Adopting Taryn

I had a very vivid dream this morning, just before I woke up. It was set in a somewhat familiar city, like I had been there before. Except I'm sure that I had never been there before.

I was on a trolley type bus and wound up sitting next to this high school girl. She was using soft pastels to draw this really cool green and gold dragon. We started talking, and I asked her a question. It took a couple of moments for her to figure out her response, and while she was working on it, I reached my stop. She jumped off the bus after me to give me her answer, and then ran around the bus to jump back on. She had apparently done it before, but the driver wouldn't let her back on without charging her bus pass again. When the pass didn't work, the driver kicked her off the bus. She grabbed her things and walked slowly toward the marketplace that I was standing in, not sure what to do. I saw what happened, and approached her again. I asked her what was wrong, and she told me that she can only use her student bus pass to get to and from school, and only once per bus in each direction. I pulled out my wallet and gave her the money to get on the bus again, so that she could ride the next one home. I asked her if she needed to call and let someone know that she was going to be late, and she said that there was no one to call. This bothered me a little, but I wasn't too concerned. After all, she was old enough to get herself home safely. I walked into the marketplace and bought myself some cheese fries. I asked her if she would like a plate of them, and her eyes lit up. As we talked, she let little things slip, like how it didn't matter what time she got home, and how she was responsible for whatever she had for dinner in the evenings. As we talked, she began to trust me. We got something to drink at another one of the little stands, and began to walk toward where I lived. As she saw the house, her eyes became really big. She asked, "Do you live there all by yourself, or do others live there too? It's such a big house!" I told her that I lived there with my husband, but that we had no children. It was then that she asked me if she could stay with me. She told me about how she had been living on the streets, begging for money late at night. She used the money she received to buy her bus passes, to wash her school uniforms, and to buy a little bit of food. I asked her a few more questions about why she was on the street, and found out that she had lost her father as a little girl, and mother had substance abuse problems which caused her to become violent. The state had taken her and placed her into foster care, which is how she found herself in the school she was in. She had run away from the foster home after another abusive situation had arisen. I told her that we could go and get her things that she had stashed behind some bricks in a wall in an alley. After we picked up her things, she came home with me and was incredibly awed by how nice my home was. I set her up in one of the guest rooms, and told her that it would be her room as long as she stayed with us. When my husband got home, I told him how I had taken in this young girl and told her that she would have a home with us as long as she needed it. He was very upset that I hadn't consulted him about it, but when I pointed out how much danger she was in by living on the street, I convinced him to let her stay at least for the night. I was certain that I had made the right decision. He wasn't so sure. When we woke up the next morning, she had made us breakfast as a thank you for letting her stay. She had already showered and gotten herself ready for school. When she looked at us, you could see the question in her eyes, wondering if we were going to let her continue to stay with us or throw her out. I told her that this was her home now and that I would look forward to seeing her when we all got home. I asked what time school let out so that I could make sure that one of us was home to let her in the door when she got there. Then she left for school.

That is the point where I woke up. I'm not sure what it means, but I've had several dreams where I've adopted teenage girls in the last few days, so I'm sure there is a meaning, I just don't know what yet.

Battle Preparations

Have you ever sat there and just been like "I don't know what God is doing, but there is something huge in the works?" That is the feeling that I have been getting for a few weeks or so now. My daily devotions have been consistently echoing the same idea. That idea is one of personal challenge and testing of faith for me.

I've only in the past few years learned that there is something called spiritual warfare. Even after I had first heard of it, I was certain that it was something not intended for me to deal with. That it was something intended for the much more spiritually mature than I was. Except lately it has been coming up in my devotions much more often than I am comfortable with.

Another topic that keeps coming up is prophecy. This is another topic which is relatively new to me. I have started to test what I was taught as a child about prophecy, especially modern day prophecy, and have found it to be incorrect. But this means that I am quickly learning about it, and finding myself encountering it in my life in a rather unsettling way.

A third topic that has been coming up a lot is the giftings that God has blessed me with, and the calling for my life that best uses these. While I'm comfortable with the idea of teaching from a textbook a traditional academic subject, I'm not that comfortable with teaching from my own experiences. But this is the direction God seems to be taking me.

I feel like He is telling me that it is time to make sure that all of the preparations He is leading me to make are in order, because the time until I truly enter the spiritual war that is going on is very near.
I feel like He is telling me that I'm going to be using my story to help others a lot more and very soon. There is a lot that He is leading me toward, and I have to pay attention to what it is that He wants in order for me to reach the point where He wants me to be.

I know that because I intend to follow where God is leading, I am going to be forced to face any and all tactics of the devil wanting to lure me back to who I used to be. But I know that through God, I will be able to stand strong and fight the battles I need to fight, because God has already won them.

I feel like Satan has realized that just tempting me isn't working, because I have so many who will stand strong around me and with me, that he must go out and hunt those whom I love but are not following God. My brother was in what could have easily been a very serious accident, but thankfully walked away. He is sore today,  but otherwise he is fine. The truck, unfortunately, will likely be written off by the insurance company as a total loss.

Preparing For War (1 of 5)

There is constantly spiritual warfare going on all around us, but sometimes the battle is brought to us, or we to it. The Lord gives us signs and reminders that He is there with us, through the easy wins and the hard fought battles.

Isaiah 8:9-10

 ⁹ Raise the war cry, you nations, and be shattered!

  Listen, all you distant lands.
Prepare for battle, and be shattered!
   Prepare for battle, and be shattered!
¹⁰ Devise your strategy, but it will be thwarted;
   propose your plan, but it will not stand,
   for God is with us.

Exodus 40

Setting Up the Tabernacle

 ¹ Then the LORD said to Moses: ² “Set up the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, on the first day of the first month. ³ Place the ark of the covenant law in it and shield the ark with the curtain. ⁴ Bring in the table and set out what belongs on it. Then bring in the lampstand and set up its lamps. ⁵Place the gold altar of incense in front of the ark of the covenant law and put the curtain at the entrance to the tabernacle.

 ⁶ “Place the altar of burnt offering in front of the entrance to the tabernacle, the tent of meeting; ⁷place the basin between the tent of meeting and the altar and put water in it. ⁸ Set up the courtyard around it and put the curtain at the entrance to the courtyard.

 ⁹ “Take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and everything in it; consecrate it and all its furnishings, and it will be holy. ¹⁰ Then anoint the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils; consecrate the altar, and it will be most holy. ¹¹ Anoint the basin and its stand and consecrate them.

 ¹² “Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the tent of meeting and wash them with water. ¹³Then dress Aaron in the sacred garments, anoint him and consecrate him so he may serve me as priest. ¹⁴ Bring his sons and dress them in tunics. ¹⁵ Anoint them just as you anointed their father, so they may serve me as priests. Their anointing will be to a priesthood that will continue throughout their generations.” ¹⁶ Moses did everything just as the LORD commanded him.

Isaiah 13

A Prophecy Against Babylon

 ¹ A prophecy against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz saw: ² Raise a banner on a bare hilltop,
   shout to them;
beckon to them
   to enter the gates of the nobles.
³ I have commanded those I prepared for battle;
   I have summoned my warriors to carry out my wrath—
   those who rejoice in my triumph.
 ⁴ Listen, a noise on the mountains,
   like that of a great multitude!
Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms,
   like nations massing together!
The LORD Almighty is mustering
   an army for war.
⁵ They come from faraway lands,
   from the ends of the heavens—
the LORD and the weapons of his wrath—
   to destroy the whole country.
 ⁶ Wail, for the day of the LORD is near;
   it will come like destruction from the Almighty.^[a]
7 Because of this, all hands will go limp,
   every heart will melt with fear.
⁸ Terror will seize them,
   pain and anguish will grip them;
   they will writhe like a woman in labor.
They will look aghast at each other,
   their faces aflame.
 ⁹ See, the day of the LORD is coming
   —a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger—
to make the land desolate
   and destroy the sinners within it.
¹⁰ The stars of heaven and their constellations
   will not show their light.
The rising sun will be darkened
   and the moon will not give its light.
¹¹ I will punish the world for its evil,
   the wicked for their sins.
I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty
   and will humble the pride of the ruthless.
¹² I will make people scarcer than pure gold,
   more rare than the gold of Ophir.
¹³ Therefore I will make the heavens tremble;
   and the earth will shake from its place
at the wrath of the LORD Almighty,
   in the day of his burning anger.
 ¹⁴ Like a hunted gazelle,
   like sheep without a shepherd,
they will all return to their own people,
   they will flee to their native land.
¹⁵ Whoever is captured will be thrust through;
   all who are caught will fall by the sword.
¹⁶ Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes;
   their houses will be looted and their wives violated.
 ¹⁷ See, I will stir up against them the Medes,
   who do not care for silver
   and have no delight in gold.
¹⁸ Their bows will strike down the young men;
   they will have no mercy on infants,
   nor will they look with compassion on children.
¹⁹ Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms,
   the pride and glory of the Babylonians,^[b]
will be overthrown by God
   like Sodom and Gomorrah.
²⁰ She will never be inhabited
   or lived in through all generations;
there no nomads will pitch their tents,
   there no shepherds will rest their flocks.
²¹ But desert creatures will lie there,
   jackals will fill her houses;
there the owls will dwell,
   and there the wild goats will leap about.
²² Hyenas will inhabit her strongholds,
   jackals her luxurious palaces.
Her time is at hand,
   and her days will not be prolonged.