Lots of Possibilities!

I had a short but very vivid dream yesterday morning that really helped to settle a few things and bring some peace to my troubled heart.  I won’t share the contents of the dream as it contained some very personal direction for me concerning a question that had really been tying me up in knots over the last week or so.  Maybe at a later date…

Over the last few months I have gotten into the habit of walking around the perimeter of our backyard and praying aloud, while the dog runs around and checks out all the new flavors and sensations in the yard that have occurred since the last time we went out!  It has actually been quite a rewarding and peaceful experience… although if anybody saw and/or heard me, they might tend to question my stability.  But then again, most of the neighbors know that I lost my wife recently and would probably chalk it up to weird responses to grief!  Anyway, I walk and pray aloud… just like Jesus is at my side taking the walk with me… which He probably is!   

As I mentioned above, I have had one particular subject ricocheting around my mind and heart that has really been a tough one to figure out... much less even talk about!  So, I naturally brought it up in my backyard walk times. 

I hit a rough patch the other day as I had read a page from Don Piper’s book “90 Minutes in Heaven” where the author tells the story of when he was in a horrific car accident, died and went to heaven back in 1989.  I had read the book a few years ago and pulled it out at this time to review the very vivid details of his experience in heaven.  As I began to read his descriptions of the sights, sounds and people that first greeted him and compared them in my mind’s eye to Piper’s potential experience, I was totally overcome with emotions and went down to my knees as the tears began to flow.

After awhile I got some control and decided that a walk in the cool crisp outside weather might just be what the doctor ordered.  So, I bundled up and Fiver and I went out the back door.  The shock of the twenty-some degree weather did snap me to a little but I still stood on the patio with my hands dug into my pockets and the big hood enwrapping my head and just sort of swayed on my feet.  Finally, I spoke out in prayer: “Wow Lord!  I am totally lost in Pipersville!”  I have never done drugs, but I would imagine that the fog I was lost in was similar to a drug induced experience!

With all that going on, I stepped off the patio and began to walk and pray.  Within a few steps though, that nagging question came bounding right back up to me and I began to pray, argue, plead, discuss and attempt to negotiate with the Lord!  I realized at one point as I turned the corner near our shed and headed toward the front fence, that my hands were swinging around in the best form of my Italian heritage and that my voice was raised quite loudly.  Thank God that I have no neighbors next to or behind me on that side of the house!  Well, that unresolved discussion continued for a while until I had said all I could think of and Fiver and I retreated into the warmth of our house.

It was the next morning when I had the dream.  As quickly as the dream came it ended and I woke up with a start.  I stared at the ceiling for a few moments, turned and noticed that the clock on the nightstand read 5:23 AM and then fell back asleep.  Within what seemed like only a few seconds I heard and then saw the words: “Possibilities and not Limitations” in my subconscious mind.  As I began to ponder the meaning of those words, I heard that all familiar “small, still voice” of the Lord speak from my spirit clearly saying, “Jim, you need to start dwelling on the possibilities and not on the limitations of your future.”  There was a slight pause and then He continued, “You’ve been dwelling on YOUR limitations and not on MY possibilities!”

Well, He didn’t need to say anymore as I knew in an instant that the dream and His correction or adjustment to my belief system following the dream was all in answer to my troubled concerns and questions that I had agonized over the previous afternoon.  And while I still didn’t have all the answers or pieces of the puzzle, I had His peace “which passeth all understanding…” (Philippians 4:7 KJV)

When I got up about an hour or so later, I quickly wrote down everything I had heard along with some of my personal thoughts on the experience.  During my morning Bible study, I did a search on the word “Possibilities” and, of course, came up with Mark 9:23 from the God’s Word © translation.  In this story, a Father with a sick and troubled son cried out to Jesus saying: “if You are able to do anything, help us and have compassion on us." (Mark 9:22 EMTV)  And without a second thought “Jesus said to him, ‘As far as possibilities go, everything is possible for the person who believes.’" (Mark 9:23 God’s Word ©)

I realized later in the day on the way into town, that the Lord was doing a little bit of course adjustment in my heart with the dream and the following words of wisdom.  It would seem that I was getting a bit off course and was beginning to let all the emotions of Piper’s move to heaven cloud my vision.  I was looking more at how I thought the scenario of my future would go instead of continuing to depend on the unlimited possibilities of God’s possibilities!

I love it when God steps into my life!

‘nough said don’t ya think?  Are there any areas in your life… current or potential… where a slight course adjustment needs to be made so that your focus is totally on the unlimited possibilities of God’s possibilities working freely in your life?  Hummm… that’s something to consider… especially as we come to the end of one year and the beginning of a fresh new one that’s loaded with all kinds of possibilities?  (I used the word possibilities 3 times in that paragraph!  That’s a lot of possibilities for you!)

Have a great weekend, and as you do, say with me… “I am expecting to make whatever adjustments necessary in order to have the unlimited possibilities of God’s possibilities working for me right now and throughout 2019!”