On the Feast of Trumpets last year, I heard the shofar blast. After taking my daughter to a play date, I decided to go to the mall to finally use a coupon I had for a store there. I remember feeling uncomfortable the moment I walked into the mall. I always feel uncomfortable there. Surrounded by the world, I feel old, fat, and ugly but right as I had that thought again this time, I heard, “Susan, I see you and you are beautiful and My opinion is the only One that matters.” I blushed and my heart welled up knowing that Jesus, my true Love, sees my beauty and that that truly is all that matters. We are His Bride after all.
I then walked from store to store, finding nothing, not even able to use my coupon. So, I decided to leave. As I was walking out, I felt agitated in my spirit, feeling like I shouldn’t have even gone to the mall to begin with, when all of a sudden, I heard the shofar blast. It was faint and obviously coming from outside, but nonetheless, I heard it. Three long blasts in a row and with every one of them I looked around as I walked to see if anyone else was hearing what I was hearing, but it was obvious that no one else cared and that they were distracted, focused on other things. I briefly thought about going outside but the blasts were finished before I came close to a door. Then literally right as the final one sounded Joe, my husband, called me. He NEVER calls me in the middle of his workday. Yet, my Bridegroom always seems to show up in some way right after anything having to do with that trumpet blast.
In fact, the year before this, I was testifying, making a video about how the shofar sounded and surprised me at our very wedding. I was sharing about how I almost took off my wedding dress in order to go to the bathroom one last time when something inside of me stopped me. I am so glad, for had I done that I would not have been ready. Because before we knew it, since no one told us we were starting, even my wedding coordinator who was right there praying with us, all of a sudden, we heard that shofar blast. Good thing I was ready, dressed in white and ready to go. Anyway, in the middle of sharing this testimony, in walked my husband and startled me. He NEVER comes home in the middle of his workday, but he did that day, right as I was talking about that shofar blast at our wedding. I knew God was speaking, that He was STILL speaking.
The year before that, the first copy of my published testimony arrived in the mail ON the Feast of Trumpets. This book contains the portion of my testimony that talks about God giving me a promise to return Joe, my promised bridegroom to me, a promise God confirmed by writing Joe’s name in the clouds. I knew then that the timing of my book’s arrival wasn’t by accident, that it arrived on the Feast of Trumpets for a reason, and so I ended up taking a picture of my testimony next to my shofar.
The list goes on and on, backwards and forwards, for God continues to speak. It is proof that God loves to give us rehearsals. And it isn’t just me. After this event in the mall last year, Tina and I shared at a Bible study where I felt led to share about this mall experience. I struggled doing so however, fearing that the ladies would think that I was crazy but then afterwards, at least two of them came up to me and shared that the same thing has happened to them, that they as well have heard the shofar blast in much the same way. GOD IS GIVING HIS BRIDE REHEARSALS!
If I had any remaining doubt, I then fully believed that this moment in the mall was from the Lord. And as I reflected on it further, I realized that God managed to get me to the one place in Wichita that I would say resembles the world the most. In fact, because it was a Saturday last year, the mall was full, full of a variety of people, people who were distracted and seemingly uninterested in such things.
What also came to my mind is the fact that I knew it was the Feast of Trumpets and I that I knew the importance of thinking upon it and rehearsing within it. Not only that, but God set the stage by telling me that He sees me, as His beautiful bride that He longs to return to. Because of that, although the sound was faint, I heard it. I heard it because I was awake. I was alert in the Spirit, to the things of God, and upon the fact that it was the Feast of Trumpets and had already blown my own trumpet several times that day.
Why does God continue to bring rehearsals into my life year by year? SO that I can testify to you now about how important this is to God, about how He longs for ALL of us to rehearse, to testify and rehearse. It is because of His great mercy. It is because He loves us and sees us and wants His Bride to make herself ready, to not be caught unaware.
When that final shofar does blast, and Christ, our Ultimate Husband, does comes back, what will He find us doing? What will He find His Bride doing? Prayerfully, He will find us all like I was found at my wedding, dressed in white and ready to go. Prayerfully He will find us, like Joe found me when I was making that video, hard at work testifying to Him. And prayerfully, He will find us in tune with Him through the power of His Holy Spirit, awake, alert, and undistracted from the world. So, let’s get busy Bride of Christ. We have work to do. We have testifying to do and we rehearsing to maintain, year by year, until we do truly hear that REAL final trumpet blast that no one will be able to tune out. Amen and amen.
So what happened this year? Well it may sound simple to you, but as you’ve heard through my brief testimony just now, I’ve never gotten to spend the feast of trumpets with my husband. But he called in sick to work today because of a cold, and so I got to just be home with him today. No distractions. Just togetherness. Someday we will truly get to just be home with the Jesus. No more worldly work. No more distractions. Just togetherness. Oh what a day!!
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