Has your conductor punched it yet?

Punched or Consumed?

I’ve heard a lot of Christians say that since they have accepted Jesus as their Savior and been baptized, they are assured a place in Heaven.   Is that true?  Can you take that one step and get a golden ticket to heaven?   No matter what you do later, no matter how much heartbreak or whatever laws you break?   Is that ticket to heaven still good?   Was it punched when you were baptized or were you simply issued a ticket that still needs to be collected, scrutinized by the conductor and punched before the train leaves the station?   Who stays on that railroad to heaven and who is put off? 

A common question is this:  “What about Hitler?”   He was a baptized Christian.  Is he in heaven now?   What about the priests that have admitted or been caught molesting children in their charge?   What about the ministers that even today are being accused of adultery with the wives of their congregation or even with a brother’s wife?

What about those in prison for murder that were baptized as children, or those that were highly regarded church-going citizens of the community before they did some heinous crime.   How about the murderer who was baptized a few days before his execution and appeared to be sincere about accepting Jesus?  What about those within the church that simply show up at Christmas and otherwise do nothing for Christ the rest of the year?   What about those who show up every Sunday and tithe and even teach Sunday School but then gossip to their neighbors about someone they know?  Do you know where the line is drawn between a punched paid-for ticket and a tattered wortless one that will be consumed along with its holder?

Most of us would say that Hitler, probably anyone that murders or molests children would certainly be put off the train and left behind.  Others will still cry out, even shout, that the only requirement is to accept Christ and be baptized.  Once in, forever in!  So what do you think?  Here are some thoughts to consider before you make up your mind.  It may be a hard lesson.

Receiving the Holy Spirit: The Samarians

You do receive a ticket good for boarding the train when you are baptized in the name of the Lord, but whether it is accepted depends on your heart and life – whether you are walking in the footsteps of Christ or not.  It is not prepaid and it is not punched for the final destination.   Why do I say that?  Read on before you reject it.

There is a prepaid, punched ticket:  It is issued by the Holy Spirit by a separate baptism.  There is the baptism by water which you can receive in church or in a nearby stream.  It is a formal baptism, but it may not be enough.  There is a second baptism that comes only through receipt of the Holy Spirit.  

For example, see Acts 8:12-24 in which Philip had already baptized a number of Samaritans into the name of the Lord, meaning they had declared an acceptance of Christ and been dunked in the water.   They had their ticket, however they had not received the Holy Spirit.  When Peter and John prayed that they would receive the Holy Spirit, they were so filled.  At that moment their ticket was punched.  

On the other hand, Simon had also been baptized by Phillip but did not receive the Holy Spirit.  He offered money to Peter and John, a bribe for them to also punch his ticket by the giving of the Holy Spirit.   Peter and John rebuked him by telling him that he had no part with God and told him “may your money perish with you.” 

Clearly, if Philip had issued the ticket to Simon by baptism with water and he had accepted the Lord, most of us would say he had a good and lasting ticket to Heaven.   But Peter said he would perish anyway.   Peter and John recognized by his actions, that he had not been baptized by the Holy Spirit.  The lesson here is that baptism by water and declaration of acceptance of Jesus is not enough to assure safe passage!  There is a place in the heart, a place in the soul that needs special attention.  Simon’s ticket needed further validation, one by the infilling given only by the Holy Spirit.

Can you be baptized by the Holy Spirit without baptism by water?

Well, yes.   Again, I think most of us would have said no!   But in hearing the message, the Good News, many become believers and receive the Holy Spirit at that moment.   Baptism by water may come later.  Read Acts 10:44-48.  The gentiles at Caesarea heard Peter’s message and were filled with the Holy Spirit and soon after were baptized in water by Peter.

Is the infilling of the Holy Spirit the same as baptism by the Holy Spirit? 

Yes.   Prior to Jesus first coming however, the Holy Spirit was vested only on certain special people, and, in fact, was sometimes removed.   But Jesus told his disciples that he would ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit to baptise them.   See John 14:26, then see Acts 1:4-5.  

What did Jesus Say about the need for the baptism by the Holy Spirit?  

The Holy Spirit was involved in the virgin birth of Jesus. See Luke 1:35.   The Holy Spirit baptized Jesus after John baptized him with water.  See Luke 3:21-22.   Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again with the Holy Spirit.  John 3:5-6.

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.  Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

There you go!   Baptism by both the water and the Spirit.   From the lips of Jesus.  Your ticket is issued upon receiving your baptism by water.  But it is worthless if you do not receive Baptism by the Holy Spirit, an infilling that lasts a lifetime.   Those that are baptized with water in the name of Jesus that later turn to crime or do not follow and actually serve God are subject to the judgement that may result in confiscation of their ticket and a toss off the train into the lake of fire.   Their hearts were never right, their souls were never filled with the right ingredient.  The Holy Spirit had not validated their ticket.   

The Holy Spirit baptism lasts a lifetime and is not given lightly and cannot be abused.  It is my guess that someone that has claimed to have been “born again” or appeared to have received the Holy Spirit and later committed some crime was somehow fooling us and even themselves.   I don’t believe the Holy Spirit makes those kinds of mistakes. 

How do you know you have received this infilling of the Holy Spirit?  

You probably will not know until you meet the conductor and receive His judgement.   There is a certain peace that prevails and many people obviously have received it.   However, although I think I’ve received it, and I’ve even spoken in tongues (only once),  I cannot say for sure – did I just will it on myself?  Fooling myself?  

I am not my own judge.  I’m afraid I don’t measure up.   I know I do the wrong things, say hurtful things, make judgements, do selfish things and things to make people notice me.  I know I don’t pray enough, don’t read the bible enough and sometimes make up excuses to not go to church when I should.   I gossip and tell white lies, and do things I’m not proud of.   So I don’t know whether I’ll be “up there” with you or not.  Pray for me.

 Whatever the verdict, I accept it.  Only God holds the keys to the kingdom.  He is Sovern. It is His call, not mine.   I’m doing the best I can and if that is not good enough, I deserve to burn with the worst of them.

Thank God for God’s gift of Grace and for His Son, sent to teach us His ways and to give us the gift of salvation through his death and through the Holy Spirit.  

Are you doing the best you can?  What have you done for God lately?  What is the condition of your ticket?   Will Jesus  open the book,  look at you, check your ticket and declare “I don’t know you!”, or will your life since baptism prove good enough?  Let’s pray it is the latter.   If you are afraid you don’t measure up, please don’t panic.  Go to your church and ask for guidence on how to get on the path God wants you to be on.

Grace and Peace,

Oldtimer

We visited every Sunday afternoon and knocked on doors.   After about six months we were running 35 – 50 (members) so we decided to build (a new church).  

James was still driving to Nashville to school two days a week and working at a service station until closing time at night.   We moved chairs into our living room and also the piano and pulpit, and had Church.

One Sunday morning God was so real even while James was bringing women and children in for Church I knew something was about to happen.   

After he preached, seven of the young people knelt by their chair and gave their hearts to Jesus.  Back then we had shouting and that morning I think everyone knew God and His Holy Spirit had visited. People began to give anything God lay on their hearts.

After we had just the frame work up and it was the first of the month, we had no money to pay bills. 

This Saturday night he was so burdened he couldn=t sleep, so at midnight he went out to the corner of the hull of the church, he calls it, and fell on his knees before God and prayed.  

This is his prayer:  He said, ALord I know you sent me here and your word says you will supply all my need,@ and he trusted Him to do it.

About 5 O=clock that same Sunday morning (there was) a knock on the door and we both answered.  A man friend from Nashville came in.  We ate breakfast and visited a while. 

When he started to leave he gave James a check for $40.  Just enough to pay Monday morning bills.

James saw him at school one day the next week and asked him why he did it.  Malcolm North said, AGod woke me up and told me to do it and that’s all I knew to do.@  

I could tell you a lot of ways God has helped us.    

We visited Portland Church last summer.  We had 202 (attending in a) nice larger church.  The seven young people who prayed through that Sunday in the parsonage are still true to God and workers in the Church.  

Next time I write I=d like to tell you why I think God moved us in two years to Mississippi.@

Amyrae Lucius

God heard James= prayer and thought enough about it to wake up someone thirty miles away and tell him to get up and take some money to him.

Malcolm had to leave before four AM to get there by five, but he heard the message clear enough that he obeyed immediately and without question.  That is all God wants any of us to do.  

I never did get the story of why God moved them to Mississippi.   They are all gone to the Lord now.

Oldtimer

 You have had a remarkably vivid experience that you think might be a vision, but wait… what if it was just a dream?  How do you tell the difference?

For me it was straight-forward.  Over the first 60 years of my life I have had countless dreams.  Some nightmares, some daydreams, even lucid dreams.   But I knew they were dreams.   You could use the analogy of a duck … if it looks like a …. well, you know that story.   Everyone has had dreams and maybe a few have been frightening and some have been beautiful and rewarding, but you knew it was a dream.  

When I had my first vision, it was instantly recognized as a vision, even while it was in progress.  Lots of things were different.   

Observer not participant  

I have been an active participant in all the dreams and nightmares I can recall.   In my visions, with only a couple of exceptions, I was only an observer.   I watched things happen, but I did take part in what was going on.   The visions that were exceptions were so remarkable that no one that had one could ever mistake it for a dream.  God shows you things, teaches you things, tells you things.   Most of the time, there is nothing He expects you to do but watch and learn.

Awake not asleep 

 I was awake and aware of my surroundings during the visions.  I heard the air conditioner or the heating system come on, I was aware that I was awake and watching something important.   I had independent thoughts about what I saw and was trying to be careful not to “lose” and was keenly interested in what I was seeing.

Visions don’t fade, dreams do 

Of the perhaps thousands of dreams I’ve had over the 70 years I’ve been alive, I can recall only a few nightmares.  Most of my dreams were faded out and gone by the time I was fully awake.  Seldom does any detail of a dream last more than a few hours.   The visions don’t fade, apparently never.   Every detail of the visions can be replayed in color in exact sequence, in slow or fast motion every time I think of it.    The only exceptions are where I said “no” once and lost the details of part of that vision and where I heard the song of the 4 horsemen and could not learn it.  Apparently I was not qualified to learn it.

Apparently when God gives you a vision, it is intended to stick with you.  Forever.

Visions have basis in God’s Word – the Bible 

I’ve been able to locate bible verses to support each vision that I’ve had.  I’ve quoted them as part of each of the visions I’ve recorded here.  I doubt that many dreams are biblically related.

Visions teach, dreams don’t

I’ve discovered something new in each new vision.   Often there is a different interpretation from what I had thought was true, or some new knowledge that is biblically supported, but still different from what I had understood in my internal interpretation.   If the visions were self-induced from my predisposition in belief of God, you would think the vision would support what I already thought I knew.   Instead, I’ve been very surprised at some of the things I’ve learned.  Unexpected interpretations come forward that make perfect sense in hindsight.

Thoughts pop into your head

Many times explanitory or declaritive thoughts just popped into my head.   I saw something and then an explanitory thought of a word or two just rolled through my head.  “This is God”  “God is in me”  “We are living in God”  These were always in my own voice except for the time of the euolgy.

Visions are “Super Vivid”

Visions are crystal clear.   Most of mine have been in vivid color, but even the black and white ones are super vivid as I play them over again and again in my mind.   God has a way of getting your attention, make no mistake about it.

You “keep your cool” during visions  

In summary, let me say that anyone that has had a vision will know it instantly, from the very beginning and most certainly will take it calmly.   I could be sitting in my chair one instant and standing outside looking at the stars the next, yet not be the least surprised.   Just watching transfixed at the events taking place.   Never mind that I’m soaring into Heaven or standing over the earth or being observed by dark people.   There were two notable exceptions.  One was when I was discovered not having a 666 on my forehead as the bibles were being purged by Satan’s followers, and the other when the words of prophesy were being shouted at me about the deaths of missionaries.  

You will know you have had a vision when you have one.

 Oldtimer

It is a tough problem to overcome.   A child afraid to ask their parent for some little thing because they are afraid their mom or dad will say “No.”   Now as an adult that won’t ask their Father God for some major thing that affects their lives because they are afraid of the answer.  Perhaps they have seen a few too many “No” answers in their lives already – either to themselves, to friends or other family members.    A single disappointment can override a lifetime of “Yes” answers they did not pay a lot of attention to.  There are some truths that this person needs to know.

Truths You Need to Know 

Here are the truths you need to know:

Jesus told us how to pray

Pray in God’s revealed will

God loves you

God cares for you

God hears you

Don’t make statements of unbelief

Wait

Be Persistant

Don’t blame yourself

Don’t blame God

What about predestination?

Jesus told us how to pray. Matthew 6:9,10 This, then, is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Pray in God’s revealed will.  In my previous post, I gave 10 specific things that the Bible tells us is in God’s Will.   Since the most often prayed for thing is healing, I’ll tell you that Jesus gave the gift of healing to all believers (Mark 16:17-18). He also said we could move our mountains (Mark 11:23-25). These are in God’s revealed will. You can safely pray for anything in God’s revealed will, including healing, and not be afraid!

God loves you. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

God cares for you, so don’t worry. God is actually and truly your Father in Heaven (Matthew 6:9-13) who loves and cares for you. Matthew 6:25-34 Therefore do not worry about your life…Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?…and your heavenly Father knows that you need them (certain necessities). But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

God hears you. God has good hearing! 1 John 5:14,15 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us-whatever we ask-we know that we have what we asked of him.

Don’t make statements of unbelief. “If it is God’s will, I will be healed” is a statement of unbelief because he has already said that it is in his will. Believe him, God does not lie. (The “if” word is a no-no.) You can safely pray that “your will, not mine be done”, and expect that God’s will for your healing will be done because he loves and cares for you, his earthly child.

Wait – What if healing doesn’t happen (immediately)? Above all, don’t lose faith! Healing has begun, but you don’t see it yet, and you don’t understand God’s plan for your healing! Don’t expect an instantaneous cure, even though we acknowledge that with God, all things are possible.  Remember I said that God seems to like “quiet miracles“.

You must understand that some problems take time to resolve because even diseases are required to work within the rules set up by God for both living and dying. Various diseases do work within God’s will, but fortunately diseases do not have our privilege to pray and to praise God, and, in addition, God has given us dominion over all creatures (Genesis 1:28). His promise to heal is in agreement with his gift to us of dominion over all creatures (including disease). Healing does begin when you pray in faith.

Be Persistant.  God’s plan and timetable are not always our plan and timetable, and are not always within our understanding. Be persistent (Luke 11:8 , also 18:1-8) and always be faithful to God. He heard you the first time, but don’t be discouraged! Be persistent, be remindful, be thankful, and know that without prayer, your condition at this moment might well have been much worse!

What if God’s final answer is “No”?

Don’t blame yourself  Don’t blame yourself if the answer is No.   You have done nothing wrong by praying.  It was not a selfish act to ask for God’s will to be done or to make promises He knows you can’t keep or to ask for personal or family healing – He expects you to.  Nothing you did or didn’t do could affect the outcome if God’s final answer is no. 

Dont blame God either.  Although I always assert that “God is in Control,” I don’t ever blame God.  I accept His will.  Always.  Time will come soon enough for all of us to reach the understanding as to Why God’s will was not the same as ours.  God is in Control, but it does not mean that He chose to hurt you or chose to allow a family member to die without some underlying reason.   I like to think of it this way:   Our life on earth is very very short compared to the infinity that lies ahead.   Christians went to their deaths willingly in those early days with the full faith that they would be joining God soon.   We all die and the few years, as we see them cut short, is nothing – zero, compared to infinity.   There is another comforting factor that came from my visions – we are already with God in a timeless heaven.  Not just us but our ancestors and our descendants as well.

What about predestination? Predestination is a theology that says that God finished His creation in one week and every wheel and every atom and every thought was conceived and planned out to the most infinate detail during that time, forever into the future.  My own church, Presbyterian, believes in predestination, and will bring up double and triple predestianation if necessary to explain things.  To say that is to say that God is an absentee from our current world and is incapable of making changes that He has already predetermined.   Hogwash.  God can do whatever He chooses at any time.    Rewrite history, rewrite present, rewrite future – easy for the creator of the entire universe.  If He chose the future, He can certainly change it.  God is always in control.

I can certify that through my own experience that predestination is a Theology invented by theologians, not God.  The theologian’s job is to build a belief system. God sent the Holy Spirit to help us overcome that burden in our life.   God can change His mind whenever He wants to.  It is the reason that prayer works.

Thank you, God. 

Oldtimer

What is the key to successful prayer? You must understand that when you pray and believe, then your prayer and belief must be scriptural (2 Peter 1:20,21). Ask and believe and receive what God has clearly promised in his word!  Those who have faith can have whatever they ask for without doubting, when it is in agreement with God’s will and plan for them.

What is God’s will? To discover God’s will in prayer, accept his revealed will through scripture! Where God has made his will clear through His Word, you can accept it. Where he has not made his will clear, then pray like Christ: “Not my will but thine be done.”

Nine things you can pray for that are scripturally in God’s will:

1) Pray to receive the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13)
2) Pray for believers to spread the Gospel (Luke 10:2)
3) Pray for other believers (Luke 22:32, John 17:20)
4) Pray for church officials (Acts 12:5)
5) Pray for those in authority (1 Timothy 2:2)
6) Pray for forgiveness of others (Matthew 5:44)
7) Pray that you will be judged worthy (Luke 21:36)
8 ) Pray for unity of all believers (John 17:21)
9) Pray for sick to be healed (James 5:16, Mark 16:15-18)

These are a few of the scriptural messages that are clearly in God’s will. There are many others. God promised you power to move mountains (Mark 11:23-25), but you must be sure to move the ones he wants moved. You will know what he wants moved if scriptural or if God’s words abide in you (John 15:7). God doesn’t give demonstrations just for our special entertainment!

1 John 5:14,15 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us-whatever we ask-we know that we have what we asked of him.

Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 

2 Cor 1:21-22 (NIV) 

It was early Sunday, May 18, 1997.  It was shortly after midnight when I finished my goodnight prayer.   Later  today would be our church=s day which we celebrate as Pentecost Sunday.   

I was praying for the healing service and for several people on my prayer list.  I had started down our church=s prayer covenant which covers the objectives of the church, the pastors, other leaders and their families.   It was a prayer covenant that we had developed for the church.  A member in our healing group had suggested that we needed one to combat spiritual warfare.  He was concerned that our rapid growth would draw the attention of Satan and we would begin to be harassed by him.  The vision started with Jesus.

Jesus had been standing there, but now He reached forward with both hands with his arms outstretched and with palms down but with the fingers tipped upward so that I could see his palms.  There were two people kneeling before him with their backs to me.

He placed his hands on the two heads.  I could only see their heads from the back and slightly from their right side.  His fingers were together as he rested them on the heads, but cupped slightly over the heads.

I then began to see several other people, one at a time, but only from just below the mouth downward, and only as low as the lower part of the neck.   I don’t know who they were or why I only saw part of them, but I have the remembrance of more detail and also of flesh tones so this portion was in color. 

One was a woman, who appeared to be older, and another I decided was a man.  I decided these were people that were being healed.   The vision ended after several people came forward for healing.

I took this vision as a very positive sign.   Now we were going into a healing service with the very power of Jesus blessing us! 

Tongues from the Holy Spirit 

The vision was very short and I began to pray again.  Suddenly, I began to pray out loud and I no longer knew what I was saying!  It started as only a new syllable and then a word, and a few seconds later there was a stream of words that were in an unknown language!

As I continued to pray, I noticed a slightly blue silhouette of a figure clearly outlined in front of me, facing the same way that I was.  This figure was like a representation you see in a medical encyclopedia – a depiction of the nervous system.  No clothes, no hair, no apparent skin, but a man anyway outlined by ribbons of blue fire along the lines of the nervous system.

He was on his knees with arms stretched up to the Heavens, as if pleading to God.   Could the Holy Spirit in me be the very wiring of my nervous system?   A vast array of electrical networks that fire up my body?  I suspect that it was not; this was simply how the Holy Spirit chose to show Himself to me.

I don=t know any more about this figure, as I never saw Him again, but my guess was that I was speaking in tongues with the help of the Holy Spirit.   I never spoke in tounges again, and I’ve never seen the Holy Spirit represented to me again.

As I prepare this text for this Extraordianary Visions article, I’ve decided to begin a small series on the Holy Spirit as depicted in God’s word, the  Bible.   Maybe we can find out a little more about Him.  As the third person of God, He deserves more respect than most of us have given to date.

Oldtimer

There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that He saw. Then I would look around and try to figure out just where He was.  Maybe in that corner, No!  Probably next to the ceiling in that other corner.  Got a throne up there.   Sitting and watching.  Watching.  Writing things down.  Can he see through walls?  Can I hide in the closet?   Mom said He was everywhere.  Under the bed?  He can’t be everywhere for everybody can He?  Maybe he was watching that mean kid up the block, and didn’t see me.   No, Mom said he was everywhere, and I believe that.

Where was He when  you thought about Him?  Maybe in prayer, for example?  We always bow our head and think about Him “up there”.   Listening.   Deciding what to do about our silly request for a new book or dress or pair of shoes, or more seriously about Aunt Emily, who was sick.  

The Vision of “God Partially Revealed“ gave me an insight into not only who God was, but where he was.   I had always heard that “God is in You” and “You are in God” but I thought that was just figures of speach, taken from old bible verses. 

The vision taught me that we are actually living within God like a sponge lives in water.  Not just us, but the entire universe is immersed in the living waters of God.   That means He is not just here or there or in that corner or the other.  He occupies every part of our world as if our world was immersed like a tiny round sponge in a giant tank of water.  We are in God at all times, wherever we are, wherever we go.  We are living in God and He is always touching us and knowing what we are up to.   We are living like a tiny sponge in a vast ocean of God.   Without Him, we shrivel up and die.  Like a sponge without water.

The vision also taught me that God flows through our world as if we were a thin gas.  We are transparent to His being.  Not that He can’t see us, just that He is not affected by material things in this world – passes right through.  And since we are living in Him, He is always passing through us – always in us.  

Not just our world, but you and I and all our planets and the rest of the universe.   As we float in God’s spirit, so His spirit flows through us.  Much like a sponge immersed in water, the water also flows through the sponge.  So He is indeed in us and we are indeed in Him, just as you have heard it quoted from the Bible.  

It also means that everyone in the world is connected together through God.  If you pray for me, God is in you and in me at the same instant, much like two sponges on the opposite sides of a vast ocean, both immersed in the same water from the same ocean.  Only in this case God is taking your prayer into consideration as he cradles me in His arms elsewhere.  We are always connected to God and thus to each other through Him.

 So next time, don’t worry about where He is, ’cause He is truly everywhere.   And we are in Him just as surely as He is in us.   And don’t worry about how far away the object of your prayer is, because God is so vast that He spans everything in this universe at one time.  You are intimently linked to the object of your prayer through the vastness of God. 

Grace and Peace,

Oldtimer

.

One of these links led me to a devout atheist whose reader pointed to my vision “God Partially Revealed”  in response to that author’s comment that “If God created the Universe, then He must be outside of it.  That proves that God doesn’t exist because nothing can be outside of the Universe since the Universe by definition includes everything.”  (As an aside, I’ve noticed that atheists are pretty careful to use upper case G for God and H for He – Just in case?).   The atheist considered his statement pretty profound and unanswerable by believers.   Anyway, the comment by the atheist’s reader brought me a number of readers and no ugly comments, so I was appreciative.

The vision, “God Partially Revealed” and the following column “Where is God? Who What Where How?” explain it (to me) pretty well, but I thought I would talk about the atheist’s comment a little here. 

The vision clearly shows that God is everywhere at once since the entire Universe is within Him and His being filters through every atom of the Universe.   Does the atheist have a point that God could not have created the Universe because to do so would put Him outside of the Universe?   The implication is that He can’t be outside of something that includes everything, therefore our belief must be false. 

An easy answer is to say “He can do anything He wants to do.”   The latter implies that He can make a stone He can’t lift and then decide to do it anyway.  I agree with that.  Nothing we can write or say or dredge up in literature or the Bible can put any kind of limit of what God can do.  Nothing.   All powerful, He fuels the Universe.

Nor can my feeble interpretation of my visions give any real explanation or proof of what God is or can do or how He operates.   He is always in charge and can do or not do as He pleases.   He defines truth and good.  I would not try to impose my belief on you, gentle reader, nor would I want you to try to change me.   What I can do is report what I have seen and what I derived from it. 

My real answer is at the bottom, but I want to say first that God did create the Universe in what physicists call a “big bang” and so he predates the Universe and now the Universe resides in Him.   The problem for the atheist is a lack of understanding of who and what God is and where He resides.   He is timeless and so is heaven and so are our souls as explained to me in the vision of Crossing Over – Timeless Heaven.  

Taken together the two visions, “God Partially Revealed” and “Crossing Over – Timeless Heaven” reveal to me that God’s territory is a timeless place that we living cannot see, cannot detect, cannot fathom until we cross over at our earthly death.   It is like a parallel Universe, one that is both outside our own and within it at the same time. 

Unwittingly, physicists are talking more and more about multiple universes and the current fad of “string theory” lead them to believe that these parallel universes exist.  They have already universally adopted the “big bang” theory which mimics the Biblical version that God created everything out of nothing and hope the string theory or M theory or some other deriviative will take them to the “theory of everything”.

How strange for the physicists, but we knew about at least one other Universe all along, except we thought Heaven was ”up there” maybe in the clouds.   Believers everywhere believe there is a heaven and that God is there and we will go there when we die.   My visions reveal that God is everywhere and when we say God is timeless, we mean it and it is a fact.  When we say He knew us from the beginning, He actually did because we were there too as part of our timeless souls in Heaven.    Heaven is not “up there” but is actually a timeless place parallel to ours.  It is all around us and we can’t detect it, but it is real. 

So God can create the Universe – our Universe – from outside of it and be outside of it even now but inside of it as well.   Why?  Because His Universe is the Universe of Heaven which is different from ours and is timeless, much like the photons in my physics blog “Quantum Weirdness“.  (Quantum Weirdness is based entirely on insights and words of knowledge gained from my visions but explained in a purely scientific way).    Any reader with a scientific interest may want to read the “Does Time Exist?” column there after reading the Changing Over – Timeless Heaven and also “Are you and I already in Heaven?” columns here.

Confused?   Not as confused as the atheist’s comment. 

My answer to the atheist’s comment:

God’s universe and our Universe are two different universes so He can be both outside of this Universe and inside of it.   Just the same, God is our Universe’s creator and He is in possession and control of it.   All we know of His other universe, the one we call Heaven, is what the Bible tells us and what God’s gift of visions to ordinary people like me tell us.  

Grace and Peace,

Oldtimer

The inhabitants of that other universe just don’t have the same ability that we have to change anything in our universe (the one we live in now) as they go along.  But they can visit our past, our present, and our future at will.   That place is called Heaven by us, and the only “catch” as we would characterize it is that everyone is already dead, risen again and with the Father.   You, I, everyone we know, all our individual ancestors and all our children, and all their descendants are already there.   And we are still stuck here.  Thankfully, it is temporary and we will then cross over the veil into that other universe – to Heaven.

This concept is all based on one of the most interesting visions I’ve had, a revelation on the nature of Heaven and of our spirits.  It is the brief one the evening after my father died.   I called it the Vision of Crossing Over – Timeless Heaven. In it a voice, presumably from an angel, told me this about my father who had died earlier in the day:

“Take comfort!  The Spirit and Heaven, like God, are timeless and have no beginning and no end.  Your father has not gone to the present Heaven, but to the future Heaven!   You and your descendants, as well as your ancestors, are all there to greet him!”

Do you understand what that really means?   Most of us can fathom the concept that “God is timeless” – capable of moving back and forth in time, that “He knew us from the beginning” and planned and “created us from the first day of creation”.   In other words, timelessness is a special attribute that we associate with God.   Yet when we hear that God has known us from the beginning of creation, we just take it for granted that He is able to do that.   He planned us and when we would be born, live and die.   Now the timeless spirit word from the angel tells us that we were actually present at the beginning too – the spirit is “timeless and have no beginning and no end” – confirmation of what we have been told.

The voice told me that our spirit and the Heaven that we go to are both timeless.   A timeless heaven and a timeless spirit (our spirit) resolves the conflict between the idea of Revelations 20 whereby we are all resurrected together and the idea that we hope is true – that we are taken immediately to Heaven.  If Heaven and our spirits are timeless, then we both go immediately (one at a time) and at the same instant arrive together.   Jesus told the criminal on the cross: 

…”Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” Luke 23:43

This criminal went straight to Heaven, but we thought perhaps it was a special case.  This timeless Heaven, timeless spirit revelation resolves the quandary I hear all the time.   “I’m sure that my Mother is in heaven, but I’ve also been told that we rise together at the end of 1000 years – at the end times.   When do we go?  Is she there already or not?”

They both are true, because in Heaven all times are the same time.   She dies well before you, rises immediately (at the instant of death) at the end times and is greeted by you and all your ancestors and your descendants who also arise at that same instant.   She can look down on you at any time she chooses, and so can you. 

What a concept!  What a revelation!    Heaven’s inhabitants can visit any of our natural times at any time their spiritual bodies wish.   We arrive together but it is instantaneous upon our death, which may be many years apart as we measure it, but is the same instant as God, Heaven, and the Spirit measure it.

In this parallel universe of a timeless Heaven, we can move back and forth in time, visit with ancestors and visit situations with our descendants.  We likely won’t be concerned with what is happening because we already know the outcome and are already with whoever we were visiting with.   I can’t see any reason for this visiting except as a chance to smile and say:  “Now look how worried you were!  And now you know it was all for nothing!” or just to review and witness how our families developed.

Ever had a déjà vu moment?  The experience of déjà vu seems to be very common; in formal studies 70% of people report having experienced it at least once.   Déjà vu has been described as “remembering the future.”   Perhaps our own spirit, already in Heaven, has given us a quick glimpse of this moment and we did not realize it.   Ever had an inspiration that seemed to come out of the blue?   An idea, a solution, a thought that you did not understand how it popped into your head?   Perhaps an ancestor, descendant, or self was present.

Parallel universe – or Heaven!  What do you think?  I think Heaven is all around us, not just “up there”!

For the scientists and physicists:

Those of you with a scientific curiosity and mind may want to check out how I’ve presented this timeless concept to the physics world:   Does time exist?  What I’m really talking about there is the realm of photons – light.  It was inspired by the vision mentioned above.   God is the light, Jesus is the light of the world.   If this parallel universe we call Heaven is timeless, perhaps it exists in the same universe that photons – light – does.   It makes sense to me.  It tells me where Heaven really is, not necessarily up there, but all around us – we just can’t see it – yet!  This other presentation is purely scientific.  You and I know the rest of the story.

Yes, science and religion can co-exist.  

Oldtimer

Tuesday, December 31, 1997 Last day of year

It was about 3:00 A.M. on Tuesday morning and I had spent considerable time on the computer.   After shutting it down, I had gone directly to bed, and prayed briefly after I laid down.

The Giant Angel?

Soon after my prayers were ended, I began to notice something moving in the darkness of my closed eyes. It was much like a giant man standing very close, leaning somewhat to the right.

He was too big and too close to see him completely, and not well defined in the darkness. I wasn’t exactly sure of what I saw as I tried to look him up and down.

The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth.  Rev 9:1-3 (NIV)

I don’t know if this was an actual angel.  If it was, he was massive, with huge muscular arms, bulging with muscles all over the shoulders, neck and anywhere you looked. I am not certain if he had wings or not, because this was a very dark image highlighted only around the edges. However, I had the distinct impressions that there were wings.  I did not see or hear a trumpet.

Marching Troops.

They had tails and stings like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. Rev 9:10 (NIV)

The scene changed abruptly to one in which there was a sort of broad roadway filled with marching figures. I could not hear their footsteps, but they were all swaying exactly in unison as they marched forward toward me.

These figures were pitch-black silhouettes against a lighter gray background of the road and a slightly lighter gray skyline. The heads of the figures had the outline similar to the “Darth Vader” of the movies.

They were all uniform in size and uniform in their outline, and were marching in a lock step, swaying very noticeably as they moved, almost an exaggerated motion.

These troops had canisters and hoses attached to their backs, and I had the impression that these were chemical weapons.

Were these chemical weapons with hoses running from the backs the locusts with stinging tails that had the power to torment people for 5 months that John saw as in Rev 5:10 above?

The Ward.

They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.  Rev 9:5-6 (NIV)

Soon the scene changed to a massive room that was evidently a makeshift hospital ward. There was pandemonium as people dressed in blue-green uniforms were being carried into the ward in huge numbers. Soon every cot was filled with people and the aisles were filled also. There was virtually standing room only as people were being attended to by those few standing.

The entire scene was simply one of confusion. People were being brought in on stretchers at first and moved to beds/cots, and as the place filled up, they simply moved around as if looking for an empty place, finally setting them down on the floor.

My entire field of view was filled with these people, some standing, some lying down in rows that were the original beds, some lying down in the spaces between the rows.

The Dragon.

Men worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?” The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months. He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. Rev 13:4-7 (NIV)

The ward room disappeared and was replaced by a large, and well-defined silhouette of a dragon.

This dragon first appeared as a smaller red splash in my field of view, perhaps the size of a penny at arms length, that kept moving around. As I looked, the outline of the dragon’s head formed around the red splash. The dragon’s mouth was open and the red area became the inside of the mouth. I could see the full outline of the dragon’s body and tail as it stood almost erect.

As I continued to look at the dragon, the red area continued to move and then I realized that the red area was the dragon’s tongue and the tongue was shaped like a miniature red dragon, complete with head and body, but the tail of the smaller red dragon was attached inside the mouth of the larger dark dragon, apparently the root of the tongue.   The dragon marched toward me and was quite large, covering the entire road, prancing on its hind legs and tail, swinging its massive head from one side of the road to the other.   The road was lined with what appeared to be worshipers.

The vision ended at that point.

I did not write this down until nearly 6PM of the following night. I added this comment because I can still see the images very clearly after sleeping all night and being active all day. Like my other visions, I have not lost any of the details as I normally would, had I been dreaming.   

Note: after 10 years the visions are still as strong as ever. 

It occurs to me that the Dragon had multiple heads, but not heads sprouting out of necks connected together as you would expect.  The heads were actually heads within heads as the mouth of each dragon had a tongue shaped like another dragon, and that smaller dragon had a mouth with a tongue also shaped like a dragon. I wonder if this is the way John also saw them.

In addition to the visions that I had before I went to sleep, I also had a dream during the night in which I repeatedly saw two names. Although I woke up once and almost wrote the names down, I decided to wait until morning. I did not remember the names, nor their significance when I woke up, but the earlier vision remained crystal clear and is clear today.

Now almost a year later, as I review this vision in my mind, the entire vision is clear, but the separate dream is completely gone – I don’t remember the dream at all.  And again 9 and 1/2 years later, it is still vivid. 

These have been the visions of one ordinary person.  The visions stopped as suddenly as they started.   There have been a few other visions that I’ve not posted for one reason or another. 

Over the years I’ve collected a number of visions that others have received, all members of my own church or friends.   If you ask around, you will be suprised at how many ordinary people that you know will admit to have had a vision.   I’ll revisit my freinds and post here any that they say that I can.

I plan now to post some insights similar to the “Does God Change His Mind?”  that I’ve derived from these visions.  I will also post any visions that appear genuine that my readers send in.

 Thank you for visiting my site.   If you are a new reader, I suggest you go back to my earliest posts and start from there.   These are all true visions, nothing made up.  Each was disclosed to my pastor the day after they occurred.  

Grace and Peace,

Oldtimer

James A. Tabb

Marietta, Ga

All rights reserved