042208

God spoke to me in a dream 2 nights ago. He rarely speaks to me in dreams, so I remembered the dream. I was at somebody's home for a wedding or a celebration and somebody told me to read "revolution", which I thought they meant to say Revelation, to find something to say to the bride. I opened my Bible to Revelation to read and the words on the pages started to melt and disintegrate. I paged through the whole Bible and watched the words all melt away until the only book left was James. And then I woke up. It was just so weird. I immediately jumped out of bed and grabbed my Bible to read the book of James. I've read this book before, several times in fact. But this time it blessed me immensely because it just spoke to me about so much of the stuff I've been dealing with lately, physical, emotional stuff. So I am going to post some of the verses that spoke to me, God spoke to me. He is so good to me and I love Him immensely!

James 1

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Boy have I had trials lately!

James 1

12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 13Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

I was wondering, for a second, if all my troubles were from God.

James 4

7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

I am back to work now and nothing has changed there. I get into that place and it brings out the old me. It's terrible. I can't seem to figure out how to separate myself from the world and yet be in the world as a witness to Christ. The above verses resounded in my head over and over, particularly, Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. I keep forgetting that we have a real enemy who loves to attack us and bring us away from the Lord.

James 4

13Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"— 14yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." 16As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

This reminded me not to be so set on "my" plans that I forget the Lord already has plans for my life. I'm currently transitioning to a new job and I have to find a place to live. I'm worrying about what will happen in the next 2 months when I should be remembering that God's plan is already set for my life and I just have to walk in His plan. This dream that led me to the book of James was astounding. This book is so edifying to me and it's full of the exhortation I need to keep going and persevering. I feel as if the Lord spoke to me to encourage me to hang in and persevere and keep going. He is good all the time! Thank You Jesus!