This word is submitted by Jane Larsen (jlarsen65@hotmail.com)

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                             The Black Pot


I had a vision of a pot.  It was round at the bottom and the top resembled
an urn vase.  It was fat and squat and I knew it was a pot because it was
very black, the black that comes from being on a fire for a long time.  As I
studied the top of the pot, where the flames had not been able to burn as
much as the bottom, I was sure that I saw a faint gold.  As I waited, the
Lord laid this in me:

You have been in the fire.  For a long time there has been a burning, an
ending of all that was not going to benefit you in your walk with Me.  It
has been a hard and a long time, when you felt that there would never be
rest.  It has been a time of the scales falling from your eyes, a time of
lessons to be learned and a time of knowing what is important in your life
and what is not.  Look.  Look back and see.  Are you the same now as you
were then?  No, for you have endured, you have stood, you now see things as
if they are new.

Beneath the black is pure gold.  All has been burnt away.  All the bad has
been stripped away, all that hindered you, all that kept your eyes from
seeing.  Breathe.  Breathe in my Spirit and know that you are free, that
there is a time, a time of testing, a time of pruning, a time to be in the
desert and a time to walk through the valley.  No, I have not left you, I
have not abandoned you to the four winds.  When you felt you were drowning I
was holding you up, when you felt you were falling I was keeping your feet
on solid ground.  Remember this.  You are the apple of My eye.  I know, oh
child I know, how many hairs are on your precious head.  I know your goings
out and your comings in and I watch over you as you sleep.  Am I not the One
Who said "Do not fear"?  Am I not the One Who said that a bruised reed I
will not break?   Am I not the One Who said "I will be with you always, even
unto the ends of the Earth"?

So now a new time has dawned.  A time of laughter, a time of peace, a time
of restoration, a time of gladness springing in your heart for you are
blessed indeed.  Now there is gold.