He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh.” (EZEK. 47:8)

The Dead Sea alive? Impossible! Next to the resurrection, this may be the most impossible feat in all of Scripture.

This river of awakening is so powerful it actually brings the Dead Sea to life. Fresh water can become salty, but it doesn’t happen the other way around. Awakening means nothing less than total turn around.

There is a short declaration we see throughout Scripture that must be recovered in our time. It is one of the banners of awakening. We see it in Genesis when the angelic visitor spoke to Abraham concerning his eighty-something-year-old childless wife: “Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son” (Gen. 18:14).

Then there was that time God instructed the prophet Jeremiah to purchase land on the eve of the catastrophic Babylonian exile, telling him that though everything would be lost, it would be returned to them. “Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ‘I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?’” (Jer. 32:26–27).

Then there was that time the angel of the Lord visited the young teenaged girl, Mary, and told her that she would become pregnant by the Holy Spirit and give birth to the Son of God. “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34 ESV). The angel spoke the words, as though lifting high the great banner, “For nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37 ESV).

And let us not forget the garden of Gethsemane. At the lowest point in his earthly life, Jesus, the Son of God, literally sweating blood, cries out for a reprieve from the suffering awaiting him with these words. “‘Abba, Father,’ he said, ‘everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will’” (Mark 14:36).

Nothing is impossible with God. Let’s call it the banner of awakening.

The Dead Sea alive? Yep!

PRAY FOR ONE ANOTHER
Come Holy Spirit and lift our eyes to the horizon of your possibilities. We renounce our cynicism, and we declare with your people at all times and in all places, nothing is impossible with you. Help us believe this’to really believe it. Yet keep us in touch with the rest of Jesus’ prayer, “Not what I will, but what you will.” Salt water becoming fresh. Yes, Lord. We pray in the name of the one who alone can make it so, Jesus. Amen.

CONFERENCE TOGETHER
Where have or do you put the limit on the possibility of the work of the Holy Spirit in the world? How can that limit be lifted from your thinking?