“God will allow the layers you depended on to fall away, so that all that is left is pure trust; no props, no pretense. Whatever is a distraction He will remove. Connections that jeopardize your integrity, He will remove. He will cause a “divine stripping” to clear away what cannot remain. The clutter must be removed for the glory that is coming. No discipline feels pleasant at the time, but it will produce a harvest of righteousness for those who have been trained by it, Hebrews 12:11.” Dottie Wilson, 8/22/25
When Bill and I first moved to Florida 31 years ago, I felt the stripping away. It was painful and confusing. I told my pastor there that God had removed me from everything that made me feel stable, safe, and “at home.” I was in a wilderness, but I knew God was with me and would get me to the place He was taking me. It was a difficult journey the first few years, but God showed me things I could not have seen where I was before, things that would grow, things that would become me as I beheld and became them. It took me to new people, new purpose, and different places. It tore me down and built me up. And now I have returned to where I was. But I have returned a different person into a place, once familiar, that is itself now quite different. God was here then, too, I just couldn’t behold and become what He intended among all the distractions I pursued here before. Those are stripped away. He has worked within identity, community, and experience of reality. I haven’t left the place where the wilderness changed me, God has simply enlarged my territory, literally and figuratively, geographically and spiritually. What treasures will I find here the second time around? What will be punched on the ticket in this place? What will I gather and learn here? With whom will He put me to journey alongside? Already, there are surprises, directives, invitations, even what appear to be a false start or two, and maybe some deadends. Clarity has not come yet. But I know the process. I am attentive to the purpose. I can be still and wait.
“Joshua 1:8 says, “Always remember what is written in the Book of the Teachings. Study it day and night to be sure to obey everything that is written there. If you do this, you will be wise and successful in everything” (NCV).
If you want to successfully accomplish God’s mission for your life, stop looking for a vision and start looking for a verse. God won’t write your mission in the sky. He has already written it in his Word.”
Rick Warren
When God has been ready to reveal His plans for my mission in life over the last nearly 40 years, He has directed me to, in and by His Word. He has often led me there by speaking a brief Word into my heart during prayer or worship, or by giving me a mental image that sent me to scripture to find understanding, desire for obedience, and wisdom. The first time it was a mental image of a row of silos. He told that was the compartmentalized way I was living my life, that He was breaking those silo walls down and I would live by a single identity ….. being “Mine,” He said. I thought I already was, but in reality only a small fraction of myself, the baby heart of a 10-year-old was His. He wanted more. He wanted all. Thus began a journey of Becoming What He Intends. I have found road signs and maps in His Word. It has not been a straight, direct or even always an easy way. He did not show it to me all at once. It’s been more like a pilgrimage from one significant destination to the next…. Or a treasure hunt that takes me from one checkpoint to the next….Or a scavenger hunt where there was a list I didn’t posses, but I have only received instructions to the next location where my ticket gets punched, where I find what I’m supposed to find and, after a while, I receive directions to the next stop. Once I recognized the pattern and general process involved in His plan, it’s been easier to follow…… not because there aren’t surprises or obstacles that I encounter, but because I know that those, too, are part of the plan. They sometimes challenge me, sometimes delight me, sometimes cause me pain, but always teach me more about God and about myself.
For the last dozen or so years Seedbed.com resources and Seedbed Wake-Up Call have been significant parts of this journey. Seedbed has been with me in deeper exploration of the Word….. with studies, devotionals, testimonies, events, worship, connections, fellowship, challenges to grow in Christ, opening my mind and heart to bigger experiences of “church” and “kingdom.”
It came at a time when I was on the cusp of what would be one of the longest and most challenging stretches along my faith journey path. It has, again, shown me the timeliness and sufficiency of God’s grace to always bring the right resources at the right time to meet me where I am and carry me forward to the next place. I don’t choose the places. God does. I have been told by God to remain focused on “purpose and people.” The larger, more diverse, and far-flung “Seedbed Sower Nation” has provided a place of “community” for me as others were being stripped away….. a place that better suits the new IDENTITY Christ has been crafting in me, a larger COMMUNITY that provides both stability and space to grow, and an EXPERIENCE of reality that is continuing to transform my heart, inform my mind, conform my will and re-form my lifestyle and habits into those suitable for His Kingdom Come, on earth as it is in heaven.
This link is a brief Seedbed introduction…
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17EFKkBxse/?mibextid=wwXIfr