"The Lost Purse"

During the early morning hours of November 17, 2018, the Holy Spirit gave me a dream. In the dream I was at a large restaurant with our daughter and her family. My two grandsons were still little boys in the dream so I know it was prophetic and not based on our current life.

The food was served family style with large platters put on our table for all us to serve ourselves. There were platters of bacon, scrambled eggs and the most incredible kind of pastry called a braid. It was freshly baked bread dough with raisins, cinnamon, butter and pecans which was incredibly delicious. I remember the waitress came to clear off the table and I grabbed another piece to take with me. I wanted more and couldn't get enough.

When we finished our breakfast it was time to leave. We were on a trip traveling together and needed to get back on the road to our destination. When I looked down on the floor beside my chair, my purse was not there. Now when a woman discovers her purse is gone, she becomes very upset. All her important things are carried in that purse: car and house keys, driver's license, credit and debit cards, insurance cards. All those things that help her function in life; go places, make purchases and identity herself.

Trying not to panic, I began searching all over the restaurant for my lost purse. Was it stolen? Did another woman pick it up by mistake thinking it was her purse? How was I going to find her? Then I looked over at a display table and saw a purse which looked just like mine. It was a paisley print tote bag made by Vera Bradley. When I opened it, all I saw was a price tag and paper stuffed inside.

So I grabbed it and headed to find the restaurant manager and report my missing purse. My family was waiting on me all this time and we needed to get back on the road. There I was caught in a situation which was out of my control and I didn't know what to do. End of the dream.

That Saturday morning at breakfast, I shared my dream with my husband and recorded it in my dream journal. At the time I did not have the interpretation, so I left space in my journal to come back later and write it down. The next morning was Sunday and I got up to get ready to go to church. Tommy walked into the kitchen and told me he thought he had the interpretation.

The lost purse represented my old identity which I needed to lose before the Lord could give me a new one in Christ. The design and material of a purse represents our personality and character. The contents of a woman's purse represents her talents, gifts and how she functions in life.

Dreams are filled with symbolism and particular elements have symbolic meaning. My family represented the family of God coming together to worship Him and partake of His goodness at the Lord's banqueting table. The family style breakfast table reminds me of the wonderful gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit which He wants to give to us. Jesus is the bread of life which we need to partake of so we can be transformed into His image. He is our manna in the wilderness along life's journey. Like the delicious raisin cinnamon braid in my dream, once you've tasted of the goodness of the Lord, you want to go back for more. You can't get enough of His goodness, His love and His power. You want more of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and are no longer satisfied with what the world has to offer you.

Scriptures tell us that God's plan for creating mankind in His image, was so He would have sons and daughters that represent Him and His kingdom on the earth. Since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, God has been pursuing men and women who would accept His offer to become members of His family. When we accept His Son Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, then we are born again into His kingdom. You cannot enter the kingdom of God until you ARE born again by the Spirit of God.

After our spirit has been regenerated (quickened, made alive), then we need the power of the Holy Spirit at work from within us to be transformed into God's image and likeness. This process is what is called sanctification by the Spirit and takes a lifetime to complete. God has a plan and a destiny for each one of us for how we will serve him in this life and through out all eternity. But first, we must undergo a death of the old, natural man so our new, resurrected spirit man can be manifest in us.

Our old, carnal identity was formed by the influence of our ancestors, our parents and childhood experiences. We are a product of what we experienced in life, both good and bad. It is not so much what happened to us as children, but our perceptions of what happened that shapes our adult mindsets, emotions and behavior. Finally, both the Holy Spirit and the devil are constantly trying to influence what we believe about God, ourselves and others.

Back to my story. At church that Sunday morning, we experienced a wonderful time of worship. While we were enjoying the Presence of God, the Spirit showed me how several lyrics in one particular song were connected to the dream about the lost purse. Especially, the phrases: "I am a child of God" and then, we are called to be "sons and daughters of God." This inspiration by the Holy Spirit led me to share a word from the Lord to our congregation. *A link to our church website is provided below so you can hear a recording of that message.

According to the interpretation of the dream, we begin our relationship to our Father God as His child: immature, inexperienced and untrained in the knowledge of and ways of God. However, as we mature-- in Christ, we learn how to put on the robes of righteousness, think with the mind of Christ, are trained in holiness, how to represent Christ here on earth and how to exercise the gifts, authority and anointing of the Spirit of Christ to see God's kingdom manifest here on earth.

Sanctification by the Holy Spirit is sadly missing from most churches today. We hear the message preached over and over again about how we need to be saved from our sins and accept Christ as our Savior. We are taught to be born-again as a child of God and accept our new identify as a Christian. But the message ends there. Few pastors and churches know how to bring their people into the next phase of our spiritual development- transformation into the image of Christ and fulfilling our destiny in the kingdom of God. God's plan since the formation of the earth was to have a people who would love Him, serve him and be transformed into His image-- as mature sons and daughters of God.

The dream of the lost purse is God's way of communicating to us that we need to move on from our immature identity of being 'a child of God' to being mature 'sons and daughters of God' who are walking in our destiny and fulfilling God's purposes here on earth. God has a marvelous plan for our life here on earth-- and for our future life of serving Him through out all eternity.

Our lifetime now and the experiences we have serve to train us in righteousness and holiness unto the Lord. It is time for the body of Christ to understand and begin to walk in their eternal calling and purposes. We are being prepared to represent our heavenly Father to the unsaved nations and people here on earth during His millennial reign. Only the mature sons and daughters of God will be ruling and reigning with Jesus Christ. Only those who have chosen to be transformed into His image during this lifetime will be granted the privilege and honor of representing the Father. We will have learned how to be overcomers in this life. Through our intimate relationship with God by the Holy Spirit, we will have overcome sin, Satan and the world. We will have been transformed into warriors and champions for Jesus Christ. The old nature is gone and the new man in Christ is being formed in us.

By our obedience and faithfulness in this lifetime, we will have demonstrated to the Father that He can trust us to handle kingdom responsibilities and authority- in His Name. We will be given a royal robe of righteousness, a crown of righteousness and signet ring to wear on our finger signifying our trustworthiness to represent the Father's kingdom. We will hear the Father say, "Well done, thy good and faithful servant. To whom much is required, much will be given in My kingdom."

Questions to consider. Have you discovered your true identity in Christ and your calling in His kingdom? Have you chosen to be transformed by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit? Are you being trained in righteousness and holiness to represent the power and presence of God in the earth?

Here is the link to the word the Spirit had for our congregation, His Place Worship Center, Marion, NC. Scroll down to the message on Nov. 18, Paul Boyd, Reflections of Thankfulness. The word was delivered at the beginning of our pastor's message. Look under Pastor's Desk > Audio/Visual Downloads.

*  http://www.hisplaceoutreach.org/audiovisual-downloads/