Of Signs and Symbols (part 2) . (Langley Hall)

( This is part 2 of a discussion of divine signs and symbols.  Part 1 is here) 

2017  - OD17

In January 2017, we were coming home after a family holiday at the beach. It was late at night , end of a long day, and we came into town on a familiar road. A few kilometres from home we passed a sign I must have seen hundreds of times– and, tired as I was,  It also jumped out in a way it never had previously. 

I knew these OD routes literally mean “Over Dimensional”, and refer to large truck routes. The ‘17’ was the label for this OD route,  but that night it also seemed to resonate with ‘2017’.

I’d been in many prayer meetings the previous year or two and sometimes sensed heavy duty traffic moving over the town- like glimpsing movements of large troop transports.   

So the sense of “Over Dimensional” traffic in the heavens in 2017,  also made sense –big things coming into town.

I sensed another meaning of OD17, that further startled and resonated.

OD17  =  Open Doors 2017  … also akin to the exit signs and the open door passages (from part 1 ). 

And so it startled me a bit as we drove into town in January of 2017.

In the following months, 2017 turned out to have any number of prophetic markers – more than 10 distinct and independent words in the end – that pointed to September as a season of revival.   And indeed a fire was lit then which is still burning.           

 (When we got close to that time, He took me through a deep reboot into deeper repentance and new things. Also did many other things in other lives. A range of physical healings was the tip of the iceberg of how other lives were touched. Also felt like a foretaste of what is still to come and be poured out). 

As I retold parts of this story recently, in 2018, I said, a little wistfully,  “but we need it (the prophetic promise of revival and open doors) updated to OD18 for 2018”.  I guess I wondered if we’d missed the full alignment and promise of 0D17– but then driving around town the next day, on another familiar road,  I noticed  another OD sign.  I'd never noticed this one either before: this time it was OD19.  And when I looked around town, I also noticed an OD16 route. And then a couple of weeks later I found OD18 on the northern edge of town.  

So one night a few weeks ago I traced all these through.  The way it panned out was interesting. 

I had gone to visit a church and felt led to step outside. That familiar verse, stretch out your tentpegs (Isaiah 54) came to me  …and it seemed to mean, we need to drop some guide ropes and pegs into the community.  Maybe for stability, maybe for outreach.   

So i walked a bit, then drove, to try to sort out what to do with that sense. I noticed an OD16 sign and started to trace out the route. I didn’t actually know where all of the OD routes went, just some parts.  Had a sense to invite a friend, who was intrigued by the random suggestion of prophetically mapping truck routes,  and we drove around town together and traced all 4 of them out.  

He was particularly struck by OD18.  I’d only driven one end of it and had felt to call him before following all of it. Unbeknown to me it went close to their place, and as we drove along,  other locations on its route also seemed meaningful, confirming some 2018 agendas for him.

He also pulled the routes up on a map that I hadn’t been able to find.

it shows the place where they all join (or will all join, when the OD19 one is adjusted to its planned location).

The meeting point is in WhteHills, at the intersection the main road  through town (Napier St)  and Lyons. 

(the red roofed property on the north east corner of that intersection is Langley Hall, originally built as a home for the Anglican bishop and his children. (Google Street view  )

Not yet sure what to make of all these routes.  But something is afoot about it. 

No doubt more to be gleaned on meanings.

The routes are like gateways into the city. My friend felt a sense that we’re in the middle of a bigger picture than we know; drawing in other players, other parts, and stories of previous years.  (We all know there has been  deep legacy of faithful prayer and witness here).  Also interesting that OD18 has that long northern border, and OD19,  with its pending adjustment of start location, on the eastern side).

And we're still called to go through the open doors, to go higher, together.  The promises of 2017, and prior, are still being developed and unfolded in our town.