Tree of Life

Oh, well.  Today has been a great Sunday.  I got to listen to an amazing sermon about the spiritual discipline of reading the Bible… twice!  I got to play lead guitar on a keyboard, lose a few games of basketball and ping pong, and learn about theology!  I have so much joy right now; I love it.

Today I just want to share a little vision I had on Friday night during a time of prophesy at Victory Weekend.  While praying, I saw a picture of the Tree of Life in the Garden.  It was a small tree with red fruit on it, sitting in the middle of a grassy clearing.  Surrounding the clearing was a sunny orchard, and beyond that, towering mountains.  Suddenly, the Tree started growing exponentially.  Instead of a small fruit tree, it was now a giant oak tree covered in small white flowers.  But it didn’t stop there.  It kept growing, and finally grew into a huge mushroom cloud.

This is where I came in.  Miles away from the tree, I stood.  I was in a dry, grey desert: a land that looked like it may have been a river or sea in the past, but was now cracked and lifeless, dried up.  Anyway, as I stood there, I saw the mushroom cloud growing, its shock-wave of power coming towards me.  It overcame me, and I disintegrated, dry chunks of grey flesh breaking off of my body before dissolving into dust.  Before going blank, I had one glimpse of the land beyond the destructive power of the Tree of Life, the land within the cloud: it was the garden, the original picture I’d seen, the fruit tree and the orchard.  But I could not experience it, because I was dead, killed by my impact with the power of Life.

This was not the end of the vision.  Thank God it was not the end.  Rewind back to when I first showed myself in the vision.  I stood in awe of the nuclear shock-wave coming towards me.  However, this time was different.  This time, someone else ran up behind me, grabbed me, spun me around and used his body as a human shield to protect me.  As the shock-wave swept by, I was not harmed, but the man was killed.  I watched as stripes, red stripes were ripped from his back.  Blood spurting out, flesh being torn away, he was clam, embracing me in his strong arms.  He didn’t let me go until the judgement had past by.  As I looked around, I found myself in the beautiful garden, alive.

That man was Jesus Christ.  He is my Savior.  Only through Him can I get to heaven.  Purity and Life cannot mix with sin.  By all rights, I should be dead.  I deserve the judgement from Holy God.  I thank you, Jesus, for saving me from annihilation.  Why would God take the punishment for my sin?  How does that even make sense?  The answer is this: God is Love.  Love is who He is.  And no man has a greater love than this: that he lay down his life for his friends.  He loves us.  That’s why he saves us.  That is why he took our punishment on that cross and endured the pain of death.  Oh, how He loves you.  He died so you can live, by resting in His arms.  Live!  Please, live!  Don’t let His death be for nothing.  Live…

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” -2 Corinthians 5:21

River of Life

Last Tuesday during communion, I had a vision.  It was a little weird, so bear with me.  In fact, I had no idea what it meant until I started reading through the Bible.  Here it is:

There was a giant screwdriver in the sky.  It started spinning like a drill.  While spinning, it fell to the earth and dug through the ground.  The ground was actually the ceiling above me.  I was in a completely orange space with no walls or boundaries.  I was standing there, and when the screwdriver fell down, I looked up.  It drilled into my right eye and blinded it.  The screwdriver then started falling gently into my left hand, but it shrunk down and disappeared before it got there.  I then fell to my knees, blood showering from my right eye.

Okay, so weird, right?  I thought so too, and I had absolutely no idea what it meant until Thursday morning during my devotions.  This was the last verse I read during my out-loud reading time:

“Woe to the worthless shepherd,
       who deserts the flock!
       May the sword strike his arm and his right eye!
       May his arm be completely withered,
       his right eye totally blinded!”
-Zechariah 11:17

Well, that whole “right eye being blinded” thing immediately made me remember my vision.  The arm being whithered wasn’t there, bit that still got me thinking: am I a worthless shepherd?  Was God somehow warning me to be a good leader or else?  Maybe it was a second chance from God.  Maybe because my arm was spared, I wasn’t a completely bad leader and could still redeem myself.  All these thoughts were going through my head until today.

Today , while cleaning out my wallet, I discovered an old note I’d been thinking about.  It had been given to me at Victory Weekend last semester, and I hadn’t looked at it since.  On it were three prophecies given to me that weekend.  I realized that I hadn’t even read the verses that had been given to me yet, so I did that right away.  The first verse on the note was Ezekiel 34.  This is the gist of that chapter: God was removing the shepherds of his people because they were doing a terrible job.  This is the powerful part, though: in their place, God Himself was coming to shepherd His people.  God would be the one to judge them.  God would shower them with blessing.  God would provide safety.  God would save them.

Here’s what I’ve gotten from all of this revelation so far: I suck as a leader, and God is the most awesome leader ever.  That’s an encouraging thought, because if you didn’t know, God lives in me!  I have the Holy Spirit to lead me and guide my steps.  All I have to do is let go of myself.  That’s really hard sometimes, but I just need to remember the difference between God and me.  I am nothing.  He is everything.  It just puts things in perspective, you know?  In closing, I give you my other verse from Victory Weekend:

“Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, ‘The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, “Here it is,” or “There it is,” because the kingdom of God is within you.’”
Luke 17:20-21

The Holy Spirit is Awesome

I love when God speaks to me.  It really is an amazing experience.  I’d just like to encourage all of you, that when God has given you a word for someone, to speak it.  I know I’ve regretted not speaking up in the past.  I truly believe that when God gives you a supernatural dream or vision, it’s for a good reason.  If you know that that reason is to share it with others, then not sharing is disobedience to God (sin).

If you’re not willing to step out and obey God, then who will?  Sometimes God will move on to somebody else; maybe the blessing you were meant to receive will be given to another.  It’s happened to me a few times before.  One time, I had a vision at a men’s camping trip last Spring during a time of prayer.  In it, I saw a heap of glowing charcoal, and one lone coal was separated from the rest.  The problem with the single coal is that it was quickly cooling off, while the rest of the coals were keeping each other hot.  I knew that God was speaking to all of us praying there, that we all needed to stay connected to God and each other, for the purpose of staying strong in the faith.  I really knew that it was a word from the Lord, but I was too scared to say anything.  Long story short, a few minutes later, our campus pastor Ross Middleton shared a vision he had seen.  It was the exact same one as mine!  I guess someone really needed to hear it.  It made me sad that I was too afraid to step out in faith, and failed God in the process.

Thankfully, God has been changing me.  Now I find it much easier to share things like that.  I’m hoping that the Holy Spirit can change me even more, enough to be completely free of fear! 

Hopefully my testimony has been a sufficient warning against you staying silent.  Please, readers, don’t ever be afraid to speak the truth.  It doesn’t matter how uncomfortable you are; you need to obey God.  I’ll leave you with these words of Jesus:

“I am the vine; you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” -John 15:5