God at work in the midst of dreams

God can restore our vision and our dreams where they’ve been lost. He can bring His truth to bear upon the lies of discouragement. He can also give assurance of a promising future. Any vision for the future that is full of failure and empty hope is not from God (Jeremiah 23:16).

Let’s stand together in prayer asking God to bring us hope to dream again and a new level of encouragement to our lives!

(copied from Stormie Omartian's Face Book page)



I have been wanting to write this post for some time now and today is the day I share with you the God stories behind my book 'Bride Adorned'. They are stories of God's faithfulness in giving us dreams, in planting seeds in our hearts, of connecting people with each other and putting together puzzle pieces to form the most beautiful of pictures beyond our greatest expectations. I hope that through reading these 'back stories', you will find new hope to dream YOUR dreams in the presence of our awesome God.

One woman's dream for her family
Sylvia Mashego came into my life quite some years ago when I was looking for two new cleaning ladies for the lodge. Weary of the troubles that come with employees embedded in the belief of the ancestors, I contacted a pastor friend who has a church in the middle of one of our rural communities. I asked him if he had two ladies in his congregation who would be interested in the job.  A couple of days later he contacted me with the good news that indeed he had found two such ladies although he wasn't so sure about the one lady because she was perhaps a bit too old...that lady turned out to be Sylvia Mashego, a lady to whom, many years later I would dedicate my first Christian book!

In the two years that Sylvia was in my permanent employment before she retired, she proved herself to be like a mother to me in the faith...strong, solid and steadfast. Yet, it was her own story and dreams for her family that perhaps ministered to me the most. Sylvia grew up in a family of sangoma's - traditional healers rooted in the belief of the ancestors. When Sylvia was in grade 7, Christian evangelists visited her school and on that day, she gave her heart to Jesus. Needless to say her family was hugely upset. Her mother warned her that she would die because she was turning her back on the ancestors. Her calm answer was, "No mother, I will not die, I will live but you will die." From that day on, Sylvia had a dream for her family...that they will not suffer the second death. She did not fight them. She did not force them. She prayed for them...diligently and faithfully and continually. In this way, her mother accepted Christ as her savior before she passed away. Also her sister, a sangoma, renounced her faith in the ancestors and accepted Christ before she too passed away. Sylvia's third sister is still alive and she is still a sangoma and Sylvia is, so many years on, still faithfully praying her dream for her sister. In my opinion, Sylvia is a most radiant bride of Christ!

A dream lost and found
One of Satan's schemes to keep me from living the life God has called me to, was to put his lie to me that I am not worthy of being used of God or just not good enough. For much of my earlier years I have believed this lie causing me to loose the hope of dreams fulfilled. Yet, at times, these shut-away dreams would suddenly show up in my heart again. At one such time, I wrote a short story about a woman who was reading through a Christian magazine. In this magazine there was an article about how God had given and fulfilled the dreams of various women. This caused the main character of the story to wrestle with God, asking Him about her own unfulfilled dreams. Did she have a calling? Would He use her? Looking at her book shelf she even asked Him...could she ever write a book? How would she even know to fill one page with words, let alone a whole book? After wrestling with God, the woman came to a place of peace and surrender when her eyes fell on these words in an add on the back page of the magazine she was reading: "Keep your focus on the Lord and know that nothing can take away His plans for you...not your insecurities or failures or anything in your past. Don't give up and He will bring His plans for you into fruition."


Of course all of this was about me and all of it, including the magazine article the woman was reading and the words on the back cover that brought her peace and hope, was true. After writing this short story in 2010, I forgot about it altogether until 4 years later when I published my first Christian book - 'Bride Adorned'! And yes, I have learned that indeed I cannot even fill one page with words, but that God gives the words and as I pen them down, they start filling page after beautiful page!



Weaving with wavering dreams, fear, failure and willing jars of clay.
The following encounter of God's ability to use and bring together and make something beautiful from what we perceive as ashes, will never cease to amaze me. Before I started to work on my book, I used to facilitate various women's Bible studies in our small town. Lyndsay Finney was one of the amazing ladies who joined and continued to attend several of these Bible studies. Lyndsay was a relatively 'young' or 'recent' Christian. She was ever eager to learn and grow in the knowledge of our Lord. At one time she shared with us that she sensed that God was calling her to more, perhaps even to ministry, yet she wasn't sure how or what and, to her opinion, she was still a too 'young' Christian. I used to tell her that I think she is more ready than she thinks she is.

Also during this time, I organized an event called the "United face of Christian Women in Hoedspruit". The very idea was to unite the Christian women from across the various Christian churches in the area. Lyndsay was one of the few women who attended this conference. Yes, it was very poorly attended. To my opinion, it was a disappointment and a failure. Cried many tears over it and learned many lessons from it.

Fast forward about two or three years on, I was working on the manuscript for my book when Lyndsay walked into the office where I was sitting. Upon her question about what I was doing, I told her about my manuscript. I also mentioned that I was in need of someone who could help me check my English since I was writing my book in English but my home language is indeed Afrikaans. Lyndsay looked at me and said, "I could help you with that..."

Little did she know, little did we know...God was working His divine plan! Lyndsay ended up not only editing my English grammar but the whole of the content! She was more than perfect for the job! In her own eagerness to learn and grow, she asked just the right questions and challenged me just enough to ensure quality and clarity of content. And she knew exactly how to unlock my potential to the fullest. How? She told me that what helped her was the picture she had before her of my ability as a communicator which she had witnessed that day at that conference some years ago, which I had written off as a failure. That very event was what enabled her to keep on pushing until what she saw that day, became evident also in my writing.

And guess what, 'Bride Adorned' was as much the result of her hard work and mentoring skills as it was of mine. This woman who thought that she was too young a Christian to be of mighty use to her God! At my book launch she gave a mighty testimony of how she came to love and be used of Christ.

All God needs to fulfill dreams is a willing, loving, eager heart!

Seeds from God
Five years ago, in 2009, I received my first invitation to act as a speaker at a Christian women's camp. The topic given me: Bride, Bridegroom, Bliss. I spoke about our identity as the Bride of Christ but also about the pain and struggles so evident in our lives and yet so contradictory to the image we have of a radiant blissfully happy bride. I continued on to point out what an amazing Bridegroom we have...One that gave His life to give us beauty instead of ashes...One that suffered so that we could have restoration and healing and One that came alongside us in the form of the Holy Spirit to help us on our journey so that indeed we could be that radiant all-glorious bride amidst life's trials.

Upon finishing my presentation, a lady stood up and said that she had a Word for me - she saw seeds that are covered up with cotton wool as to preserve them for a later stage. I wasn't very familiar with prophesying at that point in my life and I couldn't make any sense of it and completely and utterly forgot about it.

Three years later, we were going through some tough financial times when a friend treated me to a cup of coffee to encourage me. While we were chatting, this friend who also has a prophetic gifting, looked at me and said, "Lize, God says that you are going to write a book." I wasn't sure what to make of this - I certainly had no such plans but I couldn't get it out of my head and suddenly found that it had dropped right into my heart and 'Bride Adorned' was birthed.

One year into working on the book, I randomly decided to attend an evening service in a church close to our home. The pastor came to me after the service and said, "Lize, the Lord wants me to tell you that the seed is in the soil and you must not worry, He will give the growth." I was so relieved because we were still struggling financially and my husband had just planted a new crop and we needed good growth and a good harvest desperately! I had no thought about the previous completely forgotten prophesy about the seeds!

Then, as I was looking for guidance from the Lord as to what publishing process to follow for my manuscript, I met again with the lady who gave me the prophecy about the seeds and she reminded me of that! It took me off my feet when I suddenly remembered and realized that indeed that first presentation five years before had grown into a proper book - 'Bride Adorned' - for that presentation contained the core and the foundation for my book! And then suddenly I thought of the pastor telling me the seed is in the soil! I was writing the manuscript at the time!

About a week after this revelation, I was having tea with a new friend. I told her about my book and she looked at me and, without knowing any of this detail, she said "Lize, there was seed in the soil, it has grown to a tender young plant but now that plant will wither if you do not act on it."

She and God had my attention and I wasted no time in publishing 'Bride Adorned'.

There are so many many more back stories to tell but there is not enough time and space. From all this I want to encourage you - if we love God, He will indeed give us dreams in accordance with His plans for us. As in my case, it may take years of waiting and wrestling and surrender and growing and not understanding before the time is right for those dreams to be put into  fruition, but during all this, CLING TO GOD AND STAY WITH HIM! HE KNOWS THE PLANS HE HAS FOR YOU...AND THEY ARE GOOD AS HE IS GOOD!

Before you leave, share in my joy and celebration: 

GIVE AWAY!!!

TO CELEBRATE THE 1000th PAGEVIEW OF MY BLOG

I AM GIVING AWAY

A COPY OF MY BOOK 'BRIDE ADORNED'

TO THE FIRST PERSON WHO LEAVES A COMMENT

WITH THEIR NAME AND POSTAL ADDRESS.

I WILL CONFIRM YOUR GIVE AWAY AND POST YOUR BOOK TO YOU FOR FREE. ALL THE PRAISE AND GLORY TO GOD FOR WORKING IN AND THROUGH ME ALSO HERE ON MY BLOG.

God bless and until next week

Lize