Blackberries, Thorns and Revival
It's summer and recently the children and I have been picking blackberries. They are wonderful when ripe, sweet and juicy. They ripen when the weather is real hot, so picking gets a little uncomfortable sometimes, and the berry juice stains your hands and clothes, and then there are the thorns. The thorns are enough to deter many. The thorns are big and sharp and everywhere. They catch on your clothes and your skin and your hair and they hurt. But that's where the best berries are, where the thorns are the worst, We use 4 WD Jeep and blaze a path through the bushes to make the berries a little more accessible. The younger children will pick one or two berries, but they mostly just want to eat them. The older children will get in the thorns with me and pick, because they know if you want to eat berries someone has to brave the thorns to get the good fruit. The berry season is short, so there is no time to waste.
What does this have to do with the Kingdom of God? We all want the really good juicy fruit from God. We want to see him heal cancer, we want to see the dead raised (ACTS 20:9-10), we want to see salvation by the 3000 (ACTS 2:41). We want to be so anointed that people are healed by our shadow as we pass by (ACTS 5:15). We want revival in our land! But are we willing to brave the thorns? The Word says that we will have trials and temptations, but we will overcome because Jesus overcame. We will suffer persecution because Jesus suffered persecution. Paul had a "thorn in the flesh", a messenger of Satan sent to torment him (2 COR 12:7). Paul begged the Lord to remove it, but the Lord did not, instead He told Paul his grace was sufficient for him. In other words, He was telling Paul "I gave you my power, you get rid of it!"
So when things get hot and uncomfortable and the thorns are thick, don't be deterred. Put your faith and your prayer life into spiritual 4-wheel drive and blaze a path through those thorns using the name of Jesus. When you are really seeking the things of God and the trials come, just look at them as thorns and trample over them. GO IN AND GET THE BERRIES! Just as the berry juice stains your hands and is evidence of where you have been, so will be the signs and wonders following the believer to show evidence of where you have been. YOU WILL KNOW YOU HAVE BEEN WITH JESUS.
In comparison to a lifetime, most revivals in the past have been relatively short.