Chocolate Dream

Sing: Made to Love You by Toby Mac

Pray:
Come Holy Spirit, fill me with Your fire so that I can be more like You; help me, I trust You. Father open my eyes so that I may see clearly, open my ears so that I may hear soundly, open my mind so that I may understand fully, open my heart so that I may love more, open my hands so that I may give generously and receive humbly, in Jesus‘ name, Amen.

Read: 2 Chronicles 1:1-4:22

And the king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah. 2 Chronicles 1:15

I had a dream this morning that I just have to share with you! I got up and read my scriptures for today and got done a little bit early. Sean was still doing his workout for the morning so I went back into the bedroom and laid back down, less because I was tired and more because I was freezing! But I immediately fell asleep and had this dream:

My Mom took my son and I to go visit my husband at work for lunch. We ate in a little café after eating we wanted to get a desert from the bakery case, but we only had enough money to buy one thing for us to share. It was a chocolate chip cookie dipped in the most decadent luxurious chocolate I‘ve ever tasted. You know, one of those chocolates that you bite into it and when it hits your tongue your eyes roll into the back of your head and a moan of pleasure escapes your lips embarrassingly, yeah, it was one of those kinds of chocolates and was gone in seconds. I looked down and I had it all over my fingers and everything, but before licking them off I asked the young girl behind the counter if they sold any of the chocolate by itself. I wasn‘t planning on buying any of it right then, I didn‘t have any money left for it, but for the next time we came I wanted to be prepared to buy as much of it as I could so I could make something with it myself. Well the girl looked around to see if anyone was looking and then whispered to me secretively “give me a minute“ and then turned to the shelf behind her that was filled with every kind of chocolately treat you could possibly imagine. And she started taking one of everything down off the shelf and putting it in a pile to take with us!!!!! I turned to look for my Mom to see if she was seeing what was happening and she was nowhere in sight. When I turned back around there was a pile of succulent chocolate treats so large that there was no way that all three of us could come close to carrying it out to the car with us. So I asked the girl behind the counter if she had a bag!

Then I woke up briefly when my husband came in the room, but immediately went back to sleep. Before I fell back to sleep I was praying “Lord, can You really be that good?“ I knew what that dream had meant, that God is preparing to bless us with more abundance than we‘ll be able to carry by ourselves. And it won‘t just be any old abundance, it will be the BEST abundance, the kind that makes you just roll your eyes back in your head and moan embarrassingly it will be so good. But that kind of abundance isn‘t familiar to me, so honestly, it‘s really hard for me to believe that God will do that for me and my family. I have lived on the verge of poverty my entire life, I don‘t know what abundance like that looks like, except when it‘s for other people. But not for me. So it‘s really hard for me to understand why God would choose to bless me with that. So when I was praying “Lord, can You really be that good?“ in my heart it was really “Lord, can You really be that good to ME?“ And I prayed that over and over and over and over until I suddenly found myself asleep and dreaming again. Only this time:

I was laying in the top bed of a bunk bed with both my children in the bottom bunk and my husband lying beside me. And while the words of my prayer were repeating through my brain like they do in a dramatic moment of a movie my husband leaned over me and wrapped one arm around my waist to pull me closer to him. And as another “Lord, can You really be that good?“ resounded through my brain He whispered into my ear “Yes I can.“ And at that exact moment a bright red cardinal swooped down in front of me and landed on a tree branch nearby. And then the dream repeated itself a second time “Lord, can You really be that good?“, hug, whisper, “Yes I can“, cardinal swooped down and then it stared at me with this look on its face like “believe it already woman“! And then I woke up again.

The fact that the dream repeated itself twice means that it is SET. It is certain. It is God‘s plan and it will happen. God IS that good. It‘s still hard for me to believe that He is that good to me, I certainly have done nothing to deserve it, but the way in which He held me and said “Yes I can“ I know that He can and that He will. And to be honest it almost terrifies me a little bit. I‘ve lived in these bonds of financial slavery for as long as I can remember, I don‘t know anything different and that makes it a little scary for me. But I refuse to be afraid! Because I know that God is with me and He is for me, and if He is for me then WHO can be against me… including me and my irrational fears. I don‘t know what to do with abundance, but I‘m great with living in lack. I know what to do, I know how to act, I know this place I‘ve lived in for so long. I‘ve learned how to be content with what I have and I didn‘t even ask for abundance, other than an abundance of the LORD in my life, because that I could never have enough of! God and I have been through some really tough spots in life together, I couldn‘t live without Him in my life. I only want Him. Without Him nothing else on this rock means anything.

In the verse today, King Solomon‘s reign was one of such wealth and abundant prosperity that silver and gold were as common as stone. Can you even begin to imagine wealth like that? And not just for the king himself, it was in all of Jerusalem! All the people were that wealthy! What would that be like? I read that verse before I had these dreams! Because, honestly, God knows that chocolate is a bigger deal to me than silver and gold are. But seriously, in that dream there wasn‘t a single healthy food item in the lot! It was cakes and cookies, candies, truffles, bon bons, chocolate cinnamon rolls, if it was yummy and sweet it was in that pile and then some! I might as well have been in a chocolate Shoppe in heaven, and for all I know I might have been! Because that was chocolate like I‘ve never tasted in my life! It was real and pure, divine.

Hmmmmm…. now that‘s a thought! Everything here on earth is but a shadow or a pattern of the things of heaven… if chocolate is this good here… sigh… Oh that Marriage Supper of the Lamb is going to be a feast to remember friends!!!!! Just thinking about it is making me hungry already! Oh my friends, that I might dance in the streets of heaven with you now! What a day that will be! But alas, we have work to do here first. And we will be strong and do it fervently unto the Lord because He is worthy of our praise and our honor. My dear friends let us hold out our hands to receive the abundance that God so desperately wants to pour out over us. Let us keep our hope firmly placed in Him and His goodness; and not on the things of this earth that pass away so quickly and never satisfy. Let us run with endurance toward the goal that Our Father has set before us, His loving arms held open wide waiting to receive us into His presence every morning through His word. He loves us so. Let us accept that love with open hearts and open minds. Let us search for that love with open eyes and listen for that love with open ears. Let us run toward that love, His unending love with feet that will not grow weary or faint, but will mount up on wings like eagles and soar toward our heavenly reward that IS waiting for us. Every day that we endure here in the valley of the shadow of death is nothing compared to the thousands of days that we will rejoice in and praise His holy name in when we finally get home and see Him face to face. His loving arms will wrap around us and He will whisper in our ears, “See, I told you I could be that good. I told you that you would see My goodness in the land of the living. My righteous ones are never forsaken and their children are never begging for bread.“

Yes my friends, I believe He can be that good and that He IS that good. Oh if only we would receive that today! If only we would open ourselves up to His goodness today! If only we would open all the doors of our soul like windows in a house and allow His goodness to blow in like a fresh spring breeze and then cling to that goodness throughout the day when the Enemy tries to snatch it away from us and keep us from believing that He is that good. If only we could believe Him, and not just in Him. If only we could cling to Him the way He clings to us, fervently and without hesitation. Lord help us do that! Help us to believe in Your goodness, HERE, NOW in the land of the living. Help us to receive you today and every day. Help us to open ourselves up to You and all Your goodness, today! Help us to cling to You and to shove the Enemy out the door when he comes knockin‘ trying to bust his way into our consciousness. Father help us in our helplessness. Help us in our disbelief. Help us in our frailties and use them to allow Your ability, Your faith and Your strength to shine through us. Use us, not because we are worthy or able but simply because we are willing to be used of You. Father thank You for allowing us to be a part of Your world. Thank You for insisting on loving us even when we push You farther away from ourselves. Thank You for calling us to draw nearer to You and allowing us to enter Your gates with thanksgiving and Your courts with praise. Instead of throwing us out where we deserve to be; where there is crying and gnashing of teeth. You call us in to your throne room and pull us up onto Your lap where we can snuggle nearer to Your heart. Thank You Lord.

Sing: Big House by Audio Adrenaline