Your Tree of Life

     I have written in the past on Hope, and how God has really been speaking to my heart this year about my hope; keeping it alive through every circumstance, even when our surroundings seem a bit hopeless. 

     He is always encouraging me not to let go of hope. 

    The beautiful thing about God speaking this to me, especially through the last dream I blogged about, is right after that dream I got some pretty life-shaking news where I really had to choose to trust God in knowing everything would be okay. It was hard news to hear being an ocean away from my family.

     But God is good. That is the number one truth I know in my heart, and I love seeing him cover both me and my family in his grace and love as we walked through it.

     I had another dream I wanted to write about that I had a few nights ago... again the theme of the dream seemed to be hope- especially around the same verse as the last dream:

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is the tree of life.

     The dream started out at this amazing place, where the atmosphere was all love, joy and fun. It felt like a vacation. It took place on a giant mountain covered in a beautiful forrest with a castle at the top. 

     At the start of the dream I was in the valley of the mountain, in a bathhouse sort of building with several other families. Each family had their own fountain in the bathhouse. But many families didn't know how to use their fountian. I learned to use the fountains by watching a little kid, and to use it you go to it and tell the fountain what you need, and whatever you asked for, it would magically make and send to you. (the two things I asked for was water for myself, and then a gift for another person; so the fountain could give you whatever you needed as long as you asked).

     Then our bus came(the bus to journey up the mountain and into the castle). 

     They warned us before boarded the bus that there was several forest fires at the time, and also a war, but not to be afraid.

     As we traveled up the mountain we passed the beautiful forrest, and I noticed so many trees had fires in them. (Each family had their own tree, and when we got to the castle each family would settle in and venture out on the mountain to go visit their tree).

    I also passed many forests that the trees had been chopped down because of the fires. I wondered why they would do this to their tree, because the fires were so small and could easily be put out!

     Then I noticed the people in black cloaks who were attacking the families that were trying to save their trees. This was the war they warned us about.

     I knew the people in black cloaks were the cause of the little fires in the trees (I could see the fires started by flaming arrows) then the black cloaked people would use discouragement and hopelessness to convince the families to cut down their tree. If a family cut their tree down and killed it, then soon they would turn into the same people in the black cloaks and end up attacking other families.

    As I watched all this, I thought of our own tree and knew whatever it looked like, we had to save it.

     We arrived at the castle and there were many people in black cloaks waiting for us outside the gates. The gates opened for our bus to enter, but the cloaked people could not get in. Yet they knew we would need to step out in order to go save our tree. I was afraid, but not overwhelmed because I knew it was something I had to do, and I also knew it was possible. That's when I woke up.

     After this dream, God spoke to me about the war being our own spritual warfare, and right now it is so important not to loose hope. If God has promised you something, hold onto it. Don't be discouraged by the little lies of the enemy trying to bring hopelessness upon you. God's word does not return void... but when He speaks, we have the choice to step out. Like the end of my dream, I knew I needed to step out to save my tree- for a desire fulfilled is the tree of life. But when we cut down our tree from not stepping out, or from believing a situation to be hopeless... this makes our hearts sick and not only affects us and our family, but also others around us.

     So if this speaks to a situation you are going through, like me, I want to simply encourage you to step out in Hope, trusting God that although circumstances look a bit scary, we will not be overwhelmed because there is no such thing as 'hopeless' in the Kingdom of God.