new

Then, from near me on the hill, came the clear, pure sound of a flute. I turned to see an exquisite angel dressed in green playing the instrument. Her eyes were closed in worship, and I knew that the music she was playing was joining the praise passing before my eyes.

Chapter 7

Obedience

The angel sat cross-legged on the ground playing a golden flute. Her hair was a rich auburn and plaited into seven large loops that were interlaced with gold. She wore a gossamer, green under tunic bound with a golden girdle, and a cloak with long sleeves, which was also green.

Within the sleeves of the outer garment were oversized pockets containing all manner of instruments used in the arts— all of gold. There were various musical instruments, paint brushes, musical scores, ballet shoes, a quill pen—all within the sleeves. Her neck and hands had a slight tint of gold and so did the small portion of her bare feet that I could see.

Secured around her head was a golden cord; in the center of the cord was a small golden box. The box was in the middle of her forehead and similar to a frontlet for the housing of Scripture.

Eventually she lowered the flute and opened her eyes peacefully, as one might who is still rapt in contemplation. Then turning her face toward me, she smiled. “Praise Him,” she said. Her voice was gentle and melodious, and her eyes a limpid green.

I was too disquieted in spirit to share her peace, for thoughts were racing through my mind—with no resolution.

The Angel Judy

She smiled again, knowingly this time, but did not address my private conflict. “I am Judy,” she said, “one who praises.”

“Hello, Judy,” I said without much enthusiasm, “I am Anna.”

“I know who you are,” she smiled, “for I am assigned to you to assist you in praise of our God.”

“Assigned to me for praise?” I asked. Then excitedly I gestured toward the space in midair, “I saw...”

“Yes,” she said, “angels traveling on praise.”

“Traveling on praise?”

“Yes,” she reiterated, placing the flute into one of her oversized pockets.

“I do not understand.”

“Praise has in it part of the heart and part of the spirit sent forth, and so it is tangible to us in this world of true light, life, and spirit. To us here, praise is as substantive as a trolley on earth, you might say. You join yourself to it, and it will carry you along. It can take you for a ride,” she laughed liltingly, “and the one joined to it adds to it.”

I turned my eyes to look out over the valley. How could this be? I questioned within myself. Then I began to think, Yes, yes, I can understand that. I know that f someone leads worship with an anointing on earth, it can lift you in spirit to that person’s level of praise. The other’s anointing carries you with it, and you add your voice to the worship being raised to God. Yes, I can see that.

“Since all such praise travels to the Father,” she continued, “it is like catching a ride on a passing trolley and enjoying the ride to the throne room. If the angels do not ride all the way there, still they have added an imprint to the praise. Therefore, they too have participated, if ever so briefly.”

The sound of a single violin began to pass by. The violin was playing a tender, unaccompanied melody. A single angel was traveling with the adoration being expressed through this instrument and was adding to it.

“Some praise on earth is like a quiet stream, as is this,” she smiled.

From a distance I could hear the sound of many voices singing. The sound was moving swiftly in our direction.

“Some worship is like a tidal wave,” she said. “All of it gives to the angels a joy they would not have if mankind did not lift up praises to God.”

The sound was coming more quickly now, rolling toward us. As it drew nearer, I could sense my spirit rising to join such exalted worship. It lifted us spontaneously to our feet. Judy raised her hands, tilted her head back, and joined the song:

Angels in their glory Can never touch the flame, The fire, pure incandescence, That burns within Your name. Let them gaze in wonder, In awe, as they proclaim: “Holy God, though ever new, Eternally the same.”

Frightened, frozen, fettered. Those who seek to fight, Numbed and gnawed and naked, Those who choose the night. But we are covered by His love, Beneath His banner stand, Hidden in the Rock above, Sheltered by His hand.

In an ecstasy of devotion, Judy rose into the air from her place on the hill and began to move toward the passing praise.

“Take the path to find the Lord,” she called, and she was swept along in the tidal wave of worship surging toward the throne.

The disappearing praise continued to engage my spirit. Finally I opened my eyes and realized that she had given me the answer I needed. I hurried down the hill to the path and began running in the direction of the vanishing praise.

Obedience

As I hastened, I heard the voice of Jesus say very clearly, “Obedience, Anna.”

I stopped in my tracks.

He continued, “I delight to show you your heavenly home, but for your safety, you must be trained in obedience. There are grave dangers. All doors to the enemy must be shut.”

As I stood in wonder at the gravity of what He had said, an angel appeared on the path beside me.

The angel began talking to me as though he were continuing some conversation we had already begun, gesturing with his hand toward God’s park. “All of this is for the children of God, but you, Anna, have chosen to eat from the hand of God. You must love your Father enough to choose obedience rather than gratifications on earth.’° Choose Him minute by minute. You are careless with His gifts, and you are careless with His love for you.”

His over familiarity stunned me, as well as his knowledge of a decision I had only recently made; but yes, I was careless. As the Lord had drawn me into a deeper walk with Him, those things permissible a year or even a month ago were now no longer allowable. Somehow I could no longer get by with them, but I still lapsed into many of these faults.

The Thought Life

Elusive sins caused me to pay a high price in my relationship with the Lord. I thought to myself, Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.” I had moved from the “way” category to the “thoughts.” My mind did not focus on un-forgiveness or covetousness or such obvious sins.

My sins now were in engaging my mind in some area where I was not called, or in letting my mind dwell on the past, or in making a judgment that was out of my boundary of responsibility.

My life had become very constrained indeed. If I walked without turning to the right or the left, I remained in the flow of God’s grace. Any thoughts that were “vain in their imaginations” caused my mind to run in grooves around a track.’ Such thoughts were driven by tormentors it seemed.’ But I found that I could stop them by repeatedly catching myself and halting the train of thought as I began to think on such vain thoughts.

Of course, these thoughts would tiptoe back in, needing to be run out time and time again. Therefore I was halting them and throwing them out, standing against them with my will, as if my shoulder were against the door of access.

Still I was careless, as he had said, and was mentally running around many tracks in torment and weariness until each thought was taken captive to Christ. Earlier in my life with Christ, my mind could usually do as it pleased, but not now)

Narrow and narrower was the way, but in this obedience to

His Word was life.

The Angel Shama

Without missing a beat, the angel on the path beside me said, “I am Shama.”

I saw no reason to give my name, for he seemed to know almost as much about me as I did myself.

“Shall we walk?” he continued.

Almost stumbling, I moved forward.

He had long, straight, silver hair that was caught at the base of his head and hung down his back. He was very muscular, and although his hair was silver, he looked perhaps forty. He wore a full-length white robe, which looked as though it had been stained with blood or the juice of red grapes. This stain was on the hem of the robe and on the cuffs of the long sleeves, discoloring the garment to the knees and elbows.

“You delight in God,” he continued. “I have watched you and have seen that you desire nearness to Him. However, do you not know that disobedience creates a wall between you and Him. It is a wall of your own making because you cannot curb your natural desires. He will replace with Himself every delight you push away, Anna.” In looking at me, his eyes caught sight of a hill slightly beyond us. “Come with me,” he said.

As we walked up the hill, he continued, “There is a type of suffering in obedience, but the rewards far, far outweigh the pain.”

FAIR WARNING: if you're a woman who has extremely thin skin please don't read any further: you WILL get offended. If you think you can handle what follows - then proceed at your own risk.

When you live like a whore by sharing your body with any and every guy that strikes your interest - don't get mad when you end up with the whore's reward! You asked for it!

The whore's reward consists of children out of wedlock, emotional trauma and instability, the inability to be with just one man long term, multi-penis syndrome, mental problems, and being highly undesirable for marriage.

What's multi-penis syndrome? That's when you find yourself wondering if the guy you just met has a penis large enough to fulfill your sexual desires. That's a whore's problem! Only whores worry about that kind of mess!

Because had you done things God's way your husband's penis would be the ONLY penis you've ever experienced! Owning dildos and sex toys are also symptoms of multi-penis syndrome.

A lot of women are right now suffering the consequences from living like outright whores during their younger years. They spurned Godly wise counsel from the scriptures, believing the Bible was old-fashioned and outdated. And did their own thing instead.

Now they are eating the fruits of what they've sown. And many are unhappy with the bitter taste. They can't get married, can't maintain a long term relationship leading to marriage, can't meet a quality guy, and only seem to hook up with men who want to use their bodies for semen target practice.

See, God didn't give me wisdom to help EVERY women out there. I don't know what the struggles of single Chinese migrant women are.

But He did give me wisdom to help a specific type of woman: the ones this post is referring to, who threw away their golden opportunities in their younger years and are now reaping the rewards for their poor choices later in life.

I can definitely help THOSE women because I know exactly what their problems are. I know precisely what's holding many of you back from getting married. The problem is that this is the most stubbornly obstinate group of women on the planet!

Though I can help them, many of them are so scared and jaded they prefer instead to sling insults and to fight, rendering helping them a virtual impossibility.

I'm at the point now where all the help I'm willing to give on this topic is found in my relationship ebook. And if you're not willing to read that, I'm not willing to do anything else for you. Just wallow in your own self-made misery like a pig rolling in its own slop.

Truth is: until you repent for living a whore's life, most of you who want to be married but aren't yet - never will be.

Doesn't matter how Christian, educated, smart, pretty, bougie, college degreed, sorority pledged or intelligent you think you are: there will always be a consequence for violating Godly principles. Especially as it relates to sex.

You cannot cheat or beat God's system! God's way works: always has and always will. God's system is His Kingdom. It's an eternal kingdom that predates humanity and Earth itself. We are not wiser or smarter than God is. This is why His way continues to prevail like a mountain, while everything else crumbles around it.

The cure is simple: humble yourselves. So many of you are yet still arrogant and unrepentant. I can see it in the comment streams on my page whenever I promote my relationship ebook for women.

Women who are chronically single will immediately flood the comment stream pretending they have the answers; when they obviously do not. They can't be humble enough to just quietly get the ebook. Instead they have to pretend like they know what to do: when apparently if they did its not even working for them.

Here's some more truth for you to digest: Many of you don't have as much time to get right as you might think. The older you get the less chances you'll have to be seen by single men as anyone worth getting married to.

Younger guys will only tend to want to have sex with you: including the ones you meet at church! And older guys think you're full of too much baggage to seriously bother with, so they're overlooking you for marriage in favor of the younger women.

You're in a precarious predicament if you truly want to get married some day. You really don't have the luxury of time on your side anymore.

There is a glimmer of hope in all of this - my ebook Saved Sexy And Still Single: Why Christian Women Can't Get Married Even Though They Love God. For many of you its your only ray of hope, and your absolute last chance. You should've read it first! Could've been married by now.

Get it, read it and be humble enough to let the Spirit of God use it to heal what's broken in your life. Link is in the comment section below.