Strengthen Resolve

Remind yourself why you started. Revisit your Day 1 intentions and reaffirm your commitment for the final stretch.

Recommit

• Write a new affirmation to carry you through the next week.

• Share the journey with a friend and encourage each other.

Deep commitment brings lasting transformation in Christ.

Pictorial Direction

“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.” Acts 2:17

As I drove home in the fall of 2010, I listened to an audio recording of the sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." I was amazed at how the preacher, Jonathan Edwards, pictorially described Scripture with his words. I remember praying, asking Jesus to make my mind this way—that He would give me the ability to use words to create pictures in the hearers' minds so they may see what Jesus is putting before them.

In the years that followed, I began to have many dreams that would lead me in directions according to the Spirit. Let me explain.

Until I Tell You To Stop!

Roughly in 2011, I lay in bed asleep and had this dream. I was standing in the lower-level food court of a shopping mall. I noticed that I was wearing jeans, a grey knit sweater with a radio shoulder mic, which I knew was hidden under the shirt. I could hear all the radio chatter coming through, and I could hear people in the area who needed help, but I did nothing. I stood there for a bit and listened while someone asked for help over the radio, but again, I just stood there listening. No one knew I had the radio, and no one else around me could hear the radio except me.

At that moment, men in security guard uniforms came running down the escalator, ran past me, and into a retail store that I knew to be something like a "Hot Topic" store. As I followed the guards into the store, I heard calls for help, but I said nothing. Once in the store, there were no clothes; instead, each wall was lined with numerous glass capsules, roughly 20 feet tall, floor to ceiling.

Two feet behind the glass was a purple silk curtain that ran the length of the capsule. Somehow, I knew you could rent these capsules out for a fee. While the guards were trying to figure out who needed help from the distress call, I saw a person who had hung themselves in one of the capsules. I knew this because I could see the outline of their body as the silk curtain pressed up against them, with their feet roughly 3 feet off the ground.

At that moment, the entrance behind me slammed closed like a barn door in a windstorm, all the capsules opened, and demons flew out of each capsule toward me and proceeded to beat me like a gang initiation. I could feel the pain in my dream. I cried out to the Lord many times, to no avail. I continued to be battered. It wasn't until I fell on my face, cried out to Jesus, and said I couldn't do this anymore—only You can make them go away.

At that moment, large fingers the size of tree trunks peeled the wall open like a piece of paper, and the demons flew away like cockroaches. I woke up and saw it was around 2 a.m. I opened my Bible directly to Isaiah 6:1-13. In this passage, Isaiah sees a great vision, is cleansed, and is told to go speak for God. Isaiah asks, "How long, Lord?" God says, "Until I tell you to stop."

That was a turning point in my life, my friends. This was a pictorial direction shift in my life. The Lord showed me a picture and said, Jeff—You speak for Me until I tell you to stop, no matter if people listen or not. You talk because I told you.

That was enough for me. There have been many visions and dreams since, but I ask you today: Does God speak to you in visions and dreams? If not, have you asked Him? Maybe He has, but you have not noticed. Let's press into the Holy Spirit and ask for vision.

Dreams and visions have not ceased. The Holy Spirit is still working in these ways, and He wants to work in you!

Worthy / You Are Holy / We Fall Down (Live) - ‪@JohnWilds‬ , Bethel Music 14:52 min.

Meditation Questions:

1. Holy Spirit, have I missed dreams and visions where You were trying to speak to me?

2. Holy Spirit, spend time with me, and I'll let you cleanse me from all unrighteousness / aka sin / aka things that God says are bad / aka things you know are wrong, but you do them anyway. ;-)

Meditative Passages:

Isaiah 6:1-13

Meditative Action Steps:

Read through this passage and ask the Lord to show you why we aren’t seeing visions, dreams, or pictures in our minds. Remember, God speaks to all of us differently, but let's seek and see if this is the way in which He wants to speak. Reminder, if we are in sin, we will have much difficulty hearing or seeing what the Holy Spirit lays before us. The key to hearing the Holy Spirit is time with Him and letting Him cleanse us.