(the following is an experience a friend of mine had many years ago, and the lesson he learned from it.)
“A Rare Glimpse Through The Eyes of Our Lord Jesus,
What Often Saddens Him …”
I cannot adequately describe what happened unless I give you a brief scenario of my past. I was just like many other people who love Jesus who at some point in their life they had a period when they did not want to have much to do with Jesus Christ. In my case I ran, figuratively speaking, from Him for about years 12 years. My mother brought us, my siblings and I, up in the church and when I was about 18 years old, my priorities were music, electronics and women. In fact music was my first love, nothing could override that. During that window of my life, I played in bands, tried to write secular songs and tried to enjoy as many women as I could. I also was aware, during that time, that my mother was praying for me and when I would come to visit her, her gospel music was affecting me. I didn’t want to hear it. But there was one old song she played all the time called ‘The Love of God’, this song really affected me. It was as if something was trying to gently get my attention, but I was in a mode of running, not wanting to have anything to do with Our Lord. Approximately half way between 18 and 30 years old, I had a dream. In short the dream was about me and my mother traveling in a car, on a long highway. Soon we turned into a large church and went inside and when the time for the offering came, my mother went to the back of the church and proceeded to go through her purse. (You must remember, at the time of this dream I did not want to have anything to do with Jesus. I wanted to do my thing and have fun with it, although I believed He was who He said He was, I just didn’t have time for Him. I didn’t want to follow Him anymore.)
(Back to the dream) As my mother went through her purse, I began to think, why is she doing this, why are we here? I started walking out of the church. Before I reached the door, I heard a male voice, a very gentle voice saying to me, “son wait, son wait”. When I turned to see who that was I saw a man dressed like the clergy, with a white collar and he had his right hand extended beckoning me to wait. Of course I did not wait, during that window of time I was running from anything about Jesus. Anyway, I ended up outside facing a patch of farm land, looking across a large harvest field, facing crops. As I stood there, I began to experience great heaviness in all of my body. At that point I knew that my mother had died and I left her abruptly not looking back and this was hurting me so much. Then that same clergyman that tried to get my attention came up to me and put his right hand on my shoulder and with the other hand he pointed toward the harvest field and said “Your mother has gone to help us with the wheat”, and that caused me to ball (cry) profusely. I woke up crying and so embarrassed because at the time I was shacking with, (i.e.-living together, unmarried), this girl and it scared her. I just told her to leave me alone. I knew that this dream was a gentle/harsh call on my life. To have my mother in that dream and knowing I walked away her like that was gross to my heart. But I eventually let it fade. I was too busy with the things that I thought were more important in my life.
I know I was being called by the Lord, but I tried to ignore it. But when I reached 30 years of age, I had a vision (in a realm other than ours, but wide awake and I had all my faculties’-feel, hearing.. etc.) that I could not shake. I don’t have the time to go into the details about it now, but I will tell you that I was held from running (by two powerful hands held me by my shoulders and it was painful!) by someone much taller than I am and I was so frighten when I woke up that I fell on my needs and repented (turned from the direction I was headed) and asked Jesus to accept me back (i.e., Save me!). And I will never forget that experience, especially when I heard that person’s voice in that vision and he said only “you know.” and he did not move his lips at all! And within a few seconds I knew in every part of my being that he was talking about it was time to stop running! And immediately after that I was wide awake and crying and trembling profusely for the next half hour. (Acts 9:6)
I’m going to jump ahead and skip a lot of things that happened around that time. After a period of studying the Bible, especially the book of Acts, I really wanted to be filled with His Spirit like the apostle’s account in the scriptures. Because I was brought up in the church in a certain denomination, I thought if I would go to this certain big church that I heard on the radio and let the preacher lay his hands on me and I would receive. (Acts 8:17) At this point before I get into the crux of my experience, I would like to make a statement. I don’t expect everyone reading this to believe this and I’m sure someone will probably be offended, especially when I use the Lord’s name so much in my text. (John 15:18) The only thing I will say to that is I stand before God and he knows the truth and everyone will eventually experience the truth when their appointed time of death will come.(Hebrews 9:27)
Upon arriving at this certain big church on that Sunday morning, I noticed that church had an offering session for just about every thing you can think of to raise money. I know what happened that day was not credited to that big church and its pastors. What happened that day was a divine appointment. I wanted to be filled with His Spirit and I was willing to do anything to get there. I became aware, shortly after that day, that what I was desiring was, ”Lord here am I, what do YOU want me to do?” As the service progressed, I began to feel what I can only describe as a low frequency hum all thru my body, like a 7 hertz oscillation. And a adrenaline rush thru out my body as if I was in a very tall building during a earthquake.(Acts 9:6) At one point during the service a phrase was literally forced on my mind, and the phrase was “They do not know, they just do not know.” I was already fighting off the tears from my eyes and I could not control it. The phrase by itself was not causing all of this. As I looked around the big church, which used to be a movie theatre, I watched the people singing and praising God, I knew in every cell of my body that they were singing the wonderful songs to Jesus and the very next day, some of them were at other places doing and saying things that you could not tell that they even believe there is a Jesus. Many of the people were worshiping Him on Sunday and church nights and other times their language and lifestyles were sickening to our Lord and I felt His pain as if He knew the day would come when He has to say to them “Depart from me, I never knew you”.(Matthew 7:23) I tried to concentrate on the musicians just to get my mind away from that phrase, it did not help. I truly believe that our Lord allowed me to experience a glimpse of when He said in the book of Revelation; “I wish you were either cold or hot”.(Rev 3:15) I personally believe that Jesus himself was not very far in another dimension I call the 2nd heaven.(2kings 6:17 & 2Corint 12:2) No one can stand on their feet if He appeared in this dimension in His glory.(Rev 1:17) That awesome Power and Authority I could sense all over my body. I don’t think very many people in that church noticed, except a visiting preacher that kept trying to dry his eyes too. That preacher spoke that day about how he thought he was in the will of God, but soon found himself on a death bed, then he cried out, “Lord what do you want me to do?” He said later he was healed and now he knows where the Lord will use him. Other things happened that day before the church service was over, which I will skip because it may require another full page of text and is not the main focus of this particular blog.
Someone will probably ask, why are you sharing this story? I would respond with; there are so many people on social networking sites that probably believe that there is nothing wrong with calling themselves Christians and heavily involved with things and subjects that are not honoring Jesus and His commandments. Internet Sites that could be influenced by satanic roots and attached to this world system that opposes the truth that was given to us by God thru His Son. And if what’s on the internet is a barometer, just images what’s tolerated behind closed doors. We know that Jesus paid the cost for our sins, our sins in the past and the sins we will stumble with in the future, but to go over to the enemy’s camp(James 4:14) and serve him and try to keep your position with the Lord’s work, might not work.
Jesus left us here. He knew we would have temptations. He knew that the god of this world and his helpers would create things to entice us and try to get us to disobey Jesus. That’s why He advises us not to take the broad road and to take up our cross daily, to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and to love with all your heart the Lord your God. Think about it, if you were about to get married and most of the preparations were complete, you would not want your future husband or wife to spend the night over their old boyfriends or girlfriend’s house listening to love songs that excite the bodily senses. Like wise, come out from among them and go back to compel them to follow Jesus and keep praying for them. You want to be recognized as the wheat not the tares during the harvest time.
My advice to young people and people of all ages is this:
Take a close look at the music, the movies and the ‘hanging out’(2Corint 6:14) that you are allowing to enter into your spirit, that you are digesting, it could be a gateway for a slow-subtle-compromise of your relationship with Jesus. Don’t just listen to a song because it moves you, listen to the lyric, what is it suggesting to you? Is it suggesting something you should be chanting to Jesus instead of someone else for all eternity?(Eph5:19) Was that movie you love written by, at minimum, someone who believe there is a creator? Or was that movie written by someone that believes in witch craft or satanic rituals? Truly, there is a big danger in trying to have the best of both worlds. Choose today whom you will serve and cherish for all eternity! (Joshua 24:15)
If you only read the previous paragraph, you might say, ‘What a dull life for Christians’. Not so! Jesus promised joy to the fullest.(John 15:11) He promised eternal life without the curse of sin. He promised where He is we will be also-which is the ultimate hope-which fosters joy unspeakable. Listen brothers & sisters in the Lord, I’m not promoting staying at home and to stay away from all the evil in this world. I’m just praying that His church and His body (which are the believers around the world) would pledge their full allegiance to our Risen Lord so He can say with joy like a young man who’s proud of his new girl friend and he wants to tell every body…. ‘That’s my girl’. Even so Lord Jesus, ‘That’s my bride, the church’.(Rev 22:17)
By: Sou Sundoulos
Contributing blogger
Xpression of Faith... 