In a time of great pressure, frustration, and exhaustion, and when I felt the Lord was requiring me to endure, He gave me a vision of a “hall”.  The hall included wall-to-wall and ceiling-to-floor sheets of latex (like the kind that surgical rubber gloves are made of), which were spaced out from each other by 25 feet or so.  I saw approximately 10 sheets, but I really didn’t know how many latex sheets there were.  The number of sheets didn’t seem important, but the important thing was what the hall and sheets represent, and the life-process that they represent that really mattered.  The Lord was giving me understanding, which was bringing relief and hope.

At the time of the vision, I had been in “endurance mode” for (to me, felt like) a long time; and the pressure, frustration, and exhaustion were particularly acute.  Plus I was filled with questions about “why” my life was so hard, and a desire to quit or gain some type of relief.

In my mind, as I saw the latex sheets in the hall, I understood that in the vision, like watching yourself in a movie, the latex walls were invisible to me.   And my current location in the hall was walking into a latex wall, and experiencing it’s greatest amount of resistance just before it breaks.

• Hall – The hall represents my life
• Distance – The distance between the latex sheets represents seasons of life
• Latex – The latex sheets represent spiritual obstacles and hindrances that the Lord places or allows to create resistance in our life.

Jesus uses the resistance to grow us in spiritual might, wisdom, understanding, perseverance, endurance, etc; much like resistance is used in sports training to grow stronger muscles, or like giving more challenging material is used in education to grow a stronger mind.

As the pressure associated with walking into the latex sheet increases, the temptation is to either turn around entirely, back off a little to relieve the intensity level of the pressure, try to turn to the left or right in an attempt to go around it, or set-up camp and try to just stand in the current spot.  All of these temptations lead to failing to obtain the Lord’s planned breakthrough, and may even get you slammed to the ground.

Jesus used this vision to encourage me that He put the latex sheets there (so I can trust the process); and when the resistance gets really tough, to just keep breathing, put my head down, and keep putting one foot in front of the other, trusting that the sheet will “pop” eventually, and I will get the breakthrough.

This process has happened several times in my life now, and the Lord has been faithful to help me through each latex sheet.  In this, He has taught me to endure and to persevere and to focus on overcoming rather than personal comfort, pleasure, and relief.  And this has further taught me that He has strategically designed man’s fit into His kingdom to include a responsibility to fight, struggle, and overcome.