31 Jan 2012

Life in the afternoon - Part 11 (Last) - Divine healing revisited ... and please don't feed the animals

Life in the Afternoon - much more than a story of soaring - and reflections of that on my life.

by P.K.Odendaal. 1 January 2012.

Part 11 - Divine healing revisited - and please don't feed the animals.

I believe in divine healing, despite my earlier unpleasant experiences in this regard, and God knew that too - so I had to start from scratch again a few decades later.

One evening during the closing service of one of our yearly conferences, I was suffering from severe back pain, which just did not want to go away. At the end of the service God said that anybody who had an ailment should come forward so that the pastors could lay hands on them and pray for them, and I thought, this was my chance.

Not wanting to be prayed for by just anyone, I timed the moment very accurately, and as the President of the Church came down from the platform, I intentionally found myself first in line to be prayed for by him.

He asked me what the problem was, whereupon I told him of this severe pain in my back. He did not pray for me as I expected, but just said : You got angry with somebody - just go and confess and all shall be right.

Embarrassing!

I did not get angry with him but took a brother and went to confess, and that pain never vexed me again. Aha - I am making progress. I have touched on the manifestations of the spirit in the body and the flesh, and a back pain is a symptom of getting angry at somebody.

The second lesson happened a few years later.

Also during the last service of our yearly conference, which usually included a healing ministry, we were invited to go forward so they could pray for us. I was not sick, but I had this terrible spiritual ailment of blame, dejection and despondence, and I was for sure not going forward to be prayed for. The previous embarrassment was still fresh in my mind.

So I said to God, I am not going out, but if He wanted me to go out he should take me there. It was only a few seconds after that, when I suddenly noticed that my feet were turned toward the aisle - I had turned through ninety degrees - not by my own volition. I got a such a big shock that I turned back immediately, facing the pulpit again. I then said 'God it must be you - and if it is you, you can do it again'. Within seconds I was facing the aisle again. In shock I repeated my turning back maneuver and faced the pulpit again. I then again said 'God, sorry, but if this is you, you can do it three times, and I would know that it is definitely you'. And then it happened for the third time. This time I did not even notice who prayed for me, because I knew God was healing me, which He did.

And so it happened one day shortly thereafter that my wife asked me to join her on a hospital visit to an aged friend of their family. He was very ill and did not stop bleeding, having a sickness called 'plates', whatever it might mean. I did not know the details of this sickness, but God knew, and it was sure that he might not make it back to his home any time soon, if ever.

We visited him and after the normal visiting hour, my wife and I walked out. As I walked out God said to me : Pray for him. The TV's in his ward, which he shared with a few other people, were blaring with Sunday sport, our nation's god. I said God, I cannot pray in these circumstances, but I will give it a go. I returned to his bed and asked him whether I could pray for him, whereupon he approved. It was a simple prayer, but I was serious as I liked him, and I had compassion with him. The next morning he was dismissed from hospital with no symptoms at all.

Okay God, I get it. You heal, but I must be there to hear you and say your words.

A few years later he was admitted to the same hospital with another serious ailment and this time it was sure that he would not make it. We visited again, and this time the family were gathered around his bed - almost as some people do for the last rites. His family however still remembered the previous incident and asked me to pray for him. We all took hands together and I made a simple prayer. The next morning he was dismissed from the hospital without any symptoms, and he lived for many years after that, where after he died at the age of eighty years of natural causes.

These two incidents brought me back to my vivid remembrance of my previous futile attempts. I see myself and  a friend  a few decades earlier laying hands on and praying for an elderly person who had the worst form of arthritis that I had ever seen. He could not walk or use his hands, as they were all severely bent, crumpled and malformed. That evening there was no healing, however hard we tried and however strong our faith and his faith were. At the end we gave it up as a failed attempt.

Great was my surprise a few days later when I learned that this person had cheated almost all of the townsfolk out of millions by fraud and conniving. I would never again, by my own volition, pray for someone who had not first confessed their sins and mended their ways. Sickness is mostly, as I have said, a manifestation of the iniquities of our spirit into our bodies. However when God says I pray - I do it regardless.

 

Please don't feed the animals.

When we go to a game park we see this sign, and we sometimes realize that it is for the good of the animals that we should not feed them. If we feed them, they loose their ability and skill of looking for their own prey or food. It is tantamount to killing them softly.

We are no different from them - it is the way of nature. So why do we want God to rain food and money and wealth and deliverance from the daily care upon us without any effort from our side? Do we want Him to kill us softly? Yet, this is precise the content of our daily prayers - God give me this, God give me that. God has not called us to take - he has called us to give - to be servants of Him and of each other.

Pro 30:15  The horse leach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough:

We will never (think we) have enough.

I am reminded of a humorous tale I heard one day.

The brother came upon a poor man of doubtful character (whom he knew had stolen the chicken), and asked him where he got that chicken from which he was so happily munching away on. The man replied that he prayed to God for it, whereupon the brother said that it did not work for him, because God has never given him a chicken. So the man asked the brother how he prayed, whereupon the brother said : God, please give me a chicken. The man thereupon said - that is your problem. The scripture says that you ask wrongly as in Jas 4:3  Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, You must just do as I do - I just pray : God, please show me a chicken.

I wish more people would ask God to show then something through His Holy Spirit, than to wait for it to fall from heaven like manna. It can happen, but it is not the everyday way in which God operates.

This tale cuts into the heart of the problem. Although God can do it, it is not normal for God to let manna and quails fall from heaven. He sent Adam and Eve out of Paradise to earn their living and fend for themselves : Gen 3:19  In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground.

God does not want to undermine and inhibit our ability to feed ourselves. God does not want to feed the animals.

This is also true in the spirit. God just do not come to us with witty banter anytime of day while we are in a jolly mood. We need to seek Him in order to find Him. We cannot not seek Him whilst we are busy with things that does not concern Him.

We get cross with God, because we have a need and a want and a desire, how fleshly that may be, that he does not satisfy it. Meanwhile, it is us who are too lazy to fend for ourselves. I agree, ultimately it is God who nurtures us, but not the way we think.

And that explains my long futile quest for getting some special favour from God.

In days and decades past, I have told God that it was so easy for Him to let me win a lotto or a tender by giving me the right code or the right tender price, but he never did. What I did not realize then, was what ramifications it would have had, if God has done just that. In the first place he would be feeding the animals, and in the second place He would have been partisan to me, which he is not, and in the third place, He would be unrighteous by doing a disservice to someone else for whom those blessings were meant. Can you imagine what the devil would have done with such an occurrence? Talk of freedom of the media, of self expression and of leaking a juicy story - the devil would have had a field day, such as he tried with Job.

I can think of some of these ramification myself. I might be a farmer being ripped apart by a serious drought, and just next door to me there could be a brother praying that it does not rain on his child's party. There are things that we are just not supposed to get or to have or that cannot be.

These days I mostly praise God for those of my prayers which He did not answer. It would have been chaos, had He answered most of them.

That is not to say that I may not have dreams and fantasies. Dream on - what you dream will one day become a reality. God called things which did not exist as if they existed : Rom 4:17  ... even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. That is faith! We may manifest in the flesh a thing we believe in the spirit - that is called the manifestation in the Holy Spirit. We call things which do not exist, as if they do.

 

Who and what is God.

I do not pretend to know, but I close this last part of this story with a perspective on the nature of God and on His involvement in His creation.

The conventional wisdom is that He is not involved and does not care.

It is the notion by the atheists that God does not exist.

It is the notion that God stands separate from his creation.

It is the notion that God is not involved in the day to day running of His business.

It is the notion that God does not care about us.

It is the notion that God wants to put us all in Hell.

And of course, all these notions are false, but how does one look at it to make some rational evaluation of a God which just cannot appear in three dimensions, having infinite dimensions Himself.

There is no way a three dimensional human can see an infinitely dimensioned God. A human can only see that part of Him which manifests itself in three dimensions like Jesus Christ. Yes, Christ was God, when he was on earth, but only that part of God which could be observed by mankind. Scripture says : Col 2:9  For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

I have written on observation in the different dimensions in this blog :

http://pkodendaal.blogspot.com/2010/12/whats-in-dream.html

 Firstly we need to know that we cannot know anything about God if we are stuck in these three dimensions, because God is just not observable on this level, apart from the spiritual experiences we have with Him - it is the only characteristics of Him which we can experience in this three dimensional world of us.

I only need to ask you one question to let you realize the futility of such an exercise and the question is : Who made God? Snookered ... totally. If you think that God was made, even if he made Himself, at a specific time, then you would need to explain how that could be done when time did not exist when He made himself. But knowing the futility of that, we can still form some practical and basic idea of God by thinking of Him in three dimensional terms, because there is enough of Him present in this three dimensional space that we can think about.

I wish to offer you a rational limited explanation which will increase your understanding and perspective of Him.

That understanding comes from the notion that God and Creation is one - a very insightful, but not necessary true or correct reflection of His nature, but one that gives us a lot of perspective and insight. It could even be true for all we know, and we use the following argument to partly substantiate that : If God made Himself, then he is part of His creation, and there will be no other creation than the one God created, because His created creation of Himself, created the rest of creation, and that is probably what scripture means in these words :

Pro 8:23  I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. v:24  When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. v:25  Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:

Jesus, being called the Everlasting Father in Isaiah, and thus God himself, could really have created himself.

The other side of the argument is that God always was, and that He created the creation separate from Himself. If that is so, how does He separate Him from His creation, being manifestly present in it. How would I know that this part of creation is what God created, and that part is God himself. Both instances are possible, but it is more of the same argument, as it cannot be distinguished from each other.

If we accept either of these possibilities, which the atheists will not allow us to do - and keeping themselves out if it without positing another viable possibility - then we may say that the debate between creationism and evolutionism is a futile debate - both sides are wrong, and both sides are very  arrogant, ignorant, intransigent and impudent about it. A pastor once said that the evolutionists may be right, but their explanation of creation is so complicated and far fetched that it is much easier to believe the Bible's story - it makes more sense!

If God is His creation - if He and His Creation are one - how can either of these futile hypothesis even exist, because Christ and God is everything and in all :

Col 3:11  Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.

1Co 15:28  And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

In fact we are told in :

1Co 12:12  For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. v:13  For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. v:14  For the body is not one member, but many. v:15  If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? v:16  And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? v:17  If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? v:18  But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. v:19  And if they were all one member, where were the body? v:20  But now are they many members, yet but one body. v:21  And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. v:22  Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: v:23  And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. v:24  For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: v:25  That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. v:26  And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. v:27  Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

I know God is intimately involved with His creation, and with every soul on earth - and with me. But, there are spiritual and physical boundaries which shrouds Him from most of us, or shall I say, protects His holiness from being desecrated by man and Satan - and saves us from annihilation, should His righteousness have its way. And this is the big mistake scientists make, by not acknowledging the existence of a spiritual domain. Their limited knowledge of the world stops at the speed of light - what happens after that is too vague and unreal for them, But there is another world out there - the meta-physical one - which is every bit as real as ours, maybe even more real, because the presence of God in that world, having more than three dimensions, is even more manifest than it is in our world. You only need to listen to the testimonies of people who had near death and after death experiences to realize that.

We need to realize that God cannot reveal Himself in a tangible way in our world, other than to let Moses see His behind. Firstly because he is invisible, being a spirit - and secondly, if He does, we will not have the liberty to choose to be friends of Him, we will just have to be his friends, lest He puts us in Hell, thereby depriving us of the biggest gift he has given us - the gift of free will - because then He would be a reality for us and not an invisible guest and friend.

But there is an even better explanation for this reluctance of God to appear in person in our physical world, as mentioned in a previous paragraph regarding the physical and meta-physical worlds. The two worlds are one of physical presence and one of spiritual presence. A spirit cannot appear in our physical world as a spirit, and must take on the form of a physical being, be it animal or human. Similarly we cannot appear in the meta-physical world with our worldly bodies. Whether it is a rule of the game or a physical law, I am not sure - it could even be both.

Just imagine what chaos would have been on earth if the Satan was free to come here and pretend to be God. We would all believe him, because as a spirit he would be able to impress us big time with his special powers.

And this is the reason why God had to appear to us as Jesus Christ - completely human. And that is the reason why Satan appeared to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden as a snake - he could not find a human body, as Adam and Eve were the only human bodies on earth at that stage. And that is the reason why Lucifer will appear as Anti-Christ in the human body of the Pope in the Great tribulation - because the Pope is the most likely candidate for such a role, having been anti-Christ himself for millennia. The word anti-Christ come from the Greek 'anti' meaning 'in the place of' Christ, and that the Pope has pretended to be for two millennia as the Vicar of Christ, complete with his infallibility.

In the next extract Raymond Smullyan asks the question of God : I mean, why don't you appear to our very senses and simply tell us that we are wrong?

If he had insight into the spiritual world, like many human have, he would have been able to answer that question himself.

In the following extract from the Mind's I, Raymond Smullyan argues the case for the nature of God, from a logical point of view, much more convincingly than I ever can.

Mortal : Tell me, since we mortals seem to have such erroneous views about your real nature, why don't you enlighten us? Why don't you guide us the right way?

God :    What makes you think I'm not?

Mortal : I mean, why don't you appear to our very senses and simply tell us that we are wrong?

God :    Are you really so naïve as to believe that I am a sort of being which can appear to your senses. It would be more correct to say that I am your senses.

Mortal ;  You are my senses?

God :    Not quite, I am more than that. But it comes closer to the truth than the idea that I am perceivable by the senses. I am not an object; like you, I am a subject, and a subject can perceive, but cannot be perceived. You can no more see me than your own thoughts. You can see an apple, but the event of your seeing an apple is itself not seeable. And I am far more than the seeing of an apple than the apple itself.

Mortal : If I can't see you, how do I know you exist?

God :    Good question! How in fact do you know that I exist?

Mortal : Well, I am talking to you, am I not?

God : How do you know you are talking to me? Suppose you told a psychiatrists, "Yesterday I talked to God." What do you think he would say?

Mortal :That might depend on the psychiatrist. Since most of them are atheistic, I guess most would tell me I had simply been talking to myself.

God :     And they would be right!

Mortal : What? You mean you don't exist?

God :  You have the strangest faculty of drawing false conclusions! Just because you are talking to yourself, it follows that I don't exist?

               ....

Mortal : Allright, I'll grant your point! But what I really want o know is do you exist?

God :    What a strange question!

Mortal : Why? Men have been asking if for countless millennia.

God :    I know that! The question itself is not strange; what I mean is that it is a most strange question to ask me!

Mortal : Why?

God :    Because I am the very one whose existence you doubt! ... how can you possibly expect to obtain reliable information from a being about his very existence when you expect the non-existence of the very same being?

Mortal :  So you won't tell me whether or not you exist?

God :    I am not being willful! I merely wish to point out that no answer I could give you could possibly satisfy you.

               ...

Mortal ; Well, if you can't tell me whether or not you exist, then who possibly can?

God :   That is something which no one can tell you. It is something which only you can find out for yourself.

Mortal : How do I go about finding this out for myself?

God :    That also no one can tell you. This is another thing you will have to find out for yourself.

               ....

Mortal :  Why did you say your expression was misleading?

God :   What I said was misleading in two respects. First of all it is inaccurate to speak of my role in the scheme of things. I am the scheme of things. Secondly, it is equally misleading to speak of my aiding the process of sentient beings attaining enlightenment. I am the process. The ancients (Taoists) were quite close when they said of me that I do no do things, yet through me all things get done. I am not the cause of the Cosmic process. I am the Cosmic process itself.

               ....

 

We find the proof of this in the words of the Master himself :

Joh 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

No, this is not a metaphor. If it was, Jesus would have said : I am truth. What He says here is that I am my creation, because surely truth was a creation of God, and if not - part of God himself, which says the same thing.

I leave you with these profound thoughts, and hope you enjoyed this excursion into things profound and profane. God bless you.

 


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