astra

Did it look like this by any chance?
http://www.animalhats.us/products/40-knit-owl-animal-hat.aspx
http://www.etsy.com/search?includes%5B%5D=tags&q=child+owl+hat - any owl hat imaginable (pages and pages of them) :-)
You can probably find it online
I am praying that the Lord gives your niece her heart's desire!!

Mark,
I wanted to share this quick testimony with you. My husband used to come home after work and tell me about how their management is making working there almost impossible. The are placing almost impossible demands on people who already are working 10-11 hours a day (and only get paid for 8 of them by the way). The tension was practically unbearable. I started asking God for peace for my husband at his working place (as well as for all his co-workers), I asked God for the unmerited favour for my husband from God and from people, from his bosses at work. Before long my husband's report at the end of his working days has changed dramatically from horror stories to "it was quiet today". Praise God! He comes home with no tension or stress. halleluiah! What more, all the upper management people who were extremely cruel with the staff ARE LEAVING one by one. God is so amazing! When they came it looked like there was NO WAY on earth they would leave and yet, they are now. The last one out of 3 is leaving shortly. And my husband is getting compliments after compliments from his bosses about his work. He is receiving favour! Amen!

So in your situation, you can just ask God for unmerited favour for yourself at your working place and be moved to another position wherever you will be happy. No matter how impossible it might seem at this point, God is so awesome, He can change everything and before you know it w=you will be far away from stress and hardships just soaking in God's unmerited favour!
In Jesus' Name I am asking the Lord for amazing, unmerited favour for Mark from God and men (his bosses at work - old and new - as well as co-workers) for miraculous promotions and raises. I am asking God for physical strength as Mark goes to work tonight to not only easily handle t=his working environment but enough left over to not be tired or weary after work and accomplish everything he has planned for his day according to God's Grace and Riches in Glory in Christ Jesus! Amen!

Keep standing on this, Mark. I know it works! God bless!

Mark,
I am definitely praying for you to receive wisdom and guidance as to what to do in this situation as well as for God's Grace and the perfect job position for you since neither of these two jobs are making you happy. I decree that there IS the prefect job for you and that God has opened the doors and made all the divine connections for you to receive! I pray that by His Grace your time is multiplied and you are blessed with plenty of time to spend with your Lord daily! Amen!

Macleod wrote:

2 Corinthians 3:7-18

The Greater Glory of the New Covenant

7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was,
8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?
9 If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!
10 For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. 11 And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!
12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.
13 We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away.
14 But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.
15 Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.
16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
18 And we all, who with unveiled faces reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Basically, the veil illustrated the veiling of the peoples minds and understanding. We can't be saved by upholding the law. When we become Christians, we stop trusting in ourselves and we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, in His power and in His strength and His righteousness alone. Through the Holy Spirit, we are free. Christ removes the veil giving eternal life and freedom from trying to be saved by keeping laws. When we trust Jesus to save us, he removes our heavy burden of trying to please him and our guilt for failing to do so. GRACE!

I have the same problem, always wanting to be perfect for Jesus. I will never be perfect,well at least not while I'm here. I am always going to make mistakes! Thank goodness He is a God of Grace, a God of Mercy and a God of LOVE!! Our God is an AWESOME God!!

With love in Jesus.

Amen!

For some reason it is so easy for us to value ourselves as well as others by what we do. Jesus does not see us that way. What we do and how we do things can be changed.
He values us for US. If we could only see ourselves and other people the same way, so many problems wouldn't even arise to begin with.

WOW, thank you very much for sharing. I cannot write much right at the moment, just a few words that came to me as soon as I read what your Pastor shared with you from Exodus:
Bitterness, bitter water people had to drink represent the Law. Then Jesus came and died on the Cross (representation of the wood thrown in the water), then the waters became sweet - the GRACE!! Grace is SWEET! Praise God, there is NO bitter taste in it! This is exactly what I am experiencing right now in my spiritual walk. I did not realize how much I was under the oppression of the Law (was trying to achieve Righteousness out of my own efforts, trying to become perfect, but kept failing and failing - this is such a bitter feeling, I can't describe and nothing can take this bitterness out other than what Jesus did on the Cross - the Grace! HIS Righteousness which is so sweet) - Wow this just came to me and I thought I better share it right now, it's so exciting!
God bless!!!

Yes, I do believe that wounds in our souls caused either by our own sins or by others sinning against us can cause physical diseases and they need to be healed in ordeer to get freed from physical conditions.

Wow, about a month ago I had a short dream I described here /t15898-meaning-of-a-name. I heard a name of a person and it was "Mariah Bush". I too am not sure about spelling of the first name, but that's how it sounded to me. I could not figure out what it meant, but now after I read your dream about name Mariah, I looked up myrrh and it looks like it's produced from a bush or small tree. So the meaning of this is becoming clearer to me now.
Thank you for sharing!
God bless

Hi Mark,
No, she's not away. In real life she has 2 children, not 1 like in my dream. We are all where we always have been in real life and nothing other than what she said about "swelling in soul" relates to real life as far as I can tell.
I am back from doctor's appointment this morning and they don't see anything at all. They have no idea what is causing swelling and pain. So I am back to square 1.

It actually makes me think of "soul wounds" that I believe can cause physical disorders.

Hi everyone,
I had a dream last night. In this dream I had to be away from home I think in a different country (not sure where) because of work. Other people I know in real life were there too. One girl in this dream (who I know in real life from my work) said she was away from her husband and small child for so long that she had "swelling in her soul" - that's how she said it. I guess she meant pain from being away from her family. In my dream I felt very sorry for her and said she should go back to her family. Then I woke up.
As soon as I woke up these words "swelling in my soul" stood out to me. I am experiencing strange condition which manifests itself as a swelling and pain. My question is - could these words that this girl said be actually addressed to me by the Lord giving me a hint of why this condition won't go away completely (I have victory over the pain though, Praise God!!)?
In real life I am not away from my husband and child, so that part does not relate.
Thank you very much for your help.
God bless

Dear Lindyloo,
Don't be desperate! You don't need to feel like that. You are NOT ALONE! Praise God! God is with you and He loves you, your sister and her daughter. I used to feel just like you till recently when I received the revelation of how much God loves us. Ephesians 2 it says (verses 4 and 5 Amplified Bible): "But God--so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us, Even when we were dead (slain) by [our own] shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; [He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him, for] it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that you are saved ([a]delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ's salvation)."
See, God loves your niece Andrea with INTENSE LOVE! Not just some love, not warm love, but INTENSE. One of the definitions of the word "intense" is this: Existing in a high degree; forceful or extreme! So His Love is FORCEFUL, it takes extreme actions to deliver us from trouble. And this is not just for those that are saved already (although we too need the same degree of His love!). It's for sinners also. Look at what God's INTENSE love did for us: "He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; [He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him, for] it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that you are saved" Why did He do this? Because we were so great and worthy and deserving this? NO, He did it to "Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us". So you can just pray peacefully and not fearfully or desperately for your niece Andrea putting her name right into these verses and standing on God's Love promise for her, believe that God is restoring her to complete wholeness, delivers from any wounds and her past into being a partaker of Christ's salvation.
So see her as God sees her - a partaker of God's salvation no matter what your physical eyes are seeing right at the moment. Keep decreeing this promise and releasing it into Andrea's life now and as it has happened in spiritual realm the moment you asked (and I am joining in faith with you for this matter, in Jesus' Name!) till it manifests itself in the earthly realm (so we can see it even with our physical eyes). Remember when Jesus cursed the fig tree that did not have any fruit on it, the tree did not physically manifest its death the same second. The next morning though the disciples saw with their physical eyes the earthly manifestation of what Jesus decreed over this tree the day before.

God bless, sister!

Hi Mark,
Thank you very much for your help. I had some more thoughts about the second dream last night. As I was meditating on the meaning of it this thought came to me: the road/highway might represent the way I perceive things. Not necessarily the reality. It might show me that God is pushing me "outside of the box" of my limited thinking, so to speak.

So for example if the right lane (the way I'd normally act) was cluttered or even unavailable, but the left lane was totally free, and I took this lane (there was not a single vehicle in sight in each direction on that lane -it was totally FREE), this might mean that I might need to do something in a different way that I normally handle things. His ways are not our ways.... My way (lane) was absolutely cluttered and unavailable, but the other one was totally free. The other detail that I forgot to mention before was I was seeing it from ABOVE the scene. I knew it was me in the car driving, but my point of view was from somewhere in the mid-air above the car. And again, during the dream itself I did not feel any discomfort using that lane. The only time I realized it was the "wrong" lane was when I woke up and visualized the scene from my dream.

The 1st dream I still am not sure about. I never thought it could be about someone else. But it's always a possibility. The only thing that alarms me about this dream was that I did not have my license with me and it means I was not following the law :-(

Thanks again, Mark! Your help and insight really helped me to understand this dream much better (kind of pushed me in the right direction)
God bless!

I am having strange dreams lately. One was with me riding a motorcycle (something I have never done and am not planning on doing in real life). All of a sudden I realised that my drivers license was in my purse and since there was nowhere to put my purse on a motorcycle I left it at home. I was worrying that the police might stop me before I got home, but no one stopped me and I got home ok. I also was surprised how easily I was riding it (something I'd never do in real life). Also the pavement on the street edges was badly damaged (like big holes and cracks) and I just had enough room to pass by them on the byke.

Another dream was of me driving somewhere in my car. I was driving on the wrong side of the road (in the right direction though) because my side of the road was totally blocked by something. The wrong side of the road was totally free and I think I did not even quite realise that I was on the wrong side until I woke up. I just felt in my dream that something did not feel right. But I think it was mostly because of my side of the road being blocked by some sort of clutter.

Does this mean I am doing something wrong?
Thank you very much for your help!

Delightful soul wrote:

Don't ask me how a bun dances but hey, the joy of the Lord is my strength!

Maybe like this - :-)))))

I can't wait to hear your testimony, Delightful soul!!!

I was so amazed at His appearance and the whole experience was awesome and I totally believe it's just the very very beginning! I am just learning about His Grace and the more I learn, the more I delight in it!! GLORY!!!

O absolutely, Connie. I do not condemn him at all. I know he needs to be set free and I pray for God to minister His love to him so he will be whole and not hurting anymore. I absolutely believe that what is coming out of his mouth as a fountain from the wounded heart and he does not have to stay this way.
Thank you so much for your prayers of agreement of faith!
God bless!

Dove-Solutions wrote:

When they told me I couldn't say that any more because people found it offensive, I said well what they are saying to me is offensive and if they continue I will continue also. Amazingly enough they stopped.

- EXACTLY!!!! Awesome, Connie! HA! They think they can stick their junk into our faces and we can't say nothing back to them. Wrong!

I will do that. They just sent us an e-mail inviting us over for supper again in a week, but I made up my mind and I am not going. My husband would have to go by himself. Maybe they would realize I am serious about this issue.
Thanks again, Connie.
God bless!

I was just thinking about this all day today (could not sleep last night either). As I was worshiping tonight, the Lord helped me to see what happened. My husband said a grace before the meal and we ate and then this man opened his mouth and started saying these things. And what really has happened was mocking God. I am absolutely horrified by this. We prayed to God asking Him to bless our meal and then turned around and allowed this abominable conversation to come out of his mouth at our table like there was no God watching and being present with us.
I hate myself for this. I did stop it but not right away. From now on I will not allow this to happen EVER! If they want to be a part of this, it's up to them, but I won't. My husband probably does not quite realize what is happening. I will talk to him and lay it out as it is. It's not actually just my own feelings that are hurt. These things are not tolerable aroung my God Who I worship and pray to. So I pray the Lord for forgiveness for not standing up for Him as my husband and I should.

Awesome!! Glory be to God! He loves us so much!!!


I want to scream it out
From every mountain top
Your goodness knows no bounds
Your goodness never stops
Your mercy follows me
Your kindness fills my life
Your love amazes me!!!! - One of my favourite songs! It ministered to me so much this morning!

Hi Daisy,
:-( My husband already knows how I feel about this. He'll know why I don't want to go. I don't think he would hold it against me if I don't go. I can probably come up with some excuse (not the kids though because they are in their late teens now). But if I'll use it every time they invite us something is going to start as they so insist on both of us coming.
I think I might have to spell it out for them, see if this works. One time I got out of the table in the middle of supper and went to the kitchen when he pulled out his laptop to look up some of his horrible slimy stuff online right in front of us. My sister in law thought I went to help her with the dishes. I said, sorry, I left because I can't stand Bill's talking about this stuff. She stopped him, but it did not last long. I mean how more clear can you be? I honestly feel that he simply can't control himself :-( The man needs serious help.
I think I might have to talk to my sister-in-law and honestly explain to her why I can't come. If she thinks her husband can manage himself for the duration of supper, then I don't mind going at all. They are lovely people otherwise.
I feel like I am going against God by putting myself into position when I hear this type of things. I know I am not responsible for other people's mouth but i am responsible for my ears, so I felt horrible last night. I felt like I let God down :-( And I totally hate this...

I was wondering if I could ask you for an advice. I have a family member - brother-in-law - that has a very dirty mouth. He not only swears, but keeps making extremely explicit and vulgar remarks constantly. I mean it's coming out of him like out of sewer. Even presence of our kids doesn't stop him. He is an older person and my husband said he's "calmed down quite a bit compared to what he was like before". But this does not help me at all. I can't stand being around him if you know what I mean.
They were at our house last night for supper and I felt like I just sat in a garbage can the whole night. I don't know how to stop this. I told my husband who is very supportive to me usually, but even he does not seem to see it as a problem enough to radically do something about it. He says "What can I do?". I am thinking - "No meet with them..." The situation with them is - my husband was not speaking with them for almost 6 years prior because of his sister's (this man's wife) unkind to say the least outburst. Praise God he found enough in his heart to forgive, she apologized and everything is peaceful now and I feel like my husband does not want any confrontation with them just to keep peace. But again, I simply CAN'T take this anymore!
They want to have supper with us again shortly and all I can think of is how to avoid it.
This man must have some major wounds in his soul to have him behave like this. I will be lifting him up to the Lord to get his eyes opened and give us an opportunity to minister healing to him. But in the meantime what do I do? How do i escape this?

I already let them know on numerous occasions that this is very offensive to me. His wife is embarrassed about his behavior but he keeps her under his thumb and is not listening to her.
I have to confess that I am fighting the temptation of getting angry at my husband for putting me into this situation :-( and I don't want this! There must be an escape out of this. I pray God will show me a way out. If this is a confrontation and not ever seeing them again, so be it. I just pray that my husband won't keep it against me. I don't want any division between me and my husband for any reason whatsoever.

Thank you very much for your input! God bless!

This is exactly what has been on my heart lately. This is the same issue I feel with the church I go to and the one I used to go to. I feel like something's missing. Something MAJOR is missing. I used to participate in small Bible study groups where we met every Wednesday 7 pm at group members' homes (we would all take turns). We had to bake something so everyone would eat and have tee/coffee and chat for a bit first, then we would go and "study" certain scriptures according to the Bible reading plan. You know what it looked like? It looked like reader's club gatherings. This got stale for me fast and I couldn't even figure out why. There was NO LIFE OF GOD in it! There was no Holy Ghost movement. The same with the church.

My heart so longs to belong to a church and I go there on Sundays with so much excitement. But I too feel underfed after the service is over. Of course I don't stay whole week on just there lean Sunday "meals". I go get the MEAT daily elsewhere or else I'd just die spiritually.

This brings one of my dreams to mind that I've shared here. I saw a big commercial passenger plane in the sky just sitting on a cloud. Now I understand that I saw the Church. The plane was not flying. This was my question "Why is the plane not flying on its own?"

I am trying to figure it out. Today I was listening to Pastor's sermon and what he was saying was not wrong. It was right. But still it felt wrong. As many people who walked in sick, needy, broke and under oppression, walked out that day still sick, broke, oppressed. But we heard the Name of Jesus glorified. We heard Pastor saying that "Jesus is HERE". Is there something terribly WRONG with this picture? Would we walk away sick, broke and in bondage if we actually met Jesus face to face? NO!! So was Jesus there today?

You know, when we tell kids "Lets' go to Church" and they say "No, it's boring"? Out of mouth of babe's... I know God's NOT BORING, Jesus is NOT BORING. So why are our churches boring? Because God's no allowed there as He should be. Maybe He's allowed in as a guest of Honor. But not as the HEAD!

Why when I feel oppressed by evil spirits, I won’t even think of going to my church and ask the elders to cast it out? Sure, they'll lay their hands on me and say a prayer, but I will walk out of there just the same way I walked in. Maybe if they say "In the Name of Jesus' I command this spirit to leave NOW" and actually see it leave, many people would think they are nuts. Or maybe they are afraid that when they say this nothing will happen. So they play it "safe".

Say something like "in due season, Sister. Maybe you need to wait just a little bit longer, God will get through to you." That's exactly the message they were preaching today.

So a message like this will put people in bondage. They would think that if they prayed and nothing happened, maybe this is just not the right season for me to be healed. This is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! Where in the Bible did Jesus say "I will heal you later"? Or "this is not the season or time for you to get healed"? Nowhere! So why do they preach this in churches? God's not there, that's why!

Dove-Solutions wrote:

Anyway I am sure the Lord will reveal the truth to her.

Love in Jesus,

Connie

Amen and Amen to that, Connie!!!

Grey Butterfly wrote:

Hi Piano,

:o) I agree with Astra about "pressing in" it's not really a technical term, more descriptive I think. I hear it to mean all of the things Astra said... but to me, pressing in is also visual and imagined... I press in closer to his chest, like a hug while I am praying/meditating on him. I imagine his heartbeat and ask to hear his voice... "pressing in" is like loving him with all my focus and hugging him hard and often...

Blessings, Diane

Hi Mark,
yes, I understand exactly what you mean. I was confused by the dream and was not sure who was supposed to bear who or what... In real life I feel like I was bearing too much and was very close to break down. This is getting better as I handed the situation over to Jesus. He is changing my daughter and she is starting to take a bit more responsibility for herself as she is old enough to be able to take care of herself. Till next September (when she goes to college) she is staying with us and still is kind of "milking it" a bit :-) But she got much better through than it was.
Few nights ago the Lord sent me a very encouraging dream about her. In that dream she was on some sort of a raft with a bunch of other kids that were starting their year in college. It was some sort of a competition of teams orn rafts. When the competition started, at first they were just sitting there with their paddles up in the air including my daughter. I thought - "Great, now she will just sit there and do nothing as always". But then in a few minutes they all started to paddle including my daughter. She turned around and looked at me with a big smile. She was happy, full of enthusiasm and was participating fully.

I woke up so happy knowing that my girl is able to spread her own wings and fly!! Praise God!

But whatever else there is for me to help her with I am always there for her no matter what.

Thanks again, Mark! and God bless

Hi Piano,
Thank you very much for your input. A very interestiong point. I never saw the story of Mary and Martha they way you put it. I will pray over it!!

"Pressing in" to me simply means to get through any kinds of blockages that might be on your way to your goal. Not stop and not get discouraged, but by holding on to Jesus keep feeding on His Word (logos and rhema) till all the obstacles are busted :-)

God bless and thank you very much again!!

Hi everyone. Last night a had a very strange dream. I belive it was symbolic of something (it better be!). Kind of graphic too :-(
I was in the kitchen cooking soup. (In real life I cook soups with vegetable broth). In this dream as I was cooking, I already had my pot on the stove (big one too), there was water in it and some veggies. And guess what else I put in there?! Brace yourselves - a bear paw (or foot)!
The way it looked was very graphic - something you don't want to keep in your mind. Anyway, my daughter came into the kitchen asking what was there to eat as she was hungry. I showed her the pot with soup cooking. She looked and said "But there's just water in it and some veggies. It won't be very filling". I said "No, there is this bear paw there, see?" You could not see it as it was under the veggies. I also remembered she liked pea soup and thought, I better add some peas in it too. The dream ended.

I have a very strong feeling that "bear" is a wordplay like verb "to bear". But what did this have to do with soup and why was I cooking it????

Any thought?