Day 27 - Given A Measure of Barley from Bethlehem

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Day 27 - Starts at Sundown Saturday
God is in a good mood! And He loves us... so it makes sense that

"if you being evil know HOW to give good things to your children, HOW MUCH MORE will the Heavenly Father give the good things to them who ask.

One of the ways we like to give good things to our children is by hiding it FOR THEM, not from them.

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, to search out a matter is the glory of kings. Proverbs 25:2

David is Given A Measure of Barley Meal from 'Bethlehem' - this is not a biblical account, nor a exhortation, this is just a story of my walking through a prophetic picture of types and shadows that ties back to a Scripture God gave me several days ago.  I only discovered it, as I was completing the picture on the second day, this is how it unfolded...

Please forgive me for leaving the serious topics at hand and reveling in the close personal interactions of the Spirit.

Earlier in the week when my friend Phil was putting the plans together, for having a meal with Stephen. I had received a snippet out of a Scripture passage context, it is a frequent way that I hear God speaking to me when it involves direction for going places, determining times,  deciding on who should be involved.

The the context this passage is in 1 Samuel Chapter 20 and describes David trying to convince Jonathon of Saul's murderous intent. David agrees to hide in a field for 'two days' pretending to be at his family home to complete the test. If Saul asks Jonathon about David's absence, Jonathon is supposed to say that David went home (to Bethlehem)  for two days, to offer a sacrifice, at the insistence of his brother. The test was set up to see how Saul would react when he notices David's empty place at the king's table. If Saul is at peace, David's life is secure, but if Saul becomes agitated, then he has demonstrated his malice toward David, and Jonathon will discover his intent. The final stage of the plan was to indicate to David the outcome, by shooting three arrows to the south of the stone EZEL.(going abroad, walk)

But for my purposes it was just a simple direction to set up the meeting in my home town.
When I went to look it up afterward, I found a few other details that fit the way things panned out even though I was not aware of them prior to walking it out. This is the part that I believe is a parallel,

After Phil ( my spiritual brother) insisted, that I meet with Stephen I felt we should meet in my home town, so we set a place and time in Minneapolis. After our meeting, I was going to meet up with my family who were also coming to Minneapolis to drop my daughter Hannah at her apartment. However, because of a mix up and logistics, as it tuned out, I had to return (to my home town) again this Saturday morning (a second day) in order to bring my daughter back for her job.

We left Mankato very early and after I dropped Hannah in St. Paul. I had decided to visit my parents, on the way back through the south side of Minneapolis. I arrived around 6:47 AM at 46th and Nicollet to get my coffee refreshed and in order to delay my arrival at my parent's house for a few more minutes until after 7:00 Am.

 I pulled up to a Caribou coffee shop, but I had found a spot in front of the shop next door, Sun Street Breads.
After trying to decide between the two, since both had espresso, I decided to try the Sun Street Breads.
 I walked in and after looking at the options I ordered a cherry blossom pastry and a shot of espresso to warm up my coffee.
The young woman behind the counter was friendly and once she discovered I was from Mankato she cheerfully volunteered that she used to commute between Minneapolis and Mankato for a whole year and she said,  "I loved it."

I enjoyed the cherry blossom pastry so much, that before I left, I bought a second one to take home for my wife, as I was selecting a loaf of bread, the discovery of what I am about to share hit me... My Heavenly Father had hidden something for me, a little love note that says, "Hey I am part of all of this, I can play out the patterns after all it is My inspired WORD written that I gave you the reference above.

I almost laughed out loud.

Here I was...  

1. David  went to his father's house
2. at the insistence of his brother
3. standing in a bakery literally a 'house of bread' (Bethlehem)  
4. in my home town, and on my way to my father's house
5. back in the specific neighborhood for two days. 

Five elements of that small snippet of Scripture were compiled into one momentary surprise!
For those of you that recognize patterns even when you are not looking for them, you can appreciate that this is just our Father's way of leaving clues along the way for our enjoyment, as we walk out, even His simplest of directions.

A sixth sense
Did I mention that the I Samuel 20 Passage in question took place during the last day before Trumpets.
Today we are only a four days before the same festival, Trumpets which begins at Sundown on Wednesday September 4  approx. 7:48 pm here in Mankato. MN.

I reached out and took my almond, oat, granola bread and headed towards the car. As I opened the driver's door, I heard that inward voice nudging me, go back and ask if they have barley meal.  The thought hit me right then, I wonder do they have any Barley bread?

I went back in to ask but the shift was changing over, so a new girl was now standing behind the till.
I paused for a second before I asked, secretly hoping the other girl was still available, since we had already been talking for a while. Instantly the original server popped her head out from behind a wall and said did you need something?

I turned to her and said," yes, I have a strange question..." she said, "go ahead."  "Do you have any barely meal?" I asked...."Or do you make any bread with barley?"  She looked behind her at the breads displayed and said "hmmmm...... not today!"

She called out back to the baker to ask about it, and the baker came right out from the back to apologize directly to me. It seems that they only bake barley loaves one day a week on Saturday.
And, this was Saturday? She went on to explain that they had completely run out of sandwich bread last night and so she had made the decision to switch in the middle of the night, from barley loaves to sandwich bread, so today there were no barley loaves. Then the baker asked me,  "What is it that you need!" I said, "I only need a handful of Barely meal" and she gave me a cup full of barley meal. If they had baked barley bread I would have bought a loaf but this was again my Heavenly Father going before me and preparing the barley meal I needed to obey another direction from the Lord.

This phrase what do you need? reminded me of one of Jesus' stories where a man is looking for bread at midnight and his friend rises to give him bread not because of their friendship but because of his unrelenting asking and then Jesus says, if you being evil know how to give your children good things, How much more will your heavenly Father give good things to them who ask...and keep on asking.

So I left the 'house of bread' in the 'city of my birth' and headed back to Mankato with a Cherry blossom pastry, a loaf of almond oat bread, and a measure of Barley meal.

This afternoon Stephen is coming to Mankato. We will be meeting with some of the elders of the congregation here and then having a meal with some friends to explain the prophetic backdrop of the 40 day prayer campaign and the pictures we have received for carrying out this initiative, for our Minnesota River Valley region.We might discuss why the Barley meal is significant for these days.

Stay tuned, God bless you as you seek to serve Him.

My prayer direction for today was a prayer of thanksgiving that we have the ability to commune with God He can speak to us and We can hear him and we have the power to obey, and even when we are ignorant of His workings, He will surprise us and we will find that our Father has hidden the marvelous for us and not from us.
Sometimes it is his joy to hid things for us to find hidden patterns of He is watch care over us.

Remember...

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings. Proverbs 25:2

David