Sharing how the "Red Cardinal at Dusk" report has touched another life

      
Dear praying friends, I have been given permission to share this powerful story with you. This is from my friend who is a professor and a seasoned intercessor. As you can guess, she has purchased this painting. She wrote to me:       

 

 

"This painting-word comes in the midst of continuing upheaval at my university.  Next year's budget is still unknown. My state legislators and the governor can't come to an agreement about it.  Our chancellor unexpectedly announced her resignation.   So, we will start the year with a brand new dean, a provost who has only been there a year, and no chancellor.  In the midst of all of this, I have been asking should I stay or should I go?  The word coming through the "Red Cardinal at Dusk" painting and the events surrounding it is telling me to stay.

In the painting, the red cardinal is sitting calmly and peacefully at dusk.  It is holding on to the branch from which springs the promise of new life.     

The word being spoken through this painting is amplified by its backstory.  The painting survived the flood in your art room.  And not only did it survive, it and the four other paintings it impacted emerged from the flood more beautiful than ever.  (It is interesting how in the painting four branches split off from the main branch).  There were five paintings involved and you write 'They were rescued at 5:00 AM that fateful morning when "disaster" struck.'  Five is the number of grace.  God's grace turns a disaster into something beautiful. The names of the specific paintings you mentioned that the red from the cardinal (the color of Jesus' blood) bled through speak volumes too: "BLESSING" ("A man walking in the garden with God is blessed)", "Freedom" and "A Flight in Wind."    

So here's what it speaks to me, if I stay, and stay fixed to God (the branch), new life will come.  God's grace will come amidst the flood and he will transform this place into something more beautiful than ever.  Jesus' blood will release blessing, freedom, and the ability to fly even in the wind.  And if I stay, I will get to be part of all of this.  Jesus' blood, flowing through me, will help release blessing and freedom and the ability to fly in others and they will become more beautiful in the process.  Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5).  I can face seeming dusk and "disaster" with peace (and dare I say joy) because I know joy comes in the morning.    

God is so good.      

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Here's a follow-up story from another intercessor who wrote thus:

 

Hi Jean! 

This testimony of the Red Cardinal really blessed me as I am going through a really difficult physical and emotional trial right now. Some days I could hardly bear it but know the Lord had healed me and manifestation is coming. Few weeks ago, a very young gal came and prayed for me and as she was praying she saw the vision of a red cardinal.  Very interesting. That is why this testimony blesses me deeply.
 

    

 

 

2015 - The Year of Fight, with PRAISE!

On February 8, 2008, I painted a modern bride of Christ, in jeans, in front of the Pacific Ocean, with her arms outstretched and her eyes shining, singing to God with her whole being, with hummingbirds in the tree, butterflies and tall grass dancing in the wind, dolphins surfing the waves below, and a long line of pelicans flying as the sun is setting, each being a musical note, joining the bride of Christ to make a sound of praise and worship going up to the Throne Room. I called the painting, "Valentine Card to God."

Today, December 23, 2014, almost nine years later, I am sitting in my attic room, still coughing from a cold, sharing and praying with my friend Beth, about God wanting to use this painting for the 2015 calendar. This being God's kairos time to show us deeper revelations through this painting, which is that "all creations have been groaning as in childbirth"..."and the creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed." (Rom. 8: 22,19) Even the beloved Christmas song, "Joy to the World" carries the words, " Joy to the world the Lord is come, let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room, and heaven and nature sing, and heaven and nature sing, and heaven, and heaven and nature sing," which reveals to us that in this coming year, the year of fight, God's people are to use the weapon of praise to fight with.

I Samuel 2:1, Hannah's prayer, says, "My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance." Luke 1:47, 48, Mary says, "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant." All across the world, many saints are persevering in prayer, waiting for deliverance from sicknesses, broken hearts, difficult circumstances and oppressions of long duration. This painting has been given to show us that the way to fight is to rejoice in the Lord. Jesus came to the earth to bring joy.

  There is a depth in the word rejoicing. In another beloved Christmas song, "O Holy Night" we sing, "Long lay the world in sin and error pining 'Til he appeared and the soul felt its worth." That is why we can rejoice, because through Jesus our soul now feels its worth. Those words say everything. The enemy and the world and even our own thoughts tell us we are worthless, hopeless, cast out ones, failures, victims, guilty, abandoned. But those are lies. God says we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus; we are the beloved; we are the victorious ones. (Romans 8:28-39) Everything is in Christ. Not by (our) might, nor by (our) power, but by His Spirit. All He needs from us is that we stand in faith, we sing praises, we persevere in prayer, we abide in Him. He does everything else. We have to know who we are in Christ to fight. Knowing who are is our weapon. We are to use our mouth to declare who we are. The sound of our declaration is powerful. We are in tune with the word of God. We do not doubt. We take authority in Jesus' name. We speak and sing who God is in a situation, with praises on our lips.

From January of 2013 to December of 2014, prayers had gone up to the Throne Room for my cousin's son Matthew and his wife Grace, who were held in Qatar by the court for the death of their daughter Gloria, accused of murder which the court later changed to child trafficking. First it was the relatives and the churches they belong to who were praying, but by the end of this year countless people in churches and outside of churches all around the world were praying for their release. The prayers started out to be mixed with anger, anxiety, fear, but as time went by, we know the Holy Spirit has been training His bride to learn to pray with praise and rest. All the way to the end no one had the assurance that the court could ever change their sentence and release them; except in our prayers we knew God would come through, when or how we did not know. In early December, the last judge reversed the verdict of the other judges and set them free.

We who prayed persevering prayer for M & G, we are the modern bride of Christ standing before the Pacific Ocean, singing at the top of our lungs, with all nature singing with us, praising God and rejoicing in Who He is for Matthew and Grace, and for all of us. That He is able "to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen!" (Ephesians 3:20-21)

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Additional note from Jean - In the last two days, when a "fearful"(or so it seemed) situation of long duration loomed in my sight again, I wanted to run to the attic room to kneel in supplication before the Lord, but the Holy Spirit immediately corrected me, saying, "No! No! You are to lift your arms up high in praise to God, and do keep your head held up high, like the young woman in the 2015 calendar-word. Her posture is the stance the bride of Christ must have for the year 2015." (January 1st, 2015) The timing of the day in the painting is sunset over the Pacific Ocean, or sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean. Take your pick.

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note: I recommended a little book, Prison to Praise, by Merlin Carothers. "Prison" meaning prison of circumstances. www.merlincarothers.com