By Hazel Holland
A few years before I attended a church where people raised their hands to praise God, I received a dream from the Lord that opened my eyes to the biblical precedent for worshiping God in this beautiful way. Having previously been taught to believe that openly expressing my feelings to God in corporate worship was wrong, because it could lead to emotionalism and therefore to deception, I was very much surprised by what God revealed in this dream.
In the dream I entered a building through a set of double doors into this large room. From the back of the room where I entered it looked very much like a large gymnasium that could double up as an auditorium for meetings. It appeared to be packed full of people who were standing up with their backs to me.
As I entered through the doors and turned right, an usher was waiting for me in the back corner. He walked up to me and proceeded to take me by the right arm and walk me down the side aisle in the hopes of finding a seat...or so I thought.
When we got to the front row he walked past it, still holding on to my arm as he led me to the bottom of the steps that led up to the front of the stage. Obediently, I followed his direction as he indicated that I should go up the steps. When I reached the top step, he turned to leave and I turned around to face the sea of faces.
Up until this point in the dream everything had been quiet. But when I turned to look at the room packed out with people I saw that they had their hands uplifted to God in praise and were singing some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard. I was overcome by deep feelings of love toward God and I spontaneously raised my hands and began to join them in worship. Although in real life I had never raised my hands in worship to God, I couldn't help myself in the dream. Tears poured down my cheeks as I experienced His tangible presence.
We continued to worship God in this manner for some time. After awhile I opened my eyes and noticed that there was a bright beam of light coming from the ceiling that was directed on to me. Being in the spotlight made the features of the people in the crowd nearest to me rather blurry. It didn't matter that they were there, because I was so locked into God's presence that everyone else kind of faded away. I wanted to worship him forever like this as I was being immersed in his glory!
In the dream I finally became aware that at some point in time the worship would stop, and I was expected to speak to this auditorium full of people. Because the room reminded me of a large gymnasium I had a sense in the dream that these were college age students.
But as I continued to worship God and bask in His awesome presence (something I had never yet experienced in real life) I became aware of the fact that I had no notes and was unprepared for what I should speak about. In real life I would never have been caught off guard like this! But up there on that stage, soaking in His presence, I had no fear of what to say even though I had no idea what I would say.I remember thinking to myself, "OK God, I have no notes and I'm not prepared for what you want me to say. But I will trust you to give me the words you want me to speak. So please put your words in my mouth and I will tell them what is on Your heart."
Suddenly the singing stopped. A quiet hush came over the place. The moment had come for me to speak. The light beaming down on me continued to give me strength and great joy. As I opened my mouth to speak I suddenly woke up from the dream.
For the next two weeks I continued to bask in God's awesome presence that I had begun to get a taste of in the dream. I wanted more of Him. And so I began a spiritual journey to find out what was on His heart that He wanted me to share with His beloved children.
By nature I am shy...not the kind of person that naturally enjoys being up front in the limelight. I have always been afraid of public speaking for fear of making a fool out of myself. So to be placed in front of a roomful of people and be asked to give an impromptu speech or share anything about my life off the top of my head would cause me to break out into a cold sweat!
What I am saying is that for me to feel relatively comfortable up front in a speaking situation I would have to be in someone else's body! I guess the closest I can get to that in this life is to be in the Spirit so my flesh doesn't have control. Then my natural panic is dissolved by His supernatural peace.
Over the past twelve years God has been faithful to continually put His words in my mouth as He has called me in various situations to speak words from His heart into people's lives. As I have opened my mouth He has always been faithful to fill it.
A few years before I attended a church where people raised their hands to praise God, I received a dream from the Lord that opened my eyes to the biblical precedent for worshiping God in this beautiful way. Having previously been taught to believe that openly expressing my feelings to God in corporate worship was wrong, because it could lead to emotionalism and therefore to deception, I was very much surprised by what God revealed in this dream.
In the dream I entered a building through a set of double doors into this large room. From the back of the room where I entered it looked very much like a large gymnasium that could double up as an auditorium for meetings. It appeared to be packed full of people who were standing up with their backs to me.
As I entered through the doors and turned right, an usher was waiting for me in the back corner. He walked up to me and proceeded to take me by the right arm and walk me down the side aisle in the hopes of finding a seat...or so I thought.
When we got to the front row he walked past it, still holding on to my arm as he led me to the bottom of the steps that led up to the front of the stage. Obediently, I followed his direction as he indicated that I should go up the steps. When I reached the top step, he turned to leave and I turned around to face the sea of faces.
Up until this point in the dream everything had been quiet. But when I turned to look at the room packed out with people I saw that they had their hands uplifted to God in praise and were singing some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard. I was overcome by deep feelings of love toward God and I spontaneously raised my hands and began to join them in worship. Although in real life I had never raised my hands in worship to God, I couldn't help myself in the dream. Tears poured down my cheeks as I experienced His tangible presence.
We continued to worship God in this manner for some time. After awhile I opened my eyes and noticed that there was a bright beam of light coming from the ceiling that was directed on to me. Being in the spotlight made the features of the people in the crowd nearest to me rather blurry. It didn't matter that they were there, because I was so locked into God's presence that everyone else kind of faded away. I wanted to worship him forever like this as I was being immersed in his glory!
In the dream I finally became aware that at some point in time the worship would stop, and I was expected to speak to this auditorium full of people. Because the room reminded me of a large gymnasium I had a sense in the dream that these were college age students.
But as I continued to worship God and bask in His awesome presence (something I had never yet experienced in real life) I became aware of the fact that I had no notes and was unprepared for what I should speak about. In real life I would never have been caught off guard like this! But up there on that stage, soaking in His presence, I had no fear of what to say even though I had no idea what I would say.I remember thinking to myself, "OK God, I have no notes and I'm not prepared for what you want me to say. But I will trust you to give me the words you want me to speak. So please put your words in my mouth and I will tell them what is on Your heart."
Suddenly the singing stopped. A quiet hush came over the place. The moment had come for me to speak. The light beaming down on me continued to give me strength and great joy. As I opened my mouth to speak I suddenly woke up from the dream.
For the next two weeks I continued to bask in God's awesome presence that I had begun to get a taste of in the dream. I wanted more of Him. And so I began a spiritual journey to find out what was on His heart that He wanted me to share with His beloved children.
By nature I am shy...not the kind of person that naturally enjoys being up front in the limelight. I have always been afraid of public speaking for fear of making a fool out of myself. So to be placed in front of a roomful of people and be asked to give an impromptu speech or share anything about my life off the top of my head would cause me to break out into a cold sweat!
What I am saying is that for me to feel relatively comfortable up front in a speaking situation I would have to be in someone else's body! I guess the closest I can get to that in this life is to be in the Spirit so my flesh doesn't have control. Then my natural panic is dissolved by His supernatural peace.
Over the past twelve years God has been faithful to continually put His words in my mouth as He has called me in various situations to speak words from His heart into people's lives. As I have opened my mouth He has always been faithful to fill it.
As I was spending time with the Lord this a.m., I was, with great intensity, flooded with scriptures on GOD'S word not returning to HIM void and it being HIS word that HE watches over and confirms.
ReplyDeleteI felt led then to google in "put in my mouth Your Word God," and I found your site. There has been so many that believe that we can go into the "Bible" and find a word that we want God to confirm or perform and start speaking it, like he's a machine that we just put money in and out comes what "we" want. He has a specific will and plan for each of us, for each city, nation, etc. that we have to speak what is His will and in His heart for us. That is why we must humble ourselves and seek and yield to Him that we have His will and speak that and only that.
He sais His ways are higher than our ways, His ways are different than our ways. It seems that many of God's precious ones are still not at the place where we can truly say, "Not my will, but thy will be done," and mean it enough to seek Him and wait on Him till we know and "agree" with HIS will and HIS word.
I love your article and pray HE will put HIS words in my mouth too.
We need HIS word to be spoken, especially in this time.