Nowhere to Hang Your Hat
Hi Everyone,
It is a new year and a new season. It is time to make changes to our priorities. It is a time to seek God for he alone gives us the strength and insight into what is truly important. Our walk with God is what I consider most important in my life. it is a most precious and wonderful thing to walk with him. However, our walk with him is not without persecution and trouble with those around us, both believers and unbelievers. We may find that someday, we may be without a place to hang our hat, without a church or without people that believe as we do. Life is not always easy. But Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) And he also gave us his words of comfort: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)
The visions I have to share with you today are serious warnings to take our comfort from the Lord and not expect the people of the world to agree with us. These eight visions came within minutes of each other.
The Visions
The Man at the Computer
In the very first vision, I saw a man from the back wearing a dark sweater, and dark pants. He was seated in front of a computer screen. I could not see much detail for his face was not in view, and the scene was fairly dark. Because he had his back towards me, I believe that the vision demonstrates the idea of ignoring or shunning, for we have an expression, “to turn one’s back,” which also means to abandon, or forsake.
When people disagree or reject either an idea or the person who proposed the idea, they tend to fight verbally or ignore the person or topic altogether. This happens when we share the gospel, a gospel teaching or our love for the Lord. There will be people who reject the truth, or reject a certain belief because they were taught something different. Rejection is a normal thing for a Christian to experience, for the Lord made it known through his teaching, and we experience it in our lives.
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.” John 15:18
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. / Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you. Matthew 5:11-12
The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Romans 8:7
They are of the world. That is why they speak from the world’s perspective, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. That is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception. 1 John 4:5-6
The Shoe
In the second vision, I saw a light weight shoe, similar to a ballet slipper but with a short heel. The shoe was “nude” or “flesh” colored. The top edge of the back of the shoe was chewed and torn, as if an animal had taken hold of it. The torn shoe reminded me of the curse that the Lord spoke over the serpent in the garden who deceived Eve.
So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Genesis 3:14-15
The serpent represents the devil and his demons. He is a believer’s enemy and he wants to destroy us. I believe this vision is warning us of persecution for our faith. We experience spiritual attacks because we carry the Holy Spirit within us “who convicts the world of sin.” (John 16:8) Those of the world hold to the world’s views and do not want to hear the Word of God for the spirit that resides within them hates God and hates his Word. And we must also be warned of spiritual attacks that come to us through other believers. For the devil seeks to bring division within the Church, “for a house divided cannot stand.” (Matthew 12:25)
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:10
You will be hated by everyone because of My name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved. Matthew 10:22
It is important for us to recognize the wicked one’s attacks to the mind and the body. His intention is to cause harm, sickness and death to the body and to cause fear, anxiety, depression, and hopelessness to the mind.
The Lord has given us weapons to use against the devil and his demons. But first and foremost we must not “buy into” the things the devil is persuading us to buy. Whether it is it is pain, or dispair, we must come out of agreement with it, bind it up in the name of Jesus, cancel its assignment and send it back to hell from which it came.
“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5
We declare the word of God over our circumstances:
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13
But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:5
We must not give into the enemy's thoughts that he plants in our minds. We cannot afford to entertain negative emotions, but we should ask God to show us how we should think about a matter. We take authority over the wicked one by binding and loosening in the name of Jesus. And we declare (out loud) those things that are not, as though they were, for there is life and death in the tongue!
The Word of God will not return void but accomplish the task for which it is sent! We should be bold, and not succumb to the wiles of the wicked one, but overcome in the name of Jesus!
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.” Revelation 12:11
The Hook
In the third vision, I saw a wall hook for hanging up coats and hats that was suspended in the air. As I looked at the hook, it suddenly fell away from me, as if it were an airplane dipping its wing to make a turn.
The hook used for hanging up jackets, and hats also brings to mind an expression: “to hang your hat (on something).” It means to believe, to trust, to depend on, or to rely on something or someone..
Jesus demonstrated this when he was asked:
Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. “Matthew 22:36-40
“To hang your hat” can also mean “where I live.” Jesus used a similar metaphor for home:
“And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Matthew 8:20
Today we might translate this to: “The Son of Man has nowhere to hang his hat.”
This vision of the hook turning away from me, may be warning me that I may lose a place to hang my hat. We will not always agree with others, but the Lord wants us to “prefer one another over ourselves” and “to live at peace with all men.” (Romans 12:10 & 18)
A.W. Tozer spoke about the loneliness of the Christian in THE LONELINESS OF THE CHRISTIAN – A.W. Tozer
The loneliness of the Christian results from his walk with God in an ungodly world, a walk that must often take him away from the fellowship of good Christians as well as from that of the unregenerate world…
His God-given instincts cry out for companionship with others of his kind, others who can understand his longings, his aspirations, his absorptions in the love of Christ; and because with his circle of friends there are few who share his inner experiences, he’s forced to walk alone.
The unsatisfied longings of the prophets for human understanding caused them to cry out in their complaint, and even our Lord himself suffered in the same way. The man who has passed on into the divine Presence in actual inner experience will not find many who understand him.
He finds few who care to talk about that which is the supreme object of his interest, so he is often silent and preoccupied in the midst of noisy religious shoptalk. For this he earns the reputation of being dull and over-serious, so he is avoided, and the gulf between him and society widens. He searches for the friends upon whose garments he can detect the smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces, and finding few or none, he, like Mary of old, keeps these things in his heart. It is this very loneliness that throws him back upon God. His inability to find human companionship drives him to seek in God what he can find nowhere else.“If you seek me you will find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13
What is important is that we are true to God, and do nothing to compromise our faith in him. He comes first and that is all that is important.
The Paper Bag
In the fourth vision, I saw a brown paper bag that was rolled down at the top and clenched by a hand. Then the hand turns so the palm side faces me. The bag is pushed forward towards me to read the message written on the bag. I saw mostly lower case letters written with a green crayon. But I could not make out a single word or phrase, for it appeared to be a child’s handwriting.
The color green, according to Bible Study.org, means “verdant, new, fresh, flourishing and prosperity.”
The rolled down paper bag reminded me of a vision the Lord gave me years ago. I saw an angel holding a sign in front of himself which read: “He is Risen.” The angel took the sign and lowered himself to the floor. He pulled it and it split in two. One part read: “He is,” and the other part read: “Risen.” He then stood up and was handed a paper sack that had been folded down twice at the top. He knelt down again and placed the paper bag between the two signs. And stood back up.
I knew that inside the paper sack were names of people that would, like Jesus, be raised from the dead. The sign’s new meaning then became: “He and We are Risen.”
The bag with the green letters in this current vision, may represent believers that will see things anew, and fresh as they are born again and filled with the Spirit. As they pursue God and draw close to him, their faith will flourish and prosper. When they study the Word of God for themselves and become aware of the insights that the Spirit gives, they will be blessed and look forward to their own resurrection and life with the Lord forever. Hallelujah!
The Bag on the Floor
In the fifth vision, I saw a dark bag on the floor, just to the left of my feet. Adjacent to the bag were two articles of clothing: a red sweatshirt and a pair of red sweatpants. As I looked down at the bag and the clothing, I noticed that I was sitting on the sofa in the club room where a young homeless woman had been secretly staying for several days this past spring.
The vision of the bag and clothing on the floor speaks of loneliness, homelessness and the fear of being discovered and sent away.
In the vision, the sweatshirt and sweatpants are red. Red in the Bible refers to sin, blood and bloodshed. The bag next to the clothing is a personal tote, like a back pack, something that carries one’s essential possessions.
The vision made me think of the homeless woman that I had met in the club room and had invited her to church. I could see that she had unforgiveness towards a couple with whom she had previously shared an apartment. Perhaps she blamed them for her homelessness. She also had a mother and sister that refused to take her into their homes. That Sunday morning, at the altar and with one of the pastors, she was still not willing to forgive them. It seemed like an exercise in futility. So I just took her back to where she was and told her if she changed her mind and wanted prayer to let me know. The red represents sin. She cannot be delivered or healed if she is not willing to forgive. The door to the devil remains open when we refuse to forgive.
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:14-15
A Beady Eye
In this sixth vision, I saw one small black eye. It looked like the eyes of a pet chinchilla we had many years ago. On one occasion, my daughter and I took the chinchilla out to play and run around in our large bathtub that we filled with cardboard to create a maze and a secret hide-out. We both brought books to read as we sat near the tub to keep an eye on him. Being a rodent, it was his nature to chew. So we provided an outlet for that behavior - the cardboard boxes. However, he preferred the drywall window ledge over the cardboard. As our heads would drop into our books, he would chew! We would yell, “Beeper!” he would immediately stop and look as sweet and innocent as his little eyes could. But as soon as our heads dropped, he would go at it again! He was incorrigible. This is a demonstration of what is instinctual to him. It is also a means of showing us that we are very much the same. After all, we were created with a free will, and born into this fallen world with a sinful nature.
The world offers many opportunities to sin. We can sin in our thoughts, by what we see, and by our own natural instincts. In our anger, we can sin. In our desire to achieve, or acquire, we could sin by cheating or lying.
But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. James 1:14-15
We are enticed through our eye gates, and all of the five senses. Beeper saw the drywall, tasted the drywall, and desired to chew. So he did. We are the same.
“When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.” Genesis 3:6
But if we are born again, we have the Holy Spirit within that helps us to overcome our desires, so that we can say “No” to ourselves.
A Grey Purse
I saw a small grey purse, which was soft, made of a velour fabric. It was wedged between two pillows. I knew that the purse was mine. As I saw the purse stuck between the pillows it reminded me of the passage in Jeremiah when he took a new belt and buried it between the rocks. When he went to retrieve it, it was ruined.
This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and buy a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water.” So I bought a belt, as the Lord directed, and put it around my waist.
Then the word of the Lord came to me a second time: “Take the belt you bought and are wearing around your waist, and go now to Perath and hide it there in a crevice in the rocks.” So I went and hid it at Perath, as the Lord told me.
Many days later the Lord said to me, “Go now to Perath and get the belt I told you to hide there.” So I went to Perath and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless.
Then the word of the Lord came to me: “This is what the Lord says: ‘In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt—completely useless! For as a belt is bound around the waist, so I bound all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah to me,’ declares the Lord, ‘to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.’ Jeremiah 13:1-11
In the vision, a purse has value, because it holds the things that are so important to us. Our keys, our wallet, and the items without which we can’t or wouldn’t leave the house. If there were a fire, the purse would be the first thing we might grab.
In the vision, the Lord chose the belt as an object of worth to represent his people. He valued them so much as to bind them around himself, so that he would be constantly with them. But, because of their waywardness, and their unfaithfulness, following other gods and idols, Judah and Jerusalem were ruined in his eyes. We can become like them when we refuse to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit, go our own way and do what does not please God. This is rebellion.
If we find ourselves overwhelmed with life’s commitments, or swamped with problems, perhaps we have not listened or followed the voice of God. We are to be his, and he is to be ours. So let’s repent of our waywardness, and get right with him.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9
The RV
In the last vision I saw a very large class C, box style RV. It was old and worn with faded grey paint and parked on the shoulder of a heavily traveled six lane highway in a retail area. It would seem that the RV should have pulled off the road in one of the many parking lots in front of the stores, rather than park on the shoulder so close to an entrance.
This vision reminds me of several things, but it follows the theme of the previous visions.
Just a few years ago, my husband and I were watching and following many shows on Youtube of people living the full-time RV life. We were engrossed in the subject of traveling and building RV’s. Of course in my former days, I was an interior designer and my husband had been interested in this subject for our entire married life.
The Lord showed me multiple visions attempting to stop me in this nonsense. One day he spoke to me calling it “foolishness.” I tried to wean myself off the topic, but it wasn’t until the Lord showed me a vision of my television draped and pulled away from the wall, that I stopped it altogether. That was in September two years ago. I haven’t watched it since.
But sometime ago we had purchased a small fiberglass trailer and began to renovate it. At this point I just wanted to finish it and sell it. But the renovation has constantly experienced delays and costly changes. I realized that I had sinned when we bought it. And it was sin to spend money and the inordinate amount of time fixing it up.
The RV on the side of the road, old, faded and parked represents a selfish life, lived for oneself and not for God. It represents rebellion. Unlike the belt in the previous vision, which represented something of value that became ruined, the RV was deemed by God from the onset to have no value in his eyes. As the Lord declared the belt to be ruined and “completely useless,” the RV in its parked and run-down condition is also “completely useless.”
The belt represented people that did not listen to God, and certainly, I was not listening to God when we bought the fiberglass trailer. When we do not listen to the voice of God nor heed his warnings (foolishness!) then we will suffer the consequences of our lack of obedience.
A selfish life will become faded, old, broken down, fruitless and useless. Thank the Lord that he is willing to forgive and reconcile us to the Father. But we must humble ourselves and ask for forgiveness. To repent means to change your mind. It is only repenting of our gross sin and rebellion that we become right with God. The Lord is looking for a heart change. He wants to see our obedience to his commands and a willingness to change our priorities.
If we live for ourselves our lives are useless. If we live for the Lord, he will use us as he will. He will glorify himself as we become an instrument in his hands. And we will find our joy in him!
The Lord wants to reach each one of us. He wants our full devotion and anything that comes between ourselves and him is idolatry!
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:23-24
Please share this post with others. It is the beginning of January, and the time to start afresh! Please pray for our pastors, our leaders, our nation and one another! God bless you all!
