Flashes of Light

Friday, May 17, 2013, 12:43 a.m. – Shortly after midnight I was awakened by what appeared to be flashes of light shining in my eyes (like someone shining a flashlight). I wondered if someone had broken into the house and if someone was literally in our bedroom next to my side of the bed, or if someone was outside our bedroom window. The flashes of light startled me. I lay there still without moving, because if there was a robber in the house, I did not want to alarm him and to potentially give him cause to do harm to me or to my husband, who was sound asleep. So, I prayed for God’s protection over the house, and for him to surround our house with his angels. I also prayed that if there was an intruder, that the intruder would see the angels and flee in fear.

While I lay there in bed praying and contemplating what had just happened, I thought about how our backyard is so muddy right now because we just had the yard tilled and new grass put in and I’ve been watering the lawn each day. I thought about the drainage ditch that was dug in our backyard and in which my husband is placing a French drain in hopes of resolving a problem of standing water in the yard, and how he has a wire stretched the length of the ditch and over the ditch in order to measure the decline of the ditch so as to make sure the water drains downhill. I thought about how, if there was an intruder, he might slip and fall on the mud, or fall into the ditch or trip on the wire, and that it might foil his plans.

Then, the Lord Jesus put the song “Have Thine Own Way, Lord!” in my mind, so I began praying the song back to the Lord concerning the situation I felt I might potentially be in. Then, I was strengthened and given courage to open my eyes and then to get up and to go out into the house and to investigate to see if anyone was out in our backyard or in the house, trusting the Lord with my life, and deciding to face my fear head-on and to not let this situation, whatever it was, intimidate me. When I got up, I saw no indications of anything going on, so I assumed I must have been dreaming, yet it was so real.

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Zechariah 12 (NIV): http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Zechariah%2012&version=NIV

A prophecy: The word of the Lord concerning Israel.

The Lord, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares: “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness,” declares the Lord. “I will keep a watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations. Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the Lord Almighty is their God.’

“On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume all the surrounding peoples right and left, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place.

“The Lord will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah. On that day the Lord will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord going before them. On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.

“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be as great as the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, and all the rest of the clans and their wives.

An Immovable Rock

I don’t know about you, but I often smile and even get a chuckle when I watch God work. I might have dreamed the flashing light, but all the rest of this really happened to me this morning, and it all fits perfectly with this passage of scripture.

The picture here is of God bringing judgment upon his idolatrous and adulterous people who have ignored the messages of the prophets, and who have failed to repent of their sins time and time again. This passage is believed to refer to the end of time. If that is so, this could only be speaking about the idolatrous and spiritually adulterous church of the last days. God is going to, and I believe this has already begun, bring down judgment upon her in the form of an invasion of nations surrounding her, symbolized by my “intruder.”

Yet, God will intervene on behalf of his people, and he will also judge those whom he brings against his church in divine judgment so that the intruders will stagger backward (when they see the angels), and they will “slip on the mud, fall into the ditch, and/or they will trip on the wire,” and they will injure themselves. God will keep a watchful eye over his people, the church, just as I prayed for God’s protection over our house, and he will eventually frustrate the plans of those who would come against her.

Yet, if you read the New Testament, you will see that God does not promise that we will always be physically or even emotionally protected from harm. And, that is why I believe he put the song “Have Thine Own Way, Lord!” in my mind, because the song accepts God’s sovereignty over our lives, that he is the potter and we are the clay, so we ask the Lord to mold us and to make us after his will, “while I am waiting, yielded and still.” This means that I accept that God may allow adversity in my life in order to mold me and to make me after his will, and it asks that he would fill me with His Spirit till all shall see Christ only, always living in me. And, that is surely my prayer.

If we read the book of Revelation, we see that the saints of God are handed over to the beast and that many will be hated, persecuted, beaten and even put to death for their testimony for Jesus Christ. Yet, the Lord will provide spiritual protection for his people. Just like he gave me the courage this morning to open my eyes, to pray to God to intervene, and then to get up and go out and face my fear head-on, he will give us all we need to be an immovable (rock) force for his kingdom in continuing to share the truth of the gospel despite all opposition from the enemy. The saints of God will refuse to be intimidated, and will go forth with the gospel. The enemy will only injure himself trying to move her away from her Lord and away from her testimony for Jesus Christ. Amen!

A spirit of grace

When judgment comes, and it most certainly will come, there will be much weeping and mourning over loss of homes, property, reputations, security, income, valuables, but mostly over loss of human life and over our own realization that it was the idolatry and spiritual adultery of the church, God’s covenant people, and their ignoring of God’s warnings and their refusal to repent of their wicked ways that has brought this upon us. I believe with all my heart that scripture teaches that the church will be revived at this time, and God’s Spirit will be outpoured on the saints of God, and the gospel will go forth unlike any other time in the history of mankind, and people from all nations will flock to Jesus Christ and to salvation (see the whole of Isaiah). The people of God who had strayed from him will now mourn in repentance over their sins, yet they will experience God’s grace in its fullness.

When judgment comes, we need to accept this as God’s plan and not try to fight against it. And, we must allow him to mold us and make us after his will as we are still before him. We need to humbly bow before him, asking him to show us where we have failed to honor him as our one and only God and Lord, and we must trust him to cleanse our hearts and to purify us from all unrighteousness. We should accept his sovereignty over our lives, and we ought to yield to his control and to his purposes for our lives. We need to trust in his strength and then go forward with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and not give way to fear and intimidation of the enemy, but to be immovable rocks (forces) for the gospel despite all opposition. And, God will be with us wherever we go, and he will see us through every circumstance that comes our way. We will be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Have Thine Own Way, Lord / Adelaide A. Pollard, 1862-1934

George C. Stebbins, 1846-1945 / Tune: ADELAIDE, Meter: 54.54 D

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Thou art the potter, I am the clay.

Mold me and make me after Thy will,

While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Search me and try me, Master, today!

Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now,

As in Thy presence humbly I bow.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Wounded and weary, help me I pray!

Power, all power, surely is Thine!

Touch me and heal me, Savior divine!

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Hold o'er my being absolute sway.

Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see

Christ only, always, living in me!