The Oil - Overfilled

It has been quite some time since I have shared words and life here. I truly miss it. Of course life has continued and there has been so much that I need to share and since I have been led to re-ignite this forum of expression, I will do just that. I want to share a very profound and deeply spiritual moment for me. In reading my blogs, surely you have figured out that I am in love with and loved by God. Nothing in me is a part from Him. What I want to share today is very personal and yet, I know that it will enlighten and challenge you; as it has done for me.

About four weeks ago, my little Mitsubishi (which was already falling apart and would become a river whenever it rained) was basically totalled in an accident. Three weeks later, God had a friend give me $1000 to buy another set of wheels or put a down payment on a vehicle. I opted to find something used but reliable because I need to be positioned to grow my business and a car payment was not in that equation. I found a car for $700 and I was on the road again! YAY! Four days into the car, there is a problem. I discovered, haphazardly, that the oil gauge does not work. This discovery was only made after I had poured WAY TOO MUCH oil into the car, trying to make that oil gauge rise. I was slightly bummed out about it; yet did not believe that it was anything major.

On the night I realized there was a problem, I'd dropped one niece off to the movies and the little niece and I headed home. We did not make it; because so much smoke was coming from the rear and hood of the car that we pulled into a parking lot and called for someone to come get us. I was distressed. It was dark and she and I were sitting in a parking lot. She asked what was wrong with the car and I explained it. I also told her that God did not bless me with this car to take it away with a silly mechanical problem. She understood it as best she could for a five year old. Then, in that moment, God had her share with me the Easter story that she'd learned in children's church and she ended with, "Auntie we have to remember to tell God thank you every day." So we told God thank you at that moment for the car, for the smoke and for the person coming to get us.

Today is April 6, 2010. During the wee hours of the morning I woke up and after allowing my mind to run through every personal and business matter, I finally said, "Ok God, clearly you want to talk to me, so I am listening." He asked "Is your gauge working?" My mind immediately went to the car - "No, it isn't." He inquired again, "Is your gauge working? Do you know that your oil is overflowing?"

I knew at that moment He was not talking about the car, He was talking about me. In Biblical terms, the oil represents anointing, the thing that you are spiritually called out or ordained to do/be/abide in. God very clearly said to me in that night conversation, that I keep reading my oil gauge as empty or too low, when in fact it is overflowing. My gauge, my mindsets, my confidence - keep registering low oil - it was a false reading.

Clearly, at this point, I am blown away; yet He wasn't finished. Here is what I learned. The mechanic said to me that when you put too much oil in a car, it has to come out. A car will find a way to get rid of it: it burns it off, it forces it to leak out, it pushes through filters and at some point before the damage happens, you have to change the oil and clean up the leaks and spills. What I learned as God brought this all back to me; is that there is so much anointing (oil) in me that it is looking for a way to get out. It is burning off the things that keep my gauge broken and my perception and acceptance of my anointing low. It is pushing to come out because it is too abundant to sit in my life (engine) and it wants to operate.

Finally, the mechanic kept saying to me, and I kept hearing his words as God spoke to me, "It's okay, the car is fine, it is not damaged, it's a good car." I kept hearing his words in the midst of God's words, because I needed to know that although my gauge was broken; my vision/my dream is still intact and the oil is still flowing and active. Is your gauge broken? Does your hopes, dreams, calling gauge always read empty or low? Now ask yourself, the question I did - WHY?

Today's writing assignment is to draw a gauge that is indicative of your life and mark the point on that gauge that represents where your calling is. Then write your mechanics notes to repair the damage and get to the place of your calling. My gauge was broken, but wonderfully there is another way to test the measure of oil in your life and that is to seek God and hear Him when He speaks. Is your gauge broken?

THE INAUGURATION OF A DREAMER

Barack Hussein Obama is the 44th President of the United States of America, and the first Black President of the same. The election of Obama fulfills the dreams and visions of two powerful men who lived in the midst of this country's horrific and embarrassing Civil Rights struggle - Robert Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. King, in an early 60's interview said he believed a Negro American could be president within 25 years; Kennedy said in a national address (also in the early 60's) that he believed this country could heal and progress to the point that we could elect a Black president within 40 years. Their statements reflect the dreams and hopes of two men who despite seeing people at their worst - believed in their best. They had dreams not just for themselves but for a nation of people.

Interestingly, all of this has tickled my mind these last few days, after hearing two inspirational messages on dreams delivered at church. The Biblical scripture centered around the life of Joseph and how his dreams caused him to be hated - literally by his brothers. His dreams so intimidated and disturbed them that after - what I call - pulling death straws; they sold their own flesh into slavery. From there Joseph obtained prominence, was lied on by a manipulative woman, was jailed and finally rose to prominence again.

Dreams, especially those that awaken your power and prominence, are intimidating. In the past year I have learned that through a series of hard lessons. Your dreams are great as long as they quickly produce a tangible and financial reward and do so consistently. For some, that is definitely the divine path they will be favored with. For others, like Joseph, there are some seasons of hardships that must be undertaken in order that your position be sure and your faith be even more certain. You know what Joseph taught me, okay I will admit I learned a bit late as did he; but he taught me to keep my dreams securely wrapped in quiet prayer until they are strong enough to be revealed.

I unwrapped my dreams too soon to some who are not designed to dream at my level and when the money tree did not quickly shake its massive leaves to blanket the lawn on either side of the house; temporary applauders became strong opposers. I know how Joseph must have felt and even though I know without a doubt God assigned this time to me and appointed me to whoop its behind - the growing and testing of my faith is still hard. I am a stronger person because of it and I am so proud of me; for I did not run and every time I was knocked to the ground I got up. That I believe is the mark of a true dreamer - knowing that you have to fight for the dream and sometimes fight repeatedly.

As I write this my son and I are being covered by a friend who quietly respects my dreams, she and a handful of others often tell me that I have a calling to pull people's dreams out of them. I am not sure how true that is, but I am now convinced that is part of the deeper roots that sprout my dreams. Doing it - pulling out people's dreams is also part of those deeper roots and I believe it is the part that pisses off the negative forces around us. If I dream, if I fight for my dream, if I reach inside you to pull a dream to the surface - I am creating too much positive energy, too much hope, too much light.

Well, okay dreamer, join me today in pissing off dream negaters - lets inaugurate hope in our lives. As the nation, no as the world, watches the swearing in of the 44th President of the United States, he urged an era of responsibility. Stand up, grab your Bible or your tool of inspiration and write your address to the world about who you are and what your dreams bring to the table. What does your inauguration address say about hope, fighting for your dreams, allowing your sincere, divine dream to pull you through hell? What does your inauguration address say about who you are destined to be? Does your inauguration address have the power of a dreamer and audacity of hope? Dream on my child and when someone comes - and they will - to challenge your dreams and even snatch it from your bosom - tell them to GET OFF MY PILLOW!

E. Claudette Freeman,
Arise, Write, Release

TALK TO THE HAND

Can you believe she said that? And said it with some sense of power in your life. Can you believe he had the intestinal fortitude to say something that off-hand about you? Even more bewildering, he had the audacity to say it with some sense of power in your life. Well, how about that!

I’m often around people who feel it necessary and absolutely okay to say whatever they choose about my decisions and my capacity of being. That would be okay if I asked for their opinions – which are usually negative, based on their world or far away from my divine conversations. I have learned to engage in a disengaged conversation with them until they are done preaching their correction to me. It has also been my experience that opinions can not be solicited from everyone. You see, some believe that once their OPINION is voiced, it is in fact a DIRECTIVE that you should act on immediately. Troubling is the reality that for many of us we do take the opinions of others as mandates for our lives.

For a long time, I would obsess on the things those people said or thought about me, my personal vision, my personal dreams, my no sense of fashion, the fact that like to keep my finger and toe nails long - even my hair style. Then I started writing the left of what they thought was right. In other words I would write the truth - my truth - and that overruled their opinion. I honestly believe that anyone who gets caught up in the exterior of anything never fully sees its beauty nor experiences its spectacular abilities. So those who offer sought and un-sought opinions, may say it is right and perhaps it is - for them, or even for you. But the decision as to its proper place in your world must be yours completely. A decision to live someone's personal responses also means you make a decision to live someone's consequences.

Remember in pre-school or kindergarten, when you would take your favorite colored-crayon and trace your hands - wasn't that the coolest? Take a look at your hands now, trace your left hand and pen what is left in your life after you silence all of the other opinions, beliefs, notions and attitudes. If everything is silenced, you have QUIET, in the quiet you should begin to HEAR - your true spirit, which means you will sense DIVINE DIRECTION. Imagine that you have never heard any opinion or thought about what you should do and instead with each life line you draw on that left hand: list a purpose for your life, list an item or person that brings a smile or sense of joy, list something silly that makes you laugh. On your life lines dream again - what would you be if you could be anything in the world and how would you become it. Strange, look what you created without everyone's input? A dream and a plan to go get it.

It is something about that left hand. What is left? Left is to edify you, left is to remind you that it is your thought patterns and God’s thought streams that matter, left is to direct you to divine power – for you can do all things… you are more than a conqueror, and why would you expect anyone to understand a "peculiar people." Peculiar are those who would put extreme faith in the unseen and bring its truth to dynamic realities. What is left? Left is your power, in your hand, to be used for your edification. Talk to the hand and it will certainly tell you some awesome things about YOU!

Arise, Write, Release,

I’m E. Claudette Freeman

ARISE, WRITE, RELEASE: THE MORNING HOUR JOURNAL

An e-book full of inspiration and invitations to write your new vision.