Third and Final Installment on Joseph and Living the Dream

Just like Joseph, God knows our name. When God speaks it to us, it is full of revelation that is available to explore. When God names us, there are meanings in that name, to discover and walk in, that will cause us to experience God in a much greater and more intimate way. Every time we stumble upon or receive a hint of the creativity encompassed in our name, it causes a greater dependency on God to fulfill the call. It enlarges us so God can come and fill the new space. It’s just like breathing. Inhale understanding, exhale application.
Think of what may have happened to Joseph when the angel called to him by name. “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit”. It all happened so beautifully in the dream, but what about his emotions and thoughts when he woke up?
Can you see Joseph’s mind on over drive? What did that angel just say? Son of David? Of course I know I am a descendant of David, but me??? I didn’t know it meant THAT! I mean me? And all the scriptures he’s ever been taught about the history of the Jewish people and the promised Messiah come flooding in. What? Wait a minute! Slow down. Yes, there are scriptures that it is going to be a virgin birth, but c’mon.....Mary? And I am supposed to suspend logic and rush headlong into something I am not prepared for?
God is the author of creativity. You can’t make this stuff up. A virgin birth. A miracle baby. A couple of unknown nobodies partnering in one of the most creative ideas God ever had. And the Bible is full of them! It is crazy how we read some of the astounding accounts and it becomes a fable, when if you think about it, we hang all of our faith on a creative idea that makes no sense to the natural mind. A virgin birth?
Creative ideas bypass logic and common sense to unlock a heart response. In Joseph’s case, God was telling him, “You were made for this day. I have placed you in this location at this specific time because I am about to turn the page of history and open the door to the future and when I do, NOTHING is going to be the same. You are the hinge on which I am hanging the door.” WOW!
And it is the same for us when we step into ownership of the creative. We co-partner with the Holy Spirit to be the hinge on which He hangs a door to more. Our partnership opens up something even we don’t understand fully, but there is quiet awe and a humility that happens inside when we begin to understand that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves.
And may I submit to you, that in order to fully enter the more God wants to open up through our lives, we have to accept that WE are a many chambered temple. There are rooms inside of us that have yet to be explored. I thought I was a one room cottage until God broke in totally uninvited and unexpected and abruptly shoved a mirror in my face and said, “Look at you for a change. See what I see. You are creative and I am about to prove it to you in the most blatant way. I am going to offend you with the beginnings of a gift you were not even aware of and never even wanted.”
When He wants to communicate a message urgently, God is not necessarily a gentleman. He will confront you with the “more” you never expected or thought of, and it might scare the living daylights out of you. You just might have an experience like Joseph that says…I always knew my name was Joseph, but I had no clue that I would be the one. You might even want to run away because the unveiling is too overwhelming and scary, and all the objections of being too old, of knowing what you are already called to do, of time it will take to invest in and develop that hidden and budding creativity come rushing at you. You might even feel anger. For me, it was an identity crisis. How could I not know I could draw or paint all my life?
God’s dream of creativity for us upsets the status quo. What you thought was going to happen, what you thought was going to be comfortable, becomes an all-encompassing life journey. Like Joseph, we are giving up what is a somewhat predictable existence, to be part of some untold, yet marvelous story. Most of the time, the dream is two-fold. It stretches us past the membrane of our present notion of ourselves, while also impacting those around us. Joseph changed, but his change provided the platform for his son to become all God had called Him to be.
When you embrace the dream, you are agreeing to cooperate with God to design something new, whether it is an object, a thought or insight or a solution. We just call that creativity. We co-create with God.
Creativity is expressed in art or music or dance and poetry. Those are major culture changers and influencers that God wants to use today, but creativity is not limited to the arts. God wants us to take creative thought into the business world with the inventiveness we need today. He wants us to take it into the community with a creative solution that the mind of man cannot think of. He wants to take it into government, education and every one of the spheres of influence. Creativity is thinking like God thinks, to bring an expression of Himself into the world, and awaken people to how much they mean to Him and Who He wants to be for them.
So, reading the Christmas story for me this year has become an invitation to be “all in” in my own story; the story God is writing through my life, whether or not I am seeing the big picture. I have enough assurances that I am on the right track by now to allow me to just keep following the “breadcrumbs” of the hints of direction confident He will bring it all together. Along the way it is an adventure of discovering the sufficiency of God in every situation.

Second Part of Joseph and Living the Dream

Joseph and Living the Dream Continued...
...after the angel spoke to Joseph in a dream (Matt. 20-23)...
Joseph woke up and began to carry out what he was directed to do. Five quick directives; profound implications, just like the names we have been given have unfolding layers, or the prophetic words many of us have been fortunate enough to receive. We think we understand when we hear them, but they are multi-layered with deeper meaning and unexpected pathways. In the case of Joseph, as is with each of us, there is a watershed moment of decision. Joseph has to contemplate giving up what is a predictable existence, to be part of some untold, yet marvelous story. The angel was inviting Joseph to be “all in” in his own story.
God had a dream for Joseph bigger than anything he could conceive. Even walking it out day by day probably didn’t bring a whole lot of
revelation or clarity. But wondrous things happened at critical times, to give him the knowledge or the affirmation that he was “living the dream”.
Did he always feel it or know it? Did he always see the big picture? Our response is the same as Joseph’s: just hear and do. Listen and follow. Choices matter. One life matters. Just say yes.
Every once in a while Joseph was dumbstruck with wonder. Like the time he had to travel to Bethlehem with his pregnant wife to fulfill a legal obligation, which apparently had no exceptions for women in the late stages of pregnancy. Who knows how worried and frustrated Joseph became, trying to find shelter for his laboring wife, in a town bursting at the seams with inconvenienced and weary travelers, most of whom were there by forced decree.
And in the midst of all the worry, in perhaps one of the lowest moments of his life, when as a husband he can’t provide what is needed, the baby is born in a shelter for animals. How can this be part of “living the dream”?
However, shortly thereafter, shepherds appear and reinforce the fact that Joseph is still moving in the center of something larger than life. He needed the miracle of that visitation, and so did Mary. And isn’t it just like that with us? God comes swooping in unexpectedly and unbidden with a taste of the eternal so that the unbearable transforms with wonder? The veil between realities is rent, and glory superimposes itself on our mundane perspective, leaving us to marvel at the wonder of His presence and giving us enough affirmation to continue on in awe.
Four times, at life defining junctures, an angel appeared to give Joseph direction; four times in a dream. It’s like the angel is saying, “Just live the dream, Joseph. Be willing to go beyond your understanding.”
The second time the angel appeared was when Herod wanted to find and kill the baby, which by now was Joseph’s beloved son. When I merely read the passage in the Bible, it seems so sanitized. If I put myself in the story however, I can imagine the tension and fear. What insecure and power hungry madman orders soldiers, who are trained warriors and fighting men, to hunt down and slaughter children? What happens inside men who have no choice but to comply with orders or be executed themselves? How do you deal with the psychological horror of knowing the king has issued an edict for your child’s death and other children, dear to other fathers, are dying in his place?
But the angelic dream instructs Joseph on the next course of the journey. Go to Egypt until. Until can be a long road, but if you have an “until” word, you have the assurance that further instruction will come at the next critical juncture. Once again, you just carry on in the direction, using the provision and wisdom gleaned in the last place as you process life each and every day.
“Until” speaks of the more that is coming; you just don’t know when. “Until” means this phase will end sometime, and something new will open up, so you settle patiently in the now, keep hope alive and order life accordingly. It’s not just a waiting phase, though. It’s a growing phase. Everything is growing.
In this case, Joseph was growing, his skills were growing. His business was growing. His family was growing. His relationships were growing. His character was growing. And he was going to be able to take all that learning and development with him into the next phase of life, when the season of “until” was fulfilled.
Sure enough, when Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared again. He directed Joseph back to the land of his heritage and inheritance. Joseph’s strategic placement was reinstated for the day that was dawning. Another dream confirmed his suspicions that it was still dangerous to go to Judea, so he settled in Nazareth, fulfilling the scripture that his son would be called a Nazarene.
I am encouraged by this story of a seemingly ordinary man who was living the dream; protecting the seed of a new day. I love it that the Amplified Bible says that Joseph’s son would prevent people “from failing and missing the true end and scope of life, which is God.”
I’m encouraged that an angel kept Joseph from failing and missing the true end and scope of his own life, four times. I’m encouraged that when I hear and follow, I am living the dream and I really don’t have to worry that I will miss it. God’s dream is so important to Him that He breaks into my life along the way to confirm it with wonder. He assures me time and time again, that what I am engaged in is larger than anything I ever thought possible, because I evaluated myself and my gifting from a myopic point of view.
In this story I see many parallels for creativity. (Which will be continued tomorrow)....

Joseph and Living the Dream

I have been pondering the story of Joseph off and on for a number of months.  Not the Joseph with the coat of many colors, who lived an amazing life of trial and triumph, but the one with the plain, brown coat; the husband of Mary.  That Joseph.  The Joseph who is so easy to overlook.  Yeah, maybe we appreciate that he took Mary as his wife, even though he knew he wasn’t the father of the child she was carrying.  Maybe we admire the fact that he was willing to live with the gossip and criticism associated with her condition, and maybe we consider him a role model as a good father and husband, but if we look a bit closer, I think we will find there are some subtleties to be gleaned that have parallels for broader thoughts.

Perhaps the marriage of Joseph and Mary was one of opportunity for Joseph.  Perhaps he was attracted to her.  Perhaps he was going along with the wishes of his family, because this was a good match.  Whatever the background, we are not told.  All we know is Joseph happened to have the proper background, as a descendant of David, to be father to the king.

As the story goes, Joseph was betrothed to Mary, but when he found out she was pregnant, he planned to divorce her quietly.  Divorce seems the logical thing to do, if one wanted to maintain reputation.  And Joseph, to his credit, was going to do so quietly.  I can see how Joseph might not even think there was any other option.  When things got a little complicated and embarrassing, Joseph wanted out.  Divorce was the out. 

That is, UNTIL an angel appeared to him in a dream and gave him another thought.  The angel opened up a scenario and told Joseph not to be afraid to go there.  He invited Joseph to be “all in” in a happening he didn’t understand.  The fact that God used a dream and an angel to communicate with Joseph, speaks to me of God’s dream within a dream. 

God spoke because He had a dream for Joseph bigger than his own dream of having a family, a trade and a normal life.  God was setting something in motion that was monumental. He wanted to make sure Joseph had enough clarity to go there.  God is good like that; always inviting us further into our own story with dreams that are so big, they are hidden in His benevolence.  That’s why we have trouble discerning.  The pixels that make up the picture are spread out so far, they are undecipherable up close.  Some of us may have had an experience like that. 

I had a History teacher in ninth grade, Mr. McHugh, who asked our class some questions pertaining to a chapter we had read.  Kids were answering his questions, but not hitting the mark.  I could see where he was going, but being a very, very shy kid, I was always happy for someone else to answer the question, as long as I did not have to be the one.  But this time, no one did.

Finally, I could sense his frustration and I raised my hand.  I tied in the chapter we had been assigned with some insight that went beyond what he was anticipating.  In that moment, he was stunned.  He said, “You do not belong in this class.” He took me by the hand and led me down the hall to Mr. Wu’s class.  Mr. Wu taught the brainiacs.

He opened the door, interrupted the class and said, “She belongs in your class.”  However, because I was such a self-conscious kid, I was absolutely humiliated at the public display and never lived up to Mr. McHugh’s belief in my potential, because I did not believe it about myself.  The picture was too big.  I couldn’t see myself in that scenario. But, God has brought that memory up time and again, at critical junctures in my life to say, “This is what I believe about you”.

In Joseph’s  dream, the angel introduced him to a huge panoramic scenario with just enough information to keep him headed in the direction of his calling.  It was a five part word.  It all happens in a paragraph, so you have to pay attention. He called him: “Joseph, descendant of David”.  In other words:

1.       I am naming you.  No other name has significance now.  I know who you are, and I know your bloodline.  I’m calling you to awaken to who you are. That is what my teacher was trying to do for me.

2.       Don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife.  Don’t be afraid is the same directive an angel has said to countless men before Joseph with a call on their lives: Joshua, Abraham, Gideon just to mention a few.

3.       Carry on in the direction you were headed. Don’t let this current situation dissuade you. Go ahead and get married. Proceed as planned.  I’m here to tell you, nothing’s changed.

4.       Something you can’t understand and do not have a grid for has just happened.  I know you have no way to process what I am telling you, but I’m going to say it anyway.  That which is conceived in Mary is from the Holy Spirit.  Isn’t it like that when you know God has spoken to you?  You understand the words, but it makes no sense to the natural mind.

5.       This is what will happen as a result.  (He will save his people from their sins.) This is the culmination of history encompassing all that your people have been promised and have been waiting for.  And YOU are right smack dab in the middle of the story!  You are a central figure and you probably still won’t understand.......to be continued....

I Am Worthy of it All

I hear the phrase, “There is no one like our God” every once in a while.  Today, in church, we sang a song with those sentiments.  Like so many other songs we repeat because they sound spiritual and true, I wondered if I could sing it with the enthusiasm of the others in the room.  That’s because it raises new thoughts and questions for me.

You see, I don’t think like I used to, and it is causing me to have an uncomfortable feeling.  But hey, I’m getting used to that, and I am okay with the exploration of ideas.  The other song we sang was, “You are worthy of it all”.  God certainly is, but for over a year, I have been hearing the words of that song, in Jesus’ voice singing them to me.  Except maybe the phrase, “for from you are all things”….in that case it would be “for from YOU are all things”.  Given that, I think God wants me to know something.

Maybe I will just share how my mind works.  We were singing, “There is no one like our God” and my mind was saying, “That is not the whole truth!” There is a people group in the earth that is a lot like our God.  If we keep singing songs like this, we will never believe it.  There is a company of people who are co-equal heirs.  There is a group, the members of which are ambassadors of another kingdom.  There are ones who are known in heaven as sons of God, who have been made in His image and likeness.  When are we going to sing songs about that?  Are we too afraid of offending God or being struck down for our presumption?  I don’t usually get upset, but I started crying; grieving actually.  We really need new songs for a new understanding.  Language takes us places.  It is one of the keys for advancement. We need new song writers with a new sound that will move us into applying truth to ourselves.

What if we believe the Bible?  What if we take some time and really explore how BIG we are?  What if we get a revelation of how powerful and gifted and how much we are worth to God?  Jesus became a worm so I could be a butter fly!  Fly, butterfly, fly!  That is one of my prophetic words!  What does it mean to fly like a butterfly!   In a dream, I heard God’s voice talking to someone about me and He said, “I would like to see her fly a little, knowing she is at home there”.  I am doing my best to see what that looks like for me. 

I think I am doing my best to spread my wings and soar, but maybe I am really in the stage where the butterfly just comes out of the chrysalis and has an abdomen extended because it is full of fluid.  Maybe I am just pregnant with a concept.  The butterfly has to spread his wings and flap them to pump the fluid into the wings so they can expand.   Then he has to exercise them to strengthen them and create the proper camber or convexity for the wings to work properly.  Without this step, the wings would just hang down and be soft and floppy.

Another interesting thing that happens after the butterfly emerges is the fusing of the tongue into one unit.  The butterfly emerges with a somewhat forked or two parallel tongues.  They must be aligned or zipped together.  That allows it to be used as a drinking straw to sip nectar from flowers, or even to absorb liquid like a paper towel.

This may be where I really am in my butterfly process.  I am in the aligning and zipping my tongue phase.  Now you can laugh at that and agree that I need to zip my tongue, but not for obvious reasons.  I am thinking that I need to have unified declarations and not talk out of both an old and a newer understanding.  So, right now I declare that I am worthy of it all.  I am worthy of it all. From Him are all things and through me are all things.  I am His glory. 

How can I say that?  2 Cor. 3:17-18: Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.  If that isn’t enough then here is another verse: John 17:22: I have given them the glory that you gave me… When we look into the mirror Who is Jesus, we see ourselves reflected in glory.  That is who we are; His glory! So, I am going to align and zip my tongue to declare one sound over myself.  I am worthy of it ALL! 

We are worthy of it ALL.  Let’s create a company mindset that will explore the more inside each one of us.  Let’s come fully alive to how much bigger we are than we ever imagined.  Let’s hang together and tell stories of Who God showed Himself to be when we believed how big we could be.  Let’s challenge each other to take the Bible for granted.  If He has granted us promises, why can’t we take them for granted?

I have discarded the chrysalis.  I know I have.  Everything is different.  I am never going back there!  I just don’t fit!

If I Could Draw...

…Your seed will possess the gate of His enemies.  Gen. 22:17-18

I wish I was an accomplished artist.  I wish I could draw some of the things I see. 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Out of Himself, God released a joyful intentionality that manifested as a womb for mankind.  Then He fashioned mankind from the dust of the earth.  He took some of the finest particles and fashioned them into His earth man; the fleshly counterpart to glory.  This earthman was made in His own image and likeness.  He was the self-same substance, the mirror version of the Divine nature reflecting the attributes of God.  God was so satisfied with what He created, He rested.  He enjoyed.  He feasted on what He saw; His image and likeness in a flesh suit.  He named him Adam.  Among other things, Adam speaks of earth, soil.  This was a hint of the fruit to come.  It takes soil to produce fruit.

God wanted this flesh mirror image to experience the same pleasure He had in creating, so He put Adam into a deep sleep and reached within him to form a counterpart; a co-creator.  Both halves coming together would now be able to create like Him, because God is infinitely creative and expansive.  He breathed into them the breath of lives; the Trinitarian kiss releasing the Father heart, the creative redemptive heart and the nurturing and sustaining heart;  the breath of all lives of to come.

These two could now reproduce His image in the world, each reproduction containing and releasing a unique facet of His nature and likeness.  No two beings the same.  And God saw it all and knew it as good.

If I could draw, I would show Jesus gazing at a mirror surface on the facet of an extremely large diamond.  I would show Jesus gazing at mankind in all his variety inside the diamond and seeing Himself.  I would paint Jesus with a huge grin on His face, in total enjoyment  and connecting with what He saw there. 

I would picture procreation as an act of the recreation of the image of God in the earth, each person a facet of His being and each one also having the ability to co-create with Him.

The scripture “ye are like gods” would be played out, because I would show mankind fulfilling the commission to fill the earth enabling His image to replace the distortion.  The womb of our beginning restored to vitality.

If I could draw, I would show the Lamb was within this people from the beginning.  Somewhere in the center of the diamond, I would show the Lamb, slain before the fall of the world.  It would be the center of the seed of life, planted in soil that was necessary for the eventual fruition of a plan so mysterious that we are only able to catch a portion and a facet at any one time.

That’s some of what I would do, if I could draw.

Identity-the Art of Self-discovery

I hesitate to put down on paper definitive thoughts about an ongoing experience, but in the interest of exploration, I thought I would take a stab at a sharing what is unfolding in me.  It will not only help me process, but I invite others to contribute their own thoughts.

We have heard that “Identity is the Key to Transformation”.  I absolutely believe this, and have been engaged in going after the identity I have as God has spoken it to me in prophetic words, scriptures and prayer.  First and foremost, my identity is a child of God who is loved unconditionally by my Father.  Secondly, my identity is as a son of God fully endowed with the rights and privileges as the son of a king and able to act with His authority. 

In addition to that, I believe my identity is more fully realized and able to be applied, as I discover what my calling and assignments are for my life.  It is in walking out my calling and assignments that I discover the areas of my greatest joy and fulfillment, as well as my greatest challenges and stretching.  As I have considered my calling and have begun to execute my assignments, I have discovered areas of identity that were not fully developed.  This has required me to draw courage and strength, wisdom and fortitude from the Spirit of God within

I have been encouraging others to keep moving, using real stories from my own life to give a picture of what it looks like as we go together.  The inspiration to keep going after what God says about us, engaging in areas of insecurity and putting them under our feet, allows us to get to know God in a greater way.  We get to take on board those qualities that will equip us for what is ahead.  The experience of expanding horizons, gives more room for God to come and fill those places that are opening up in us.  We are filled with more of Him and therefore have more to give others.  We become the show and tell of the goodness of God.  We actually become a “taste and see” people who whet the appetites of those around us for something of God.

What I did not realize is, there are hidden doors we know nothing about that only become accessible as we continue in our journey, proceeding through the doors that are opening.  In my case, I stumbled upon a door because someone issued me an innocent challenge.  I knew the door was there for others, but I never perceived it having anything to do with me, nor did I want it to.

The door I chose to peek through was creativity; art, craft or capturing a feeling in the form of a two or three dimensional object.  After completing the first challenge, which I considered craft, I went on to create another in the form of a painting.  It came out much better than expected.  This caused me some consternation.  While I was delighted in some ways and even amazed, I also was a bit horrified.

I wanted to shut the door and never go there again.  I did not want to accept that this type of creativity was part of my identity.  I am challenged enough in the areas I am already aware of.  I am already in over my head.  I felt that this optional door would take time away from what I was really called to. I did not like the feeling of not knowing anything about this area, or having to explore, or of being a beginner at something I did not want to do in the first place.  It took me two days to work through my feelings with the Lord.  Believe it or not, I was actually crying and saying, “I don’t want to go there!”  Finally though, I realized I had to practice my own preaching in this area also. 

If God wanted me to walk through the door of creativity and experience the feeling of being totally inadequate, in an area that I have no interest in developing, I knew my willingness would be making more room for Him to fill those places and help me know Him in a way I had never known Him before.  That would enable me to identify with others and have something to give them.

So, here I am a few weeks later, still at the beginning of a process that will last the rest of my life, but I want to share some of what has already happened. 

1.        It has totally changed how I see nature.  I have actually received new lenses.  I was never a nature lover.  Didn’t mean anything to me.  I am happy to be an indoor girl. I felt guilty about that, and even prayed about it.  If God’s glory is supposed to be reflected in Nature, I just wasn’t getting it.  I could appreciate a beautiful sunset or notice the gorgeous fall foliage, but that was it.   So, the world around me was just one great big picture until I undertook this exploration of art.  I had only attempted a few watercolors when I was riding in the car one day.   While looking out the window, everything became a snapshot.  I could see colors and shadows.  I could see how something could be painted.  I saw shades of colors where there was only one before.  My eyes were clicking snapshot after snapshot and picture within picture. What had been all one scene became a moving happening in front of my eyes.  It continued that evening when I had to go to a meeting.  There was a glorious sunset like I hadn’t seen in a long time.  It filled the entire sky.  It became animated as the sun set.  I could not get enough of watching it and noticing the subtleties of the light changing. I think there were three points when I thought it was going to fade and just go dark as the sun went behind the hills, but it only became altered in emphasis.   Each stage had a unique quality that was equally brilliant, but could have been breathtaking on its own if it had happened on three separate days.  I almost went off the road while watching.

2.       The second thing that happened was a magnetic pull to create something.  I now feel it every day.  I have ideas coming all the time and I have no training, so it is frustrating.  I watch art tutorials and try to teach myself how to do what I am seeing in my mind.  My next project is to try some mixed media having to do with a key theme.  However, art is messy.  I like order, so it is a struggle to find the place of giving in to the pull, and my desire for neatness.  Mess makes me feel uneasy. 

3.       Lastly for now, someone offered me $100 for a mixed media picture I created which I call The Eyes of G-d.  This has served to give me a direction to narrow this new pursuit.  I have always admired three pictures that are in this form which were done by a friend.  I even paid her to make one for me, so I am going to try my hand at this art form and put my own fingerprint on it.  We will see where we end up.

So, in conclusion, what I am trying to say is…we have NO IDEA who we were really created to be until we begin the journey of discovering how God sees us.  As I have followed the breadcrumbs of His hints, I have walked through doors I never thought I would walk through.  Behind these doors are worlds to explore leading to more opportunities.  There are even invisible doors in these rooms that are beyond anything we could have hoped for or even desired for ourselves.  They only become visible as we progress on our journey.  It is a totally AMAZING adventure of the self-discovery of the Nature of God He has put within each one of us.  I am really only accessing the Divine Nature within and releasing it for an experience of the goodness of God for me and though me.  Think of it…mankind is the only creature that has the ability to co-create with God.  I am overwhelmed with possibility.