Good New Year’s Eve my friends,

Here I am reflecting on 2024 and something, in particular, came to mind that I want to share with you.

During this time of reflection, on this New Year’s Eve, I am reminded of a dream I had several years ago. I keep thinking that I should write about it. I confess my organizational skills are considered by some as “pathetic”. But that sometimes works to my benefit. As I wade through the piles of unfiled or filed in the wrong place documents, Bible Studies, letters, medical info, invoices… well that’s really telling on myself. Anyway, I discovered things that are nice additions to my dream story.

Yes, this is me although I don’t even recognize myself from the back view. My white hair hasn’t reached that far yet! Lol! But the evidence of my disorganization is apparent. I know some of you will get a laugh, and some can relate.

So, I will get to the story because there is no telling what will be added if I don’t. Ha! Ha!

First of all, the dream I titled “Joy Ride With the Holy Spirit”. I actually wrote the month and year the dream occurred, August 2014.

The winter weather outside was the most severe ice and snowstorm I had ever witnessed. Although it was nighttime, it appeared light because of the intensity of the white ice and snow. David and I stepped outside and saw our car sitting outside in the storm. I decided I had somewhere I must go. However, I could not fathom the destination, urgency, or purpose in ever considering the possibility of driving in those conditions. David was pleading with me not to go. It was far too treacherous! But I knew I had to get in the car and go anyway. Much to my surprise when I got in the car it started up and began moving on its own. I remember seeing David standing there as my car drove past him. With my hands gripping the steering wheel all I could see ahead was an ice-covered road with sharp jagged ice formations jutting along the narrow path. The road was very curvy as I was navigating through frigid snow-covered mountains. Despite the danger, I was unimaginably calm. The car was effortlessly gliding as it maneuvered through the danger. As I went around sharp curves, I could see the edge was a huge drop off the side of the mountain. But still no fear! I started praying and was so full of joy I could hardly contain it. Then I saw huge, jagged mountains ahead of me with razor-sharp peaks, but these mountains were barren and brown. At this point, I let go of the steering wheel and started praying in the spirit in an unknown tongue.  The joy elevated and the peace intensified. The ride with the Holy Spirit was thrilling beyond my wildest dreams (no pun intended). Then I woke up! As I lay in my bed, soaking in the experience, I said, “What a ride!” I didn’t want it to end. I just knew the Lord had a message in this incredible dream.

Here’s what I got:

Note about Ice and snow in the Bible: Ice represents God’s power over the elements and seasons. Job 37:10  NKJV “By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen”. Job 38:29 “From whose womb came the ice? And the frost of heaven, who gives it birth?” Psalms 147:17 “He casts out His hail like morsels; Who can stand against His cold?” Snow is also used to represent God’s power and purity. Isaiah 1:18 NKJV “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins be like scarlet, They shall be white as snow, Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.” And in Psalms 51:7 David also uses this concept in his prayer. “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” On the Desiring God link it points out in Psalms 148:7-8 “Snow is purposed by God to glorify Him and “do His bidding.” Snow has a Sender (Job 37:6), frost has a Scatter-er (Psalm147:16), and God uses both to showcase His supremacy (Job 38:22).

As I did this research and read each scripture, it gave me a much greater appreciation of, not only the dream but my heavenly Father Who blessed me with such a dream. Oh, what a ride!

Here’s another note about the dream to consider. I got in the car to travel somewhere. I didn’t know where I was going, but I knew I had to go! No matter sight or circumstances. That is called faith! That faith was in something bigger than me. It was the Spirit of God with me!

I searched the internet again but this time it was for the scriptures that tell the meaning of traveling. In the Bible, travel can mean a variety of things. First, in Genesis 1:28 God tells Adam and Eve to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth. God wasn’t telling them to leave the Garden. It can be interpreted as a divine command to travel, or to extend the Garden of Eden. Travel can also be a pilgrimage of faith. It can be a metaphor for a spiritual journey, where God leads people toward a deeper relationship with Him and to learn to trust Him more. That’s where again I had the faith to get in the car when it didn’t seem rational under the weather conditions. And the letting go of the steering wheel came into play. Letting go and letting God bring me into a deeper relationship with Him, and trusting Him more. Traveling in the Bible also represents our life’s journey. In that journey, by trusting the Lord and seeking His will, He will show you the right path. Proverbs 3:5-6. Psalm 32:8 says He will guide you on the best pathway for your life. And He will advise you and watch over you. It gets better and better doesn’t it, my friend? I will list more scriptures I found and I’m sure you will find more to explore. Isaiah 30:21; Exodus 13:21; Psalms 121:82 Corinthians 5:7. And I have to write out Hebrews 11:8 “It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going”. Oh to have the faith of Abraham, not just in my dream state, but in real life!

I believe the Lord is trying to convey an all-important message to us, don’t you? The Bible Repository link is where I found these verses, but they have 35 in total for us to read and further our understanding of God’s purpose in this dream.

And I believe this is why on this eve of the new year, I was reminded of this dream and was able to find where I had written about it amid the clutter.

As we look to the new year we can be confident that we have everything we need in this life’s journey. Have faith, and confidence in God’s Word, His promises, and His indwelling Holy Spirit that never leaves or forsakes us, no matter sight or circumstances. Be willing to surrender to Him and His plans and He guides us all the way on our journey home. It just can’t get better than that, can it?

AND WHAT A JOY RIDE IT WILL BE! Praising our Savior all the way, for making the way to the Father and our eternal home sweet home. It seems perfect for us to celebrate the new year right after celebrating the birth of the One who made the way for the Joy Ride With the Holy Spirit.

To finalize this blog I am adding a couple of things I discovered in my search through my files.

First is an article that Paul Thigpen wrote titled “Joy Stealers”. This is a good time to give this some prayerful reflection too.

If to see God is to know Him, to know Him is to love Him and to love Him is to enjoy Him, then anything that obscures our vision of God will inevitably diminish our joy in the Lord. 

Here are some common joy-stealers: 

GUILT. In loving God the Scripture says, we turn our heart toward Him, and in disobeying God we turn our heart and the “eyes” of our heart away from Him.(see for ex. 1 Kings 11:4,9). When we stand in unconfessed sin, we turn our back to God, and in losing our view of Him, we lose our joy. For joy to return, we must turn around again. The Bible calls it repentance; to face the Lord once more. 

FEAR.  Fear robs us of joy because it makes God seem far away. When the things that frighten us seem closer at hand than God, they also seem larger than God. Their proximity intimidates us and rivets our attention until we can no longer see the Lord who stands beyond them. 

For joy to return, we must gain some “analytical distance” on what frightens us by holding it up in the presence of God in prayer and redirecting our attention to God in worship. When we recapture a view of God near at hand(the vision of prayer) and on His throne reigning over the situation (the vision of worship), fear subsides, and we can once again take delight in God’s goodness and power. 

ANGER. When someone’s offense against us occupies our mental and emotional attention, we have little left over for the Lord. Anger clouds the eyes of our hearts and obscures our view of God, draining away our joy. The cure: We must forgive if we are to have our joy restored. 

DISCONTENT. At times our days seem filled with dull moments and insignificant concerns—fixing a child’s bike, doing the laundry, shuffling papers on an office desk. With our nose to the grindstone and our eyes to the ground, we fail to see the Lord in our daily movements, and so we move in a joyless routine. But if we lift our eyes to the Lord who rules over even “the day of small things”(Zech 4:10), our joy returns as we realize that the mundane moments we find so tedious are the common stuff from which we build a lifetime of faithfulness that pleases Him. 

DESPAIR. When we give up, concluding our situation is hopeless, we lose joy because we’ve taken our eyes off the all-sufficiency of God and fixed them on our own failure. We’re looking for God in a broken mirror. To find joy, we must throw away the mirror and instead, with hope to the great Artist who is making of us a masterpiece that is yet unfinished (Eph 2:10). 

SUFFERING. When we suffer, God suffers alongside us; that is, in part, the meaning of the cross of Christ. Yet grief, the ancients agree, is a “constriction” of the heart, and with it comes a narrowing of our sight, a loss of our heart’s peripheral vision, So if we would regain a vision of God in our suffering—and with it, our joy—we must turn to glimpse our hurting Lord right beside us, sharing our pain. In that moment, His face can stir in us a profound joy in the unsearchable love that would stoop to bear our sorrows as His own. 

Joy in suffering grows deeper still when we behold the Lord beside us in yet another sense, We are “seated… with Him in the heavenly realms” (Eph 2:6. The day will come when we will “reign forever and ever” with Him (Rev.22:5). Next to that triumphant eternity, the suffering of today or even of a lifetime grows infinitely small and so the joy of our vision of final glory can pour comfort and hope into the thirsty ground of our present pain. 

By Paul Thigpen 

I discovered some areas that I definitely needed to work on and I know I have the Holy Spirit (Helper) on that journey also. So let’s not let our JOY be stolen!

And I have a friend, Linda Greenler, who turns doodles into works of art. Glorifying Jesus! Joy in Him! Thank you, Linda, for sharing your talent with us!

I truly hope as you read what I have written that you will benefit by drawing closer to our Lord. And if you haven’t read my books, I hope you will in the new year. Just click on the word “books” and it will take you to my books page.

I have readers from 15 different nations (some of whom have already stepped into 2025), and I appreciate each one of you. I believe God will multiply that number and use what I write to serve His purpose for calling me to write. To Him is the glory!

Have the happiest New Year ever and enjoy the ride, in Jesus’s name,

Reba