My Prophecy Experience (repost)

originally published in October 2004.

I wish to share the details of a profound prophecy experience I recieved from Jesus shortly after being saved. For those of you who know me, I hope that my character as you know it is sufficient testimony to the fact that I would not invent a story such as this and pass it off falsely as something from God. For those of you who do not know me, but are believers I hope that you will discern His voice and His work in this story in the same way as it is written that the sheep recognize His voice. For those of you who do not know me, and are not believers I hope you will inherently recognize the trueth in this post and begin to become curious in the great things the Lord has to offer all of us. I pray that all those who read this post and believe will be blessed and prosper richly in the Lord!

My purpose in conveying this prophecy is not to relay the actual prophecy itself as it most likely does not apply directly to you. Rest assured that the one person who needed to hear this profecy has heard it and accepted it as from God. I have requested a fleece from the Lord in order to relay the profecy to the rest of those who would need to hear this profecy. I am confident that my fleece will be fulfilled when and if the time is right.

And now the story...

Perhaps a month after being saved, my girlfriend and I went to a church some miles south of Peachtree City (Atlanta, GA area) with some friends in order to attend their Friday night service. I don't remember the name of the church or what small town it was in, but that is immaterial at this point. The church itself was Pentacostal in denomination if I remember correctly.

The night before we were to go, I was praying that the night at the church might be something special .. in that I might recieve some special supernatural experience from the Lord. This is the type of church where they really worship - they dance and sing and really get into their worship. To tell you the trueth, I feel really uncomfortable in a church setting during the worship service. For whatever reason, I don't feel comfortable signing and danceing to worship songs. Please don't misunderstand me, I don't disapprove of such things by any degree. I applaud those who would freely express their love and excitement for the Lord through public worship. Anyway, recognizing that as one of my faults and something I needed to get over, I told the Lord that I was going to go to that service and try my best to worship him amonst all the strangers there.

So as I went to sleep that night something very interesting and special happened. As I was on the verge of falling asleep, I felt a strange wave of something "splash" up through my body. The feeling itself was similar to the feeling I described in the "I'm Saved" post on this same blog - only MUCH more intense this time. The feeling was of wet warm water splashing up through my feet, through my legs, and into my chest. Only it didn't feel wet or warm exactly. It was "intense" in the sense that I really truely felt it throughout my body. But it wasn't "intense" in the sense of feeling painful or riveting my body to where I was "freaked out". No, this was a very gentle experience - not even enough to wake me up. Since I felt that sort of thing before and knowing it was from God, I didn't worry about. And since I was already half asleep, I just drifted back to sleep.

The next morning I got up, went to work and the day progressed as did any normal Friday night. In the evening we went to the church and met our friends there. The worship part of the service had already started and our friends were in the front row. As we were walking into the church I remembered the promise I had made to God about trying to worship Him. I walked up to the church feeling confident that I would make at least a small amount of progress over my "issue". When we walked into the church doors, every one (and I mean EVERYONE) was on their feet signing and dancing and having a great time. We found our friends in the front row now less! They were signing and danceing and having a hoot too! So immediately, my girlfriend put down her things and started joining in. Sadly, for me, I quickly started to feel VERY unconfortable. This was a small church and being in the front row you are eyeball to eyeball with the performers. Well, the longer I stood there the more uncomfortable I felt. I think I lasted about one song (sort of half-heartedly joining in) before I couldn't take it anymore and walked out.

After about an hour of so, my girlfiend came out to check on me. We talked and I told her that I did not feel comfortable in that church. So she stayed with me for a while and we proceeded to talk (not really getting anywhere). She asked if I wanted to go back home and I said no. I didn't want to ruin the experience for her or our friends. But every fiber of my being did not want to stay at that church. At the time I was remembering an excellent conversation I had with my brother some weeks back concerning religion. In the conversation, he gave me some great advice. He said, look if you feel like someone is telling you something that you don't think is right or pushing you to do something that doesn't feel right to you, then you have the right to step back and say 'hold up, I don't really feel comfortable doing this". He said, the harder someone tries to convince you of something, the more they are doubting what they say in their own mind. My brother's words really struck a cord with me. And it was because of that conversation that I had with him, that I felt justified in sticking to my guns about not wanting to stay in that church.

And so I felt pulled in two directions - serving myself by not staying in the service, and serving my girlfriend by not going back home and allowing her to stay in the service. So after much prompting by me, she returned to the service and I stayed outside. (I should also mention that our friends - her's more than mine really - did come out to check on us and offer words of encouragement.) And so I stayed outside that church for another two hours or so until the service ended.

By the time the service ended, I had been waiting for them for about 3 hours. Can you guess what kind of a mood I was in when she came out at the end of the service? Darn right!! The evening temperature was about 70-something, but the atmosphere inside that car on the ride home was pretty fridged indeed. After sometime had passed, we began to talk. Although my blood was still pretty hot, I tried to atleast speak in a civilized manner. It wasn't easy.

We talked about various things including what happened at church. The more I talked the better I started to feel, but I was still pretty upset and angry about having to wait outside for three hours. Then I started to relay to her, something that I felt God telling me earlier in the week in regards to her future. As I started to speak, I felt the hairs stand up all over my body and I remember stopping in mid-sentense and saying, "He's here.". So I continued telling her the words God spoke to me and after I got 2 or 3 words of the profecy out of my mouth, I felt this tremendous release througout my entire body. It was like a bomb went off! This was the booming, thunderous voice of God you hear about from the Old Testament! I felt like a tidlewave had just sprung up in my body and washed over me. It was the most intense, supernatural experience I had ever felt. But again, it wasn't painful or disruptive in a bad sense. But it was humbling to be sure. I finished relaying the profecy to her in the midst of tears and (I think) sweat. All I could say afterwards, was "Thank-you Jesus, thank-you, thank-you, thank-you". I felt like I was His puppet. That He was in charge and He could do anything He wanted! And it felt wonderful!

Again, as with every blessing from Him there were many lessons to be learned:
1. Be kind and graceful even in the midst of your anger, as He is.
Even though I wasn't pleased with my girlfriend, I was still trying to at least be civil. And even though I didn't feel comfortable at that church and I was starting to form some poor oppinions of them, I remember saying at one point, "God bless them" in the mist of my anger.
2. Pray for and ask for spiritual gifts and experiences and they will be given to you. e.g. prayer payes off.
3. He is in charge.
4. He can and will do anything He wants to.
5. Prophecy is real!
6. He humiliated Himself so that you don't have to.
Jesus allowed Himself to be humiliated at the hands of the Pharasis and the Romans immediately before his crusifiction. I believe He did this not only to save us from death and give us eternal life, but also so we could enjoy our lives without having to conform strictly to the Law as presented by the Pharasis, or even other Christians who would say to you, "worship like I do", "pray like I do", or "put God in the same box that I have placed him in". Worship is important to be sure, but He wants to walk with you in your whole life, not just at your church service. Don't judge, and don't let others judge you either.
7. God does not confine Himself to the walls of ANY church.
He is BIGGER than the church, He is BIGGER than me!
8. He loves me!

Later on, I realized the full scope of what had happened. Whatever it was that I received the night before in bed was released by His touch during the car ride home.

As I said before, I "fleeced" this prophecy to God. What that means is that I asked Him to arranged a meeting between me and the others that this prophecy pertains to. If the meeting occurs, I'll take that as the sign that the prophecy should be conveyed to others. And I will dutifully relay His message. I fleeced this prophecy because a.) I want to serve God and His purpose accoding to His will and not run off half cocked on my own claiming to be acting in accordance with God (I want to make sure I don't to anything to mess up His plan), and b.) the information conveyed in the prophecy leads me to believe that God wants to see and test out the actions of those who the prophecy applies to. In other words, I believe He wants them to change their hearts on their own without my intercession - yet.

... End of story ..

I hope I've awakened some interest in what our Savior is capable of. Please be aware that I have conveyed this testimony to you in trueth. I share these personal experiences with you not because I wish to boast, not because I wish to beat anyone up for lack of faith or lack of compassion for non-believers. Instead, I write these things so that you can see what another fellow human being is feeling and has experience at the hands of God. I share a glimpse of my personality and my heart with you at my own risk, so that those who do not believe may feel comforted in the fact that God loves us all .. even those of us who are not perfect. I also wish to encourage the believers who struggle. I make no claim what so ever as being a great prophet, apostle, or disciple. I do not say that I am above anyone in the eyes of the Lord, but we are all loved equally and He will be generous to all of us.

May God let his love be made known to you.

Amen.

I'm Saved (repost)

This was originally published in Sept. 2004. Seems like time to publish it again.

Its been about 3 weeks now and I never thought I would say these words with the sincerity that i now say them, but I am SAVED! I have so much I want to tell you all about what has happened to me over the last few weeks. I turned from a skeptic, perhaps an agnostic to a true believer in Christ the Lord.

I hope the good Lord will direct people who have not yet been saved to this blog so they can see what i've gone through (and continue to go through) and where i've been. I hope this blog will serve as a source of encouragement to other Christians and especially to those who have not yet given their life to christ.

So how did this all start? Well, my girlfriend is a VERY devoute Christian. Quite honestly, my Christian walk started with her nagging. Of which i would get rather irritated. I've been "hastled" by Christians my entire life. Their values have been shoved down my throat for many years. Or at least that's how I felt. I had a lot of resentment in my heart towards people who called themselves Christians, told me I was bad and hell-bound for not believing in Jesus, then when to work on monday and stabed each other in the back. Suffice to say, I've gotten into some heated arguments in my time. I tend to get the most irate when I feld cornered, which is something most people of faith (Christian or not) tend to do to non-believers.

So what changed? Its my belief that the Lord showed my girlfriend the best way to reach me. Or perhaps it was the Lord himself that started to change my heart. It was probably the later, but at some point I started to open my *mind* to the possibility of His true existence. I say "mind" since that's all i could turn to the Lord at that time. Not knowing him very well, I couldn't truely turn my heart towards him .. yet.

Please understand, I had to make a purely mental decision to pursue the Lord. I took my first few steps in prayer and reading the Bible in blind faith. Actually, "faith" is too strong of a word to use for where i was at at that time. I was thinking to myself, "let's give this a try. if it doesn't work out then I really haven't lost anything". So forward I went, taking the time (as often as i could remember) praying to the Lord, and reading the Bible and books like "The Case for Faith" by Lee Strobel. At first, I felt a little funny praying by myself at the foot of my bed into thin air. I was literally going through the emotions with basically no heart involved. I spent more time reading "The Case for Faith" than I did reading the Bible. It is ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE to any non-believers out there reading this blog to understand that I was not overcome with the Holy Spirit at this time, nor did my heart pour out to the Lord, nor was my soul wailing in agony (that came later). I was going through the motions - nothing more, nothing less. I'm convinced that all you need is a somewhat open mind to start your life with the Lord. I'm also convinced that Jesus will do most of the work for you as he did with me. DO NOT let any body - especially those who call themselves Christians - try to convince you that when you start to pursue Christ you have to do it with "all your heart, all your mind, and all your soul". If that were the only way to be saved, how could anyone EVER be saved!??! For how can you love anyone dearly if you don't know him?? The great love you feel for the Lord will grow in you over time. Just take a couple of steps on your own, and He'll do the rest.

But i digress ...
As time went by (the whole time period for me starting out with pray and bible reading to this point was probably just over a month), i started to gravitate more toward reading the Bible and away from Lee Strobel's book. Nothing against Lee, but the Bible seemed to be a more productive use of my time (I'm sure Lee would agree). Then one faiteful night, my girlfriend and I were siting on her bed talking and she asked me where I was at with God. In my typical eloquent style i responded, "ah, hard to say". She then started to explain to me the "process" that one goes through to become saved. She explained that typically someone admits that they believe in Christ and/or admits that they want to give their life to Christ, then they become baptised in water, then baptised in the Holy Spirit. She was careful to explain that this did not all have to happen in this order, nor did any of it specifically have to happen to become saved. She was simply stating that there is a process that can loosely be applied to one's salvation. Then she asked me a question (no doubt prompted by the Lord now that i reflect on it), something along the lines of "have you come to a decision yet whether or not you are going to give your life to Christ?". Literally, my response to her was, "well, I think I've already made that decision". And that's when the real fireworks stared! That simple affirmation was all the Lord needed to hear. For the next couple of days I felt like my very heart was being pulled out of my body. I couldn't explain it. I was very weapy, I couldn't concentrate on work or anything else in my life. All I could think was, "God, why are you working me so hard?". I didn't realize that He was tugging at my heart. I was (and still am) very ignorant on what was going on. But i felt it was the Lord doing this thing to me. Understand that this was not a pleasent or joyous feeling at all. I felt like my entire mind and body was weaping .. for no reason!! It was agony.

Eventually the agony stopped. For me it lasted about two days. If memory serves, the next week is when the REALLY AWESOME stuff happened. My girlfriend invited me over to her house one night for dinner and some "gift" that she wanted to share with me. I figured that she wanted to pray over me or something like that. "Sure, no problem" I thought. I didn't think it was anything special, but in the back of my mind I was hopeing for something really cool from God .. and I got it! During dinner I started to get irritated at something stupid which is of no consequence now except to say that I was not in my best spirit when we went into her bedroom to pray. She prayed over me for about an hour. During that time I tried to shake myself out of my grumpy mood .. and I did get mostly out of it. After about an hour of praying, she started to pray to the Lord to the gift of tongues. This gift from what I was told allows you to speak (God willing) in other languages as well in Heavenly languages. Suffice to say for now, it sounds like giberish to us humans, but believe me, God understands what we are saying. I'll never forget the moment when I started to pray in tounges. At first I couldn't do it, then my girlfriend kept encouraging me and all of a sudden it was like something broke within me and my mouth and tongue were flying a million miles a minute. It was pure high pitched giberish coming out of my mouth, but it was the fastest, highest pitched giberish I have ever spoken. Instantly I was laughing histerically. I truely felt like i was having a conversation with God. It was like two friends catching up after being apart for a very long time. I felt like God was telling me some jokes and vice versa. In fact, I'm almost certain I interupted the Lord a few times with a few of my own jokes. It felt so good to be speaking in tongues like that!!

But that wasn't all! The Lord had even more instore for me that night. After a while, once the laughter died down a bit, my girlfriend continued to pray for me and asking God to baptis me in the Holy Spirit. I had NO idea what I was in for! We sat on her bed, her hands were on my shoulders I think, and my eyes were closed. All of a sudden, I had this vision of two men standing before me. One in front of the other. It was the Holy Father and his son Jesus Christ! The Father was standing behind the Son, and the Son was performing the cerimony. Quickly, I saw Jesus raise something in his hand. It was like a like a small hand-held mop (the kind like your school janitor would use to mop the floor only much smaller so it would fit in the palm of your hand). He raised this thing twice in his hand and "flick" it towards my head. Each time I felt a really strange sensation over my head. It was like warm water being splashed on my head, except it wasn't exactly warm, and it didn't feel wet. Its hard to describe, but it felt like two waves of *something* splashing over my head. I didn't need to be told that this was the annointing in the Holy Spirit.

Suffice to say, I went home that night in a really great mood! The next day something wonderful started to happen too. As the day went on I started to become more and more aware of the presence of the Lord. It was like I could sense his head and shoulders out in front of me as I walked down the hall, as I sat at my desk, even as I drove back home from work. It was wonderful! It was like I had a new best budy! It was very comforting and reassuring to know that the presence of the Lord was with me. And now as time goes on, that presense and increased and often it feels like I can see the full body of the Lord during my day.

Once i received this baptism, my prayer life took on a whole new excitement. I felt like my words were really getting through and being productive. It was almost like I had an audience with the Almighty himself! Wow! talk about exciting. I (perhaps He) put myself in the role of a student. I even told myself that I was going back to school after all these years and I was attending CU (Christ University). I can tell you from first hand experience, that Jesus is a Master Teacher! The best! Everything I asked for in terms of self improvement was granted! And still is! Even the words written in the Bible seemed to jump to life! The words of the Lord in the Gospel of Luke especially struck me. It was like I could read His word and know and understand. I felt like the Good News was even actually penetrating my heart and soul. My advice to you all is to ask the Lord himself to teach and minister to you. Who could do it better than Him!?

Before I end this blog entry, I should back up a little and bring to you some of the the Great News that was shared with me the night of my baptism. I left my girlfriend's house that night with the very distinct and certain impression that the Lord has things well in hand. I felt like He knows what has happened, what will happen, who's wronged you, who you have wronged, what good things lie ahead for you, and what traps lie out there for you and it is all known to Him and he has a plan for it all. I felt like He was saying to me, "Don't worry, everything is going to work out ok. NOTHING will happen outside of what I will allow. And its going to be Ok for you and everyone else.". That night I felt (and still do feel) very confident in the Lord and his will and abilities to work out everthing in our lives for the best. And to me, the best part of the Good News is that He does most of the work! So give Him the credit and praise and Glory for the good things that happen in your life! I think often in life, we don't act on our own accord as much as we like to think. I feel that God guides our steps more often that we realise! (NOT to say that we can slouch off of our obligations to the Lord by any means). But this is a topic for another entry. Good night. God be with you!

I'm back

'nough said ;-)