Let’s see if I can remember this, it was a couple weeks ago.
Spirit-led men’s group in Jail is a whole lot different from showing up to “do a class”. I usually ask “who brought the goods” and give the guys a chance to share was God has spoken to them throughout the week. With very little volunteered, we had to pull out all the stops. We actually got quiet and asked God to speak to us–and for once, I got the Word!
God gave me a picture of an anvil.
First, there was a sense that I was the anvil. Then I asked God, what’s going on here. Then I saw the poor heated-up piece of iron that was getting beaten, purified and hammered into shape (through adversity) and quickly dismissed the idea that that might be me. Then the picture zoomed out into the hammer, and God was the blacksmith asking the question: “Are you willing to be any one of these?”
Sometimes, of course, you are the object being shaped and perfected, and it hurts. But sometimes we are called to be the hammer– to deliver the blows that shape others. Not always in a harsh and forceful way of course, because even delivering a timely truth can have the effect of a shaping force in someone’s life.
Sometimes, we are to passively be the platform where the shaping takes place. I got the sense that the anvil’s function in my vision was that of an intercessory saint who can keep his mouth shut, and be in the environment, but will provide the quiet support for the process. Not needing to have “an important” part, but absolutely essential to the process.
Are you willing to be an anvil?