Connected to the source
I had one of those dreams last year that stuck with me, but not due to its entertainment value. This dream was disturbing, and frankly, annoying. It falls into the category of frustration dreams—you know, the kind when nothing you do works; you’re lost in a familiar building (for me that place is usually a school); nobody’s listening to you—that type.
But this dream was more straight-forward and buy clomid without a prescription made more sense in real life than the common frustration dream. I think that’s why it was so disturbing.
In this dream, I entered my home before dark one summer’s evening and turned on the lights. Nothing. I went from room to room trying to find a switch that worked. None did. However, when I looked up at the ceiling fan, it was operating. The power was on, but the lights would not work.
I inspected each light fixture all over the house—whether ceiling, stove, sink, or table lamp. Each one was fully stocked with bulbs—perfectly good bulbs. I knew the power was on but the lights were not shining.
I climbed up onto my bed and was aware in the dream of the instability of my footing on the mattress. With legs shaking and feeling like a novice surfer on a large wave, I reached up to the bulbs in the ceiling fixture—each one in its place—and then discovered the problem. Every last bulb in the house was just one or two revolutions away from connecting with the power.
When I awoke in the morning after the dream, I didn’t think much about it and went on with my day.
Later, like a bolt out of Heaven—when I was telling someone about the dream—I realized what it signified. My dream was a tutorial about the power and the light operating within me—and the Church.
First, the dream was set in my house. Therefore, it applied to me just as much as it did to anyone else—probably more. Keep this in mind when God reveals issues to you—let Him search your own heart first. “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” (Galatians 6:1, KJV; emphasis added).
Here’s what I saw: The power in the house was on. Nothing was wrong at the electric company’s end—I knew that because the ceiling fan was doing its thing. The light bulbs were all in place—they appeared to be properly installed.
What I know: There is nothing wrong with the power of God in our time. It is every bit as strong as it was when Elijah and Elisha lived, when Peter, Paul, and John preached, and indeed, when Jesus walked the earth. The power is most definitely ON.
This dream opened my eyes to a small adjustment I needed to maintain so that Jesus—the Light of the world—could shine through my life. This “fine-tuning”, I believe, is applicable to anyone else hungering for more of God, as well. Here’s what I gleaned:
- The electricity that was being used was unhindered in operating the ceiling fans. In other words, coolness and stromectol osterreich kaufen comfort were maintained—perhaps prioritized. In my life and in most churches—at least in this nation—the environment is cool and comfortable.
- Every single light bulb was manufacturer-ready and in its place. They looked just right; they appeared to be 100% functional. In the same way, there’s nothing defective with you or me—the people God has pulled out of the world and placed in His Church. Each one of us is capable of 100% functionality.
- None of the bulbs produced any light. No corresponding heat was produced, either, and the house stayed cool. In my dream, the bulbs that were capable of lighting my house were not lighting up. A benefit of that was the lack of heat on a hot summer’s day, but again, no light was shining. When light shines, heat is produced. When you or I start shining, often persecution heats up. One way to avoid the heat is to keep the lights off.
- It took some effort to discover the problem. I had to get up on furniture I don’t normally climb on; I had to force myself out of my comfort-zone to problem-solve. It’s easy to complain or point a finger at others or at issues; it’s much more uncomfortable to endeavor to honestly seek God for the cause so the problem can be solved. Although it may feel precarious—very shaky—to step out of the security of “everything’s great” to face off with besetting issues, the results that come from God are worth it.
- The problem wasn’t in the power or in the bulbs themselves or even in their placement. The power was on; the bulbs each had the appropriate wattage; each bulb was in the right spot; they just weren’t connected to the power. They were mere millimeters away from connection.
We must never take it for granted that because God’s power is present and we are in position to be used that we are actually fully connected to the power. Connection at full revolution is the only sure way to produce light. Heat will be generated as well, but we can’t let that stop us from seeking full connection to our Power Source. Heat is produced when light shines; but when the heat is on, God’s grace and glory flourish all the more.
May the Lord grant all of us the grace we need to turn those“bulbs” the one or two notches it takes to connect with Him at full strength. And may we keep that connection tight on an ongoing basis.
Dorothy
“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5
Read MoreConnection
In plumbing, leaks can be caused by loose connections between pipes. And because you and stromectol osterreich kaufen I take it for granted that the connections between the unseen pipes at home are sound, once in a blue moon we are surprised when facing the inevitable—a leak.
In my house, the leak seeped up over the top of the fitting. Somehow the connection had loosened and soundness was compromised. But as quickly as it was discovered it was repaired—the contractor was in the house! Don’t you wish all of the leaks and glitches in your home would occur when a repairman was on the scene? Well, here’s good news—the Carpenter is always in the house!
The leak in the connection between the pipes started me thinking about the closeness of my connection with God. I hate to admit it, but as I look back over the past 39 years of my relationship with Him, I haven’t always maintained a super-tight connection. Don’t get me wrong—once I was born again, I was connected. But sometimes I was content just to appear to have a close connection, while the connection itself had become loose, casual—even sloppy. And upon closer inspection, I can see that the most satisfying times in my life have occurred when I purposefully tightened that connection.
How do you tighten the connection between yourself and God? What tends to loosen it up? What are some of the signs that you need to crank that connection more tightly? And if you’re in Christ and He’s in you, why concern yourself about this connection at all? Isn’t connection with Him a given?
The skinny is this: the connection is perfect on His end; it’s your end that needs watchful oversight, maintenance, and sometimes repair. If there’s any disconnect, it’s on your end.
Remember last week I wrote that I was bombarded by negative thoughts one snowy morning? I ran for refuge that day to a pile of devotionals, knowing in my gut that I would receive direction and help. And interestingly enough, in one way or another, out of every single entry emerged a strengthening, nutritious nugget about—you guessed it—a vital connection with God.
I’ll be writing about what I gleaned that snowy day in the next several blog entries. But tomorrow I plan to backtrack a bit and share a dream that I had sometime last year. You’ll understand why when you read “Connected to the Source”.
Dorothy
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.” John 15:4
Read MoreAnother leak
The trim nail was discovered and stromectol osterreich kaufen removed, and the section of copper piping was replaced. Three weeks later, after much running of water to flush out the system, my water tastes free of contaminants. Hallelujah!
But I had a hole in my basement ceiling that needed to be patched. My contractor, a godly man with a good attitude, and who is a craftsman in his own right, came to do the job.
He is no stranger to my herd of cats. Two of them hide from him in the compartments between the floors that he himself created—just for them. You see, two years ago he gutted that whole section of the basement to remove the mold problem which had developed due to earlier plumbing issues under the bathroom sink and tub. He saw that he had wiped out their “get-away” in the demolition, so he crafted an area with four “cat compartments”—complete with trap doors for clean-up purposes—to which the more cowardly among them could flee if so moved. I’m not sure if those cats are grateful for his artistry on their behalf, but they sure know where to go when terrifying repairmen come to work on the house.
The other two could care less about workmen; one is thoroughly disinterested until she’s through with her nap and then pays a visit, but the other—a twenty-pounder—likes to supervise everything that goes on.
Big Rowe was busy overseeing the patch job, Cammie was snoozing, and I decided to check in on Ember and Gideon, hiding in their “crawl space”. I climbed up on a step ladder to peer into their secret compartments between the floors and saw the yellow glow of two pairs of eyes. Ugh, I thought to myself. I haven’t checked up here in a while—it’s covered with cat hair! So as I began the task of de-furring the storage shelves beneath the cat hideaway and the bathtub drain pipe, I withdrew my hand in horror. WATER!!!
Not a new leak! Not now! Not here! I removed the bottled laundry detergents and fabric softeners stored on the shelf directly below the pipe and felt around. Yup—sprung a leak.
“BOB!” I called to my contractor patching the ceiling in the other room. “You’ll never guess what I just found!”
He wasn’t surprised; he said these things happen to him all the time; and as he investigated, he discovered the cause of this new leak. It was coming from a poor connection in the fitting between the bathtub drain pipe and the elbow trap attached to it. He repaired it under the glow of four golden eyes, finished the patch job, and then went on his way.
As I returned to clean up the mess, I was amazed that it wasn’t a big mess. In fact, that leak had just started; only the top shelf had water on it; only a couple of paper towels were needed to mop it up.
And I thought of the goodness of God. This second leak could have slowly dripped for months and months before being discovered, but God revealed it to me right away before any damage—or mold growth—had begun.
And what did He use? A different leak, a patch up job, my relationship with two scaredy cats, and a pile of cat hair. How great is that? Surely our God causes all things to work together for our good—even cat hair!
And just like the Lord used the intruding trim nail to reveal truth to me, He has also shown me some interesting things about the value of vigilantly maintaining good connection.
More on that to come.
Dorothy
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28
Read MoreErrant trim nail—discovered, extracted, and discarded
After the plumber removed the trim nail that had pierced the pipe, I was fascinated by how thickly corroded it had become in two years and amazed at how well it had plugged the metal all that time. In fact, as I prayed with a group of women soon after, I kept seeing that corroded nail in my mind. I couldn’t shake it, so I shared the story with them and the analogy of contaminants penetrating the fresh, living water in the lives of believers. From that analogy, we prayed for freedom for Christians dealing with intrusive toxins.
In my mind, I figured we were praying for those who were facing addictions or various besetting sins—and I’m sure we were. Those things certainly seek to worm their way into the lives of men and women who endeavor to follow the Lord; Satan uses such devises to bind up, if possible, anyone who poses a threat to him or to the spread of his agenda. What I didn’t know when I shared my trim nail story, however, was that God was about ready to uncover one in my own life.
It didn’t happen right away. God takes His time with us; He not only prepares us for our calling, ministry, and service—He also prepares us to deal with uncomfortable or painful issues. And I believe that He has a due season for everything He does, and He works in us throughout our lives to help us to hear and receive what He has to say.
On a recent snowy day as I hunkered down at home, I began the day with prayer and time in the Word, but for some reason I was flooded with an onslaught of negative emotions. Thoughts of isolation, ineffectiveness, despair, and unacceptability bombarded my mind. I poured out the pain I was experiencing before the Lord. After all, the psalmist urged, “Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us” (Psalm 62:8; emphasis added).
And interestingly enough, God led, not one godly person, but two—right in a row—to call me that morning to share their love and encouragement. The trim nail was still hidden, but He was applying the pre-op salve of lovingkindness and acceptance in the Beloved (see Ephesians 1:6, KJV) through the words of these precious saints.
After the conversations, I determined to hear from God and spent most of the rest of the day reading several devotionals (many were listed here on February 10: http://www.firstofallpray.com/?p=4114). As I read, God spoke to me through them, confirming some key directives I had received from Him previously. By the time I was writing a summary in my prayer journal about everything He had said, the oppression shrouding me earlier was all but gone. As I arose from that task to a more mundane endeavor, however, a scrap of the old heaviness startled me as it leaped on my mind, demanding attention, flooding my thoughts with images of all the disapproval my life had generated.
And just then the Plumber, the Ancient of Days Himself, stepped in and spoke very clearly, “Disapproval”, and I saw a man’s hand pull a piece of trim from the wall of my heart pierced by a thickly corroded nail—disapproval itself. All the condemning images drained away, and I recognized what the Lord—my Plumber—had just done for me.
It all made sense to me. I had been plagued by the feeling of being disapproved much of my life—even as a believer who thoroughly trusted in the finished work of Jesus Christ, His precious blood shed for me, the wonderful regeneration of the Holy Spirit, and the living power of the Word of God. For some reason, I was not able to fully shake the nagging doubts and oppressive accusations despite how loved by God I knew I was.
God was showing me that the disapproval my parents expressed toward me as a child, teen, and young woman—even though I knew they loved me—had invaded my system and lodged in my soul. When Jesus came to make His home in me, the living waters sprang up to eternal life and all was forgiven and I was cleansed—but that errant trim nail of disapproval remained. Through the years, with every disapproving look or word, that nail was driven in deeper. I felt it, for sure, but was never able to identify what was going on inside. In fact, the Lord showed me, I had developed a “disapproval response mechanism” in my soul that was triggered whenever I met with anything that felt disapproving toward me—whether it was real or imagined. And if I left it unaddressed, or worse—I nursed or coddled it—and didn’t forgive as quickly as possible, that intrusive trim nail would redevelop its corrosion and the living water within would become tainted again.
And out of nowhere came my Plumber, the Savior of my soul, who simply removed the offending nail. Of course, I have questions: Why now? Why wait this long? But the fact of the matter is this: He did it. He pulled out a grossly contaminating, painful spike from my soul, and I am grateful. The flow of the rivers of life and the washing of the water of the Word will be all the more refreshing, sweet, and powerful.
My purpose in sharing this highly personal incident is to encourage you to press on in God even if things seem impossibly dark, oppressive, or disturbing. When the leak occurred in my basement, I was angry and upset at the mess and inconvenience. However, without that leak, the corroding trim nail never would have been discovered, and my water would still be contaminated.
A surfaced boil reveals that an infection needs to be addressed. Without that boil, the infection can spread undetected. A leak in the plumbing reveals that something is not right with the pipes—perhaps even contaminating the water. And chronic issues of heaviness, oppression, or sin in your life can be viewed as a wake-up call to press in to God and His Word all the more. Instead of allowing the oppression to bind you in shame or despair, use the devil’s attacks as your personal launching pad into the presence of God. The Lord will come through for you—every time.
And concerning errant trim nails:
1. Protect your heart by obeying God.
2. Keep the living water of Jesus flowing within you.
3. Trust Him to bring to light anything that may be hindering you—and watch Him set you free.
Dorothy
Read MoreWhat’s in your water?
The culprit behind my plumbing leak was a tiny trim nail which had been inadvertently driven into one of my pipes. And when the plumber removed the compromised section, I was disgusted to see what lingered inside of that length of copper. Rusty, dirty water spilled out into a waiting bucket. YUCK!
And then a light bulb came on in my mind. Yikes! The water pouring from my kitchen faucet had tasted funny for over a year now. I asked the plumber if that little nail, slowly corroding in the pipe, could make the water taste “off”. The answer was yes.
After the taste of my tap water went “south”, I began to use bottled water exclusively for drinking. I also started running the water from that faucet until I couldn’t taste it whenever I cooked, prepared coffee, or ran water for the cats’ bowls. I hadn’t trusted the water for over a year; now I knew why.
As Christians, we are vessels through which living water flows. Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well, “Everyone who drinks of this water [well water] will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” (John 4:13b-14; emphasis added). You and I have a well of water within us, springing up to eternal life. This is the water of life which the Lord has given to us; as long as we drink from it, we will never thirst.
Jesus also proclaimed on the last day of the great feast, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37b-38). Within you and me flow rivers of living water—waters of the Holy Spirit which arise through faith in Jesus (see verse 39).
And yet have you ever experienced a tinge of “offness” coming from the flow of your life? Have you ever thought to yourself in reflection, Something just doesn’t seem right; something tastes “off” as I think, pray or speak? Have you ever wondered, Why do the “waters” seem to get so muddy from time to time?
When that happens—and no Christian is immune—you may question the Lord and His faithfulness to you. But the truth is this: He’s still there; He’s never stopped helping you; His Word still speaks.
The well of which Jesus spoke is still inside of you—it hasn’t moved—with water springing up to eternal life. On top of that, rivers of living water still run deep within you, ready to splash through your life onto the lives of others.
I learned that a little trim nail penetrating a small copper pipe can foul the water in a home until it is discovered and removed. Every day, you and I come into contact with the world around us, its ways, its philosophies, and its loves. Every day, you and I bob and weave without even thinking, dodging suggestions and accusations, taking thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ, and declaring, It is written. And the living water within us keeps on flowing.
But from time to time, an errant suggestion or a bit of news, a stray thought or a random image finds its way into the plumbing. Before you know it, the water seems “off”; what was once clear becomes cloudy; what used to flow freely within you seems to be sluggish and stale.
Nothing’s wrong with the Source of that living water; but something has fouled it, nonetheless. The good news is that the Living God is very aware of the condition of the well within you, He knows the exact location of any contaminant that may have worked its way into the river—and He’s willing to share that knowledge with you if you’re willing to hear it.
Your job is to contact the Plumber and give Him license to inspect your “home”. He’ll locate and remove the offending pollutant, showing you exactly what it is and how it penetrated your defenses, and He will repair any damage to your “pipes”. You, in turn, need to kick-start the living waters within you so you can fully flush out your system, wash yourself with the water of the Word, and then commit to refortifying your godly defenses.
Leaks happen, whether in buildings or in your life. Water can become tainted in the spiritual realm as well as in the natural. And your God is big enough to walk you through any of it—or all of it. He’s ever present and He is beautiful for situation—for every single situation.
He can be trusted.
Dorothy
Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. Psalm 139:23-24
Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord,
and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. Isaiah 55:6-7
Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. Jeremiah 33:3; English Standard Version
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