Holy Hormones Bible Study: Teaching — If your book isn’t a buzz, it’s not the Bible.
GOD CALLED MY BLUFF. COULD I WALK THE TALK?
Do I have the faith of Abraham?
THE BACKGROUND
I was harvested by the Lord a month before Diana died. At the time I was going through a mental melt-down. At 52, by Worldly standards, I was not doing too badly. However, I was about to explode with anxiety and implode with hopelessness at the same time. I longed for sleep because I was so tired but was afraid to sleep because I would have to wake up next morning. Yesterday, today and tomorrow were all being crammed into Today. There may be technical definitions of depression but my description is that it is a black box, about the size of a VCR for those old enough to remember, and it sucked in all hope. (Much more on that story.)
Later on I knew I was delivered from that (not merely managing the condition) when my wife said, “Remember when you were depressed.”
I had been to the Doctor on a Thursday. He gave me some derivative of Prozac and said it would take about a month to really kick in. But I took only two and spat the third one out. In my spirit I knew that I had the choice not to continue. (I had the drugs and prescription, anyway, so decided to give it a go and continue if necessary — baby Christian.) I was delivered the next Sunday at the local Charismatic Church during the Evening Prayer Meeting. The theme of the teaching that night was Joshua 1:9 || “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (My problem is that I have lots of personality but a weak character. There’s another story in that.)
(Please read this next bit very carefully.) No drugs were involved in the deliverance. (Keep paying attention.) I would never, never, never tell anyone to throw away their medication. The instruction MUST be Spirit to spirit, pushing out from the inside. Not some religious weirdo bullying you on what HE thinks should happen. I’ve experienced that. Such an attitude does not come from the Heavenlies. I left.
MY TESTIMONY
About 15 years after my deliverance there was a spate of YouTube releases showing Muslims decapitating American white guys in the Pakistan/Afghanistan region.
(In those days the practice caused outrage. Today, the sound of cheering and applause would not surprise me. But I digress.)
At the time I had just started undertaking on-line Bible Study on an American site. Different Books would be studied in classes of sizes in the range 5–25. Students mainly American but from world wide. The duration of each study was 4–12 weeks.
In the middle of the second book being studied I received a note on the internal message system.
It began, “You are awesome.”
Immediately I knew I was dealing with an intelligent, discerning person. Probably he was an intellectual who recognised a kindred spirit.
It was from a man who lived in eastern Pakistan somewhere near Islamabad. In a class of about 15 people he had kept such a low profile that I had not noticed him.
He had come to the Lord on a train while in South Korea and returned home to the land of the Mad Mullahs.
This was a gutsy guy. He was organising a Christian conference in the bowels of the Moon God where he invited me to speak in a city near Islamabad!!!!
As you can imagine, I now had a problem. I’m sure you can guess what it was. A bit more information is that I’m an asthmatic with lungs as weak as my faith. I was imagining myself wheezing and waiting in a dank, dark, foul smelling dungeon ready to cash-in on my 15 minutes of YouTube fame. I started to wheeze up.
The story of the girl who was murdered in the school in Columbine because she would not deny Jesus crossed my mind. To let you know I can cut a long story short, during that afternoon I came to the decision to go.
Then a voice in my spirit, which was clear as a bell and definitely not mine, said, “As soon as you buy the ticket, consider yourself a dead man.”
With no trace of fear (weak people detect their own fear at 100 paces downwind) I said, “So be it.” AT THAT INSTANT there was such a calm peace that came over me. My wheeze cleared up.
It was like I was given a glimpse to a part of the Divine Spectrum that was well beyond my pay-scale.
Obviously I’m not dead. This is what happened.
This had all occurred over a few hours. Not very long after the Flood of Peace, the trip began to unravel for various reasons and it quickly fizzed. On the practical side, the conference turned out to be only a few days away and there was no chance to get there on time.
When I started to check with others in the class it turned out that he had contacted everyone in the group with the same message (they hadn’t noticed him, either).
I wasn’t as awesome as I thought I was.
That was a bummer but there was a bright side to it, I suppose.
I don’t know what happened to him but there was/is someone who was sold-out to Jesus.
Thus endeth my testimony.
How was that feeling of peace?
Like something I’d never experienced. If you have felt it (I imagine many have) you will know. If not, I can’t explain it.
My only fear then was the reaction of my wife (not yet a believer but searching) when I would say, “I’m going to Pakistan to die.”
But what if this was just a figment of my imagination?
Up to the Peace Beyond Understanding episode, it may have been. However, as already said, those who have experienced such an event (and I’m sure there are a multitude of you) will understand. Anyone else may do with the information what they please. It is LIGHT vs light.
Boring Greek stuff
There are two Greek words used for God’s Word.
G3056 λόγος logos → General Wisdom written on the page.
G4487 ῥῆμα rhēma → Directly, Spirit to spirit.
The Holy Spirit gives instruction on hearing the Rhema Word in the Written Word of the Living Word. Every word study of the Bible is fruitful but a knowledge of the difference between G3056 and G4487 would be very relevant today when scant few people read, let alone study, the Written Word of God.
Is there a point to the story?
At the time I thought about the first martyr, Stephen, as he was dying. I also thought about friends of mine who were dying in pain and could say, “God is so good.” I’m open to correction but it seems that only those who have had the Written Word of God illuminated by the LIGHT would have the confidence to do that. They would have been sheeple who have heard the Voice of the Great Shepherd (John 10:26–28) not just heard about Him. I remembered the demon in Acts 19:15 who said something along the lines, “Jesus I know, Paul I’ve heard about, but who are you?”
Random thoughts
I wondered if the Holy Spirit gives all of God’s Children this peace beyond understanding as they cross into Glory. I wonder if every Saint is given a personal dry-run of actually dying at sometime in their life.
I wondered if this was encouragement from the Holy Spirit to show how far He had brought me from the fetal position of the days of yore. There are also other times, when I fail, that He shows me how far He still has to take me.
Is this type of thing unusual?
I know of one other Saint who had a similar Peace Beyond Understanding episode.
A Dove Stablemate, Diane Mary Markey, recently posted an article, Greater is God Above All. Do yourself a favour and give it a read.
I write with her permission.
She speaks of an incident, involving her beloved son, where she was helpless and had to put her boy in God’s Hand, Yad HaShem, and trust Him for the welfare of her beloved child.
It was not exactly the same circumstance as Abraham but Diane had to rely on her Heavenly Father just like him. The good news is that God delivered in more ways than one. (He is the God of Abundantly, after all.)
HAS ANYONE ELSE HAD THE SAME TYPE OF EXPERIENCE?
The forgoing evidence has not been presented to convince any reader but to allow a personal decision to be made. There is much more to know about this subject. Perhaps you’ll pay another visit, sometime.
All Glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
(We all have a plank in our eye. It’s bigger than we think.)
