Deep Waters - Part 1

"You're going into deep waters," he said over the phone to my husband. This was an acquaintance that we knew to operate in a prophetic gifting, and he had called to relay this message. Continuing on, he said that God was overtaking my husband, and that this wasn't happening in a matter of months, but coming in the following days. "Interesting," I thought, while at the same time analyzing from different directions what deep waters could mean. The night before this call, I had dreamed of being in some sort of community center, similar to a YMCA, with two pools. I was actually trying to get to the restroom, and I jumped into the deep end of one pool with my purse, and found swimmers racing from the other end of the pool. Here they came in their lanes kicking up white water and heading straight for me. 

Then, the dream shifted, and I was standing in a hallway by the childcare area of this community center. But  taking up most of the hallway was another pool! It literally took up the width of the hallway, so that you had to cross it to get to the bathroom at the end of the hallway. And if you were coming to pick up kiddos, you would also have had to get in.  It gets weirder.  This pool had two shallow ends, with the deep end being in the middle. I was standing at the edge of the pool observing all of this and realizing I was going to have to get in and swim across to where I was going, obviously including the deep water in the middle. 

Not long before these two dreams, I had another dream of being in the ocean while my mom watched me, smiling, from the back of a boat. In dreams, my mom usually represents the Holy Spirit. As she watched, I began to drown. I remember being under the water and looking up. The sky was blue, the sun was bright, and the water was crystal clear. Upon awakening, I knew I was safe with God but that, at this point in my life, I was no longer in control. Whatever was happening now as the big picture of my life experience, Holy Spirit was doing it. He was taking me under, and I was going to new depths. I was exhilarated and terrified.

Quickly processing all this after the call my husband had received, I looked at my him while he stood at the kitchen sink, and I asked, "So how do you interpret 'deep waters'? What does that mean to you?" I was hoping to get a different perspective that could also be true versus the thoughts this phrase brought to mind for me. He thought for a second and said something about the overwhelming blessing of God. When I thought about it, the caller had said God would overtake him. That could have a good connotation? So I said something like, "Yeah, maybe; sounds good." We had recently made some huge decisions, following how we believed God was leading. Maybe what my husband said was true. And why shouldn't it be? If you stepped out for God, didn't he reward you? Didn't you "step into" his blessing? But I wasn't truly satisfied with these thoughts. I knew enough of God's word to know that very devout followers of God, both in the Old and New Testaments, from David, Job, Paul, Peter, and even Jesus himself, had all experienced great testing and trials as part of their relationship with God, even amidst miraculous signs and wonders. I spoke up again, "You know, when David talks about deep waters in the Bible, he's usually not - if ever - rejoicing. It represents very hard trials." Unbearable situations is the phrase that now comes to mind, with even more perspective. In Psalm 69, we can feel the agony of David's soul as he pours out words of anxiety, sorrow, and exhaustion, mentioning deep waters at least three times. In Psalm 18:16, he expresses praise to God for delivering him from Saul's death pursuit as he says, "[God] reached from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters." 

So I left the conversation with us both knowing that the only option was "we'll see," and I went to bed pondering and praying about all of this that night. Wow. If I had only known what was to come beyond the overall prophetic preparation. Deep waters turned out to mean exactly what David said it did. A place where the soul is literally squeezed and poured out in agony. It wasn't fun at all. This would be the year I would never forget - the year of purification. 

Part 2 coming...