For those who suffer lack…

My soul quest has led me to Zion National Park, where I have been here for three weeks working, hiking, praying, writing, and soaking in the beauty of Nature like never before!

This trip is bridging the gap between what I've been learning and what I've mastered. Everything I've written about on this blog is being presented to me as a test. Have I simply learned these lessons or have I MASTERED them!

Have I really learned to grin in the face of disaster? To rule in the midst of my enemies? To stand in the shock waves and shine? To be naked and unashamed?

This soul quest was not my idea. You might call it a compulsion, an idea I just could not shake. So here I am, facing every single lesson I've ever written about as the Wind carries me from state to state.

It's a very gentle testing, and as usual the Creator has sent a unique cast of characters to teach me what I need to know in this season! I love meeting these unusual people who stand out for their outside-of-this-world type of beliefs. 

Every journey has introduced me to more an more non-conformist friends – people who the world may disregard for their seeming lack of power, prestige, or level of productivity, but who are the wisest people I know. They live in a different realm – they live a Kingdom of God lifestyle.

I once had a series of dreams, long before this soul quest, that I believe I'm walking out in "real time" now. The dreams are kinda long, but to me they answer all my doubts and fears about finances, and so I will share them with you. If you read these dreams and absorb the meaning, you never know… you may be called to a soul quest of your own, where you, too, will meet the most amazing characters God put on earth, who will teach you the next steps in your own soul's journey home! 

Okay, here we go….

My friends and I had been walking along a wide path through the countryside for many hours when we decided to sit down in a shady arbor to rest. A lone figure approached, offering us each a leafy branch. To touch it, it felt like an ordinary branch but upon closer examination it exuded a whole different sensual experience and the aroma was unlike anything we had ever smelled. Inhaling the scent of the branch made me feel somehow more alive. It reminded me of Home, a place I had long ago forgotten but was nevertheless calling to me from deep within my soul.

Not only did it smell heavenly but its leaves and flowers were vibrant and each branch had multiple blossoms and fruit. Each branch had two different sizes and flavors of fruits that tasted like plums and grapes. I bit into one that appeared to be a plum and it was perfection – yummy, juicy, flavorful. We ate one after another, relishing the thick, sweet juices that spurted down our faces.

"Where did this come from?" I asked. The generous stranger smiled in reply and invited us to gather up the used branches and to bring them with us as we walked up a garden path to a little cottage alongside the road.

My jaw dropped in wonder to view the unlimited trees that stretched as far as the eye could see. Each tree produced fruit in season, in one month intervals. The leaves were useful to treat infections and diseases and the fruit was so full of nutrition that you could easily live healthfully with nothing else to supplement your diet.

The best part was that when you stuck your branch in the ground, as our guide instructed us to do, the branch sprouted and became a new tree! There was obviously no danger of famine with a garden like this!

My friends and I thanked our kind benefactor and continued walking down the road. It seemed we were like pilgrims, in search of Home. It was twilight and the fruit had sustained us for many hours, but we were tired and weary, once again. Just off the road, we spotted a barn. A sign on the door said, "Welcome Pilgrims!" so we opened the door, hoping to find a straw bed upon which to rest.

Just like before, a kind gentleman entered the barn which was lit by an overhead skylight that illuminated the interior of our resting place, bathing it with a radiant but soft light. He must have been the farmer, I don't know, but he pointed to the nursing lambs and the ewes who gently cared for every need of the young ones. I was given a branch just like the one before, and the farmer said in the kindest of tones, "Just like I care for my lambs, so I care for you, Little One."

In contrast, I think of many churches I've been part of, and how the "sheep and lambs" are fleeced until they bleed. They serve to feed the leaders, but in this realm, true leaders care for the needs of the sheep.

My adventure was still in the beginning stages, as I had much more to learn about God's road Home. In the morning, my companions and I arose and ate again, thanking the kind farmer for his hospitality.

By mid-day we had walked many miles and found ourselves in a suburban neighborhood, near a great city. Knocking on the door to a house, that displayed a sign, "Welcome Pilgrims," we entered what seemed to me to be a fairly ordinary home. No one was home but the sign said to come in and make ourselves at home. It was much like an earthly house – except, well… how do you describe these things, these visions that are so close to earth, but yet somehow MORE?

Like women do, I noticed how each room was decorated in such a way to make each member of the family feel comfortable, safe, warm, and happy. Entering the kitchen, I took note of the simplicity. I opened the back door and sat on the patio. It was a work day, and everyone had jobs to do.

A neighbor spotted me relaxing under a tall shade tree and came over to chat. He was an older man and had white hair and gray eyes that seemed to laugh, even when he was talking seriously. I had so many questions and he was eager to share the answers with me, he said. Pilgrims are a common site, he told me, and we all asked the same questions!

"What do people do here? What are their jobs?"

Swinging gently in a giant hammock strung between two giant trees, the nameless neighbor pointed out the multitude of fruit dangling from the tree's limbs. He asked, "You've eaten of this fruit?"

"Oh yes!" I replied, gushing my awe and wonder of how good the food was.

"Here we do not work for our food, my daughter," the neighbor explained, his hammock gently swinging back and forth. "We work because of our passion to work. Each person is passionate about something, and that is what they work at all day long. Most people choose to work in the marketplace because that is where most transactions occur, and they find it more invigorating to return home each evening. Our days are much longer here than you are used to, so everyone arrives home in full daylight with enough hours over for plenty of recreation and relaxing!"

"You don't work for food?" I asked. I couldn't imagine such a place being real. The neighbor pointed to the trees and said, "Everything we need for sustenance grows freely and effortlessly. We all have our own gardens, you see."

"Who is in charge of this place? Do you have a democractic government? Do you have a president or a king or a queen?"

The neighbor grinned and with a chuckle, he said, "Power and control are twin diseases of mankind. We have no positions here, only passions. Whoever desires to lead, leads. Whoever decides to follow, follows. All are the same importance. If you decide to lead, you become the servant of all. Only one King rules here, and His rule is very simple. We are commanded to love Him with all of our hearts, all of our souls, all of our strength, and with all of our intelligence. We love each other, in the same way, even our enemies."

"We have the same two laws in our New Testament, but hardly anyone gives them much thought." I looked downward, as I said this, for my own heart was convicted in the light of this marvelous place.

"Come, I want to show you a surprise!" The old man leaped out of the hammock and practically skipped to the garage.

I got up from the patio and walked to the garage with him. A garland of flowers decorated the white facade and the first thing I noticed was that although the sun was at its hottest these flowers had not wilted, not one one petal had turned brown!

"Ha ha he he!" guffawed the neighbor nearby, who had followed my gaze to the flowery garland. "Life without death, my little lady. There is only Life – abundant life – here!"

I must stop here, because the dream ended and I awakened.

It's really too big for my mind to comprehend! But there's a passage in the book of John that talks about this kind of life being a gift to us! To humans living on earth in the here and now, that is.

You see, Death was defeated at the Cross!

My brain was pumping extra hard, as I awakened from the dream. It's a new day that began over 2000 years ago. A resurrection day. A day when Christ cheated the grave of its prize, descended into hell and took the keys, let loose all the prisoners, and then rose to Heaven in plain sight of witnesses.

As if that wasn't enough, He told us that we would do greater works than He did. He promised us two things: 1.) that we would pick up our own cross (that usually means persecution and suffering caused by religion and 2.) that we would rise from the dead with Him and experience life MORE abundantly.

To me, this means that all of us going through the suffering, privation, homelessness, destitution, hunger, and pain of leaving religion behind… taunted, intimated, and threatened by the sociopaths of this world… these have simply been preparing us for the "greater things" by working in us a greater character and maturity.

Love doesn't equal "rescue" in the way I've always imagined, but instead it means God walks with me through the trials so that I receive strength and wisdom to GROW UP, because if I want to do something great with my life, I will have what it takes to really make a difference. God is not indifferent to my pain, nor did he cause it.

"For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone." ~ Lamentations 3:33

All the "do not fears" … all the verses from Matthew and Luke that speak of abundant, effortless provision… these verses come alive in the context of the dream parable. 

Not just after death, in Heaven, but here on earth, too.

It sounds "too good to be true"? Are you willing, too, to be tested in your knowledge of Truth? What is better, knowledge or mastery?

All I know is that these are the gentlest tests… letting the Wind carry me into encounters with people and situations that fill in the gaps of my Truth foundation, because all Truth will be tested in our lives, sooner or later. Only the Truth that we have mastered will give us our graduation diploma.

This is where Heaven touches earth and we walk effortlessly into living a Kingdom lifestyle… a lifestyle that defies aging and death, poverty and disease, and dysfunction of every kind. Yes, I dare to believe Jesus' words are true, that the prayer he taught us to pray, "as it is in heaven, so be it on earth" is the reality we are to be walking in… that we can multiply food, walk on water, and raise people from the dead. That it's time for us to grow up as children of God and bring true relief to a suffering world!

If I can do it, anyone can… maybe I'm the greatest fool on earth, taking off in my Jeep Renegade on a soul quest. No money, but a willingness to work to earn my way. An "old woman" working alongside teenagers (and keeping up!). Someone my counselors once named, "the most abused woman" they had ever met. A fool, yes… having lost everything, but with this compulsion to see God as he truly is, not as religion has dictated all these centuries!

My time in Zion National Park is nearing an end. The Wind of the Spirit is blowing around me, stirring my spirit to voyage to the next state. I will be entering the very heart of my deepest fear, the place that has hurt me the most. I am not afraid, oddly. I'm awakening to Love….

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With love,

White Dove

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!

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