Dream: I caught sight
of two big, hideous moles that had developed on me. The first was sticking out
of my upper eyelid; the second had sprouted on my upper chest, a short distance
under my collar bone. I looked at them and realized how much they had grown, even
featuring little branching parts all around. They were tall in proportion, and
vertically shaped. Even now as I remember the dream, the visual picture of the
two of them gives me chills. That’s how ugly they were.
I was dismayed. Full
of anticipation of how painful their removal was going to be, I started planning
to make a dermatologist appointment. But suddenly, my sister Anna was there
with me. She applied a medicinal substance to my eyelid, and the first mole
came off easily, without any discomfort whatsoever. I looked into the mirror
with great surprise and relief, thanking her. I was about to request that she
remove the second mole when the dream ended.
Divine “Mole” Removal
I share this dream with you because I know in my spirit that
it is for you as much as it is for me. Holy Spirit has something vital to share
with us through it. This is His message:
Daddy God longs to remove all hindrances to our ability to
see Him. With this dream, He was creating a play on words, in order to convey
to us this longing of His. A mole, in English, is also a little animal that
tunnels through the ground. Characteristically, it has very poor eyesight; the
little creature cannot distinguish colors. Hence, by portraying a “mole” on my
eyelid that was so bulky it would have hindered my ability to see, He was
doubly emphasizing a picture of visual impediment. He further accentuated the
picture by showing me that this impediment was even growing over my heart (the
second mole, on my chest).
Many times, the circumstances of our lives cause impediments
to grow up and block our ability to perceive spiritual truth. Frequently these
“moles” spring up in our earliest childhood, through our upbringing. In other
cases, they either sprout or become worse due to the circumstances of our adult
years. Whatever the cause may be, we oftentimes find ourselves with major blind
spots that keep us from accurately seeing God. We may have an idea of what we
think He is like, but that perception is often distorted. This distortion, or
impediment, steals from us the most essential component of our existence: being
able to intimately know His beautiful heart as it truly is.
It’s His grace that will heal us. The name “Anna” (my sister,
in the dream) means grace, favor, and beauty. In my dream, my sister
represented God’s grace: the beauty of His unmerited favor. His grace came to
me, touched my eye, and the impediment fell off both immediately and painlessly.
His unmerited favor is the only thing that can restore our ability to see Him.
There is absolutely nothing we can do to earn this healing; we must simply ask
for it (as I was preparing to do as the dream ended.) As we come into contact
with His beauty and His loveliness, all hindrances fall away.
We are left blinking and astonished at His wonderful work in
the depths of us, and overflowing with gratitude… just like in the dream, I was
amazed at how Anna had been able to address my difficult issue with such ease.
Thanking her was my natural, instinctive response. Thanking the One who makes
our blind eyes to see will be the spontaneous response of our grateful, healed
hearts as well.
Spiritual Sight Restored in the Intimacy Circle
With this in mind, I want to share with you a passage of
Scripture that addresses the way He heals our vision impediments. He recently
deepened these verses for me, bringing them vibrantly alive, and I know there
is so much here for you too. Out of them, He gave me six truths that will help
you and me know Him more deeply as He restores our sight.
The Scripture He gave me is Matthew 11:25-30. Read these
words slowly and carefully, with thoughtful meditation. Read them through the
lens of understanding that each line here has something to teach us about receiving
healing revelation from God… revelation that will cure our blindness and open
our eyes to see Him:
“At that time Jesus
declared, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have
hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little
children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been
handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and
no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to
reveal him. Come to me, all who labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn
from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your
souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:25-30, ESV).
Holy Spirit broke this passage down for me as follows:
1.
Revelation of His heart comes through
childlike trust. “At that time Jesus
answered and said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid
these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes…’” (Matt. 11:25, ALV, bold emphasis mine).
In order to receive Heaven’s revelation, we need to become as babes. Jesus,
taking the little children in His arms, urged us to welcome His Kingdom as one
of them. He went so far as to say that it would be impossible for us to enter
the Kingdom without adopting a heart posture like theirs.
Entering the Kingdom means entering into
its fullness. It means receiving all the benefits of the Kingdom, including the
ability to gaze on the King. If we are going to enter into these benefits, we
need to come to Him in innocent trust, just as the children did that day (Mark
10:14-16). We don’t need faith in our own ability to believe adequately;
rather, we need to lean deeply into His
ability to perfect our faith and all that pertains to our growth in Him.
Becoming childlike means that we relinquish
our right to understand, and we let go of our right to be in control. It means we
feel no need to have life figured out, because we know that the One holding us
in His everlasting arms already has it all worked out in absolute perfection.
It means we snuggle into His bosom in absolute abandon. It means we unquestioningly
expect Him to take care of us. It means we see Him as huge and us as really
little, and completely safe in His big, strong embrace.
We need Jesus to take us into His arms,
just as He did for those little ones. As He blessed them, we need Him to release
to us the blessing of spiritual sight. Let’s ask Him to do so right now, and then
every day of our lives to come.
2.
He loves sharing Himself with us! “Yea, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in your sight” (v. 26,
bold emphasis mine). It pleases Daddy greatly to give us revelation. When we
come to Him as His little ones, His heart overflows. He exults in the
opportunity to take us deeper into the knowledge of His heart. Eyes twinkling, He
whispers to us: “Fear not, little flock,
for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32,
ESV). Nothing could bring Him more pleasure than to impart to us deeper heart
knowledge of who He is.
3.
He is delighted to bring His humble,
trusting, dependent ones into His Daddy-Son intimacy circle. “All things have been delivered to me by my
Father; and no one knows the Son, save the Father, nor does anyone know the Father, save the Son, and he
to whomever the Son wills to reveal him”
(v. 27, bold emphasis mine). Jesus wills to reveal to Father to you. He yearns
for you to know, like He does, how beautiful Daddy is. He is eternally in His
bosom, where Abba’s tenderness flows freely. Daddy and Son exult ceaselessly in
closeness and the blissful sharing of Their love. Knowing each other fully,
profoundly, and exquisitely is the result of dwelling together, permanently entwined
in love.
How Jesus loves to bring us into Their
intimacy! When we climb up to nestle into His bosom, He eagerly pulls us into
Their unending circle of mutual delight. Daddy expresses to our deepest hearts
that He loves us just as much as He loves Jesus. Jesus chimes in warmly and
tells us that He loves us just as much as Daddy loves Him (John 1:18; 15:9; 17:23).
4.
He extends to each one of us His invitation
to receive this deeper revelation of Him. “Come to me, all you who
labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest” (v. 28, bold emphasis mine). Do you hear Him calling to
you? Do you feel His summons pulling gently on your heart? No one, absolutely no
one, is excluded. He beckons to every single human soul needing a haven… “Come.”
To each of us needing our blind spots removed, He gently urges, “Come to Me…”
5.
Revelation of Himself is how Jesus reveals
Daddy to us. “Take my yoke upon you
and learn of me, for I am meek and
lowly in heart…” (v. 29a, bold emphasis mine). In verse 27, Jesus speaks about
revealing His Abba to us. This is how He does it. Showing us His own heart.
He invites us, “Learn of Me. Receive Me. Taste
of My goodness, My nearness, My gentleness, My humility. Experience for
yourself how approachable I am, how inviting, how accessible, how welcoming.
Look into My eyes. See that I am brimming over with kindness, and that I am exceedingly
eager to have you close. Receive revelation of My exquisite love for you. As I
deposit this knowledge Spirit to spirit into the depths of you, the impartation
of My devotion to you will transcend words. As you breathe Me in, you breathe
in Daddy too. He and I are one. Together, we draw you into Our oneness, into Our
union, into Our mutual delight.”
6.
Revelation of Him is rest. “…and you
shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is
light” (v. 29b, 30, bold emphasis mine). As we allow ourselves to be the
cherished little ones in His arms, the spirit of revelation pours from His
heart into ours. Wrapped up in the Godhead’s eternal intimacy circle, rest begins
to flow to the deepest places of our being.
Our tensed up shoulders relax. We let go of
everything we have had tightly clenched in our hands, releasing all of it,
absolutely all of it, to Him. All stress drains from our body, soul, and
spirit. We sink deeply into His strong, tender embrace. Real, heavenly rest
penetrates every pore, sinks
into every crevice, and permeates to the very fiber of our being. In coming to experientially
know who He is, we come to intimately know what it really means to rest.
This is the balm of Gilead. This is the salve that He
applies to our eyes, that we might see Him. The beauty of His grace gently
removes everything that has been hindering our eyes from gazing on Him. All
impediments fall away instantly and painlessly. We blink in astonishment,
overcome by the beauty of the Lovely One. All that remains is to give voice to
the spontaneous overflow of thanksgiving that bubbles up to Him out of our
hearts, overwhelmed by all that He is and all that He has done…
