Exceedingly, abundantly, above, and beyond

In spring, while walking from metro station to university, on my way I saw big buds on a tree. I was quite happy for these signs of spring, took a picture, and put it as my WeChat cover. Sometime later, however, the buds were opening, and it turned out to be a magnolia tree. Now, the view was truly amazing as there were quite many of these trees in the park. Some of them had white blossoms, others – pink, and there was even one tree which had both kinds mixed together. I felt God speaking to my heart: “You saw only buds and were happy. You are happy already about a little thing that I am doing. But there is so much more!”

During our ladies’ retreat end April, we watched a DVD by Priscilla Shirer titled “He is able,“ which was based on Ephesians 3, 20: “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.” The speaker emphasized that our God is able, and He is able to surprise - exceedingly，abundantly, above, and beyond anything we can ask or think, and way past our way past. She spoke of the fact that He can, of divine intervention and divine resources, and riches of His grace lavished upon us. In this verse, Paul prayed that the eyes of the believers would be opened to the foundational attributes of God, how enormous and grand He is. Therefore, now is the time to pray extravagant prayers and to consider the ability of God. Since Daddy is covering this, it changes the way you order. Priscilla Shirer reminded that abundant life is not when there are no impossible situations; we need to turn to God and away from what is bugging us, to bring our attention to Jesus Christ rather than worship the problem. Physical pull to focus on problem is related to the tyranny of the urgent. People mostly can only sympathize, but God has power to do something. Whether He chooses to manifest in a situation, that is His sovereignty, but we must believe that He can. Power of God is like dynamite, explosive beyond our wildest dreams. She went on to say that He is not exhaustible, so there is no need to be jealous, there will be enough for everyone – put that stuff on God’s table, whatever you need, He is able to do it for you. We can say to God: “Do that, or something better.” It says in the Bible that after the miracle of Jesus, the disciples believed - that means it is possible to be a disciple, but not to believe. All in Ephesians 3,20 means - all, since everything concerns God. God is predictable is His character, but unpredictable in His activity.

Regarding these greater things, lately God has been giving me glimpses of something He wants to do in my hometown. I saw a dream - I was driving up the stone or cement stairs by car, it was difficult, and there was huge resistance and trembling all over. At times, there were steps of stairs and then there were some places in-between with no steps as a level ground. Finally, I was up the stairs at the very top, had a heavenly, light and wonderful feeling, and I found myself at the yard of culture center of my hometown, with nobody else around. Afterwards, I was lifted up from there, up and up, and under me everything getting smaller, like zooming out in a Google map, as I continued to rise higher and higher, until I could see the whole world under. On another occasion, I was relaxing in presence of Jesus, calling on His name, and waiting on Him. Suddenly, I saw myself in castle ruins on island of my hometown, on the open-air stage. The whole stage and also front part of audience seats were under deep water. I was swimming in it, and it felt wonderful and heavenly. Later, the verse that connected to this vision was: “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” (Habakkuk 2,14) 

Reaching out to touch and heal

During our study on the heart of Jesus in our women’s group, we experienced Him reaching out to us with the desire to touch and heal us. In the lesson two about the peace of Jesus, Max Lucado painted a vivid picture of the window of the heart: “Once this window was clear, and your view of God was crisp. You knew what he wanted you to do. But then, suddenly, the window cracked. A pebble of pain broke the window. A stone struck, and whatever the pebble’s form, the result was shattered window. The crash echoed down the halls of your heart. Cracks went down from the point of impact, creating a spider web of fragmented pieces. And suddenly. God was not easy to see, His figure was distorted. It was hard to see Him through the fragments of hurt.” After doing this lesson, I felt I could agree with the relevance of this illustration, but was left wondering - what is the answer or solution to that? And only hint I could find in that chapter, was - “Jesus is closer than you’ve ever dreamed.” I shared this also in the group upon meeting and continued to think about it as I lied down to sleep that evening. I imagined the cracked window of glass and Jesus behind it. But then, surprisingly, with the eyes of my spirit I saw Him pushing out one of the big shards of window and reaching out through glass straight towards me! I received an amazing insight and revelation - if there is no pain, perhaps we can see God clearly, but there is still a glass wall in-between. But when the glass breaks, however, there is potential of actually touching Him! There is no wall in-between any more, when He removes the shattered pieces! I shared this insight with other women on our WeChat list.

Around the middle of the study, another sister in our group also shared amazing encounter where Jesus was reaching out to her. In a dream, she saw her feet with deep cracks and blood lines all over their bottom. Later, during her prayer time to Jesus before going to bed, the image came back, but this time she saw her feet made whole and as tender as the feet of newborn child. As a voice in her head, she heard Jesus saying to her: "I HEAL YOU". She could not stop crying afterwards, as healing washed over her soul as cleansing rain. She felt love and was so touched. We were wondering what the feet in her dream referred to, but in any case, it was obvious that it was an image which was significant to her and a somewhat tangible symbol of inner healing that was occurring. On another occasion, this sister felt fear of allergy strangling her, as once the swelling of the neck had been so bad that she almost could not breathe. She worried what would happen with her children if it repeats and something goes wrong. Interestingly, as she prayed about this, God showed her occasions when she had been harsh to children in the past. She broke out in confession in front of God, and through this confession, her fear was released. To us in the group, it was a powerful reminder of the importance of confession for healing and that at times we pray for a symptom, but God unexpectedly leads us deeper, to the root of the issue.

Another moving story that connects to this topic was shared by a sister who stayed in Suzhou for limited time. Many years ago when this Chinese woman became a Christian, there was an intense spiritual battle and opposition going on before her baptism. As a result, she had an accident with boiling water, scolding her legs. She went to hospital, but did not get the right kind of help, and pain got even worse. She went back home and was in her room, screaming for pain. Her parents told her to be silent; they cared more for their ‘face’ and what neighbors think than her agony. She felt disappointed for lack of support from her parents, when suddenly; in her head, she heard a very loud voice of Jesus saying her: “I LOVE YOU.” That moment, supernaturally, the pain went away almost altogether. Several people have become believers when she shared this testimony.