Shine Like Stars – Rachel Adamus
Colossians 2:11-12: “In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.”
Job 17:9: “Yet the righteous holds to his way,
and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.”
The Lord directed me to these Scriptures as I was pondering a theme that the Lord has been laying on my heart this past weekend. It began two evenings ago. I was camping, and it was pitch black around 11:30 p.m. (I couldn’t sleep). I sat staring at the stars, which were so abundant, they were twinkling through the ceiling of leaves from the trees surrounding me. Meanwhile, a symphony of fireflies danced before me, and I was in awe of God. I heard the words in my spirit that we are like those stars and those fireflies, and the Scripture came to my mind, “… that you may become blameless and pure, ‘children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.’ Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky” (Philippians 2:15, NIV). As I looked up this Scripture, I also came upon Daniel 12:3: “And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” The Holy Spirit reminded me that times would continue to darken, yet the darker the sky, the brighter the stars! The darker the night, the more vividly are the lights from the fireflies seen! And without darkness, neither are seen at all. God means to glorify Himself through the lights He has placed within us, that the world may marvel at Him. 1 Peter 2:12: “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.”
I believe the dream that I had that same night reaffirmed the darkness in which we are living and the hope of God’s grace in us. Early May 16th, I had a dream about a village of people who were all in some sort of confinement situation and yet felt free and claimed to be free. There was a group of those within this village who ruled the village and made everyone in it believe what they wanted them to believe. They fed to them propaganda that sounded good to their ears but which only deceived them of the truth of their lives. This village was so perfectly deceived by the propaganda that they believed wholeheartedly what these leaders said to them and everything that had been taught to them for as long as they could ever remember. I was the main actor in the dream. I know that my family was part of this village, and they were the ones I was seeking to reach the most, but their response to me represented everyone else. I was a prophet in the dream. I was able to see what everyone else could not see. I cannot remember in the dream why or how I was given this ability. Yet in real life, I know it is because the Holy Spirit revealed it. (I believe “I” in the dream represents the prophets of this generation.) In the dream, I saw through all the propaganda and all the lies that the leaders were feeding the people and how they were greatly harming the people and keeping them in bondage. I attempted to tell my family about these things, yet they scoffed at me and refused to hear it. I went on to tell other people in the village and I pleaded and cried out with great zeal. I showed them proofs that they were under this propaganda. Yet in such an event, they either completely dismissed the proofs as lies or the leaders got a hold of them and re-propagated them, turning my original message into a lie of its own. I confronted the leaders of these things, and they were irate with me. They would try to bind me and imprison me, but somehow in the dream I was always free. I kept going around and around in the village with my message. And every time I came to the leaders, they would again heap abuse upon me and seek to imprison me, yet as always, I was free and not able to be imprisoned. The irony is that they themselves were imprisoned in this village along with all of its villagers, and while they were also propagating many lies to the villagers, they themselves were also believing lies about their own freedom. Here my dream ended. I never was able to convince any of them of the truth in my dream.
Revelation 22:11: “Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.” I believe this dream represents the prophets and preachers who seek to warn the nations of their plight under the deception of the devil and to point them to the glorious freedom of Jesus Christ. Yet this village represent all who have not been given eyes to see the truth. These will never hear or repent, and the leaders will feel threatened by the light of the truth because they will see our words as upsetting their system of lies. We must be prepared for abuse, brethren, but we must be encouraged by the protection of our God. He will not allow even a hair to fall from our heads apart from His will. He will guard us to fulfill the calling to which He has called us until that calling is complete.
2 Timothy 3:12-17: “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus! We live for the hope of His glorious appearing! The Lord gave me a parable of this during my camping trip as I was hiking with my husband. We took a 2 1/2 mile trail (each way) to a glacial lake that was inaccessible except by foot. The trail was rocky, narrow, and uphill the entire trek. It was exhausting. The only thing that kept me setting one foot in front of the other was hope. The eagerness of seeing a lake that has been kept pristine and mostly out of the reach of human pollution drove me forward. The Lord rewarded the climb. It was better than I hoped. Besides the many trees surrounding it, its edge was also lined with a large number of bushes that looked like a variety of rhododendron. These bushes were covered with clusters of little pink umbrella-like flowers. If we will expend ourselves for the delight of God’s creation, how much more shall we expend ourselves for the glorious hope of seeing our Savior face to face! Let us continue on this narrow, rocky trail, setting one foot before the other. One day, we will be there–forever!
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