The Spiritual Realm Pt2

One of the first things I learned was Father does communicate more than I thought. I had spoken thousands of those one way prayers, presenting Him with my list of needs and wishes. Hoping that He would answer in the affirmative. I looked for an answer in the events that followed. If they went my way then I figured that was His answer if not then I figured that the answer was no or maybe He had other plans. So putting out fleeces was the ultimate way to determine what His will was.

A few days after this unusual event my wife and I were driving to a small town in Indiana to see some believing friends and tell them more about what we were experiencing. We were both lost in thought as we drove. I was thinking about a couple that was part of our study group that we had not had a chance to share with. My thoughts switched to a prayer, just one of those quick ones that we do without thinking or expecting an answer, sort of wishful thinking. It went something like: you know Lord I wish that we could sit down with Gary and Susie and tell them what we have experienced. Immediately a thought when through my head: “You will have the opportunity to see them.” It caught me off guard. I know my own thoughts but i knew that wasn’t me. I thought, where did that come from? So I asked: Who is this? The next thought was: I am God. I thought really? I didn’t know that you talked. At that point I didn’t know what to do so I just stopped. I had to think about that, check it out scripturally. So I mulled that around for a day or so. I remembered various scriptures such as “My sheep hear my voice and know me…”.

I was convinced that God could talk to us, but was surprised when it came in the form of “my” thoughts. I assumed that the thoughts that went though my mind were all mine. I was wrong as I was soon to find out. I hadn’t ruled out the possibility that God could drop in the occasional thought, just hadn’t ever identified it. Then I reasoned if God can drop thoughts in, then Satan may be able to do so as well. This gave Paul’s comment about taking every thought captive new meaning. I still wasn’t sure if I was hearing God or not. So I decided to test it.

At my wife’s job there was a couple who were close to having their first child. So I decided that this would be a good test. I asked what sex, height, weight, and length would the child be. I believed that if the answer came from God it would be perfect. Unfortunately it was only 50% accurate. I don’t remember now which ones were right, but two were wrong. It couldn’t be God! So I continued testing for several months. While I was testing He was refining unbeknownst to me. After many tests I began to realize that I was my own worst enemy. I discovered that I was actually biasing what I heard. I could influence what I thought, that is mix my wants and desires in with what He said. I found that if I asked a specific question the answer I got had a low percentage of being accurate. However, if I had no personal stake in the issue the accuracy improved. I was filtering what I heard at my soul level. My biases were coloring the answers, however, I was receiving enough accurate answers to continue the up the path.

During this testing time I had an earth shifting experience. I was at the stage where I was pretty confident that I was hearing from my Savior in these conversations. The accuracy was improving as long as I prayed to not color the answers and allowed Him to initiate the conversation.

My wife and I had heard about a man, Marvin Ford, who had died of a massive heart attack, went to Heaven, talked to Jesus (Yeshua) and returned. He was going to speak at a meeting in southern Indiana. We had some close friends who lived in that area so we made arrangements to spend the weekend at their house and attend the meeting on saturday evening. We drove to their house on friday afternoon and enjoyed the reunion. That night we had gone to bed a little late but I could not get to sleep. As I lay there I had an urge to go for a walk and talk to this new found voice. So I got up, dressed and headed out on the road. They lived in the country. It was a beautiful starlit night with a mild temperature. I wasn’t sleepy so the conversation came easily. I had been thinking about how many years that I had not known that God speaks and was feeling the weight of the lost opportunities. I was enjoying my new found relationship with my Savior. By this time He had started giving me dreams and visions and explaining things as I tried to understand His realm and spiritual matters.

So I told Him that even though I had studied much I knew so little. I felt like a toddler in His presence as His peace encompassed me. I had a dichotomy of feelings as I realized how insignificant my understanding was and yet I was carrying on a conversation with the God of Creation and He was training me, total overwhelmed. I was not prepared for His answer!

He said no problem I taught John, Peter, Luke, Jesus… He went on with the list but I didn’t hear it. I completely lost it. My mind went into overdrive. If He taught Jesus then I’m talking to God the Father???? I found myself flat on the pavement. Silence. I was fully expecting a bolt from heaven aimed at me. I was acutely aware of my failures and sins, they haunted me. I would not survive this. I laid there expecting the worst but nothing happened. A minute went by and then another. Then the thought came that I could get run over by some midnight driver if I don’t get up. So I slowly got to my feet but my knees were not supporting me very well. I asked in a whisper who am I talking to? He said God the Father! I didn’t even know how to address Him. I asked what do I call you Sir? He answered just call me Dad! Another bomb shell! I didn’t know what to do. He left me speechless. I’m standing there in stunned silence letting it soak in. He said I’m going to do four things in this season: I’m going to pour out My Spirit like honey, the other three I no longer remember. That was 50 years ago. I had had all I could take and headed back to the house. I had no idea what time it was but I woke my wive and told her everything that had just happened. Back then she wasn’t used to this kind of thing, it hadn’t happened much. She was skeptical.

The next day we didn’t talk about it, I was mulling it over, thinking about it all. We all chit chatted about other things. That night we went to the meeting. Marvin was introduced and he began to tell his story. It was amazing and truly phenomenal. He described his entire experience of dying, looking down at his body, being drawn to heaven and landing in the throne room, meeting God and Yeshua and their conversation with him and returning and setting up on the gurney under a sheet while the attending nurse fainted dead on the floor. Yeshua told him that he had to return and that his work on earth was not done yet. Then He said to Marvin during this season I’m going to do four things on the earth, I’m going to pour out My Spirit like honey… All four things that I had heard the night before word for word. Blown away again. I looked at my wife and she looked at me. Now I KNEW that I had met my Father the night before. It was celebration time.