50 Shades Of Pissed off

Yesterday I had a vision while I was driving. Of where I am right now. I was hiking along the side of this really precarious crazy cliff and the winds were blowing and it was storming. And I kept wanting to vomit. Because the whole thing was more than I was able to handle. But the hand of the Lord covered me and I knew He would continue to sustain me along the path, along this cliff even though it was almost more than I could handle. Because in my own strength it was absolutely impossible but here I was, way up here hiking it. Again the feeling of wanting to throw up kept hitting me as I tried not to look over the extremely narrow ledge. I felt tired and weary. But I knew I would get there because the Lord had ordained it and was protecting me and would continue to give me enough strength. And then it hit me, that despite my fear and horror, if I would lift up my hands and praise Him while I endured such repulses that that act alone would be powerful. And would bring glory to Him and make this easier to get through.

Right after the vision in my mind ended (I was driving my son home from school) RIGHT as it ended…the very next beat…I turned my head to the left and my eyes locked onto a street sign that was very far away but I saw it so clearly. It said Home Stretch.

Here it is. I found it on Google street view. Home Stretch Ct.

It was amazing. Because I was having that vision in my mind and the timing of me looking over and seeing this sign was impeccable. No way a coincidence. A gift.

I had never before seen or heard of that street.

We’re in the home stretch baby! Of course I knew that. But it was comforting to be told by God directly.

I’m going by the upper road,
for that still holds the sun,
I’m climbing through night’s pastures
where the starry rivers run:
If you should think to seek me
in my old dark abode,
You’ll find this writing on the door,
“She’s on the Upper Road.”

Meditation from “Streams in the Desert” – July 12th

“But He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”
(Job 23:10).

“Faith grows amid storms” — just four words, but oh, how full of import to the soul who has been in the storms!

Faith is that God-given faculty which, when exercised, brings the unseen into plain view, and by which the impossible things are made possible. It deals with supernaturals. But it “grows amid storms”; that is, where there are disturbances in the spiritual atmosphere. Storms are caused by the conflicts of elements; and the storms of the spiritual world are conflicts with hostile elements.

In such an atmosphere faith finds its most productive soil; in such an element it comes more quickly to full fruition.

The staunchest tree is not found in the shelter of the forest, but out in the open where the winds from every quarter beat upon it, and bend and twist it until it becomes a giant in stature this is the tree which the mechanic wants his tools made of, and the wagon-maker seeks.

So in the spiritual world, when you see a giant, remember the road you must travel to come up to his side is not along the sunny lane where wild flowers ever bloom; but a steep, rocky, narrow pathway where the blasts of hell will almost blow you off your feet; where the sharp rocks cut the flesh, where the projecting thorns scratch the brow, and the venomous beasts hiss on every side.

It is a pathway of sorrow and joy, of suffering and healing balm, of tears and smiles, of trials and victories, of conflicts and triumphs, of hardships and perils and buffetings, of persecutions and misunderstandings, of troubles and distress; through all of which we are made more than conquerors through Him who loves us.

“Amid storms.” Right in the midst where it is fiercest. You may shrink back from the ordeal of a fierce storm of trial…but go in! God is there to meet you in the center of all your trials, and to whisper His secrets which will make you come forth with a shining face and an indomitable faith that all the demons of hell shall never afterwards cause to waver.”

“The burden of suffering seems a tombstone hung about our necks, while in reality it is only the weight which is necessary to keep down the diver while he is hunting for pearls.”