Nothing Can Stop A Glacier

Revival breaks out as overcoming love in women's prison in SC.

Check out the post on Monday, August 11, 2008 Suddenly The Sound ,"The Sound of God's Presence" to read of my wonderful day at the women's prison.

I keep asking myself "Why now?" These hundreds of women have been incarcerated for years. Church services have been held throughout all that time. What is making such a lifechanging difference now? I have been a student of revivals for many years. As I've read through the Bible I've seen the cumulative evil and then suddenly: God breaks through with life changing power.

Recently I stumbled onto some writings by Rick Bass, author and environmentalist. He writes of the significance of many small accummulations of ice and snow to form glaciers. Bass states that a glacier is the most powerful force the world has ever seen. Literally nothing can stop a glacier.

Bass writes that scientists speculate that the origin of glaciers is that they are "the result of a wobble, a hitch, in the earth's rotation. . . . Glaciers get built or not built, simply, miraculously, because the earth is canting a single one-trillionth of a degree in this direction for a long period of time, rather than in that direction."

And then he writes, "When I am alone in the woods, and the struggle seems insignificant or futile, or when I am in a public meeting and am being kicked all over the place, I tell myself that little things matter—and I believe that they do. I believe that even if your heart leans just a few degrees to the left or the right of center, that with enough resolve, which can substitute for mass, and enough time, a wobble will one day begin, and the ice will begin to form, where for a long time previous there might have been none. Keep it up for a lifetime or two or three, and then one day—it must—the ice will begin to slide."Source: Ron Bass, The Roadless Yak, Lyons Press.Image: Franz Joseph Glacier, NZ

Could it be that the revival outbreak was like a glacier? The glacier slowly forms by the fallling of snow that collects over time. Then as the snow deepens, the weight compresses, ice forms, then more snow, then more ice. This occurs over years; and nothing significant happens.

Bass notes that the glacier must acccumulate a mass of sixty-four feet or more before it begins to move. But when it begins to move; nothing can stop it.

He said that with "the result of a wobble, a hitch, in the earth’s rotation. . . . Glaciers get built ..."

Thinking back on Sunday; after all the weight of trouble these women inmates have had on them; one tiny lean in the direction of the hope of God ...of Saviour Jesus Christ; could have been all it took for things to move where nothing could stop the move of God.

I personally believe that every action of love that God transmits through me, and other believers, is never wasted. I can imagine that all the different ministries that have been investing in the women's prison have had a cumulative effect. The "glacier" of God was the accumulation of all that ministry that reached a critical mass. Sunday we were blessed when God moved and nothing could stop Him. Those women came in the room one way and left totally transformed. They danced and sang with joy as they were returning to their cells.

All week I've been singing "Can't get enough of You, Jesus...can't get enough of You..." and seeing those women dancing to their cells singing. I am saying "Holy, Holy, Holy," and remembering them singing that over and over with tears pouring down their faces.

Being with them; I am being revived. Something is moving in my world and even when fear raises its head; God still moves!!!

All actions motivated by Holy Spirit in love, small or large, matter in the Kingdom of God. We are not wise enough to know when the "critical mass" is reached where God moves and nothing can stop His Kingdom here on earth, but may we appreciate that what we do is significant and may make its greatest impact beyond our lifetime here on earth.