Have you ever looked out of an airplane window and marveled at how small the people, cars and buildings are down there. In fact, it doesn’t take long to get high enough that you can’t make out the people at all, even though you are still well within the atmosphere of the earth. When I was young, on one of my first flights, I quickly took this revelation of my smallness and expanded on it to think, how small I am from the perspective of space, just outside our atmosphere, and then from the perspective of God who is far beyond the outer reaches of space.

When you get a few minutes, about 8 minutes actually, check out this video, Our God Is Indescribable by Louie Giglio. Louie takes this little revelation and makes it visual for us.

Dame Julian of Norwich was a 14th century saint whom Catholics would call a mystic, but us Charismatics would call prophetic. Simply put, she was a woman who was in constant conversation with God. During one of her many “shewings” the Lord showed her all of Creation…ALL of Creation, contained in something the size of a hazelnut. Here is a quote from her writing entitled, “All Shall Be Well,”

“And in this he showed me a little thing, the quantity of a hazelnut, lying in the palm of my hand, as it seemed. And it was as round as any ball. I looked upon it with the eye of my understanding, and thought, ‘What may this be?’ And it was answered generally thus, ‘It is all that is made.’ I marveled how it might last, for I thought it might suddenly have fallen to nothing for littleness. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasts and ever shall, for God loves it. And so have all things their beginning by the love of God.”

— Julian of Norwich

In the book she goes on to describe how God holds this little hazelnut, ALL of Creation, in His pocket and cares for it, because He loves it.

Over the years since I first read the book that came from her journals, I have marveled at the fact that God loves us. That He has relationship with us, conversation with us, that He knows the full content of our thoughts, emotions, history, future, the number of hairs on each of our heads.

Recently, as I sat in a lovely shaft of light coming in the window of our home, I saw the many little particles of dust that I could only see because the light was shining on them as they drifted by. It occurred to me that God’s relationship to us humans could be likened, quite literally, to me having an intimate, lifelong relationship to each particle of dust in my house.

If I knew the deepest thoughts, longings of heart, questions of the soul, desires, loves, wounds, pleasures, memories, dreams, favorite relationships, every relationship, every word, every thought, every breath and which would be its last, the number of days of its life on earth, every detail of the life of this speck of dust. If I cared deeply about all of that, so much so that I would lay down my own life for that speck of dust to live and be free. If I communicated in every possible way to the speck of dust and told it how I see it through my eyes of love and if I spoke life and a future to it and I did this with every speck of dust in the universe of my house and then did ALL so that each speck could live with me forever in intimate relationship, this would be a little bit like what God has done for us, each of us, the dust He formed and then breathed His life into.

In this light, consider that the God of the Universe, the Maker of all that is, the Lord of Heavens Armies, I AM, speaks to me and to you. That He cares enough to speak life to us, to prophesy our lives and tell us of the good plans He has for us so that we have hope.

Consider that this same God gives us commands, assignments, and requests. I find that first amazing, but then too, somewhat daunting. This BIG God trusts me with the other specks of dust whom He loves and cares for too. This BIG God has called out a destiny for my speck of a life and He desires to see that destiny fulfilled…AND, He gives me a CHOICE about whether or not I obey Him! That might be the most amazing thing of all!

Recently I talked with a friend who was struggling with the bigness of the words that God had spoken to her. It just seemed too much for her to believe she could work that out in her lifetime. Actually, SHE can’t. It is often the case that the word of the Lord to us brings up in our minds (and too often out of our mouths,) the negative self-talk that we see Gideon display in Judges 6. But the truth is if we are not agreeing with God and partnering with Him toward the words He has said are for us, then we are partnering with the enemy instead against our own destiny. In that moment, it is our role to help our friends see themselves through the Father’s eyes and agree with who He says they are. My friend is a mighty warrior like Gideon. Her life doesn’t currently fulfill all of what God sees, so she was struggling, but I’m pretty sure, and now so is she, that He is probably right. 😄 We are practicing together to speak the truth and hold each other accountable to our true identity in Christ.

Most of us at times care deeply for the opinion of some of the other specks of dust in our lives, and yet, we often receive a word from God and either deny it or forget it just as quickly.

Until a few years ago, I had only learned how to give a prophetic word; how to hear from God and translate it into a word of edification, encouragement, or guidance for someone else. However I had not been taught what to do with those same kinds of words when they were given to me. If we assume that they are initiated by the Holy Spirit, then they are God-generated and therefore valuable. Shouldn’t we steward these words and cherish every word to us much-loved specks from the lips of our glorious God?

What would it look like if I truly believed that the destiny and plans that God has spoken forth for my life would come to pass? What would it look like if His words to me are precious? If I know and believe that God is not a man so He doesn’t lie, nor a son of man so He doesn’t change His mind,” (Numbers 23:19) what steps would I take toward the truth of His word? How would my prayer life change? Would I be constantly inquiring of the Lord for the next step, and then the next one? Would I stop worrying about whether or not it seemed right to anyone else in my life. Would I stop worrying, and instead, in times when the dream looks like it is on its last legs, proclaim from my mouth what God has said instead?

In the vastness of God’s plan, His design of all that is, He has a dream in His heart for my life and your life, because He loves us and He loves those He will touch through us. If we’re listening, He shares His dream with me and with you. In that moment of receiving His precious words, His dream for my life, my own words fail me. But when my voice returns, the most important thing I can say is, “Yes Papa, I agree with you. I don’t know how to get there, but I trust you.”