I want to start off this blog post by posting a Bible verse from 1 Peter (I underlined the word, “you,” to place emphasis on all children of God.———“You,” is not underlined in the Bible, but YOU can underline it in your own Bible, dear reader, as a source of encouragement. 🙂

~”But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now, you have received mercy.”~1 Peter 2:9-10, ESV~ 

There are many things about me that God sees as special:

1. I am anointed. According to http://www.compellingtruth.org, Anointed is defined as “being set apart or standing out as a person specially blessed by God. While God does seem to bless some people with ministry gifts in more visible ways than others, the term “anointed” is not the best to describe this situation. Again, all believers are anointed by God, or are specially chosen by Him.” This means that I am ordained by God for certain things in terms of gifts (natural/spiritual): writing, dance, prophesy, shepherding, etc. I can write ALL DAY. This means that I can blog ALL OF THE TIME too. Writing is one of my most favorite things to do because it expresses my relationship with the Lord and how I have grown throughout the days, months, and years, in my daily walk and prayer life with Him. I love to write in my quiet times in my journal as I sip a cup of coffee at Starbucks, at the International House of Prayer as I pray my heart out, and even in the peace and quiet of my home. It gives peace to my soul as I write my heart out to the Lord Almighty, who gave me this special gift. I also love to dance. Even though I do not dance a lot and I dance when I can at the dance studio with friends from my Sunday School class, it is a form of expression of praise and worship to God. I love to dance because it is not just something I like to do. It is a passion that developed in the early months of 2017 that my good friend, Daniella, got me into. Daniella, being the warm and friendly person she is, got me hooked into dancing and I have fallen in love with it since. If it were not for the friendship I have with Daniella or that I even know her, I would not have gotten into dancing. I praise God for Daniella for that reason. 🙂 In terms of spiritual gifts, I can prophesy as the Spirit leads me. God will show me dreams or visions as He leads me (that is not my place to tell you what they are————only as the Spirit leads me), for direction, a promise He has made me, or a warning to do or not do something. But I will say that the dreams and visions that He has shown me have provided a lot of clarity for my future in terms of how God is leading me. I am also a natural born leader. I was told this by a friend who is gifted in Godly discernment and prophecy, that I am a natural born leader (meaning that I am gifted in shepherding and that this is my purpose). Shepherding is a spiritual gift of leadership for God’s people. I took a spiritual gifts quiz several months ago and the three spiritual gifts that came up were: prophecy, discernment, and shepherding. Shepherding stuck out to me because I did not know that I was a natural born leader until I took this spiritual gifts quiz, was prophesied to from my Godly friend, and prayed to God about it. God is good!! 😀
2.  I am fearfully and wonderfully made. The Word of God states in Psalm 139:14: “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” Even though I have questioned God at times why He made me to be born with a certain mental health condition, I praise Him for it because He is using it for His glory (I will write a blog post about this as the Spirit leads). At the same time, I praise God for my red hair I inherited from my mom and dad (my mom has blond hair and my dad had red hair growing up, as a young boy), my brown eyes I inherited from my dad, my natural beauty that I have from my Mom (because she is naturally beautiful), the freckles on my arms that me and my twin sister have, and my heart for Jesus (because my Mom grew me up in the church and if it were not for my Mom, I would not have known who Jesus is or be saved today). I thank God that I was born to my Mom and my Dad, and that God ordained for me to have the both of them as parents. I honor them as I make decisions that honor God and show honor to them. At the same time, I praise God that I was born. Born to write. Born to dance. Born to prophesy, born to lead and born to influence others. At the same time, I thank God that I was born with a mental health condition because they are being used to glorify the Kingdom of God, as I bring healing, help, and hope to others around me who are hurting (as my friend, Kelly, told me). And it is with that, I thank God that I was born.
3. I am special. A wise man of God (who I consider to be my spiritual father and good friend of mine), told me one time, “You are special in the eyes of God.” I questioned what He told me at first. I’ve been passively bullied by others. I’ve been passively bullied and ostracized because of my mental health condition. These things caused me to question God and if He even thought of Sarah Alexandra Dickens as special simply because of how I have been treated in the past. I don’t bother to look at the past. I don’t look to dwell on it anymore. I reflect on it at times, BUT I don’t even bother to hit that replay button for my mind to ponder in nor do I bother to dwell on negativity because I know that I am special to God. I know that I am special to God because He wanted me to be born and saw me as anointed, fearfully and wonderfully made (with a purpose), and SPECIAL before I was born. I am called and I am chosen to be that change that God Almighty wishes for me to be as I write for Jesus in this dark and cruel world. I remember when I went to Lebanon one time for a short-term missions trip with a team of six from my church. While in Beirut, Lebanon, the missionary family and all of us had dinner together and I ordered a salad. I waited. I waited very patiently. And I waited some more for my food. I remember that as we were all waiting for the food and as Dave (the team leader) were going to bless the food, the waiter came out and served my salad last. I was the last person to be served. Dave quoted a Scripture that was very applicable to this situation from Matthew 20:16: “So the last shall be first, and the first last.” I remember that after Dave quoted this, it made me think to myself that even though I was served food last, that God ordained this to be so that I could remember that He provided this food……and that He was thinking of me as special because He did not forget me. He saw me as I patiently waited and as Dave quoted this Scripture. And Dave acknowledged it and so did God. I thank God for thinking of me and that He is a God who always remembers His children and never forgets them…..in the good and bad moments……one by one and individually, and precious in His sight.

I am now going to close this blog post in prayer to bless you, dear reader:

Dear God,

Thank You for the reader, who opened up this blog post and is reading it from start to finish. I speak blessings over his life. I speak blessings over her life. I pray that that man, woman, boy, or girl, will see himself or herself as You see that person: as anointed, fearfully and wonderfully made, and special. And that he or she will not doubt (even for one minute or even think to question), his or her significance in society or this world. I pray that he or she will see himself or herself as anointed in his or her gifts, talents, hobbies, and for the community. I pray that he or she will see himself or herself as fearfully and wonderfully made from birth to present and until You call that person home. I can only imagine what it will be like when that person sees himself or herself as You see that person: as special in your sight. I can’t wait until that day we all are in heaven singing, praising, and worshiping Your holy name and that we will one day be like You in fruit, in spirit, and of the Spirit. You are a God of love and You love everyone. You love me as You love each and every one of these dear readers. Bless that reader today. I give You all of the glory, the honor, and the praise.

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen!

God bless You, dear reader! Know that You are loved and made for a purpose. Peace! ❤

~”For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”~Jeremiah 29:11, NIV~