SPRINKLED WITH MY COVENANT OF MERCY

HEARD 4/03/05: Transition, health. I will help you. We will work on this together. Burden.

VISION: I saw a salt shaker shaking salt.

HEARD SONG: Mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy.

HEARD: Turtles. I am transitioning you. Slowly.

[INTERP TURTLE: The Lord has often given me the parable of the children's story where the slow and steady turtles win the race. He is transitioning us into a healthy place and this will slowly happen one step at a time.]

============

FROM THE RESPONSIBILITY OF AN IRREVOCABLE COVENANT

http://www.thequickenedword.com/salt1.html

Many are questioning whether or not they have somehow messed up so badly that they have disqualified themselves from either the Lord's blessings, callings, gifts or ministry. Consider the following scripture as I discuss the covenant of salt. "For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." (Rom 11:29-30 NKJV)

IT TAKES TWO TO AGREE

It is said that people used to carry pouches of salt and when they made a promise to one another, they would take a pinch of salt from their bags and place it in the other's bag. The symbol being that is was impossible to retrieve or take back one's own salt, or promise.

When the Lord gave a promise to David that his sons would reign forever, He called it a covenant of salt. (2 Chron 13:5) The word covenant in the English dictionary means, "A binding agreement." In the Hebrew it means, "A covenant, alliance or pledge between men or between God and man." In order for a covenant to take place, there must be an agreement between two people.

Salt was also used as a preservative as well as for its antiseptic qualities. Thus the covenant of salt represented an agreement that was incorruptible, to be preserved forever.

ON GOD'S SIDE

At the moment we receive a gift or calling from Him, a part of Him enters us and we become united or blended with Him to the measure of that gift or calling. In a sense, there is an agreement that has taken place between the Giver and the receiver. This blending remains for life regardless of how badly they mess up. It remains whether they acknowledge the Source. It remains whether or not they use it for His kingdom, for themselves or for the enemy. "For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." (Rom 11:29-30 NKJV)

"God is not a man, that he should lie. He is not a human, that he should change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?" (Num 23:19 NLT)

ON OUR SIDE

I attended a home group where we were each given a measure of salt. We poured our salt into one glass of water. The person stirred the salt water and shared how we each are intimately united in the Lord and how we effect one another to the point where it is impossible to separate how we effect others. In essence, we become one as we pour ourselves into Him.

I watched the salt crystals swirl and finally dissolve. I was thinking about salt being a preservation and how we preserve one another with our prayers and our lives. The Lord actually wants us to be so salty that we would be the salt of the entire earth. (Matt 5:13) He wants us to preserve the earth and to make it thirsty for Him.

I had been struggling with portions of my calling as an intercessor and I thought of intercession being like salt that preserves and protects others who can not stand for themselves. When one stands in the gap over a matter, they are willing to stand in the heat of the battle and be on the front lines if the Lord should so call. It can become a real hot place and I was struggling. (Mark 9:49) As the water finished swirling and the salt disappeared, it was like a moment suspended in time. I knew I could not retrieve my salt and say, "Never mind, this intercession stuff is too hot!" (Luke 9:62)

WHEN WE MESS UP

The speaker then took a spoon full of dirt and stirred it into the water. Another person added a second spoonful of dirt and said, "And that's gossip." The beautiful water now looked gross. Regardless of how dirty it is, the water is still salt water. It still remains an irrevocable covenant of salt. The Lord had my serious attention.

Again I was thinking about how impossible it is to go back on one's gifts or calling in the Lord. If we think that time and distance (or even rest from the heat of the battle) nullifies it, we fool ourselves. And if in the fooling, we return to old carnal ways, we do nothing but make the matter worse by adding dirt to the water. And this isn't just our own water. We are united with those we stand for, and now our dirt affects them as we see it ricochet down the line.

DISQUALIFIED OR TRAINED?

For those of you who feel you have gone through a knot hole backwards and come out the other side, wanting to quit or wondering if you have lost the grace and favor of yesterday, consider that you have been in school, going through tests and training, not so you would be disqualified, but so you would become qualified. The Lord is not through with us yet. He is still training us so we can and will make a difference in the lives around us. He is preparing an army to receive an anointing and power such as the world has never known. In each level of anointing and promotion, the stakes get higher. Let us all count the cost for ourselves and the responsibility we have to others as He offers us His gifts and callings. (Luke 12:48)

============

CONCLUSION

============

{Words to Ponder are summaries of His quickened Words of prophetic revelation, punched with the word of wisdom and written under inspiration.}

WORD TO PONDER: SPRINKLED WITH MERCIFUL PRAYERS

I AM sprinkling you with mercy. I AM liberally salting you with prayers to keep you, preserve you, and establish you in your calling and destiny. And even as I do these things through My mercy, having received salt upon yourself, you too shall become salty and liberally shake yourself out upon others who need preservation. Your stand against sin will slow its growth. I have called you to preserve the world with your prayers. I will also salt you with a good testimony. As you share all I have done in your life, you sprinkle salt upon others. Let Me salt you liberally!

Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another. (Mark 9:50)

Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. NKJ (Colossians 4:6 NKJ)