Vision and Extradimensional Prayer

This morning as I prayed (specifically during my prayers for Europe and for her missionaries and pastors), I had a vision:

I was kneeling at the side of my bed, and behind me I saw in my spirit a very bright ball of light about a yard in diameter, and at a distance of about 20 yards.  The light suddenly sped toward me and then suddenly I was riding it (in the same kneeling posture) like on a motorcycle, only it was much faster.  And it went zipping here and there.

It was thrilling!  But what did it mean?  As I continued praying, I remembered the advice I had recently heard: that we are to pray more and more in tongues in these last days.  Why?  Because that’s the only way to guarantee that we are praying the will of God: when the Holy Spirit is doing the praying for us.  The world is becoming so infected with the enemy’s deception that there are times when he’s able to deceive us, too.  So praying in tongues becomes more important for us now than ever before.

Now, for me the only problem is that my prayer language is very limited.  It started as a single three word phrase that was expanded to five brief phrases, repeated again and again.  Of course, all this is a matter of faith, and I shouldn’t try to analyze it with my human understanding.  But analyze is exactly what my mind did and continued to do.  For me there was the problem of Matthew 6:7-8:

When you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Instead of the word babbling, the King James Version says “vain repetitions.”  So this was a problem for me because a few words or even phrases repeated and repeated, especially in a language I don’t know, felt like babbling and vain repetition.  So today I just asked the Lord why and what value do these few phrases have when repeated and repeated.

His answer stunned me: He said that as Heaven is extradimensional (that is, existing outside of and beyond our three dimensions plus time), so the language of Heaven is extradimensional.  Thus, the cherubim eternally repeating, “Holy! Holy! Holy!” is not the repetition it seems to be to our ears.  Instead what we are hearing as repetition is actually an extradimensional echo of Heavenly language.

Immediately I remembered a recent vision that I had of the Temple in Heaven.  (I did not physically go to Heaven, but instead, Heaven’s veil was opened for me to take a peek at the Temple.)  What I saw almost defies description, but I’m going to attempt to explain it as best I can from my limited three-dimensional perspective.  For those who do not have an understanding of extradimensionality, follow this link to see visual representations of what one step up in dimensions would look like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-dimensional_space (especially instructive is the diagram halfway down the page that shows a cube from different angles in three dimensions and a four-dimensional cube (or hypercube) from the same angle).

What I saw was the Temple as represented in drawings in the back of many Bibles: the Outer Court, the Inner Court, and the Holy Place.  But instead of being set on the ground, where you enter by walking in, it was sort of like concentric cubes (cubes within cubes), the Outer Court cube, the Inner Court cube (completely inside the Outer Court cube), and the Holy Place cube (completely inside the Inner Court cube).  And I went through the court cubes from above at an angle.  It felt strange and familiar at the same time, sort of like how dreams feel.

So today’s lesson is to pray in tongues.  It’s more important now than ever before.  And don’t be bothered if it seems repetitive, that is just Heaven’s echo effect.  God is good!

Pocket Dialed Bible Verse

Get Back on that Horse!

God is calling!

On New Year’s Day I wrote a post titled Unposting in which I made a public apology for having inadvertently hurt someone I love.  The offense was in something I had written in my blog, which is also published on my Facebook page.  At that time I took a voluntary hiatus from both blogging and facebooking.

Soon after that, we met to talk, and I apologized in person.  We cried together, and the relationship was restored—perhaps better than ever before.  Slowly I began posting again, but to be honest, it has been really hard to get back in the swing of writing again.  Part of the reason is that I know I need to write about this painful episode.  In my writing I take Hemingway’s advice to write hard and fast about the things that hurt (and everything else, for that matter), so I’ve been somewhat blocked because of avoidance.  Plus, there’s a sort of rhythm you develop when you write daily that, once interrupted (and especially for this long) is really hard to get back.

Then yesterday I checked my phone upon returning home.  You know how sometimes the phone in your pocket inadvertently dials one of your contacts.  Well, instead of pocket dialing a person, my phone had opened my Bible app while in my pocket.  I figured that maybe God was calling me, so I looked at the passage it was opened to: Deuteronomy 27, in which Moses built an altar on Mount Ebal and was about to pronounce the curses that would come if the Israelites did not follow God’s command when they crossed over the Jordan River into the Promised Land.  The verse that stuck out for me was verse two:

When you have crossed the Jordan into the land the Lord your God is giving you, set up some large stones and coat them with plaster.

They were to set up large stones in plaster as a memorial of God’s Law.  Immediately I understood that what God was telling me is that I need to get back into writing because with my writing I am setting up a memorial, not of God’s Law, but of God’s Love in our New Covenant with Him.

I had hurt and been hurt through my writing, but writing is also a holy task for me.  So I need to get back on the horse that had bucked me off (pardon my Texan analogy, but I can’t deny my roots!), and write again.  God is good!

Here’s the cashier’s post at my new favorite writing cafe.

Unposting

In trying to process all the pain that I’ve gone through with recent events, I inadvertently hurt somebody I love. This was never my intention. I have removed all the offending posts and am taking a hiatus from both Facebook and my blog.
I messed up, I’m a jerk, and the devil used a good person (me) to hurt good people and to try and destroy our relationships.
But even if I, flawed as I am, can still be loved by God, then never forget what I always say: God is good!

The Scars of Communism Part Two

As I wrote in The Scars of Communism (https://europeanfaithmissions.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/the-scars-of-communism/), just before coming on this trip to Hungary and Romania, I opened the box of books that I had gotten out of storage after a year, and the book at the very top was “Tortured for Christ” by Richard Wurmbrand.  The things suffered by Pastor Wurmbrand and the rest of the Underground Church really moved me.  After all, I could have been born in a Communist country, and had to suffer for my faith, too.

And in The Wild Life (https://europeanfaithmissions.wordpress.com/2012/07/07/the-wild-life/) I wrote:

Today there was a conference for the seniors of the church, at which Pastor H. Koraćs Gėza spoke.  I was told that I would have about five minutes to speak to them.  So of course I prayed about it, and here’s what I said:

Looking out here at all the gray hair, I am aware that many of you and your parents kept your faith in Christ under the oppressive rule of the atheistic Communists.  I have two things to say to you: First, I am deeply sorry that my country believed the lies of the Communists and did nothing to help you.  Secondly, I know that someday you will trade your silver crowns for gold crowns.  I am here to honor you for your faithful service to your Lord and mine.

To the young people here I say: learn from these elders, and share the love of Christ with everyone you know.

And finally, I would like to thank Pastor Gėza for coming.  It is an honor to meet you.

When Pastor Gėza returned to the platform, he observed that Christianity had actually flourished and grown under Communist oppression.  He said that Christianity now faces a far more dangerous enemy in the form of complacency.  I believe he’s right.

It is the danger of complacency in Eastern Europe is that it is following the same pattern that makes Western Europe such a difficult mission field.  Complacency has caused Western Europe to evolve from nominal Christianity through religious disconnection, cynicism, and xenophobia to become the secular, materialistic, humanistic, hedonistic, nihilistic, hopeless, suicidal people they’ve become, seeking answers in drugs and alcohol, Eastern Philosophies, Witchcraft, and Satanism.  Is it any wonder that abortion and human trafficking thrives in such an environment?  In Switzerland it is now possible to request physician-assisted suicide without any physical illness.

The most frightening thing of all is that the United States is following the unfortunate pattern of Europe.

What does complacency look like?  Complacency looks like Christianity, but lacks the power of the Holy Spirit, or as the Apostle Paul put it: “having a form of godliness but denying its power,” (2 Timothy 3:5).  Complacency seeks answers and help through human means instead of looking to God as the Source of all things.  Complacency seeks its own comfort instead of God’s way.

When Jesus says, “Follow Me,” Complacency answers, “But I have family responsibilities,” (Matthew 8:21).

When Jesus says, “Follow Me,” Complacency answers, “OK, but let me say goodbye to my family,” (Luke 9:61).

When Jesus says, “Follow Me,” Complacency answers, “But it’s dangerous,” (John 12:25-26).

When Jesus says, “Follow Me” Complacency answers, “But the food there is gross!  I can’t sleep on the floor!  There’s no electricity!  No internet!  No phone signal!” (Matthew 8:19-20).

Complacency makes all sorts of excuses for not following Jesus, and some of them seem appropriate and valid.  But there are missionaries all around the world who have said yes to Jesus even though it meant leaving family responsibilities, saying goodbye to family, going into danger, eating disgusting food, sleeping on the floor, without electricity, internet or phone.

But Complacency is worse than that.  Complacency doesn’t want to rock the boat by bringing Jesus into the school or the workplace.  Complacency believes in the separation of church and state.  Complacency won’t even talk about Jesus at parties with friends, for fear of offending someone.

Because of these attitudes, Jesus is no longer welcome in our schools or workplaces; Biblical Christianity has no say in lawmaking; and political correctness has become more important in American society than the salvation of souls.  Those people that you’re so worried about offending need to hear the Good News that Jesus died for them.  And the person you know with the hardest heart is someone who desperately needs Jesus.

Jesus was meek and gentle, and offensive to the people who rejected Him and His free offer of salvation.  He never backed down from telling the truth.  He is our Perfect Example, and like Him, we need to be ready to “offend” people with the truth.  But to do that, we’ve got to step out of our comfort zone.  We’ve got to give up comfortable Complacency.  We’ve got to pick up our cross and follow Him, even when that leads us away from family and friends.  And to do that we’ve got to trust God.

Here’s one last thought:  Have you ever read the list of the people who are going to hell in Revelation 21:8?  “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars —they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur.”  Look who leads the list: not the murderers, not idolaters, but the cowardly!  Many times throughout the Bible we are encouraged to be strong, bold, and courageous.  Jesus said, “If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when He comes in His Father’s glory with the holy angels,” (Mark 8:38).