Pictures

So, things have been getting crazy at the Furnace prayer room I've been going to lately. God has been building me up, teaching me, and drawing me closer to Himself in this short time...more so than I expected would ever happen in any less than a year, ha. I've been learning the importance of allowing God to speak His truths to us through our imaginations. Kind of a weird thought at first, but man, God has done some pretty cool things through this. The director of the Furnace told me today it would be a good idea to write these down, so here we go.

At the Collegiate Day of Prayer nearly a month ago, I was having a hard time worshiping for some reason. I was just distracted and couldn't focus on God as much as I wanted to. As I tried to focus on Him, I suddenly got a picture in my head, like I was standing a few feet back looking at myself. Everything started to get darker, including myself, as I watched. It felt like there was a huge pressure building inside me, and little beams of light started to crack out of my body as I watched. It was like the power and light of the whole sun was just barely being contained inside me...the Holy Spirit. That's what He's like. God used that to re-focus me on Him so I could worship Him without being distracted. Then, a couple minutes later when I sat down, the same thing happened again. This time, I could feel the pressure rise even more, and all of a sudden....BOOM! I watched myself explode in a ball of light! Whoa. That is the kind of light that is in us as children of God: explosive, all-encompassing, unstoppable light. Wow.

A couple Mondays ago, I was worshiping at the Furnace, and praying that God would heal me because I was really sick. I pictured myself before the throne of God and the Lamb Who was wounded so I could be healed. As I pictured Jesus as the Lamb...He looked at me, and I could feel it. Then He started walking toward me from the throne. Whoa. As if that wasn't enough...I could feel the Holy Spirit in me focus His attention on me, and then the Father put His gaze upon me. WHOA. I felt the weight of the gaze of the Almighty God bearing down on me in love and majesty, and it was almost too much to handle. Wow, God loves me and each one of His children SO MUCH! I spent half of the rest of my time there unable to stop shaking, haha. Definitely the most spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically intense experience I've ever had.

Just last night I spent a long time talking and praying with my good friend Justin. During that time, God used him to really convict me about a part of my life that he knew was really causing me stress because I hadn't given it to God yet. We talked it out for quite a while, and God softened my heart enough so that I was finally ready to fully give it over to Him (I know this is vague, but it's close to my heart, and this was even harder to give to Him than Colorado was). After we prayed and asked God to take my plans and expectations, I sat up and got a picture of Jesus standing before me. He looked at me and gave a kind of sideways smile. He was holding the plans I just gave Him, and I got the impression that He was incredibly excited that I had finally given them up to Him. He had been waiting for years (which is nothing to Him, I know) for this, and after He showed me how excited He was, He turned and immediately began working on His own plan for me. Awesome. People I met today commented on how I looked a lot happier than previously, like my face was shining, haha. Well, it's hard, but everything is better when you surrender to Jesus's plan and don't keep anything from Him.

There's more...but these are some of the more intense and personally meaningful pictures God has shown me. Pretty sweet. God likes to use our imaginations to reveal more of His beauty and love, and to show us things we can't physically see. I love it.

Peace.