Last night we had a team of givers that went to clear a garden.

It wasn't just any garden - it was full of 24 years worth of old fridges, sofas, beds and other rubbish the owners had not been able to get rid of.

This meant that the Grand-daughter living in the house had no-where safe to play in the summer months.
The team did an amazing job - they filled the van with waste and cleared the garden completely. It's now a safe place to play. Physically it was sorted.

But something greater went on last night.

As the team of followers of Jesus went in and cleared all those years of rubbish - they took with them the spirit of God.
What a privilege!

2 Corinthians 3 v 17 says "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom".

I wonder how much emotional and spiritual waste the team also dealt with as they did that clearing, as they brought the spirit of freedom?

Often when Besom teams give time to clear gardens I'm reminded of  "the Valley of dry bones" from Ezekiel 37. Ezekiel was brought to the valley by God and God asks him - "can these bones live?" Ezekiel replies. "You alone know God". Ezekiel is commanded by God to prophesy over some dry bones to breathe life into them.

⁷So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. ⁸I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. ⁹Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.' " ¹⁰So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life

This passage reminds me of the gardens we visit - often desolate, dead places with no life. But in the same way - givers full of God's spirit enter these places and breathe life into them physically & spiritually.

As the team left last night - they offered to pray for the recipients. They accepted the offer.
I wonder what difference that will make?