He hears you..

Jesus speaks to us all in different ways. He has a specific way of talking to each person individually. For me, God speaks to me through songs, people, memories, smells, dreams, PRAYERS and THE WORD. That’s another topic we can get into another time. But let me tell you something. I’ve been saved since I was a young gal. Looking back, I now know that it was Jesus who sought me at a young age but at the time I believed it was me seeking him. 2016 is the year my faith became clear as day and it was the year I first became aware of the Holy Spirit. Since deepening my faith that year, Jesus has given me revelation of his love, he’s given my spirit healing, new hope, strength and a new heart that now desires new things. To be honest, I became very legalistic during this time. I found out that when I follow his ways, I find peace and pure joy that nothing else could ever compare to. Although, this was the doing of the Lord, I’ve misinterpreted the bible and believed because I was obeying Christ wholeheartedly, I had access to his presence and his goodness. It’s taken a long time for me to realize no matter what I do, no matter where I go, no matter what I think, Jesus is there with me all of the time. And because of what he has done on the cross, I can come boldly before the Him, knowing that He welcomes me with open arms no matter how far I’ve ran from Him.

              I want to share a dream I had from the Lord and I hope it encourages you to believe in the goodness of the lord and the unquenchable love that Jesus has for you!

              I should share also that at this time in my life I was having a hard time releasing my nicotine addiction to the Lord. And based off what I said before, me actively sinning confused me. I wasn’t sure if I still had access to God. I wasn’t sure if my prayers were “anointed” – I didn’t know if I was good enough for the Lord. During this time I also struggled with my mental health and idolized things of this world such as my job, money, family… you know.. all the basics.

              Well, in my dream, I was in my apartment at the time with my wonderful roommate. We were in my room and I was laying on my bed. I got up from my bed and walked over to my dresser where my roommate was and carried an incense stick along with me. My incense was lit and was burning. My incense smoke was filling the air and my roommate had a lit cigarette in her mouth at the same time and her smoke too, was filling the air. As I approached my dresser which had incense holders on it, I lifted my incense stick at the same time as my roommate lifted her cigarette, and we placed them each on their own incense holder. The smoke then blended into the air. As this was happening the Lord turned my head to the hallway outside my room and I saw what appeared to be an evil spirit shaped as a human wearing a suit with a briefcase walking into the room next to mine. After this happened a little tiny robot about a foot big, rolled towards me with his tracks and kept running into my leg. He bounced off and would run into me again repeating this for the remainder of the dream.

              As I woke from this dream, I instantly knew what the Lord was saying to me. This dream was biblical based and since I was in the word for most of my free time, it was easy to discern what He was saying.

Matthew 12:43

                  “When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So, it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse of than before. That will be the experience of this evil generation.”

The Lord refers to people’s hearts as their “house.” That is why the setting was my home at the time, representing my heart and what idols I had and what spirits I was being influenced by. I was and still am trying to release the chains I have regarding my career path and the money that I make. I believe that the spirit that represented that was the one with the suit and the briefcase. The robot was another spirit representing my mental health. I struggle with dissociation and I am in a constant state of depersonalization and derealization. (if you struggle with this too, please, please, get some help) With this mental health issue, I often feel fake, or like a robot, as if me and everything else is “not real”. The Lord was telling me I was worried about this too much or placing my identity in the state of my mental health. This was just a small portion of the dream. The best revelation was what he taught me in regards to prayer and being covered by Christ.

As I said before I was confused about whether or not my actions affected the power of my prayers and whether or not I was good enough for God to hear me. In the bible, incense and the smoke represent the prayers of Gods people.

Revelation 5:8 

And when he took the scroll, the four living beings and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people.

Revelation 8:3-4

Then another angel with a gold incense burner came and stood at the altar. And a great amount of incense was given to him to mix with the prayers of God’s people as an offering on the gold altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, mixed with prayers of God’s holy people, ascended up to God from the altar where the angel had poured them out.

Although my friend wasn’t struggling with nicotine like I was for some reason the Lord had her smoking the cigarette in my dream and had me holding the incense stick. I believe he wanted me to compare the actions of both of us in the dream. Yes, I was struggling with addiction but the Lord proved to me He still heard me. I was actively sinning, knowing that the Lord wanted me to put that addiction down. It was harder than it may seem but the Lord came through.

Through this dream He taught me that Christ’s sacrifice is enough for me! When I placed my faith in Jesus, man a whole lot of royalty came with that. I am a sinner by nature. I like to do as I please on my own time in my own way even though deep down I know what God asks of me. I will forever be a sinner IN THIS LIFE. And that is why Jesus chose to pay the price of mine and your sin. He made everything right on the cross so that we could have UNLIMITED, UNRESTRICTED access to our Lord no matter what sin we are in! The smoke from my incense was no different than my friends smoke from her cigarette. What was a filthy stench in the eyes of God became a sweet aroma because of what Jesus did. That is such a beautiful and freeing truth to live in. He sees us all the same, no one is better or more holy than the other. He delights in the prayers of his children. I’ll leave a couple more verses to clear this up for you. 

Romans 5:9

                  Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

Romans 8:38

                  And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow – not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.

              God hears you friend. Despite your rebellion. Despite your circumstances. Despite your questions and doubt, HE HEARS YOU. Please don’t be afraid to call out to him just because you’re doing things you believe the God of the bible doesn’t want you to do. Your rebellion is not the first thing on His mind. He just wants to be with you. He wants to hear you pour out your heart and He wants you to hand it over to him and trust that, “The one who holds the heavens and the earth ,he holds your heart there too.” (heard those lyrics in a song, btw) He wants to be the shoulder that you cry on and more than anything He wants to renew your strength so you can get through these days with peace and joy!

Let Him hear you friend. Let Him heal you. He’s waiting patiently for you to come to him with open arms.