Getting To The “Yes”

“Help me get to the ‘Yes.’”

I had a vision about ten years ago that played itself out over the course of an entire night. I would rouse from the limbo-state of the vision, only to fall back into twilight unconsciousness where the vision would pick right back up where it left off. It was a symbolic vision of the course of my life, how God currently sees the church, how I would react to that, how others would react to that, and what my destiny would ultimately be. In His magnanimous grace, He let me see my end. And it was an embrace. 

It would accomplish nothing for me to even attempt to explain everything I saw, because visions usually don’t make sense to anyone but the person having them. The language of heaven transcends both words and sight. It’s like Dolby Digital surround sound for the soul— so many inputs all at once, a person is immersed in a communication that is experienced rather than heard. Which is why the ones recorded in Scripture seem to baffle those who read them.

But what I can share with you is that the journey of my life, all that I experienced and endured, ended with me having come out of a house and waiting on a porch with a baby in my arms— a son. The mother had left the house to be in an immoral relationship and I was left alone, waiting for someone. As I waited, the house was being repossessed by bill collectors. Piece by piece, it was being dismantled by those who were coming to collect. I didn’t want to be in the house, but I had nowhere else to go, so I waited on the porch, guarding the door. 

At what seemed like the very last minute before the collectors came to force me aside (at best), or kill me to get inside (at worst), the person I was waiting for came. I had not been abandoned, He had simply been away working on preparing a place for us. He came upon the porch and I began to tell Him about everything that had been happening to me, to the house, all the troubles I had endured, all the challenges that I had faced. But He just wanted me to answer His question, “Will you be mine?”

I was so busy trying to tell Him about all the troubles that had taken place, but all He wanted to know was if I would be His. If I would accept being in the most intimate relationship a human being can have with God. He wanted to know if I would surrender in complete and total trust and dependence upon Him. He wasn’t waiting for me to figure it out, He wasn’t waiting for me to understand why everything was happening the way it was. He was simply waiting for me to say “Yes.”

On days when I’m struggling, I think of the moment in that vision when I finally stopped trying to explain everything to the Lord and said, “Yes.” I think of the great release of the burden I had been carrying all that time. I think of the peace, the completeness, and the fearlessness that flooded my entire being. On days when I’m struggling, I pray to Him, “Help me get to the ‘Yes.’” And then I think of His embrace. 

Beloved, let us pray for Him to help us get to the “Yes.”

(1 John 4:16,17) And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him. In this way, love has been perfected among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment; for in this world we are just like Him.

(John 3:27-29) John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but am sent ahead of Him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom stands and listens for him, and is overjoyed to hear the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.”

(Rev 19:7-9) “Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him the glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. She was given clothing of fine linen, bright and pure.” For the fine linen she wears is the righteous acts of the saints. Then the angel told me to write, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”