Plumb Line and "Sole healing"

“WOW!” Where do I start? “God is AWESOME!”

So many great things have happen in the past 2 weeks I don’t know where to start. I will start with a verse of encouragement provided to me by a friend back in California just a week before plumb line when I needed it most. That day I wasn’t feeling well and became very emotional for no particular reason. I had to go back to the girl’s dorm. I felt like I was falling apart. I had muscle, head and stomach aches. I felt extremely tired and dizzy. When I got back to the room I felt I should check my email and when I did I found these words of encouragement.

Romans 5 v 2-5 And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

For me this is significant more than just routine encouragement. In the week prior to my coming to YWAM a friend in Taiwan referred to me as having perseverance. He didn’t even really know me, so at the time I just thought of it as being something nice that someone says about your character. Suddenly I knew God was rooting for me.

Let me just say in the past weeks God has been really working on my Character.

When I asked him for an answer he gave it to me. Not exactly what I wanted to hear but “Man, he heard me!”

During worship in the hall this past Friday we were all praying. I was trying to listen but then I began to think of other things that were on my mind. I started to pray about questions I had been asking God since I got here. I wanted to know things like: “Where I am I suppose to be?, Where am I suppose to go for outreach?”, and I wanted peace between me and the other student about dorm rules. I felt so many things. And I wanted confirmation because I didn’t feel like I was hearing God.” I prayed silently; while everyone else was praying about other things, that he would send someone to confirm what I was suppose to be doing. At the end of worship one of the staff members came up to me and read me a verse she felt God wanted me to hear:
James 4 v 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you.

She said she felt God wanted me continue to draw near to him and he would continue to draw nearer to me. I thought over if for a while after. I was sort of hoping for someone to come up to me and tell me, “You are suppose to go to Haiti or yes, you are suppose to stay with the team for outreach. Or maybe he would tell me his plan for me.” But I realized his answer was that I am right where I need to be. Once again he was telling me to focus on this time and that this time was for me and him to grow closer.

So you are all probably wondering what plumb line is. A plumb line looks like a string with a weight at the end. It is used to measure how straight something is such as a wall during construction. The following are some verses where the Lord uses the image of a plumb line.
Amos 7 v 7-9: This is what he showed me: The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Amos?” “A plumb line,” I replied. Then the Lord said, “Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer. “The high places of Isaac will be destroyed and the sanctuaries of Israel will be ruined; with my sword I will rise against the house of Jeroboam.”
Isaiah 28 v 17: I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place.

The plumb line study is to find out where we are out of line with God’s truth, love, acceptance and righteousness. We asked ourselves questions such as: When did we start building irregular walls and where they are in our lives. Questioning where we have we been deceived and then work on it with the Lord. In short it’s an intense week of discovering who we truly are, how we have been hurt, what kind of destructive coping mechanisms we may been using, and then how to repent. It’s hard to explain in just once sentence but trust me it is so much more. Throughout the week God has revealed places in my life where by not addressing it I had held onto something which could hurt myself or future relationships with others. By the end of the week we all shared our testimonies. I can’t stress enough how truly amazing it was. During many of the others testimonies I saw many of my own difficulties in life. When it came to my turn what I shared, was not what I thought I would say. It felt so good to deal with things I had held onto for so long. I tell you that night something in my soul was healed. I felt at peace. I know life goes on and there will be more troubles and my plumb line will swing, but now I feel more equipped to deal with those moments when they come.

I would like to share some of the verses spoken to me as encouragement during this time:
(This verse was spoken to me on two separate occasions; once when I was speaking to one of the staff members about life, then again by one of the plumb line lecture leaders after I gave my testimony.) Jeremiah 1 v 4-5: The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Isaiah 61 v 3: and provide for those who grieve in Zion- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of spirit of despair.

Isaiah 60 v 19-20: The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end.

I felt so loved by so many and accepted for who I am. I felt understood and the words of God spoke healing to my sole.

I could share so many small times recently that God has been speaking to me. I am so thankful and blessed. Thanks for listening.