Have you ever had a flying dream? I have. I distinctly remember three. 

I was Peter Pan or Wendy or someone, but I was definitely able to fly if I got a big enough head-start and jumped as hard as I could! In my dream I was able to jump just right and I soared around my room in utter happiness.

However, in the first two dreams, the longer I tried to spend in the air, the harder it got to get the right take-off momentum, and I could not seem to free myself from the ground, and eventually I slipped into consciousness in time to remember my dream.

But I remember the first time back from Taiwan in 2016, the first night sleeping in my own bed again at home, the plush (to me, since I was accustomed to the firm mattress I used in Taiwan), soft mattress meeting me like a waterbed, letting me sink into feathery joy… that’s when I had the best flying dream I have ever had. Why?

I got to fly outside! In my previous dreams as a child, I was always inside for some reason, flying around my bedroom in our apartment, never leaving the confines of four walls. But this time, this time I went outside! I looped up and around the building I was in, up into the blue sky with a puffy white cloud… I can still vividly remember it now. Oh! How I wish I could have that kind of dream every night! And I imagine many of you would, too.

People always ask those silly questions, like, “If you had any super power or ability, what would you choose?” And (in my mind) I look at them with brows torqued up in somewhat patronizing incredulity and say, “Well, of course I would pick flying…Anybody would pick that. Come now, let’s be real.”

A couple weeks ago, I shared my testimony at church, and directly afterwards I experienced what I knew was a spiritual attack. I was biking home like any other night, but I suddenly had this deep sense of danger that I have never, ever felt while biking before– my whole body tensed up and I knew something wanted me to be afraid.

But I was not afraid… and I said it. “I’m not afraid, and nothing can make me so, because I’m a child of God, so hands off dude!” I know biking on the roads in Taipei is not necessarily 100% safe, but I know how to take the safest route possible, so I knew it was silly for me to be feeling so scared all of a sudden, and something was up.

About 50 or 60 meters later, a motorcyclist whipped past me, literally inches from my side as he dodged between traffic like a maniac (no, that is not the status quo here, mom, don’t worry), and I had to laugh. Well, first I told him off as well as I could tell off someone who was already way beyond earshot. But you know what? That guy got me thinking… I feel like a superhero.

I know my time will come, and I am ready, I feel, before God to take up my new name and my new set of clothes in heaven. But I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that nothing can take me before my time comes. There is a poem that God gave me once while praying with a friend that goes,

Pray on your knees,

Pray on your feet

The Devil has nothing,

He lies in defeat,

He lies in defeat!

It gets even better.

The next day, someone in my small group said something that hit at the very thing I had given my testimony of in church the day before, as though the enemy thought I would be easily brought down by what my Old Self had been conquered by… But not so fast, devil. This person’s misjudging me and temporarily leaving the group left me confused, but not disarmed, and this attack on my emotions to see if I would give in, get hurt, and get mad fell flat on its face.

That night the situation was cleared up and the Lord did a cool work in all involved. In the end I think we Christians did more damage to the enemy than they had been attempting to inflict on us!

And that is why I feel like a superhero. You can just call me Wonder Woman. 😉

Please Pray!

• Please pray for my small group that I was leading with Taiwanese friend, but now we are not meeting weekly as my co-leader started school in America this fall. Pray for real love and continued grace and unity in our group members. Please pray that all of us would put down pride and take up Jesus’ humility to treat each other better than ourselves, like Philippians 2:3 (Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves).

 

Hey, what about you? Do you feel like a superhero? Why or why not?

The life I see Jesus calling us to in the Bible is way more than just the average Joe’s list of to-do’s in a “day in the life.”

Two observations from life with Jesus in general:

1. If you’re not feeling attacked specifically related to how or what you do as a Christian brother or sister, then I’m sorry to break it to you, but the enemy doesn’t seem to see you as a threat. It follows then, that you might want to take a look at the areas you have yet to surrender to God. Have you surrendered at all? 
2. Fear is not worth it. When it is our time to go home to the house Jesus is building for us in Heaven, we will go. But before that, every time we come up against a crisis, we are called to walk in authority and in the confidence of our identity as a Warrior in God’s Kingdom. The more you surrender to God, the more likely you’ll be in a battle against temptation, experience unexplainable sicknesses or problems, and others in the world coming against you because you are a Christian.

… but what great joy! What great adventure! What great peace and confidence knowing that nothing can stand against our God, and if our God is for us, then who can stand against us? Praise the Lord for his goodness and faithfulness!

Reader Question for the Day: What areas of your life do you need to surrender to God?

Please Pray!

• Please take some time to reflect on your life. Are you of any threat to the devil? Or do you passively wait for others to do God’s commands because praying, knowing the Bible, and sharing the hope of glory in Christ with others is uncomfortable? Do you want to be a Christian?
• Please pray for an open heart for the Holy Spirit to bring healing, and a “New You” into your life. 
• Please pray for courage and a heart full of joy to face life’s problems with Jesus, knowing that you 110% have the victory if you are patient, quick to love, and walk in faith. 
• Please pray for the Aroma Cafe and Church in Taipei to know their calling and walk in this same faith as well. We are in an intense season of internal review and prayer and worship, so please be praying for our community to remember our identity in Christ, now more than ever. Thanks!!

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Aroma sends out a news-letter once a month! To join in prayer, know more about the community, and really see what Aroma is about, please subscribe to our “Aroma News” ! That would literally make me so happy! 😀

And as always, if you ever need prayer for something, give me a shout out- my email is skyebird93@gmail.com and I would love to hear from you.

Keep the Faith, Expectantly!

Skyebirdie