To Know God's Ways
Hi Everyone,
I have two recent visions, and a vision from years ago to share with you today. These visions help us to focus on what God sees as important. They are for our instruction, that is why these posts have so many quoted scriptures, for they remind us of how we are to live our lives to please God.
The Visions
The Eye To a Skirt Hook
In this vision I saw an eye as part of a hook and eye set meant as a closure for a skirt or a pair of pants. The eye was about ⅝” in length with two tiny holes at both ends. The holes were for attaching the eye to the garment with a needle and thread. In the vision only one end of the eye was attached. The opposite end of the eye was not sewn but dangling freely. The thread that held the eye to the skirt or pants was not secure for the thread was not knotted or clipped. It seems as if it were ready to fall off the garment. The hook was nowhere to be seen.
A hook and eye is normally used to keep a skirt or pants closed above the zipper. It is designed to take the strain of bodily movements and remain secure so that it does not become unhooked and cause the zipper to unzip.
A button and button hole is by far the preferred closure. However, if one does not have a sewing machine by which to make button holes, the hook and eye, requiring only a needle and thread, will suffice.
I believe that the vision concerns the need for security and to provide or restrict access. The eye should be able to function as such, but because it is dangling loose, it cannot provide security or closure for it is not securely attached itself. It is like a door’s deadbolt that fails to line up or a lock and key that are mismatched.
In the Bible, the Lord speaks of keys to the kingdom of God. The keys he speaks of are not physical keys, but are in fact keys, truths or principals by which the kingdom of God works. The Lord gives us keys as he gave to his disciples:
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:19
These are keys of authority that we are given because we are God’s own. Because we are born again, we have been given the Holy Spirit to indwell us and to lead us. The Lord gives us many other keys which show or demonstrate how the kingdom of heaven operates on this earth. Here are a few examples:
And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. John 14:13-14
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. John 6:44
God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. James 4:6
I could continue to list more of these keys, principals, or truths concerning the kingdom of heaven for there are so many. But these keys, we should discover on our own by reading and studying the Bible.
I know that when I pray for people and share words and promises such as these, often people hear them for the first time. How can we operate in the kingdom of God unless we understand how it works. We need to know that we have authority as children of God. But if we spend little time with God in prayer, or in reading his word to know his character and what moves him, we will have no authority.
If we don’t know that we are supposed to “resist the devil,” then we will succumb to his demands, or fall prey to his temptations.
If we do not know that God’s peace comes when we choose to trust him, we will experience anxiety and worry and never have his peace.
If we do not know that “no one comes to Jesus unless the Father draws him,” then we can spin our wheels, and pray amiss and find fault with our family and friends for not choosing Jesus. Instead, we need to pray to the Father, asking him to draw their hearts to Jesus. For nothing will happen by pleading and cajoling our loved ones. We must submit our requests to God the Father, for he alone can open their eyes and their hearts to receive Jesus.
If we do not know that pride closes the door to God, then we can continue in our arrogant ways, treating God as a vending machine, while expecting great things from him. When we have not humbled ourselves before him, or acknowledged our sin and prideful condition, then we remain at a distance to God.
To not know the word of God is to not know him. But to know the word of God is to understand his ways, for he reveals his heart on every page, whether it is in the Old Testament or the New Testament.
God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill? Numbers 23:19
The vision of the dangling eye on the garment also warns us of falling away. Jesus speaks of this in his parable of the sower. The farmer sowed his seed in a variety of places, one of which was rocky soil:
Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Matthew 13:5-6
Jesus explained the meaning of the parable:
The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Matthew 13:20-21
Just as the eye was held on by only a few threads, it could easily fall off or get pulled off. Jesus is our firm foundation. We must be securely anchored in our faith to him and the word of God.
If we are not firmly attached to the Lord and his ways, how can we have any form of security? If we fall away because our faith is weak, or we are not firmly grounded in the word, then we may be easily swayed by false doctrine and the world’s values.
“…he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” James 1:6-8
This vision did remind me of a similar vision that the Lord gave me almost 20 years ago.
The Multi-Plug Outlet
In this vision I saw a small multi-plug electrical outlet spinning on the floor, completely detached from the wall outlet. The Lord was showing me that I was like that multi-plug outlet. I was spinning on the floor rather than being plugged into the power source which was God himself. If I were properly plugged in then other people would also become plugged into God’s power.
We can be a connection for others who need to get connected to God, for everyone needs the Lord. There is no exception. The Lord was showing me that I was distracted and overly committed. I needed to simply do one thing–just be plugged into God. The Lord is our source of everything that we need, and I didn’t need to spread myself so thin and do so many things that my prayer life or my time alone with God would suffer. If we do not spend time with him and remain firmly attached to God as our power source, we will be lacking power when the need is there. How can we pray effectively and see God’s hand in our lives, if we do not seek his face?
Prayer is really my calling. The Lord has asked me to write, and so I do. But what I write has come from God. I would have nothing to share with others, if I was not plugged into him.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5
We need to look at our priorities and evaluate whether these commitments truly came from our own desires or were we trying to please people? We must ask ourselves, why did we not ask God first, for his direction? Are we assuming that we know God’s heart in these matters?
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9
So let’s consider God’s will before making commitments, so that we do not follow our hearts for they can be deceitful.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? Jeremiah 17:9
The Brass Cage
Just before the vision, I heard a voice calling my name, “Amelia!” as if to say “Look what I found!” Then I saw a man with his back towards me. He lifted up something and made a quarter turn and placed it on the ground. It was a large polished brass cage that was about as high as it was wide and deep, about 30 inches. It could house several birds or a few small animals. Usually the taller cages are for birds.
A cage is meant for holding a pet that is not a denning animal. A bird, rabbit or small animal usually does not control its elimination of waste, like a dog or a cat would. Therefore, these pets must be caged.
Should we keep such pets? Children and adults both can bond with them so that they become our “furry children.” We go to zoos to see large animals in cages and larger habitats that mimic their natural surroundings. Is this right? Should we keep such animals?
We keep men and women in prison, because they are dangerous. Should we keep them like this? What does the word of God tell us? The Old Testament had much to say about law, crime, and punishment. But I thank the Lord that we are no longer under the Law of Moses, for the Old Covenant has been terminated. We are under the New Covenant established by the Lord’s sacrificial death and consummated by the destruction of the Temple in AD 70. The New Covenant is a covenant of grace. The Lord extends to us his mercy, grace and loving kindness that leads us to repent of our sins. He then forgives us and cleanses us of all unrighteousness and reconciles us to the Father.
Under the Old Covenant, the punishment for adultery was stoning. It was the death sentence. If you remember in the gospel of John, a woman caught in the act of adultery was brought to Jesus, because the Pharisees wanted to see if they could trap him in his words.
Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”
This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
She said, “No one, Lord.”
And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” John 8:2-11
What happened here? I’ve heard many different opinions about what the Lord may have been writing in the dirt. But I think we can get a clue and better understanding if we look at the Old Testament Law.
If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death. Leviticus 20:10
You shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you. Deuteronomy 22:24
Most people who have not read the law or the Old Testament, do not see that someone was missing in the above story. The man, the adulterer, was missing. If they were “caught in the act of adultery,” why did the Pharisees not bring the man along with the woman to Jesus?
The passage above says that they were trying to trap Jesus into saying something they could use against him. My guess is that they paid the man to “sin against the woman” so as to have something to entrap Jesus. They knew that the man would stay silent about such a matter, and the woman would be silent because she would be stoned and her testimony would die with her.
But the Lord knew the Pharisees’ hearts and because he is omniscient, knew what they had planned. He knew that they had arranged the whole thing, paying a man to sin. They were instigators and accomplices in the crime. They were willing to cause the death of a woman, so as to trap Jesus. She was considered by them to be expendable.
This is sin. The Pharisees showed their true colors to the Lord. What he wrote in the sand was probably the name of the adulterer. The Pharisees plot was quietly exposed. Jesus showed his ability to know all things, so they said nothing. They would not want the crowds that they were hoping to impress, to discover their wicked scheme, so they turned and left the scene.
We need to understand the word of God so as to not miss what the Lord is telling us. He was demonstrating by his words and his actions the true nature of God. He was showing his authority and introducing mercy and grace based on belief in who he was. He had come into the world to bring a better covenant, a covenant in his blood. It is a covenant of reconciliation between mankind and God. What was lost in the garden of Eden, which was fellowship with God, has now been restored to us who believe. As God forgives us, we forgive others.
Today we do not stone people, but we pray that they turn their hearts to the Lord in repentance. We are not to consider people as our enemies, and to return insult with insult and blow for blow. No, the Lord commands us to love our enemies.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:43-48
It is not natural for us to forgive, or turn the other cheek. The Lord’s disciples wanted to understand this new teaching, so Peter approached him with a question.
Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?”
Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.”
“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.
But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.
When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’
And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” Matthew 18:21-35
The cage in the vision is like the debtor’s prison in the Lord’s parable. It is a place of punishment for those who cannot pay a debt. The man in the parable received mercy when he pleaded with his master, but yet could not find it in his heart to show mercy to his neighbor. This is not God’s way of dealing with people. Unfortunately, the world is filled with people that want to take each other to court.
I say this to your shame. Is there really no one among you wise enough to arbitrate between his brothers? Instead, one brother goes to law against another, and this in front of unbelievers!
The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means that you are thoroughly defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, even against your own brothers! 1 Corinthians 6:5-8
Jesus on another occasion said:
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive yours. Matthew 6:14-15
The Lord’s ways are entirely different from the ways of the world. That is why the Lord asks us to separate from the world and not share in its sinful attitudes, behaviors and motivations. We are not to take our cues from the world and become like the world.
Let us simply be the Lord’s disciples. Let us be who he has called us to be, and to serve him with an undivided heart.
God bless you, and thanks for reading and sharing this with others.
