Over the past couple of weeks I’ve tried to outline in the Answering Series things I might say in response to typical questions about what distinguishes my faith and religion. The purpose was to summarize what you can expect from me. Some of you share with me various measures of that summary, and this is what makes our parish. The membership is limited to those who can put up with me while using this blog and my writing as a focus of some kind of virtual association. Very few of you lack other means of fellowship and communion, so this whole thing will always be tentative. For most of the people who subscribe to this and/or the other blog, my blather is just a little something extra on the side and I’m happy to be a part of your world. I’m thrilled to have you in mine on these terms; you don’t owe me anything, nor should you feel obligated.
For now, there is no real-world parish for me. That’s not meant to make you feel sad; it’s the reality of my calling. You who commune with me here are the only “church” I have, so I would naturally have more of myself invested in this project than most of you. And a few of you have felt yourself called alongside for whatever reason, and I’m blessed by your company. It’s open to anyone, but investment of yourself naturally means you’ll have a stronger influence in whatever decisions are made. It’s that agape thing, you know: Don’t get involved unless you sense the power of the Holy Spirit dragging you into it. We are virtual family, sharing a spiritual DNA — that comes with privileges. Such privileges are of no value to anyone who isn’t held inside the bonds of communion.
That doesn’t mean our electronic noise here is of no interest to any one else. Some find the noise offensive.
Being a peculiar religion way out on the fringes of mainstream society, one of things that marks us is our reliance on otherworldly considerations — “the supernatural.” It spooks most people, but we take for granted a way of operating in this world that isn’t rooted here. We talk to nonhuman elements in our world and believe they talk back because we are convinced Our Lord does business that way. And I, for one, believe that God speaks through dreams and visions. To avoid sounding like a bunch of religion that is really not the same as mine, I tend to be reticent about dreams and visions until they suggest something that might affect you.
It’s not that I pay no attention to the vast wealth of information already available to us, but that I don’t trust it to cover everything. My Lord guides me to understand things of this world, but He speaks to me directly in other ways, and I’ve had a dream-vision that this virtual parish has gotten, or is about to get, some attention from those who consider us annoying. Questions and dissent are no threat to my faith, but someone actively trying to change my message or trying to hush up any part of it is persecution, by definition, because our whole religion in this parish is mostly restricted to the electronic communication. So it’s one thing to notice the data online suggesting that the atmosphere is getting tense, and the nature of the conflicts; I’ve posted about that plenty of times. It’s another thing when that indefinable voice of God that drove me to this place says it’s about to get personal.
And if you consider yourself a part of this ministry, it could touch you, too.
The Answering Series was hopefully a good review that fortified a core of belief for some of you. The last thing I need is to confuse and obscure something that makes a difference in claiming our divine heritage in Christ. All I really want is to help discard things that you don’t need to worry about so you can focus your energy on what it takes to pursue the Son and please the Father. That includes helping you decide what part of my message might not work for you, because it would pull me down to take myself too seriously. Either way, I took advantage of some heavy discussion to make sure there was no confusion about what I represent, with an eye to helping you crystallize what you represent. Because the fiery arrows are coming.
That’s a reference to Ephesians 6 where Paul offers some parabolic images of spiritual armor. Stand firm! You might not cling to this earth with as much physical mass as I have, but your faith can easily overwhelm the mountains Satan puts in your path. By the way, my dream indicated that the attack, whatever it seems on the surface, will come from the Zionist Christians. Fortunately, their attacks seldom include any kind of offline persecution, so I rather expect it will be noise here and perhaps in your email, etc. That’s been the pattern so far with other folks they attack. I suppose there will come a day when the spite will ratchet to a higher level, but I don’t believe we are there yet.
Just look for some noise, and let your heart decide if you need to answer, and how. In general, don’t engage in debate as if you could hope to persuade them with reason. That’s their home ground. I’m often willing to explain myself, of course, but I never answer attempts to manipulate. The Lord saw fit to grant me some training and experience in head games, and I’m sure some of you have your own scars. At any rate, should anything instructive appear on my radar, I’ll share it with you here.
Addenda: My dream included a very specific warning about someone; would you be surprised that they hit me this morning with an email blast of Zionism after I posted this? So far as I know, this person is not a regular reader. However, the exchange turned out gentle in the end; give God room to work.
