Shortness of Spirit

Shortness of Spirit

Have you been in a place where there has been a lot of pressure? Have your struggles increased? Are you loaded with work, more responsibilities, are you busier? Are there new problems arising, your body is failing, your situation is worse? Do you get less than what you were used to? Are there not enough people to help? Does it seem as if there is no time to rest in the Lord? Is this pressure just increasing and… you want out of this place already? What is going on Lord? This is called a birthing canal. Yes, we are going through birthing and many of you might be feeling the pressure of going through this narrow place. I keep hearing the Lord’s saying “the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the enemy is afraid” Exodus 1:11-14 MKJV And they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens…. 12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the sons of Israel. 13 And the Egyptians made the sons of Israel serve with harshness. 14 And they made their lives bitter with hard work… all their work in which they made them do was with harshness. You want to be in a certain place but you are being drawn to a place of more stress and demands. You want to do this and that, but you cannot. You want change but it gets worse. The waters come from all sides and you are short of breath. I believe we are going through this place of hard labor. The pain is greater, the contractions are more intense, the baby is getting ready to come out, but we need to keep pushing forward no matter how hard and messy and painful and weak we seem. We need to keep pressing forward together until we come together to that new spiritual place the Lord has prepared for us. We are being pushed out of one spiritual place, into another and the shifting is very painful. It is a place where you can no longer hold back the pain. You cannot hide the suffering. You cannot keep yourself from shouting, sighing, crying, “get me out of this place and let the baby come out already”. Your tolerance is being stretched. There is no epidural or something that can numb the pain. But the more the enemy afflicts you, the more you grow and multiply your fruits of righteousness. This place of birthing is a good place where new fruits are about to come out. I believe that as a church we are in such a place in the spirit. We are groaning like a woman in labor and the contractions are getting stronger, but something beautiful will come out of it. We will find ourselves in a broader place in the Spirit with new fruits to share. We will grow and multiply in the fruits we are bearing. It is a season of increase and the enlargement of our territory. Together and in the Lord’s presence we can go through that narrow place until we get to this new spiritual place. It is by going through the deep that the treasures are found. Remember Peter who was exhausted from fishing all night and getting nothing? It was after that season of darkness and in the morning that the Lord sent him to the deep. It was when he was tired and didn’t get any rest all night, that the Lord pushed him a little further to cast his net one more time and get the fish. This is where I believe we are as a church. We need to jump into the boat together with our leaders for one more push, to see the increase the Lord has prepared for us. The Bible speaks about the discouragement of the Israelites when they were in a place of birthing. The burden was so heavy on them they did not listen to what Moses was saying to them. In the midst of the pressure and this birthing canal, the Israelites were short of breath. The Hebrew says they didn’t listen to Moses because they were short of spirit. However, the message the Lord had for them is one of hope, of freedom and deliverance from this bondage and slavery. Exodus 6:6-9 NLT "Therefore, say to the people of Israel: 'I am the LORD. I will free you from your oppression and will rescue you from your slavery in Egypt. I will redeem you with a powerful arm and great acts of judgment. 7 I will claim you as My own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God who has freed you from your oppression in Egypt. 8 … I am the LORD!'" 9 So Moses told the people of Israel what the LORD had said, but they refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery. Exodus 6:9 TS98 And Mosheh spoke thus to the children of Yisra'ĕl, but they did not listen to Mosheh, because of shortness of spirit, and from hard slavery. Exodus 6:9 HOT וידבר משׁה כן אל־בני ישׂראל ולא שׁמעו אל־משׁה מקצר רוח ומעבדה קשׁה׃ The Israelites were so pressed down by slavery they did not hear what their Redeemer was saying to them. They were short of breath. What does it mean in Hebrew that they were “short of breath”? 1. Anguish of spirit - קצר רוח 2. Impatient קצרה רוחו 3. Could not wait, impatient, angry, vexed, grieved, emotional

לא היתה לו סבלנות להמשיך לחכות, ארכה לו השעה, קצרה רוחו ,קצר-רוח חסר-סבלנות, מתרגש; כעסן, רגזן לקצר (פ') לעשות לקצר יותר, להקטין אורך, לצמצם משך, לכווץ, לצמק; לחתוך, לקצץ, לגזום, לגזור, לגזוז; לספר (שער) ; לא להאריך בדברים, לדבר בקצרה, "לצנזר" 4. Short breathed, not enough breath (wind, spirit) 5. H7115 קוֶֹצר qôṣer: A masculine noun indicating despair, anguish, discouragement. The word means literally short. In context it refers to a shortness of spirit, depression because of oppression (Exo_6:9). 6. H7114 קצר qâtsar BDB Definition: to reap, harvest לקצור (פ') לצאת לקציר, לחתוך שיבולים, לאסוף תבואה, לגזום במגל, לעבוד בחרמש; לקטוף, להשיג, לזכות ב-, לקבל, לנחול; להמית, להרוג, לקטול, לחסל, לטבוח; לאסוף, ללקט; לכרות, לחתוך, להסיר, להוציא

The Spirit was harvested, it was cut like one reaps wheat. The spirit was gathered, killed, cut off, removed, brought out. Therefore the Hebrew slaves in Egypt were so burdened by their enemies they could not listen to Moses because of the shortness of Spirit. The Spirit in them has decreased, reduced, minimized, shrunk, it was almost cut, the word was shortened, weakened, it was censored; the word was removed or withheld, controlled and criticized. You might be feeling short of the Spirit. You might be saying “this is too heavy on me. This one is weighing me down. This is enough already. I want to be set free. I can’t do this. I am not talented for that. I don’t have any experience in this. I’ve never done that. I don’t want to wait and see. I am not staying in this place. I don’t know how, but you’re being pushed to a place where you know you have no strength or power to do it. You are being pushed to that place of the impossible, where only a miracle can do it. The Lord would say to you…. "It’s Not About Who You’re Not, but because of who I AM" I woke up yesterday (Sunday) morning and the first thing I heard was … “I love you because of who I AM, not because of who you are not”. Wow, what a wonderful thing to hear in the morning from the Lord. I got up and wrote it down so I don’t forget and the first thing in my mind was… “What do you mean, Lord? I’m not sure I understand what You’re saying.” As I was thinking about it I realized the Lord was saying… "It’s not about who you are not. It’s not about what you cannot do. It’s not about what you don’t have. It’s not about who you cannot be. It’s not about who you are…." The Lord would say, “It’s because of who I Am and what only I can do”. “My love and commitment to you does not depend on any of these. What I want to give you and do in you has nothing to do with your inadequacies. It has everything to do with what only I can do. I love you and I am with you even when you cannot. I will be with you even when you don’t have. Even when you are not. Even when you think you need to be this and you need to do that. I love you because of who I am, not because of who you fail to be or what you fail to do. I am here to deliver you from your oppression and free you from slavery because I am the Lord”. 'I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect. Let Me be the LORD your God who goes before you and will Myself fight on your behalf, … and carry you, as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place.”

(Leviticus 26:13, Deuteronomy 1:30-31) See Part Two about the process of being birthed into a new spiritual place bearing new spiritual sons.