Listen, Obey, Trust

Recently I had a vision…. And I have got to say sometimes I am just slow at times with what God is showing me.

In the vision I am in a place where it is quiet and still. I am humbled, surrendered and submitted on the floor on my arms and knees - when a person appears before me. This person is wearing a shimmering yellow robe -and with every step a fog like haze perforates from the bottom of this rob. The haze is so thick that I cannot see the person’s feet. The robe mimics one of those essence lanterns you see Catholics holding during their different ceremonies, - that puts out smoke when they wave it back and forth. (I am not a Catholic so I don’t know what the lantern is called but I believe it is supposed to man made way to represent the Holy Spirit.) I look up at the person wearing the rob and it’s a man. He has long white shoulder length hair that is brushed out of his face and a perfectly trimmed white goatee and mustache. He looked as if he was waiting to speak. I call him Father. He looks into my eyes. His eyes are deeper then the depths of space. The man’s face then turns to a sphere of fire and shoots into the sky. A voice says, “He illuminates all the pages.” Then as quickly as the vision began- it ended.

The days following the Holy Spirit led me to the books John, Luke, and Matthew in the bible.

John 12:43 “For they loved human praise more then the praise of God.”

John 5:44 “No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from God alone.”

Next verses

Luke 8:15 “But the good soil represents honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s message, cling to it, and steadily produce a huge harvest.”

Luke 8:18 “So be sure to pay attention to what you hear. To those who are open to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But to those who are not listening, even what they think they have will be taken away from them.”

Next verse

Matthew 15:8 “The people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far away.”

Later the Holy Spirit urged me to go and read those verses again and that is when I discovered that the root of Matthew 15:8 came from Isaiah 29:13-14.

So like uncovering a great secret I turned there:

“These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away. And their worship of me amounts to nothing more then human laws learned by rote. Because of this, I will show that human wisdom is foolish and even the most brilliant people lack understanding.”

I was then lead to Isaiah 6: Where it talks about the Lord wearing a rob that had a train that filled the temple and their were seraphim angels that covered their faces and feet and they sang, “Holy, holy holy is the LORD Almighty! The whole earth is filled with his glory!” The glorious singing shook the Temple to its foundation and the entire sanctuary was filled with smoke. After Isaiah’s guilt was removed and his sins were forgiven the Lord asked, “Whom should I send as a messenger to my people? Who will go for us?” Isaiah then answers “Lord, I’ll go! Send me.”

There were not seraphim angels/ or beings in my vision and I did not see the Lord’s train fill the temple but I did see a robe and I did see smoke which is sometimes the evidence of the Holy Spirit. Not just in the spiritual realm but also in how he manifests himself in the realty in which we physically live at this moment.

I have been asking the Lord to send me for sometime. Sometimes we are afraid to ask God to send us because of “where” he might send us. Others ask to be sent hoping to be sent to some foreign land but he sends us to a relative, a neighbor and even the church we attend instead.

Messages to your own church can be difficult especially if the messages doesn’t seem all that encouraging or uplifting but corrective in nature. I have found more often then not a message from the Lord even if it is a corrective one is better received then receiving no message from the Lord at all plus a corrective message given in the Spirit of love in Jesus Christ roots deeper in the mind and heart then not spoken in the Spirit of love in Jesus Christ. And even if they reject what you say by the Spirit- they aren’t rejecting you but God who had you speak it. I find sometimes it’s better if the majority “stays away” after a message I give from the Lord because then I don’t get lured in by human praise and my neutrality stays intact and rooted in the Lord where the Lord esteems me/ not man esteems me. I feel very uneasy when people want to give me praise and not God who gave it to me to say. This last time I even started to quiver after I gave it realizing the mighty source in which it came.

When a message is given usually there are also two or more people to confirm what you say is true. Example: God gave me a message, I obeyed God and spoke it and he confirmed the message was on track because the sermon our pastor followed with had to do with what I shared and then a brother in Christ had gotten the same message as well from the Holy Spirit.

The message had to do with being still and quiet and submitted and surrendered before the Lord and making a greater effort to spend with the Lord because he loves us. We should put no one or anything in front of the Lord in all occasions- good or bad. God puts no one in front of us so we should not allow or put anyone in front of him. Give honor to God. Keep your eyes on the Lord’s love for you and you will be able to love each other, as you should in the unity of Christ's body but if you fail to keep your eyes on the Lord then it will be impossible to have unity in the church body.

Of course this led to our young adult bible study about letting God use us as willing receptacles. God knows if our heart is receptive and willing or not. He knows if we are just giving lip service or if we truly trust him and want him to work his mercy, grace and love through us. For Jesus says “This is what God wants you to do: Believe in the one he sent.” John 6:29

There is where the fullness of Christ is woven into our soul. Believe the Lord is Lord of your life.

Believing in the one he sent (Jesus Christ) not just in your mind but your heart as well helps us to not just listen to the Holy Spirit but to obey and trust him with the task he is going to “partner” with us in doing. Believing is doing. Maturity happens when we begin to understand in our heart. This kind of knowing of Jesus as Lord of our life will surpass even our heart knowledge because God’s love, wisdom and power surpasses anything we could know. And yet this is only possible in Jesus Christ- where can we live and experience God’s love, wisdom, and power that is beyond anything we could understand or imagine as we live in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Paul says the same thing here:

"I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:16-21

For we are just the vessels and he does the work through us so we learn to not to depend on ourselves but depend on Him who enables us to do what we thought at first as not possible for us to do or experience.

God (Father, Son -Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit) is our ultimate source of love, encouragement, praise, refuge, strength and certainty. We must listen, obey and trust him in all things.