Spiritual experiences are a bit of an odd thing for me. Not that I see them as odd, weird, or something to run away from.
Eternity, the Unexpected
Spiritual experiences are a bit of an odd thing for me. Not that I see them as odd, weird, or something to run away from. But it’s more like how I interact with them, even long after the experience is over. So many people today in their daily rush of life, that do have a spiritual experience do little with it. Often forgetting it within hours, days, or weeks.
I have known people who have had profound dreams that strongly hint at what God is looking to do with them in the future. But, within a year or less, they are bemoaning and grumbling that the Lord never talks to them because they have forgotten it.
So what happened?
If you think about what just happened, I mean if you really stop and think about it then you have to realize that a Holy moment in time just happened to you. The God of the universe stepped in, stopped the regularly scheduled programming of your life, and shared a picture of something with you. How we deal with it should say a lot about how we care for the things of God. Does it slip like sand between your fingers, or do you roll it around and around to carefully search it?
In Beckah Shae’s powerful song, “So will I (100 BillionX)”
“God of your promise, you don’t speak in vain, no syllable empty or void for once you have spoken, all nature and science follow the sound of your voice”
These very experiences are essentially “pregnant” with Holy things like wonder, insight, and wisdom. They are treasures waiting for you to find. And if I must confess, then I would also say that sometimes it may take years to understand any real measure of these things. I say this because in the early 80’s I had many experiences, some often on the day of atonement. But my understanding was, well, perhaps a bit flawed as I know I rushed to interpretation.
But in the last ten years, I have had other types of experiences visit me. They were not messages of the future, or even concerns about people and places, or even insight into some of the things many people in the world wished they could ask God about. They were just like…well, almost impossible to describe.
This is because human words on this side of Eternity fail, as we struggle in vain to describe the other side of Eternity. As a result, I now understand certain things, concepts, and possibilities that I never would have before, like;
“I tell you the solemn truth, we speak about what we know and testify about what we have seen, but you people do not accept our testimony. If I have told you people about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?” John 3:10-12.
I now realize more than ever why Jesus taught in parables, the more un-renewed the human mind is, the more it will rebel against the Spiritual. Because there is “no syllable empty or void” even the simplest words or images in Spiritual experience can ignite fires of possibilities within us.
I once took an experience I had long ago and wrote it out, then I tossed it into the trash can. No matter what I did, it always sounded hollow, empty, and pointless. So I keep it within me, like the others. Telling only parts as needed or using them as inspiration in my Science Fictions books.
Yes, I have used them as book inspiration whenever I wrote about my people in Eternity. As an example, Captain John Becker in the book, Fading Starlight entered the mist of Eternity and then was blown out by the breath. I know what that means, as the breath is the breath of life and he needed it to survive in the world he was being sent. In effect, the very breath that pushed him out of Eternity sent him with a blessing to keep him alive.
When I wrote about the colors in Eternity and how people felt them. That is because Eternity is absolutely full of communication, I’ve seen it. Even the colors are not silent and in a future book, I will explore that issue deeper with John’s granddaughter as she will be “summoned up,” more than once.
This is why these things are odd for me. As I continue through life I ponder things and in my analytical thinking, I often overanalyze and try to hypnosis concepts based on what little I know. For me, it often goes something like this, “because I know A and B are true in Eternity then C must also be true. And if that’s the case, then if you combine A and C all these other crazy ideas must be true as well!”
See how crazy it gets. Perhaps this is one of the reasons I get these experiences so rarely, or maybe this has nothing to do with it at all. Maybe, perhaps God just enjoys watching me working my way through the process like any other 50-plus-year-old kid.
Eternity
Eternity, Vineyard Worship music.
“I will be Yours, you will be mine. Together in eternity. Our hearts of love will be entwined”
How many times have you felt alone standing in a crowd, Even when you are talking or laughing? Does it make you feel sad, or displaced or are you ready to run away? Perhaps this is less of a symptom of the world we live in. Perhaps this is the evidence that our heart is yearning for something beyond this word, a connection, a weaving into something bigger than ourselves.
Or perhaps you have the same problem I do, I have moved many times. Always seeking something else, better, greater, and not finding it. Perhaps your wandering foot, your wanderlust is a sign, spiritual evidence that your heart is not of this world. Perhaps you are more like Abraham;
“…was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” Hebrews 11:10.
All of Eternity is entwined, every breath, every movement, color, or sound. And as you worship in the presence of the Lord, you are slowly being changed. The scientific world would call this Quantum entanglement, but in the Charismatic world, we have known this truth forever as Spiritual entanglement.
You see examples of this throughout our history. An example would be Saint Patrick’s Breastplate from 1600 years ago. How many times did he say, “I bind unto myself…?” He was seeking the very core of what Jesus said;
“…your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread…” Matthew 6: 10-11
In effect, as your heart becomes interwoven into Eternity, you become pregnant with the very possibilities of heaven itself.