("God's Unfolding Message" Series 1, Post 8)
*It wasn’t until I finished writing this that I realized God was purposely including previous lessons (Blog/Video titles) into His message. I went back into this message and put these titles in as found within parentheses. God is fun and is also showing us how He is building upon His message. Because of this I encourage you to go back and read/ and or listen via video to these previous messages within "God's Unfolding Message."
2-27-22
I have been wondering, and even expressed to my husband this Sunday morning, how my ministry and God’s future promises to me revolving around this ministry, fit in with what’s happening in the world today. The world is changing at such a rapid pace that I wonder if anyone will ever be still enough again (at least in their minds) to watch, listen, or read, anything God expresses through me, or others as well. For, in order for people to testify, other people have to be able to focus on these stories.
In church, God spoke:
Susan, great things are happening in the spiritual realm. What is evident to the world is only a glimpse of the big picture. My army is hard at work and My Spirit is highly on the move. A spiritual shift is taking place that will only enhance your ministry, not hinder it. Susan, I know what I am doing. I truly do have the whole world in My hands, especially My people. I will not let them down. Testify Susan. Testify to your good God for that is what I am. I am Good. Everything I do is for My glory and the good of My people. I discipline those I love and My people are being disciplined, greatly. But this will only lead to a stronger faith that will greatly enrich the days ahead, the days to come. I prepare those I love and I am truly preparing My people.
I had to stop writing to find a new pen since the ink was running out (Let His Glory Flow Freely). I had to do this twice, so the second time it happened, I decided to grab two just in case. I paused a moment to realize that these two pens happened to be one black and one blue. The reason I took notice of this is that I love using my church’s pens for they write so well, and even though they have often gotten new ones, changing the colors on me, I had never seen these two colors before. Also, in this moment, they stood out because they didn’t match the others in the seatbacks around me.
Anyway, with two new pens in hand, God continued:
Be prepared My people. Let Me prepare you. Be open to My cleansing My children for this is My will for you. It will lead to great and mighty things. Though it feels like you are only becoming black and blue, My Spirit is making ready a people prepared for the Lord, a people worthy of the Lord - one on fire for Him that shines from a deep-seeded glow (It’s Time to Glow). Black and blue, black and blue. I know you feel black and blue, beaten down, but you are about to rise. Out of the ashes My people will rise - stronger, empowered, and truly ready to shine Christ’s light for the world to see. Shine on! Shine on! SHINE ON oh Bride of Christ. Your Bridegroom is ready. He is eager. Oh, how He longs to return for you, but there is work to do (God Longs for Our Wedding Day). There are souls to save. There are tasks to complete. There are steps of faith to still be taken. I am requiring that My people take steps of faith. I have already claimed victory. I already have the promised land primed and ready to receive My people but the desert stands between them and My promise. Take that step My children. Step into that desert and know that I will get you to the other side. You just have to believe, believe and take the first step. Once you do, there is nothing I won’t do for you. Great testimonies will arise in this desert after first steps are taken, testimonies that will impact nations - testimonies that will take place within the desert and these stories will arise from all, not just a select few. Every Israelite in the desert saw My wonders, not just a select few. So, STOP thinking that great testimonies are not waiting for you or only belong to special people. How dare you claim any one of My creations inferior. I am the God of ALL and this includes you! YOU! I am talking to you! YOU! Let Me reveal your story to you. I have it ready. All you have to do is step into it - take that first step and believe. I cannot work without belief. I can, but choose not to. It is a small price to pay for what lies in wait for those that choose to pay that price. Let go of your fears. Fear - oh what a mighty foe you are to My people. Be GONE! Fear you have no true power. It is Fantasy Eating At Reality (Fear = Fantasy Eating At Reality). Be GONE! BE GONE!
Rejoice My children! Rejoice! Again, I say rejoice! Rejoice! There is nothing to fear for I AM GOD! I AM GOD! Think upon those words. These are the only words you truly need - I AM GOD. I AM YAHWEH. I AM THE GREAT I AM. Believe and I mean truly believe. How easily these words flow through your mind and out of your lips but never take form within your heart. It is time, time for your head knowledge to become heart knowledge. To declare with Job My Saint, “My ears had heard of you before but now my eyes have seen you.” You will see Me My people. All of you will see Me. I will hold nothing back. In fact, after that first step of faith, believing will be easy because I WILL show up. Ask this woman before you. I have shown up for her in ways that make her seem crazy, something she struggles with, but does she not now shine? Shine on My sweet love. The only one you have to please is Me and you have. Inspire! Keep inspiring and shining for all who will listen, and know that I am with you. I empower you. You would be nothing without Me but with Me, you are a Star, a bright shining Star that will - WILL impact the nations (Shine Like a Star from Bridegroom in the Clouds: Bridge Stories). My children, it is solely because she stepped out in faith, into that desert, and I showed up for her and I want to show up for you as well, and will, with every step of faith. Where is your faith My children? You claim to have it but I truly see very little. But a new day is coming when your faith will be made real. It will no longer be theoretical. What a great day this will be. Your Bridegroom awaits this glorious day. OH, WHAT A DAY! OH, WHAT A DAY!
I love you, Susan. Cry out! Cry out!
I took notice of a little boy’s shirt that stood in front of me during church. It stuck out to me because it made me think of one of my favorite t-shirts from when I was younger, one that said “Go against the flow.” It had an ichthus (a small Christian fish) on it going the opposite direction of sharks and other scary fish. This boy’s shirt was blue, like the one I was wearing, and it was covered in black and blue sharks.
God continued:
Go against the flow My children. Go against the flow. It’s time. In a world headed back to Egypt, to slavery, go against the flow. Choose freedom. It isn’t the easy way but it is the path that leads to true freedom. Be free My loves, be free! Freedom is yours. You only have to step towards it. I love you.
Once my pastor began his sermon, it became clear that through him God was now addressing what a first step really is. In order to take that first step, we have to know what it is. The first step is the act of obedience though faith.
My pastor talked about seed sowing, that there were four seed sowing truths. The first truth is that we need to focus on our part, what God is calling each of us individually to do in obedience. Nehemiah ‘s wall came to my mind in that moment once again, for God had been bringing this to my mind over the last few days. He had been reminding me that He is only calling me to take on the responsibilities that He gives me individually as one person. I cannot take on the world and other’s responsibilities. That weight would be too much to bear. I just have to be faithful to what God is calling me to do, to the seeds He is calling me to sow. Back when God was using Nehemiah to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem, the task was completed because people decided to simply work on their section of the wall, the one section close to where they lived. Because of this, together they rebuilt the wall. After having this thought, I heard:
Susan, you are within a seed planting season. Your harvest will be great Susan, just keep sewing. Susan, your kind of sowing is weaving together - sewing together a wonderful web of wonder - my stars unified shining bright, testifying to Jesus! It will happen Susan. IT WILL HAPPEN My love.
(Wonderful Web of Wonder – This is the vision God gave me 14 years ago to describe His will for my life. I wasn’t expecting God to bring it out here and now. It will also be the title of my 3rd book for within this book I will talk about God introducing this vision. God’s Wonderful Web of Wonder is exactly what He just described - His Stars (us) aligned shining bright, testifying to Jesus.)
I have a great story about my name. Hopefully you will get to hear it all someday, but for now just know that the initials of my maiden name spell SEW. God pointed out to me a long time ago that this is no accident. As He just pointed out again, His purpose for me has always been to sew His people together. To call all of God’s people to unify and testify together. We were made to know God and to make Him known, together. I think it’s fun that every time I dictate my writing that I have to go in and change “sew” to “sow.” Voice recognition never picks up the word sow. Each time I have to manually change it, it is just God’s way of reminding me of my purpose.
My pastor continued and said that it is easy to “spend all my time thinking about the effect, the results. But God is in control of the results. Our job is to just be obedient, to sow.”
1 Corinthians 3:7-8 says, “It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work.”
It is simply our job to sow, to invite. God always tells me to invite; that it is simply my job to invite people to know Him more through my testimony. Only God can bring it to life. This is something God brought to life a few months ago, through a story that He brought to my mind during this portion of the sermon. For, I began to picture my rose.
As I just went back to find this story, I noticed that it happened almost exactly a year ago. Here it is:
2-12-21
Yesterday I noticed that in the very back of my mailbox was a little black package. I could tell that it came from someplace overseas for it was wrapped in a dingy black bag and had a customs tag. It was addressed to our address although our name was not on it. Because of this I knew that I wouldn’t be able to find the owner and so I went ahead and opened it. It was a dingy, crushed, red silk rose. I thought this was very odd, and because it seemed cheap, at that point, I really didn’t worry about finding its owner. I also couldn’t stop thinking that somehow God wanted to tell me something through this.
All I could think was “Bloom where I am planted,” (Bloom Where God Plants You from Bridegroom in the Clouds: Bridge Stories) but even this didn’t seem to be exactly what God was saying. Then today as I was driving in the car, my spirit perked up heavily when I tuned into the radio to hear lyrics from the song “Priceless” by For King and Country. It repeated over and over, saying,
I see you dressed in white, every wrong made right
I see a rose in bloom, at the sight of you
I then began to think that God was telling me that I was a rose in bloom.
An hour later, I had my devotional and something happened that hasn’t happened in a long time, the devotional portion coincided with what God was trying to say to me. It spoke to my heart and I instantly perked up and began to cry. It said, “We cup sullied hearts in hands and offer them to God as we would a crushed, scentless flower: ‘Can you bring this to life?’
And he does. He does. We don’t . . . Our big God blesses our small faith.”
When I read it talk about a crushed, scentless flower - waterworks. I knew God was speaking to me.
All I can think about is that He is showing me that only He can bring my story to life, my testimony. As I have expressed lately, I do feel like a crushed, scentless flower. Most of all I really feel like this is how people perceive me. I don’t shine, I don’t bloom, nothing about me has ever wooed anybody to me, not to mention that no matter how much I have ever strived, I am not capable of promoting my testimony or getting anyone to truly take notice of it. God is the Word of my testimony and therefore He is the only One that can bring it to life. His is the only fragrance that can woo others. God will have to be glorified because I am naturally and instinctively a crushed, scentless flower. So, if He plans to do anything with my testimony, it definitely will be all Him.
I finally put my star pendant on a new chain today to wear it more often and my little Faith asked me if I was going to shine like a star after taking notice of it. I thought that those were interesting words to come out of the mouth of a three-year-old, and of course my spirit perked up when she said them. But now I know God was speaking because the devotional did go on to say, “Our big God blesses our small faith.”
I at least have that. After everything God has done, I at least have a little bit of faith. God’s word says that He can and will do great things with even the tiniest of faith.
After that devotional back then, I was inspired to get out all of my past efforts, “my seeds” and line them up for a picture. I cried as I looked at them all, mostly because of how they all seemed to have led nowhere, although I had such hope at the time. Throughout the years I had made and handed out multiple bookmarks, business cards, and versions of my testimony. Like I said, I laid them all out in a row next to that dingy, fake flower, and cried as I asked God to bring it to life as He pointed out that only He could.
I now have that flower sitting in a little porcelain bowl shaped like a star next to where I write and have my quiet times. Almost every day I feel the rose, living in expectation that one day as I reach down to feel it that I will feel that it has become a real rose. That it has come alive. I know that sounds crazy but you know, I used to look up into the sky often, hoping to see a name there in the clouds, and finally one day, I did. We must live in expectation of great testimonies!
If you do not already know this story about the name in the clouds, please find and read my book: Bridegroom in the Clouds, Book One: The Promise. You can also hear me tell this story by video. At BridegroomintheClouds.org look for the Video: “God wrote in the clouds for me.” We serve an awesome God! This is just one more amazing story of how God showed up in my desert, giving me something worth testifying about.
Continuing on, through everything God has been calling me to do this year, leading me to social media and using it as a new way to sow seeds, I keep thinking of the movie “Field of Dreams” and that famous line “If you build it, they will come.” I have a lot written, along with a lot of blogs and videos containing prophetic words from the Lord, but there still is not a lot of people reading or hearing them. But yet, God’s call and the drive within my spirit to keep going, is very strong. God has only ever called me to obedience, to simply invite, to plant those seeds, and even more nowadays, I am doing so at a rate unlike ever before. I am scattering seed with all my might and so I have to believe that God will eventually use those seeds to cause people to take notice. As God showed me, it is His job to bring it to life, to cause life to grow out of our seeds. My pastor went on to say, “God made a big deal out of the Widow’s mite because it was a small seed.” I love that God has even equipped this testifier with a visual for you. Many years ago, I acquired a real Widow’s mite, an actual mite from Bible times. It has always served as a great reminder to me that God provides (God is Our Provider). He provides where He leads, and He will provide the fruit from our seeds.
So, as my pastor went on to say, because of this, “Don’t hoard your seed. Spread it everywhere.” Matthew. 28:19 says, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 9:6 says, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.” Not only should we sow everywhere but sow generously.
As I looked up at a picture provided to us on the overhead screen, a picture of the four soils described by Jesus in Matthew 13:18-23, I found myself inspired to relate each of them to different social media outlets. This sounds silly but this is my life right now. God has highly been calling me to testify by any means possible and the means that He has provided right now is various social media platforms, calling me greatly out of my comfort zone in this regard. But why shouldn’t He? For because of Covid, even traditional missionary journeys overseas have come to a halt and a lot of it is done virtually now. We have had several guest missionaries at our church talk about this transition. Even church services are now more virtual than they were pre-Covid. I also began to think about the Apostle Paul yet again and how if he was alive today that he would probably also be using social media platforms because this is what our world is right now. Nothing can stop God. Nothing! I am not advocating that we stop trying to fight for personal interactions, I am simply saying that God will make a way where there seems to be no way. As He has often said to me, He uses everything. He will get the glory through EVERYTHING! Everything is just a means to HIS end.
Anyway, as I looked at those four different soil types, I instantly knew which social media platform, at least in my life, represented each one. It won’t surprise you, but TikTok was undoubtably in my life the thorny soil. Twitter right now in my life is the hard ground. Instagram is the rocky ground, and Facebook is a good soil, mostly because through Facebook is where I get most of my response. But why shouldn’t I? For this is the platform I have used the longest and because of this, over time I have slowly built-up a following. I am still relatively new to these other platforms, but as I persevere and keep sowing through them, like God recently said to me, with each step of faith the ground will soften.
2 Corinthians 9:8 goes on to say, “And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.” This made me think of my coffee makers and I see why God brought this to my mind. It is because, as He already referred to me as a good example for you, this story represents my first step. My first step in faith, within the desert I found myself within, was asking God in belief to romance me. It was my first step away from my idol worship that had landed me in the desert. At that time, I didn’t want to have to resort to God romancing me instead of a man, instead of my boyfriend Joe whom I had just separated from. But my Bible study group challenged me to do so and so I took that first step of faith away from my idol worship, or my desire for a man above God, and I asked God to show up, and like God said He would do for you as well, He did. And He did so again and again. I gained so much that I have no choice but to give some away! I have so much testimony that I am going to explode if I don’t testify. Back then God brought coffee to my mind and ended up giving me four $49.99 coffee makers for $10. I didn’t need four of course so I gave some away! 2 Corinthians 9:10 says, “For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you.” I can testify to this (God’s Manifesting Presence).
I love a rather new Casting Crowns song that says, “I’m just a nobody trying to tell everybody all about somebody who saved my soul.” I love this because that is how I see myself, and one of the very reasons why God chose me. I am a nobody from nowhere but God has made me an example of a testifier. I posted a written free guide and a video last Thursday entitled “How and Why We Should Testify,” and through it I gave different examples of how people could testify: song, dance, works of the hand, and spoken and written word. Well, I didn’t plan this, but God did, for that very same evening I did something I hadn’t done in a really long time, I danced. I spent that evening engaging in Davidic dance in preparation for the upcoming Passover Seder Meal. Davidic Dance is a Jewish folk dance style named after King David. Anyway, after I got back home from dancing, God reminded me of all the ways He has equipped me to testify, mainly as a way to show you that if I can do it, you can do it. I write, I dance, I have made works of the hand as God led me to make sterling silver jewelry. I have sung in choirs and still love to sing, and as you know, I have recently engaged in the spoken word, not just the written. But the point is, believe me, if I can do it, you can do it! God didn’t choose me because I was qualified, He qualified this called. He called me and equipped me. Oh, the stories I could still tell you if I had time. But they are written down. They are published stories, planted seeds if you feel led to partake, which I hope and pray you do.
My Pastor finished by saying that we must sow in faith, pointing out the need for long-term patience. He said, “We look at years, God is looking at eternity.” True that! I can testify to that for I am still waiting, even after 14 years. I am planting those seeds with all my might, even right now as I write this for you, but still, I wait for the fruit. But God recently revealed something to me. He showed me His timing. My journey started when God promised me that my Bridegroom would return to me and he did. I ended up marrying that boyfriend I had separated from once he was no longer an idol for me. It took seven years. But within that journey through the desert that led me to fall more in love with Jesus, I gained a desire for something I wanted even more, something I had actually wanted greatly long before I ever even met Joe, to be in ministry for Jesus. Well, last year God told me and pointed out to me symbolically in some awesome way (even more stories to share at a later time), that my time has come. That a ministry revolving around that promise and my testimony is upon me. Last year was 7 years after marrying Joe. So, what God showed me is that my story and His timing is a lot like Jacobs. For even though I originally thought that my husband Joe was my “Rachel,” what I desired above all, I eventually came to realize that he was really my “Leah.” For what I wanted even more than a man was to be in great service for the Lord, to be in ministry. My college days, pre-Joe, was filled with wanting nothing more than to be a missionary. This is my “Rachel.” And I have worked 14 years for her. But God finally called me out. In the midst of Covid and quarantine and a crazy world, God said that my time has come.
I remember leaving my mission with a mission organization that reached out to international students and not understanding why. For I felt like I was finally positioned to reach the world for Christ. After seeing some Chinese girls on a corner as I drove by, having just resigned in obedience to God, I cried out to God with “Why?” He said, “Susan, you can serve them better with My purpose for you.” Well, I finally truly see the truth. My calling is to now call you out! I could testify to a handful of international students or I could encourage you and equip you to testify with me. And together, not “we could reach the world.” God has told me that we WILL reach the world. WE WILL REACH THE WORLD. God has shown me the end from the beginning and that Wonderful Web of Wonder will happen.
My pastor finished with Psalms 92: 12-14 which says, “But the godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon. For they are transplanted to the Lord’s own house. They flourish in the courts of our God. Even in old age they will still produce fruit; they will remain vital and green.”
My pastor brought up these palm trees. He mentioned that they take forever to grow but that once they reach maturity that they can bend down and touch the ground in a storm and still get back up strong. My friends, God decorated His temple with palm trees. We are now His temple and He desires us to be like palm trees, having a truly deep seeded faith, a glow that cannot easily be put out. If you have followed God’s word through me recently at all, you know that He has constantly addressed the age issue, pointing out that He has work to do even for the older generation. I myself have struggled with my age and how God waited until now to call me out and not when I was younger. It is because we may see the years, but God sees eternity. Age is meaningless to the God of all time. If you are still alive you have work to do or you wouldn’t be here. God has greatly pointed this out. God back and read or watch some of my previous content. This is a constant theme that God is pointing out. In “The Bride has Made Herself Ready,” and especially in “Cursor in the Sky” God points out that while living, at any age, we are the Bride of Christ, and it’s our job to get ready for our wedding day to the King of kings. We do this by giving each day of our lives to God and asking Him to fill it with His story, a story that will be worth testifying about!
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up (Galatians 9:6).
During my pastor’s final prayer, I love that the only thing that could be heard, other than him, was a car revving very loudly outside. I knew yet again based on more of my content “It’s Turbo Time,” that God was saying yet again that it’s turbo time (It’s Turbo Time: Time to Come Out of Our Shells). It is time to get busy. It is time to get busy taking those steps of faith. Join me! Together we will reach this world with the light of Jesus Christ! Together we will become that Wonderful Web of Wonder.
*After I finished writing this and made a video, I went to pick up my daughter. The first thing out of her mouth was “We talked about the desert today?” I asked, “What desert?” She replied, “The one coming out of Egypt.” My friends, you cannot make this stuff up. Out of the mouths of babes. God was using her to confirm His message. He was using my little Faith (for that is her name) to confirm what He desires us to do: to take that step of faith, even if all we have within us to give is just a little step of faith, into that desert and start towards that promised land where our Bridegroom is primed and ready to receive us.
So, join me. Let’s go against the flow and this world that is heading back to Egypt and choose obedience, choose freedom. We won’t be disappointed for our God is Good! He is God! He is Yahweh!