The wooden fence

I recently travelled to attend a five-day prophetic training gathering, joining a good friend of mine. During one of the activation exercises we broke into groups of four. One person would get a prophetic picture for a certain person in the group and the others would give their sense of interpretation from the picture. I enjoyed the exercise. Then it was my turn. The picture for me was of a large field with long grass. In the distance of this large field was a fence where part of the fence had fallen down. The various interpretations of this picture were all positive and affirming, but in my heart I felt there was more. I pondered that picture for days. A fence is like a boundary. A fallen boundary is not a good thing. Is there a boundary issue in my life somewhere that needs to be addressed?

Then one morning, a few days ago, I heard the word “Structure”. A fence is a structure that defines the edges of the field. When God was defining Abraham’s inheritance, he said that all Abraham could see would be given to him and his descendants. Then he instructed Abraham to walk the land. In walking it, he put definition to the land he was being given.

”Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.” Gen 13:17 (NIV).

Structure. It is such a small word, and yet… A structure can suffocate, it can hold people captive like a prison cell, hindering them from growing and expanding. It can be completely undefined giving a sense of total freedom with no limitation but then there is also no space to hold the treasure.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” Matt 13:46 (NIV).

Structures, like fences, are there to give definition, to create a space to hold the treasure. The treasure is what is important and has value, not the structure. The structure is there to facilitate, protect and define. It needs to be flexible, to expand and change as the treasure expands and changes shape. When we get too attached to a structure, a way of doing things, and it becomes too rigid, we then find ourselves living the parable of the old wine skin. It was too rigid to be able to expand with the new wine, causing the loss of both the new wine and the wine skin.

There is much treasure. Let us not hinder it by loving structures more than the treasure, and let us not squander it by not defining a space to hold the treasure.

Structures facilitate, protect and define