DIVINE ENCOUNTERS

DIVINE ENCOUNTERS

                When I was a teenager, I was working at my grandfather’s food factory one day after school. We were unloading a truck load of wheat to be made into puffed wheat and I was just coming in the door from the truck with a one hundred pound sack of wheat on my shoulder when suddenly I was overwhelmed by the presence and glory of God. It was like looking through a great tunnel lined with glorious clouds reaching up into heaven with glory light shining at the end. There was no face, just glory and it was so powerful that I dropped my sack of wheat on the conveyor belt and ducked into the nearest bathroom. I locked the door and for the next ten or fifteen minutes I stood in awe and wonder as tears literally ran down my face and soaked my shirt.

                No words were spoken and in fact I didn’t really know what was going on. I had grown up in a tradition that was very doctrine oriented, but had little if anything to do with the supernatural, so I had no frame of reference to go by. It was a most wonderful experience and yet when the vision eventually faded away, I washed my face and returned to work to finish unloading the truck. I didn’t talk to anyone about this experience simply because I had no idea what to say.

                I was a regular kid with the normal struggles of being a preacher’s kid. I had not sought the experience, nor understood it and so in time the intensity of the experience lessoned, but as for the experience, it was one of those unforgettable snapshots that came to me in a rather mundane place that I would have mostly forgotten by now if it weren’t for the divine encounter. To this day I can picture all of the details of that loading dock, simply because it became a marked time and place in my history… my Jacob’s ladder so to speak.

                Many years later, I was on a little singing tour with my brother in law Steve Borth. We had been asked by a family to go to a hospital and to pray for their father/son, a prominent lawyer and judge in Sacramento California. He was the youngest judge to ever preside on the bench and yet he was dying of Leukemia at a very young age. The family was desperate and not being connected to a church in the area, they had asked us to pray for the man.

                We agreed to do so, but I was filled with both guilt and worry.  In spite of the fact that I was out and singing for the Lord, I was struggling with many doubts and controversies concerning my denomination and I felt very far from anything related to faith healing. Stepping from the church where we were waiting to sing, I slipped into the new church building next door that was still under construction and I began to pour out all of my concerns to God.

                Suddenly, for the first time in maybe 20 years, that same portal opened up in the sky. The glory shone brightly and my tears once again soaked my shirt. I felt like God was maybe going to give me an answer to my questions, but once again there was no face and no voice. So in the absence of any instruction concerning the prayer for healing that we were to offer after our concert, I asked God another question that was on my mind at the time.

                I was in conflict with a doctrine in my denomination that seemed to be contrary to scripture. So I held my Bible up in the air over my head and asked the Lord. “Which way is it Lord? Is the church right or wrong on this issue?

                Again, there were no words from heaven, but the Lord showed me a Bible with gold-guilt edges stretching all the way into the heavenly realm and directed toward the glory of God. Again, as I said, there were no words, and yet the message imported to me was very clear. “You search the scripture because you think that in them you have eternal life, but it is they that bear witness of Me.” John 5:39

                Growing up as I did in this particular doctrine oriented denomination, for me the bible was a reference book for proof texts. All of my biblical efforts were geared toward proving my denomination right and others wrong. I would use whatever texts proved my point while ignoring the rest, but even worse than that, I didn’t read the Bible for purposes of fellowship and relationship with Jesus through His Holy Spirit. For me the Bible might as well have been just another reference book.

                If I had fully caught on to what God was really saying to me back then, I could have saved a lot of years of heartache and desperation that came later. So I knew what God was saying, but I had no clue how to apply it to my life.

                So, fast forward to a time shortly after I was really born again, when, as I have shared, the Lord came in and kicked the devil out and delivered me from depression and addiction and gave me a new heart. So here I was again. My Dad was dying of cancer and I was supposed to be the prayer warrior to participate in and to witness Dad’s miraculous healing. Once again I was with my Brother in Law Steve and another singing friend Louis and we had gone to Portland to pray for Dad.

                A group of believers was ministering to Dad in his home. It was a very intense time and we were there interceding for Him when I was caught up in a series of three visions. In the first vision I was standing by the San Francisco bay and the water of the bay was made up of the souls of countless people and it was flowing out under the Golden Gate Bridge and into eternity. The prayers of the people were very strong because about a hundred yards off shore, the water was mounded up in a mound of water about ten feet high and Dad was standing on top of it waiting expectantly upon the Lord with hands raised, but the mound with Dad on it was inexorably flowing toward the Golden Gate and it seemed to be showing me that in spite of all of the prayers and prophecies, Dad was going on into eternity.

                These visions happened one after another in the same day as we stood holding hands in our prayer group. The second vision found us all standing in a parking lot in some unknown location. The lot was paved and at another higher level about a hundred yards away from us was this corrugated metal building. My attention was drawn to the corner of the building where suddenly a giant fire ball, maybe 20 feet in diameter, burst out of the corner of the building leaving a gaping hole of shredded metal. The building was empty and dark inside, but the great hissing and seething ball of fire came over the top of us. From the heat of the ball many spouts of fire came out and filled everyone that was praying for Dad, and then the ball hastened away and into the sky.

                Again the unspoken message was very clear. Dad’s spirit was going to leave his body, leaving it empty and gaping hole, but his mantle, his anointing would be passed on to those of us who were praying for him.

                After singing and worshipping God we returned to our prayers and as we did so, another vision opened up before me. This time I was standing in front of a logging yard and saw mill. The lot around the mill was churned up into mud with deep tracks of many large loading machines. The detail was so clear that it was a cool morning in my vision. There was standing water in the tracks in the mud and steam was rising from the moisture as the sun rose to hit them with its warmth.

                Outside of the many tracks from the large equipment there was nobody present… the mill wasn’t in operation and there were only 2 or 3 logs lying over against a far fence. A great deal of work had been done here with not much to show for it.

                But this time the vision was different. This time an angel was standing behind me showing me the scene. I tried to turn and look at Him, but he would not allow me to turn around. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the bluish light of his presence and it was the most delicious, peaceful, wonderful presence that anyone could ever imagine. I wanted so badly to turn quickly and plunge into that light. It was the atmosphere of heaven and every fiber of my being ached to be there.

                This time the angel spoke to me, and again, just like the light, I wanted to just jump into his voice. It was so wonderful and friendly, and melodious and full of peace and innocence. He spoke to me with a tender familiarity as if he had known everything about me from my birth. There was so much peace in his presence and in his words, but in fact his words to me were very brief. He asked me if I wanted to carry on my Father’s ministry.

                In his presence I sensed that there was no sense in lying or pretending, so I said “No.” It was not really my calling but Dad’s. I had helped him with it through the years, writing radio scripts and articles      and what have you, but his burden and his calling weren’t exactly the same as mine and so I had no choice but to say “No.”

                I didn’t know quite what to expect after giving this reply as I stood there staring at the muddy tracks and wishing that I could see my angel. But his answer caught me by surprise. He simply said,           “Heaven does not require it of you. He then drew my attention to a building far off in the distance. It looked sort of like a church but it was too obscured with trees to tell for sure.

                When I turned back, the angel was gone. I have no idea to this day what that building was, neither do I understand the message, or why heaven would bother to send a messenger to simply tell me that I was not required to carry on Dad’s ministry.

                All I can get from it even to this day is the idea that my ministry and calling lay in the distant future from that point and I would have to come into it by divine appointment. It was not important for me to be told. I only had to learn to walk with God and to hear His voice.

                My experience it seems that heaven doesn’t explain much to us. For the most part we need to be moved by the Word of God and prayer and faith. Chances are if heaven gave us too many details about our future, we would then seek to fulfill this information in the flesh.

                I did not seek any of these visions. They simply came and made their indelible imprint on me. They serve to let me know that God has a plan and a purpose for my life that involves the last days and so even though nobody has verbally told me to do what I am doing right now, I have been faithfully doing the thing set before me… the thing planted in my heart… the writing… the music…and loving and serving the Body of Christ in whatever way the doors open.

                I spent too many years of my life waiting for the big opportunity… the big break. But God had much work to do on my motives and my readiness for His purposes. God will not pour out His wine into old wineskins. Neither will He entrust His purposes to immature vessels. The work of the last days is so vitally important that He will first purify His church, before He pours out His end time fire. Today I am learning to be faithful over the few things so that in His good time, the Lord will call me a good and faithful servant. We are not here to build a kingdom for ourselves, but for Him. Our investments are not that of gathering unto ourselves, but gathering unto Him.

                We have got to get away from self-centered, glory seekers. God pours His Spirit out upon those who are becoming like Jesus. He is calling the nameless and the faceless. He is calling the hungry and the desperate to eat His flesh and to drink His blood … to be transformed into His image.

                I have been humbled by my encounters with God, for most of them left me with more questions than answers. God values faith and love, more than answers.  They who are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. We are sons, we are bond-servants. We are learning to be satisfied with much or with little. All I can say at this point is that I am exactly where God wants me and doing exactly what He wants me to do. It is not the big things but the little things we tend to ignore, that open the doors of His greater purpose for us.  Being faithful over the little things is of utmost importance. We tend to bypass the little things in hopes of bigger things and so we remain inactive and unfruitful… dead place holders in the Body of Christ.

                Even as Abishai and I work on my worship CD it comes as a result of a firm conviction that we will have to give an account for the talents that the Lord has given us. If we keep them to ourselves or bury them in a secret place, then when the master returns, He will be asking us what we did with His gifts. And so we are putting forth every effort to do the things that God has given us to do.

                But I am not just talking about me here. Every one of us has been given talents, or abilities, or potential powers of prayer or intercession, or comfort to those who are sad, or words of encouragement, or work with your hands, or words of encouragement, or ability to help others, or feed others, or clothe others… and we don’t have to do it alone. We have been placed in the Body of Christ to function as the organ, or limb or eye or ear that God has made us to be. We are meant to fulfill our calling in unity with the rest of the Body.

                Together we are being formed into the image of Christ. But I want to tell you this: Even though the Lord came to me largely uninvited in my youth, He does not do so any longer. In our maturity, He tells us that He is the rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. He draws near to those that draw near to Him. We must now make sacrifices of time and energy … time on our faces… time in His presence.

                Our priorities in life will be measured by the amount of time we are willing to spend with Him… and in the end only that which has been done by His Spirit in us will make it into eternity. If we truly understood this we would seek His kingdom first. We have become a people too busy serving the Lord to have time with Him. In the Mary and Martha scenario, many of us tend to favor Martha because sitting at the feet of Jesus doesn’t seem like enough. So we try to please Him with our efforts rather than with our open and hungry hearts.

                To have an encounter with God is to be given a higher level of accountability… just like being a teacher. Before god we have the responsibility of being everything we teach. We must mature into all that the Lord gives us to say, or we are merely hypocrites…spewing platitudes from empty vessels. No, this cannot be. No! We are entering the harvest time and everything that can be shaken will be shaken. We must now be separated from our chaff and we must have quickened ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches… and we are either a part of the living sheep that hear His voice or we will be among those who seek the broad and easy way… a way that does not lead through the cross.

                I am not alone in having these encounters with the Lord and I am certainly not special. I am not a prophet any more than all of us are prophets. We have an advantage over the world simply because we have God’s Word and with that Word we have a vantage point of understanding. We understand God’s overriding purposes in what otherwise appears to be chaos. We understand the spiritual war. We understand that we are approaching a final conclusion… a final confrontation and that we must by all means know where we stand

                In fact I suspect that many of you reading this will remember your own encounters with the Lord. The only question we must ask ourselves is what are we doing with what God has given us? Are we willing to step up and to do the little thing or are we in a holding pattern still waiting for the big thing?

                According to Jesus it is the little thing that prepares you for the big thing and the big thing may not even come to us until we are reigning with Him.

                “Well done good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your Master.” Mt 25:21. We will be held accountable for the things that God has given us… the talents, the abilities, the gifts, the able bodies, the needs of those around us. So we either fulfill our calling; or we let it slip away one little thing at a time. Selah.