Women Who Rise

In March, God gave me a vision.

It was during my sauna session while doing a guided meditation. I’ve had a lot of realizations and written a lot of my content or sermons in the sauna. Something about forty minutes at 150 degrees, dripping in sweat, heart racing, red lights glowing… that is just enough to get you out of your body and into your soul.

I spent some time in the Bible first, and then I decided to meditate on His Word for a few minutes so I perched myself against the wall and let my mind be still.

The meditation guide told me in a soothing tone to breathe deeply for five minutes and let everything go.
“Imagine your whole body filling up with a golden glow.”

I imagined my body being filled with the Spirit of the Lord, like in Acts of the Apostles, when the tongues of fire rested on each of the disciples. I said a quiet prayer and asked the Holy Spirit to fill my body and my mind. Slowly, from my head to my toes, I felt my body relax and fill with peace.

“Now a golden light surrounds your body, and everything else fades away.”

And strangely… I felt it.

I even cracked my eyes open to see if something had changed in the sauna, but nothing had so I closed them again and went back into the light.

“You are hovering in this warm golden light and being carried to a special place. Where are you?”

I was placed in a garden near a stream. It felt like what I imagine the Garden of Eden to be. Green, lush, and alive. Birds chirping. Water gently flowing. Peace everywhere. It felt so real.

And then I saw Jesus walking there.

I bowed my head and went to my knees, but He stopped me. He lifted my chin, looked at my face, and said:

“Follow Me.”

He led me down to the river.
He turned to me, handed me a tulip, and told me to plant it by the water. So I bent down and planted it and reached into the stream to scoop up water to hydrate it, but when I turned back around… That one tulip had become a field of a thousand!

I looked at him and asked Him what He wanted me to do.

He said one word:

“Rise.”

And just like that, I was back in the sauna. Heart racing. No words. No explanation. Mildly questioning what I had just seen but filled with a knowing that it was real and that what was planted in my heart was the realization that the darkness in my life was over and a new season was coming. And in this season… I rise.

For weeks, I couldn’t get that image out of my head, the field of tulips. I knew I was supposed to do something with it. So first, I got a tulip tattoo on my fore arm. A reminder of the calling I could feel but didn’t fully understand yet. I knew it had something to do with women… I just didn’t know how.

When I told my tattoo artist the story, he offered to help me turn the vision into an art piece for my wall. And that’s when it hit me. A Mural! I was already in the middle of upgrading my downtown building, and out front was this giant barn with a massive blank wall. I called my contractor immediately and told him to,
“Leave that wall. I’m putting a mural on it.”

God’s Timing

Now I was ready! Let’s go. Let’s do it. Let’s make this happen.

I reached out to several mural painters… and for whatever reason, nothing worked out. Plans fell through. People didn’t show up. Then the renovation costs went higher than expected and suddenly, I didn’t even have the money for it. Frustrating doesn’t even begin to cover it. I kept praying about it and I kept feeling the same thing:

Not yet. That the timing wasn’t right and when it was right, it would come together.

Around August, something shifted. I felt peace again to move forward. So I reached out to a local bank to open a small line of credit because it mattered that much to me. The day they called to tell me I was approved, I was driving. I was talking to the bank manager at a stoplight… and I just happened to look to my right and there was an art gallery. The moment I got off the phone, I turned into the parking lot and called the owner.

She was a female business owner like me. She had walked through a dark season too; divorce, rebuilding, starting over. She was a woman rising! Her gallery name (Gallery 2:10) was even from a Bible verse Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Her art was her ministry she told me.

I knew it was meant to be and all part of God’s plan and in that exact moment…

She said was available! Right then, right there, ready to paint! We set it up immediately.

For the next two weeks, she painted this beautiful mural, day after day. And on September 10th… she added the final touch:

The cross.

Now what is wild is that September 10th was also the day Charlie Kirk died. The world felt heavy. Social media was flooded. People were grieving, confused, heartbroken.

And yet… right here in Sidney, Ohio… There was a beacon of hope.

A giant cross on a mural declaring life, growth, and resurrection.

People from all over were calling and texting me telling how much that mural meant to them during that difficult time.

And I couldn’t ignore it: God’s timing was perfect.

Not mine. His.

I’ve thought so many times about how impatient I was. How badly I wanted it when I wanted it.

But if it had happened on my timeline… it wouldn’t have carried the same weight. The same meaning. The same impact.

Now every time I look at that mural, I’m reminded:

Delay doesn’t mean denial. It’s alignment with God’s timing. 

And tucked inside that painting are quiet little Easter eggs (Bible verses). 

My favorite: Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord…Plans to prosper you, not to harm you, to give you hope and a future. 

From vision to fruition

What started as one tulip…became a field. 

What started as a vision…became something people can see, feel, and stand in front of.

And what God spoke in a moment, he fulfilled in His timing.

If you’re in a season where you feel the vision, but don’t see the fruition yet;

Don’t rush it. Don’t force it. Don’t doubt it.

Just Plant it. Water it. And Trust Him with it.

Because when God says “Rise”…

He’s not asking you to figure it out.

He’s asking you to follow.

And when you do, He’ll turn one small act of obedience into something far bigger than you ever imagined.

Keep Rising,

Ashley