Something amazing happened. Jack found out lately how patient the Holy Spirit has been in trying to give him an important message. The following is a summary of the sequence of recent events illustrating this:
He attended Sunday morning worship and was filled with the Spirit.
The following Tuesday he was prompted by the Holy Spirit to read the Book of Nehemiah. He thought the book has something to do with church building. But he kept this thought to himself at the back of his mind.
After the above experience he was fired up to read the Bible, pray and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal more to him so he would know God’s will and obey.
He was reminded one day by his prayer partner that he was yet to read one little booklet about God’s creative power for finances. She gave him that booklet sometime ago and he forgot all about it. So he finally located it in an unused briefcase and read it.
While reading the booklet he said amen to the Bible verses and repented his past careless words about finances. He also asked the Holy Spirit to show him what seeds he should plant in accordance to the inspired teachings.
The minute he finished the booklet he received a phone call. Someone from a Christian organization invited him to give a talk on managing finances in two weeks time. He knew this was the seed he asked for, so he agreed without hesitation.
One morning he decided to do research on what the Bible says about finances. He spent the whole morning before God reading God’s words and meditating on God’s matters.
By the afternoon he was a bit tired and sleepy so he decided to rest by reading a book. He took one book at random from the shelf of some new books he bought about a month ago while travelling overseas. The book is “Walls of My Heart” by Dr. Bruce and Barbara Thompson.
When he had read a few pages he closed his eyes to rest. He saw a clear vision of a young man from his church. The young man was walking alone outdoor (with tall grass nearby and no building in sight). He was followed by a pack of wolves (or wild dogs). He seemed troubled but he was not aware of the presence of the wolves and the danger! Jack responded in surprise and opened his eyes. He had not been praying for the church and had no reason to see this young man at all. But he thought it would be better to wait for clearer instruction from the Holy Spirit before he told the young man or anyone.
He spent the whole afternoon reading the book in between doing his usual chores. By night time he almost finished reading the book. He felt tired and closed his eyes to rest for awhile. The minute he closed his eyes a second vision appeared. He saw the young man close up and there was a pole by the side of the young man. There was a serpent coiled round the pole and its mouth was open. Its head was at level with the young man’s ear as though it was speaking to the young man. Jack was stunned so he opened his eyes. He knew he should not delay and he called the leader of the church, who confirmed that he should communicate with the young man about the visions.
Later at night the young man (who was contacted by the church leader) called him. Jack thought the leader had already told him the visions so he asked the young man what he had been doing. The young man said he was concentrating on character building and wanted to learn to become a godly grown man. He said he was no longer a child. So he should learn to be a grown up from godly people. So Jack shared how he was led to read Nehemiah and later the book on “Walls of My Heart” which makes use of Nehemiah’s example for character building. He suggested that the young man read Nehemiah.
The next morning Jack re-read the introduction of the book and discovered that the writer in fact quoted a verse from Ephesians 4:13, “Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Verse 14 says, “That we should no longer be children…” So the answer to the young man’s quest is in the book of Ephesians!
The young man called and said Jack had not yet told him the visions so Jack told him accordingly. Jack also shared with him about his discovery and asked him to read the book of Ephesians chapter 4, which aptly ends with the verse, “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God in Christ forgave you.” (By the way, the dangers of the enemy, the lying serpent and angry wolves were all described in that chapter too!)
The Holy Spirit summed up His instruction with this verse from Ephesians 5:1, “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.”
Imagine the long suffering the Holy Spirit must have gone through in order to accommodate Jack in his dull in hearing and seeing in the spirit. On the other hand Jack was elated that God has not given up in revealing to him important visions like this so that he can continue to learn to carry out the task of a watchman. The books of Nehemiah and Ephesians have benefitted him too. The book “Walls of My Heart” is a must-read for all hurting Christians, aspiring counselors and watchmen.
January 19, 2010
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