Hello, Jenny; My Name is...

I picked up the phone. "Hello, Jenny. My name is Tobias Smith." He began telling me something, and then I woke up from my dream. It was a Friday morning. I began asking myself if I knew someone named Tobias Smith. I got on social media to see if he was a friend of a friend or an acquaintence somehow. I found a Tobias Smith who had connections between the two of us; however, we didn't know each other directly. I sent a friend request and left it at that. 

I prayed about whether or not to reach out, as two people can be hearing from God and new details are discovered when they touch base. But in this case, I heard/saw Psalm 46 and realized this was the chapter where God says to "be still and know that I am God" (vs 10). I took this as confirmation that God wasn't asking me to take any action or say anything.

The following Monday, I realized I did have more of a connection than I had realized, and I thought maybe Tobias was in my dream just by subconscious awareness. But I continued to ask God about this, because, for boring reasons, it still didn't make sense that God would highlight this person. 

The very next day - Tuesday - our work team received a request from another team that indicated they wanted to hire this very person. I had no idea Tobias had applied to the position. In fact, I didn't even handle posting that position to our job board. And I knew then that my dream was from God. I also knew why he gave me the dream and why he instructed me to not reach out. It wasn't about any connection; it was about what God was communicating to me personally. The deal was that I had been waiting on two instructional words to come to pass that God had shown me, and both seemed delayed. It was causing doubt about whether I had actually heard clearly about either. But God was showing me - speaking to me - that he could give a word and bring it pass quickly, as he had many times in my life. But there would be other times he'd show me things, and I would need to wait. He knew how hard this was for me, so as I prayed about whether I HAD heard correctly regarding the other things, and also prayed for encouragement, this was how he came through. He used something in my immediate vicinity to "work his magic" and encourage me to not falter in my belief. He could bring to pass ALL words spoken to me. 


God is comforting. He encourages us as we press in for help. He is strong in our weakness, and he communicates with us. He wants us to know his will, not be ignorant of it. He is the finisher of our faith, as he is the author. He may not show the full blueprint and give us knowledge of every step all the time, but he will bring clarity when we are wanting to walk with purpose. There is no use putting effort into something where there is no grace, no anointing, and no life. So practically, at the least, we need to have confidence we are moving in the general direction of his will. And this is what he did for me. So I rested in this.


I want to add that I then began praying a series of questions that led me to the conclusion that one, if not both, of the things I was holding out for was being held up by spiritual warfare. That is a story for another time. But I wanted to leave this part of the story here in this post to say that sometimes things you think you're waiting on God for are actually delay due to spiritual warfare, and you have to get revelation and discernment from God to know for sure which it is. Because you need to know whether to snuggle in and rest or take up arms and war. 

When God revealed this was spiritual warfare, I began praying, "Okay, what is the specific hold up?" And this is how I went question by question to work through how to pray. 


I share this story to encourage those who feel they don't see the movement of God in their life or how he speaks to them. When you begin getting to know more people who walk with Jesus, you see how he shows up and speaks in so many ways and how he builds unique relationship with each person. I love to hear stories of how God moves in the lives of different people. So just be encouraged that Jesus is alive, he is available to take residency in your heart if you give the room, and he wants to be with you. 

And if you're a Christian that doesn't feel they can hear like "other Christians," just know that used to be me. Just ask him to show you how he speaks to you. (The written word - the Bible - is one way for everyone, and the benchmark for all experiences. How amazing.) And then be patient as he works to show you and believe it when he does.

Blessings,

Jenny

 

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