Feelings are the energy of motivation. They inspire us, compel us, push us, encourage us, they bring us down and they lift us up. Feelings are typically likened to "a weather" whereas a person's mood could be seen as "the climate" where emotions arise. This "climate" describes what kind of weather (read: emotions, reactions, responses) is typical for a person but, as we all know so well (this may surprise): one can sometimes experience a really hot day in Finland — even though it's not that common! (the science of motivation goes a lot deeper than I mentioned in this paragraph! just saying, it's complex and fascinating!) Why is it important to understand your own feelings? More than being our motivators (for the good and the bad) they help us make decisions and build intimacy. Emotions are from God. He created them. He made us into His own image so emotions didn't just "happen" but the ability to experience them was purposefully crafted into our hearts. We can see Jesus be a pretty emotional guy! I limit my observations to him, for when we see Jesus, we've seen our Father who really, really cares for us. Jesus CRIED when Lazarus died and was sad over the loss of his friend (women like men that show their feelings yes!), he rejoiced when he was happy (like: At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, "I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. Luke 10:21.), he got angry when the pharisees were misrepresenting the Kingdom of God, he was loving towards children and women and he expressed compassion without shame. Jesus definitely was moved by what he saw. Emotions are spontaneous. We cannot strategically plan to have them but actors can fake them. Certain environments can stir them up but we can decide to numb them down. A loving act towards me arouses feelings of being noticed, cherished and valued. (Yes, feelings are a fundamental part of expressing and receiving love but there's more to love than the feeling that follows. Love is a very vulnerable, sacrificial decision to be made.) On the other hand, a violent act toward someone can bring that person such pain that they can shut down if they aren't able to process it. Feelings are a precious gift from God! Crying-sadness and laughter-joy are two of the most powerful whole body emotional responses we use daily to process and express what's going on inside us. Positive emotions do more than provide psychological comfort, however. According to University College of London’s Sophie K. Scott and colleagues (2014): I find it fascinating that some Finnish researchers found what happens in our body when we feel different emotions! (Science Daily) All the above is important and good to know about emotions — but the truth has a deeper, beautiful, relieving (!) dimension to it: we are led by the Spirit, not by emotions and feelings. The truth that God loves me doesn't change whether I feel it or not. Haha! That's GOOD news. The Holy Spirit moving is more than a hype. The Holy Spirit leading is not always fun either, sorry. :D Few months after I came to Redding I saw a dream where I had a battle inside of me. In the dream I consciously decided to set the Spirit of God in the throne of my life and to be led by the Spirit. In that encounter I submitted myself to Jesus' Lordship in my life: I surrendered my will to His and it required an intentional decision that didn't "just happen" (this goes to the category "experiences impossible to explain with words"). I'm yet to fully understand what that meant but after that day I've felt it easier to practice spiritual disciplines in my life. In the morning after I found myself just flowing in prayer and wondered how easy it was! What matters is Who leads me and Who gets to influence and fuel my heart where the emotions are born. Emotions can be trained for unrighteousness in which case they can start leading us away from Christ OR they can be cultivated in a redeemed heart for righteousness... when they eventually will serve our well-being and the Kingdom of God! Many people spend their lives being guided by their feelings. When their feelings change they are convinced their heart has changed. But feelings are rooted in emotion, not truth. A virtuous person lives out of their convictions and expects their feelings to follow. Feelings are great servants but terrible masters. If you stop following them, they will follow you. // Kris Vallotton I have an exercise for you to develop healthy self-awareness! This will help you to pay attention to RED FLAGS (such like loneliness, unworthiness, shame, rejection, powerlessness...) that can trigger behavior that you don't wish, such like finding yourself browsing porn sites in search of intimacy? Binge eating to fill up emptiness? Love the journey of getting to know your heart! You have been given a NEW one and it's time to discover what makes your heart flourish. Ah, I'm glad to share these things with you that I have been learning and have found really beneficial over the past year. Check yourself when waking up/leaving the house/coming back home/going to bed/whenever. 1. How am I feeling? 2. Why am I feeling like that? 3. What happened? 4. Ask the Holy Spirit what to do with the information you become aware of. Becoming conscious of your "normal" helps you to meet your needs in a healthy way! It helps you to not to punish yourself for being a human, to love yourself and to love Jesus and your neighbor with all your heart. xoxoxoxo
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My parents came for a visit! AH wow. Loved it. I enjoy that I finally get to be the one hosting and serving them. Sure I did fill the dishwasher when I still lived home but it's different this way. I get to make them feel welcome in my place and I get to invite them to my life. I've been struck with a feeling of deep, deep love toward my closest people. I want the best for them. And I want to be involved in getting them there. I want to invest in my relationships and serve my loved ones so that they would feel loved when they are with me. One of the most significant things I've learned is that love looks like remembering details. It looks like being mindful of what my friends like, what they don't, what they love to talk about, what makes them happy, what disturbs them... Knowing your buddy's love language is a KEY to a relationship where people's needs are going to be met. It would be tragic if I neglected my friend's love language of words of affirmation if mine was acts of service – and all I did was love them with doing stuff for them and never affirming their value with my words. I would be thinking that I spend all this time loving them—and they never notice my sacrifice and on the other hand: they would be thinking that I have totally forgotten them! Happens all the time. If you're interested in what love languages are, you can read more about them here. (Do the test!) I can briefly say that there are five love languages: words of affirmation, acts of service, physical touch, receiving gifts and quality time. Your language is the one that you give and receive love. My opinion is that the more healed you get, the more rounded you get, and the more ways you will be receiving and giving love. We need all of them. Languages can be mistreated and wounded (e.g. abuse vs. the language of touch) and it take times until the language can be fully expressed again. For instance, in CA I had this one neighbor who couldn't hug for a very long time because of the memories that begun to arise when she did. So, to honor her we kept our hugs short. I wouldn't make a strict law out of love languages because some people freak out when they "are everything" or can't understand the "purpose of naming them". Relax, it may take time to understand what yours is if you haven't payed attention to it before. (I just heard this from Abi Stumvoll; she pointed out that the father of the prodigal son threw his son a huge party when he returned, which definitely was his son's love language — c'mon somebody! Why not!) Knowing your top love languages will help you lots! They are a great tool to be used in building healthy relationships. It's beneficial to be aware that with some people you might have to make more effort to make them feel loved and to speak some of the languages that you are not that used to speaking. Love your neighbor as yourself. So, after wondering what to offer to a person with a sensitive stomach... This was my choice! A chocolate avocado-banana mousse with whipped coconut cream. It was really, really delicious! Thanks God for creating us mouths to taste all this goodness....
Scoop the mousse into pretty glasses and place the cream on top. Decorate with chocolate chips! Leave in the fridge until they will be served and enjoyed with good friends and chai tea, just because. ♥
What happens when I draw in? What happens when I enter into His presence? Your faithfulness surrounds you. Psalm 89:8 What is it like to see His faithfulness surround Him? What does it feel like to have it touch my skin as His light shines away the shadows of lies that I had been carrying with me? Mercy calls me by name and I drop my burdens as I hear Him speak. When His loving-kindness captures my attention, I forget the worry of whether or not He will be able to sustain me. Jesus. This is what I need. Mercy and loving-kindness and truth go before Your face. 89:14
Exodus 33:19 “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you ––”
In every touch of God there is a revelation of Him. Experiencing Him is like God kissing your face. Awaken my love. How do you see Him today? Will you let His light touch your fears? Will you pass through the disappointments of not being enough, of not measuring up... and just let the light come in. As you have been fully known and accepted, to remind you once again... We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. Lift up your eyes my beloved. 1 Cor 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. Listen to the following song and ask the Father to let His light shine upon you. May He take you by surprise. I have used the phrase "I'm sorry I don't drink coffee" as long as I remember. I used to say "I don't drink tea either" until I was around 16—17 years old and became frustrated that in too many family meetings / celebrations there weren't other options than those two. As a teenager I felt a slight pressure to have and like either tea or coffee (water seemed extremely dull when adults were drinking coffee hey) Having heard plenty of stories about coffee-caffein addicts I didn't feel like even trying coffee so I wondered if I could make myself accustomed to tea instead. It began when I went to visit my neighbor every Monday to watch Prison Break... She had always a cup of green tea with lemon -- and one night I bravely decided to take some too! My first reaction. EW! Really yucky! "How can people drink this?" My friend put a huge tea spoon of honey to hers and I figured I should try that as well. Noooope. Didn't work but I drank the whole thing up anyways — partly because didn't really dare to throw it away. I was sharing my tea experiences with my friends afterwards and heard someone say that they add some milk to their tea. That was new. This time, even though my neighbor tried to convince me that green tea and milk don't go well together, I decided to try it. Better! AH. Curious, I went home and chose a bag of black tea from my mom's tea collection, added milk —and I could finally understand why people drank it! Still to this day I don't really fancy green lemon tea or tea without milk..:D Finally, years after, I've grown to like the taste of coffee too. In the US I had a few frappes when we went out with my friends (icy, blended latte) and I've figured that unless the cafeteria is exquisite or called a "tea house", their tea is most likely just average and I prefer trying their coffees. Adding a lots of milk to go with the strong taste, coffee turns out to be kind of delicious but this is still a news for me haha! I don't see myself drinking normal plain coffee ever in the future — and tea is well enough for my satisfaction. (#tealovers) But with all that being said, the following is one of my newest food crushes. Seeing S's leftovers in the coffee maker every morning made me curious... What would happen if...?
When you discover who God created you to be you'd never want to be anyone else. So my last post was all about food (in Finnish) and how it is wise to take care of your body through good choices. Setting healthy boundaries helps us to keep the good stuff in and the bad stuff out. This applies to all dimensions of our lives, spirit-soul-body, relationally and individually. People perish for lack of knowledge says the Bible (Hosea 4:6). In that passage the people of God had ignored the law of God and rejected to KNOW Him, which was the reason God lifted off His blessing hand for a season and let them experience their folly. They rejected godly wisdom and were sinning against God, one another and themselves -- and the earth was aching under it's consequences. When I was thinking about ignoring understanding in general, I saw that our health heads toward a sure decay if we keep rejecting the "Help me! Stop running I'm in pain!"-signs that our body tries to give us. Hurt people hurt people. Waking up tired every morning... constantly? Staying tired the whole day - every day? Never getting excited about anything? Numbing your feelings..? Not allowing anyone to come close enough to truly see you? The list goes on. There is a cry within the heart of this generation that needs to be answered. I don't think those answers can be found apart from Jesus because all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him (Colossians 2:3). So how did God, in His brilliance and captivating wisdom, create our bodies to function? That's an intriguing question indeed! Even though I begun in the context of nutrition, the answer doesn't solely lie in what you put in your body through your mouth but what goes in through relationships and what is cultivated between your ears. My desire is to see God's children WHOLE and HAPPY, mature and perfected in Christ – emotionally, relationally, physically, spiritually – not lacking anything. To get there, we must be intentional. But how to keep burning without burning out? How to cultivate the fire? How to sustain a revival? I'll leave it here this time and wish you an ABSOLUTELY BLESSED NEW WEEK. Go ahead and try out my delicious discovery! Lingon berry & root beet smoothie! (You might like trying cranberries if lingon is not available) AN IRRESISTIBLE lingon berry smoothie / VASTUSTAMATON puolukkasmoothie
Put it all in the magical smoothie maker, blend until mixed, ENJOY and write and encouraging word for someone today!
Tän blogin suunta on kohti kokonaisvaltaista ja täyttä elämää. Tahdon, että jokainen solu ja ajatus mussa rakastaa Jeesusta ja haluan pitää huolta myös mun kropasta, jossa Hän majailee. Ja siks haluan kirjoittaa tänään ruuasta (bravó!). Ehkä tähän blogiin siis tulee tän postauksen myötä jonkinlainen lifestyle-sävy, jos nyt tykkää luokittelusta, mutta vaatteita en kyllä vois alkaa kuvaamaan, ei huolia. Sidenote: On tuntunut niin hyvältä tulla takaisin omaan seurakuntaan ja nähdä, että kaikkien suulla ja sydämessä sykkii yksin Jeesus. Kuin siistiä! Ei vois parempaa pyytää.
Mietin, mikä kuvais mun ruokafilosofiaa. Nimittäin kaikilla on jonkunlainen sellainen, vaikkei sitä tietoisesti olisi ajatellutkaan. Joten, kun nyt haluan tätä blogini RUOKA - (woop woop!) valloitusta jotenkin alustaa, niin kyllä se on tietynlainen puhtaus yhdistettynä uteliaisuuteen. Nautin luovista tavoista laittaa (oikun ois aina kotimaisia) vihanneksia, rakastan omenoita haha, täysjyväviljoja, kookoshiutaleita (totutan mun kämppistä niihin #jeeee terkkuja), pähkinöitä ja siemeniä, intialaista ruokaa, clipperin chai-teetä (jos Herra soisi niin vaikka joka aterian yhteydessä) ja hyviä mausteita. Huomaan, että mitä prosessoidumpaa jokin tuote on (kuten muunneltu maissitärkkelys ja aspartmaami), sitä vähemmän mun tekee mieli sitä suuhuni laittaa, eikä mua haittaa sanoa ei kun tarkoitan ei. Kieltämättä arveluttaa kun ihmiset lähtevät hieman 'parantelemaan' Taivaan Isin luomistyötä – ja kas kummaa jos high fructose corn syryp ei sulakaan kropassa ja saa aikaan lihavuutta (alhaalla video). Amerikka oli täääynnä ihmeellisen värisiä (väriaineet) herkkuja ja ne oikeastaan ällöttivät kuin houkuttelivat maistamaan. Ehkä jotain ihmetyttää, etten yläkoulun jälkeen ole ostanut itselleni karkkia kuin muistaakseni kerran, ja senkin pussin syömisessä kesti varmaan puoli vuotta! :D (tulee kyllä kaverilta maistettua, ilman kummempia intohimoja tosin) Mutta annas kun meillä töiden taukotilassa on raakasuklaata maistiaiseksi. En kestäää! YES! Voiko olla parempaa? Oon siis niitä ihmisiä joita ihastuttaa ajatus siitä, kuinka erinomaisen kakun voikaan valmistaa manteleista ja banaani-avocado-kaakao-mössöstä ilman lisättyä sokeria. Amerikassa oli siis paljon överijuttuja, mutta niiden keskellä oli toisaalta tosi fine mennä kaikessa vastavirtaan halutessaan (ylipäänsä tämä yees anything goes if it makes you feel good -new age thinking). Jos kuitenkin pysytään ruoka-aiheessa, niin Jumala loi meille ihan valtavan hienot kropat ja on todellakin viisasta pitää niistä huolta kiinnittämällä huomiota siihen, mitä syö. Se, miten mun keho voi, vaikuttaa mun mieleen, tunteisiin, terveyteen, jaksamiseen, sosiaaliseen ja hengelliseen elämään. On varmaan aika helppo ymmärtää, että vihollinen nauttii suunnattomasti kun jollain elämän osa-alueella ei ole tasapainoa. On haaste kuulla Jumalan ääntä jos kroppa on ylikierroksilla karkeista tai energiajuomista jne. ja basic-juttu esimerkiksi kriisin aikana on pitää huolta siitä, että nukkumisrytmi pysyy hyvänä ja tulee syötyä terveellisesti, mikä luo hyvän perustan paranemisprosessille tunteissa ja mielessä! Elämä ei ole aina yhtälöä 1+1. En esimerkiksi voisi palauttaa huonoa päivää ainoastaan aamulla ahmittuun keksipakettiin (sillä voin oppia käsittelemään tunteeni). Sen verran omasta kokemuksesta kirjoitan, että tiedän, miltä tuntuu olla painoindeksin mukaan lievästi ylipainoinen. Yläkoulun loppuessa päätin Jeesuksen kanssa, etten enää jaksa peitellä itseäni: niin likaista sydäntäni kuin sitten kätkeytyä kameralta, kun en halunnut katsoa ja kohdata sitä, miltä näytin. Haluan muuttua Jumala! Toivon, että sait kiinni ajatuksistani ja löysit sydämeni näistä sanoista. Jos huomaat elämässäsi negatiivisen kierteen, niin tänään on se päivä kun voit sanoa ei ja alkaa murtaa tylsää kaavaa. Sinun ei tarvitse jäädä olosuhteiden uhriksi ja vangiksi. Sulla on Pyhän Hengen voima taivaasta tukemassa hyviä, jumalallisia valintoja, jotka ovat täynnä VAPAUTTA ja ELÄMÄÄ Jeesuksessa. Oma vinkki: kohtaa itsesi. Kohtaa Jumala. Ota selvää tunteistasi ja niiden lähteistä. Kysy itseltäsi, miten voit ja sen jälkeen miksi! Hahaaa, I pray you'd wake up with hunger pains for Jesus!
Joo, ja nyt tämän saarnan jälkeen haluan kuitenkin esitellä sinulle PULLAN, koska meillä oli juuri kuluneella viikolla ihan mielettömät tuparit. Tosi rehti pulla tämä kuitenkin on, sillä S:llä oli kaapissa luomusokeria ja luomuvehnäjauhoja. Itse asiassa, jos olisin tajunnut, että meillä oli vielä jäljellä stevia-sokeria, olisin varmaan testannut sitä tässä, mutta se jää sitten ensi kertaan hehee. Tästä ei tullut liian makeaa omaan makuuni ja saadun palautteen mukaan suhteet näyttivät toimivan!
Ajatus reseptiin lähti siitä, että me tajuttiin S.n kanssa, että olis kiva tehdä juhliin jotain itsekin (meidän priorisoitu energia siis kului ohjelman suunnitteluun). Eli, ei aikaa käydä kaupassa joten mitäs mitäs meidän jääkaapissa onkaan?? Tyypillinen tapaus. Ja silloin muistin S:n juuri edellisellä viikolla tehneen maailman parhaimpia sämpylöitä, joita kohotettiin yön yli jääkaapissa, mikä teki niiden rakenteesta ihanan huokean! Toimisiko se pullan kanssa myös? Pienensin vähän tavallista pullareseptiä ja näin kävi:
Yes yes yes good news: I'm going to share my summer with one of my dearest friends in the whole earth! C'mon Jesus THIS is living. We've had already 5 days under the same roof with S and it's been incredible. I love being around people who are so heavenly minded that it challenges you and wrecks and exposes every ungodly belief that you have. Oh man. I love spending time in prayer with anyone... but being with S is totally out of this world. There's nothing like it! So, my biggest thanks to Jesus who made this all happen. Last Monday I got struck with intense back pain and the doctor ordered me pretty heavy medicine and I got some sick leave from my work. Haha, the first two days I hesitated to take the meds because I could feel how strongly they affected me lol. I prefer not to put anything extra or artificial in my body. But thanks Jesus for good doctors! At the moment doctors are healing the most sick in the world with knowledge and understanding while we are pressing on towards breakthrough and teaching the saints to move in authority that Jesus gave us. PRAISING GOD for being my HEALER in the midst of not being instantly healed myself is such a precious thing. It wars against my circumstances and shifts my focus from my present condition to who HE IS. GOD never changed even though my circumstances do. Bill Johnson said it best that we can't give God thanks and praise in the middle of loss and struggle in heaven SO what a wonderful thing it is to be able to give Him that kind of a sacrifice of praise NOW. To wrap my thoughts: what ever it looks like now in my own life, healing is available for us though the cross and we should press on seeing it manifest! (AND I feel so much better now than 4 days ago when I could hardly move.) I want to be more intentional with my blogging. What do you think? I feel like it would be small stories from my life without too much pressure. Haha I guess it's my blog and I can do whatever I please but I really hope you'd come along and keep liking my posts and commenting when ever you feel like it. There's always this tension in writing for public: I don't want to be a person who does stuff to impress people and make them think I'm somehow super "spiritual" and "a good person". That's not what I seek. I seek to bring glory to Jesus Christ through whom I was made whole and righteous. I want my life and faith challenge and lift up people. I want Jesus through me irritate the lies people live oh so satisfied and content with. I want to be the flavor that causes the stuff that's been hidden inside come to the surface so that you can deal with it. This is what GOD can do through a girl next door: young woman who whole-heartedly desires to know God and make Him known. Our world is thirsty for the authentic, something that would be REAL and not fading away by time or corrupted with lust and perversion. Our Father who sees in secret will reward you for what you do in secret. Never prostitute your relationship with God – it's too precious to be used for building your own kingdom. Well I guess these are my thoughts for today! I love you and I love life! And I love the new album from Hillsong United! Ahhhh take a moment to taste it. (yllä oleva kuva lähetettiin Andrew Whitelle Baghdadiin! Siinä lukee "I love Baghdad") Moi rakkaat lukijat, ihanaa jos ootte vielä siellä, sillä pitkästä aikaa kirjoitan tänne! Tässä kaksi viimeisintä videotani, joista toisen tein juuri ennen missiomatkaani San Franciscoon ja toisen matkan jälkeen. Jälkimmäinen onkin täynnä todistuksia siitä, miten Jumalan hyvyys lävisti ihmisten sydämet ja sai sairauden polvistumaan Jeesuksen jalkojen juurelle. Tuntuu, että matkalla mun sydän tuli todella eloon ja mitä enemmän saatiin antaa pois, sitä enemmän saimme takaisin. Ylipäänsäkin oon sitä mieltä, että tämän vuoden aikana oon saanut tulla yhä enemmän siksi, millaiseksi Jumala mut tarkoittikin. Ja se on kivaa! "When you realize who God created you to be you'd never want to be anyone else." said someone clever. Matka oli kyllä myös raskasta ja intensiivistä; parin päivän jälkeen sen huomasi yhteissä ylistyshetkissä. Eräässä vaiheessa suuri osa porukasta lähes vaan valui lattialle haha..! Onneksi meillä oli aivan mahtavat johtajat, jotka antoivat meille mahdollisuuksia myös levätä ja erityisesti viettää aikaa Jeesuksen kanssa ja lukien Raamattua. Kiitos tuestanne! Olette minulle äärimmäisen rakkaita. Kuunnelkaa, katsokaa ja innostukaa! JES! MENNÄÄN JA TEHDÄÄN! Yours in the Gospel, Heidinne "This is my resting place forever," he said. "I will live here, for this is the home I desired." Imagine yourself as a living house. Then God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of — throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself. ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity Dear friend, you have invited a King into your life. The Creator of the Universe has chosen you to be His resting place. WHAT AN HONOR! A GREAT FAVOR! Do you know where Kings live? And... do you know who you are, child of God? Do you know who you are? ♥♥♥ Elävä talo"Tämä on minun lepopaikkani ainaisesti, tässä minä asun, tänne olen halunnut."
“You have tested my heart; You have visited me in the night” (Psalm 17:3) We sleep one third of our lives! Would you think that it is a time when we disconnect from God? (Hehe, that was one of my biggest fears when I was a child.) Our bodies rest and relax during sleep but it's only a fraction of what happens during the night. It's amazing what science has proven: it is during the sleep that our brains get extraordinarily active. The neural activity of our brain increases and the synapses strengthen their routes, which helps us to learn, remember and function better. We actually use our brain more during sleep than when we're awake (and different parts of it). What a perfect opportunity for the Holy Spirit to council, comfort and remind us of things that need to be remembered. God's first language is not English (or Finnish). When God chooses to speak to us in the language of heaven – those words can only be understood in the Spirit (compare to speaking in tounges: For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 14:2)). I know that dreams scare some because of their mysterious and ambiguous language. Still, I propose that we too often despise and miss are our dreams and then wonder why isn't God speaking to us. Yay, I've begun to mark a special mark on the side of the verse in my Bible when it talks about dreams and night visions. There are quite many! Check yourself! To this day God hasn't finished speaking to us through dreams. I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. Psalm 16:7 I have woken up in the middle of my dream for a feeling of excitement when I suddenly realized that God was literally instructing me. Too bad that as I woke up, I (my conscious mind) forgot almost everything He said. The only thing I still remember from that night is that He asked me to connect and stay vulnerable. I think that sometimes we are not even allowed to "hear" what He is speaking with our natural ears and minds. Sometimes God has to hide His instruction from us because He knows how much we would resist Him if He would speak to us clearer. Oh, our reasoning loves to get in His way! We won't usually ignore God when we are sleeping — and dreams may be a way for Him to finally get our attention. We might be too busy during the day and just don't know how to still our hearts and wait upon Him in quietness. And of course, I think God loves to speak though dreams and gets excited every time we lay our heads on the pillow. For God speaks again and again, I have given my nights to God and asked Him to meet me in my dreaming. There have been occasions when God has woken me up to pray in the night or given a word or a Scripture to my mind! Sometimes I have simply woken up praying. In dreams God has given me revelation about my life circumstances, corrected me but also encouraged to keep on going. “When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches.” (Psalm 63:6) Not all dreams are of God. If I eat too much ice cream, it might "manifest" in my dreaming without any deeper meaning (compare dreams from our soul vs from the Spirit). The enemy is also able to give us dreams and make us never want to dream again. Ah, if you suffer from really bad nightmares continually, I encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit reveal to you where they derive from and go talk with somebody from your church. It could be something related to fear, occult or trauma that opened a door for them to torment you (I guess those might be some of the most common ones). The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth who always tells you what's going on! We are not called to fear dreaming but enjoy a refreshing time to our body, soul and mind when we are sleeping. My own experience is that God-given dreams are vivid, peaceful and full of color (spiritual warfare dreams might be black-and-white, dark, haunting and questioning God). Nightmares are full of lies, and it goes without saying that we shouldn't listen to what they say about us. Brush off the bad stuff from your shoulders, turn the other side of your pillow and continue sleeping. I don't think Christians need to suffer from nightmares as a norm. I am so happy God delivered me from really bad nightmares when I was a teenager... I used to be so afraid I sometimes had to put music on when I went to sleep. I say this to tell you that you are not alone! I believe that new dreamers are arising in the Kingdom, that is, people who see visions and dream dreams. Friends, these ARE the last days (Acts 2:17)! Quite many of my friends who "never saw dreams" have begun to see them on a regular basis after we asked God for it. I encourage you to ask Him to lift up the veil and start revealing to you what He is speaking when you sleep! Sweet dreams! Pictures from Pintrest. |
Heavenly
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