Jamie Rohrbaugh
FromHisPresence.com
Beloved, are you tired out, burned out, and worn to a frazzle? If so, the Lord gave me a healing how-to for you today.
This isn’t just a prophetic word; it’s a key to the healing you need for your soul.
I love prophetic words as much as the next person, but sometimes we have to stop prophesying and start equipping. And the word the Lord gave me today is an equipping word that He gave me first for myself, but it is going to apply to the whole Body of Christ who will receive it, also.
It all started with a dream.
I dreamed about a large home with many floors. This home was light, bright, and airy. It had a main hall that was long and wide, more like a great room than a hallway; and this main hall repeated on floor after floor. Beautiful staircases went up and down to the other floors off this main hall, and the hall on each floor had more staircases.
Off this beautiful main hall were many rooms–or actually, suites of rooms. I believe someone was showing me around, but I don’t remember for sure. At any rate, I remember being in the main hall and peeking into the rooms, one after the other. Each room was empty, and when I looked inside and saw that they were unoccupied, I went in.
As I entered each room, I was continually surprised to find not just one room, but suites of rooms.
Each room was in fact a self-contained hideaway. The first room led to another and another, with no access to the outside main hall except through the door I had used to enter. The suites were completely private, and with each corner I rounded–discovering more rooms in each suite–I felt more and more hidden away from view.
The suites were beautiful. They had been professionally decorated, with light and neutral tones. They were absolute places of peace. The world seemed far away in each one, and I knew in the dream that that was their purpose: to hide people in peace and allow them to rest in solitude, quietness, and privacy.
I continued through the main hall, walking through suite after suite after suite of bedrooms that all had their entrances on the main hall. Every time I walked through a new room, I was again surprised to find that each room became more than one room, and the farther you walked back into each beautiful suite, the more hidden, private, restful, and healing it felt.
When I woke up, I heard this: “In My Father’s house are many bedrooms.”
The “In My Father’s house are many bedrooms” reference alludes to John 14:2, which states:
“In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2 NKJV).
Some versions translate “mansions” here as “rooms.” I’m not saying that what I heard was a direct quote of Scripture, though; it wasn’t. But I believe the Lord spoke this to me because He was trying to get a message across.
Let me tell you the rest of the story before I share the message:
When I woke up from the dream, I felt a longing for the place I had seen in the dream. My heart ached for it, and still does. It was a place of peace, of solace, of solitude and rest.
The house I saw in the dream was a healing place that put distance between you and the stresses of the world. In the dream, I knew that the whole purpose of having each bedroom turn into a maze of private rooms–each designed for one person only–was because people needed to put space and walls between themselves and the rigors of daily life in order to heal.
And I could feel that rest after the dream–as well as the longing for more of it.
I was visiting family shortly after this, and they have cable TV (which we don’t have). 🙂 I was watching TV shows at their house about people who were purchasing log cabins and lakefront homes. Somehow (and this has never happened to me before), every time they showed a home on these TV shows that was private and secluded–a place of rest and peace–I got choked up and began to cry.
By this point, I was paying attention. The Lord was definitely highlighting REST in my spirit. But I knew there was more to it than that. The prophetic words He has given me for 2020 have had a lot to do with rest and healing too–but I knew there was more to this dream than that, too.
So what was it? He showed me this morning.
Here’s what the Lord showed me:
The people of God–myself included–need more than rest. We need sanctuary.
If this word is for you, your spirit will immediately recognize this. If this is for you, it’s more than rest you need. Yes, you need to rest–but you need something else. You need safety. You need peace. You need a buffer zone between you and the demands that life puts on you.
You need a place of calm, quiet, and a place of less.
I don’t mean financial “less.” I am not referring to the loss of anything that has daily or eternal value. I am referring to less when it comes to:
- Less pressure;
- Less stress;
- Less junk around the house;
- Fewer commitments;
- More open space;
- Less noise;
- Less … of everything that drains you.
And just this afternoon, as I have been praying and resting, the Lord showed me that His people are like a parched desert.
When you pour water on soil that has been dry for a long time, it won’t absorb. You can’t get it to soak in. It runs right off, and the soil is none the better for it.
The Lord showed me today that that’s how many of us in His Kingdom are right now. We are like dry, cracked clay–or dry, hard, brittle, dusty potting soil–and we need to soak in the refreshing rain of His Presence, but we cannot receive right now. Why? Because we’ve been too dry for too long.
What’s the solution for you and me?
The Lord showed me five keys:
- Silence;
- Solitude;
- Stillness;
- Creativity; and
- Nature.
If you are dry and parched right now, I encourage you to try one or more of the five keys above. If you are so burned out, worn out, and tired that you can’t even stay awake to pray, or that the word of the Lord falls off you because you’re in no condition to receive, try:
- Going for a walk in nature;
- Painting a picture, sewing a quilt, or doing a DIY project;
- Sitting by the lake or in the mountains and just soaking in the silence;
- or anything else that uses these five keys.
Do this in order to open up your soul and spirit to be able to receive from the Lord.
Basically, these five keys are a way to break up the parched ground of your worn-out soul and spirit, so that you can begin receiving more refreshing from the Lord.
But after that, if this word is for you, pursue sanctuary.
Not just rest, although you need rest. But sanctuary goes beyond rest. Sanctuary involves hiding. Taking sanctuary is essential right now.
Read this definition of “sanctuary” from Dictionary.com:
- a sacred or holy place.
- Judaism:
- the Biblical tabernacle or the Temple in Jerusalem.
- the holy of holies of these places of worship.
- an especially holy place in a temple or church.
- the part of a church around the altar; the chancel.
- a church or other sacred place where fugitives were formerly entitled to immunity from arrest.
- immunity afforded by refuge in such a place.
- any place of refuge; asylum.
- tract of land where birds and wildlife, especially those hunted for sport, can breed and take refuge in safety from hunters.
WHOA. Read those last few again:
Immunity from arrest … immunity afforded by refuge in such a place … any place of refuge … a place where those who are hunted for sport can take refuge in safety from hunters.
Um. Anybody been in the middle of spiritual warfare lately?
Anybody been hunted by the enemy lately?
Anybody need refuge right now?
I think you do. And if so, the word of the Lord to you today is:
“Pursue sanctuary; don’t just crave it.”
The Lord says:
“Seek and aggressively pursue sanctuary in Me at this time, and sanctuary under the shadow of My wings. To get this, you will have to aggressively seek it. You will need to make every place around you a place of peace.
I am speaking very practically here. You know how much better you connect with Me when you are in a place of peace. So right now, do what you can to turn every place around you into a place of rest and sanctuary:
- Eliminate clutter.
- Wash and clean out your car.
- Throw things away.
- Reduce commitments to a minimum.
- Add beautiful praise music to your daily routine.
- Cherish silence and solitude, and pursue them.
These are very important to you right now, for I cannot heal you unless you submit to My rest. And you cannot receive My rest like I want you to while your attention is taken by other things.
I am bringing you to a place of healing.
Like the horse, I can lead you to water, but I cannot make you drink. I want you to drink deeply of My presence, but the things of this world are crushing you.
I invite you to a simpler life; a life that is hidden in Me.
The things you need are all around you, and you have many things you don’t need as well. Get rid of the things you don’t need so that you can have more margin in your life. Seek sanctuary from everything that would pull you out of My place of rest. As you take little steps, I will be with you to confirm the direction you are going.
I have a quiet place for you.
I have prepared places for you both on this earth and here in My Heaven. I have a quiet place in which you can find shelter. My quiet place is not found in a different place to go, but rather of changing your lifestyle and the place where you are now.
Try Me and see.
You desperately need rest. You need sanctuary. You need to be hidden, and your soul knows it. Heed My voice and find rest and solace in Me, and make your outside surroundings line up with your place of abiding in Me. You will never regret it.”
My friend, I don’t know about you, but I sure receive this word. Do you?
I am already acting on it, and I am finding it to be very true. I pray you would begin to pursue and find rest and sanctuary too.
