THE CROSSING WEEKLY

They were on a very long, dangerous, and perilous journey through the jungle. At times they were moving quickly around dark corners and other times slow… They crept through long grass thankful for filtered light, guiding the way through the dark and scary and seemingly endless tunnel.

Continuing the story from last week’s newsletter, we pick up with Will and Jacinta Ellis trekking through a danger-filled jungle… In Jacinta’s imagination. (If you missed last week, go read it!) God is for us and His will is to encourage, equip, and empower us in our life’s journey. One way He does this is speaking prophetically through dreams, visions, words of knowledge and wisdom, not to mention The Bible. For the Ellis’, this dream became an anchoring promise. It’s like a story straight out of Narnia itself.

Jacinta remembers the journey having many dangerous phases, but when they finally came to a cave and looking around, discovered a big opening leading to a shore. Together, they approached the shoreline allowing the water to gently wash their feet. Holding hands, they knew this was their destination, where they were meant to be.

Surrounded by beautiful lake water and trees, this was the most beautiful place she could ever describe or imagine. Everything was so vivid and real! Two white humpback whales were torpedoing toward them under the water. Both whales breached the waterline barely beyond a ripple, coming up and going back out again and again. The Ellis’ stood there in complete awe.

Sensing a strong presence behind them, Jacinta turned to find a lion… watching them… the whole time. It would have been easy to give in to fear, but something else took over. A knowing… A settling of heart.

Jacinta shares, “It was like that feeling of ‘hey there’s this lion behind us, He’s with us!’ I wasn’t  scared because he wasn’t attacking. He was on our side. Then it came and sat next to us right on the shore while the whales were coming in and out. The lion then sat in front of us laying in the water, and it let the waves carry him in and out, and he shook off, came and sat and laid back down… There are so many more details…”

Will and Jacinta looked at each other, knowing that they had to go back for the rest of their family. Returning through the jungle, Jacinta explains, “In the dream, it went quicker. We brought family members with us back to the shoreline all over again. I can remember specific family faces, but it was a sense that we brought others along with us…”

“I remember sharing the dream with Will the next morning, knowing I couldn’t leave him. God actually had something in mind,” Jacinta recalls. God lead them through dark and trying times, forging a path for others. Today, they assist others on this journey through ministries like For Men Only (FMO) and For Women Only (FWO) at The Crossing Life Church. 

Will adds, “That was one of the shifts this last year and a half; we started helping out with FMO and FWO with other people who are going through it, and I also started helping out in Journey (another ministry at Crossing Life Church).”

A powerful moment for Will came through a prophetic word of encouragement given by the Ellis’ close friend, Susan Michelson. Pulling out his phone where he saved it, Will states, “Susan shared this [in part]: ‘You have walked through your gifting, and it has served you. When you are restored, called out, and given back, it will serve the Lord. The insight you’ve been receiving about being present in the moment (versus rushing) is related to the anointing I believe God wants you to carry in leading others in worship… It’s not so much about the stage being given back to you as it is you being given back to the body… with something FOR them!… built from a DEEP victory…’” This is what began to unfold on that well-remembered Sunday, March 20, 2022, not only for the Ellis’, but for the Crossing Life Church community.

He adds, “I never once thought the freedom I’m experiencing was something I would have or ever attain… I thought I was going to be stuck like this forever, but it can be walked in… Freedom from anxiety and freedom form the tormenting, swirling thoughts and lies. You can have real breakthrough from that…”

Breakthrough is a really big word we love to use, but both Will and Jacinta reminded me of a simple truth as I finished my tea and conversation with them: Breakthrough is an invitation to simply go deeper and continue the growth that God has already begun in us.

Jacinta said it perfectly: “It is just a beginning to another beginning… We’re still a family learning how to raise our children… God is still teaching us and growing us, we have so much to learn, we have so much more to grow. We’re still learning how to trust one another, how to trust God and to lean on Him. It’s a continuation on what He’s planted, started, and built.”

That posture in heart is what will cultivate and breed the coming breakthrough. Breakthrough is one Glory-moment, and we are called to several “Glory-to-Glory” moments in our lifetimes. We can know He is for us and not against us because when we experience breakthrough, we discover it’s really just the start of something brand new in Him.