Month: June 2015

I had a dream last night. Dressed in a pristinely white wedding dress, I was making myself busy about my house, cleaning. I was expecting and preparing for guests who were to witness my marriage to my husband. As I worked, I nonchalantly glanced out of the window from a second floor. I was surprised to find people were running about in what seemed like the streets below, or perhaps a courtyard. Suddenly (as is apropos for dreams), locations shifted. I was not in my home any longer. It was as if I was in the second storey of a school. Wondering what all of the panic was about, I questioned people about what was happening. People were running in every direction, yelling that danger was approaching. From the look on their faces, while still not knowing the source of this mayhem, I seemed to personally register that it must be a gunman.

Quickly, I looked to my children (who became present in the scene) and I said, “Hurry! Let’s look for a furnace room! We can hide in there! There are so many classes, no one will think to look for people there.” However, as I opened every door that would allow us exit from the room, I discovered that it was a closet stacked high with tables and chairs. There was no place to escape or hide from the fast approaching threat.

Within moments, Evil incarnate entered the room we were in, looking like a regular young man, but with colourless, pale, almost charcoal skin and hate in it’s eyes. With nowhere to run, and not knowing what else to do, I turned to face Evil. With my hands at my side, I closed my eyes tightly and with all of my might I began to sing in spiritual tongues. Periodically, I opened my eyes. Evil stayed in it’s place, mocking and accusing, except no matter what Evil said, I sang louder, drowning out Evil’s voice.

Evil only had a voice. It had no power. It could not touch me. In fact, as I sang in a spiritual tongue for what seemed like hours, I finally transitioned to worshipping Jesus in English. I noticed, then, that I was still stationed upright, facing Evil, with my arms at my side, and wearing my pure white dress for marriage. My children, and now others, were all in the room. Some were sitting! As I transitioned into English, all of these relaxed looking bystanders began joining me in worship in song to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, in one accord.

Later (Evil must have fled and I was alone), I was moving about in the streets. I was trying to hide behind cars and get away, but as I did, Evil always came up to where I was and found me. Each time I was terrified, but as Evil approached, I stood at attention and sang in tongues in worship. Each time I sang loudly, with my arms at my side, my eyes squeezed shut and focussed on Jesus, still clad in my beautiful wedding gown. Evil could not break through my worship.

The last scene took place as I was passing through some sort of dark and grungy, shady casino. Evil was busy gambling and when I walked by, he was enticed by me. He turned to me, and expressed how much he coveted the impressive power I had. He invited me to join him so he could have access to it. Instead, I gently leaned over into a satchel he had sitting beside him, and reached in, pulling out all kinds of glorious jewels- sapphires, rubies, diamonds, all sparkling so majestically- and I walked on by myself, jewels in possession.

Then I woke up.

As I lay in bed, groggy, in that passage place from dream world to real world, I mulled over my dream. As I slowly awoke, I began praying. God gave me an interpretation to my dream.

First, what you must know is that I have been struggling for over a month now, more intensely in the last couple of weeks. I have spent a lot of time feeling attacked in my mind and emotions. I have spent hours crying, sometimes daily. I have spent time feeling discouraged, and weary of enduring. I have spent a lot of time sharing my heart with the Lord, and being angry for things not working out the way I thought they would based on the faith that I (thought) I had in God about particular things. I have wondered if He is a God of Promises, Faithfulness and Goodness because I haven’t seen His promises being fulfilled in my life and the life of my family in the particular stresses and tensions that we have been struggling in, and seeking God for deliverance of, for literally years now.

Second, you need to know that my ‘normal’ doesn’t include struggling with depression. I tend to be an optimistic, full of hope, faith-filled woman of God with excitement and enthusiasm about life and living for Christ. While I have my down days like everyone else, I usually bounce back rather quick. This is not me parading proudly. It’s just how God has made me, even though I walk hand in hand with many in my close circle who wax weakly and wearily in this area. This stint of despair that I have felt has been long and painful for me since it’s particularly foreign to me. I have continued to talk to God, read my bible, and enter into worship, but there has been a deep mourning in my heart that I haven’t known how to lift on my own. I have told the Lord that I have lost my hope, that I have no more waiting left in me, and that I no longer fit the description of ‘woman of faith’. I have told my Lord, that if He wanted me to be a woman like that, then He was going to have to resurrect it in me because I am simply empty, distraught, and exhausted.

Hallelujah! God is a God of communion and communication! He hears and He answers.

Here’s what He told me my dream means:

I am covered by the blood of Lamb; wearing His robes of righteousness. I am part of His pure spotless Bride. While the Enemy may be attacking as I ready myself for God and go about the business He has for me to accomplish, I don’t have to worry about having enough strength to fight. I don’t have to be a strong woman of faith, or hope. I don’t have to search for a place to hide in hysteria. What I do have to do? (It’s so simple!!) I just have to be the Jesus-Worshipper I already am. The Enemy’s venemous words fall on deaf ears for the one who is too busy focussing on Jesus with all of their might. In the process, there is a drowning out and an active making ineffective the voice of the Enemy when we worship.

My hands were at my sides because there was no power in fighting with them. I felt like I was cornered, left vulnerable and unprotected. I felt like I had no other choice, and was at a loss of what to do to defend myself from Evil, but because my heart belongs to Jesus, I essentially know Who my Safe Place is, and I can press in closer to Him in worship any time I feel like I’m being overwhelmed by the Enemy. The power is in worshipping the One with all of the power.

As I worship boldly and loudly, those who don’t want to hear it will fall to the wayside. I don’t have to concern myself with getting it wrong, or coming on too strong for unbelievers because while some will close their ears and turn their heads, others are watching and listening intently (like my children). As a result of choosing worship as my weapon of defence choice, onlookers are learning, gleaning and being grafted in because they are witnessing a power greater than that in the world through my bold and steadfast action of worship.

The jewels? Well, firstly, in my adult lifetime, God has spoken many powerful, beautiful, and incredible words over me about being precious in His sight; about being His Gem. Hence, my blog title. I believe this part of my dream, though, means this: Satan comes to kill, steal, and destroy, but our inheritance in Christ is taking back all that Satan thinks He has won over, or brags that he is gaining. We do that because, and through, the power of Jesus’ sacrifice and victory on the cross. I don’t have to dance with the Devil to repossess what He has taken. Because the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in me, I can reach right over into his bag of jewels and take back what is mine in Christ and walk away. Jewels don’t belong to Satan. Jewels belong to Jesus. Since I am a child of God, all that belongs to Him is my inheritance.

I just get so charged thinking about how God speaks so clearly to us, especially since I, personally, can be so daft at times. I love the fact that God chooses to speak to us, period! I can never wrap my mind around that truth. It’s fascinating and awe inspiring that Big God (All God) chooses to speak to Little Me (Nothing Me). I just want to worship Him for that alone! My heart is so thankful!!

The interesting thing is that God has been leading me for days now, up to this dream, and He’s been helping me to connect the Dot to Dots of the whole picture He has drawn. On Saturday, God led me to Isaiah 54:10-17 in my quiet time with Him. On Sunday a sweet sister in Christ prayed over me and told me I didn’t have to worry about trying to conjure up enough strength to be who I was supposed to be in Christ- that I just had to choose to worship. Last night, sweet family in Christ spoke Psalm 46 over me during a prayer time. Everything links so perfectly. And guess what? Somehow miraculously, I feel like I’ve made it through to the other side of this dark haze I’ve been walking through. It rained hard all night long, and this morning the sun is shining brightly and the skies are blue. Feels so symbolic of my spiritual state. I feel like I’m myself again, strong in Him because He has provided the strength. His Voice inspires and builds up. Oh! How grateful I am that I can hear Him! How grateful I am that He has lifted me up out of the ashes of mourning and has outfitted me with dancing clothes of joy once again. Praise you Jesus!

Note that nothing in my circumstances has changed. It’s always Jesus’ precious presence that makes all of the difference to every instance. When God speaks to me, I feel like a million bucks. I am empowered. I feel like I can go anywhere, be anything, and do anything in Him. So what if the Enemy is drawing near?!! God has made me a Worshipper, and as I worship, nothing can touch me, and everything else truly fades away. So, off I go. It’s time to crank up the volume and let ‘er rip! It is well with my soul.

P.S. If you didn’t already, go back and click on the link for those scriptures, especially the Isaiah reference. You’ll be so giddy seeing and making all of the connections! I am!

I’ve been reading through the book of Daniel with my children lately. Interestingly enough, one of the most popular stories in Daniel doesn’t actually include him whatsoever. This is a story of 3 plus 1, but Daniel isn’t counted as either.

In chapter 3 (and the first part of 4), 3 Jewish men’s names were changed by King Nebuchadnezzar in an attempt to strip them of all of their identity. Among those in captivity, Hannaniah, Mishael and Azariah were assigned new Babylonian names: Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego (1:7). The King was foolish and proud. He did not know that when one is a child of the One True God, identity can never be taken. These men grew in knowledge and intelligence. ‘Something’ about these men stood out, and they were promoted into the kings personal service as “administrators of the province of Babylon” (2:49).

As time goes on, King Nebuchadnezzar’s pride grows and he builds “an image of gold, the height of which was sixty cubits and its width six cubits” (3:1). That’s almost 27.5 meters high and almost 3 meters wide. That’s big! It matches the king’s magnified self-importance well. Nebuchadnezzar sets rule that “at the moment you hear the sound of the horn, flute, lyre, trigon, psaltery, bagpipe and all kinds of music, you are to fall down and worship the golden image” (3:5)

Enter the tattletales; the ones who notice that there are 3 men who refuse to bow down and worship. The tattletales are quick to remind the king about the penalty for not doing so: “Whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into the midst of a furnace of blazing fire” (3:11). The king summons the naughty 3, and in a rage, he questions, “Is it true?” (because how dare anyone be opposed to the king?!) (3:14). He gives the three men opportunity to obey once more, and reminds them of their fate if they choose not to. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego are solid. They stand in the confidence of their God and declare God’s capability to deliver them out of the king’s hands, and yet they are humble enough to recognize their position in relation to God- that they don’t wield Him like a good luck charm- and that “EVEN IF He does not [deliver them], let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up (3:18).

This is where it gets good.

Mr. Proud Pants is “filled with wrath” (3:19). He orders the furnace be turned up seven times hotter than it is usually heated. He commands “certain valiant warriors” (3:20) to tie the 3 men up. Moreover, these men are “tied up in their trousers, their coats, their caps and their other clothes” (3:21). The king intended to make them as flammable as he possibly could!!! The men were ordered to be cast into the blazing fire, but as the ‘certain valiant warriors’ approached the furnace, “the flame of the fire slew those men” (3:22). Those ‘certain valiant warriors’ were toast! Burnt toast! In the ruckus of all of this, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego fall in, still tied up.

[Now, let’s pause here for a second. As one of my children inquired absurdly, “What kind of furnace is so big that 3 people can fit in it?!!?”. The footnotes in my bible explain that the furnace was not a little cook stove. It would have been a huge industrial furnace used to make bricks or smelting metals. *Light Bulb* Out of the mouth of my youngest at the ripe new age of 7, so matter of factly I might add, “Yeah, it was probably the furnace the king used to make his gold statue in.” Wow. Okay, un-pause. I’ll come back to that.]

Then, Nebuchadnezzar notices something unusual, to say the least, “Look! I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!” (3:25). Recognizing the 3 men who were walking about in the wildfire as “servants of the Most High God” (3:26), the king calls them out of the fire. Out of the furnace with the heat turned up 7 times hotter, out of the furnace with flames so hungry that the ‘certain valiant warriors’ don’t even get to the mouth of the furnace without getting eaten alive, come trotting 3 out of those 4 figures the king counted in the fire. Gathering around, the king’s posse frisk and reconnoiter the men and discover that “the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men NOR was the hair on their head singed, NOR were their trousers damaged, NOR had the smell of fire even come upon them. (3:27).

When’s the last time you’ve been around a campfire? The smell of that fire permeates everything, even when you choose to sit comfortably back a few feet on your lawn chair. These men were IN the fire, and came out not even with a whiff of fire upon them! Have you ever quickly opened your oven to reclaim the yumminess in there, only to have the heat blast your face suprisingly and melt your mascara’d eyelashes together? These men were IN the fire, and not even a hair was singed on their bodies! Further, the only thing that WAS burned were their bindings! How does a blazing furnace accepting 3 especially-made-flammable men burn only the ropes tying them up and leave the rest of their bodies unharmed?!

The witnesses are shocked. Heavens! It’s shocking for me to read this account thousands of years later! I can’t even imagine! In response to this astounding display of God’s power, the king makes a proclamation that “any people, nation or tongue that speaks anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses reduced to a rubbish heap, inasmuch there is no other god who is able to deliver in this way” (3:29). The king gathers the attention of all and pronounces, “It has seemed good to me to declare the signs and wonders which the Most High God has done or me. How great are His signs. And how mighty are His wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and His dominion is from generation to generation” (4:2).

God means to use the fiery furnaces of our life to make known his glory among the nations.

Are you going through something in your life right now that feels like the heat is being turned up to a shockingly high temperature? Do you feel like the Enemy has been doing his best to make you as flammable as you possibly can be so that he can watch you burn and die? Well, there’s good news for you, then. If your identity is in Christ, if you have not made excuses about why you can’t follow God, if you have been steadfast in proclaiming that He is God and the sole God deserving of worship in your life, even when everyone else around you is going in the opposite direction, you are in a good position. If you feel like everyone is looking at you as you press in to God and wondering why ‘bad things happen to good people’ or are questioning the goodness of God to those He calls His own, you are not alone. If you are choosing to be true to God no matter the punishment or pressure around you, God is on your side. You are ripe for God to make demonstration of His glory and power to those around you.

[If you can’t honestly say these things are true of you, you can repent right now, and still know the assurance of His presence with you. You can ask forgiveness. You can humbly admit that you have missed the mark and are a sinner, and that you are in need of Jesus. You can ask the Holy Spirit to visit with you and stay, and enjoy a peace with the God who made you and loves you. God isn’t looking to slap your fingers with his holy ruler on the desk of your life, with a stern look on His face, at all of your shortcomings and sin. He is a perfect Heavenly Father, with kindness toward you, and good things in store for you as you choose to make him the Master of your heart and life. No more guilt and condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ!]

God wants you to know that you are not in the fiery furnace because you have done something wrong. Quite the opposite: it is because you have followed Him obediently. He wants you to know that the fiery furnace is the place where He wants to burn off all of the things that hold you in bondage. He wants you to move about freely, even in the middle of the fire, because He is the 4th Person right down in the nitty gritty heat with you. The furnace in this story may very well have been the the same furnace that Nebuchadnezzar’s gold was melted and fashioned into an image, but this furnace is also the place where 3 precious men made in God’s image were tested and were purged from the flames well and whole. [See, told you I’d come back to that.]

I want to encourage you: Don’t lose heart! Just because there is opposition in your life does not mean that you are left vulnerable and unprotected. Let it be known to all who know you, just like the 3 men in this story, that God is with you. Nebuchadnezzar didn’t just call God, God. He called Him the “The God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego”. Isn’t that powerful and affirming? It is wonderful for our allegiances to be associated with the God who saves. It is wonderful for our names to be counted with God Almighty’s. What a witness for eye-witnesses to see that we choose to worship our God, no matter what, and that He gives us a freedom in the middle of the pressures and stresses of life to walk about and meander freely in that which would strangle them in flames! People need to see that God is in the fire with us, and that He is the one who makes the difference between surviving and going up in flames. Not so that we can be exalted, but so that God can SHOW THE WORLD Who He is! People are watching you, Christian. People are noticing how you live your life, where your devotion lies, how far you are willing to be serious with your faith, and how you deal with the blows of life. Remember Whose you are, speak with confidence in the God who is able, and when you find yourself in the fiery furnace, BREATHE! God will not let you die. He will not leave you on your own. He will be with you, doing the work that only He can do, so that others will see their need for a God like *that!