to God. You will make your prayer to Him, and He will hear you, and you will pay your vows. You shall also decide and decree a thing, and it shall be established for you; and the light of God’s favor shall shine upon your ways. When they make you low, you will say, There is a lifting up; and the humble person He lifts up and saves. He will even deliver the one for whom you intercede who is not innocent; yes, he will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.

It is my hand upon the tool, a tool designed for this purpose, not to scratch but to engrave.

For my intent is to engrave you upon their hearts, for them to know and realise and understand who did this, who is the author of this gift, from whence this gift came.

Behold I am doing a new thing. I know you don’t like engraving, for it indelibly leaves a mark, it cannot be removed, it is a forever thing, it impacts, it imprints and it can never be removed.

Yet this this is the summary of my intent, for you shall no longer be a symbol of cursing, a swear word, a icon of ridicule, for you shall be a symbol, my symbol of blessing, my source of blessing.

For this land will flow with milk and honey, produce and preserve. For I will cause you to produce and I will preserve your every step.

For wherever you step I have preserved it for you, I have reserved it for you, marked it for you, for the engraving is a symbol of your mark, your territory.

It cannot be removed…..

Isaiah 49:16-20 Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (tattooed a picture of) you on the palm of each of My hands; O Zion your walls are continually before Me. Your children and your builders make haste; your destroyers and those who laid you waste go forth from you. Lift up your eyes round about and see the returning exiles, ready to rebuild Jerusalem; all these gather together and come to you. As I live, says the Lord, you Zion shall surely clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament and bind them on you as a bride does. For your waste and desolate places and your land once the scene of destruction surely now in coming years will be too narrow to accommodate the population, and those who once swallowed you up will be far away. The children of your bereavement born during your captivity shall yet say in your ears, The place is too narrow for me; make room for me, that I may live.