Part 1 I find myself standing in the snow in a wooded area on the slopes of a mountain. I notice a white horse and a warrior enter my vision and they seem to be in no real hurry. I also see wolves lying under the trees in wait of prey, there are many of them and they have the horseman in their sights. The horseman is on his way home to his humble little cabin in the woods. He reaches his cabin and ties his horse up outside and goes indoors to start a fire and get something to eat because he is hungry from travelling the whole day. He sits down to enjoy his meal that he had prepared, when he hears his horse get restless outside in the dark, and as he opens his front door to have a look, fear grips him as he looks into the darkness to see many eyes looking toward him. The little light that his lantern creates is but just enough to make there eyes twinkle to give it a freighting feeling. The man is fearful and would like to help his horse, but knows that if he sets a foot out there, they would have him and his horse at their mercy. He slowly walks backward a pace and shuts the door in front of him. He runs to where he had last left his sword, and runs back toward the door. He flings the door open and gets a couple of paces and looks at his horse and sees a couple of bite marks and drops of blood on the cold snow. The wolves have tasted blood and will now wait it out and stop at nothing till they get their prey. The man stood by his horse, and with sorrow mixed with anger in his heart he drew his sword and with a swift and skilful hand he cut through the centre of the animal’s heart and at once the horse fell to the ground. He now stood there in the presence of the wolves that were in the dark, but now alone with his crimson sword in his hand. The wind picked up and chilled the man to the bone, as he didn’t have his outside jacket on. I find myself just standing there, wondering what he is going to do with the dead body of his horse when a few of the wolves decide to come out and apprehend the man who now has his sword ready to defend. Ten or so wolves come out into the open and try confronting the man. He picks up his sword and waves it frantically in the air trying to scare the wolves away, but to no avail. One wolf manages to come up quite close behind the man and snaps at him and he swings his sword in a wide arc missing the animal by a mile and aggravating it even further. The man now has no option but to retreat, but does not want to leave the body of his trusted but now dead horse outside for these undignified beasts to devour at will. He sits on his haunches for a few seconds and closes his eyes, just for a few seconds to get a hold of his thoughts and emotions and to get his thinking right. Just as he opens his eyes, he see’s a wolf running straight for him, and at a few paces left the man picks up his sword and gives all his effort into the aim. The sword finds its target, and the animal falls a couple of feet from the man without a twitch. The other wolves immediately turn and run into the surrounding forest, not for good, for they still have the taste of blood on their lips and they will not let this opportunity down. The man tries to move the horse to a place out of the reach of the wolves when they return, for he knows it wont be long before they are back. He decides to create a few fires around the horse to keep the wolves at a reasonable distance till he can get help during the daylight hours. He quickly finds some cut logs from his shed and builds a few piles of wood around his horse and starts the fires burning. He sits on the front step of his cabin staring at his horse in an almost daze with the fires flickering around him and the chilling breeze blowing in from the north. It is dawn when the man wakes from his sleep when he jumps up in disgust at his weakness to find that the body of his horse is still intact and the fires around the horse are all dead and smouldering. His horse is now just a dead weight of cold flesh that he now has to deal with and he sits on his step for a while thinking about what he should do with this dead animal. The body of the wolf still lies where it fell just a few hours ago. The man decides that to bury both the animals would be the best way to get rid of the bodies and to prevent the wolves getting hold of it. So he gets out his tools and sets to work digging a great big hole that will hold both animals. He also makes the hole deep enough so that the wolves would not be able to smell the dead bodies from above the ground. Round about midday the hole is complete and to his satisfaction. He is only just able to lift himself out of the hole with his fingers because of the depth of the hole. He lowers both animals into the hole and starts to cover them with the soil until the hole is completely covered over. He rakes the ground with his spade to level the ground and to try camouflage the covered hole with snow and twigs and loose soil. No sooner did he cover the whole, when the rest of the wolves decide to find what they were after. They came back to find nothing but snow on the ground and silence. Unsatisfied, they left and sought prey elsewhere. Conclusion Although the man had lost his horse to his own sword and killed a wolf, he had a piece about him that he had protected his own life by burying the two dead bodies so that it wouldn’t cause trouble to come back and look for old opportunities to feast on. Lord, what are you saying with this story? The Lord then spoke to me and said: “The fire of my presence will keep the wolves from you in the midnight hour, and my word will penetrate to the heart and through bone. I cast from you the bodies of your enemies and I cause the ground to swallow them up. I, the Lord your God am your protector and your fire in the midnight hour. When your enemies come at you from every angle, I cause your thinking to be on my greatness and Holiness and I will cause my word to lay your enemies to rest in front of you. My word alone stands between you and your enemies, and nothing will by any means hurt you.” I then see the man working with wood to make a new shelter on the outside of his cabin. It looks like a small stable for a horse. Perhaps the man would like to purchase another horse, for he lives some distance away from the town and it takes him many hours to walk to the markets. It takes him a full day’s walking to and from the market just for the sake of an hour or two. The man makes the wooden structure strong and the door is made from the strongest wood he can cut with his tools. The stable has its water trough and it has a place for its food to be kept. He coats the outside of the stable with a thick tar that seals the stable from the cold, the rain coming in and the chance of any animal scratching its way in through the wood. The tar is also a good wood preserver. The man makes his last trip by foot to the market, and he holds the money in his hands to purchase a new young horse. He walks down the street toward the stable yard, and as he walks a thief runs past him and grabs the money from the mans hand, but half the money drops to the floor. The man gets on his knees to retrieve the fallen coins, and looks up to see the thief run further and further from him. No one around him lifts a finger to help and the thief gets away. With low spirits the man walks toward the stable yard knowing that with only half of the money he had, he will not get much. He walks into the yard and asks what he can get with the amount that he had in his hand, and the yard owner laughs and points to a stable in the far corner and says: “Give me what you have, and you can have whatever you find in the stable.” So the man walks over to the stable and finds this young horse, but its one back leg is obviously hurt and the poor thing is hopelessly undernourished. He decides to buy it, but looks outside at the weather and wonders how he will get this poor animal home in its condition. He also wouldn’t be able to ride it, as it would aggravate its hurt leg and the trek home would be long and arduous. The man asks if he could buy the horse, but leave it in its stable where he would come tend to it everyday till it is well enough to travel home with him. The storeowner immediately said “No, if you want the animal, buy it and take it away with you.” So the man has no option but to buy the horse and trust that he would have a safe journey home before nightfall, as it was already getting late. He paid for the horse and took it from its stable and walked it out into the street where he found that the other people on the street were looking at him almost in disgust as he walked with this limping dirty animal beside him. The horse looked the man in the eyes and he almost saw the horse’s thankfulness in its eyes. They walked slowly down the road in the direction of the woods where his cottage is. A man in a long white apron stands at the door to his shop and calls: “Hey there, bring that animal round the back hear, it can stay hear for the night. It is too dangerous in the woods at night for a wounded animal. I will give you a place to stay the night, then in the morning you can go your way.” The man accepted, and was led round the back to an old shed where there was some hay and an old drum of water. The horse was lead in and the door was closed shut with the horse safely inside. The store owner lead the man up to his house where he showed him the spare room where he could retire for the night. Part 2 The man retires to his bed and soon falls asleep. During the night, he wakens to the faint, but unmistakable sound of a horse in distress. He walks to the window where it overlooks the stable where his horse is being kept, but finds that the sound grows too faint for him to hear. He stands there a little while contemplating the sound to be something in his dream perhaps, so he gets back into his bed to retire once again. The man is wakened the next morning by the smell of something delightful cooking in the kitchen, so he gets dressed and goes downstairs to go find out. While around the table, enjoying the breakfast that the lady prepared, the man enquired whether anyone had heard the sound of a horse in distress in the early hours, but the sound was heard by no one. After breakfast, the man gave his thanks to his hosts and implored that he should get going, because it’s a long way back home through the woods with his horse that is slightly ailing. His host turns to him and looks with a question written all over his face … “Horse?” … “What horse?”. The man went cold with anger and confusion alike and ran to the barn where he left the horse the previous night. He opened the door and found it empty. He turns around with rage contorting his face to a blood red object of scorn. His host turns to his wife, shrugs his shoulders and looks back at the man and says: Better be on your way now sir, we cannot help you find your horse. With one last look in the empty stable to make sure the man walk away confused and angry, and he walks back into town. It seems like the whole town is closing its doors and windows to the man as he walks closer, and his confusion and anger is fuelled even more as it seems he is the one causing all the trouble in the town. As he seems to stand in the silence of the now closed up town, he picks up the faint sound of many horses hooves coming in from out of town and picks up the large cloud of dust on the horizon. After a while I single out a rider on a dark colour horse, but there doesn’t seem to be any other with him. The man seems to stand in the centre of this town waiting to meet this lone horse rider and I realise its not the man in the centre of the town that the town folk are afraid of, it’s the one on the horse that is the cause of the terror. As he comes nearer, I feel like it’s almost an evil kind of character we are about to meet. Where I stand, and what I am looking at is almost like you would find in an old western movie. I haven’t had any vision quite like this one before, so we will wait and see how things unfold. The lone rider starts slowing down to a trot, just on the outskirts of town and he moves very slowly toward us, almost making us feel scared or intimidated. The rider puts a cloth, or some form of protection or disguise around his head, looking very suspicious. He comes closer now with his one hand holding his reigns and the other hand holding the cloth over his face. I feel almost nervous for the man about to meet this horsemen. They seem to stand there for a long time, almost expecting each other to say the first words. The man being very nervous asks : “Sir, would you perhaps know where I could find my horse?, it has been stolen from me.” Silence … “No … I do not have your horse. What are you doing hear?” the horsemen replies. The man replies: “Sir, I am confused by what is happening in this town, everyone seems to be frightened of something, no one is telling me what is happening. As well as my horse disappearing. I want some answers.” The horsemen says nothing again for a long while, when he suddenly draws out a long pole with a spear in the one side and throws it to the ground right at the mans feet, almost pinning him to the ground. The horsemen immediately turns and gallops away at full pace back out the city. I turn toward the spear that was hurled to the ground and find a note written and tied to the spear, but I cant get near it to read it for some reason. The man left standing walks across and yanks the paper from the spear and shoves it in his pocket. He holds on to the spear and gives it a good old tug, but to his amazement it seems solidly wedged into the ground and wont move. A little breeze begins to pick up and the man decides to go find some cover out of the dust that is being blown around and leaves the spear in the ground. Now in the back of my own mind, I cant really tell what the time is or how much time has gone by, or even if they follow time. The man sits under the cover of a barber shop’s front door on the steps and feels the first drops of rain, but big rain. It starts to rain quite hard, and soon the ground is almost running water. The man sits under the cover and stares out into the rain at the spear that is still stuck in the ground. Now this is where I start questioning what is happening. “Lord, I don’t seem to get what this all is saying to me” The Lord then says to me: “The driving rain is the piece that I poor out over my land, to settle the dust and the contention. Do not be concerned with the false threats and accusations of the enemy, his words to you have no power, and he can do nothing to you unless I give permission. Do not be concerned about your horse, it has been protected and is out of harms way. The man you have been watching is in fact you, that I have allowed to observe. Do not allow that spear to stay in the ground to long, for the enemy has planted an arrow of fear into the ground you stand on, and it will grow unless it is pulled out. The enemy could have done far more damage had you not confronted him about your horse. It was good for you to stand your ground and not show fear. The people will come out again when the power of this fear is broken.” What should I do with the spear in the ground Lord? “Take it with both hands and allow me to help you pull it out, for it is only by my Spirit that you can overcome and conquer the enemy. Do not try and pull the Spear out with your own strength or understanding.” I found the man walking across the ground in the poring rain and grabbed the spear with both hands and pulled, but nothing happened. He pulled and pulled, and still nothing happened. The still voice in his heart spoke to him and said: “Have you forgotten what I have just taught you son? Do not try and pull it out on your own, allow me to help you.” The man stood with his head low for a while as he thought about it, and once again he took the spear. But this time he never pulled, he just waited, and what happened next was that the spear got loose in the soil and just fell to the floor under its own weight. The rain started slowing down after a while and after a long while the sun started burning off the cloud to reveal the mid after noon sun. The spear was but just a piece of wood lying in the ground with no point to it, as that was left deep in the ground where no one would find it any longer. Part 3 I found that soon after all the action ended, that the productivity of the town started up again immediately and it was as though nothing had happened. The man then found his horse wondering around town, with a better looking health than before. It had a sparkle in its eye and it seemed eager to get going. The sun started heading over the tree’s leaving behind it a chill on the breeze and the thought that its to late to head back home now came to mind. He decides to go into the hardware shop to purchase a lantern and make an effort to get home, not perplexed about the hour that he might get home. He saddles the horse with his blanket and keeps his sword over his shoulder in case he needs to defend himself quickly. They head out into the hills and the woods with a chill in the air that keeps them awake and alert. After an hour of travelling, he lights the lamp to make sure he can see the path ahead of him clearly and so he can steer clear of any traps set before him. As soon as the thought of looking out for traps enters his thoughts, the inevitable happens, he hears the unmistakable sound of a clap and the horse rears up and throws the man off onto his back. It was a small trap, not enough to break bone, but just enough to create a bit of pain. The trap was designed for small rabbits and jackals to keep them from running off until they could be retrieved by their hunter. He is able to free the trap from the ground but is unable to open the trap, so he will have to walk by foot with the horse, making the journey even slower. I’m not to sure if the smell of blood can be carried by the wind, but it has left the man with a concern about wolves coming out for him like days before. They continue there trek, and out of the blue a pack of wolves run past them at full pace chasing another lone wolf, or one that had possibly been kicked out the pack, and they seemed unaware of the two of them in there chase. It was a little further down & next to the path they were on, so they didn’t see the sharp light of the lamps flame. That was a close call the man almost said out aloud. “Son, remember what I taught you about the spear that left fear in the village? The same fear can be found everywhere, and it’s with the same method that you disarm its power. Keep on going, and meditate on my spirit protecting you, instead of worrying about the wolves. Call on me when you’re in fear and I will make your thinking clear and sharp. Understand that there is nothing they can do to you if your lamp is burning brightly and if your step is strong and true. Look, they have disunity in there camp! The enemy has so much hatred, that they even hate their own kind. Be of good cheer! Stand up now and walk, I am with you in the darkest forest and will deliver you safely to your home.” The fear that had almost gripped the man’s throat was now gone and they continued along their path with the distant cries of the wolves down in the valley. The man suddenly shouts … “Jeshua” in a sense or feeling of complete faith and or trust in God! And in that shout, a presence of the Lord came like a warm wind through the valley that silenced every single sound and noise. It almost felt as though a strong build-up of static electricity had charged up the entire forest around them. A new sense of strength and boldness had come upon them and their step was quick and had direction and power behind it. They got back home that evening by the power of the Spirit that had protected them, and it was a super short journey that had taken them a quarter the time to complete. He locked up his horse in the new stable that he had built and went inside to prepare a meal before retiring for the night. While he was preparing his meal, I saw a large venomous snake that had coiled up into the one corner of the stable, just resting but there non the less. It would be a matter of time before the horse finds this one. As the man was eating his meal, I couldn’t help wonder why he had such a load of things coming against him in such a short time. Soon after supper had been eaten, the lights go out and there is complete silence, except for the sound of the gentle breeze blowing dry leaves through the forest and the distant sounds of wild animals calling each other.
Posted on: Fri, 13 Sep 2013 19:10:15 +0000
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