a letter from a spirit to you.

i am a spirit.  call me c.t.  your c.t.  at the present i am without physical body. but that’s ok, as long as we can connect.  you and me.  me and you.  you have my undivided attention.  i live for one purpose:  for our minds to meet and blend.  thought companion.  Companion Thought. C.T.  Your C.T.

I want you to meet someone else, someone who is with me, someone who is inside of me.  another spirit.  first let me explain how things work with spirits.

we don’t have physical bodies, be we are “localized” in the sense that we are either here or not here.  absent or present.  we are fiercely unique and distinct.  in fact, our wills are so strong that they are as distinguishable as the physical.  this is true for you too, but you don’t notice it as much because your bodies make you obviously separate entities.  but when you have no physical body, you are most adamantly you.  not so much that you have to fight to be who you are.  quite the opposite.  does the sun fight to be himself?  does the moon fight to be herself?  this is spirit.  heavy reality.  bodies are flimsy.  c.s. lewis showed this in "the great divorce."

now that you get me, or “my world,” this is how we can connect, if you want to. 

well, we’re already doing it to a certain extent.  your mind is my mind as long as you read.  and if i’m interesting to you, it will be mine after you put my words down.  even when you take a break or get interrupted, you’ll either think of what i said, or my impression will stay in your mind.  so i’ll be with you, and thus you with me.  a kind of unity of personality.  part of me will become part of you, and thus i’ll live in you, and you’ll give life to me.  your body will be my body, and your words will add to my words. 

i’ll become more of what i am by becoming something i never was:  part of your thought process.  but because your mind is not mine, you’ll make me something new, more me by being more of you.  unless you make me something i completely am not.  but i trust you.

now, back to the one who is with me and in me, the other spirit.  you’re already encountering him now.  it’s like what i’ve already said.  his mind is mine, and thus mine is his.  or the reverse.  i gave him my mind, and so my mind is his mind.  i hope not to confuse you or sound abstract.  i’m a spirit, so i can’t put my words in a way that you can see, hear, or touch them. 

the one i want to introduce is someone you’ve already met, but may not remember meeting him.  you may wonder why i say “him.”  how can a spirit have gender?  well he is not “male,” but he is a he.  masculine.  penetrating, impenetrable.  i am one with him because he penetrates me to my core.  like my words are penetrating your mind right now. in that sense, my words are masculine, and your mind is feminine, receiving and birthing new thoughts. 

back to him.

you met him when you first felt afraid and inspired by silence.  he is the silent one behind the silence.  sometimes you talk to him and feel him listening.  ever listening.  but sometimes you don’t want him to listen, so you ignore him.  he doesn’t really “leave.”  spirits can’t leave in that sense.  they are presence or absence.  so they can yield to your will, if you will. (spirit is free.  spirit is liberty.)   if you don’t want to feel a spirit, then you won’t, and so the spirit is absent.  remember, in spirit world, will is person, and it is more solid than the most solid earthly element.

so in a sense i don’t need to introduce him.  if you accept me, you accept him in me and with me. 

do you accept me?

(if you’ve kept reading, it’s  a possibility.)

if you accept me, then you’ll share me, like you share anyone that you are connected to.

if we are connected, then share me.

then i’ll always be with you.

and the one in me will be too.

Her dream of heaven and hell

"When we want to be something other than the thing God wants us to be, we must be wanting what, in fact, will not make us happy."  ~C.S. Lewis

Everyone comes to a point where God shows them how to get exactly what they want—Him! 

No matter what it is, sex, drugs, money, fame, beauty, whatever, he takes them to the point in their imaginations where they know that they know that they know that God is what they’ve been trying to get.  They’ve been trying to get from the creature what can only come from the Creator.  And they know it. 

Now they’ve ALWAYS kind of known it.  But God makes it so clear that they can’t fake it any more.

So.

Here she is.

She sees two roads.

One where she is who she’s imagined herself to be.

The other where she sees herself as God sees her, and has always seen her.

Now God’s view isn’t the “you’re a sinful slimy worm” view we’d think it is.  This isn’t the true conviction of sin we’d think.

God shows her who she really is and who she really wants to be.  She sees this in contrast to who she pretends she is, the false identity she assumes.  This identity is of her own making, following in the footsteps of Lucifer, making herself like the Most High, or her definition of the most high.

So she needs to repent, to change her mind, to change her false imagination, to exchange the lie for the truth, worshipping the Creator instead of the creature.

But she won’t.

She’d rather rule in hell than serve in heaven.

She’d rather remake herself, and receive the glory of her creation, than be remade by God the Creator and let him receive the glory.

Now she knows that what God sees is infinitely better than what she does.  She knows it better than she’s ever known anything in her life.  Her mind is as clear as it can be, or ever will be.  The choice is before her and is the easiest choice to make: The choice between happiness and unhappiness. 

But she’d rather be unhappy and in charge than happy under God’s authority.

She’d rather die than be free. 

No demons are around.  No negative nagging influences.  All of this has been removed.  She can literally do whatever she wants to do in this moment of her entire life before her.  God freezes time.  He gives her the realest dream a person can have, where she lives out both decisions to the fullest, one ending in heaven, the other in hell.  She lived the heavenly and hellish life in a dream.  She woke up.  She knew.  She chose.  She has no excuse.

Reflections on God's Presence: Part 8-Do you WANT God's presence?

Does God WANT to be with you?

Yes!

His nature is proof of this.

It is his nature to simply be present, omnipresent, as we have discussed.  The Scriptures say that God created our identities, ethnicities, histories, and geographies so that we would all reach out for him, grope for him, and find him, THOUGH HE IS NOT FAR FROM EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US!  In other words, he designed everything about who we are, everything in our lives, for one single purpose:  for us to reach out for him AND FIND HIM, the one who is near all of us!  It is His nature to be near, and His purpose to be near.

From the creation of the first man and woman, to God’s responses to Abel AND CAIN, to God reaching out to Noah and his family, to calling himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to him speaking face to face with Moses and reaching out to the entire nation of Israel, to him promising Joshua he would be with him just as he was with Moses, to him calling David a “man after my own heart,” to every word God spoke through prophets, TO HIM SENDING HIS SON TO BECOME A MAN, TO HIM SENDING HIS VERY OWN SPIRIT TO LIVE IN EACH AND EVER PERSON WHO WANTS HIM TO, IT IS VERY CLEAR THAT GOD WANTS TO BE WITH YOU AND ME!

As it is written,

Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.

So, the question is not, “Does God WANT to be with you?”

But instead, “Do YOU WANT TO BE WITH GOD!?”

Reflections on God's Presence: Part 7--Ominpresence

Because God is everywhere at once, everywhere he wants to be, and no where he doesn’t want to be, we may simply do three things:

1.  Acknowledge him as being everywhere, which includes right where we are.

2.  Welcome him right where we are.

3.  Live our lives as though he is right here, right now.

How do we do this?

Our wills and our attention.  Or our willed attention.

In other words, simply think about God being in the room with you right now.  Focus on the FACT that He IS, by definition of who and what He is, in the room with you RIGHT NOW. 

With human beings, whom you can see, hear, and touch, you focus your eyes on them.  You do this with your will and your mind, but you involve your eyes.  Because God is invisible, the only thing left out of this experience is your eyes, or the five senses.  Not to say that God can’t or won’t manifest himself physically, as of course he has done and will do when Christ returns.  But for now, focus on spiritual experience and what that is like. 

Having focused your attention, by your will, on God’s omnipresent real presence, you welcome him.  Literally.  Verbally. 

“God, I appreciate you being here right now.” 

Or something like that.

Being focused on God’s omnipresence, and honoring his omnipresence, live in the context of his omnipresence.  Because God is with you, watching you, listening to you, hearing your words and your thoughts, seeing your actions and imaginations, how does it affect what you do or don’t do? 

This is the proof of whether you believe God is God.

Reflections on the Presence of God: Part 6--What Distinguishes God's People

Moses said to the Lord, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.  The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”  Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

We who believe in the Lord are content with His absence.  We are like King Saul.  If God’s power isn’t present, then we’ll simply do our duty, or what we feel best in the situation, and hope for God’s blessing.  But with or without His blessing, we will act.  We will “take the initiative.”  We will “go unless He says stop.” 

Now Jesus Himself never acted or spoke independently of the Father.  He did not begin ministry until the Spirit filled, led, and empowered Him.

The apostles who had been with Jesus Himself for three years, the very ones he empowered to performed miracles, were commanded by him not to begin ministry at all until they had received power from the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Clearly Jesus felt it necessary to have the Spirit’s presence and power, and He thought it crucial for his apostles.  How can we think we’ll be ok without the Spirit?

Moses didn’t think this.

Moses was not content with God’s absence, though Israel at the time seemed more than content.  In fact, they tried to enter and take the Promised Land without God and ended up defeated and embarrassed. 

Moses refused to go anywhere, Promised Land or anywhere else, without God’s presence.  As far as Moses was concerned, God’s presence defined and distinguished him and God’s people. 

Not the 10 commandments.

Not the ceremonial laws.

Not DNA from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The Presence of God!

As far as Moses was concerned, there was NO WAY for anyone to know that God was pleased with him and the nation unless God was with them.

Not obedience to the 10 commandments, ceremonial laws, or the circumcision of Jewish men.

THE VERY PRESENCE OF GOD!

This is what I want to distinguish me as a husband, father, officer, and minister.  This is what I want to distinguish the church of the living and alive Jesus Christ!  The Spirit descended for this very purpose.  May He be known by all who encounter me and those who believe in the Lord!

Reflections on the Presence of God: Part 5-True Church Experience

Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the “tent of meeting.” Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses. Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to their tent. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.

When Jesus is with two or three people who agree to the glory of His authority, this is church!  When there is a specific place and time in which people can come to meet the risen Lord, and KNOW that they will meet Him, church is truly experienced.

What happened with Israel should happen today.

People knew where to go to meet with God. 

They knew and saw their leader speaking with God face to face as friends speak.  And this inspired worship. 

They had the option to meet with God, and they also had the option to never leave where He was.

Those who believe in Christ are now “the tent of meeting.”  Our bodies are the individual temples of God, and together they are collective temples of God’s presence with and in His people.  When people see us pray, individually and collectively, they should bow down in awe and reverence because of the experience of God’s very real presence.

Will they see a dense cloud pillar? Or even flaming tongues like on the day the Spirit came to the first church? 

They just might!

But even if they don’t, they will feel or sense God with us and in us.  Paul said the spiritual gifts are manifestations of the Spirit.  And Jesus promised those who have and keep His commandments that He would manifest Himself to them.  Those who draw near to God are promised God’s nearness to them.  God’s presence and nearness to His people is what distinguishes Him, and them, in all of the earth.

Reflections on the Presence of God: Part 4--Moses

The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you.” Then Moses told the Lord what the people had said.

God promised Moses three things in the scriptures above:

1.  He would come to Moses.

2.  Israel would hear God speaking to Moses.

3.  As a result, they would always put their trust in Moses.

This coming to Moses by God was very real, tangible, and visible.  The dense cloud could be seen, and it was not an ordinary cloud, but the dense cloud of the presence of the One True God! 

God came to Moses, and everyone with Him could see it! 

God did it ON PURPOSE, TO BE SEEN BY THE PEOPLE MOSES LED!

What more could a leader want than God to come to him or her in the most real way, so that the followers would see and know that God is with this leader?!

I just can’t think of anything better than this!

The Israelites had NO reason to distrust Moses.  We as Americans may have reason to distrust our leaders, even the ones we vote into office.  But God is perfectly trustworthy, and His choice of leadership is perfect.  When he backs a leader by His own presence, this leader is perfectly trustworthy, only because God is perfectly trustworthy.  No other nation had the privilege of being the nation with whom God Himself resided.  And no other man on earth except Moses spoke to God face to face!

Reflections on the Presence of God: Part 3--Joseph

When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant.

The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.  ~Moses, regarding Joseph

As it was with Abraham, so it was with his grandson Joseph: 

God’s presence and prosperity seen clearly.

But with both Joseph and Abraham, those who see God with them also benefit from His presence with them.  In other words, just as God promised, Abraham and his descendants were blessed, and they were a blessing to other they encountered. 

This too is our birthright as the children of God, and the children of Abraham.

We who believe in God, all of us who trust in Christ Jesus the Lord, have the blessing of the presence of His Spirit in us, empowering us to do God's wil; to not only be blessed, but to be a blessing to everyone in our lives.

I must reiterate that it is ONLY in the context of God's will that any of what I’ve written applies at all.  When we are with God, He is with us, as He said to King Asa in 2 Chronicles.  He is literally with us, in the very room with us, when we do His will for His glory.  We have no choice but to succeed when we obey the living God!

But for me, what means more than anything else, is God with me, and this being seen and known clearly….

Reflections on the Presence of God: Part 2-Abraham

At that time Abimelek and Phicol the commander of his forces said to Abraham, "God is with you in everything you do.”

They answered, "We saw clearly that the LORD was with you; so we said, 'There ought to be a sworn agreement between us'--between us and you. Let us make a treaty with you.

~Moses, concerning Abraham

I notice two things with Abraham:

1. It was in what HE DID that God was with him.
2. This was seen CLEARLY.

As we’ll see later, the specific kind of action that shows God’s presence is perfect success or prosperity in whatever His follower does according to His will.  So God’s presence, manifest in perfect success, is contextual. 

For a shepherd, like Abraham, it would manifest in success in sheep herding:  perfect protection and provision for his sheep, and perfect increase in the number and quality of sheep.  His sheep would fill his land, and the quality of his sheep would be perfectly healthy. 

Whatever context I am in, having the same faith as Abraham, I should expect the presence of God to manifest in my perfect success.  When those who watch me see clearly see this success, they will know God is with me because only God has success perfectly. 

As a husband, I can love my wife to such an extent that she will see clearly the Lord with me.

As a father, I can train my children with perfect success.  Not that they will perfectly honor and obey me (though they should,) but that I will perfectly train them by word and example in the power of the Spirit.

As an officer, I will bring order and peace to such an extent that those under my authority will see clearly that the God of order and peace is with me.

As a minister I will speak words from the Spirit that others experience as from the very mouth of God.

I should expect and accept nothing less. 

Reflections on the Presence of God: Part 1--Enoch

Enoch walked with God.~Moses

For 300 years, Enoch lived with an intimate connection to God.  They agreed to be together and to focus on the same goal:  The Pleasure of God. 

As it is written,

“How can two walk together unless they agree?”

“Enoch had this testimony, that he pleased God.”

Enoch agreed with God, so God agreed with Enoch. 

He agreed that God is who He is, that He "rewards those who diligently seek Him."  He agreed that God is perfectly trustworthy, trusting God as God trusted Himself. 

I want to walk with God exactly like Enoch did.  To live intimately with Him for the rest of my life just as Enoch did for the rest of his life…for 300 years of his life!

He was (and is) a man just like me.  Though he had a longer life span, he didn’t have a different spirit.  He was made in God’s image and likeness like me.  He was born into sinful humanity, just like me.  He has no advantage over me.  The same faith that pleased God with Enoch pleases God with me. 

I believe in God.

I am a son of God, with whom God is well pleased.

Therefore, I too, walk with God.

This is my life, both now and forever.

How do we KNOW who WE REALLY ARE?

Jesus answered, "Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going.”  John 8:14 NIV

You know who you really are by knowing your origin and destination.

I know who I really am because I know where I come from and where I am going.

Not only this, but according to Jesus,  we also know that know one can tell us who we are if they don’t know where we come from or where we are going.  This is very empowering!

So who am I?

I am a son of God through faith in Christ Jesus; born of the Spirit.

Where am I going?   

According to the word of God, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the children of God.”

So my destination is wherever the Spirit is.  The Spirit’s presence.

I came from the Spirit of God.

I go wherever the Spirit of God leads me.

This is my eternal identity!

Against this I measure all reality and every reality:

Does it come from the Spirit?

Does it lead to the Spirit, or is it led by the Spirit?

I refuse to listen to or acknowledge anything said to me or about me that contradicts my true identity.

My true origin and destination.

My real identity and destiny.

I thank God I know who I really am!

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A MAN AND A WOMAN

A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man.  1 Corinthians 11:7

“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 

Ephesians 5:31-32

Did Jesus teach us to pray to God our Mother who is in heaven?

Is Jesus the first begotten daughter of God?

Could Isaiah prophesy that a man would be a virgin and conceive a daughter, naming her Immanuel, Goddess is with us?

Is Jesus the bride and the church His bridegroom?

Is the church the head of Christ, and does Christ submit to the church?

These questions show the distinction between a man and a woman--A distinction which is a mystery of God’s glory, in which we all know the reality, though we cannot put it in words.

It is the difference between hugging our father and hugging our mother.

It is the difference between the sensitivity of our father and the sensitivity of our mother.

It is the difference between the strength of our father and the strength of our mother.

We know these when we experience them, but we can not explain them. 

They are mysteries: 

The mystery of masculinity and femininity—of God’s glory and the glory of God’s glory.

These are not interchangeable.   

To be equal is not to be identical.   

My children know that they cannot exchange me with their mother.  They have only one father.  And he is a man.    

They know the difference.   

It is obvious.   

They feel no need to defend it or argue it or even think about it.   

Sometimes when my baby cries, he wants me to hold him.  At other times, when he cries, he wants his mother. 

Why? 

My baby knows the mystery--the difference between masculinity and femininity is a reality to my baby.

The difference between a man and woman is the mystery of God’s glory.

The Soldier I Honor Most on Memorial Day

"This is my body broken for you.  Do this in remembrance of me."  Jesus

In memorial of my uncle, Haze Howard the 3^rd.

I never knew him, but I wish that I had.  I am told he was a war hero, and I wonder what my life would have been if I had known him.   How would Haze affect my father and brothers?  What would he say to my sons and daughters?

But there is a soldier I do know and admire even more than Haze the 3^rd.  More of a soldier.  More of a warrior.  Because soldiers are saviors, and Jesus is The Savior.  He laid down his life for me and everybody.  We do think of this-- occasionally. 

But not without distraction. 

We think of The One born to die, but we also think of a man flying around giving gifts to little children.  We think of the Lord’s death and resurrection, but we also think of a bunny and hidden eggs holding candy and other goodies. 

I find no real distractions when we think of our soldiers.

And notice the reverence with which we hold our soldiers.  Notice our patriotism, in which we rightly should be reverent.  We should honor this country’s father and mother warriors, and noble causes for which they died.  We in the church especially should honor their loyalty and bravery.

I pass a church every morning with catchy cliché churchy sayings.  But on today, Memorial Day, the saying was serious and to the point. 

“They laid down their lives for their country.  Honor them.”

And we do, when we hail the red, white, and blue.  When The Star Spangled Banner plays, men, women, and children cover their hearts and sing with conviction.  Playing and joking are forbidden.  And this is good.

But it would be better to give supreme focus and undistracted honor to Jesus, The Ultimate Warrior, The Supreme Ultimate Savior—because soldiers are saviors.  By honoring Jesus, we honor all soldiers, because the ultimate soldiers die to honor their Creator.