HOW TO HEAR FROM HEAVEN SERIES - PART-II THE BENEFITS OF KNOWING HOW. A PICTORAL ESSAY THAT WILL AMAZE AND INSTRUCT YOU.
I started walking with the Lord in Syracuse NY, where my high school mentor had helped me get to college. Thanks to his letter of recommendation to Syracuse University, and my portfolio - I attended SU on full scholarship.
I had no support from home, so I took a job in a healthfood store; which is where (as God clearly planned) I met 5 born again Christians and started to learn about Jesus.
From these colleagues I took a long Bible class in 1978. On Graduation day, August 4th, the Lord met me in my rental house in Syracuse. He healed me of 15 years of demonic oppression and told me to join the Army- So I did. His instructions for my life began with that directive.
My obedience however was only ‘50%’. (I joined the ‘Reserves’!)
I had a lot to learn about obeying God..
And even more to learn about ‘being led by the Lord’.
NOT knowing how to listen to his ‘leadings’, or - importantly - to ‘obey them’ cost the life of the man who loved me more than life itself, cost me the family we were sure to have, and the companionship that everyone wants in life. Since the short lived ‘marriage’ to my son’s dad ended 20 years ago, I have spent my days and nights alone - waiting for the Return of Christ to see Bill again.
Had someone taught me, HOW to follow a leading, Bill would be alive today, we’d be together, and I would not walk around my house talking to myself these 20 years.
That’s the downside of not knowing how to follow his leading.
Though, the upsides are innumerable. I’ll recount just a few of them..
Single women are known for being poor. I am not. But, learning how to follow his lead to prospering in life was a journey - I don’t mean just financial prosperity either.
It meant learning how to trust HIM, (Some saints never really do);
To stop trying to do everything myself, (A fight I still wage);
And to release myself from ALL anxiousness or fears. (I have MASTERED this.)
If you continue to read this series, you will ‘hear’ things it took me decades of walking with him to learn - because no one taught me how to do this.
This is a pictoral story of the benefits of learning how to listen to the Lord..
PERSONAL SUCCESS
After joining the Army, I was initially trained in ‘Combat Medicine’, at Fort Sam Houston TX, and wound up as the ‘honor graduate’ of 355 students. How? The Lord showed me how to master the material. It was the start of my learning how to be ‘led’.
PS: For what it’s worth, I was also the 1st in my Army class of Russian Language students (DLI), graduating after 1 year of training with a 3-3-3 in Russian; which anyone in the military will know is phenomenal.. All for the self same reason. Jesus Christ.
PROSPERITY AND INDEPENDENCE
These 2 photos (above and very top) testify to nearly 30 years of self employment with Buon Fresco, my art company. The first photo shows my technique for Marbling in Italian Plaster; The photo above, shows my technique for Stenciling in Italian Plaster.
These techniques won me 6 figure contracts that allowed us to buy our first house, and have also prompted students from all over the world to come to me for pricey instruction. (I have graduates in 12 foreign countries and 38 states.) How DID I learn the special techniques? Jesus Christ taught them to me.
SAFETY
In an entirely different benefit, this photo shows my dogs Marshall and Cooper on a hike we took in a Virginia woods some years ago. That tree fell on our route just moments before this photo was taken. Heading to that point, the holy spirit quietly told me to ‘turn left’. So we obeyed, and took a different path. Within seconds we heard a crash..
After hearing the tree cracking and falling over, I ‘got’ why were had been redirected. At which point we returned and went down the hill. What I saw there had me praising God for the rest of the day. At least ONE of us would have been in the path of the huge tree and wide branches.
PERSONAL HAPPINESS
One of my favorite Bible verses is STILL Isaiah 66:9…
I had ALWAYS wanted to be married and have a BIG family. After the love of my life died, I finally only got married at age 38. In 1997, after 2 years of no ‘conception’, some ministry newsletters came in the mailbox.. Written by Pastor Bob Phillips of Sheridan Wyoming, the topics were ‘Unforgiveness’, and ‘Anger’. Estimating that they didn’t pertain to me, I didn’t read them.
Sometimes the holy spirit speaks so softly, you have to really know how to listen - to hear him. Sometimes the Lord SHOUTS. This was one of those times. He shouted at me ‘READ THEM’. So I did. :>}
I found myself on every page of Bob’s newsletters! I had a LOT of anger, and a LOT of unforgiveness. (You’d be amazed how many sick people I minister to, whose common root cause of disease is ANGER or unforgiveness.. though I digress). Suffice it to say, I FORGAVE EVERYBODY on my LIST that I had ought against.
ONE YEAR to that day - I conceived my son - Nikolai. The new love of my life.
Halelluljah! I was finally pregnant, but everything was not going smoothly. Nikolai had to be born by INDUCTION. Because, having my FIRST child at AGE 42 - he was TWO WEEKS LATE coming out! So his dad and I were understandably uneasy.
We sat on the sofa, before going to the hospital the morning I was to be induced.. and opened the Bible, whereupon I was LED directly to Isaiah 66:9 where it is written-
‘Would I lead you to conceive, and not lead you to deliver?’
HAHA! That’s THREE Leadings in ONE episode.
I was LED to that verse,
I was assured that the child GOD had ‘LED’ me to conceive,
He would also ‘LEAD’ me to deliver.
Everything went swimmingly, and Nick arrived in the world after just 7 hours.
DANGERS
Then they grow up and buy a fast car... and make movies using M-80 explosive devices to simulate gun fire on a bunker in a WWII scenario that they’re filming. You know,.. things young men do.
In this photo above, Nick is on the left, staring at his wrecked car, talking to the police officer that brought us back to the place where his Lexus came to a stop just above a steep drop into the Erie Canal.
The car was not salvageable, though.. it might have also been upside down in the Canal- in the pitch black of that remote place, where the car and driver might not have been found until morning….. Save for the guard rail that had only just been installed!
AND..
Nick was a budding videographer and history buff - who frequently filmed WWII re-enactment scenes, often by himself (since he never did make any friends here in upstate NY), (That is, ironically, until shortly before he flew away this week! Sigh.)
But this fateful day in 2020, he was alone in a secluded woods about 35 minutes from our home, filming, and using M80s, as usual, for effects. They are supposed to be lit, and give you about 1 minute to dash off - pick up your camera and start filming. (An M80 is like half a stick of dynamite).
This one didn’t wait. It blew up in his hand as he lit the fuse. Picture yourself lighting a fuse.. it’s an act that happens close to your face.
BUT GOD.. sent his angels - They put their hands between the M80 and Nick’s face DIRECTING THE BLAST DOWNWARDS!
The hair on the backs of his arms was burned off. He had schrapnel wounds on his body - but his face was untouched! (He later quipped - “God protected 4 balls”.. That is, 2 eyeballs & etc..)
He got himself home, driving 40 minutes with 1 hand - blown wide open - wrapped in his shirt, came into my office and said- “Mom, please don’t get mad at me.” I thought he’d wrecked the car, and then he opened his shirt and showed me his hand.
What’s the ‘leading’? The Lord showed me how to pray for him. I poured the blood of Christ into his wide open wounds, wrapped his hand in a towel, and took him to the hospital emergency room for stitches.
The Lord LED Nick to REFUSE hand surgery, (that might have left his hand with limitations) and to REFUSE to take the pharmaceutical meds given to him (Oxycotin and an antibiotic) - Instead trusting GOD to heal him. In fact, he never had any pain, and in 2 weeks I took his bandages off permanently. (see image below) In 3 weeks he was back to dead lifting 400 lbs..
My son just moved to Russia. (He was in the air yesterday, entering Moscow, at the same time the terrorist attack was ongoing.)
Do you know what the above episodes with his car and hand did for both of us? They demonstrated God’s faithfulness to His Word, (that we confess daily) in the face of our ‘trust’ and ‘faith’ and ‘obedience’, so that I was not the least concerned about him, having heard the news.
What HE plans to do, is be a walking example of Faith.
He hopes to impart that to Russians in a way that the Orthodox religion falls short (as so many American denominations also do).. Sharing what I NEVER learned at home, or even in Church - namely - how to: TRUST GOD; FOLLOW THE LEADING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT; and BE AT ALL TIMES - WELL, AND SAFE, AND SOUND.
I wish you could have been in our kitchen the day after he wrecked his car - He KNEW GOD had had mercy on him, and saved his life miraculously. (He didn’t have a scratch on himself, and he was paid in full from the insurance for the Lexus.) He never bought another car, feeling that he had no more need to ‘have a fancy car to impress girls’.. he grew up from that in one night; but he also was a changed man.
He stood that day in our kitchen and prophesied a sermon so powerful, I was floored. I wish I had filmed it. His LOSS became his GAIN. In one night, his faith in God skyrocketed. I believe the Lord was preparing him for his mission overseas..
And not long after that, the Lord shared something with me I’d never realized before.
The morning Nick was born, and we were worried about ME, remember that the Lord led me to read ‘Would I lead you to conceive, but not lead you to DELIVER?’ (Isaiah 66:9)?
The answer to the profound question was obvious.. BUT BUT.. What hit me like a ton of bricks after the car wreck - and hearing Nick prophesy, was..
THE SAME VERSE SAYS - THE LORD ALSO LED ME TO …….. CONCEIVE →HIM.
Would you like to learn how to be led of God? Keep reading this series and you will.
Yours in Christ Jesus,
Victoria
I am all ears. I am so tired of the way I seem to do everything half hearted...or without understanding. I am struggling with anxiousness and possible unforgiveness. I'm trying to understand if feeling pain and sadness and distrust of someone who has hurt me is the same as holding unforgiveness. I want total freedom.