Some years ago a friend of ours was going through a very hard time in her life.
She came to stay with us for a couple of weeks and needed a lot of understanding, sympathy and encouragement to help her see that she was loved.
One Sunday morning when we took her to church with us there was a time of prayer and ministry for individuals and my husband Fred asked her to go forward for prayer for God to bless her.
I stood beside her and prayed that God would use someone there to really pray into her specific situation and that did happen as the Holy Spirit revealed to the people there that she had a great hurt to deal with.
Then God showed me a picture of a waterwheel turning slowly round
on the side of an old mill.
As the wheel turned the sections of the wheel were filled up with water and this turned the wheel round and round.
This waterwheel was moving very slowly and we could think that it was moving so slowly that it would not make any difference to anything. But something happened as the water was continually flowing through that wheel and turning it - there was energy created. Even though the water was not very forceful and moving slowly through the wheel, the mill was still receiving power.
Of course we would think that the mill required either a swift flowing current or a good head of water and with all the sections of the wheel intact the water would then provide the power that was needed. Also if there were sections of that wheel missing it would be noticeable in the working of the mill.
However that wheel was gradually going round and round and increasing in speed as it was letting the water do the work it was meant to do.
Our friend needed to allow God to keep her in the flow of His love and care and settle in the security of knowing that He has enough love to encourage and keep her going.
She needed to remember what she had once known but was forgetting to hold on to. She needed to remember that God has promised His Holy Spirit to each of us who have trusted in His Son, who have truly believed that Jesus died in our place, taking our sins on Himself.
When we acknowledge the role The Holy Spirit wants to have in our lives then we will be like the waterwheel gaining strength and power and being used to help others as well as ourselves.
For our friend the hurts might have seemed like they were almost immobilising her and she might have thought she could not cope but with God she could count on the fact that all He did by the work of His Holy spirit would matter and He would help her cope with it all no matter how long it would take.
Sometimes I can feel the same way and need to remember that waterwheel myself.
This waterwheel was moving very slowly and we could think that it was moving so slowly that it would not make any difference to anything. But something happened as the water was continually flowing through that wheel and turning it - there was energy created. Even though the water was not very forceful and moving slowly through the wheel, the mill was still receiving power.
Of course we would think that the mill required either a swift flowing current or a good head of water and with all the sections of the wheel intact the water would then provide the power that was needed. Also if there were sections of that wheel missing it would be noticeable in the working of the mill.
However that wheel was gradually going round and round and increasing in speed as it was letting the water do the work it was meant to do.
Our friend needed to allow God to keep her in the flow of His love and care and settle in the security of knowing that He has enough love to encourage and keep her going.
She needed to remember what she had once known but was forgetting to hold on to. She needed to remember that God has promised His Holy Spirit to each of us who have trusted in His Son, who have truly believed that Jesus died in our place, taking our sins on Himself.
When we acknowledge the role The Holy Spirit wants to have in our lives then we will be like the waterwheel gaining strength and power and being used to help others as well as ourselves.
For our friend the hurts might have seemed like they were almost immobilising her and she might have thought she could not cope but with God she could count on the fact that all He did by the work of His Holy spirit would matter and He would help her cope with it all no matter how long it would take.
Sometimes I can feel the same way and need to remember that waterwheel myself.
