CHECK POINT

A Leadership and Intercessory Letter written to those who desire Integrity in the Inward Parts  (Psalm 51:6)

Are You Salty Yet?

Written by Esther Dummer on December 31, 2002

Fourteenth Edition: January 22, 2003

2 Kings 2:19-21

 The men of the city (Jericho) said to Elisha, “My lord can see that this is a pleasant city to live in, but the water is bad, so that the ground is barren, (bringing forth death and miscarriages)” 

“Bring me a new jug,” he said, “and put salt in it.”

They brought the new jug to him.

Elisha went out to the source of the water, threw salt into it and said, “This is what The Lord says, ‘I have healed this water, and it will no longer cause death or barrenness (miscarrying).’”

As I have thought in great detail, this time of year more than ever, about the last year that we have spent pressing into God for our cities, God has birthed something in my spirit that I trust will not only align us but encourage us to not give up the battle for the harvest field that God has placed us in.

We can say, with those men of old, that our city is pleasant in so many ways, but a closer look will reveal that death is everywhere. God’s purposes for our city were undermined a long time ago and now many things are out of control.  We can see, even in the churches, the problem of barrenness and miscarrying. The spiritual graveyard is full of lost dreams, broken lives, ruined homes, bankrupt destinies, throw-a-way kids, wounded hearts, disillusioned people from all walks of life. Sadly people have learned to sit on the church pew and not be healed, restored or saved - but God has offered change.  

Early in this revival, God found us, His Church, sleeping in the middle of a great field - called our city. (Place your city’s name here)

We, ourselves, knew of our own barrenness, that we were void of new fruit. 

We were settled comfortably in our ceiled houses while the House of God lay in ruin. (Haggai 1:4)  Our names are many - intercessors and leaders - in the revival.  (Place your name, church and/or ministry here) Scattered in the many cities and town of the nations we were stirred out of a spiritual death that had gripped us. The cry of the many became the rallying cry of the revival from its inception – there must be more!

For no reason, other than God’s timing and His mercy, He poured something on us that few of us even knew to ask for.

When that happened, a great awakening occurred right in the churches around the world.  Yes, some are still asleep, but many awakened out of their slumber. 

The fact is - you are awake!

(If you are reading this and just starting or feeling the tug in your heart to press in, consider yourselves a laborer that entered the labor pool at the 11^th hour – the wage is the same for all of the faithful.  Matthew 20:16)

God began to birth in all of us a desire to see Him move.  The stagnant, dead waters that we had been experiencing were no longer able to satisfy us. Then the prophecies and promises of God began to come.  We heard God speak to our hearts about His love and desire for our cities.  We were certain that God had called us to “take the land!”  Great excitement over transformed cities swept the world as people began to believe God for such a thing for their own cities. 

We wonder how they did it and wondered if it would ever happen in our area.

If you could talk to those who persevered, they would tell you that they are still contending to maintain the ground that they have taken.  A look behind the scene would reveal the continued intercession and strategy on the part of those who gained the ground.  In some places there has been persecution and difficulties. Each city taken for God is a beachhead, but must be kept. Ground gained is ground kept by persevering prayer. 

While it is true that there are a number of places that have been gloriously transformed, we, for the most part, entering the year 2003, are still striving in seemingly very dark areas in which we are wondering if the light is ever going to break.

It seems to some that the heavens have closed back up over their heads and they have been going through a time of questioning and soul searching.  Many feel as if they have moved back to square one.  But there is a difference – you didn’t know the pleasure and joy of God’s presence before and you didn’t know anything but the usual day-to-day living in the “old church system.” 

Now that you have tasted and felt God on the “new level,” you are not willing to settle for anything less. 

Because of a hard season that you have been going through, you may have been feeling lately like you have lost a treasure.

You are feeling lonely for God, even though you know He is still there and, meanwhile...

*The water all around many is brackish in the various churches and religions that dot our countryside. 

*The air is still thick with oppression. (Some of you feel as if you can’t breath.)

*People are still doing wicked things, dying and going to hell.

*The schools are still held captive by the philosophies of this world. (For all your prayer walking and declaring the Word over them, they seem to be worse.)

*The governmental structures, at the local level, seem to favor the secular and barely nod at the spiritual.

*The spiritual needs of your town still loom up before you, larger than life sometimes.

*Unity seems to be elusive, as the various religious entities of your city keep the water muddied for everyone.

*Some of you may have a sense of loss right now, but are still grasping to hang onto what you have believed concerning the harvest of your city. 

It still seems that for many of you out there, that for all your praying, nothing has changed.

Well, that is not true. 

Great change has taken place due to all the intercession, travail, searching for more, repentance, seeking God, and digging into the Word, warfare and worship.

You say, “Where has it changed?  I still see the same spiritual landscape around me.”  

You say, “Even my church is laboring under the continued burden of carrying a city and the things that pertain to it.” 

You say, “ I am beginning to wonder if we are ever going to see breakthrough.”

You say, “I hear of it elsewhere, but it is certainly not happening here.” 

You say, “All we are doing is taking a step forward to find ourselves slipping backwards.” 

You say, “It seems as if all the prayers that we have been praying are falling on deaf ears.”

You say, “We have faced nothing but opposition from the start and our town is hard as ever!”

You say, “Is this really God?”

You say…. but what does God say?

What has really happened here for all of your praying and believing and standing?

This is what God sees!

You have been changed.

You have turned from tasteless to salty.

You have been molded into the image of Christ.

You have grown up – matured.

Your foundations have been secured on Jesus, The Rock.

Your faith has grown.

You have survived the wilderness experiences.

You have learned obedience.

You have been transformed into living and vital worship of your King.

Your hands have been taught to war.

You have a focus, determination, passion, and desire that you never had before.

You have a sense of purpose that you have never had before.

You have gained a strength that is beyond your own power.

You have fallen, but got back up time and again to pursue the Lover of your soul.

You are anointed and called.

Your ears are attuned to hear your Master’s voice.

You have eyes that see the unseen.

You have a clean heart and pure hands.

My friends of this great move of God – you have been changing from Glory to Glory and you are right on time!

You, for all your struggles and questions, are so different now from what you have ever been in your whole Christian life.  Hunger has a way of doing that to you – it drives you when all hope seems to be fading.  The quest for more has caused you to empty yourself of baggage to follow the smell of fresh bread!

What have you done? 

I tell you this:

You have stood the test of time.

You have been found faithful!

You have worshipped.

You have praised.

You have interceded.

You have warred.

You have declared.

You have believed.

You have trusted.

You have honored your God above all others.

This is you, my co-laborer.

*This is the glorious church that is without spot of wrinkle – washed in the Blood of the Lamb.

*This is the church that the Gates of Hell will never prevail against. 

*This is the church that has the keys to the city for God has given them to you. 

You hold the keys to the Kingdom of God.  Prayer is so powerful – don’t underestimate the power of your prayers and what has been happening, in your city and in you. 

Great things in an unseen realm have been transpiring.

Where were you and who were you when you began this journey? 

You have been waiting for your city to be transformed and all the while, you were being transformed, made into the image of Jesus, your Lord.

So here we are now facing the year 2003.  Where do we go from here? 

There is only one place to go –

Forward – Ever!  Backwards - Never!

You were the brackish water at one time, but God has endued you with the likeness of Christ, His Son and has cleansed you, made you pure and salty. 

You are now that New Pot - full of Salt.

Now it is time to be poured out into the waters that are causing death to your city.  The city is pleasant to live in, but miscarriages are all around you, as all that God would have destined to be birthed is thwarted time and again by the enemy of your city and its souls. It is time for the New Pots that are filled with salt to go forth to the waters. 

It is time to be poured out to heal the waters of your city.

We have been a garden enclosed.

*We are in a lavish garden of fragrance and beauty that has been lush with the presence of God.

*We have smelled, tasted, dined, feasted, and relished all the good things that God has placed on our tables.

*It is a banquet, because we know that before, all we were doing was eating the crumbs from under the Master’s table.

So we have been enjoying filling ourselves with so much that God has offered us. 

And it has been, as He desired it to be.

God did it.

It has been a part of His wonderful plan to redeem, refresh and disciple His Church.

He meant for us to feast at His table. In His kindness and mercy He has filled us to overflowing.

*You and I have been empowered and refreshed by the Winds of God’s anointing. 

*You and I have been filled to overflowing so many times. 

*You and I are dripping with honey, full of worship for that Wonderful Name – Jesus!

*Our hands are full of bread as we have been impacted and changed by the Word of God.

Now to the City!

The city is the destination.  Think of your own city for a moment and the harvest that surrounds you.  What I am about to say is not to condemn you, but to prepare you – for some would tell you that you have done nothing.  But I tell you that the seasons past have been for our own death so that we can carry life to the lost. 

I would be the first to tell you that I desire the souls of the city, but I still wonder what a burden, such as compelled Jesus to go to the cross, is like.  The capacity of His heart was and is so big that it goes beyond human understanding,

And yet,

It is His heart that He has been shaping in us, thumbprint by thumbprint.

I know people have prayed and even felt guilty because they haven’t been able to get the “proper burden” of the Lord concerning souls.  They have watched others weep and felt that they must be lacking in some way.  They were faithful, diligent and caring people, but despaired about their “lack of burden.” 

Well, I tell you that the deep desire that has been developing to “get a burden” has been a part of all that God has been doing.

But I believe that the burden, such as Jesus has, could have never been deposited into the vessels that we used to be.  The Word refers to that state of dryness as “Old Wine Skins.” We were in so much need of restoration ourselves that all we could do was think of what we needed - we were so desperate for a move of God in our own lives.  We were empty and hungry – because of the famine that had been in our lives for the Word of God and relationship with the God of the Word. It was that desperation that led us to where we are now.

So, please understand, that God is a God of timing – “And when the time was fully come…”

So in that spirit, consider our cities with me – “It is Time.”

*We have been saved, but the city around us is dying. 

*We have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, but the souls around us are eating dust. 

*We have stood in the Glory and yet the majority of the harvest field has yet to know that God’s presence is so wonderful.

*We have been filled, healed and delivered but the world around us is still bound, sick and empty.

*We have repented, but the world is heavy with the load of their sins.

*Our feet are planted on solid Rock, but the lost are standing on shifting ground.

*We have eternal life while the lost have a sentence of death on their heads. (They set in death row even now, with the death angel passing over our cities regularly making claim on another lost soul.)

*We have stood in the tabernacle of the Lord while most of the world around us is either lost in dead religion or no religion, never having seen the inside of the Holy Place.

* We have drunk deeply of the living water, while they have been dying of thirst, their lips parched and all hope gone of finding an oasis of fresh water.

* We are full of the Bread of Heaven, Christ who came down to us, while they are dying of hunger.

* We are dwelling in the Light of the World, while they are blind and groping in the darkness that the god of this age has surrounded them with.

*We have worshipped, while the world has cursed and profaned, (because they don’t know the treasure of that beautiful name,) - Jesus Christ, The Son of The Living God!

So the trouble is not with the city – the trouble is that they have no access to Pure Water - if we don’t open the doors and go forth into the cities dead and unfruitful waters and bring healing to them.

We have prayed for signs, wonders and miracles and yes, we have seen some things.  Healings have taken place in our meetings, and lives that happened to enter our doors have found salvation, but there is more. 

There is a level that can only happen once the doors are opened.

This level of God’s power moving can only happen once you open the doors and release the river -  “that anointed salty Christ likeness” - that has been filling our temple/lives.

Jesus was one who went into the city and the Word teaches us that He was “moved with compassion” everywhere He went.  We cannot feel compassionate for that which we don’t see. 

Our view of the “lost” is like watching the hungry children on television, from a distance, and having someone tell us that they are hungry.

If we saw those same hungry children, up close, we would feel their hunger on a personal level. Their eyes would speak hunger and pain to us. Their cries would touch our hearts and we would be broken as we watched them die from hunger, while we are full. We would feel their desperation and make an effort to make a change in their lives.

It is at that moment that the “compassionate burden” comes – when we experience another’s condition and have it affect us, up close and feel personal responsibility to do something about the dying, the sick and the oppressed.

To talk about seeing the lame get out of their wheel chairs and walk is going to transition to something else when they are before us, and their needs becomes a plea that we cannot ignore. We will be compelled to reach out and do as the early disciples did – give them Jesus on the level that they have need of him.

We are at the point of saturation – because of maturation.

If we do not open the doors in 2003 and let the river flow, we will start to stagnate because God is not going to keep pouring in for long if we don’t pour out. We must now let the river flow to the city streets, for it is a healing river.  It is time to open the floodgates and let it loose.  It has been held in the temple long enough. 

Open The Doors!

All around you people are needy and ready for a hand that is filled with substance.  Reach out and help them. You have the river of anointing residing in you – the temple of the Living God.  Let it flow. 

You need to go ahead and accept the fact that God has raised you up in a very dead place.

Most of the churches in your city are in as much need of the pure water that you have as those that never darken the doors of a church. 

*Many have scoffed and mocked you, but you have believed God gave you a mandate.

*Many have withstood you, rebuked you, but you have heard the voice of your God and have believed Him.

*Some have misaligned you, saying all manner of things about you, but you know that you are free of guilt of what they may say.

*Others have tried to align you, back into a comfortable shell, but you have already stepped over the line and cannot turn back to the graveyard of the past.

It is possible that you are the only source of healing for the waters of your city. You need to step into the fact that God has called you out to believe and stood you in a place that no one else believes in.

May I tell you that you bear the resemblance of your Father and He is well pleased with you?

*The trials that you have gone through, the tough times of bearing up under pressure, the seasons of dryness, the seasons of rain, the times of barrenness, the times of fruitfulness – have all seasoned you – made you salty.

*The times that you have spent digging into the well of His Word and finding the truth about yourself and the One that you serve have chiseled you, sculpted you, have molded you. 

*The adherence and obedience to what God has spoke to you and asked of you has made you His child, an heir. 

You were born to look like Him and you are growing into His image daily.

That is what Salty means and you are it!!!

You are looking for a place to spill out, so go ahead and begin to season the waters that surround you with the life that is within you.

Open the Doors!!!

Matthew 5:13

"You are the salt of the earth…"

God Bless the Faithful Watchman on the Walls of the Church!

This newsletter is dedicated and written as an instruction and encouragement to a powerful and focused group of people who have devoted their life to a life of prayer for the Church.  It is written to incite them to move forward with decisiveness and purity.  It is written to stabilize and align the errant things that are occurring in intercessory and church circles.  It is written to break new ground in understanding our own hearts.

I would also like to take this time to say thank you to those who have subscribed, those who have forwarded these messages or photo copied and passed them on to others. Also, thank you to those who have written encouraging words to me.  They are greatly appreciated. 

NOTE: This material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed an interest in receiving this information for non-profit use only.

"Check Point" is an online newsletter published by: "Esther Dummer." Permission is hereby granted to copy and distribute for non-commercial purposes. Consider duplicating, in its entirety, as published, and distributing to friends, relatives, pastors or your church congregation, or forward via email.  It is my delight to have those who desire to use these messages to further God’s move to do so. 

However, copying for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited.  All Rights Reserved.

If you wish to be placed on Gateway's mailing list for further newsletters, send us an email at harvester@charter.net and enter "subscribe Check Point" in the subject line. 

Please feel free to copy this and pass it on as posted or forward to others.

To comment on this article, please email me at, harvester@charter.net I am always interested in hearing from you

RETURN TO CHECK POINT HOME PAGE