Dream about Overcoming Darkness

A couple weeks ago, I had an interesting dream. I want to share this dream with you because I think the Lord revealed to me an interpretation that could be beneficial for my Christian brothers and sisters to hear. I will first tell you the dream, and then I will tell you the interpretation that I perceived the Lord gave me that same day. Here's the dream:

My husband and I were going to a friend's house for a party. When we stepped into the house, we saw that the lights seemed to be on, but it was very dark. In fact, it was so dark that my eyes hurt. We tried to walk around and look for things, but it was nearly impossible because of the thick blackness that surrounded us.

Generosity

I believe that the Holy Spirit has been trying to teach me a lesson about generosity. I've always had a question in the back of my mind of when to be tight with my money and when to give freely, but now I believe I have new understanding of how to respond in one more borderline case. Here's the story:

Many times people come through our neighborhood looking for work. They offer to mow the grass, rake the leaves, shovel the snow, or whatever else needs to be done. I think I said ok once, but most of the time, I tell them no. I've always felt uneasy about turning them away, because it is apparent that they desperately want the employment.

Report of Recent Healings

My prayers have resulted in several instant healings the past couple weeks. Here's a list:

(1) My husband Josh and I prayed for my particularly bad case of menstrual symptoms, and the pain left within a few minutes.

(2) My knee started hurting badly after getting slightly out of joint. I commanded the knee to go back in place and the pain to flee, and my knee was instantly healed.

(3) My sister started having very bad menstrual pain precisely when we were about to spend our quality "sister time" together. I commanded tormenting spirits to leave, pain to flee, and body to function properly, and she was healed instantly. (In addition, all other menstrual symptoms left in their entirety that very day.)

(4) I started feeling exceptionally nauseous a couple days ago. Josh and I both prayed for the nausea to go. I later commanded my hormones to come into balance and for foreign aggravates to be destroyed. The severity of the nausea was instantly reduced after my prayer, and the nausea continued to decrease for the next couple hours. I was completely recovered within about 3 hours.

(5) I noticed that 3 sores had appeared in my mouth. I prayed against them, and one of them completely disappeared by the next day. One of the other sores is nearly healed, and the other seems to have made considerable progress

Praise be to Jesus, who accomplished the victory over sin, sickness, and death on our behalf! Praise be to the Spirit, who empowers our works for God's kingdom. And praise be to the Father for His unending love, compassion, and grace! Amen!

Mountains and Valleys

As I was reading through an article at LayHands.com, I came across an illustration that struck me as profound. The author compared stages of our growth and maturity in Christ to mountains and valleys. We reach certain heights in our relationship and knowledge of who God is, but we need to go through "valleys" in order to reach new heights with God. As I was digesting this thought, it seemed applicable to many situations in my own life and in the lives of many close to me. My thoughts came out in the form of a song, which I sang at church this morning. Here are the lyrics of the song I wrote. I hope you will find the song to be encouraging to persevere through the highs and lows of life and to always give God the glory and the thanks--because He is with us all along.

---------

Mountains and Valleys
Written by RACHEL M. RASMUSSEN

I stood up high upon a mountain
My gaze went out unto the sea
Before I started on this journey
I never felt so free

Then I heard the master’s voice beside me
“The view is beautiful from here
But if you wish to know these mountaintops as I do
You must follow me to higher mountains still”

Ahhh, ahhh, ahhh [Follow me to higher mountains still]

And so we left the lofty mountain
The next peak clearly in our sights
And as we made our way down into the valley
The daylight slowly slipped away to night

Twisting shadows leading nowhere
Losing sight of where to go
Wolves and coyotes howling, stalking
Where’d the master go?

Cries for help come back unanswered
Have I lost the way?
Come despair, come quick; devour me
I’ve failed anyway

But then I heard the master’s voice
Whispering in the wind
“Don’t give in to the valley’s taunts
Or nighttime’s frightening grin
You need to persevere, my child
To reach my goals for you
Don’t fear, I’m near, I’m watching you
Your time is almost here

As morning broke on the horizon
I felt my mind and strength renewed
And as I turned to look behind me
The valley was far from view

With panting breaths, I climbed onto the mountain peak
The master swiftly grabbed my hand
“Now look, my child, at all the awe around you
Look beyond the sea; there’s yet another land”

Ahhh, ahhh, ahhh [Beyond the sea, there’s yet another land]

Master, I have but one simple question
Right now I see you face to face
But all the time that I was in the valley
The wolves were near, but, Master, where were you?

“Come now, my child, and listen closely
I never parted from your side
I led you through the valley, child
So you’d grow strong inside”

Ahhh, ahhh, ahhh [So you’d grow strong inside]

Between two mountaintops
There’s always a valley
Between two mountaintops
There’s always a valley
[Look, there’s a mountain up ahead]
[Come, meet me there…]

Ahhh, ahhh, ahhh [Come and meet me there]
[Come and meet me there]

Prophetic Visions

For those of you who are interested in reading the latest prophecy news (like me), I have one piece of advice. Test what you read against what God has revealed to us in Scripture. We know that there are many deceiving spirits leading people away from God's truth--even "Christian" prophets are led astray by the whisperings of the devil and his angels.

So, how can we know if a prophet is truly from God? It is fairly easy to tell, actually: if the prophet acknowledges Jesus as God's Son who came in the flesh to atone for mankind, then the prophet is from God. True prophets speak truth that comes directly from the heart of God the Father, so the message will contain the truth about who Jesus is so that the people who hear the message will acknowledge him as Lord.

There are a few simple messages that God repeatedly sends us through prophets: encouragement (revealing how He loves a person or nation uniquely), instruction (a.k.a., a call to obey His Word), and warning (= these bad things will happen unless you obey). Plus, the messages that come from a prophet of God are always accurate. If a prophet gives a prophecy that turns out to be false (or if he goes back to re-interpret its meaning after it appears to be false), then pay no attention to that person, for he is deceived.

I've discovered some features that are similar in messages from false prophets. One is that the message itself is unclear ("like viewing through a fog") or can't be remembered fully. Another is that the prophet gets his visions from "spirits of light" that don't acknowledge Jesus (...if you have to ask who sent them, they're probably not from God). The most common thread, though, is that the message is either one of world harmony (usually accompanied by an encouragement to seek "the power within") or of world catastrophe (along with instructions for how to protect yourself and survive the ensuing chaos). The "world harmony" message is usually given to a person who doesn't acknowledge Jesus as Lord. On the other had, the "world catastrophe" message is panned off to people who are within Christian circles of influence. The latter case is harder to distinguish from true prophetic messages, since these people acknowledge Jesus as their Lord--but, when we test their message against God's Word, it doesn't line up.

What sorts of things should we expect a true prophet of God to say in these last days before the return of our Lord Jesus? I believe they would tell us to spread the love of Jesus to as many people as possible before it's too late. I also believe they would tell us to stop lusting after our worldly desires and start submitting ourselves to God's Will! Our primary goal is not to get rich, fat, and entertained--it's to love people the way that Jesus did while on Earth. We are to imitate Him! So, what about the coming trials and tribulations described in the book of Revelation? What will the prophets say about that? Well, the Bible says things like "whoever loves his life will lose it" and "those beheaded for the name of Jesus will reign with Him in glory." Jesus also tells us not to worry about what we will eat, drink, or wear because our Heavenly Father will provide what we need just as He does the birds of the air. In other words, prophets who tell you to stock up on food and ammunition in preparation for the battle of Armageddon are NOT from the Lord! Let's start studying the truths that God has given to us in His Word so that we will not be deceived by false prophets in the days ahead!

Speaking in Tongues?

When reading the New Testament, I see a correlation between speaking in tongues and receiving the Holy Spirit. All Scripture is profitable for teaching and training in righteousness, so what am I (or any Christ-following individual) supposed to draw from this correlation?

Some denominations assert that the correlation between tongues and receiving the Holy Spirit existed only during the early church era, when Christianity was in its infancy and was supernaturally validated by tongues when it spread to a new geographical region. Other denominations say that speaking in tongues is a sign of being accepted into the body of Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and that a person can't possibly be a true Christian without having spoken in tongues. Still other denominations say that speaking in tongues comes as a result of submitting oneself to God, being completely filled with the Holy Spirit, and experiencing the full power that God intended for His children to have on earth. So, we still have the question: what are we to think of speaking in tongues?

Well, my husband and I have become more and more curious about this, so we decided to do an experiment. We followed the instructions of a "Practical Guide to Being Filled with the Holy Spirit" (see the full article here) to see if we would start speaking in tongues spontaneously. Interestingly, Josh and I both had very clear phrases that came to our minds (in a language we didn't know... and we suspected that our minds may have just made up the words in anticipation of speaking in tongues). This happened to Josh before, actually, and at that time he looked up the phrase and found out that the words were Hebrew. So, we decided to do look up the words, and sure enough, they were Hebrew. I also had a couple more phrases come to mind later that day and the next. Here are all the phrases that came to mind after asking the Holy Spirit to fill me (I'll spell them as best I can):

Shekem malak -- Ala asa tum (or tom) -- Oto kaba

So, I don't know if this is speaking in tongues or not, but if it is, it's nothing like I expected it to be. I will keep pursuing God about this and see what happens!

Praying According to God's Will

John says that when we pray according to God's will, then we know that we have what we asked for because God has heard our prayer (1 John 5:14-15). In other words, we know that God will give us what we ask for if we ask for something that's within His will. The question then is this: how do we know what God's will is for us?

God has told us what His will is for His children. It's not a mystery. He has revealed His will to us through His written Word (and through the example of Jesus, the living Word!). The problem is, we often are ignorant of God's word and are thereby ignorant of what His will is for us. If we want God to answer our prayers, we need to bring requests to Him that conform to the desires He has for our lives.

One way to pray according to God's will is to pray God's Word back to God. Moses did this when God threatened to wipe out all of Israel because of their idolatry (see Numbers 14). Praying Scripture (in application to a particular circumstance) is an interesting concept, as it motivates us to find out what God says He'll do for us (instead of us leaning on the popular phrase, "...if it be your will"). If we lean upon what God has said He'll do, then we can have confidence that we'll get what we ask for because God is faithful to His Word!

So what is God's will for us? To preach the gospel, to trust and obey Him in word and deed, to renew our minds, to seek the gifts of the Spirit, to love people, to be prosperous, to live a long life on the earth, to have the fruit of the Spirit, to have wisdom, to be free from the chains of sin, to be imitators of Christ. The list goes on. If we would truly know what God's will is for us, maybe it would change how we pray and what we pray for. I want to understand what God's will is so that I can live the way that God intended for me--His precious child--to live. Surely our Father in heaven will bless us if we ask for the desires of our heart, but how much more does God know what is best for us! Father, may you transform my desires to be more like yours!

Letting Go - Part 2

I've been realizing that God wants me to let go of my goals. Now don't misunderstand, it's good to have goals--but when those goals take priority over God's goals for my life, then I need to let go of them. I'm brewing with energy to finish my latest redecorating project or to check my new email messages. But when was the last time I was brewing with energy to share Jesus' love with my friends, family, or neighbors? Hmmm. Let's just say that I'm doing better now than I was a few months or years ago.

God has given each of us a unique set of responsibilities for building up His kingdom. Oftentimes we get so focused on building up our monetary, material, or relational security that we forget what the end goal of all our efforts is. The goal isn't to build up for ourselves money, possessions, and good relationships--it's to use our resources to spread God's love over all the earth!

So, I'm going to try something new for once: I'm going to obey God by renewing my mind to have His goals. Maybe you should try it, too.

Letting Go - Part 1

In my efforts to remove obstacles in my heart blocking my closeness to God, I've decided to give away some of my material possessions this year. In my pursuit of this, though, I feel that God is calling me to go above and beyond the minimum. God wants me to let go of things in my heart that I could value above Him and His purposes. So, as my first action toward obedience, I've decided to donate my wedding dress to charity. This is tough, let me tell you. But I'm convinced it's crucial for reaching the next level in my spiritual journey. Let this be the beginning of a new trend in my life! "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:12, NIV).

Secrets of the Enemy

I was listening to a radio interview with Mel Bond last night that struck a chord with me. He shared some principles he's learned relating to discerning spirits and battling demons effectively. Three things he said especially caught my attention: (1) when we are filled with God's love, the fruits of the Spirit, and God's Word, demons have no room in our hearts to reside; (2) demons can detect whether or not our whole being desires for them to leave, and if there's even 1% of us that doesn't mind them sticking around, they'll stay; and (3) one of the biggest demonic deceptions is to convince us that we need to pray more, read the Bible more, sin less, or be closer to God before we can cast a demon out of someone -- we need to realize that it's by the authority and accomplishment of Jesus that demons are required to leave, not by what we've done or failed to do. One other thing he said that struck me was that Christians often don't realize the significance or expanse of demonic activity, and many Christians put up with demons tormenting them simply because they don't realize it's there. Huh. I don't want that to be me. I need to digest this more before giving my own thoughts on these points, but I thought I should throw them out there to stimulate some action or discussion. Let's not be ignorant of the wiles of the evil one!