ver.: 21 February 2008
>> My question regards visions. How can you tell
>> that they are from God and not a simple figment
>> of your imagination?
Visions are meant to convey to you something meaningful. The Spirit doesn't ordinarily give people visions of raking the lawn, or cleaning up your room. Your imagination often starts there briefly, then goes on to a fantasy vacation, or to that pack of wild dogs you can't escape, or falling through the sky. Nothing wrong with that, but it's not a vision from the Spirit, it's just a dream. And almost always, that's all it really is.... almost always.
Most spiritual visions are allegorical: taking them literally will miss the point. One thing or action represents another, leading in a direction, posing a serious question, having a moral or a point. A vision is, in this sense, another form of story, told with pictures instead of words. There is, rarely, a prophetic vision, showing what is about to happen.
Don't be too quick to separate "Spirit" from "imagination". The imagination is the tool the Spirit uses to get us to envision the vision, to put picture to the story, to make us feel like we're living it, or sometimes just observing it. It gives it a 'test run' or 'movie showing' in the mind.
Charismatics often share their visions and dreams, in hopes that someone has the Biblical gift of dream interpretation like Joseph and Daniel and Ezekiel had. Sometimes -- surprise! -- such sharing touches someone who somehow just knows what it says, or whom it was meant for. Most charismatics are too sappy and sloppy about it, but that doesn't stop its benefits, especially in a small-group setting.
The Body has the responsibility to discern whether the
vision is the Spirit trying to tell us something, or just a
pointless dalliance.
more on spiritual discernment
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>>I wanted to start a prayer chain in our
>> church/community. How would I get started?
See http://www.spirithome.com/paripray.html.
That gives some basic information on starting a prayer ministry and managing a prayer chain. The best way to get people to be part of it is to simply ask them, one to one. If they say no, then ask them if they know someone else who would, and follow up on that lead. Start with a few, and then work upward, focused on praying for individual or family's illnesses, challenges, blessings, and needs, as they are given to you. Ask men as well as women, young adults and singles as well as older married folks, confirmed teens as well as adults. It will, if experience is any guide, be made mostly of married/widowed women 45+ yrs., but please try not to settle for that.
From a church bulletin :
Today's Sermon: How Much Can A Man Drink? With hymns
from a full choir.
>> I am a brand new born-again, I was saved 2 years
ago,
>> Me and my husband both differ on tongues. I was
>> curious and prayed for the gift. My husband does not
believe
>> in it, and thinks I'm deceived. He thinks that
>> tongues were just different languages. I don't want
to
>> be deceived, and Satan can copy the gifts. Can you
give
>> me a little info on the gift?
There are lots of things that can make people babble (including Satan, subcultural pressure and suggestion, mental problems, drugs). But the Spirit gives tongues to some (apparently not most) of us as a way to access that which we cannot reach through words. Sometimes that's joy, praise, awe, fun; sometimes that's sadness, pain, confusion, emptiness. The purpose is to help you choose to lay it out before God, so that its release can free you. If it is not doing that, and if you are not growing in the faith from there, then it is not the Spirit's; if it is doing that, it's quite welcome.
When there's a difference between you and your husband, be careful. Jesus calls on us to love each other as He has, and there's no more important (and difficult) place for that than in marriage. It would be better never to speak a tongue again than to let this difference between you spread into other things and run the marriage aground. I hope that you don't have to go that far.
>> She said she was a former goddess for the
"illuminati,
>> the clique which controls the direction of the
world",
>> and are "genetic hybrids, the interbreeding between
a
>> reptilian extraterrestrial race and humanity many
thousands
>> of years ago." [[She links this to Mayan
history.]]
She's sci-fi in skin. Better to get your Mayan culture from anthropologists and sociologists. (It is fascinating. Sometimes startling. Occasionally ugly.)
The shtick about the Illuminati is older than the hills, and it brings with it dangerous prejudices (especially against Jews and Freemasons) and rabble-rouses. The Raelians hold to the cross-bred elite theory. But I never heard the "reptilian" twist before. (An early 20th-century politician called the supposed-illuminati John Rockefeller a "snake", but I don't think this is what he meant by it.) [[With the movie National Treasure and the book DaVinci Code, pathetic conspiracy theories like that of the Illuminati are still very much a part of the American imagination. They're fiction; enjoy them as such.]]
>> those definitions are a bit subjective, and seem quite close-minded.
These are definitions. By definition, definitions narrow the meaning so that they are useful in communicating and understanding, so that the word actually passes something along. My definitions are based squarely on usage, on English, Latin, Greek and Hebrew word origins, and on Bible verses they are used in, where there are any. They are neither closed-minded nor subjective. They do express an opinion as to the primary shade of meaning, but that opinion is not pulled out of thin air.
Except for the jokes.....
When Israel in the desert 'asked' to be fed, God sent them a strange food. They looked at it and said, "Vat's dis???". And the food became forever known as "vat's dis?" (Heb. man hu --> manna). So when God gives you something and it seems strange, do as Israel did : they ate it anyway.
>> I was wondering if you have ever come across
anyone
>> who's hands get oily and sparkle with like gold
glitter?
No. But I've heard a lot about it. The question is, what do oily hands and gold glitter do to make someone love more, or be more righteous, kind, just, or wise? God gives to us so we can give to others that which matters to God. The Spirit is manifested in ways that follow Christ. Sprinkles just don't do it. They are not themselves a sign of divine favor.
>> Do I pray for these things every day or do I trust
that
>> God heard the first time and will answer in His own
way?
Jesus spoke of the persistence of the woman at the door of the judge -- how much more will God answer your persistence. Persistence in prayer is also the Old Testament way. That's what God wants of us. That's not to say that occasionally it's not time to stop praying for something. God may be calling on you to take action yourself, or to fully let go; at such a point, you pray for strength in your new course of action. In any event, the base level of all prayers is a constant turning of your heart's concerns over to God, trusting His will in it.
The case of the one who has a lot to work out in his life is one where persistent prayer may well turn out to be a very long-term venture. The case of someone who is seriously ill is one where there might be a cure, or there might have to be an acceptance of death. The prayers can then continue, but with a very different focus, on the God in whom there is life even in death.
There's a lot of mystery in this, and it gives surprises even to seasoned veterans of prayer. So if this sounds just a bit fuzzy, well, it is.
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