Communication with God

This is a post that I put on my blog two years ago, and I just felt that I would like to share it again as my blog was very new then and some of you may not have read my testimony on this issue.

My friend and I felt that we had been neglecting our evangelism in the streets.  We have put poetry together with scripture in the form of leaflets to hand out to people and sometimes I take my guitar and we sing songs that we believe the Lord has brought us to write.  We decided that we would go on the Friday of that week into the town centre, and also take the guitar.  By the time Thursday had arrived I was feeling apprehensive about taking the guitar out with us and singing, partly because I was just getting over a cold, and partly because I hadn't sung in the street for a while.  So I prayed to the Lord and asked Him to show me whether I should take the guitar with me or not.  I was quite happy just to give out the leaflets.

That night I had a dream that I was given a sheet of paper.  At first glance the piece of paper appeared to be blank.  Then, as I tilted it, the light seemed to catch it and reveal a hidden message, almost as if there was another layer, beneath the top blank sheet, that could only be revealed when the light caught it a certain way.  I could barely make out what it said, but the harder I looked the clearer the message became.  It was simply the number 147.

The next morning I forgot all about having the dream, until I was seeking th Lord again about whether I should take my guitar out and sing that afternoon.  I had my Bible in front of me and suddenly the dream returned to my mind.  I felt led to read Psalm 147.  The first line said to sing praises, for a song of praise is seemly.  Verse seven also spoke about singing with a musical instrument.  Verse eleven says that the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him.  I decided that I was being told by the Lord to take the guitar and sing.  When I reached my friends house, she said she had also been reading Psalm 147 and believed we were were to sing as well as handing out the leaflets.  This we did and had a very good response from people on the street.
 

The next day I was working on my computer with an image manipulation package in which I can work with layers, a facility which gives me the ability to use several layers to build up a picture.  It enables me to totally block out a layer beneath the active layer without losing the information on that lower layer, it is simply obscured from my view.  What I see on my computer screen depends on which layer I choose to place on top as the active layer.  That same morning the postman had brought a letter from my bank which told me that there was a new way of getting help other than from the help desk at my branch.  There was a phone number to ring and if I peeled back a slip on a blank sheet of paper that was in the envelope, my code number, which I must use when I call, would be revealed.  As I peeled back the slip of paper my mind was cast back to my dream, and I realized that God was showing me something.

The blank sheet in my dream represented my carnal mind which was not really knowing what to do concerning the singing.  The other layer which appeared when the sheet of paper was tilted in the light was the enlightened word of the Holy Spirit directing me to the rhema word of God spoken to me in Psalm 147.

This incident showed me the importance of seeking God's will not only for direction as to what the Lord has called me to do, but also for seeking His word for guidance as to how my way of thinking must change according to His word spoken to me.  As with the layers facility on my computer program, the carnal mind has the ability to blank out the spiritual mind of Christ if I do not stay in communication with the Lord.  Just like the layers facility on my computer, what I see depends on which mind I keep active.  Also, the personal code number that I must use to get help from my bank represented the enlightened word of God being revealed to me, in my own life and ministry, through prayer.

 

After I finished writing this article I picked up one of my Christian daily devotional booklets to see what the day's reading was and this is what it said.  'God revealed Himself to Samuel through His word.'