FAITH AND FASTING

One morning recently at church, I had an amazing moment with the Lord during Communion. Allow me to share it and to explain how we can make ourselves open vessels for Him to fill with His heart, thoughts and plans.

For seekers or new believers, Communion is when we followers of Christ take a bite of bread and a sip of wine or grape juice and pause to remember what Jesus did for us on the Cross.

We express our gratitude that He gave his body and blood for us. We acknowledge the Son of God became the final sacrificial Lamb for the people of God. His death made it possible for those who trust Him to be in communion with the Father without fear of failure, because His Son got us out from under the unforgiving Law and established a better Covenant, an eternal Covenant, the one which the Lord promised His people through the prophet Isaiah, for one, hundreds of years before those prophecies were fulfilled in Christ the Messiah.

Back to this one morning at church when I took the bread as part of Communion, the Pastor was quoting Jesus when He said to His followers, ‘this is my body which was broken for you…’ (Mark 14:22-24; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26)

I paused and turned my spirit and heart to the Lord and felt gratitude flow for what He did for me. Just as I did, I heard these words vividly in my spirit: ‘You are bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh…’

The Spirit of Christ was quoting to me the words of Adam when he first saw Eve! (Gen 2:23) He was re-enacting the moment the first human saw his new mate for the first time and realized she was his and he was no longer alone.

I quickly recalled, among many other wonderful names He has been called, in the New Testament, Jesus was called the “second Adam”, meaning the “first man” under the New Covenant. (1 Corinthians 15:45-47)

In amazement and awe, my spirit responded right back to Him, quoting Ruth 1:16: ‘where you go, I will go, where you dwell, I will dwell, Your people are my people and Your God (Your Father), my God…’

It was one of the sweetest moments of Bridegroom/Bride with my Savior I’ve ever had. His declaration of joy, love and unity with me so tender, and my spontaneous response of love and trust so natural and genuine.

Now, I call that Communion!

Since we’re on the subject, let’s talk about hearing from the Spirit of God, because I want every believer to have this down, to walk in daily recognition of His voice and ways. I don’t know about you, but I went for years in my youth and young adulthood without fully understanding what it meant to hear directly from the Spirit.

Of course, I knew God could speak to me through His word, through a preacher or another wise believer, but we weren’t really taught all the ways the Spirit speaks. The only thing I’d heard consistently was: His voice is that “still, small voice.” And that our own thoughts, distractions and the craziness of life often drown Him out. And all that is true. But, there was more, much more!

I discovered it is NOT hard to hear the Spirit, but you have to understand how He speaks, and how to make yourself ready to hear.

It wasn’t until I made a daily habit of surrendering myself to His Spirit that I began to hear regularly and understand His voice more and more clearly. Funny, when you put Him in charge, He opens everything of Himself up to you.

“Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matt 6:33) That passage was talking about the most basic human needs being met, but I believe it can also apply to the needs of the spirit.

When the Spirit of God speaks to the child of God, a follower of Yeshua, aka Christ the Messiah, it is distinct from your own thoughts. For me, it is as if someone overlaid another message on top of my normal thoughts. It is often surprising, unexpected, not like my own thoughts which I’m mostly in control of…

His voice comes out of nowhere and catches me off guard. The phrasing is often different than my way of speaking. He’ll use words so rare to my own vocabulary, even unknown, to the point I have to look them up for definition. That is how I know it isn’t me.

I’ll give you an example of one recent and distinct moment the Lord spoke to me that will also give you a glimpse of His endearing character. It will also reveal how no moment is too casual or mundane for Him to share with you.

One day a few weeks ago, I was in our backyard picking up many huge palm branches my husband had painstakingly cut off our trees. I was awkwardly carrying, sometimes dragging, the 15-20 foot branches three or four at a time to the front curb for hauling away. While I was busy laboring, an alligator who lives on our lake was sunning himself on the opposite shore and lazily watching me. Don’t worry, there is a good, metal slat fence that separates us from him.

When I was done with the palm branch cleanup, I aimed a casual thought to the Lord: I wonder what the gator thought of me while I was doing that project? In no more than a split second, I heard in my spirit, “she wrestles trees”. My mouth fell open in amused surprise!

That statement was so out of the blue and took another couple seconds to visualize and apply meaning to it, further evidence the thought was not my own. In doing so, I realized the Lord was being cute with me!

In truth, that is probably what it would look like to a creature in the wild, seeing a human woman pick up huge green branches and struggle to haul them around the house. Wrestling trees…! As if I was a female Paul Bunyan to that gator. I laughed and laughed. The Lord is adorable. His voice is clever, true, kind, and sometimes hilarious.

Every believer can grow to know and experience the Spirit’s voice. And, we can trust that “still, small voice” so long as our life is pure and our spirit is yielded to Him.

Please hear a well-meaning warning: If your life isn’t pure or you are not surrendered to the Lord, don’t trust everything you hear in your mind and spirit. There are other voices out there who would love to usurp the place of the Lord in your life. And they are deceivers.

Paul taught us to, “take every thought captive”. That means, we test every thought to see if it is 1) true, 2) compatible with Scripture, and 3) edifying.

If our thoughts or things we hear in our spirit are 1) vain, 2) proud, or 3) in opposition to the character of Christ or the Word of God, they are not from the Spirit of God. Kick them out and shut the door behind their departure (in the name and authority of Jesus)!

Another way I’ve learned to commune with the Spirit of God is through dreams. Understand, I was not raised to know He still speaks that way, but He does.

The Spirit spoke to the people of God through dreams from ancient times to those who followed Christ, and from Genesis to Revelation in the Bible are those testimonies. It should have been easy and logical to teach the people that He would continue, but in my experience most teachers and churches are silent on the subject.

No matter, dreams and visions will come whether we teach it or not. Bible passages from Joel 2 and Acts 2 promised in the end times, dreams and visions will be poured out upon the entire body of believers. We should be preparing and learning to interpret now, making ourselves ready.

If interested, you can find several articles in this blog on dreams and learning to interpret. Just click on tag: dreams and visions. That should unearth all available to date. It is a fantastic and mysterious journey, an adventure of a lifetime to learn this ancient way of the Lord to speak in symbols and parables directly to our spirit.

Before wrapping, I’ll give you one example of how the Lord revealed His heart to me recently in a dream. A friend I’d known years ago in college recently lost her father. The day I heard of his passing, I had this dream:

I was in heaven with the Lord and saw both of my friend’s parents surrounded by over a hundred children of all ages. The Lord greeted them, but what was unusual was how He addressed her father who had just died. He called him, “Hansel”. I was surprised in the dream, but waking saw the profound meaning pour out.

This precious man had the heart of an evangelist. He and his wife moved to the Philippines in retirement and had lived there another 20+ years. During that time, he’d shared Christ with everyone who would listen.

The Lord was giving me a symbol I would understand through the dream. The name, Hansel, is from childhood fairytale, Hansel and Gretel. For those who’ve never read it, I’ll give you the short version. There is an evil witch in the forest who likes to eat children (eek – maybe we need to rethink what we read children, ha ha) and she lures Hansel and Gretel and takes them captive. But, they escape and the witch dies for a happy ending. Now that I think about it, what a profound spiritual parallel to the goals of Satan versus the plan of salvation!

The Lord also knows, in more recent years, I’ve seen another Hansel and Gretel story, a modern movie with the main characters all grown up. Grown Hansel and Gretel are now witch hunters and rescuers of other children who’ve fallen victim to those who want to destroy them.

Can you see why the Lord would call my friend’s evangelical father, “Hansel”. The Spirit was letting me know in a way I would understand that this wonderful man, once rescued from the evil one himself, had become a rescuer of other souls from the one who wishes to devour them. And based on the dozens of children I saw in the dream, he’d been very successful, had brought quite an increase into the kingdom of God.

That is how dreams work for me. The Spirit uses symbols I personally recognize – or can learn through research – and gives me information. He has even told me future events which I’ve seen play out in my personal life, in the life of others I’m close to, or even for America. The ones for America have been shared in the blog to the best of my ability with my imperfect interpretation skills.

Dreams, I’ve learned, are for one primary purpose. It is to pray in unison with the will of God. To agree with Him and call out, “on earth as it is in Heaven”, and thereby help usher His plan into our reality.

There are other purposes over and above praying. Sharing/proclamation can be one (with discretion and only His timing) and fellowship with the Spirit, for another. He wants to be known, and his communication always reveals something precious about Himself, His character. It is a privilege to be entrusted with His heart, thoughts and plans.

I pray our people, our family of faith, grow in purity, pursuit of the ways of the Spirit, and in hearing His wonderful voice. How amazing is it to think we can walk closely with Him just like Adam did in the garden of Eden? Just like the disciples walked with Jesus in His time on earth. It is a journey unlike any other and one that is a tragedy if missed. So, don’t miss it!

The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26

[Postscript: It is my joy and privilege to promote this powerful series by Dallas Jenkins: The Chosen, available for free on Angel Studios app or website, among other streaming services. FYI, no one is paying me to promote it. Words alone are not enough to describe its relevance, quality, Biblical authenticity, and heart. You will feel you are there, will fall in love with the disciples and first followers of Christ, and Christ Himself! Don’t miss it!]