When I looked out my window this morning, I saw a lone dove strutting on the pavement…. She moved back and forth, and all around for quite some time, which was unusual because it’s been weeks since my son put seeds in the bird feeder. I saw her as a representation of the Holy Spirit and He was saying: “I’ve come to strut my stuff, and when I’m finished you’re going to strut yours, too.” Oh yes, God has a company of strutters, struttin’ God’s Word. They are ones with good news, holding up the banner of “reconciliation” for all to see.

I was always crying out: “Oh God, help me!” whenever I saw Linda, a Christian who had the roar of a lion whenever she perceived something was amiss. I am exaggerating a little here, but not in telling you that I walked with my mouse’s tail between my legs. This was back when I was a young Christian in the 1980’s and didn’t know the power of confronting someone “in love.” Knowing only the power of “stuffing things” and “running away,” confrontation for me to do was like a bird trying to build a nest in water. Linda analyzed me continually, pointing out many things that she thought needed to be corrected. Sigh! How could I know that I would become just like her later in my life, but without the roar of a lion…. Mine was more like the screech of a blackbird. Dear God! Yes, I tried to be the “Holy Spirit” in other people’s lives, too.

Linda’s name means “beautiful,” and she did have many lovely qualities, and I had some, too, as do all of God’s children. There’s just a lot we need to learn with so much to be worked out of us, but finally, Linda’s last name which means “conciliatory” will be ours in the end. I believe that Jacob and Esau’s story and the story of Joseph and his brothers are types and shadows of every relationship that needs healing. Oh yes, the day comes, sooner or later, when we are reconciled, and a dream God gave me back then let me know it would come for Linda and me. In it, there were twelve people in a circle, and Linda and I were in the middle of it. I was seated in a chair and Linda was standing, pointing to the Bible that was in my lap. In that moment, visions of creation’s wonders came gushing forth out of it, one right after another. What the dream relayed was that the manifestation of the sons of God that creation was waiting for, would be at the time after the names (nature) of the twelve sons of Jacob were worked in us. Linda pointing her finger to the Bible was showing that deliverance would come when the Word of God was manifested and revealed through us…. Yay, the Word that’s ALIVE,… the LIVING WORD manifested AS US. This dream is about a work that was to be done IN THE SPIRIT that’s taken nearly forty years for me. Yikes! Even if the person we need to be reconciled with is no longer here on earth, that work shall be accomplished for the kingdom of God is within, and there’s no distance in the Spirit.

Fast forward now to the dream I had last night: Literally, Linda loved being a matchmaker, and in the dream she had fixed me up with her son who was a handsome young man. There were some scenes in which he and I communicated with each other, but I don’t remember anything that we said or did. In the end, her son appeared naked before me and I thought how beautiful he was and expressed it out loud. Afterwards, Linda let me know there was another that was to come for me to know.

Linda’s son represents “a word”….. That word was made “bare” and was beautiful to me, but there was still more understanding (another word… another son) for me to have. In my name book, a scripture is included with every name and Proverbs 16: 7 was the one connected to Linda’s last name: “When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.”

Most of us have not realized that the enemies that are to be reconciled are the ones INSIDE of us-…. our wrong perceptions, attitudes, etc. Oh happy day, when WE are straightened out,…. when WE know the truth,…. and oh yes, when we love our enemies. We couldn’t be overcomers without them, eh? 

I thought I had finished writing this post, but I just found myself singing: “A teachable spirit, ole’!” Yay, if we are teachable, we’ll become just like God! We’ll be struttin’ our stuff,…. even HIS stuff! 

“Ole’! Ole’! OLE’”!! The Lord is coming in strutters!