Smells of Roses

3/31/25 

“The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not.”  C. S. Lewis.

Answering God’s call into ministry is thrilling, if not scary. When I first was told by the Lord what my gift was, I was happy. After a couple of years, the Lord started preparing me for a future calling that would challenge me like nothing else in my life.

There are times when I feel like God is not loving due to this work I have been assigned; yet my guiding light is and always has been His Word. There I find those I commensurate with knowing that the Lord has told us we will suffer in one form or another for His name. This recent dream, whether from God or not, speaks of my continuous uneasiness with my affliction, yet it is to be ‘viewed’ by the world.  

From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus Chrst. Galatians 6:17.

I am with my little sister when a crowd formed. It parted as I walked to the front. We were looking at a large screen, and it was to be filled in with the color white. However, it miraculously filled in with red because of my presence.

The crowd gasped in surprise as I did. They turned to me and as they did, my shirt which was semi opened to expose the middle of my chest, a cross formed in my flesh/chest. The cross filled in with red on my chest. And the people gasped again. 

The last scene had Wendy and I sitting alone after the crowd left, discussing the miracle and she said to me: “I smell roses on you.” I told her that the scent is a sign of the Holy Spirit.

I have desperately wanted to accept my hard ministry with joy and wisdom, it used to be that way in my formative years. But I seem to have grown in the ministry of suffering minus the joy. This dream is telling. The message of this dream came six months later when the Lord made it clear, He wanted me to post writings on affliction.

Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which You have broken may rejoice.  Psalm 51:8.

The computer screen in the dream represents my website (open to the world) and the cross etched in the middle of my chest represents my heart; the heart of the matter on affliction and how it relates to the cross. The color red represents the passion of Christ, and lastly, the gasping from the people symbolizes the surprise at the message that is shared on afflictions and suffering for our Savior.

Perhaps those who intersect my path to heaven will come to have a different and changed perspective on the subject.

The last scene of the dream with my sister and her proclaiming that I smelled of roses is sweet; a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. Philippians 4:18. It embodies the fragrance of Christ that we all can have even through our suffering for Him and for His glory.

Our pain reminds us that this world is not our home. I was telling the Lord the other night I feel like I have become an expert in suffering and waiting.  To sum it all up, if He suffered, we will suffer. 

And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. Romans 8:17.

“Jesus has many who love the kingdom of God, but few who bear a cross. He has many who desire His comfort, but few who desire His suffering. All want to rejoice with Him, but few are willing to suffer for Him. There are many who admire His miracles, but there are few who follow in the humiliation of the cross.” — Thomas A Kempis.

For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in His flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in Himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Ephesians 2:15-18.