Yesterday I was distracted by a very heavy sense of pressure. It has happened often enough that I recognized it as a moral burden, a potent sense of anticipation that great evil was coming to America. Furthermore, I was not alone. A couple of friends contacted me about the same thing bearing down on their conscious awareness.
I’ve written about this often enough; it’s part of mysticism. We are setting about intentionally trying to become aware of the Unseen Realm. We want to be a part of it. We are consciously preparing to take our place in Eternity and this world simply isn’t where things happen assertively, but is a mere reaction to things that originate somewhere else.
During those periods of pressure, I spend a lot more time in prayer and contemplation, striving to connect better to that other realm. Anyone close to me can tell I’m distracted, even if they don’t sense anything themselves. It’s rather like a calling, a bell ringing for my attention. It’s never processed intellectually, but it often results in moving me to do things differently. It’s not about data, but about persons and strong connections on a different level.
Some of my habits have already been changing, and in many ways such pressure confirms and gives focus to the resolve that moves me.
Let me give you some specifics of what has been moving already. I rarely use a graphical browser to read and research things on the Net. I use something called “elinks” quite a bit in a terminal window on Linux. It reduces the content clutter. Granted, there are whole sites where it doesn’t work at all, but most of the time it’s just fine. I get the data I’m seeking and don’t have to worry about the manipulative distractions common on most websites.
It’s not just the advertising; it’s the whole package of how color, shape and imagery are used to condition our thinking and receptivity to the content. For example, I’ve done some research on human awareness and how the media on the Net affects us as humans. I’m not going to link to the videos because, oddly enough, the videos themselves participate in the same manipulation they pretend to be warning about.
Do you realize just how much of what crosses the wires on the Net is not direct human communications? The majority of all traffic is generated by automatic processes — bots and algorithms talking to each other. We have created a whole generation of people whose creative efforts are entirely controlled by algorithms and what the service algorithms will promote. People seldom act on the interests of other people, being steered instead by how the algorithms promote or hide their output. The creative output serves profitability, not self-expression.
And content creators also must avoid censorship, that vast ugly effort to shape human perception.
Part of what I was facing in that pressure in my soul was about this very thing. I’m being called to change how I engage the Net because of how God is working among His people. Something awful is coming that will shut down opportunities I’ve enjoyed in the past. It’s not that my message will change, but that the means and methods will change.
Nor should you imagine that everything happened all at once yesterday. Rather, yesterday signaled to me a moment of turning, that the balance of things had finally shifted and decisions had to be made.
Don’t get hung up on the specifics; that’s not the point. The point is how God works in us. We are being steered by the Spirit, if we will listen. I’m doing my best to stay open. When we seek the Lord with passion, then that passion will burn more brightly at times. So, much of what happened yesterday was a shift in my heart on a moral plane, not a matter of mere facts and actions. The implications will play out in the future as my conscious awareness discovers what has changed in my convictions, bouncing my resolve off of circumstances.
We shall see what it means.
