Jedidjah- God always keeps His promises

Dearly Beeloveds,

God is faithful, that what He has said He will do, He does. 

This is our story about a horse named Jedidjah, a promise from the heart of God which became our reality.

Life makes so much more sense if we see what is happening from a spiritual perspective, rather than only what we can see with our eyes and feel with our senses. Although it is much contended in the world today, the truth and solidness of the Word of God has not changed with the times.

For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Hebrews 4:13

God’s Words are still Spirit and they are still Life. His Word is still relevant today, even though the spirit of this world is constantly and purposefully intent on discrediting His existence and misrepresenting His heart. As a family we know and have experienced that true to His promises, if we truly would take the time to seek God, we will find Him. This is our daily bread and our daily reality.

You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart Jeremiah 29:13

Ten years ago, Dave and I reached a crossroads. Although we both were enthusiastic Christians and had been for quite some time, serving the Lord together and doing what we knew to be the right thing as best as we could, we arrived at a place where we had a deep discontent in our hearts, and a cry from within that somehow there had to be more.

We laid our lives before the Lord, honestly seeking Him and His will for us and our young family with all our hearts. As we were reaching out to Him, willing to respond to His call on our lives, the Holy Spirit gave me a vision of a difficult time ahead.  The vision ended with a beautiful white Arab stallion running past me so closely that I could feel my hair moving in the gust of wind that was billowing up as he sped past me.

As the stallion was running off into the distance, he transformed into the horse that my parents bought for us when I was a young girl. She was named Blue.  Those who know me well know that some of my most precious and treasured childhood memories are of the time I spent on horseback with Blue.

The horse in the vision was the most beautiful, purest white stallion I had ever seen. It was one of the most touching and real experiences of my entire life.

Although I was absolutely thrilled by the experience and stunned that the God of the universe would take such special care in showing me, of all people, something so very personal and touching, at the time I did not understand much about the message that He was delivering. Had I known just how difficult the next season of our lives would be, I would have better understood why it was necessary for the Holy Spirit to encourage me as clearly and specifically as He did for what was lying ahead. Had I known how difficult the journey ahead would be… I would have been much less eager to walk the path ahead of us!

I have learned that most of the stories and plans and purposes that God has for our lives have to be lived through in order to be fully understood.

The vision I received was not a once-off experience and not the only way in which God started to speak to our hearts. As we have been steadily moving closer to Jesus, being willing to walk in His light, one of the inevitable consequences was that the true states of our hearts, who we really are and our motives for doing things started to be illuminated. The Holy Spirit began challenging every perception we had about Who He was, and this is still a work in progress!

Our Father confirmed to us His desire for all people to know and experience Him personally and deeply, the way He truly is. This was the kind of unbroken fellowship that Adam and Eve had with God in the garden of Eden. Although sin has brought a great chasm between God and His creation, His original design and intent for fellowship and relationship with us has never chanced.

Spirit to spirit

God is a Spirit. We are taught from young to be realists- believing in what we can see and understand and explain. God, however, speaks to us in His own language.

For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” – John 4:24

In the same way that it takes time to learn another language, and how it takes time and effort to master the finer meanings of more difficult words and concepts, it took more than just one conversation or experience with God for us to learn to listen with our hearts instead of our minds.

Someone living on an entirely human level rejects the revelations of God’s Spirit, for they make no sense to him. He can’t understand the revelations of the Spirit because they are only discovered by the illumination of the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 2:14

Learning the language of the Spirit was not about us mastering a new skill and getting the certificate afterwards. Although we certainly did have to consciously invest time in learning His language, as would be the case with learning any new language, the most important message from Jesus for our journey was simple:

Lay down your own ideas and ideals.

Follow Me!

Counting the cost

There is a cost to following Jesus. The Message version of the Bible describes this best:

“Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters – yes, even one’s own self! – cant be my disciple. Anyone who won’t shoulder his own cross and follow behind me can’t be my disciple. Simply put, if you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it goodbye, you can’t be my disciple.” – Luke 14:27,33

We soon became aware that we were required to let go of all that we held dear. We also found that we were not as wise as we thought we were, and we certainly do not have all the answers. We made some serious mistakes along the way, especially regarding our interpretation of what the Holy Spirit was saying and meaning, and our response to it. We gravely misrepresented and misinterpreted His Word and messages at times, and this in turn caused some fractures in our relationships with the people closest to us.

This for me has been one of the hardest parts of the journey. Being a doer and a fixer, I realised there are some things that I simply cannot fix.

Thankfully, we have the most patient teacher in the world, and if we are willing, He delights leading us into truth. I have learned to receive God’s grace for my imperfections, and to forgive myself for the mistakes I have made. I have chosen to allow my Father to do what He does best. He is the master of fixing, redeeming and restoring broken things.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Romans 3:24

 

God’s heart becomes our present reality

But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth). For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future]. – John 16:13

When I received this peep into the future from the Holy Spirit at the beginning of our journey, I did not know that the horse I saw in the vision would become a REAL, touchable, feel-able and rideable one!

We arrived in the Cape province with nothing but blind faith and a promise from God. Jedidjah was promised to us just after we had moved to Hermanus, which was the first stop-over of our new beginning in the Western Cape- having come in obedience to the Lord’s directing and at the time still very uncertain about where the road ahead would lead us. I was perplexed – wondering where on earth we would find a place to stay for our family of seven… Let alone a horse too!

We have a beautiful testimony of the path that led to the horse being given to us, and the amazing tapestry of people that God weaved into our journey. God is into relationship building, and people always play such an important part in any story that He authors! But that is a story for another time.

A beautifully intertwined series of events unfolded (not without its own set of challenges) and over the next year, by the grace of God and the kind hearts of a number of special people along our path, we ended up in a beautiful area in the mountains of Piketberg.

Starting over from scratch again in a new rental home in an entirely different province… and still figuring out how things work around us, accommodating a horse was definitely not on our agenda!

Amazingly, although I had to firmly hold onto this promise from the Word for dear life and at times seriously wondered how it would play out amidst the chaos that was seemingly happening around us, all things DID work out for our good. Just as He promises.

“And we know (with great confidence) that God (who is deeply concerned about us) causes all things to work together (as a plan) for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose.” – Romans 8:28

We have had the opportunity to taste and to see the goodness of the Lord become our reality. We were able to find a beautiful place to stay- not only for us, but for our horse too! All impossibilities at the time, but God made a way. We are so thankful for every person, and puzzle piece that God has carefully moved into place – enabling us to simply be where we are today.

O taste and see that the Lord [our God] is good; How blessed (fortunate, prosperous, and favored by God) is the man who takes refuge in Him. Psalms 34:8

 

Jedidjah

Amazingly, we had nothing to do with the choosing of Jedidjah’s name.

Easton’s Bible dictionary gives the following meaning for the name Jedidjah:

Beloved by God, the name which, by the mouth of Nathan, the Lord gave to Solomon at his birth as a token of divine favour.

Beeloved was the name that the Holy Spirit whispered to me earlier on in our journey when He started revealing our family call and bee business, which we knew was going to be operated in the Western Cape.

Having two David’s in the family (my husband Dave and my eldest son), which definitely not by any co-incidence also mean “Beloved”, and now owning a horse with the name ‘Jedidjah’, by no doing of our own, was all the confirmation we could ever need to know that God was affirming our journey and that His hand was indeed hard at work in our unfolding reality.

 

Saddle up your horses!

This was one of my children’s favourite songs, one we listened to over and over again upon request during our many travels between the Highveld and the Cape during the years when we were still investigating where on earth God wanted us to stay:

Saddle up your horses- Stephen Curtis Chapman

As a family with a new horse-member we are learning together.  We have realised through the unfolding of the process that Gods desire is not only to be a part of our stories individually, but to include a much wider circle of people.

Jedidjah’s presence has especially impacted Daniel, our eldest son, who has found a forever friend in his horse. At times I wonder which one of them is really the trainer…

 

Daniels relationship with Jedidjah reminds me so much of the wonderful C.S Lewis story that we read to our children when they were younger. I highly recommend the entire Narnia series for children! It impacted their young spirits tremendously and enriched all of us in a most beautiful way.

 

The riding part is still a work in progress. I had to overcome some serious fears when I attempted to get back on horseback! Horse-riding over the age of 40 has proven to be quite a different story than what it was in my teens! Getting back into the saddle was certainly not a pretty sight to behold and is certainly still a work in progress. But! When I am on Jedidja’s back, I feel like a young girl again. Which reminded me of the verse in the Bible where God promises to Renew us.

Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits–who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. – Psalm 103:2-5

Jedidjah resembles Blue so much in the saddle that it might well have been the same horse. 

May you be encouraged, Beeloveds, as you wait and trust patiently for God to fulfill every one of the personal promises He has made to you too.  In its appointed season, it will come.  And when it comes, it will be beautiful.

If you are someone who is interested, but uncertain if the investment in learning a new language will be worth the effort, just take the first step.

And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.- Romans 8:26

Has the journey for us been easy? Certainly not. Has it been worth it?

Absolutely!

What eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man, [all that] God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him [who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed]. 1 Corinthians 2:9

May the Holy Spirit create in you a desire and a willingness for being taught and mentored. May you develop an appetite for truth, and may your quest lead you on beyond the temporary barriers of a difficult start towards continuing and persevering on the most fulfilling and beautiful journey you will ever undertake.

The treasure of finding what the heart of every human being is yearning for, and of tasting the Lord’s goodness in your own reality.