Dec 11
15
The 4th Dimension…Having Already Entered (Chapter Twenty-Five)
Oh, "say something bold", not do something bold...SORRY.
Let’s start off by building upon our awareness …I just asked my favorite “What now” question. Which was answered with the instruction to say something bold: “What would that be?” I asked further.
“All humanity suffers from the same challenge!” In other words, I am to share with you that I need this little “building upon our awareness” pep talk just as much, if not more, than anyone and everyone else and YET the reason I can speak so boldly is that I am speaking from a place of weakness, not strength, but which (that weakness) is my strength and is the same strength available to everyone else.
Those of you who have read Leapfrog a fictionalized version of some very real live events in my life may remember the acronym “GOFA” which came from a simultaneous revelation shared by several of the group of twelve which lived together on the beach just south of Jacksonville, Florida.
That's Brad at the back of the line, he's saying, "hold on guys I have to pee".
The true story behind the acronym which stands for “Get Off Fat Ass” came as a result of six of us walking together daily up the incline dirt road that begins near sea level at a former sugar cane plantation, in an old farmhouse where I lived at the time, a few miles north of Hilo, and traverses upwards toward the top of the almost 14,000 foot high peak of Mauna Kea, the highest mountain in the State of Hawaii.
A bit of background: The home and farm located there (in the middle of hundreds of acres of no longer harvested cane fields) belonged to Sus Kumigi who was then the International Missions Director for the denomination with which I was associated as editor of and contributor to its monthly magazine, a conference speaker and kind of an aide de camp to the president and a roving ambassador to the affiliated churches around the U.S and Canada.
The president wanted Sus and I to get to know each other better and work together to build a viable training program for volunteer workers in various third-world mission outposts.
Sus invited me to live in a spare room in the farmhouse he also occupied with his family, not only as a means to facilitate the president’s wishes for us to become better acquainted, but also he wanted me to share in the spiritual growth of thirty or so of a wide variety of ethnic origin (of the total of perhaps twice that many, daily farm workers) whom –those thirty– also met, three evenings a week, in the large dirt-floor room; in that same house, which Sus had converted into a meeting hall of sorts.
Whoa, Brad be careful, those chickens look angry.
In this meeting place there was a communal kitchen and eating area, with enough tables and chairs to accommodate everyone.
The house was well equipped with telephonic and computing equipment, as the international mission offices were situated there, so that there were no technical barriers to moving my office there from where it had been at the national headquarters in the eastern part of Tennessee.
Sus, a native-born Japanese, who was brought by his parents to Hawaii some 60 plus years earlier, as an infant, was the owner/manager of the farm which raised livestock and grew fresh vegetables delivered daily to the many hotels and restaurants in the Hilo area.
Sus had many other business interests which supported him and his family, and provided employment for many, but his passion was planting house churches around the island (and the world) as an outgrowth of the mission church he operated with several volunteers.
Sus and I shared the vision of being self-supporting as did the president of the denomination …the three of us all maintained our own financial support rather than taking any income from the organization – although we did raise money for our travel expenses at conferences and camp meetings.
Literally hundreds of people along the eastern coast of the “Big” Island of Hawaii had been introduced into a personal knowledge and experience of Christ through Sus’ dynamic and unassuming leadership. The healings that took place when Sus was present were legend.
Sus was an early “fan” of what I wrote and taught related to what Jesus referred to as the “Faith OF God” or “God-faith” and he expressed an eagerness to have me come to the Hilo area so that I could share it with the many house-churches represented in the area.
He also had a deep personal commitment to the spiritual growth of those above referenced thirty who gathered together, Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings as a means to equip them for personal evangelism and healing around the island.
Sus had heard me give a talk at a campground conference near Florence, Alabama several months before about the dynamics of walking and praying …and shortly after I arrived in Hilo, asked if I’d be interested in going out at 5:30 a.m. each day for an hour of walking and praying together with him.
We began to get excited about the effect it was having on both of us as we went out every morning. Since it rains a lot in that area he outfitted me with tall rubber boots, rain coat, hat, umbrella and a waterproof flashlight.
We shared our enthusiasm for what was happening to us with the group of thirty; we added four other men who asked, one by one, to go with us. We kept moving the time back earlier and earlier until the six of us would meet outside at 2:00 a.m. every morning and walk up the steep hill, often in a heavy downpour.
The other four had to drive to the farm from their homes in the Hilo area. Sus’ wife Asai, suggested that she make us all breakfast at 6:00 a.m. each morning …this became our habit, seven days a week; and the total experience had a profound effect upon us collectively and individually.
Brad built a tower to heaven on Mauna Kea. He's still building today.
The president (in Tennessee), upon hearing our enthusiasm for our walking and praying practice, asked Sus and me to prepare to share our experiences at an upcoming missionary conference scheduled in Washington State.
The six of us – all outfitted in the knee length rubber boots and etc., rain attire, would walk up the road to between 4,000 and 6,000 ft. elevation would stay several feet apart and strung out along the road – praying privately.
Usually, about every twenty minutes or so, somebody would get a revelation and we’d call one another to gather together and share.
One morning just a few days prior to when Sus and I would have to fly to Seattle to attend the Washington conference, Fred, in his very thick Filipino accent wanted to know if anyone else had heard the word GOFA – one of the others and I started laughing. I explained that I had just heard it too and had been told what it meant.
Fred insisted, “What ees theece word?” Sus blurted out that it stood for “Get Off Fat Ass” and also laughing said, “I think we now have our theme for the conference …GOFA.”
None of us had ever heard it before and we were each amazed that our SPIRIT-PARENT would give it to all of us simultaneously while praying and walking privately!
“It sounds crude,” Sus continued, “but people need to understand the things that are happening to us are a direct result of walking and praying together, and I am not afraid to tell them that, if you want to experience some significant growth get off your ass and walk and pray.
One of the interesting side-effects to our daily four-hour regimen was the substantial loss of weight that all six of us experienced!
So, Daddy, how does this fit in with saying something “bold” about having already entered the 4th Dimension “kingdom”?
from your 3rd dimension orientation!
Wow! Here it is: “Do not fear telling people that it takes effort to break through, to break out of their 3rd Dimension orientation, for that is what it is …an orientation to physical realities rather than being governed by the what all too many think of as ‘supernatural’ or ‘miraculous’ instead of the normal life available NOW in the spirit realm.”
I can remember the confidence with which Sus attended and spoke at that conference. One of the several “shaking up” things he said: “Because I am not afraid to tell people to get off their asses and out of their comfort zones, they expect to be changed and are.”
The simplicity is that we may already be in the 4th Dimension, but most of us aren’t aware of it, because our brains need a boost. I am neither afraid to say “I don’t know squat” and “I am weak” because I know of no other way to go to our SPIRIT-PARENT and say I want more, I need more of YOU! …and continue saying it UNTIL I break through to the point of realizing that I AM …in the kingdom of heaven now …having already entered.
Some people need to be on their knees, some people need to be on their face, some people need to get up at 1:30 every morning to walk up a hill and pray together, yet privately.
Having already entered is an intellectual statement, if you want to experience it in the NOW, I suggest getting off your ass and stay off UNTIL you are aware of being there. Is that bold enough?
You won't reach your destination if you don't start walking and praying.
Walking and praying is the Brad Cullen way to regularly seek out our SPIRIT-PARENT …the key is NOT walking or practicing any preconceived idea about what constitutes “prayer” …NO! What I am urging upon you is to go directly to our SPIRIT-PARENT and apply whatever courage and faith you already possess to call out emphatically, I WANT MORE OF YOU!
If you are saying you don’t have enough courage and faith, that’s exactly where you start to get it. Pretty simple …keep on keeping on hollering for more until you get more. How can that be if we are already there? It becomes evident when our speaking becomes, “I AM FULL OF FAITH AND COURAGE” which some insist is the way to get it. Fine by me, let’s not argue for one way or another, just do it!
Can there possibly be more on down or up the road? Yes, because we’re already there.