The Dream

I had a very real, very powerful dream a few nights ago. Now, before I tell you about it, I want to make a disclaimer....this is NO WAY meant to be a theological treatise, or statement about what Jesus did or did not know about His own future, when He walked the earth. This has nothing to do with whether or not He was so God, that He was all knowing, and knew exactly what was going to happen before it happened....or if He was so man that ( just like us) , He had no idea what tomorrow held, and so had to trust His Father every step of the way.

So, with that settled, here was the dream.....Jesus was sitting on a park bench, talking to a small crowd. He told us that living here, when He did, was much harder then any of us thought. He said all He knew was He loved His Father, and longed to glorify and obey Him. He said His Father told Him to go out into the desert, and so He obeyed and went, and after He got there, He knew it was to fast and pray. Then, His Father told Him to come out of the desert and go down to the river, and He obeyed and went, and after He got there, He knew it was to humble Himself into John's baptism. From the first miracle, to the last teaching, everything He did was in direct absolute obediance to what His Father told Him to do. And each time He laid down His divinity and humbled Himself in obediance to what the Father was asking Him to do, He got stronger, and closer, until finally, came the day that the Father told Him to go up to Jerusalem. He obeyed and went and after He got there, He knew it was so He could lay down His life for His Father's children.

When I woke up, I pondered the dream for quite some time, and I kept hearing in my head, "one step, He only gives the direction for one step, then when you obey, you get the direction for the next step, along with the strength you will need to take it"

Having never really thought about it before, I suppose that I had this deep seeded impression that Jesus and His Father must have sat at a board room table in Heaven before Jesus came to earth, mapping, strategizing, and planning every nuance of every single moment of His life on earth, so that nothing was left to chance. He was, afterall, God come to live among His own creation, a pretty risky move. And when you really think about it, He divested Himself of His divinity when He came to live among us...the riskiest move of all! But so long as Jesus, the man, was in relationship with, listened to, heard, and obeyed His all knowing Father, what possibly could have been left to chance? What unexpected surprises could possibly have thrown Him off kilter? wondering what in the world was going on? doubting and second guessing His choices? There were none. Because His steps truly were ordered of His Father, just like our steps truly are ordered of Him...when we know Him, love Him, listen to, and obey Him, with a heart to glorify Him. And for those who then ask...how do I know I am obeying Him? If the cry of your heart is to be in His will, then you are in His will. It really does not get any more simpler then that.