Last night in a brief dream a large tree branch came into my vision. Quickly, I realized that I was sitting tucked underneath this branch's protective arch. Then the Lord spoke clearly to me in the dream, “I am the Branch. I am your cover and your shade.”
In several different Old Testament prophesies, the coming Messiah is called the Branch.* While this name refers to Jesus coming from the blood line of King David, I feel that God is communicating something else that He wants me to share with you. As the Branch, Jesus is also our cover, canopy, and shelter in troubling times. The Holy Spirit has been highlighting Psalm 121 to me as a key passage to meditate on in this coming season.
"The Lord watches over you— the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night." -Psalms 121:5-6 NIV
"The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul." -Psalm 121:7 NASB
Despite the difficulties we have endured these past few months and the way things appear to be heating up toward the future, Jesus is our shade at our right hand. He is our ever present hiding place.
There is a caveat to these promises, however. We must keep ourselves sheltered under the shadow of the Branch. Walking out from under the Almighty's canopy takes us out of His shade and into the smiting sun's rays. We can leave God's protective shelter through disobedience, unrepentant sin, and failing to stay connected in relationship to Jesus through abiding.
Psalm 91:1 says, “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”
The secret place is a meeting with Jesus where we talk with Him and receive His love and direction. It is the place of relationship, trust, intimacy, and communion. To dwell means we make our home there. The secret place isn't a space to just flit in and out of when we experience a crisis. It is the peaceful habitation that we camp out and live from. When we carry His peace, His presence, and walk in continual communion with Jesus wherever we go, we are living from the secret place. Absolute trust is a marker of one who lives from this place. They are unshakable.
Let me be the first to raise my hand and say that many times I don't live from this place. It is my aim....yet I will find that I have stepped out from under His canopy and into worry, impatience, or trying to do things my way and in my own strength. When I recognize this, I seek to quickly repent and return to my seat under His covering. Abiding in the shadow of the Almighty takes practice, surrender, and relationship.
I believe that learning to live from the secret place is CRITICAL for the days ahead. I encourage you to evaluate whether you are living under the shade of the Branch. If Jesus isn't your habitation, then I exhort you to make the corrections now. He is our peace and refuge in the day of difficulty.
"But as for me, I shall sing of Your strength; Yes, I shall joyfully sing of Your lovingkindness in the morning, For You have been my stronghold and a refuge in the day of my distress."-Psalm 59:16
*Jeremiah 23:5, Isaiah 11:1, Zechariah 8:3