"It is impossible to please God without risk."~Chris Bassett@pastorcjb
Several years ago, when I first began truly and earnestly seeking God for myself, the Lord gave me three visions that taught me about faith, a topic I had been studying and praying to understand.
In the first I stood alone, everything I knew well-lit behind me, visible in perfect detail and vibrant color. Before me was absolutely dark. Right at my toes and almost touching my nose right before me was a dense and tangible darkness, hanging curtain-like. If I had reached out before me, my hand and arm would've disappeared into it. I understood that moving forward into that was faith, and at that point assumed I would proceed one careful step at a time, feeling my way, carefully testing the ground before I put weight on the forward foot.
Days passed, and I thought about that vision many times, allowing it to sink into my soul as I continued to listen to my Lord. The second vision came in a quiet moment as I stood in my bedroom one afternoon and began the same, me standing in that place, the well-known and well-lit behind me, the thick darkness before. This time I knew that I stood at the edge of a cliff, the depth and width of the abyss before me completely unknown and utterly unmeasurable. At that moment in the vision, I made a decision: I gathered myself, sprinted two steps with everything I had and with arms open wide threw myself into the black.
And I finally understood.
That is faith.
A few days afterward I had an experience in prayer that answered the choice I had made in the second vision. As I began praying that evening I felt surrounded by evil spirits--distinctly individual intelligences consumed by ill intent who came to threaten and frighten me. Praying for protection, I immediately felt wings--powerful, brilliant and shining--rising from my shoulders as I knelt at my bedside. They stretched and flexed, a perfect set of gloriously white eagle's wings that sheltered and protected me. Then, much to my surprise, God gave me a tail in the spirit just as strong and beautiful as my wings: a long lion's tail that with one swing banished every one of those spirits behind and around me. The tail and wings protected and covered me as I prayed, and I felt such power in the spirit, such blessing.
The first vision showed me where I was at that moment: on the cusp of something new and totally unknown. In the second vision, I made a choice and acted on it. And then Jesus showed me how He responds to those who trust Him so much they refuse to edge timidly into the dark.
In the first I stood alone, everything I knew well-lit behind me, visible in perfect detail and vibrant color. Before me was absolutely dark. Right at my toes and almost touching my nose right before me was a dense and tangible darkness, hanging curtain-like. If I had reached out before me, my hand and arm would've disappeared into it. I understood that moving forward into that was faith, and at that point assumed I would proceed one careful step at a time, feeling my way, carefully testing the ground before I put weight on the forward foot.
Days passed, and I thought about that vision many times, allowing it to sink into my soul as I continued to listen to my Lord. The second vision came in a quiet moment as I stood in my bedroom one afternoon and began the same, me standing in that place, the well-known and well-lit behind me, the thick darkness before. This time I knew that I stood at the edge of a cliff, the depth and width of the abyss before me completely unknown and utterly unmeasurable. At that moment in the vision, I made a decision: I gathered myself, sprinted two steps with everything I had and with arms open wide threw myself into the black.
And I finally understood.
That is faith.
A few days afterward I had an experience in prayer that answered the choice I had made in the second vision. As I began praying that evening I felt surrounded by evil spirits--distinctly individual intelligences consumed by ill intent who came to threaten and frighten me. Praying for protection, I immediately felt wings--powerful, brilliant and shining--rising from my shoulders as I knelt at my bedside. They stretched and flexed, a perfect set of gloriously white eagle's wings that sheltered and protected me. Then, much to my surprise, God gave me a tail in the spirit just as strong and beautiful as my wings: a long lion's tail that with one swing banished every one of those spirits behind and around me. The tail and wings protected and covered me as I prayed, and I felt such power in the spirit, such blessing.
The first vision showed me where I was at that moment: on the cusp of something new and totally unknown. In the second vision, I made a choice and acted on it. And then Jesus showed me how He responds to those who trust Him so much they refuse to edge timidly into the dark.
