Snapshot: Morning Dew

This morning, I was driving to a new Church called The Bridge.  And right near the start of the drive, I saw a street sign called 'Morning Dew'.  It made me think about the way that the Lord pours His love onto us, even when we first wake up.  How He showers onto us such favor, such a rich anointing.  How the Lord awakens us spiritually and shows us new things.

"Let my teaching drop as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, As the droplets on the fresh grass and as the showers on the herb."                                      Deuteronomy 32:2

And I felt God encouraging me to enjoy my quiet time in the car--I had an hour long drive ahead of me, after all.  He was giving me hope for the journey.  So I opened my heart--no, He did--to receiving that.  I felt Him making me aware of this awesome opportunity--this morning dew.  He was telling me to draw near in worship.

And there were some great songs on Christian radio, some of my favorites.  Praise God, He knew that I would like them!  And I felt God's presence in such a powerful way.  I felt such love.  I felt such living water, in me and around me.  I felt the Lord pouring out...the 'morning dew'!  Praise Him, I had such a wonderful time on the way to Church.  Now, all time of worship is amazing, but this drive to Church was truly unique.  I tasted His character in a new way.

And then I get to Church, and it was great, too.  My first time at the Bridge--it was very good. Worship was powerful, and then a missionary from India shared and spoke some prophetic exhortation.  Next was the sermon, and before I knew it, we had all turned to Hosea 14:

"I will be like the dew to Israel; He will blossom like the lily, And he will take root like the cedars of Lebanon. His shoots will sprout, And his beauty will be like the olive tree And his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon"                                                              Hosea 14:5-6

Wow!  What a confirmation!  And this is how God is to us.  He enriches us.  He showers us.  He pours out His Spirit on us!  He rewards us for seeking Him early--He rewards us with the morning dew.  We come in expectation, and we finish satisfied.  Jesus said we'd never thirst! (John 4:14).  He said that living waters would pulsate out of us (John 7:38).

And it starts in the morning!   Come in expectation--that's a biblical command!  Come and expect the Holy Spirit's infilling.  Come and expect God to show up.  Come and expect a revelation, visitation, or exhortation from the Lord.  He has all of Himself to give!

"And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek him."                     Hebrews 11:6

Snapshot: A better Connection

A few days ago, the Lord spoke to me very clearly and said, "you need a better connection"  I knew what He meant.

"For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time."   1 Timothy 2:5-6

The connection here is a person.  That person is Jesus, and He is our mediator and our path to the Father.  He lives to help us and make intercession for us .  He lives to bring us nearer to God, and draw us nearer to Him.

"Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them"    Hebrews 7:25

Jesus stands between us and God's wrath, and He stands between us and God's affection.  The Father's view of us is filtered through Jesus.  He sees His Son in each and every true believer.  He sees Jesus in us.  This is our hope of glory, and it is reveals to us His Glory, too (Colossians 1:27).  If we connect to Jesus, we can be connected to the Father.  If we acknowledge Him as Immanuel, God with us, then we can always connect with the Father.  We can please Him by going through His son.  There is no other way.

Yeshua said to him, “I AM THE LIVING GOD, The Way and The Truth and The Life; no man comes to my Father but by me alone.”     John 14:6

Confirmed:  The morning after I was shown this, internet connection in our house went out.  God knows how to prove a point.  Connection with Him is intentional, and for many that means dedicated time in the morning.

Confirmed:  Today, a new post on the Quickened Word described Jesus as a bridge between us and the throne.  His death bridged the gap between our sinful hopeless condition and the Holiness of God.  Jesus is the way we get to Heaven, and He is the way that we can live in the Kingdom of Heaven even while on earth.  He is the way that we live live to the fullest, all the time connected to the Father God through a lifeline of awareness of Him.

Snapshot: Sacrifices

This morning the Lord gave me four pretty random visions that didn't make much sense until He had me read Exodus. I read a bit about the regulations God gave Moses about the altar of burnt offering. There were to be four horns on the Altar. It struck me that this paralleled with the four mental images God gave me. You will find that there are not many coincidences when God is relaying a message.

I knew that these four images represented things I had to offer up to the Lord. In exchange, I had to turn to pure solutions to these problems. My faithless and doubtful ways had to be burnt up, freeing me to obtain heavenly treasures.

I am still working on this. Sacrificing things to God is often difficult. But it is a critical part of counting the cost. We need to be willing to dedicate our lives to God in exchange for the gift of His tangible presence. We need to give to Him everything we have.

"...No one is to appear before Me empty handed". Exodus 23:15

Moses was instructed to place the altar of burnt offering in front of the entrance to the tabernacle. We need to offer up our impure things to the Lord before we are ready to live a pure life. We must allow God to take and destroy the things that distract us from Him in preparation for worship. We need to be exposed before Him so that He can clothe us in righteousness.

"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints". Psalms 116:15

Precious is the giving up of our sinful desires. This collection of burnt offerings is still being gathered up today. The giving of these things pleases God and allows us to draw near to Him. This burning, this sanctification, produces an aroma that pleases the Lord and gives us permission to enter into the tabernacle. And today, the tabernacle is within us via the Spirit, but we still need to die to ourselves to get there.

Snapshot: Walking in His Will

This morning the Lord gave me a vision of a bright orange maple leaf with 2 lines intersecting it to form a cross. I had a knowing that the intersection of the lines symbolized my current situation. I felt that God was saying, "You're right in the crosshairs", I also was shown that both lines moved--one through time, the other according to where I was relative to God's perfect will.

I was very relieved to know that I was following God's plan for my life at this point in time. So often we think that God is not satisfied with us. While it is true that He has the highest standards for us, we cannot despise the day of small things, either.

Confirmed: About an hour after receiving this vision, I was asked to spend some time raking the back yard. This surprised me, and I realized that the vision was also prophetic in a literal sense! One thing the Lord has said, two things I have heard...anyways, I spent the next few hours raking up leaves that looked just like the ones I had seen. I had a marvelous time as the Lord really filled me with His love.

Teaching of a Prophet

Today the Lord gave me a vision of 2 allen bolts tightening down onto a single metal piece.  These bolts were in sockets that protruded out of the piece, almost like elephant ears.  I often get visions of tightening or loosening wrenches and usually the message behind these is very simple--I either need to get more serious or loosen up!  Today's vision was unique in that these two bolts were tightening down at once, and they were both connected to a central piece.  Like I said, these bolts looked kind of like large ears on a helmet or something.  I felt compelled by the Lord to "tighten down" on my quiet time with Him, so to speak, and to take His word seriously.

Immediately I read Luke 22:35-38.  Two swords were enough for Jesus, and I felt Him saying that these two allen bolts I'd seen were enough for Him, too.  I have often seen swords in visions and usually they represent the sword of the Spirit.  Both swords and allen keys are among the spiritual tools that the Lord speaks symbolically to me with.  I continued to read on..."Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation"  OK, so here we have specific instructions on how to tighten down spiritually.  We need to stand strong and pray against temptation!

Next I read Isaiah 50, which is a great teaching.  I opened randomly to this scripture (except with God, it's not random at all) and my eyes went right to the second half of verse 5:  "...the Lord has opened my ears".  Immediately I knew this related to the metal 'ears' I had seen that were being tightened down.  Wow!  When becoming prophetic, the Lord really does "open our ears".  We need to earnestly seek Him in our time alone, so that we can know His voice!

I feel compelled to share a larger section of Isaiah 50 here, as it describes so well the training that God takes us through.  With the received word comes responsibility, which Isaiah was well aware of:


"The Lord God has given me the tongue of disciples, that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word.  He awakens me morning by morning, He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple.
The Lord God has opened my ear; and I was not disobedient, nor did I turn back."  Isaiah 50:4-5

We see that God gave Isaiah supernatural knowledge, and a 'knowing' used for encouragement.  We see that Isaiah received the Word of the Lord as soon as he got up every morning!  We see that Isaiah had his spiritual ears opened, and that he was not offended by God's thoughts.  As Jesus said, "blessed is he who is not offended because of ME".

Being trained by God is hard.  It requires everything you have.  It requires you to die daily.  But the rewards are enormous, and by His grace He keeps us.  Through disobedience we might stumble, and that isn't fun, but He keeps us from falling.  The Lord is showing me that now is a time to return to Him with my whole heart, and a time to pray and seek Him earnestly.  Now is a time to pray against temptation and choose His will.

Confirmation:  Yesterday I read this Elijahlist article,  "Your Prophetic Word Confirmed".  Wow...so much of this parallels what the Lord has been speaking to me recently.  This article really, really built my faith.  Anyone who is child of God with prophetic gifting should seriously read this! Lord, use us bring glory to your name, and establish your Kingdom here on the earth!

Theme: Out of Darkness into Light

This morning I received a vision where a few lights came down from heaven and circled around, almost like moving spotlights.  I understood that these were revelations of the Word that were coming down from God.  First, though, they had to get through an atmosphere crowded with noise and lies...and atmosphere of darkness.  At that point, I understood that these rays reached people who had the Holy Spirit to guide them.

Confirmations:

This morning Rick Warren's daily devotional popped up in my email inbox.  Most of these get caught in my spam, as I feel I don't have time to read all of them...but I feel that the ones that make it though to my inbox unscathed are particularly God inspired for the situation that I'm in at that point in time.  Today's was called "Biblical Interpretation: God doesn't leave you in the dark".  I'll just list the first principle relayed in that article.  Point 1:  You need faith and the Holy Spirit to interpret scripture.  I thought this was a specific confirmation of the vision God gave me.

"No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God." 1 Corinthians 2:11.

So, those beams of light I saw were the thoughts of God, and His words, coming down to reveal good things to His children.  I instinctually knew this from the vision, but how cool!

His Pen: The Message of His Love

This morning I received a vision from the Lord of a giant pen blasting off, as if it were a space shuttle.  I have seen this image several times, and it always reminds me of the power behind the words that God speaks to me.  (I have an MS word document called "His Pen" where I record the things that God speaks through His still, small voice).  I usually get this vision just prior to receiving a new Word from the Lord.  Today the word was very simple, but sometimes it's the simple ones that really bring comfort against accusations of the enemy.  Here it is:

"A time is coming...I have made you righteous...and I am taking you to a place of constant justification.  I am not mad at you...trust in Me for deliverance from the enemy.  Believe in Me, Thomas, because I love you so much!"

Whenever I get a specific word, the Lord always gives me confirmations that it was from Him, and not just my own thoughts or something.  At this point, I tend to just know when it's Him, too.

So, right after hearing this, I open up a book by my Mom's friend Kay, (called Doing Time with Charlie"), and immediately read the statement, "...Because of the overwhelming love".  This is a good example of how steps 1 and 2 from yesterday's post, Ways to Hear God's Voice, typically work.  And now I'm in the process of step 3 by writing down the rhema word!  

Confirming scripture:

"Many adversities come to the one who is righteous, but the LORD delivers him from them all."  Psalm 34:19

It's easy for us to underestimate the love of God, or even forget about it altogether.  That reminds me...I did a prophetic exercise in a church group early this year, when I was first beginning to really hear God's voice.  Each person had to ask the Lord what He thought about them, especially regarding His love.  So, I tried as best as I could to hear and receive whatever God had to say about how much He loved me.  The first thing I heard, and I won't ever forget this, was "you hypocrite".

That stunned me, and I got pretty scared!  God made His point, though, and continued on:

"You hypocrite, you believe that I love them, but not that I always love you.  You hypocrite, you believe in My mercy for them, but not for you..."  And similar messages continued.  Call it tough love, but the Lord called me a hypocrite as means of getting a point across to me!  In hindsight I see His wisdom in speaking to me this way.  Many believers get into a spot where the enemy has sold them the lie that they have somehow fallen too far, and that God's grace can't reach them any longer.  Whenever I get into a place like this, I find that God's love always manages to bring me back into the fold.  Praise Jesus for a loving savior, who will always go out to find His lost sheep.

Confirming scripture:


"...neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."  Romans 8:39

"If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for he cannot disown Himself."  2 Timothy 2:13.

This implies a measure of God the father himself in us!  His promises became flesh through Jesus, and now, through the Holy Spirit, they are made manifest within us.  To disown someone who has the Spirit is never something God does!  Praise God that He keeps us with so much grace.

Satisfaction with God

This morning I felt God say, "Be satisfied with Me".

He was impressing on me the value of waiting on Him for revelation, and more than that, being content in His presence.  David was satisfied with God's presence as with the "richest of foods" and asked the Lord, "where can I go from your Spirit".  God wants to take us all to that place.

When we get distracted by worldly things, we lose our desperation for God and His power and love in our lives.  I always feel the need to dig deeper into the miracle of salvation, in order to understand just what our Lord has done for us in His goodness.

Elevated Foundations

Today the Lord spoke to me in the morning, saying,

"I am dismantling the old creations and bringing in new, elevated foundations."

He gave me a vision of a wooden ladder being cut down, and a newer and larger metal ladder being set up in its place.  Both ladders were placed on a rock slab, like something out of a quarry.  This, to me, symbolizes my foundation in Christ, and the birthplace of my faith.  A few days ago I read Isaiah 51:1...

"Listen to me, you that follow after righteousness, you that seek the LORD: look to the rock from where you are hewn, and to the hole of the pit from where you are dig." (AKJV)

I believe the Lord wants to show us how to be constantly uplifted, a place where we can fully obey Jesus when he says, "Do not let your hearts be troubled".  Rather, we need to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.  This is something that I know I can struggle with.  

There are spiritual tools, spiritual weapons, that He's been prompting me to use recently.  Of course, The Bible tells us to put on the full armor of God.  But a recurring warfare theme for me personally in the past few months has been to continually praise Him.  The farther along you get with the Lord, the more at risk you become to opposing forces...but praise Him that He provides weaponry that truly allows us to be more than conquerors!  

So, how to stay uplifted, how to best dwell in the shelter of the Most High? Here are a few strategies that have helped me out:

-Above all, praise Him!  Make time for this...as you progress, you'll find that even raising your hands and thanking Jesus for a few seconds takes your right into the Spirit!  It's a wonderful place to be.

-Sing and verbally worship.  Surround yourself with worshipful music, and sing along.  Pray in the Spirit, sing in the Spirit.

-Intentional discussion with other believers.  Confess your sins to one another, so that you may be healed...

-Prayer, dependent prayer.  Lean on Him, and intentionally ask Him to allow you to stay in His presence.  I remember a while ago, the Lord told me quite clearly, "If you can't feel me, something's up."  It takes time, but with humility, you can come to a place where all you want to do is clings to His presence.  It takes a pure heart and pure actions to stay in this place, but praise God that His grace enables us to remain there!

That's it for today.  I'm committing to a post each day, on whatever theme the Lord directs me to.  My goal is to provide fellow Christians inspiration to go deeper into the Glory of God.  Stay tuned for more posts, if you feel compelled!