I'm getting excited... I leave on Thursday to fly to Los Angeles. I'm taking my last class in "Biblical Dream Interpretation" and I'm really looking forward to it. I know it's going to be intense. Usually by the end of these 3 day classes I'm mentally overloaded and simply exhausted, but what a good kind of tired it is! I will just have to press in to the Lord even more to get the strength I need. I'll be "unpacking" the understanding and revelation from what I learn for years to come!
I've always been a dreamer, even when I was very young. I talked to my cousin today- the bright, beautiful, vivacious one who is only a couple months older than I am. We sort of grew up together, and I think of her as a sister. She's a dreamer, too. It's one of those things that runs in my family, kind of like how babies in our family tend to either come too early or threaten to!
As we talked today, I reminded her that "talking" was one of her gifts. Apparently, she got two copies of that gene, and I only got one... so those of you who know me can be assured that there really is somebody out there who can talk circles around even me! It's another gift that runs in our family, I call it "Persuasive Speech". It can be a good thing or a not so good thing, depending on whether or not the one who has the gift is a new creation in Christ, having all those generational issues brought to the cross and restored to their rightful function.
When it comes to talking, folks in my clan have to be careful. There's some powerful stuff in our inheritance... we find ourselves pretty much able to offend anybody, start riots or even wars, and even get crowds of people to believe what we say. Or, for those of us who have bowed the knee and pledged our mouths to the Master, we find ourselves able to speak deep and startling truth into pretty much anybody, preach on a moments notice with great effect on the hearers, and even get crowds of people to believe what we say. Talk about the power of life and death being in the tongue! I'm so glad that there are more "preachers" in my line today than not. It gives me a lot of hope for the next generation that we're busy raising up to know and love and serve the Lord.
My cousin was telling me that she was "stubborn" among other things. It occured to me to have her change that confession. She isn't stubborn any longer, she is "Steadfast". Thats restoring her inheritance to what it was supposed to be. We're meant to be able to hold our ground, and having done all to stand, keep standing. That's allowing the generational gift that was distorted by sin (it doesn't matter if it was our sin, or the sin of our Fathers) to be filtered through the cross, to be buried in death with the Lord Jesus and brought back in newness of life, being healed and restored to the original generational blessing it was meant to be.
My cousin and I come from a long line of dreamers. Both of us were shocked when we learned that not everybody dreams and remembers them. I'm still shaking my head in disbelief that some folks don't even dream in color, but in black and white! And not everybody has dreams that are immediately recognizable as a message or a gift from the Lord. Being a dreamer of dreams is to have a spiritual gift, and she and I are both learning to treat it that way. We're learning the Biblical history and teaching about dreams, and how to interpret dreams metaphorically with the help of the Holy Spirit. We're learning to take our dreams seriously enough to write them down and seek after the Lord about them. When we were both about 10, we each had a signifigant spiritual dream that changed our lives. It was at that point (hearing her dream and knowing my own) that I began to wonder just what God had wrought. I was only ten, so I didn't ponder on it too much longer, but I never forgot it, either. By the way, my cousin named her baby "Daniel". She'd prayed and asked the Lord, and that's the name she heard. We both think it's wonderfully right for him, and we can't wait to hear what he dreams about!
Just like the other generational things, dreaming was meant to be a gift. Some of our ancestors were dreamers who heard from God. Others who had the gift used it wrongly, or got mixed up with the wrong spirits. I'm thinking of some of our Indian forebears, who were great dreamers, but had to sweat it out in tents or chew something now on the illegal narcotics list to induce what they thought were "spiritual" dreams. There were also some of them who were Scotts and Irish, who had the gift of "sight" and prophecy, and dreams and visions, but until they knew the Savior, their vision was darkness and false. All too often, we pass over, ignore, or even try to get rid of the gifts we find in ourselves because we fear the gifts, and think they are corrupt, or worse, that they are from the enemy to deceive us and wrong in the sight of God. Nothing could be further from the truth! The Lord is the One who makes us, who puts us together and determines our inheritances. He uses our families (among other things) to impart things to us. Even if your family line passes down to you a "defective gift" like stubborness, God wants you to have it, and have it redeemed and made right, so that you can be the blessing you were meant to be, and do the Kingdom work you alone can do! His power is amazing... He can take a persuasive liar and turn them into a persuasive teller of truth! He can turn the darkness in someone to light, and make their vision clear. He can turn stubborn to steadfast in a heartbeat.
Every family in the earth has been blessed, and every person was born with a purpose, an inheritance, a legacy, a destiny. What generational gifts and blessings have been handed down to you? What traits or characteristics do you see that you need to ask the Lord to restore to being a blessing? Aren't you fearfully and wonderfully made? (The answer is Yes! You are!)
Be blessed, till next time!
haha!)
