Angels and Heaven

(Gen 18:1, Gen. 32:24-30, Isaiah 6:1-4, Luke 1:19, 26)

The Bible is the most unique book available to mankind.  It is one of God’s means of revealing Himself to us.  Sadly, it has been misused, abused, and ignored.  When read with humility and an open hungry heart, the Holy Spirit can speak to us through it.  Truth is simple and profound.  In that book we read of the lives of many.  I wonder if anyone has counted the total number of individuals identified by name.  Many we honor and want to emulate.  Others we see in dishonor.  We read of spiritual experiences and heavenly encounters,  While some entertained angels unaware of their identity, others knew full well who came to them.

I could comment on controversies of what God uses but our time is worth more than that.  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  If at the end of this age, all the graves will open and every eye will see Jesus Christ, Lord of all, in His glory, why would we doubt He could raise the dead today as He wills?  The Lord is not flippant or capricious.  He has clear intent in all He does.  Reading through John 4, after His work in Samaria, Jesus returns to Galilee and is now received because of the miracles.  As a prophet He was not received but when He does the miracles He is welcomed.  Some things to ponder there.

In my early years as a believer, I recall a time in prayer that I was aware of spiritual presence in the room.  I knew they were angels.  Question if you choose but I knew.  I was fearful of seeing them and I saw nothing.  More recently, with much of my fear of heavenly realities diminished, I have seen and spoken with angels.  Some of it was very unusual and I could say, strange.  Many years before I had read a book, Visions Beyond the Veil, written by H.A. Baker.  He is the grandfather of Roland Baker who is married to Heidi.  They minister under Iris Ministries.  I have very deep appreciation for them.  Grandfather’s book records visions seen by Chinese orphans.  H.A. and his wife cared for these as missionaries in the 1930’s.  Without ever hearing of the visions John had on Patmos, these children were seeing the very same scenes.  The Spirit opens spiritual eyes as He wills.

As we would hear what the Spirit speaks, our eyes will be opened wider.  It will cause us to earnestly desire experience with the Lord.  We are ever in the school of the Spirit.  We may attend schools, gain certifications and degrees but it is the Spirit of Christ that will lead us into all truth.  The orphan children in China received something that no one was expecting.  So it is with the Spirit.  He will lead us into circumstances that will cause us to grow.  Awareness of the heavenly when rightly received alongside sound doctrine, causes our spirit to grow.  I have considered and written before concerning John, the son of Zebedee.  He is a man like us but now, in glory with the Lord, no longer like us in the flesh.  He went through many troubles and adventures before Patmos and the revelation of Christ he received there.  The Lord prepared Him and it is preserved for us to digest and believe.

May we know our place seated with Christ in the heavenly realm, the place He dwells.  That is what it means to be in the Spirit.  We can know this on a continual basis while times of focus are essential for a spiritual walk.  In the first century, the presence of Christ, parousia in Greek, was not about a future event but a present reality.  And so it has been with many through history and today.  The day now is that we worship the Lord in Spirit and in truth.  Or are we following empty tradition and simply mouthing words?  We can appreciate the shadows, traditions which had value but our brother Paul said he considered all as stuff to be left behind and he pressed on to know Christ and reach a better resurrection.  He ran into man and his kingdom in the extreme of Nero.  May we His people desire no other kingdom.  No king exists but Jesus Christ and only His kingdom will stand.  Every earthly institution will pass away.  May we set our affection on things above and experience being seated with Christ Jesus there.

Wellsprings

(John 4:14, Gen. 24, Gen. 26, John 7:37, 38)

I have recently heard a man exhorting us to be digging wells of revival.  I understand that message.  I am again grateful for understanding I received through the Lord’s servants years ago concerning digging wells of spiritual life.  If we look at the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we see a theme of wells and water. The referenced chapters in Genesis are rich in teaching this.  It all speaks of the Spirit and our hunger for more of Christ.

Many of us have dug our well.  We have begun at the place where all must begin.  We have believed Jesus Christ came from God.  Hunger is part of who we are as created by God, in love.  He created us to long for Him.  He longs for us.  As I looked at Genesis 26 and John 14, I could see the repeated theme of the Lord seeking and finding His bride.  First look at Abraham’s servant seeking a wife for his son Isaac.  Do you hear the Holy Spirit brooding over the earth today seeking for a heart, and hearts, that are ready to belong to Him?  The servant goes to the place where the women, the churches we might say, go for water.  How much of our activity is motivated by spiritual thirst?  Now Rebekah was doing what she did every day.  She did not know God was about to turn her life in a whole new direction.

And Jesus is moved by the Spirit to pass through Samaria.  It is the place of spiritual mixture.  Rejected by the pride and arrogance of the Pharisees, those who are of Judah and religiously pure in their own eyes, the Samaritans began to worship in their own mountain.  While we can trace this back to the division of the kingdom after Solomon, it goes back farther.  Jesus met the woman at the well which was known as Jacob’s.  Of all the people the Spirit would have singled out, here is a woman who has had failed relationships and is something of an outcast.  She comes to the well all alone.  She had no idea that morning how her life would flip.

Jesus plainly reveals Himself to her.  That is not His typical way.  But no encounter with Jesus is typical.  He is always new, always fresh, always right on target for the situation and person.  The manna was fresh every morning and you had to gather it every day.  It would spoil if you try to save it.  And He is the living water He offers to the woman.  Of the water He says she will never thirst again.  She had known several men.  None satisfied.  Here was a man who was leading her to another level, another place.  He was offering the Spirit.  He, the Spirit, is the well springing up to eternal life.  That life is knowing Him, growing in grace and the knowledge of Christ.  Jesus tells this dear woman that it will become in her a fountain springing up to eternal life.

This is for each of us who believe.  Receive the Spirit who has come to lead us into all truth.  He is in us to reveal Christ in and through us.  He is like the mountain spring that never dries up.  We cannot run out of Him.  Be being filled up 24/7 with Him and let Him overflow wherever you are, whatever you are doing.  His glory and presence can touch washing the dishes or folding the laundry.  And it can touch your mouth as you speak of Christ Jesus to a thirsty soul.  Or you may just say, “God bless you.”  Consider Rebekah and Abraham’s servant at the well.  Her heart, her servant nature to water even the camels that brought this stranger to her neighborhood. opens the door to her greatest adventure.

More than that is going on at the well.  Proposals and marriage go on at the well.  Are you married to Him?  Are you one Spirit with Him?  The Samaritan woman begins a journey with Jesus that does not end that day.  It would not surprise me if she made it to the upper room.  I do not know this but who were among the 120?  We only know a few names.  At that day, the windows of heaven were opened.  Today, we pray that they be opened.  I understand that prayer but I tell you, it is for us to believe and receive, and continue on.  When we are dry, we are to stir up the gift of God in us.  Stir up the fountain.  Say, spring up o well!  It cannot be stopped when we are open and willing.  Let it flow and be careful not to interrupt Him.  If we grieve Him, be quick to repent and He will return.  Thank you, Lord, for your patience and forbearance, and your persistence to have us fully.