Until recently, when someone would ask me where “home” was, I couldn’t really say—it seemed I was in a constant state of transition. (Since graduating from college, I have moved 20 times; 8 of which were major moves to other states across the country.) I would typically just say, “Michigan,” since that is where I had lived the longest and four separate occasions.
In 2013, I was repeatedly having dreams that involved visiting my former homes. After having several in a row, I asked the Lord what the theme of these dreams meant. He spoke to my heart and said the houses represent my past. I was trying to go back to those houses and it was wrong—there was no peace. Just as I didn’t live in or own any of those houses any longer, I was not to live out of nor “own” my past.
When we signed the title deed of the house over to the new owner, we had no right to still live there. We could only get permission from the new owner to “visit.” Likewise, my past does not belong to me, but to Jesus Christ. Because I made Him my Lord & Savior, His precious Blood paid the price for me and He owns the title of my past. I have to live out of that reality. Furthermore, I could only go back to “visit” if Jesus gave me permission, in order to help someone else overcome and have victory.
I encourage you to no longer live out of your past—whether it was good or bad. It is a trap that prevents you from truly living today and reaching the full potential that God has for you. Forgive, release and experience the peace that only the “Prince of Peace” can give you! Shalom!
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14 (NKJV)
Lori Snyder