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

Fwd: prayer request & "Breakthrough Horse" & "Out of the Wilderness"

May, 2013

One night in the year that the Lord gave me "The Breakthrough Horse" painting, I was sitting in front of that painting and my courage failed me.  I had thought the horse is me, and I must be bold and strong and be able to jump over the obstacles. Suddenly, I "saw" myself inside the belly of the Horse, Who is the Lord, and He is the Breakthrough Horse, not me, and He does not fail. But He warned me to focus, and just watch what He is doing, while I rest inside Him. 

Whoosh!  Whoosh!  I feel like I am riding inside the Breakthrough Horse as it is jumping over the obstacle and carrying me to my destiny.  I can see out of the belly of the Horse, and I can see others doing different things the Lord has equipped them to do.  I want to put my hands outside his belly and touch what the others are doing. But "No," the Lord tells me, "You are to wrap your arms around your body, with your eyes looking only to the front. Not even your little pinkie is to be outside of Me wanting to touch what others are doing. You must focus and I the Breakthrough Horse will take you to your destiny." 

Well, I am in that season of God sending me out to speak for Him, with my paintings and my books.  Last year it was all about the story of "His Garden"; this year He seems to be focusing on healing.

A few days ago I spoke at a women's group here in La Jolla. I read the story of "His Garden" to them.  The interesting thing was that the night before the meeting, I received a revelation about the painting, "Out of the Wilderness," and how that painting ties in with the story of "His Garden."  I never knew that. What He wanted to say through that painting is that Jesus will do anything and everything to go into each of our "wilderness" - which can be cancer, loss of a loved one through death or divorce, loss of job, loneliness and fear - to look for us and to carry us out of our "wilderness." 

I was led to paint Jesus and the harassed bride of Christ gazing into each other's eyes, going deeper into a love relationship that will last for eternity. I sense God wanting to re-ignite my own heart to long for Jesus, to be that "bride" in the painting, gazing up at Him, feeling His embrace. Busyness and doing ministry and worries can subtly take the place of heartfelt desperation for Him. We are to guard our hearts along that line.  I know I do.  In fact, that is my prayer request.  It's the bottom line, isn't it. Our destiny is our love affair with Him. 

(You can view this painting on my  website: www.jbrushwork.com , gallery section, painting #26)

There seems to be much warfare over the arena of healing this year - healing of cancer and other sicknesses. The enemy is out to steal the healing that God has given us.  We need to pray Psalm 91 over our loved ones, friends and even ourselves.

See the gold from the Mountain of God? (for new book)

April 20, 2013

Lately I am feeling the need for more weapons from the Lord.  I have been using the ones He has given me in the last year, but time is much harder now, and I know I need more weapons.  In answer to my petitioning I am getting these new weapons, which is much more hefty. Not as easy for me to commit to memory.

Romans 8:33, 35, 37, "Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who purifies...Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."

Isaiah 60:1-3,"Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you..."

Isaiah 61:1-4, "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God..."

Even as the Lord is busily giving me His scriptures while I am busily fretting over my failures, I hear Him say, "Get over those, Jean! Step into the realm of the power generator of God. Go into it - be zapped by it. The world and all the inhabitants are in dire need of the power surge and power zap of His generator. 'Lift up your eyes and look about you. All assemble and come to you, your sons come from afar and your daughters are carried on the arm. Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy..."  (Isaiah 60:4-5)

Jesus turning clusters of grapes into one wine (for new book)

April 22, 2013

Yesterday I called Eileen and we talked about her experience at a worship-intercession meeting which I had wanted to attend but did not make it.  So I began to bounce my thoughts on worship off Eileen. I sense that worship is when the Spirit takes us, the bride, into a realm of being one body of Christ before the Father and Son. As one we sing to Him, adoring Him, with or without words or even music.  We are no longer separate people in our skin and our own personalities; rather, the Holy Spirit mysteriously transports us as one bride before the Bridegroom. It is like we are individual grapes which are in a vat, and the Godhead is dancing on us, and we are pressed out of our own skin, and we become one and we become WINE that He will enjoy.

It is not so much our singing and singing to Him, to get Him to come be with us, but rather it is He singing over us and dancing on us which cause us to mysteriously become wine.

I also talked about the formations of clusters of grapes - who we are in a cluster with. It seems that we are in the season of being put together by the Holy Spirit with those we are truly in a cluster with. I told her that the greatest marvel to me is that finally, after forty-some years of marriage, Peter and I are in a cluster together and the Lord of marriage is dancing and singing over us as He makes us into wine.

In February of this year God brought us to birth the J Brushworks Ministry, with a board of directors, and those God is bringing to pray and give to this ministry - that is another cluster of grapes being turned into wine. It is also a church built upon the Rock of Jesus and hell cannot prevail against her because of the oneness.  Isaiah 61 tells of the wonders of this kind of oneness - what we will do for Him and what we can do for Him. This is what the Lord shows me is the wine He is producing through J Brushworks Ministry:

to preach good news to the poor,

to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim the freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,

to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn,

and provide for those who grieve in Zion -

to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,

the oil of gladness instead of mourning,

and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair...

they (the painting-words and books) will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated, they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations...

I feel that God says J Brushworks Ministry is "a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor." (Isaiah 61:3)

"Where does my help come from?"

April 23, 2013

It's been 20 years since He said, "I want you to be My court painter, painting for the King, and I will provide for your every need."  It's been 7 years since I had the fight with cancer and Out of the Wilderness was written.  I am a senior now.  I am aware of time against me; aware time is running out for me. Yet I live like I am going to live forever - forever teaching art, forever writing and painting for the Lord, forever having Peter by my side, forever having Valerie, Andrew and Noah living close by, forever going deeper and deeper into the vat of God's love, forever being set free from fear, forever learning to love others as I love myself.  I live like I am a young, wild horse running alongside other young wild horses, going for broke for the Lord. 

One day blurs into another day. I don't remember birthdays or special days like Mother's Day or my anniversary.  But I am aware of the seasons for God's people, and what He is about with us all and where we are all going with Him.  Our flesh grows older and weaker, but our spirit is being trained and forged into muscled warriors, some at a slower rate, like me, than others.  I look around me and I see many well-built warriors, some are busily sharpening their swords, others are steely-eyed with a determined stance, ready to head out on yet another assignment.  I look down at myself, and it seems I am a childlike creature, wearing a transparent gown, holding a pen in one hand and a brush tucked behind my ear, and I don't leave the Garden much. I can often be found sitting on the lap of Jesus, listening to Him talk about things...

Today, He is talking about lineage. I was reading Romans 8, 9, 10.  Paul was writing about the Jews that theirs is the adoption of sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the promises, and yet so many Jews rejected Christ.  God had stated in Exodus 33:10 that "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." This is not a chapter that I would often read;  yet the words are coming to life for me. "What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath-prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory-even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? As he says in Hosea: 

I will call them 'my people,' who are not my people; and I will call her 'my loved one' who is not my loved one," and, "It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God.'"

Suddenly I am deeply aware that God has chosen and called from among the people of the world, and among numerous Chinese, as numerous as the sand of the sea - my father and his grandparents from Taiwan, my mother and her grandparents of Fookien province in China, and my husband Peter and his parents and grandparents from Shanghai, and my son-in-law Andrew and his parents from South Africa - to be a people who would be the recipient of the riches of His glory and of His mercy. 

What is the chance of my mother's grandfather playing by the river in Fookien, tricked by pirates to get on their boat, and kidnapped and sold to a Chinese family living in Amoy who just happened to be Christians? It was one in a million chance that there was a Chinese Christian family in that region at that time. This boy grew up to be the first pastor of a church in that region, a church that my sister and cousins went to worship at a few years ago when they visited China. What is the chance that my father's grandfather, a prosperous Buddha maker in Taiwan, should be tormented by a demon every night and driven half crazy from lack of sleep and forced to seek a Christian church to get away from the demon, thus becoming the first Christian in his bloodline? This bloodline has led to a grandson named George Chua, my father, through whom God has established Chinese churches in the Philippines and California which in turn are birthing many churches in many parts of the world.  What is the chance of me marrying Peter whose grandfather was a humble country pastor in China and his mother was a Christian radio personality and Valerie marrying Andrew who came from South Africa and his parents were at one time part of a Catholic ministry that took care of the poorest of the poor in South Africa? 

When Jesus showed me this, I was overwhelmed with gratitude and thanksgiving that He has chosen us to be "His people" who are not His people, called "His loved one" when we were not His loved ones, objects of His mercy and not His wrath.  How I treasure our lineage!  I love those people who are chosen and called, anointed to be vessels of honor, and not vessels of His wrath. We are blessed beyond words.  We depend on God and God alone. We choose to declare that "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." We are blessed to proclaim, "Where does my help come from, my help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth."

my prayer for our nation with the prophetic painting and book of "Out of the Wilderness"

written November 1st, 2012

Last Monday I woke up and my heart went into SVT (heart palpitation that causes my blood pressure to drop dangerously low). This happens whenever I carry something too heavy for my heart to bear for too long.   I realized that I had not/could not cast my worries about the future of our nation to the Lord. Unbeknowst to me, there's a part in my heart that still had unresolved fear of the Chinese God of judgment. As the election date got closer, like a little child I tried to hide "under the bed" from the Father whose loving voice I had come to love and trust since the days He walked me through cancer. Life became boring, very, very boring when I was not skipping and dancing alongside Him, and not watching how He would turn everything in my life, good and bad, into adventures with Him.  So, after a few days of not hanging out with Him and being miserable, I "heard" in my spirit,

"Jean, you don't really want to miss the election adventure with Me, do you?" 

That was the Holy Spirit talking to me. 

"Oh!  I sure don't want to miss any adventure with You, Lord.  I have decided I will trust the election to you. I don't know what the outcome will be, but I know I will hear Your voice telling me things, and I don't want to miss what You have to say."

Today, November 1st, I had an hour before my art class tonight, so I sat with the Lord with my Out of the Wilderness book and began to read through several entries dated January, 2005 (I was diagnosed with cancer on December 22, 2004). In the course of walking through cancer I received many scriptures from the Lord which came to enfold me in His voluminous gown. In fact, He said to me that He was using scriptures to cocoon me, so that when I emerge out of the cocoon I will be a beautiful butterfly.

As I was reading a few of these scriptures tonight, I felt a soft urging to declare them on behalf of the bride of Christ for our nation:

Psalm 27: I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

Psalm 144: Praise be to the Lord, my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. You are my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge...Part your heavens, O Lord, and come down...Reach down your hand from on high; Deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters...I will sing a new song to you, O God; on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to you...There will be no breaching of walls, no going into captivity, no cry of distress in our streets.

II Chronicle 20:15, 16 and 17: Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God's, Tomorrow march down against them...You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you.

These are just a few words I received back in January of 2005. Today as I read them, they are coming to speak to me not about cancer but about the bride fighting for the future of her nation, even as Esther did in her time.

On January 29, 2005, I wrote, "I believe the crux of the matter is this: How do I treat His word? Do I believe it as the final authority on earth? Can I stake all of my life upon those words? Even as Elijah and Elisha in the Old Testament declared those words in the face of their enemies who sought their lives, will I be able to say the same things in the face of the enemies in my life? Do I see countless horses and a fiery chariot poised to come and fight for me, or is it just very inspiring to read those stories? I do not want to only read these scriptures and believe in them, be lifted up by them for a time, only to go right back to agonizing over my hardships. Whatever I am learning today in my fight against cancer is going to stand me in good stead in the days to come."  (As I read this paragraph tonight, my spirit took note that indeed the faith I received in 2005 for fighting cancer is going to stand me in good stead in this hour when we are fighting for the future of our nation - for our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and the unborn.)

In my journal on that same date, I was asking God if He wanted me to get the chemo and radiation that all the doctors said I must have or I would die or He was telling me to get tested to see if I was healed already. Whatever He was saying I would do it. I wrote,"But to my surprise, I heard Him ask me, 'What do you want out of this?' Without any thinking, my heart says, 'I want to experience miraculous healing.' I realize this is not just my wishful thinking. My whole being wants this."

It seems that today my heart wants to say to Him as representing the bride of Christ to her Beloved, "I just want to experience miraculous deliverance of our nation out of cancerous lies." 

May the bride of Christ who is leaning on the arm of her Beloved coming out of the wildnerness be the prophetic painting-word for our nation. Amen.

Note: Please see the painting-word below which was commissioned by the Lord to be on the cover of my book, Out of the Wilderness, My Journey Through Cancer and Cancerous Lies. It is not until today that my mind/heart is awakened to the connection between the deliverance God gave me out of cancer and the plight of our nation oppressed by cancerous lies)