Jesus talks to me through butterflies. I’m psyched.
Last week I struggled with doubts that I was hearing from God. Other girls on my team get these awesome visions and hear him speaking to them audibly, and, I don’t know, I often feel like I try really hard to listen, but it’s never that dramatic. He often talks to me through memorized scripture and song lyrics, and sometimes pictures, but those are few and far between. Anyway, the other night we were supposed to be praying that God would reveal something to us for one of our team members, whose name was written on a piece of paper behind us. I got something pretty clear- and it had a face attached. And all of a sudden I started panicking. Oh shoot… what if the face He gave me doesn’t match the name on the paper? What if this is all in my head? Everyone’s going to think I’m this failure of a Christian who can’t hear God speaking and probably shouldn’t be on this trip. (I’m exaggerating a bit, but I was still freaking out.)
And then, with my eyes closed, I saw a butterfly. Okay, thanks Jesus, butterflies are pretty, and I really enjoy you giving me this vision of one, but what the heck does this mean???? And then I opened my eyes….
Fluttering above our heads was a butterfly… a real life one. And this verse came to mind: “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished.” (Luke 1:45)
Oh shoot.
See, the Lord has said big things about this trip- to me and to a lot of others. He’s spoken restoration and redemption over Bangla Road and Patong and Phuket and Thailand. He’s given some visions of a church in place of the bars. Of darkness being pushed back by the light of His Spirit. Of freedom.
He gave me the vision of all of Bangla Road erupting in praise to the Creator who hung the stars like a canopy over their heads. These are big dreams, y’all, and He just basically said: “watch out, ‘cause I’m faithful and they’re coming.”
I really like butterflies.
Then later this week we went to prayer walk at a fertility shrine just a five minute walk from our house. The Thai people believed that if they sent their young people up to the shrine to have sex then they would be blessed with children. It’s an incredibly dark place where lust is god. Stone idols line the small building and food and incense offerings litter the front.
But here’s the thing… since the teams have started prayer walking up there, the Thai people have stopped sending their young people. Know why? Because it’s not working anymore!!!!!
God is in the process of turning His people unto Himself. We prayed that this shrine will no longer be a stronghold of the enemy, but a place of testimony where strong Christian husbands and fathers can bring their families and remind them from where they came and the transforming grace of Christ.
Oh… and there were like a million butterflies up there. Seriously, everywhere I looked there were butterflies. Noah got a rainbow, I got butterflies. He is faithful and He will do it. He has a plan for Bangla, for Phuket, greater than anything that we could ever imagine and regardless of what we feel or think He is constantly working to accomplish it.
And as if that’s not enough….. Hundreds of the bar girls on Bangla Road have butterfly tattoos. Yes Jesus, I get it.
“For the word of the Lord is right and true; He is faithful in all that He does… The plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purpose of His heart through all generations…” Psalm 33:4,11
