Today I am thrilled to share a post written by a very special guest blogger, my husband Derek. I’m certain you will enjoy it. 🙂

The following story may seem a little like a patchwork quilt. That would be a fair estimation as it contains three stories in one. However, if you keep reading to the end, you will see all three parts form one intricately interwoven whole.

First Story – The Ailment

For years now, I have suffered from a throat-clearing condition that has essentially been an enormous frustration and annoyance to live with, not only for me but for my wife Donna particularly. I constantly develop phlegm in my throat which forms within moments. Once started, it has to be cleared and this can persist for quite a while. At times it has been so bad that it has affected my capacity to talk during and after an episode (apologies for the distasteful story so far).

Second Story -The Vision 

Anyways, sometime around 2014 Donna and I were sitting together spending time with the Lord in our house in Wyee. As we were sitting there I eventually became aware of an unfolding scene playing out in my mind.  What I saw was, almost like a movie running in my mind’s eye with details that are still clear to this day, these were not like random unrelated thoughts. I wasn’t aware until later that the Lord had given me a vision and I have never forgotten it. All of the events playing out were related and the following is what caught my attention.

I saw an ancient Greek warship or galley, as they were called. It was beyond massive in its size with many oars extending out both right and left-hand sides. The scene panned around to the left side of this very large ship to reveal what was on the deck. In the centre of the deck, there was another boat, like a lifeboat. This boat was a miniature replica of the larger Greek war galley on which it sat and was tiny in comparison to it. Then I saw two big hands come under and pick the lifeboat up off the deck and place it into the water next to the larger ship. The small boat was then sent on its way, sail unfurled and full, heading off to be part of a beach invasion. I then saw the small boat hit the beach and all the ancient Greek soldiers jump from the boat onto the sand. The soldiers wore bronze-coloured armour and were fully clad with breastplates, helmets, and rounded shields. With swords drawn, they all immediately ran to attack the enemy position.

On the beach were multiple obstacles that the enemy had placed there to prevent, stall, and hinder the landing’s advance. I recall numerous enemy arrows flying all around the soldiers, and hitting some of them. One particular soldier stood out to me when I saw an arrow hit him in the throat. There is much more to the vision, but I will leave it there.

Back to my first story 

Donna and I had asked on many occasions, for the Lord to heal my throat however this did not happen. So since then, I have continued with this ailment, not having any sense of grave concern over it, although have tried a number of different remedies such as gargling warm lemon drinks and sucking on lozenges.  I have even been to see a doctor to get checked out, having blood tests for allergies, and subsequently being prescribed daily antihistamine tablets which didn’t make much difference. I have tried a number of other remedies over the years that have not completely worked either. Some treatments would work for a little while but not for any great length of time. So we have lived with it. Donna, especially living very patiently, quietly voicing concern and making suggestions every now and again.

Without a doubt, the biggest annoyance has been that the throat- clearing was particularly noticeable at certain times. Even though it may not have bothered me for hours, it seemed to happen like clockwork whenever Donna and I would sit with the Lord to spend time with Him in prayer and beholding Him together. These were the main occasions that this condition would interrupt my capacity to speak even a sentence (pray aloud) and would override Donna being able to speak/pray aloud also. The throat-clearing would go on for half an hour to an hour at times. Needless to say, the patience of my wife has been tested sorely over the last 7 years, almost daily.

Back to my second story 

When I had the vision initially, it faintly crossed my mind that the soldier whose throat was struck with the arrow may have represented me. Then in  2019, I was convinced of this. (I know, a little slow).  Before then I thought this particular soldier represented any and every believer in the fight whose walk with Christ threatened the enemy in any way. So any one of us could have been that casualty. However, the thought of that specific soldier being me has remained since 2019 although, I have not had the faith of Christ in my heart to do anything about my throat problem.

Third Story – The Poultice

In our side yard, we have a hibiscus plant. A number of months back, a bamboo divider we had standing up against a wall had fallen over and flattened this plant to ground level, splitting the four main branches right down and through into the main trunk. It looked pretty bad so I attended to it by binding it up with string and chicken wire and placing small stakes around it for support and to prevent it from moving in the wind, attempting to keep it all together and keep it firm so it could heal over time.

I remembered hearing once that honey can be used sometimes as a poultice for wound care and as I attended the tree I mentioned this to Donna in regards to the split in the tree, that it needed some form of wound care or poultice. (After further research, it seems that honey is not so much for plant wound repair but rather for human wound care). Something, however, about this thought stuck with Donna and at the time she said she felt there was something of the Lord in it but didn’t know what.

Some weeks later we were sitting together again and as I was clearing my throat I was reminded about the Greek soldier and the arrow to the throat. I told Donna about being reminded of this vision and immediately she was reminded of the hibiscus tree and our discussion surrounding the wound care treatment and honey. She said to me that she believed I needed to try honey to treat the wound in my throat. Well, I tried it once, not having the faith that she had. After that, the throat-clearing continued.

Bringing all stories together – October 2, 2021

Anyway, a few days ago on October 2nd, right on cue, once we sat down to spend time with the Lord, it started. After 20 minutes of this, I finally cried out in despair. I had finally reached the end of myself in the matter. As many couples do, Donna and I call each other ‘Honey’, and in my despair and exasperation, I cried the words, “Honey! Honey!”. I was in actuality calling out to Donna in frustration and despair over this condition. I was in some way saying “I am sorry for this constant trouble…I am beaten by it”.

Immediately out loud, Donna repeated what I had said, “honey, honey!” She was not calling me Honey as a term of endearment but was declaring what she felt the Lord had shown her some two or three weeks prior, reflected in my third story. She later told me that she didn’t think about it, or suddenly remember, but that it just came out! She says it was as though her spirit heard the Lord speaking through me when I cried out saying, “honey! honey!”.

Well, she didn’t need to say anymore – I got up, went and got some honey on a spoon, let it slowly dissolve in my mouth, attempting to swallow it down over the area in my throat that suffers the most. It seemed to help a little at first. Then five minutes later I began to clear my throat again. I then suddenly realised that each of us had said the word “honey“ twice, so I got back up, went to the kitchen again, and dissolved a second spoon full of honey in my mouth to repeat the process. Upon doing this my throat completely quietened down and I had no further need to clear it.

This action has continued to produce the same results since that morning. I now have a quiet reassurance in my heart of its effective cure. I thank and praise the Lord. This detail in this part of the story also highlights the precise nature of God – doing exactly what He says rather than interpreting what we think He is saying. I read once that we can wait on God, hear the ‘what’ of what He is saying but fail to wait and ask for the ‘how’ and the ‘when’.

Coming back to the story, just prior to this course of events on that morning, we had been reading together from a little book by C.S. Lewis. In it, he was talking about the different dimensions; one, two, and three dimensions and how if we lived within one dimension, like a line on a piece of paper, then how could we ever understand two dimensions or ever hope to understand three- dimension?  He goes on to say that living in a two-dimensional world could be likened to a picture of a square on a piece of paper, or four joining lines. Three dimensions would be like taking six squares of four lines each, drawn on that piece of paper, to assemble them into a cube. The point he was making is how could a lesser dimension understand a higher dimension unless in some way it has been presented with the concept? It would at least then have a little understanding conceptually even if not experientially.

This is the same with our understanding of God being a triune God. God dwells in and contains all dimensions. He is immeasurably more than the sum total of all that we know of Him and this is what I was discovering in the coming together of my three stories.

We as Christians have lived for years with a very flat one-dimensional understanding of God’s involvement in our lives. Especially Western Christians who have grown up with all of the trappings of pop Christianity; how to move, live and express God in a popular way, the way we speak, dress, pray, and practice our faith. Or the way we think we should act and react to circumstances and situations and the language and thinking we apply because we think we know God. Yet He is so much bigger than what we could ever comprehend. Our limited understanding goes like this; “He did it this way last time and so He will do it that way again”.

How little we know of this God who holds all dimensions within His hand. How He circumferences all dimensions. He is the creator of these dimensions. He is so outside of them that we lose track of really understanding, knowing, and experiencing Him. He is so vast, so endless, and boundless that He is not contained by anything but Himself. God is also at the same time so present within these dimensions of time and space that He created, that we can miss Him by a country mile if we are caught up with our own narrow, crystallized views of Him. These views of ours quite often satisfy something of our own preferences or prejudices. We can be so one-dimensional as believers in our thinking that we miss the creator of the three dimensions staring us right in the face. We can miss the fourth dimension walking among us, affecting our environment, arranging our circumstances, over years at a time culminating in a moment.

The events I have described in my stories were intermingled with the fellowship of the Three. I have now seen how God had visited me some seven years ago to tell me what had happened to my throat through the vision of the Greek soldier, and that He was also sovereignly involved in the length of time that it took for me to realise He was speaking to me, telling me of my wound. However, it is clear to me that all had unfolded in just the way He had intended and planned so that something of greater and higher worth would come from this journey into time and space.

What Donna and I had just read in C.S. Lewis’ book, somehow was also involved and used by God to give context and announcement to what we were experiencing and seeing in that very moment. All were being assembled as one long connected event interwoven with the fellowship of the Three and being unveiled right in front of us. And yet, all of the events in this story, for God at least, all pretty much occurred at the same time; being outside of time, He viewed all as one single event. God, not being ruled by time, space, nor the material world, was neither late nor slow, and in His grace, neither was I late nor slow. All happened in the way it was meant to reveal the enormity of God in a multidimensional perspective. God was within time and on time but not contained by time. He was within the events which occurred in space and the material world but was not contained by the events, space or material.

He had arranged, orchestrated, and allowed the events, even in my cry of despair. He was in Donna speaking out His reply. He was announcing and confirming all by the same Spirit.

The Community of Three

How they used the tree in our yard to deposit a thought into Donna about honey. How they reminded me again of my wound only three weeks prior. How they spoke out the very remedy, they gave to Donna weeks earlier. How, in my cry, Donna was compelled to repeat the treatment that they had spoken about weeks earlier. How I, now having faith from hearing the life being spoken, applied the remedy. How applying the remedy twice resulted in healing. How after all these things had taken place, I saw how the Community of Three had been revealed in all the circumstances, time stages, and effects upon the environment and words in these events. How they were seen, the eyes of my heart having been enlightened.

How they choose to intentionally make themselves, the community of the Divine life, evident and known within the community of the assembled ones. How our fellowship is with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. How they have come to make their home with us.

… what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also so that you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:3

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. 2 Corinthians 13:14

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. John 14:23

How great are You, our God!

Some might read this story and think that this is just a long story about healing a throat condition. That would be due to looking through a filter of healing. So no, that’s only a part of the whole story.

Some might read this and think that it all was just a normal set of circumstances. That’s because we can have our minds on earthly matters only (Colossians 3:1-2).

Others might think this is a very complicated way to eventually take a natural remedy for my throat condition. Well, in C.S. Lewis’ example, that would be a very one-dimensional view.

Another might think, “What a nice story, but it seems to make a big deal out of nothing”. Scripture says God will make Himself known to us to the same degree we seek Him (Psalm 18:25-28).

Some might think I am absolutely nuts, have left the planet, and now live on Cumulus Nimbus 5. I am OK with that. Scripture clearly reveals the Community of Three dwelling together as one and that their home is now with us, and we can know them through Christ.

To sum up, God used a natural physical remedy that He created to treat a spiritually inflicted wound on a physical body that had been manifested as a natural ailment that was being used as an obstacle and hindrance against spiritual progress. In the culmination of all these events, I saw the fellowship of the Three intricately interwoven throughout, and through the events, our oneness and fellowship with them was unveiled.