"Who Do You Say I Am?"
By: White Dove
"You become who you behold," God once whispered into my heart. My gaze so often was focused on negative circumstances, opposition, and oppression in my life. I felt inadequate and lowly, like a worm. That didn't help.
"What you focus on enlarges and multiplies," God continued to instruct. Even my prayers were mired down in pleas for finances, for help, for ideas, for breakthroughs, for healing, and my list was endless.
"What you speak is what you get," just like the Genesis story. "There are two mercies for every woe" and "there is provision in every problem" were more lessons as I gazed on the God of the Gospel, who walked the earth 2000 years ago… the one who tells me, "You can do what I did and even more!" (John 14)
"Harness the energy," God woke me up one recent morning, saying. "Take a quantum leap" and "create beauty out of chaos". With confidence he dared me to "Rule in the midst of your enemies." "Grin in the face of disaster".
It seemed to take me forever to string all these words of wisdom, like pearls, into a necklace that would gradually become my new lifestyle. This is still a lifestyle I'm growing into!
What I discovered is that God was describing himself to me. He was showing me who He was by what He Himself was doing. "Be imitators of God…" the Apostle Paul once said.
What if I could do all those things he told me, even to create beauty out of the chaos?
I needed to see the enemy for the deceiver he is and name my adversary. I also needed to be seen by Him and to see myself as I truly am, in His eyes. I can see Him by His names…
In the Bible, God is known by many names, which describe His character, what He does, and who He is. When Moses met him at the burning bush, he announced his name is "I Am". He is the Prince of Peace, for example… the Spirit of Truth… the Way… Provider… Healer… etc. This is how he has chosen us to know him, by the revelation of his nature.
Names are powerful, because when we invoke the name it causes the nature of the name to manifest in our lives!
I am a seer. I need visuals. I can hear, "Son of God" and "Prince of Peace" and the words are powerful, but there is something personal missing. The personal relationship aspect is what I need to grab hold of truth.
God noticed my myopia and gave me new vision… eyes to see who He really was, instead of who I thought He was. While he was at it, He also gave me ears to hear His laughter!
As I slept one night I dreamed I was walking through a school cafeteria loaded down with an armful of books. I couldn't help but notice two guys sitting at a table laughing together. There was something different about those two – their good-natured humor was so appealing and they seemed completely happy just to be with each other.
Their joy was contagious and I found myself responding to their wave to come and join them. It was a father and son inviting me to sit down with them. The father smiled at my armful of books and told me to set them aside, relax, and just enjoy being with his son.
He wanted his son to marry me! And somehow it felt so right. It seemed like I could sit forever with these two men and never be bored. I watched as they looked at each other and broke into gales of laughter. The jokes they shared between them seemed to be a never-ending source of pleasure! I felt totally accepted and at home with them! That was the end of the dream.
I believe God loves stories and adventures, and when we are IN the story we receive the teaching heart-to-heart. Maybe I'm just right-brained.
When God wants to show me who He is, He gives me dreams and visions – pictures of a King who is my Bridegroom! This dream is not unlike Zephaniah 3:17.
He loves me wildly and with all of His heart and soul. There's nothing good and right He won't do for me, and He promises to never leave me behind.
Because I was "there" in the vision – it wasn't simply my imagination – it was a window to Heaven that opened for me a reality of the Love of my Father.
Anytime I start to get too serious, too intense, or too studious, I remember this dream and it's like the window to Heaven is still open and I can revisit this vision anytime I like. You see, God is known by the printed word in the Bible, but all of the printed pages in all the libraries of the world cannot contain His presence or convey his nature, fully.
Each of us has a personal revelation of who our Father is, just as each child in the world is like its father, but different from all other children, even different from a twin. While I may resemble my brothers and sisters in the family of God, the particular part of God's nature I most carry is His peace and persistence.
Writing Prompt: Who do YOU say He is? What is your image of Christ Jesus? Experientially, not just doctrine you learned from someone else… but the Jesus of the Gospel, the actual man who walked on the earth 2000 years ago and who told us to pick up our cross and follow him – who do you say He is, today? What part of his nature is most expressed in you?
If you don't yet know the answer, you can ask for whatever it is that you need. Wisdom, joy, faith… it's all a gift. We live in God's favor when we seek Him with all our heart.
Contact me Kind Words from Readers What I Believe My Story
With all my love,
Sue
Hi, I'm White Dove. Yes, it's my pen name, and it was given to me by a blind man who shyly whispered it to me in a Divine encounter. Yes, it's my real picture… just an ordinary selfie.
I live with my family in the mountains, surrounded by ancient forests, pure streams, and mighty rivers… but I also travel quite a bit.
My kingdom career is a Heart Scribe. I love to write from God's heart and have been recording His living Word for the past three decades. It's brought me so much beauty, joy, peace, and happiness!
I love to inspire trauma survivors to write their life stories, unearthing the treasures of their past and sowing them into the future. We dip our pens in blood and write the pain away… as God has shown me how to do, in the company of supportive friends and family. We are writing ourselves into a better world, beginning with discovering our own original design recorded in the DNA of our soul, and it's the most exciting place to be!
Copyright © 2018 Heart Scribes, All rights reserved. For reprint permission or for any private or commercial use, in any form of media, please contact me.
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I'm still adding to the portrait I have of God, and Chris Anderson of First Love Ministry has helped me to refine something important here:
Chris goes on to teach that Christ never said he loved the world. He loved the Father and he loved those who followed his Father. To the rest of the world, he confronted the evil, the unlove, the greed, the lies and hypocrisy. He was shunned and eventually tortured and killed.
He calls me to come follow Him, to pick up my cross… more than ever, I must question ministries that exist to please the world. Whose foundation has crumbled and flooded and stands in ruin… but until the shaking comes, its like a house built on sand and it appears well and good. I do thank God for the shakings in this world!
Chris Anderson teachers further, from the text of John 17, about the true definition of "for God so loved the world"…
A prayer for anyone who wants to be lifted up, to see Him, and to be able to stand in awe of your deliverance:
https://loveyourstory.org/god-restoring-awe/
From my journal:
Hi Kathy,
When I saw this, I searched for the source, where I collected the photo, and I could not find it or remember, so unfortunately I do not know!
As a consequence, I withdrew from publishing it. Thanks for visiting and I hope you are able to find the source – it's an incredible picture!
Love, love, love the artwork of the lion's head made with the names of God. Would you please tell me where I can get a copy or who the artist is? Thanks so very much.
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