Thursday, November 1, 2012

Another Instance of Vision Meeting Sacred Poetry...for My Husband

"Our culture's demand that everyone be like everyone else is not so much malicious as it is despairing.  The death of idealism is a child of despair, always."
and
Prophecy is seen as unrealistic, idealism as immature.  We are growing ever more dumb.  Hence our task today is to be leaven, to be idealistic and in that way to be prophetic..." 
Ronald Rolheiser in Forgotten Among the Lilies


September 18
Have I mentioned yet the vision I had of my husband?  I saw him being anointed with oil--a gleaming rivulet dripping and flowing over him like liquid silver spilling over his face and beard and shoulders.  He was in a dark place, but the oil lit him as it dripped over him for it carried an internal glow.
I had this picture come to me a while ago.  Now I come across this Psalm:

Behold how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!
It is like the precious oil upon the head,
Running down the beard,
The beard of Aaron.
Running down on the edge of his garments.
It is like the dew of Hermon,
Descending upon the mountain of Zion;
For there the Lord commanded the blessing--
Life forevermore.
Psalm 133

In my continuing devotional study on the topic of visions, I see read the following:
Oswald Chambers in his March 10-11 entries in My Utmost...says "the natural heart will do any amount of serving, but it takes the heart broken by conviction of sin and baptized by the Holy Ghost and crumpled into the purpose of God before the life becomes the sacrament of its message...we cannot attain to a vision, we must live in the inspiration of it until it accomplishes itself...Watch God's cyclones.  The only way God sows His saints is by His whirlwind.  Are you going to prove an empty pod?  It will depend on whether or not you are actually living in the light of what you have seen.  Let God fling you out...If God sows you, you will bring forth fruit." 

Christ, himself, did not expect the seeds He sowed to sprout in half an hour. He shared vision, then lived it out in front of his followers. Even then, His disciples had trouble "getting it," but He knew the seed had "all the germinating power of God and would bring forth fruit after its kind when put in the right soil."

In Daily Thoughts for Disciples, Chambers again uses this imagery:  "Sow the word of God, and everyone who listens will get to God.  If you sow vows, aspirations, resolutions, emotions, you will reap nothing but exhaustion...but sow the word of God and as sure as God is God, it will bring forth fruit.  A person may not grasp all that is said, but something in one is intuitively held by it."   

Finally, he says this: "If an emotion be kindled by the Spirit of God and you do not let it have its right issue in your life, it will react on a lower level." Spur us on, O God, to giving a high enough level to the emotions You plant within us.

Visioning is not for the faint of heart, nor is being caught up in a prophet's vision  that is from God.  Easier to melt into obscurity than to become the stuff of a divine vision. 
Nevertheless, as DC Talk sings, "Even the deepest seed still finds the light of day,"  and when that prophetic seed meets daylight, it is a thing most glorious to behold.  Whether you're the seed, or the soil, or even the whirlwind, it is glorious if it is a thing of God. 
Never fear the vision; fear the lack of it.  Fear settling for the attainable second best. 
I love that the man I married is one who could live out such a vision as this one God sent for him, this of glowing anointing oil.  I love that he could carry it to its full fruition. 
I love that I am reminded of it right now.

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