This is a transcription of an excerpt of the broadcast of Life in the Faith Lane on February 21, 2022.

Watch the video, and then read the transcript and poem below and see the links for resources on dreams that follow.

 

ANNAMARIE: Do y’all know the story of the dragonfly? It’s very prophetic. When we look at animals, and I have li, I have little bluebirds on too, my little bluebird earrings. My daughter gave me those. 

But the dragonfly, when you, when you see cr, animals in nature, you see nature, and you think, “Wow, I keep seeing dragonflies,” or, “I keep seeing butterflies. Is that the Holy Spirit speaking to me? Is that God telling me something?” Yes, it is! The Holy Spirit will speak to you through nature. He will speak to you through His creation. All right? 

And you have to be very careful. Do not look up on Google, you know, “Oh, what does the dragon, what is the spiritual meaning of a dragonfly?” Be very careful because it will lead you into, uh, the, the occultNew Age meanings which are not of God. They’re not of God, right? There’s, there’s no such thing as a spirit animal. No. No. There is not. There’s only one spirit. That’s the Holy Spirit. He created it all, and He created everything with meaning to teach us, to, to use to teach us and to lead us. 

So when you see an animal, and you keep seeing it over and over and over again, just go to the Holy Spirit and say, “What are you trying to speak to me, Holy Spirit? What are you trying to tell me?” And He will lead you to why He created that creature, how He created that creature, what’s the nature of that creature, okay? 

So with the dragonfly, it’s so beautiful. The dragonfly is like the little mudbug for like the longest time. She has like this really hard shell, and she lives under the murky waters, you know, and, um, she usually is like along the bottom, like, you know, in the swampy area. 

But when it, it’s, it’s, it’s time for her to grow, when it’s time for her to transform, it’s time for her to pull herself up out of those, the muddy bottom, right, pull herself up out of the mud and look for a stalk or a, a, a reed or a, a plant or usually a strong stalk of grass in the water. 

And she will begin to grab ahold of that stalk of grass and begin to climb up, and as she climbs up out of that mud and out of that mire, right, she climbs up just above the water line. She gets herself above the waters and grabs ahold of that piece of grass, and she allows the sun to gently warm her and dry out that crusty shell. And the warm winds and, right, the warm spring winds and the warms, the warming of the sun begins to dry out that crusty shell on the dragonfly, right? 

And then soon, that shell cracks open. It cracks open, and her wings begin to emerge out of that crusty shell, and these beautiful, sparkly, bejeweled wings, and, and her eyes begin to sparkle. And her wings begin to sparkle, and she begins to stretch out of that shell, and the sun warms her and glistens on her wings. 

And she looks like a beautiful jewel. She’s come out of the mud. She’s come out of them mire. She’s climbed to the higher place. She’s climbed into the light, and the, the beautiful soft, warming winds, right, like the breath of life, the breath of the Holy Spirit begins to blow on her. 

The warming light of the beams of Jesus Christ begin to shine on her, and she begins to sparkle and shine and grow and stretch. And she’s like, “I’m going to climb a little higher, and I’m going to leave that crusty shell behind me, and I’m going to shine for Jesus.” 

So she climbs out of that shell, and she gets to the very, very tippy top of that grass, right. She gets to the very, very tippy top of that grass, and she’s, she’s glistening in the sunlight. She’s glistening in the sunlight. Then all of a sudden, she waits for the perfect breath of wind, the perfect breath of wind like that perfect breath of the Holy Spirit to just get up underneath her wings so she can start to move her wings and start to flutter and soar and then that beautiful breath of the Holy Spirit comes upon her, that beautiful perfect wind as she glistens in the sunshine, and she launches her feet off that piece of grass. And she takes that leap of faith, and the winds are beautifully on her wings and the sun glistening as she shines and sparkles in the sunlight as, as the winds and the breath of life propel her and she soars across the glistening waters. Hallelujah! 

And do you know what the dragonfly eats for lunch? Mosquitoes! Mosquitoes. Those pesky blood suckers! Mosquitoes that cause disease and cause problems, the dragonfly is a great example of who we are, who we are, how we grow, how we transform. 

And it, it’s so connected to scripture. It is God that plucks our feet out of the mirey mud. Maybe Beth can find that scripture in Psalms, right. You pull my feet, O Lord, O God, out of the mirey clay, out of the mirey mud, right. And then even in Isaiah where it says, those who wait upon the Lord, right, those who wait upon the Lord will neither stumble, right, they will, they will be lifted up and, like up, up on like eagle’s wings, right, like the dragonfly, she’s lifted up. It’s, it’s, we, she, she just wa, she just waits just for that perfect moment with the Holy Spirit, that breath of life. And she’s lifted up like eagle’s wings. The Lord will always lift you up.

And we’ve got to crack out of our shell, right. We’ve got to come out of, of, um, you know, we got to know that we can be confident to sparkle in the light of Jesus, that He is with us. He wants us to crack out of these shells, crack out of these worldly ways and sparkle and shine for him and spread our wings. 

So I love the dragonfly, and I’ve got these hairpins, they’re these little hairpins. I got them for my wedding, and I wore them for my rehearsal dinner for my wedding 22 years ago.

Michael Lee Strawhand and I will be married 22 years April 22. We’re both born on March 22. We have the same birthday, me and my husband. We have the same birthday, March 22. 

And when we got married in North Carolina, we, we, well, I was working in NASCAR, so I had to make sure … I had a lot of friends that were going to come to the wedding from NACAR, and I had to have it on a weekend that there was no races. And so I had to have it on Easter weekend because they don’t race on Easter, and so, uh, April 22 of, uh, the year 2000 is when Mike and I got married in North Carolina, and it was Easter weekend. It was so awesome. And so 22 is me and Mike’s number. And I didn’t even know back then that it meant key. Now I know. Oh, look at God. Look at God. 

So I hope you enjoyed that story of the dragonfly, and what I’ll do is I’ll have our wonderful tech director, David Piccirillo, make a video about the dragonfly for you all and that story.

And I wrote a poem. I wrote a poem. Uh, I wrote a poem about the dragonfly for my daughter, Landry, for her, her 19th birthday, and I gave it to her. 

And, uh, that dragonfly story was given to me by the Holy Spirit because I kept seeing them, and I kept asking the Holy Spirit, “What are  you saying to me?” And, um, He told me, “Annamarie, you’re going through a time of transformation, and you’re about to shine. You’re about to soar, and you’re about to shine.” And it was a time where I was not soaring or shining, and I had to really believe Him, and I had to really stretch myself up higher and reach for Him. 

And, um, when you grab ahold of Him and you reach for Jesus and you, you pull yourself to His light, He will meet you there, my friend. So if you’re not feeling very sparkly right now, you’re not feeling very shiny, um, and you feel like you’re about to go through a transformation, look to this little story of the dragonfly and know that He is pulling you up out of the mud and out of the mire and out of the darkness, and He wants you to grab ahold of Him and, and be faithful and climb higher and climb towards His light, and let the Holy Spirit breathe on you and break open out of that shell and then watch what He does with you. Isn’t that beautiful? 

All because He showed me a dragonfly. You know, the Holy Spirit wants to speak to you that way. He, He wants to show you these things in nature to encourage you. That’s what the prophetic is, right? The prophetic is to encourage you, to lead you, to give you the step-by-steps to move you forward so you can bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life and fulfill what Jesus Christ has called you to do. Amen? Oh, I hope that story blessed you, of the dragonfly. 

Gabriela Parrot says, “Praise God, I’m grabbing on to Him.”

Barbara Wade says, “Believe even when you can’t see Him. Thank You, Jesus.”

Beth Shibley bringing scripture: Psalm 13:3 – “Turn and answer me, O Lord my God. Restore the sparkle to my eyes…”

I just said that about the dragonflies also becoming sparkly. That’s beautiful scripture, Beth. I love it.

What are y’all saying here? Is this blessing you, my friends? I hope so. I hope so. Little dragonfly. 

Hope Dickinson: “Amen, God is so faithful.”

Duncan Dee says, “We have lots of dragonflies all the time.”

You know, many of you … I’ve told that story, uh, uh, prophetic story about the dragonfly many times, but what we’ll do is we’ll create a page on my website with the poem, and we’ll take this little story that I just did on video, and we’ll put that on there for you so you all can always have it to encourage you. And ask the Holy Spirit to show you a dragonfly today just out of faithfulness. He will. He might show it to you in a picture. He  might show it to you on a design of something. He wants to talk with you and walk with you. Amen?

Following is the poem I wrote for my daughter:

The Damsel Dragonfly
By Annamarie Strawhand
Dedicated to Landry Leigh Strawhand – 5/1/21

Damsel was ready to climb up from the muddy, deep waters
She was young but knew she was made to soar to great heights
Ready to feel the wind in her wings and the sun on her face
Her hard shell was heavy, but she was ready to break out
A sturdy reed to climb upon was before her
She pulled herself up, climbing out up of the murky water into the sunlight
The warm breeze blew on her shell as the sun gently warmed her
Damsel’s shell cracked open, and her wings began to emerge
She took a step, and her shell fell off as the light was fully upon her
She stretched her wings, glistening in the sun
She climbed to the top of the reed on her tiptoe
Bravely, she let go
The breeze came under her wings and lifted her above the waters
Clean, new, light, and dry, sparkling in the sun
Damsel SOARED! 

Resources For Dream Interpretation

DREAM INTERPRETATION FROM A BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE – HOW TO CANCEL A BAD OR DEMONIC DREAM

ANNAMARIE STRAWHAND: DOES GOD GIVE US NIGHTMARES?