October and the Supernatural

At the end of this month people will be enjoying the fun of Halloween.  Many don't take it seriously and see nothing wrong with trick or treat or the new trend in churches to do "trick or trunks" or try to dress up a distraction with "fall festivals".  There are many good Christians who have gotten into studying how this holiday came about and their objections fall onto deaf ears.  My own husband loves horror films as do one of our sons...it's all harmless they say.  I used to think so before I began following Christ fervently...and when I had pushed away all the bad things that caused me to run from the Church as a child.  I was a child of the 70's and lived to do whatever I wanted...and I was freed from the things that hindered me and scared me.  I seldom tell others about my childhood experiences as a child in the Church.  Who would believe me?  They wouldn't have then for sure...I was only 6-10yrs old.  They won't now because the supernatural only exists for those who go "ghost-chasing" or those who practice the Craft.  Christians today don't delve into it because to admit there is supernatural evil means there is supernatural good as well...and the whole reality of sin and punishment, heaven and hell might mean...well our souls are really in peril...aren't they?

I have friends who are into Wicca and have actual covens.  I have others who thoroughly enjoy Wiccan stories, stories of vampires, and Harry Potter.  I have known others who practice satanism.  Still others who are pagans and don't know they are...Mother Earth and all that.  Nobody wants to hear the Christian story anymore...the thought conjures up images of President Bush, the Republican Party, Pedophile priests, Jimmy Swaggarts, the Crystal Cathedral, Jim and Tammy Bakker, and the notorious Pat Robertson of the 700 Club...and suddenly one is nauseaous and gagging.  Christianity is a made up religion by men to control people...and if God is like these witnesses...they'd rather leave Him.

It was the 60's, and the world was in a state of chaos, rebellion and anger were screaming for change in the world!  I was a child and was not aware of events of my time completely.  Raised Catholic I went to a Catholic school, and we attended Holy Mass as a class.  We walked across the street to the beautifully adorned Church.  In those days they practiced the Old Latin Mass.  I was a scared little girl who came from a poor family.  I was a tomboy and a rebel even then.  My greatest resistance was to wearing a dress.  My mind was not on the catechism they were trying to teach, or the prayers we were to learn, and to prepare for Holy Communion.  I didn't understand it and I did not care.  My cares were to play football, basketball, baseball and fight with the boys.  Yet, God decided he would make me care...He would reveal things to  me.  He would scare the heebie-jeebies out of me! 

I sat in Church and prayed with my classmates, and did all the things I was supposed to do.  Yet every single time--I was tormented!  I would get lightheaded, nauseous, and dizzy.  Looking around, nobody else seemed to be having any difficulty.  Perhaps its because we were hungry alot as kids...and perhaps it was the incense that caused it all.  There had to be a reason for it.  Then I began to break out in a cold sweat.  As an adult it was easy to reason these were all symptoms of hypoglycemia.  There remained the issue of the "visions".  A child has a wild imagination do they not?  Yet for such an imagination....it kept me from the Church for over 30+ years.  I remember them vividly still at the age of 50.  I saw monsters fly around the sanctuary during Mass and I was terrified.  I felt like I was choking and couldn't breathe!  I saw images of ugly bird-like things seem to come right out of the stained-glass windows!  I saw many disgusting things happen at the altar that I cannot describe here; but are still very real to me in my mind...never forgotten.  So when my parents were getting a divorce, I convinced my mother to let me leave the Church.  She believed she had given us a foundation of faith and we would have to discover the way on our own journey.  She had only ever been to a Methodist church twice as a child, growing up during the Depression, and her mother died when she was four...leaving 10 children.  She had no true religion upbringing.  Marrying my father, she became Catholic, but he was far from Catholic much less living a Christian lifestyle of any kind.  This happened in the 4th grade! I was so relieved, and so happy!  No more nightmares and suffering in Church for me!!

My life went down some very difficult roads seeking answers and seeking God.  I found Him when I cried out as an adult.  I got "saved" in an evangelical church, went to a Baptist, Pentecostal, Non-denominational, and Methodist Church....my soul was on a journey.  God was speaking and teaching and I was so filled with joy, peace and love!  This was My God!  He was Good and not dark, heavy and scary!  He taught me the Scriptures, opened my understanding, developed teaching gifts, gave me discernment, and spiritual battles....by taking me to each of these churches.  He was the One who finally decided it was time to come home to Rome.  Oh wow! I cannot do that!  He spent 3 years causing me to dig into researching truths...everything He was saying was not what the protestants said, so who did say these things?  Everything He gave me came up Catholic on the internet.  He led me to email a Catholic deacon on the internet who "set me free" by his response to my story of the supernatural experiences I had as a child in the Catholic Mass.  I decided to trust the Lord and go to Mass Dec. 24th, Midnight Mass.  I came home to a very different church, a changed service,  a whole new culture.  I was home.

I truly believe in the supernatural!  I believe in the prayers, the liturgy, the Eucharist and all the Sacraments of having power!  I believe many are going to hell because of lack of belief and hardened hearts of routine and affluence.  I sincerely believe many are going to suffer damnation for corruption and deception.  Still many more, for the lack of Truth and the Ancient Paths of the Sacramental life and religion.  The "spirit of the world" is killing off whole populations in atheism and witchcraft and the occult--but it is also destroying souls within the Church herself...the spirit of the world is "antichrist".  I pray for Saint Michael to fight for us and defend us!  I pray for people to humble themselves and return to faith and worship and holiness!  I pray for people to be awakened before they slip into hell, to fires of eternal damnation, into the Abyss!  I pray for priests to return to preaching about hell, sin and suffering!  I pray for the Church to return to practicing ancient rites and prayers and practices to fight supernaturally against evil spirits at work in our midst, in our families, in our schools and workplaces...in our governing bodies.  May the Lord have mercy and send fresh fire through the Holy Spirit upon the heads of those whose hearts are not yet blackened beyond salvation! Amen!

                         
                                               GOD SPOKE TO JOSEPH IN A DREAM

As I was writing in my journal this morning, and in prayer, I was reflecting on how God has spoken to me in my life.  How did I know it was HIM?  I was thanking HIM for all the things HE has done, is doing, what HE has taught me and where HE had moved in my life over the years.  So when I went into the bible for reading, HE took me to Matthew...where Joseph was told in a dream by God that the child Mary was carrying was a son and he was to be called Jesus: for HE would save his people from their sins.

Many people today don't seem to "hear" from God.  I used to be one of them before HE opened my eyes and my ears.  One of the things I heard this morning, was when I was praying for the healing and deliverance and conversion of people on my list--"They don't believe unless they see the miracles and signs"...and I replied to HIM..."Lord I know the miracles, signs, and workings of YOU in my life" and then began to recant them to HIM.  I told HIM that my prayers were not because I wanted "more to help me believe in HIM" but the prayers were BECAUSE  of my faith in HIM!  The desire for their healing and conversions and deliverance comes from HIM; because I have His Spirit within me, and it is HIS desire as well.  (if one could see God smile, I am almost certain HE did).  Going over all the times that HE spoke and I know I heard it was HIM, and all the times that HE worked out details for me and answered prayer that only HE could have known...brought forth an attitude of thanksgiving and praises this morning.  I am certain this is why Israel repeated over and over all the things God had done for them in the Old Testament, not just for preservation of their history and genealogy--but for them to "renew their minds" about HIM!

When I read about Joseph ready to put Mary away privately, and how God spoke to him in a dream...don't we all have dreams that we think mean something?  God called him "son of David", who calls us by our lineage?  HE explained where the baby came from...validating Mary's testimony...and also said why this child was to be born....oh that we could know so much about our own children!  He quoted Scripture in which Joseph would have known from the prophet Isaiah, about a virgin giving birth to Emmanuel, whose name means 'God with us'.  How wildly ecstatic Joseph must have been to know this!!  Would you want to run and tell everyone?  Whenever God spoke to me, I did; but soon learned...people are not exactly open to that kind of declaration. 

What does this mean--God with us?  Well we all know God is everywhere at all times and we also know God is in us...what does that mean though?  My husband and I came together and made a baby.  He has our traits and genes that he has inherited from us, and has even developed certain personality characteristics...but he has his own spirit.  I could not give him mine, nor his father able to share his.  The child has his own spirit.  So when Jesus came to die for us and to break the Sin Curse, HE did more than just save us...HE put some of Himself inside of us!  The FATHER, we seek, that we must go through JESUS to HIM, has already given us more than we truly know!  HE is the Creator...and the Creator is in us--the ONE who made the stars, the moon, the trees, the animals, the birds, and every human being....is in me?  The Father is in Jesus, and Jesus is in the Father and they are ONE...and Jesus is in me, so the Father is in me too...the ONE I pray to and hope to meet...is already here ...with us!

How can I hear HIM and know HIM?  I need to stop listening to my own thoughts, and renew my mind with HIS WORD, and believe and practice HIS PRESENCE...think of HIM as right here...in my very body and soul!  Talk to HIM as with anyone I love and listen.  This is not easy to do in our busy, noisy, demanding, and technological world...too many things beckon us so that we don't have time or peace to spend time with HIM who is already here with us.  Living in a natural world where our emotions, hurts, failings, and bad things happen...keep us focused on those "physical" things--but this is all temporary.  I know I cry out for my friends who are fighting cancer, and some who died anyway...I want them to see their daughter get married and to enjoy their grandchildren and not to become an empty place at their dinner table...or tears at Christmastime.  I know when my mother died, though I knew where she was going...it was the natural side of me that cries out that because I miss her so much!    The supernatural side of me smiles....as I read the Scriptures, consider the Passover meal in the Holy Mass (where the Angel of Death has passed over me ) and the fact that my God of the bible, is here with me.  I know it because I believe what I read, and also the constant "telling my history of Him working in my life (Israel)" and how HE speaks to me.  Joseph knew when the Voice called him son of David, and that the child's name would be Emmanuel...He knew God's Voice and He knew the Scriptures and the Promises to come... it wasn't just a dream that told him what to do and to believe.  Of all the dreams I have....I am pretty sure I am glad I did not do what was told me in some of them!  Dreams can be used by the devil as well...we must discern whether they are of God or not.

Heaven

What is heaven like?  No one truly knows except God, His Angels and Saints...but we are given many clues.  Everyone knows its the place of goodness and the place to want to go as opposed to the "other" place.  I thought of heaven as being the place of reward and justice for souls who deserved it by the kind of lives they led here on earth.  I thought of it in terms of the afterlife.  There are the Scriptures to point the way and reveal it is where God is and where His People will be forever...where there is nothing evil, no sickness, no sorrow, no fear, no worry, and no darkness.  Heaven is full of love, light, peace, joy, goodness, truth, faith, hope, happiness, endless provision, and everlasting life!  It is where God wipes away all tears.

My views of Heaven have evolved to more than just a superficial understanding of the result of a faithful life.  Many don't believe in it anymore because of the way of the world today...nor do they believe in hell or any place of eternal punishment and damnation.  Sin is in the eye of the beholder these days, some don't recognize any sin in any form.  These people are shells that walk around with empty souls and filled heads.  For all their knowledge they know nothing.  Their daily life consists in the wants and needs of their own personal momentary gratification.  Everyone has lived this way at some time or another; but the "state" I am referring to is not like that ----as much as this  generation devoid of any desire to hope for anything more. I thought perhaps it is my thinking since I am aging and my children are becoming adults and I have watched my youth fade to yesteryear...that gives me a melancholy attitude, but as each day opens to a newspaper with appalling articles...I am not so sure.

When I go into prayer, and I meditate on Heaven, its purpose, and its residents--the verse about God wiping all tears away came to mind.  I am positive those are only tears of pain and sorrow; because the experience here on earth as having such joy to bring streams down my cheeks as an overflow to my heart, as a good thing, and all good things happen in Heaven.  As I think of seeing loved ones and beloved ones God has graced my life with, is going to be an emotional one!  Ah, but some will declare that emotions are a human trait, forget that love is in Heaven, and is very much an emotion!  How will my heart contain its feelings when I finally meet Jesus, the One who suffered so much on my account?  How will the joy and gratitude respond whole-heartedly to Him, who patiently waited for me?

The verse about many mansions, speaks of dwelling places with many rooms...Jesus did not elaborate.  Revelation identifies Him who was, who is and who will be...past, present and future all in One...is this not Heaven also?  Could it be?  We will be filled with Christ, we are co-heirs with Him.  Will we be able to dwell in the past, present and future also?  Our past would be here on earth and cursed, but that is not what I mean.  Jesus came to deliver, to redeem, to restore...and the bible speaks of the time of "regeneration" and "restoration".  Is it possible we shall be given the chance to live the life were supposed to have?  In our finite understanding we have a word "dimension".  Perhaps, as each one who walked on earth, each soul on its journey back to God, may be given what the enemy has destroyed, stolen or killed?  We believe in healing, as in no blindness, deafness and lame...but what about healing of the soul?  So many personal roads, individual paths, so varied and so intimate that our Lord is aware of each place, each step...that needs replenished.

What if Heaven is where the child who  became an orphan gets the chance to live happily with the parents who were taken from him?  Could there be a place where mothers hold their infants who died prematurely and experience their growing up?  The poor child starving in the desert sands of Africa in his mother's arms...does he get to live a life with a nourished mother and full belly?  The outcast who is rejected, mocked and excluded...get the chance to experience acceptance and blessing?  We tend to think of God as automatically fullfilling our every need in an instant; or in healing every hurt upon our arrival in New Jerusalem.  Life on earth is a journey, so I wonder if the experience of the soul is not one also?  Could the soul not experience the past, present and eternity as well?

Heaven is the place of  Hope!  It is where I shall become complete in all the Lord wanted for me.  So whatever was lacking on earth, I believe will be finished in His Life.  I do not call it the afterlife because it sounds like this life is over and means nothing for the future.  It is the beginning of the Whole Life!  This existence of our reality is more than a proving ground, a teaching place, a calling towards development...it has direct bearing on the blessings to come!  This is the reason of hope for the abandoned, the lost, the forgotten, the outcast, the abused, the suffering, and the persecuted.  God is Spirit.  His Throne is not set on a cloud where we will sing praise songs for eternity and do continual Holy Mass...His Spirit will resound throughout, and His Grace shall flow in all places His Light reveals penetrating healing and restoration!  Catholics believe what we do on earth has direct bearing on what goes on after death.  I believe everything in our human life has an impact on our everlasting life in more ways than one!

All of creation teaches something about the spiritual realm.  Just the sheer beauty and expanse of the universe, and the power of the changing forces of nature tell us there is so much more than our human intelligence could ever grasp...so I believe the life lived here is just a tiny speck of the picture of a soul.  So many millions have lived and died, each with their own story...all with very different experiences of translation and regeneration.  Of course, this would take all of eternity to work out all the minute details of each soul to restoration in this way---perhaps that is why He gives life everlasting...only God could work out each one simultaneously all at the same time...and enjoy the gifts He is giving each one!  How much joy could there be for Him?  For us?  And how many tears of gratitude?