The Year of Truth

"Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the River Chebar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God."  Ezekiel 1:1

Today after the kids and I finished with school I found the strangest lyrics running through my head.  It was the first few stanzas of Ezekiel Saw The Wheel, which was made popular at some point by Woody Guthrie. 

Ezekiel saw that wheel
Way up in the middle of the air
Now Ezekiel saw that wheel
Hurling way in the middle of the air

Now the little wheel run by faith
And the big wheel run by the grace of God
In the wheel and a wheel hurling
Way in the middle of the air

The song itself was actually a slave song.  It was one of the many, many spiritual songs sung my slaves while they worked in the fields.  When I was a freshman in high school we sang a version of this song in one of my choirs, if it weren't for that, I don't know that I would really know the song.  But I do.  And I found myself singing it.  I thought that very strange, because it literally came from nowhere.  The more I thought about that though, the more I thought that it had to have come from somewhere.  Random songs don't just happen.  So I decided I needed to open up my Bible and turn to the book of Ezekiel.

I didn't get very far.  :) 

In fact, I read the first verse, and right away, I had a few thoughts about it.  I proceeded to read the whole chapter, but I ended up right back at verse one, which I've posted up above.  It's just that, as soon as I read it, I thought of this idea of visions from God, and I thought of how many times I've heard people criticizing those who claim to have had visions from God.  But here we have, very prominently displayed in the first verse of a book of the Bible the words " the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God."  There it is.  A Godly man had visions, right in the Bible, and yet far too many Christians hear about visions and run screaming because they're certain that the idea of visions comes from the devil.

If one were to go on and continue reading the book of Ezekiel, they would read account after account of vision after vision- including the spinning wheels mentioned in the song above.  The more I read Ezekiel, the more the whole idea of dreams and visions from God become real to me- and a real possibility.  I've never really had a vision, that I know of.  Dreams, yes, but a vision, no.  To me a vision would be something visible- something that I see with my naked eye.  God's never blessed me with that, but I don't discount that someday He could.  He's shown my husband a few visions- a few wonderful bits that are not my story to tell of, but he's had them.  

As I thought on these ideas of visions and dreams, it just had me think that maybe this will be the year that God will reveal truth to His church.   I've been reading a fictional book set in the time of the Civil War here in the US, and one of the subjects addressed is the idea of witch hunts.  I saw a distinct parallel, as there are some Christians out there who have decided that it is their purpose and calling in life to accuse other Christians of dining with the devil, so to speak.  Men and women who pray to God, in the name of Jesus for people to be healed of all kinds of afflictions have been accused of using witchcraft.   That totally makes me think of the Puritan movement, and how they would accuse anyone who seemed not quite right of witchcraft and dealing with the devil.  That was a horrible time in the history of our country, and we're on the edge of repeating the exact same thing.  Oh, we may not have the physical burning at the stake anymore, but the media sure does a good job of completely ruining people with just a few words and a few days of spin.

So I would pray today, with my first post of 2012, that this would be the year of truth for America.  That God's Truth will be known throughout the land, and that those who would bring slander and harm to Godly men and women would be stopped in their tracks.  We have an election before us this year.  I would pray that the truth will become crystal clear to the American people, and that the right person for the job of President will become apparent to each and every voting citizen.

I found a simple truth in Ezekiel today- the simple truth that God can speak to a man with a vision.  God can open up the heavens and show a simple man truths that is needed for the time at hand.  I would pray that visions would become commonplace for the faithful, and that these visions will speak important truths just when they are needed.  May those truths free those who need to be freed.

"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."  John 8:32