[Update: ADDENDEM added---Jan. 31, 2026 - BP]
Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. [1Cor 16:13] ESV
To those who have been standing strong, with silent cries, wailing silently [literally], holding back all sound so no one hears but God. Silent tears flowing down your face as if a leak had sprung somewhere in that invisible connection between the heart and the eyes.
It is written that Yahweh collects our tears in a bottle. (That is how precious our tears are to Him.) Does He send forth a holy angel to collect them? Does He command another holy one to mark that precious time in a book of records, for the day comes when you will be given a crown for it?
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You have kept count of my tossing [restlessness]; and put my tears in your bottle: are they not in Your book? When I cry to You, then shall my enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me. [Ps 56:8-9]
Trials upon earth always end, even when they seem to be endless. The remnant of the Lord have groaned like Job, like Abraham, like Joseph, like Elijah, like so many of the remnant that have gone before you - groaning at what seems like a most difficult season that will never end.
Waiting and trust are two of the hardest lessons God's people must learn. Now is the time the enemy is doing all he can to make the true believers give up, to fall away. Ask Abraham. God is 'always' right on time. We are the impatient ones. Yes, waiting has always been a hard lesson. You are doing well.
Trusting anyone that we can see in a world such as this seems an impossibility, yet God is a profound teacher. He knows precisely how to teach us to trust Him, whom we cannot see. There are different levels of trust. Can you trust Yahweh that He will provide your next meal?
Indeed, He fed the multitudes with two fish and five loaves of bread [miracle of the 5000] [Jn 6:13] with twelve baskets left over. When the godly widow of Zaraphath gathered up her mustard seed of faith, along with every ounce of trust in God she could muster, to selflessly make a little cake for Elijah the prophet, what happened?
She took the last of her oil and flour (which were to be the last meal for her son and her before they die in the famine). What was she thinking as it baked over the open fire and she glanced over at her young son? Yet, her faith and trust was rewarded. Indeed, Jehovah Jireh [the Lord will provide] came through.
He provided for the widow, making sure she had enough oil and flour to feed both her and her son for the duration of the famine. Yet, there are different levels of trust. How so? It is one thing to trust God for your next meal.
However, can you trust the same God if you have been given a diagnosis of a terminal illness? Leprosy in ancient times, and even in times not so long ago (late 1800s), was a death sentence.
Yet Jesus healed lepers. Can you trust God for healing? That is the different levels of trust. It is one thing to trust for your next meal and another to trust for something that has no cure. Whether you are healed on earth or when you meet the Lord, will you trust Him?
God will lead you. He will let you know. He speaks through His written Word (the Word is active, alive and speaks into today's situations). And even if you beg to be taken home, like Elijah, like Moses did, like many others who said, "It's enough!", you too will come through this time victoriously.
You are already doing it; it just has not been easy, but you have not given up. You are still hoping, still trusting, still waiting.
As everything in the world aligns for the prophetic time of the lawless one, so it is aligning for the promises many have been LONG waiting for...and never gave up, though it felt like it at times. You never let go when others did.
You hung in there with a mustard seed of faith [Mat 17:20], as small as it is, you held fast. That is why the opposition has been so strong, so chaotic, so confusing, so difficult. It is not punishment; it is a sure sign that you are about to enter into your promises.
When it was Stephen's time, or Paul's time, or Peter's time to leave this earth because of the hour of their persecution was upon them, as was their appointed time, God will give supernatural strength in that hour. They also 'knew' it was their time. They were not deceived. Fear not.
Whether you are walking into your promises or into eternity with the living God through Jesus Christ, His shalom covers - you will know. Give glory to a good and just God who watches over His own in this sinful, corrupted, defiled world.
Standing on the Word of God, speaking any one of the precious names or titles of our Creator, Yahweh, El Shaddai, running to Jesus, abiding that is, clinging to Him like healthy grapes cling to a strong vine. You are a strong one.
The name above all names is like a strong tower, surrounding you with walls of strength and comfort – you sense the safety that lies in Him. You are a strong one for the joy of the Lord is your strength. [Neh 8:10]
The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous run into it, and is safe. [Prov 18:10]
In God will I praise His Word: in the Lord will I praise
His Word. In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do to
me. [Ps 56:10-11]
The reality of the spiritual warfare you are involved in
even stings your nose and eyes as you hold back emotional tears. You are not afraid; you are tired. You are not giving up;
you need rest. You have asked Father to send forth holy angels and assign them
to keep your arms lifted up in prayer much like Aaron and Hur kept up the arms
of Moses. You are a strong one.
Our divine Creator will do something even more profound to remind you of His love and that no person, no demon, not even the devil himself can interfere and stop Yahweh’s love for you. The God of providence finds profound ways to assure you He is with you, such as stumbling across a random post out of billions on the internet – like this one.
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, [nothing] shall be
able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. [Rom 8:38-39]
Hold up your shield of faith, strong one; hold fast to trust.
Yea, before the day was, I AM He; and there is none that can deliver out of My hand: I will work, and who can turn it back? [Is 44:13] ESV
Hold up your shield of faith, strong one; hold fast to trust.
For God [Yahweh] speaks once, yea twice, yet man perceives it not. [Job 33:14]
Yea, before the day was I AM He; and there is none that can deliver out of My hand: I will work, and who can turn it back? [Is 44:13] KJV
He tells us to forget the past. It can serve no
purpose. Do not let it define you. Allow Abba to mold you into a vessel unto honour through
which He will be glorified. You did not allow the long wait to make you bitter.
Instead you cut the bitter root to the quick with forgiving love [forgiveness].
Forgiveness is the fragrance that the rose sheds upon the heel of the one that has crushed it. [attributed most often to Mark Twain, although some challenge that as not factual.]
Remember not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall you not perceive [know] it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. [Is 43:15-19] KJV
Hope for the hopeless; courage for the
discouraged; strength for the weak; truth for those once deceived.
Yeshua/Jesus is the way the truth and the life, and no one goes to the Father but through (by) Him. [Jn 14:6] NSAB
for His glory alone
Bonita dovesoftehvalleys4@gmail.com
Earnest
prayer went up to the Lord because many different voices spoke fear.
"The
courts don't like moving kids around.”
“They've
already been with him for five years.”
“Times have changed. Courts want to give fathers more of a chance at custody. Children used to automatically go to the mother unless she was proven unfit.”
At the same time, I was also struggling under a serious misdiagnosis that left me heavily medicated and unwell. Even a well-meaning pastor spoke words without hope. I don’t fault him.
It likely did not help that he overheard someone say, “You ‘know’ it was a good sermon if Bonita stays awake.” It seemed that some saw me as the ‘sermon barometer’. (Reality check: due to heavy medication)
What mattered to me in that dark night of the soul was what Jesus had to say. It was during those years that the Holy Scriptures first came alive to me in a way they never had before.
The scriptures the Holy Spirit led me to pertained to Israel, yet the Lord used them to speak to me personally, as only He can do. This was not habitual, or some formula.
It was a
peaceful, calm assurance which I needed. Through His Word, Yahweh showed me He
saw and understood my situation.
Abba was making promises through His Word: that is how He does it for all of us. The Holy spirit quickened the Word within my spirit.
His Word Speaks
Your children shall make haste; your destroyers and they that made you waste shall go forth from you. [Is 49:17]
I understood this was about Israel and her enemies, but the Lord was sending a message to me, letting me know that the adversary, who had wreaked havoc with lies, and had destroyed our marriage through alcohol, violence, and infidelity.
Then you shall say in your heart, Who has begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been? [Is49:21]
Thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up My hand to the Gentiles, and set up My standard to the people: and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.
And kings
shall be your nursing fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers: they
shall bow down to you with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of
your feet; and you shall know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed
that wait for
me. [Is 49:22,
23]
In my newness, I understood things simply. I took those words and held them close to my heart. What I understood with those scriptures was this.
The standard (His banner over) meant a covering, His protection. He would direct my steps. Kings and queens: meant those who rule over me respond in caring ways as those who ‘nurse’ do. I could not predict how.
My sons and daughters being carried by them in their arms or on their shoulders meant my children are included. And as I wait, it would not end in shame.
By the seventh year, the circumstances could not look any worse. Even my Christian lawyer had lost confidence in the outcome. Then, suddenly, everything shifted!
The Call that Brought the Paradigm Shift
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| the shift |
I received a phone call from this same lawyer telling me to pick the children up at a police station. There the children were returned to me. I went from temporary-temporary custody, to temporary custody, to full custody within a two-and-a-half-week period.
Two months after their return, a police officer came bearing gifts for the children. We did not know any of the police before this. Nor did we have any relatives working for them.
The two girls received Olympic pro mountain bikes, and my son got professional skateboard. A small basket of goodies was given to me. Tucked inside was a wooden magnet that read: “The Lord is the strength of my life.”
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| Only God knows the end from the beginning |
I had never heard of the police doing such a thing before. That magnet is 27 years old now.
Only God knows the end from the beginning.
All glory, praise and honour belong to the Lord. Trust Him in what He promises. God knows that waiting upon Him, trusting, and never giving up is difficult. Yet, He also knows that if you persevere, you become one of the strong ones.
The scriptures the Lord gave me back when I was seeking Him, when everything was a frightening mess, were from the book of Isaiah. A couple of decades later, while I was living in another province, my son became a father for the first time.
My grandson
is named Isaiah. That too is God! I keep the magnet on the side of my desktop tower, along with a picture of my grandson!
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