A week ago today, Hurricane Beryl was barreling through Houston. I hadn’t given it much thought since, as far as I knew, it was going towards Corpus Christi. It wasn’t until my van was rockin’ that I thought to check the storm’s track. And it was dead center on us!
I had actually asked the Lord, prior to landfall, whether I should stay here or head on up to Lake Conroe, an hour north. He very assuredly said to stay, and so I did. Little did I know that His reasons for having me stay had a lot more to do with whether I’d be safe of not. Of course I’d be safe, but His intention was much more spiritual.
When the storm hit its peak, I climbed out of my bed, which is situated high up in the back of my van. The center of gravity just seemed off with me up there, so I grabbed my pillows and blankets and got comfortable on the floor at the front of my van. I felt assured that this was the right thing to do, and it did feel a lot more secure that way.
While laying there, I thought of how Jesus slept in the storm and so could I. But I wasn’t tired … and I was curious. What did the name Beryl mean? God has significance in every detail. It’s available to us. We just need to be open to see it. I was also curious about its significance toward the Body of Christ — “Corpus Christ” means “The Body of Christ”, and at that time I still thought that’s where it was headed. And that’s when I realized it wasn’t headed to Corpus Christi — it was right on top of Houston … the significance of that, I’ll share in a bit!
But what had my attention at first was BERYL.
Beryl is a sea-stone, aquamarine in color. But what’s more important, is it’s one of the gems used in the ephod — the breastplate of the high priest of the Tabernacle! It represents the Tribe of Manasseh, and is the 8th layer of gems in the foundation of the New Jerusalem! Jesus! Really??!!
When I learned that, I was seriously comforted that there was NO way God would let any harm come to this tabernacle! Further yet, I still had my memorial of 12 stones. It was a lot like the blood-washed posts to me. The storm would leave this site untouched just as the Angel of Death passed by the homes of the Israelites. Beryl would “recognize” its stone in my little memorial and know to keep on moving and bring no harm to this one. Or at least that’s what I felt. And whether or not that’s true, my site was severely protected.
When all passed over and people started coming out of their RVs, I was amazed to see that my lights were still up. The poles were still there, and the strings of lights were in place. My couch was fully intact, my plants were all safe under cover, and the lights along my path were fine. What was torn down, though, was the fence behind me. In fact, as I’d later find out, the fences all around our campground came down. More on that coming! And … another interesting point, the trees on every lot around me were tipped at at 45-degree angle, but mine were perfectly straight. THAT was telling. Clearly, God did something to circumvent the worst of the winds around me.
Left to Right: Lights stayed up. Trees stayed straight on my lot, but angled in other places.
Within a day, my site regained electricity — 3 million in Houston were without power. I also had plenty of water in my tank, even though our camp had none. I had a full tank of gas while there were lines at the gas stations. I did my laundry the day before everything hit, so I had clean clothes. And I had just done a grocery run, so I had plenty of food. All this was before knowing what was about to come. God had prepared me — really, I lacked for nothing!
The Significance of Beryl
But Beryl continued to fascinate me. It represents one of the 12 tribes of Israel, and is intimately intertwined with the message of the Tabernacle. Tell me more, Lord!
I began to wonder, “Why Houston?” It was headed for “The Body of Christ” — why did You deviate it here?
One thing that was powerful, was that while it was whippin’ I was singing out “Let Your wind blow, Let Your rain fall! Let Your GLORY come down!” over and over again. It was spilling out of my spirit, and my prayer was, “Just saturate us, Lord!” I felt deep in my heart this was a storm from God and He had a mighty purpose in it. It was a deep clean on this area of Texas, and I felt the Spirit of Repentance came with it. Yes, Lord!
As I rested with the Lord, what billowed up was the ministry He called me to along the southern shores of Texas and the Gulf Coast states just about this time last year. My trip began just east of Galveston, where the hurricane made it’s entrance to this state. That trip, if you watched my video, was ALL about releasing our nation from the Spirit of Slavery … and Galveston was a big part of that. The biggest slave auction house west of the Mississippi was in Galveston, and from there along the Bolivar Peninsula was a slave highway where slaves were transported by land to and from New Orleans, the center of the slave trade.
This hurricane was a spirit of refreshing and washing over the land! God is doing a new thing, and He needed to send His storms in the natural, ahead of the spiritual, for what’s to come! Remember, Beryl is a sea stone. It’s a stone that represents the sea, and the storm came in from the sea. Before it came to Galveston and Houston, it wreaked havoc in the Caribbean islands. I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be amazing if this storm originated in Africa, and took the path of the slave route?! And sure enough, that’s just what I found! Hurricane Beryl is a reoccurring storm that came out of a storm system originating off the west coast of Africa 1 … where the slave trade began! This truly is a storm of the Lord!
As I looked at all the fences fallen down around our campground, the Lord ministered to me about how He’s tearing down walls of off-FENCE and de-FENCE. There is too much that has caused division among God’s people through us being offended and feeling we need to defend ourselves from others. God is changing that. He’s creating passageways where there were none. New perspectives. Opened views. So we can move into new lands. Lands in our hearts, lands in our minds … lands in relationship.
Get ready, ’cause the King is Coming! Let Him move you! Don’t be terrified of the storm. He will use things that seem dangerous and uncomfortable to free us of the things that bind us and keep us apart. Allow Him to tear down your walls. Trust Him to keep you safe. Honor Him, and He will keep you whole. He is doing a NEW THING! 🙌🏼👑✨
Sunset after the storm.
1 See end of article, under “What Was the Path of Hurricane Beryl?”