Jul 22
4
UNTIL
Walking and operating in the presence and power of our SPIRIT-PARENT is intensely individual.
What I’ve been shown is that, for me, it will come into reality for anyone who catches the essence of a promise delivered over two thousand years ago.
That promise is, if we put the kingdom of I AM that, I AM in the position of number one priority and “seek” it UNTIL we find it, we will have it plus the faith to continue “seeking” it, which will bring each individual to a point of breaking into newly spiritually powerful experiences in a continuum.
Below I’ve copied and pasted the fifth chapter from Part II of Leapfrog a novel based on true-story experiences of several people including myself.
I wrote Leapfrog in the first-person narrative of Darlene Adams, to which my editor at the time commented, I just now remembered, “You’ve got a lot of balls writing as a woman.”
Note: If you want to receive a free PDF copy of the entire book, just drop me an email: brad@spiritualhealingsource.com and I’ll attach it in my reply.
Chapter 5 Making Sense of It
THERE WERE JUST THE SIX OF US, WILL, ANN, Brad, Vic, Jack and I.
I assumed correctly that all the others were busy with their normal day. I missed Colin and Bob and realized that we were becoming closely connected with them as well.
“I’d like to see if I can kind of muddle through something with all of you, if I may…” I said, not knowing quite where I was headed, but wanting to talk it out. They just looked expectantly at me.
“Jack came back from a long walk on the beach and shared a breakthrough he should describe to you. But first, I want to get out my reactions to it and share what happened to me as a result.”
I told them what had happened and my happiness for Jack, then shared my disappointment about his leaping forward and my not getting anything.
“I went for a walk on the beach for about an hour and a half, still demanding—and getting nothing.”
I then described what happened in the shower and the realization that I was receiving a big dose of faith to continue demanding, and got the word UNTIL.
I described the picture I had gotten of the giant neon sign. “Okay, okay,” I said with the excitement I was feeling. “I couldn’t quite put it into words before.” I was rushing ahead with a torrent of words, “I have the assurance of having received the baptism of Holy Spirit—and I have not spoken in tongues, yet, and I am not worried about it.
“Maybe I never will and it doesn’t make any difference. That’s what I couldn’t say upstairs, Jack.
“Walking in the Spirit is such an individual thing, and I was disappointed at not having your experience. I also felt guilty about being somewhat jealous. But the amazing thing is that it is what drove me to continue on until I received this assurance.
“It’s almost that the reassurance itself is the sign for me of being baptized into His presence….” I hesitated. “I’m sorry that I am going on and on, but it has been such an incredibly exciting experience.”
“Can I say something to you, Darlene?” Vic asked.
“Of course,” I replied somewhat chagrined that I had talked so much to say so little.
“This is exactly why Will and I wanted you guys to get away and be here. Not that being here is essential to what happened to you, but the emphasis among the staff and Brad is that the walk in the Spirit of God is an individual thing. The fact that you cannot quite put it into words is marvelous. Nobody can make a doctrine out of it. We can all agree that the process is merely doing what Jesus instructed, but in your own individual way.”
“I’ve got it,” Will interrupted with his patented slap on the side of his knee. “Brad, let’s turn Jack and Darlene’s suite into a shrine. We can hold seminars about what is just the right way to knock on the shower walls and yell. People would come from all over the world. It could be a miracle of the Lourdes kind of thing,” he finished with his cackle, not noticing everyone was only slightly amused by his joke.
“And that would be perfect,” Brad said seriously. “We’re not going to do it, of course, and while you are joking, that’s how traditions and doctrines are born. But out of those traditions people learn, people react and Holy Spirit uses it to further His own cause.
“I am so guilty of being anti-tradition,” Brad continued, “that I make anti-tradition into a tradition. That’s what Ann brought back so forcefully to me last night; I make a ritual out of non-ritual. What I was just shown from your joke, Will, is that Darlene’s experience is exciting and I am so glad that it happened here. But it’s Darlene’s experience—neither to be venerated nor disdained. She sees it—and correct me if I’m wrong here, Darlene—for exactly what it is. It was her own revelation from God that she has been baptized with and into His Spirit. But even this is process and merely one forward step.”
“Oh thank you, Brad,” I said, “That is exactly it. I can look back and see God’s handiwork even in the midst of depression. I know He didn’t give me the depression and I know that I didn’t need to go through that to get to here, but it was part of the process. I don’t want to idolize any part of the process. I just want to move on with more and more of Holy Spirit and keep knocking, demanding and seeking and never stopping. I had gotten into a real rut in my thinking, and this is what I’m being shown. I was thinking that if I hadn’t been depressed, I never would have met Will, Ann and Vic. Had I not met them, I wouldn’t be here…and so on. I understand this morning like I’ve never understood anything—God uses everything, and to get hung up on any of the events along the way is missing God.”
“Exactly,” Vic said. “And getting hung up on anything along the way is the perfect definition of idolatry. I believe you said it once, Brad, when we started corresponding and I was throwing all kinds of Scripture at you in defense of my position, ‘If the Bible doesn’t lead us to God and His love then the Bible is nothing.’ You, Bob and Colin call it Bible bondage; I’d call it Bible idolatry.
“As a Bible thumper I always decried experience and said that we need to be able to square everything with what the Bible says. What I’m learning through Darlene is that experience doesn’t need to be rejected or worshiped, it is just part of the process. So is the Bible, so is the manuscript that Will had given to Jack and Darlene. None of it is sacred; it is all just part of the process.”
Ann changed the direction of the conversation with, “I’d like to hear what you experienced on the beach this morning, Jack.”
“Well, I’m glad we had this conversation. The experience was great and I’m going to share it, naturally I’m excited about it, but I’m even more excited about what happened to Darlene and this discussion that her experience brought us.” Jack described again what had happened to him on the beach.
“I’m not sure what it means, singing in a language that I haven’t learned by normal means. I just knew it was a breakthrough into the realm of God.”
Brad responded, “What just struck me about your experience is something Paul wrote as a corrective to some believers in Corinth, but it is also an encouragement that we don’t often hear expressed. Paul said I will pray in tongues, but I will also pray with my mind. I will speak in tongues, but I will also speak with understanding. I will sing in tongues, but I will also sing with my mind…and you described it perfectly as a breakthrough into the realm of God. Paul wrote to his young protégé, Timothy, to stir up the gift God had given him. In the original language it is pretty clear that it means to practice the gift. My encouragement to you, Jack, is to do just that—practice singing in the spirit, often.” “Now that’s exciting to me,” Jack said. “I have been hung up as Vic just expressed on squaring everything with the Bible. I’m getting cured of that, but it is still nice to know that what happened to me does have a Scriptural basis.”
If you feel spiritually “dry,” could the reason be in the above title?
When Moses had a visit from a voice that spoke from the midst of a bright light in a bush in the Sinai desert, a rather unforgettable experience for me just reading about it …the voice referred to itself as the God of Abraham, who is the father of both Arabs and Jews and the rest of humanity.
The voice gave Moses instructions to go tell the Children of Israel some things preparatory to escaping their enslavement in Egypt.
Moses asked the voice, “What shall I tell them when they ask who sent me?”
“Tell them I AM that, I AM has sent you. That is my name and let it be a memorial to all generations.”
In other words, don’t forget it! Most of us have.
You may want to visit the third chapter of Exodus in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, to see if you get a boost to your own memory.
I also invite you to visit a Brad Cullen article I wrote in 2012 –
d/”b”
Would You Like to Know Why . . . “Salvation” is NOT the Answer? http://spiritualhealingsource.com/?p=3394
In Freedom,
Brad
…mountains of doubt, unbelief and other obstacles
It was at the San Francisco Airport, Hilton Inn, where I was “stuck” for the weekend; just me and a Greek New Testament.
I stumbled onto something that startled me – and as an exercise, I often would translate how I thought it would best be shared in the English vernacular with people whom I might be sharing.
“How much more of God’s own spirit, will he give to those who cry out to him day and night until they know they have enough to meet the need of the moment.”
I believe the year was 1962. If so it means that for 60 years I’ve been doing the same thing . . . anytime I’m faced with a situation for which I don’t feel I have enough faith (such as right now, writing this article in a way that will help readers to find their own faith instead of leaning on me)!
The reason for that is so that you don’t get “faith” regurgitated like baby food from me, but go directly to the SOURCE, the Spirit of God (which, expressing it that way is the height of redundancy) …and WHO IS faith.
“Faith,” viewed from this perspective, is nothing more and nothing less than SPIRIT in action – it’s not “your” or “my” faith, it’s the faith of I AM that, I AM.
d/”b”
PS – I wrote a Brad Cullen article in September of 2010 I called, Do You Stop Short of God-Faith? Click on the link below or copy and paste into your URL, it’s nice and short – http://spiritualhealingsource.com/?p=906
In Freedom,
Brad