God's Speaks

Being the analytical type, I've often pondered the question...Does God still speak today? I believed that God spoke, yes, but only through Scripture, perhaps through circumstances, and maybe, just maybe, through other people, but audible voices? still small voices? dreams? visions? Hmmmmm.....

A couple of years ago, I began attending a small church that teachs that God is our Father, and He still speaks to us today...in fact, He loves to speaks to us today.

This past weekend I attended a bible course called "The Art of Hearing God"....very cool, very scriptural, and very enlightening. Learning that He still speaks and knowing how to hear Him was just the half of it...the greater part was that He is far more interested in developing our character than He is in developing our gifts, which is why He is still speaking, however I digress. So, I came home all heightened and excited and had a wonderful conversation with Booboo about it when Hotty Hubby came into the room. Suffice it to say, he is not so sure God speaks. In fact, he believes that He doesn't. His will is set out in the Word, and that's all we need to know. I asked him...."so, you're saying, that as a father, all you need to do it write Booboo or Gruntman a letter, spelling out all that you expect of them, leave it with them, and then go on a long long vacation somewhere?" He answered by saying "Booboo already knows my will....it's my will that she clean up her room...so why would she come to ask me, father, what is your will?"......to which I WISH I had of replied...."yeah, ok, but what if you wanted her to stop and pick up milk on the way home...how would you communicate that will to her??".....but I didn't think of that at the time. Don't you just hate it when you think of good rebuttals too late? Anyway, I digress again.....

Our conversation was very respectful, and it gave me a lot to think about.....and I hope it gave him a lot to think about. Being as I respect my husband's opinion, I went to bed pondering the whole issue yet again....what if he's right? What am I learning? Believing? I started to pray about it, but fell asleep....oops.....anyway, the next morning, this past Sunday, I got up, and with the question still rolling around in my brain, did a really silly thing. I googled "does God speak" and read several arguments....many saying yes and why, and many saying no, and why not. Has the church ... the One Bride of Christ...always been so argumentative? Needless to say, I was a tad bit confused and quickly developed a "whatever attitude"... So, I made my breakfast, and sat down on the sofa in the family room....turned on the telly....and given sports was on the morning news, channel flipped to The Hour of Power.

Now, I NEVER watch the Hour of Power, but I stopped at it, and at that moment the dude in the robe was asking this beautiful black woman what she was going to sing...here is what she said:

"A song called God Speaks, because there are people out there right now who are struggling and doubting that He still speaks to us today"

Do you believe in coincidences, or in a God who still speaks to us today, using whatever means He wants to?

Dreams

Dreams - they're ethereal and elusive and when they re-occur, can drive one batty. I'm told that re-occurring dreams have meaning....I wonder. I have three dreams that repeat quite frequently - I'd say on average, 2 - 3 times a month. Anyone care to give these a shot, in terms of "meaning"....no worries.....I'll won't hold you to anything and certainly am not going to repattern my life or make changes based on them....

The first dream I have ALOT is of a big meandering house. The rooms are huge, most are exquisitly appointed and all interconnect by various passages and hidden corridors. Even if you're at one end of the house, you can quickly connect to a room at the other end through a passage. The house is mine, and when I'm in it I feel very secure, safe, and am awestruck by the feeling of beauty and peace....coziness and warmth....BUT....there is one room in the house that I want to be in the most - it's a sunken den or library type room...very pretty, very warm, very cozy, with a fireplace and tons of books and gorgeous nicknacks....I can always see the room from other rooms and always want to get to it, and whenever all my guests leave, and I'm FINALLY going to go to that room and cozy down, I wake up. It's so frustrating, because I want the dream to finish so I can get into that room.

My other re-occurring dream is where I live and breath underwater.....in a huge pool type thing - I can see out to people but I don't think they can see into my water world and I just live there...breath there....interact with people there...nothing really happens...very wierd.

The final repeating dream and the one I dislike the most, is where I have to use the washroom....invariably, I'm out somewhere and have to go....first, I have to hunt for a washroom and after trying many doors, and buildings, and rooms, I finally find one - it's almost always a public washroom with lots and lots of stalls....and here's the gross part....I can never actually use it because it's filthy with you know what all over the toilets, floors and stalls. At the point of frustration I wake up. Glad to wake up from that one!

The reason I'm thinking about these dreams, is because this morning I had a very interesting dream that left me feeling.....gee, I can't name it....I dreamt I had a baby...newborn...called it Daniel, even though my daughter is named Danielle...and the baby slept the entire time I skipped, jumped, transported, and traveled from scenario to scenario in the dream...you know...one of THOSE type of dreams that make no sense at all!....anyway, I woke up, and the dream left me feeling so emotionally wierd, that I've been thinking about it all day and that got me thinking about the other dreams. To my knowledge, this is the first time I've ever dreamed of a newborn baby.

Anyway, thanks for reading my no nothing post, about dreams that probably mean nothing, but it was fun just the same.

Do you have a re-occuring dream? Care to share?

Can He be Disappointed?

Ps 33:11 But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations

Isa 46: 10 Only I can tell you what is going to happen even before it happens. Everything I plan will come to pass for I do whatever I wish.

Ps 139: 16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in Your book. Every moment laid out before a single day had passed.

Eph 1:4 Long ago, even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ and this gave Him great pleasure

Heb 2:11 So now Jesus and the ones He makes holy have the same Father

Heb 10:14 For by that one offering He perfected forever all those He is making holy

Eph 2:2 - 6...You used to live just like the rest of the world....All of used to live that way, following the passions and desires of our evil nature. We were born with an evil nature and we were under God's anger just like everyone else. But God is so rich in mercy and He loved us so very much, that even while we were dead because of our sins He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead...for He raised us from the dead along with Christ and we ARE seated with Him in the heavenly realms, all because we are one with Christ Jesus.

Col 1:22 He has brought you back as His friends. He has done this through His death on the cross in His own human body. As a result He has brought you into the very presence of God and you are holy and blameless as you stand before Him without a single fault...but you must continue to believe this truth and stand in it firmly

Col 2:9 For in Christ the fullness of God lives in a human body and YOU ARE COMPLETE in your union with Christ

Col 3:3 For you died when Christ died and your real life is hidden with Christ in God and when Christ, who is your real life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share all His glory

SO WHERE AM I GOING WITH ALL THIS??
..if it's true that God's plans stand firm forever and He knows what will happen before it does
..if it's true that everything He plans for me will come to pass
..if it's true that He saw me before I was born and recorded every day of my life, and every moment was laid out before a single day passed
..if it's true that He loved and chose me before He made the world
..if it's true that His unchanging plan has always been to adopt me
..if it's true that Jesus makes me holy
..if it's true that Jesus perfected me when He died for me
..if it's true that I am raised to new life and am ALREADY (present tense) seated with Him in the heavenly realms and am holy and blameless as I stand before Him without a single fault
..if it's true that I am complete in my union with Christ
..if it's true that God only sees my REAL LIFE in Christ and not this earthly life which HE is sanctifying and making holy

THEN.....I can rest and know that God, my Father in Heaven, is not, and will not and can never be disappointed in me....

To disappoint is to fail to fulfill a desire or expectation.....but we can see that Jesus clearly fulfilled all of God's desires and expectations for a children who were holy and blameless in His sight.....to disappoint is to fail to live up to expectations....but my Father in Heaven has no such expectations on me...He put them all on Jesus, and Jesus did not fail to live up to them...in fact, according to Col 3:3, I am living up to them in my "REAL LIFE"... the one that is hidden with Christ in God

To be a disappointment is to frustrate hopes or sadden my Father by not having His expectations fulfilled in some regard....but He says that He knows the beginning from the end, and what I'm going to do before I do it, what I'm going to think before I think it, and what I'm going to say before I say it.....so how can He be expecting anything different and be surprised or disappointed when I don't "measure up"

This knowledge has given me rest...I can cease striving...there was always a burden of having not measured up and being a disappointment to my earthly parent...however, when the Word began to penetrate my heart, it began to give me understanding of Who and What Jesus accomplished for me, and because of Him, our Heavenly Father sees me as "complete" ...(seeing the end from the beginning...it's the "good work He promises to complete in me that He chooses to see) and for that reason, He is never disappointed..with that knowledge, I found myself wanting to be His daughter more than anything else

How did this realization come?? Through His word..faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God.

James 1:16..He chose to make us His children by giving us His true Word

James 2:21 humbly accept the message God has planted in your heart