I just woke up from a dream where the family of a friend that I grew up with were all living together on a farm. It wasn’t a really big farm, but I was out there with them moving hay around and talking to my friend’s dad. My dad showed up out of nowhere and so did a tool truck. You know those tool trucks that sell tools like off the truck like an ice cream truck? It was one of those and it drove away. But my dad ran at super speed, caught the truck and got me a tool. Then my friend’s mom and sister came by and his sister had a shirt on that had a picture of her on it but from when we were young, like she was celebrating the restoration of her youth. The youngest in the family is named Nina and the very last thing that happened in the dream was that I saw a name written. ‘Nina LaGrange’ and I heard it out loud.
Remember when I told you that some dreams are going to play out over a long period of time, even a lifetime and there may be years between one part and the next; but God will show you the parts as you get to them? This is one of the parts from a dream years ago. It’s been playing out in little pieces for some time. My little garden paradise isn’t a sustainable farm by I do get a few meals off of the land now. But as I was helping I wasn’t that good at it and I’m also not that good at my real life attempt to grow more and more of what I eat. But in the process of that God is going to make sure that I get a tool that I need and I’m getting that now. See the name of my friends dad means the same thing as the name of the arc angel Michael, ‘who is like God?’ and my father was representing The Father and they were helping me out in this whole process. Helping me to work and to get the tools I need to reach my calling and destiny that God has created me to reach.
And no that doesn’t mean they are just helping me and not helping you and everyone else so stop being weird LOL:) So next a girl who’s name means pleasantness is having her youth restored in celebration. This has a lot of potential meanings and could well mean all of them. It could mean that this actual person is going to blessed this way or that someone near me is going to be blessed this way or that the church is going to be blessed this way or the nation or the nation of Israel (the pleasant land) or any number of possibilities. Honestly, it could represent any or all of them but it’s happening now so in seeing it we can understand it.
Then came Nina LaGrange. Depending on the origin Nina can mean Grace, Strength, Favor or Girl and I think they can all be applied on way or another. LaGrange means granary or barn. See how this fits in yet? For me, for the church, for Israel, for the nation, for you??? God is giving me and us tools to correct the issues in the work we’ve been doing. This will restore the pleasantness of our youth and put favor and grace and multiplication in our vats and barns and the places where we store our abundance. The tool God has for us is love and it will bring rest and overflow to His people. It’s very good stuff, we are at this point now.
Now let’s jump into the Bible. We are back in 1 Kings today and King Solomon is growing his kingdom. He’s built the House of the Lord and the Lord appears to Solomon. He gives the blessing and curse together just the way He did in the law and other places. He says follow me and I will bless you in all of these ways but if you walk away from me then this list of trouble will happen to you. The most interesting thing to me about this little section of scripture is the foreshadowing of the mark of the beast. But it depends on the translation, in the ESV it is mentioned in this section that Solomon sent out ships on the Red Sea and they brought back 666 talents of gold each trip. Then it goes on the list all the great things that were traded and brought in and used in the House of the Lord.
We all recognize the number 666 as the mark of the beast, the number of a man. But not many people have looked in the book of the Revelation at the items traded by the whore of Babylon, but the entire list of items can be found here in this same section. Between those two clues I think God is trying to tell us something. The whole world was coming to Solomon because of the wisdom that God had given him. But he still broke the covenant and followed other gods. The Bible regularly refers to this as prostituting ones self after other gods. That is the great crime against God. He sent Jesus and called us all to be spiritually a bride to be loved and cared for forever and to multiply and fill the House of God in heaven. But to walk away from that and go after gods that are trying to take away our attention to use us. Who already rejected God and fell and the only way they can find revenge is to trick His bride into prostituting herself and turning against His love.
These gods rule the world by means of gold and trade and use prosperity to pull people’s hearts away. They offer fullness and fulfillment but what they deliver falls short because there is no love in it. Under Solomon there was great abundance but he walked away from God and the abundance was gradually lost. The kingdom had to be taken away from Solomon because he did not follow God the way David his father did. By the end of today’s reading Solomon’s kingdom was scattered to the wind.
Now in Revelation what comes right after the parallel verses in 1 Kings is this; “Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.” If you learn about these 144,000 you’ll find that the occult teaches a million different things about them to try to avoid the truth. The truth is that these are Jews. 12,000 Jews from each of the 12 tribes who followed God and have a special place in heaven with Jesus.
Having a mark on the hand and forehead is mentioned in the Bible many times. It is mentioned with the mark of the beast that seals a person’s lostness forever and it is mentioned with the mark of God which seals a person’s salvation. The Holy Spirit is the seal of salvation, we see that in the writings of the apostle Paul. And the spirit of antichrist which has been working in the world from the beginning, is the mark of the seal of lostness. This may have a physical manifestation but the core of it all is what spirit do you live in? What do you follow? What do you believe enough to act upon?
Jesus showed what it was like to follow the Holy Spirit perfectly. I pray that we would all learn to do the same and if we find ourselves walking out of step with God I pray we would get back to Him as quickly as possible. Today’s reading was from 1 Kings 8-16 and I would love for you to read along with us and find Jesus on every page. May you know the love of God, may His goodness change your heart to be more like His and may God bless all y’all.
Practice Outlaw 