Lessons I Learned in the Dark

By Dorothy Pino

Have you ever been in a place in your life where darkness was all around you and the heavens felt like brass over you? Your prayers seemed to hit that brass canopy and fall right back down?

If you have had this experience, or perhaps you are going through it right now, then I believe you can benefit from the lessons I learned while in some very dark places in my life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Dec 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781664211797

Dorothy Pino

Dorothy has served as a short-term missionary on the continents of North and South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia, as well as the Fiji Islands. She ministers as Bible Teacher, Evangelist, Intercessor, Conference Speaker, and volunteer to the homeless and those in prison. She successfully completed the “Crossroads Discipleship Training School” of the YWAM organization (University of the Nations, Kona, HI).

Book preview

Copyright © 2020 Dorothy Pino.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

844-714-3454

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-1178-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-1177-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-1179-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020922104

WestBow Press rev. date: 12/10/2020

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction

1. Caught off Guard

2. God Is Faithful

3. He Is Committed to Me

4. I Was Created by Design and for a Purpose

5. No Weapon Formed Will Prosper

6. He Is My Provider

7. The Divine Romance

8. I Will Not Fear

A Prayer for Salvation

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English

Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry

of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version® Copyright © 1982

by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International

Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973 1978 1984 2011 by Biblica, Inc.

TM. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible,

New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale

House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers,

Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996,

2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Scripture quotations are from the Revised Standard Version of the

Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian

Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the

United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked TPT are from The Passion Translation®.

Copyright © 2017, 2018 by Passion & Fire Ministries, Inc. Used by

permission. All rights reserved. ThePassionTranslation.com.

The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used

by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois

60188. All rights reserved. The Living Bible, TLB, and the The Living

Bible logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House Publishers.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,

Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by

The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

I

dedicate this book to my friend Adrianne, who

saw something in me that I did not see in myself

and continued to speak to it until it came to

fruition. Thank you. I will be forever grateful.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to thank my son, James, and his wife, Amanda, for making a place for me in their home in Montana where I could write this book. It was the perfect place for me to complete this assignment, and I am grateful.

PREFACE

The Lord dropped the idea of writing this book into my spirit several years ago. At the time, I thought it was an idea of mine and did not realize it was of the Lord, so I simply ignored it. Over the years, from time to time, various friends would mention something to me about how I needed to write my book. I still was not convinced God was asking me to do this, so I would tuck the thought away in the back of my mind, not giving it any serious consideration.

I hadn’t done much writing over my lifetime and had never thought of myself as a serious author. For this reason, I did not give much attention to the notion of writing a book. When I was in school, I had written some small articles for homework assignments and received encouraging feedback from my instructors, but that was where it ended.

At one point, the Lord downloaded into my spirit the title of the book, Lessons I Learned in the Dark. On another occasion, He gave me the title to each chapter, along with scripture references to put just under the chapter titles. I was still not convinced this was something I needed to undertake.

Finally, in the fall of 2019, as I was attending a Wednesday evening church service with a friend in Haltom City, Texas, she turned to me and said, The Lord says it’s time for you to write that book. That statement got my attention, and on the way home that night, I began to speak to the Lord about the matter. I told Him that I didn’t desire to be disobedient, and I knew that if He was truly asking me to write it, then it was because He had need of it. As I do so many times when I sense the Lord asking me to embark on something new or different, I asked Him to give me confirmation from His Word. That Friday morning, as I was in my quiet time, I was reading in Lamentations 3. When I read verse 2, I began to cry as the Holy Spirit