I
Prayed
AMEN!
SEEING HEAVEN CHANGES EARTH
“…I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven…’ Acts 26:19
[Previously, I wrote of the principle of standing in the Heavenly Father’s
Presence in our Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. The model “Lord’s Prayer” presumes that we pray “with Him where He is.” To illustrate the transforming power of that prayer perspective, I chose Stephen, known for the first recorded instance of one who held “the Testimony of Jesus” to his death as a martyr-witness. From that willing “sowing” of His Life, a harvest has come. The one we call the Apostle Paul [formerly known as Saul of Tarsus, the religious “terrorist” who persecuted the Church] is the most obvious direct sequential offspring of his “seed.” Indulge your imagination with me as we summon Paul to give testimony of the change that seeing heaven open wrought in his life. Permit me to interpret his extensive writings by using his words and thoughts in the first person.]
Paul Testifies
“I was a man who was blinded by the god of this world. I could see nothing of spiritual reality as I perceive it now, but only the shadow images of my religious carnal mind which I thought were real. It was as if a veil were over my eyes. And in that darkness I thought myself to be doing God a service in terrorizing, tormenting and agreeing to the killing the followers of the teacher from Nazareth, named Jesus. In the Light of the reality I now know, I was dead to God’s life because of my sins and trespasses. But God, rich in mercy, looked past my ignorance and graciously appeared to me for His purposes to prevail.
It was at the stoning of a lesser known follower of the controversial Jesus, one by the name of Stephen, that I saw a Light that cut deep into my soul - just a sudden shining that pierced my darkness. It reflected from his serene face as he looked heavenward and spoke of seeing Jesus standing at the right hand of God, [whom He intimately referred to as his Father]. That began a journey of such indescribable pain in my deepest being. As I continued on my mission, going to Damascus to further my intent to harass, arrest, imprison and kill if necessary more of those I saw as deluded followers “the way” of the non-credentialed leader from Nazareth, I was in the throes of an intense internal turmoil.
Suddenly, about noon…, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me…[the thought passed my mind of the burning bush of Moses’ experience, for I thought I would be consumed]. Instead I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Isn’t it hard for you to keep on kicking against the goads of your own conscience?’
Completely disoriented, I weakly muttered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And as if the voice came from above, around and even in me, I heard: ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.’ Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you….I am sending you to open people’s eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they can receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. For now, go into Damascus and you will be told what you must do.’
The next thing I recall is that I was physically blind to all that was around me and cut off in my mind from everything that I had previously thought and imagined. As I waited in that intense darkness – not unlike a tomb in which all my former life lay buried- a man entered the room I had taken at the house of Judas on Straight Street. At first I drew back in fear, but then he placed his gentle hands on me [something that would have repulsed my former separatist religious ‘flesh’ feelings] and in a tone not unlike the One I had heard at the stoning and on the road, he said ‘Brother, Saul….’ He explained that the same Jesus, who appeared to me had sent him so that I might see again and receive the Holy Spirit.
Suddenly, something like scales just fell from my eyes, and I saw with new, blessed eyes, the heart eyes of my deepest being, as if seeing for the first time. Everything looked new, as if I sensed the spiritual significance of every visible thing. In that Light the things of my former life grew strangely dim – distant and removed.
As I began to regain physical strength, I felt a total inadequacy to explain what I had seen, even though previously I had prided myself on my ability to debate and to skillfully argue points of religious dispute. The process of my reorientation to my new world was not easy. I am sure I hurt more people than I helped in my zeal to persuade my Jewish brothers to change their minds and believe in the Jesus who had appeared to me. I only succeeded in infuriating my former friends. Finally, in the most embarrassing way one could imagine, I escaped a sinister plot against my life by these former “friends” by the help of my new brothers. They hid me and slipped me over the city wall in a garbage basket. That lowest moment of weakness, I would later see as a breakthrough in my pursuit of gaining Christ through suffering the loss of all things I had previously valued on the scale of worldly religious prestige. Little by little I could discard all that as “rubbish.”
In that mortifying moment, as my foolish pride was revealed to me, I chose to retreat to the desert to sort out the deeper meaning of my new experience in the Spirit realm. I knew that God had by grace revealed His Son in me, and as I waited before the Lord, I died to my old identity, as if I were literally crucified with Jesus on His cross. From this silent place, as if in a sort of spiritual grave, I heard Christ’s voice speaking in my deepest being. I began to live again; yet it was not the old Saul, but Christ, God’s Son, living in me, as Paul.
Now I am able to “boast” in the spectacle of that once proud Saul, running for his life and ending up as a “basket case” of common garbage. This new life, in contrast to my former path, is full of hope as Christ has become my life. Willing to be “a fool” in some people’s eyes is a small price to gain Christ!
I began to know my true spiritual identity was found in this new “man in Christ” living in me. I began to experience in the Holy Spirit dimension the realities of the spiritual kingdom that are beyond human words to describe. But since I know it was not the old me, let me try to speak the unspeakable realities I began to know, at the risk, in doing so, of sounding like a boastful fool for those who do not see in my Light:
I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven [whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not really know]. What I do know is that this man – again whether it was a physical thing in the body, or a spiritual experience out of the body more real than the other, only God knows. Any way, this man, this new me, was caught up to Paradise [perhaps I use that term because of Jesus’ word to a thief in his dying moments on the cross, “today you shall be with me in Paradise”]. Oh that I had the tongue of great men or angels to tell you of it! Just let me say, that eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor our minds conceived the things God has prepared for those who love Him, but he does reveal them to us by His Spirit beyond words and concepts of our limited natural capacity as we enter the mind of Christ.
I can tell you, that because of this access as a joint-heir with Christ to the heavenly kingdom, many times in my distressing circumstances – ship wrecked, imprisoned, beaten, abandoned and mistreated in many ways – I have found a way of escape. I rise into this Spiritual Glory Zone and find strength there to return and face whatever cross I am called to bear. And strangely enough, if you can believe it, I have even learned to accept joyfully and even glory in these tribulations. It brings a deep awareness that my light, momentary afflictions are bringing me to know Christ in the fellowship of his sufferings. By this I am attaining new heights of resurrection life working in me. I constantly pray, “Lord, let me decrease so that Christ may increase in this earthen vessel!” The Lord revealed that I would have no suffering exemption, but was enrolled in His special sufficient grace for spiritual glorying program! So may you understand my joy in trials!
Yes, I have lost my once proud life. But now I find myself being newly created day by day, and vitally alive “in Christ,” who has now, in the truest sense, become my life. I live by faith in Him with the one desire that, whether by my living or my dying, Christ may be glorified in my body and in my spirit which are all His. In my “flesh,” my old frame of reference, I put no confidence, , but I do boast in the cross of Jesus Christ. Because of it, the world sees me as good as dead – useless for its goals and purposes. Thankfully, I also see that world as passing away and meaningless. I live with one desire, to lay hold, by increasing devotion, to that vision Christ Jesus revealed to me when He laid hold on me on that life changing journey to Damascus.
Though many have forsaken me in this season of my departure, I am finishing my course in the confidence that what I have committed to the Lord and to His chosen ones, such as my spiritual son, Timothy, will be preserved by the Lord and passed on to other faithful ones down through the ages until the fullness of Christ will appear when the times will have reached their fulfillment. Then all the fullness of Christ in His Body will rejoice in the glory of this mystery I have received from the Lord and administered to you by His grace.
To God be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus now and through the ages to come, world without end!
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ for your sake”