Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
Within your house (in the innermost parts)
Your children like olive plants
Around your table.
Psalm 128:3
So sweet of him. The cross-reference:
Your mother is like a vine in your vineyard
Planted by the waters;
It was fruitful and full of branches
Because of abundant waters.
Ezekiel 19:10
Nancy always prays for me at a spring. She takes a picture. She says it is always flowing even in the middle of the summer.
Fruitful vine, full of branches, abundant waters. In the innermost parts of my house. I see this happening almost daily as I sit and talk with women and hear their hearts (and they hear mine as well - authentic connection and community is what I love).
Yesterday, I had such a good time talking and praying with B. God had told me to ask her what her identity name is, and she volunteered it. Then I told her that God had told me to ask her, Isn't that cool?
Wouldn't it be like the enemy to want to destroy the beautiful fruit that he is bearing in and through this home?
But we are on to him now.
The grace I am praying for this week in the Spiritual Exercises is . . .
- To discern the deceits of the enemy (the rebel chief) and help guard against them and
- To discern a deeper knowledge of the ways of Jesus (the sovereign, true commander) and the grace to imitate his ways.
So, that is what I am seeking this week. I think both Cammie and Carol's counsel were to put my armor on. I have not been doing that as much lately. It seems so arrogant on my part to say I might be effective enough to be a target for the enemy, but he is a sly one. He got me more recently where there was a "chink" in my armor (Carol's words). That chink is the idolatry of man and his/her opinion of me. Ever since praying with Carol and praying through two memories that involved word curses (one from college and one from childhood about 10 years old), I know something has lifted. It lifted immediately after we prayed together.
Then, God gave me the most incredible dream last night where I stood in his presence and God evaluated me. It was awesome. I believe! I believe! It is what my close friends, mentors, and George have seen in me and affirmed in me the last few weeks. I just have chosen not to fully believe it because every once in a while someone comes along (who doesn't know me) and says things that are not true, in fact, are the opposite of true.
So, there is nothing but peace now. Really and truly. I am so grateful for the mentors in my life. I did not have Fran this time around because of Rick's passing. I did not have Lorraine because she is in heaven (Can she see? - I don't know the theology behind that, but when thinking of her last week, I had such a warm and wonderful feeling, almost like there was something falling on my shoulders like a mantle. It was an overwhelming sense of God's presence.)
Anyway, the dream was standing before him expecting to "get it" from him, only to hear such kind and affirming words.
The enemy comes to kill, steal, destroy
Jesus came that I might have life and have it abundantly.
John 10:10
I cannot stop. You have something for me, God. Beyond even anything I have hoped or dreamed of.
Forgetting what lies behind
I reach forward to what lies ahead.
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the
upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Phil 3:13-14
I cannot wait to see what is next!
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