John Fincher December 25 at 7:47am
After reading the chapter If I Ever Met an Angel from Wide Open Spaces by Jim Palmer, I began to wonder about my own experiences with angels, dreams, visions, etc. This is also something I've thought about lately. For me, my experience is someone who I haven't talked to or thought of in a long time will call me (seemingly) out of the blue - as soon as a few minutes or the next day. I don't know how many times I've said to someone, I was JUST thinking about you. I don't know why God would give me a fore-knowledge of this, but it has happened to me over and over in my life. My wife tells a story when she was in college, she started packing to leave because her aunt had died, but no one had called her and told her. When her mother called her, she said she already knew and was on her way. We tend to not dwell on something like this and try to say she was probably just mistaken about the time-line.
I certainly am open for this type of communication now.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I was involved in a messy situation in the small-group at the assembly we now attend (I started going for my wife, but have come to love the people in our group). It involved me being (essentially) called a heretic by someone attending a conservative seminary. Well, in this imbroglio, I was called a Gnostic and a Mystic simply because I am seeking the deeper things of God. More than a few times lately, God has put "mystical" things (books, conversations, etc) into my path over the last year. The next DAY after this episode with my fellow classmate came to a head, I was at the hospital waiting with my mother while my father was having surgery. We were sitting in a small area with a couple I had not paid much attention to. As I was walking past them, I noticed a book that he had been reading, but had put down. I looked at the title - The New Mystics by John Crowder! Never heard of him or it, but it sparked an amazing conversation between the two of us about this very subject! I being from a conservative Independent Baptist background thoroughly enjoyed his stories about "unseen" encounters with the spiritual world. This stranger also GAVE me the book. My eyes are more open to this type of thing now.
As to God speaking through dreams, earlier this year I was given these words upon waking one morning:
I rather imagine as I sleep,
My God sings to me all night
In a quiet, wordless voice
Though wordless,
So personal still
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3 comments:
I definitely do not take instances like the one you said for granted. I guess the main instances where I have felt futile in controlling the situation (an instance much like a "Jesus take the wheel" moment) have been in cars. When I was about 5 Mama was driving on the interstate behind a pick-up truck carrying a dining room set just like the old one we used to have. I was sitting in the passenger seat. By some premonition, she decided to change lanes and at that moment a dining room chair flew out of the truck bed and blew into a million pieces as it crashed into the asphalt. No one can call that a coincidence. And of course you remember when I ended up in Riverdale--instead of McDonough-- this summer after coming back from Flowery Branch and I lost control of my car on 285 because of some idiot attempting to cut me off. I spun 360 degrees in the right hand lanes and saw tractor trailer truck headlights coming right towards me. Somehow, someone told me not to move when I finally stopped (though I was just bracing for impact) and when nothing happened and I saw him drive into the emergency lane, someone told me to follow him and that I would be fine. A guardian angel if I've ever heard one!
God most CERTAINLY talks to us in our dreams!! No question. In fact, He is talking to us ALL THE TIME if we will just listen & trust that it's Him. Some of your more "charismatic" friends, ahem, could share experiences and books with you, I'm sure. :)
And, John, if you seek these deeper things of God, He'll deliver. Just step out of the boat, crazy man.
HEY!!! When are we getting together next??
"I was called a Gnostic and a Mystic simply because I am seeking the deeper things of God."
That person should also accuse almost everyone in the Bible of being a "mystic". All throughout the OT and NT, we see folks talking to, seeing and experiencing God and the spiritual realm in various ways.
It is often hard for the analytical/rational mind to accept the existance of a spiritual realm.
The New Mystics is on my to-read list as well. I have skimmed through it though.
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