Sky Links, 3-10-14

Photo: Spacebridge by longobord CC 2.0

Let Israel’s salvation come out of Zion!
When the Lord changes his people’s circumstances for the better,
Jacob will rejoice;
Israel will celebrate!

-Psalm 14:7, 53:6

Broken Dreams

We talk about, "what is tour dream?", or, "what do you dream of doing?'; and so forth.  What happens when you believe that you have come alive to this idea and you get in touch with your dreams and begin to pursue them, but experience failure, rejection, disappointment, and heartbreak?  Adam H. McHugh wrote about this.  Here is a poignant excerpt from his post, On Having Dreams:

The last year, without hyperbole, has been the hardest year of my life. It has brought with it bouts of depression, when I didn't want to get out of bed in the morning. Sometimes I have been sad and other times I have been angry and often I have felt lost, still wandering in the wilderness, trying to find where the glory of God went. One morning in November I sat on a bench at the beach, the sun shining radiantly, and just felt utterly abandoned and bereft. One afternoon I sat at my favorite coffee shop in Los Olivos reading, and an old man, not knowing I was there behind the tree, threw the remnants of his coffee on me. It's been a throw-cold-coffee-on-Adam kind of year. My heart has been pierced, again and again.

Later is the post, Adam writes:

... We devote so much energy to cycling through the memories and regrets of the past, or to what will come in the future, that we miss what is right in front of us. This morning I woke up before my alarm clock, yet again, and as I lay there frustrated and too tired to fall back asleep, I decided to tune my ears to the life around me. I heard an owl hooting outside my window. I listened to him for at least 10 minutes, letting his vigilance protect my heart.

I still believe in dreams. I still believe in taking risks. I won't be someone who chooses comfort and security over going for it. I won't let the pain of lost dreams and lost love deter me from dreaming and loving....

Let God Speak to You

Ron McKenzie is one of my favorite bloggers. He is the author of Being Church: Where we Live.  Ron wrote a series of posts on a book called Visions, Visitations and the Voice of God, by Lyn Packer.  It is a 136 page book on the subject of revelation and experience with God.  In Ron's fifth post on this book, he listed eighteen terms used to describe revelation from God, in Packer's book:

• Still small voice of God - This is an internal hearing. God speaks spontaneous words or thoughts into our mind and heart from our spirit.
• Internal visual impression– A thought picture impression or vision that is seen with the eyes of our understanding.
• Open eyed vision – Physical reality fades and the spirit realm is opened before us while our eyes are open.
• Open-eye spiritual vision – Our eyes are open, but a strong impression, sensing or perceiving is overlaid onto the physical realm – we usually still see the physical realm.
• Closed-eye vision – We receive a strong impression, or pictures like a TV screen on the backs of our eyelids.
• Trance vision – Our body usually goes very still and can even be frozen in place. Our eyes can be open or shut. Often we are in the vision, operating within it.
• Perceiving – A strong knowing within, that a particular reality is there.
• Dreams/daydreams – Dreams are often used by God to reveal kingdom mysteries and his heart. They are often symbolic in nature and will often apply to our personal life.
• Night visions – These happen while we sleep but are different from a dream.
• Angelic visitation – Where we receive revelation from one of God’s angelic messengers.
• Inner audible voice – When the voice of God is so loud in our mind, it might well have been audible.
• Audible voice of God – God’s voice is heard with our natural hearing.
• Words of knowledge – One of the gifts of the Sprit.
• Bodily impressions – Through physical sensation. For example, heat in the hands often means a healing anointing.
• Spiritual discernment – The ability to ascertain the presence, identify and activities of both good and evil spirits.
• Inner witness – God confirms something to you by an inner knowing that “This is a God thing”
• Prophecy – God speaks to us through other believers.
• Visitation – An extended period of time when God speaks through vision or speech to an individual or group.

Notes, Quips, and Quotes

Your future is hidden in your daily routine.
- Mike Murdock

The hardest changes are from God’s order to God’s new order.
-Rich Marshall

Fellowship ends when the meeting begins.
-Australian pastor

Would you rather be right or be loved?
-Dennis Prager

Whenever God gives freedom, it is always implicit that the freedom He gives you can be given to other people.   You can go around setting other people free from the very thing that you were victimized by. God comes into your life and He turns the areas of your abuse into areas of ministry and significance. He gives you a calling in the area where the enemy tried to strip you of your identity or even kill your life.  Your testimony is the beginning of your ministry!

-Graham Cooke

Jesus did not come to explain away suffering or to remove it.  He came to fill it with His Presence.

-J. Claude

The church is created and governed by the calling and sending activity of God. The church is secondary to the kingdom of God in that it is the instrument or means through which God regularly expresses himself.
-Todd Hunter