The difference between a dream and a night vision is usually a night vision is pretty self explanatory. In other words, you don't usually need a night vision interpreted because it's pretty clear and specific. The Lord is usually speaking directly to you. Dreams often need some kind of interpretation for you to get any idea what it's really about or if the Lord is speaking and what He is saying. I wanted to give that explanation because in my experience I kind of just knew what God was saying with out Him necessarily saying it or me actually hearing it. This is not a new or weird concept for doesn't it say in 1 Corinthians 2 NASB:
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, 13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
Wouldn't it be cool if all education was like that? Where the teacher just walks in the room and we all just kind of get it without too much effort? But I digress...we'll save that thought for a blog post another day.
I felt like what Father was telling me was something about Time. I've asked many questions on this topic. I think perspective is so important and when it all seems hopeless, hoping in the eternal is all that is left. There is such beauty in that because even if all really was lost, and let's face it, it rarely ever is, we have so much to hope for and be thankful for just knowing that our eternal lives are secure. I love that when we ask He answers. Sometimes it's not always what we want to hear or how we want to hear it but His faithfulness is such a comfort.
So in this space of peace and rest I felt Him speak to me about time.
Here's what I got.
When I look at a clock I see my present time, but if He looked at my clock He would see all the time. Not just all the hours of the day but all the hours of every day from beginning to end. It's almost like there is no beginning or end, if I can be so bold.
If I were to ask Him when change is coming His answer would be...all the time.
He's working things out for my good and everything except His nature is subject to change. My situation is changing even now, and it has changed all the same.
When did Adam and Eve first sin? All the time.
The great fall happened long ago and is still happening now. He weeps for every fallen heart like He did the first, but He never looses hope because Love always hopes. And because He's All The Time He can always hope because He knows how it will work out in the future while in the present. (Hmm I love that thought about hope by the way! I mean if you read the end of the book you wouldn't be too freaked out if the character in the story was in great peril because you already knew it would work out? So of course you could be hopeful....*sigh* save that thought for another blog post.)
When did Christ die to save me? All the time.
I was saved then and I am being saved now. That's why faith was credited to Abraham. In his time Christ had yet to come. But in God's time Christ not only was coming but He came and was risen because God is not only The End, He's in the end right now, all the time. What?! Yeah I know *mind blowing*
When will He come again? All the time.
He's coming and because God can clearly see the end and in fact is there in the end it's already happened, and is happening, and will happen....all the time.
If someone asked you, "Are you breathing?" You could answer, "Of course, all the time." That would mean that you've been breathing your whole life and are currently still breathing. But if you ask Him and He says "all the time," it means He was, He is, and is always, which is pretty widely known and understood. Where I think we loose it is when we say He is, was, and is always, all at the same time. It's hard for our little minds to grasp. But hang in there with me.
You are in the present. You have a past and a future and He is in all of it, all the time. He's an all the time God.
When
did He forgive you? When will your circumstances get better? When will
He move on your children's hearts? When will there be justice? When is there love and grace and
peace and joy?All the time.
The cool thing I got out of this is that He also sees us in the all the time sort of way.
When God saw David as a shepherd boy He didn't just see him young and ignorant with a heart full of love. The Father saw him as a man. As a king. He saw all David's mistakes and He saw this in real time. Actually you could say He sees. Even though it's the past for us it's still present for Him in all the time and if you really want to be confused it's actually still the past and future...at the same time...all the time.
How many times can you say "all the time," in a blog post?
When He looks at me He doesn't see me just as I am now. He sees all of me. He sees me as a little girl and as an old wrinkly woman and He sees my all, all at once, all the time.
I was created, I'm being created. I am saved and I'm being saved. I'm healed and I'm being healed. I have been made perfect and am being perfected...all the time. For now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known (1 Cor 13:12). Even though I'm not "full" yet. All that I am hasn't happened for me yet but He knows all of it and He knew it before any of it happened. He sees all my potential for good and for bad and He loved me and He called me and He calls me and He loves me...all the time.
This is why He is literally good. All. The. Time. Not as in everyday He's so good to me, although He is. But in ALL time, ALL the time, He is good.
*Ok so at this point I've just reread all I've written and I'd like to admit that it could seem totally crazy. At the same time it can seem like something I kind of already knew about God. I hope some of it has made sense, at least as much as it did to me. If nothing else I hope you walk away from reading it knowing that before "time" began He thought of you. He knew you. All of you. And He chose right then to love you despite, well, everything.
**Oh and how cool is it that I actually found a pic with a clock photo shopped on top of a dandelion?! Totally cool that's how.
