Showers of Righteousness

I had a very strange dream last night. There was someone I used to know who had a lot of power in the world that I was living in back then. He was a powerful person physically – had been a professional fighter and had killed someone outside of the boxing ring when he was in a personal fight and had to stop his professional work because of it. He was the heir in line to a family business and he held the reins over lots of people’s lives in many ways, financially, emotionally and physically. He had wanted to date me once and though I did find him very attractive, even back then, before I knew his history or had any history with him myself, I knew there was something off about him, something abusive and dangerous to the well being of others. I was in his social circle, and over the years he was the cause of much pain and heartache for me. If he couldn’t have me, no one else could, and he spread a lot of rumors that ruined my reputation and made men who I cared for and who had cared for me turn away. I forgave him after I was born again, because the Lord asked me to and showed me how, and that is why the dream I had was so strange last night, because I was back in those old days, but I was who I am now.

In the dream this man was trying his same manipulations, but nothing could harm me. He had absolutely no effect on me whatsoever. He tried to charm me as he always did, and that didn’t work as it didn’t back then, but then he tried to threaten and I felt no fear, something that I had felt from time to time when he was around. He reminded me of what he had been able to do with his gossip and lies, and that didn’t work either. I was able to stand my ground, but not to be angry at all. I just kept telling him that I wasn’t interested in having a relationship with him, that I wasn’t attracted to him, but that I was praying for him, something of course I never did back then, and when I said that he mocked me, but that didn’t matter either. He threatened to ruin any relationship that I currently had or would have, the same way he had done in the past, but I knew that was impossible and I told him so. The reason for my confidence was of course because I know now something that I never knew then, that God is the only one who has control of any one of our lives. We may think we have control over our own life, or like this man we may think we can manipulate and lie to get our own way over someone else’s life, but God always has the last word, and there is nothing that anyone can do to change what He has planned.

I read an amazing verse today that I had not read in the same way before. I was reading a devotional by Annie Downs on a blog on BibleGateway.com, and there was a link to a short video about a verse she was thinking about and trying to understand in 2013, http://www.biblegateway.com/blog/2013/06/annie-downs-the-verse-im-trying-to-understand-in-2013/ The verse she chose is Hosea 10:12, “Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until He comes and showers His righteousness on you.” The blog post I had been reading was titled, “Words that Kill . . . and Heal,” http://www.biblegateway.com/blog/2013/08/annie-downs-words-that-kill-and-heal/?utm_source=bg&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20130824%20-%20Bible%20Gateway%20News%20-%20No%20Survey%20(1)&utm_content= and was about a situation she overheard in a coffee shop with young women talking and one of the young women spoke about something she’d done to hurt another young woman because she hated her so much. In the article, Annie Downs talks about how the word of God can help us to heal from the pain that has been caused by others, and also to find compassion for those that have hurt us and others so that we can help be messengers of His healing. There are so many things that people do to each other because of hate or jealousy, and reading this article after having that dream, and reflecting on a situation that I have been dealing with recently with someone who has been doing similar things as that man did in the past although it is in a very different situation, then reading that passage from Hosea, suddenly there was something in my Spirit that took a breath and released a fear and a doubt and a feeling of weakness and oppression that had been covering me over for too long a time.

When we are born again, when we accept Christ into our lives, we become heirs by faith to the promises God gave to Abraham. “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:29). “Understand then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the Gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’ So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” (Galatians 3:7-9) One of the promises that God gave to Abraham that He gives to us is that we will be blessed and that He will bless those who bless us and curse those who curse us. (Genesis 12:3). If we are walking under the blessing of God, there is nothing that can come against us that He will not put down.

I just saw that a friend had sent me a Bible verse of the day. He is such a sweetheart – he texts people a verse every day, and I don’t have texting on my phone, so he takes the extra time to email me. He sent me Romans 1:16-17, “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” I wrote back to my friend that this passage fits perfectly into what I am writing today because of its own words, but also because “The righteous shall live by faith,” is from Habbakuk 2:4, and the book of Habbakuk is a beautiful example of how we can trust that no matter what situation we are dealing with the Lord will bring justice and mercy to His children because that is our inheritance.

The scripture that Annie Downs wrote about from Hosea 10:12 is one that will be in my heart for a long time now that I have seen it for what seems to be the first time. God will do that with us, no matter how  many times we may read a passage, one day we see it and it is completely new. “Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until He comes and showers His righteousness on you.” As Annie Downs spoke about, I will be meditating on this verse and trying to understand it deep in my own spirit, because I knew when I read it that it was a word He wanted me to know in a way that was deeper and more personal than it had ever been before. As Annie Downs said, I will be seeking the Lord to find out what my own unplowed ground is. I will be seeking Him in a new way to know how He wishes me to seek Him. Seeking Him to show me the way to sow righteousness and to reap the fruit of His unfailing love, and seeking Him until and beyond the shower of righteousness He promises.

Blessings,

Jannie Susan