Dear Friend, Happy Friday! One day in December last year, I happened to read the words “Isaiah 33:6” in my notebook that I wrote down long ago, and I looked up the verse, curious. It says, “The fear of the LORD is His treasure.” Then, I began to wonder why fearing the LORD is “His” treasure, not “our” treasure. In some other verses on the fear of the LORD, I think those who get the benefit out of it are we, not He: In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence (Pro. 14:26); The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. (Pro. 1:7) So, I did wonder why it’s His treasure, not ours. Yet, I didn’t want to look up commentary or any other resources to find out why, but chose to ask the Father. So I knelt down, and asked Him about it. I was certain He would let me know in His way, no matter when. Then, later on one Sunday, my niece sent the link of a sermon she just listened to. It was the sermon of Pastor David Nthite, who was new to me. If I would paraphrase part of his sermon, God initiates the time to encounter us, not we. So, when He initiates it, we must respond to Him, even though it might be inconvenient time for us. For example, when we go to restaurant and start to eat, He might tell us to pray for someone. Then, we should go to restroom to take time to pray for him/her rather than eat. If He wakes us up in the middle of the night, we must get up. When I listened to this, it hit home timely. Last year, whenever I asked Him to wake me up, He did it faithfully. Even without an alarm, I was able to be wide awake from sleep. I was marveled to see how faithful He is. At one night, I was awake at 4am or so from the noise my mom unintentionally made, and it was exactly the time I asked Him to wake me up. Though He has been faithfully answering my prayers, I wasn’t faithful to Him. Many times, I simply went back to sleep, after being awake a little while. Or sometimes, my mom got up, too, so that I couldn’t have a quiet time alone. So, for the past few weeks, I didn’t even ask the Father to wake me up early. Then, when I listened to the sermon, I felt He would want me to be awake when He wants, even if it’s inconvenient time for me. So, I asked Him to wake me up and I would get up. In order to do that, I had to go to bed early. During the day, I tried not to be distracted by TV, mobile phone and so on. But, the night time on the bed was a pitfall to me. After finishing a day and being relaxed on my bed, I often watched YouTube, and so many videos on the news, cooking, dogs, music and so on caught my eyes. It made me go to sleep much later than I expected and made it hard for me to get up early. So, I tried not to watch many and went to bed not too late. Amazingly enough, He woke me up at around 5am. I suddenly became awake, after a dream was finished. So, I changed my clothes and prayed in the living room, kneeling down for a while and then sitting up on the sofa. Only then, was I reminded that He said to me the other day or so, “You’re My treasure. I will bless you.” (He meant barak in Hebrew :) I got to realize that I shut down my eyes from my phone early at the previous night, to get up early and answer His calling to encounter Him. And I got up early, though it was the time that I still wanted to continue sleeping. I did, as I wanted to revere Him and cherish the moment of encountering Him. So, I was reminded that He sees me as His treasure. It was the moment of revelation, and I got to understand why He said the fear of the LORD is His treasure, not ours. In addition, I was able to interpret the dream He gave me just before I woke up. I seldom had dreams that I thought were from the Lord since the autumn 2021. But, that night when I asked the Father to wake me up early, and went to bed early, expecting His encounter with me, I had a dream where I would have a wedding. It seemed that one of my classmates in my middle school turned out to be my bridegroom. Since I got to know he is my bridegroom, I became affectionate to him, taking his arm. Then, he brought me to a hotel room where we would stay, after the wedding ceremony in the hotel banquet room. After we entered the room, I wanted to go to restroom. Then, I found out the restroom had a few separate toilets and they were dirty. I thought housekeeping was not done properly. Then, to my surprise, a friend of my bridegroom barged in the restroom to use one of the toilets. I was puzzled, and went out of the restroom. Then, I found out there were more friends of his in that room. Only then, did I see there are actually four bedrooms in our room and my bridegroom seemed to invite them to stay with us. At that moment, I was disappointed to know I couldn’t enjoy intimacy with my bridegroom. I woke up from the dream, and I felt the Lord speak to me through it. I was immediately able to interpret the dream, reminded of Pastor John Fenn’s sharing what Jesus said of pillow talk from his audio teaching and a weekly thought, “Focus & Jesus #2”: He elaborated a bit and then said: “For instance. Often I will talk to a person something that is meant to be just between us. What you would call ‘pillow talk’, which isn’t intended to go outside the bedroom. I will tell them something I intended to be just between us, but they will call their friend and tell them what I said, or maybe over lunch share with a friend what I considered intimate and between us. Thus they have demonstrated they are not worthy of that level of intimacy, and I will stop talking to them (in that way) for a season…giving them an opportunity to seek out why their spirit was grieved when they shared it, which confuses them because they knew it came from me, yet not knowing why their spirit was grieved. That is why.” “And they will wonder for a time why I have stopped talking to them intimately, though I will of course still share with them on other things. But few seek it out, which shows how they value Me and intimacy with Me, or lack thereof. Remember I said the value that you place on what you hear is how it is measured back to you*. If a person does not value what we have together, but cheapens it by sharing it with others, they show me the low value they place on Me and our time together.” (At this point, tears welled up in His eyes reflecting the passion with which He spoke.) *Mark 4:24-25 … He had just opened up His heart to me and demonstrated an emotion that caught me totally off guard. I didn’t expect Him to be so…human. The fact He could speak intimate things between me and Him, and then do that with everyone else in the body of Christ as well, and then be so disappointed when we share what was intended to be just between Him and us, AND knowing that must happen all the time…was overwhelming. There was silence between us for what seemed to be minutes, as I just stared at Him and He at me. Part of me wanted to hug Him, part of me wanted to fall at His feet and repent. Even today as I tell this visitation, which I’ve never told of it anywhere start to finish with all the details (and won’t so don’t ask), and even now am just telling a part of it, the weight of it sits upon me. In his audio teaching, Pastor John shared his experience where he felt grieved in his spirit, after he shared what the Lord didn’t mean to share. I was also reminded of my own experience like his. So, after the dream and the prayer, I got to understand He wanted me to have the fear of the LORD and to keep pillow talk to myself. I think it’s His giving me precaution, before He shares something in a new season. Even though the relationship with my niece has been restored and I would feel like sharing what He would show me with her or some other friends, I should revere Him and cherish our intimate relationship. I think if we are married, we can share what He said with our spouse, as a married couple are one. Other than that, I think we must learn to cherish what He wants us to keep to ourselves only. I became in awe and grateful to see how our Father answer my prayer and teach me why the fear of the LORD is His treasure, in His unique way. Friend, I wouldn’t share and post this, if He wants to keep it as pillow talk. But, if you’re reading this now, I think I had peace to go ahead. Friend, it’s my prayer that we desire encounter with Him even when it’s inconvenient time for us, and we desire to be His treasure, by revering and honoring Him more than anything and more than anyone. Have a bliss! Yunee A talebearer reveals secrets, Comments are closed.
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