Several weeks ago I was attending a women’s retreat. It was beautiful; God’s presence was in the place. I have experienced moments like this many times before; however, this particular time was different. Some women were praying, while others were praising the lord, all were worshiping God in their own ways. The spirit of God was so intense; I began to observe the spirit of God move through the room, I love the feeling we get only when we are in his presence. Its times like this that make us more sensitive to hear from God.
God gave me a vision, a vision of what he wants to do in all our lives. I saw each of us as sponges absorbing the precious things he was pouring out in that moment. After this amazing experience and vision, I immediately went home and began to research sponges. I was drawn to the Sea Sponge in particular. The natural sea sponge is one of the world’s simplest multi-cellular living organisms. The sponge’s scientific classification is “Porifera,” which literally means “pore-bearing,” and refers to the countless tiny openings or holes visible on all sponges.
Sponges grow in all different shapes, sizes, colors, and textures. The tiny pores, with their many adjoining channels, serve multiple purposes for sustaining a sponge’s growth. The most important of which is letting massive amounts of water to flow freely in and out of the sponge in order for it to gather all the nutrients it needs to grow and survive, while simultaneously releasing waste and unwelcome objects. I believe this applies to our spiritual walk and us. If we allow the Holy Spirit to flow in and through us, we will be grounded to the things of God, keeping all the nutrients while releasing the waste and filth.
This reminds me of a saying that I told my kids quite often as they were growing up. “What you put into yourself will come out when you are squeezed”, so it’s important to constantly be filling yourself with things of God. This saying really applies when we as believers are faced with unexpected trials and tribulations; if we are filtering our spiritual sponges with God’s word, we are equipped with the knowledge to know how to speak to these unexpected situations.
We need to absorb only the things that will keep our spiritual sponge producing attributes of our Heavenly Father: love, peace, joy, compassion, and forgiveness. An example is being planted in a church. (Psalm 92:13),they are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God. Along with serving in the church. (2 Peter 1:5-8),for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is important that we surround ourselves with like-minded people whom can encourage and lift us up.
Another amazing attribute of a Sea Sponge is that it always attaches itself to a rock, which helps it to be firm and strong. Like the sponge, we need to be planted on the rock. (Psalm 62:2) He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.
