It is my hope that the following dream/prophetic experience, given in the midst of a huge test of faith, will be an encouragement for someone who may be reading this who also may be going through a test or trial of your own. My husband lost his job in August and by mid-November when I was expressing my frustration to the Lord and my concern that we might have to sell the house and move. I was saddened by this because I like my house and the area where we live in Cypress. I was up in the middle of the night lamenting to the Lord about all of this when He suddenly said "Isaiah 48:17". The scripture is this "Thus says the Lord your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. I am the Lord your God who teaches you to profit, Who leads you in the way you should go". I thanked Him for the scripture, prayed for a while and fell asleep having the following dream.

Dream: I was in my car, coming out of downtown and onto the freeway. The freeway was full of holes and deep bumps where the asphalt had eroded and I was trying hard to avoid the holes with great difficulty because there were so many. I said out loud "I will never come this way again"! Suddenly the highway split in front of me and I was forced to go to the right (this is when it turned into a prophetic experience, very real not like a regular dream), my car began to move rapidly up a steep incline and I couldn't see what was ahead because it was too steep. I finally go to the top and it leveled off. My car pulled up behind a white Explorer SUV that was stopped at a stop sign. I looked at the street sign and it was CYPRESS. You had to go either right or left at this point as that inclined street dead ended into a row of houses. The Explorer wasn't going to move so I went around it and turned to the left. I noticed how peaceful the street was with large oak trees lining it and leave gently blowing on the ground. I knew I was in a place high above everything I had just come from on the highway. I could see the sea at the end of the street, CYPRESS would dead end into it. It was very smooth like glass. The descent to that area was hard to see because the sun was reflecting so brightly off of the water. All I could do was look straight ahead at the sea and as I did I stayed on the path going downhill, it was very steep and I could not see where I was going. I got to the end of the street and had to get out and walk because the white sandy area was fenced off and you could only walk there. As I was walking past a small playground I saw a young girl (she's grown now) who I had taught in STARS years ago (STARS was a girls class at church). She came rolling out of a slide tunnel with two other girls and they were giggling. I thought I would get past them really quickly so they wouldn't see me. I heard Holy Spirit say "this could be a divine appointment, what are the chances of you seeing her here?" So I stopped and turned and said 'hello'. We talked for a minute and then she said "Have you forgotten about the rainbow, is it still there?" As she said it I could see a rainbow. End

In the scripture, Isaiah 48:17 and in the dream the Lord confirmed His sovereignty and His faithfulness. Anytime we are in the midst of a trial we have to examine where our expectation is. In whom have we placed our hope and our expectation? Until my husband lost his job I would have insisted to you that my hope and expectation was in the Lord alone. I was wrong… over the last 4 months I have had to realize that my expectation was in my husband and anytime we put our expectation in people we set ourselves up for disappointment. I had to come to a place where I decided that I "would never come this way again". I repented for trusting in man rather than God alone. He was also reminding me of His promises and His covenant, "remember the rainbow?" He was assuring me that we would not lose our house by letting me see CYPRESS on the street sign. He was showing me a higher way that I could only get to by "blind faith" because going up to that place and down to the sea I could not see anything, I had to trust in Him alone to guide me. Finally, He was showing me that I need to be aware of and sensitive to divine appointments, to stop being wrapped up in my problems and see that there is more to the picture He is painting.

These are uncertain times we live in and seasons in our lives are changing rapidly. We must be aware of those times and seasons and flow with them even when we don't see everything. I see all through the Body of Christ people who are disillusioned by unfulfilled promises. Each one of us must come to that place where we say "I'll never go that way again". In other words, we have to see that there is always a higher way and it takes getting out of our comfort zone, breaking out of the mold so to speak to attain the heights in the Spirit He has ordained for us to reach. Sometimes those promises start unfolding in the midst of great change in and around us and unless we are in tune with Him we will miss it because we are looking for the 'familiar' not realizing it is a new season unlike the old one we were in. He has a plan for each of us and we can trust that it is a good one, plans of peace for a hope and a future!