Jesus’ Faith in Me

Five Visions of Jesus and Me on a Mountain Trek

A wonderful gift of love and confidence from Jesus came to me in a series of visions. Since that time I have known the level of intimacy in His relationships with the Twelve Disciples, with Lazarus, Mary and Martha, with Paul, and many others in Scripture. I received five visions over a period of weeks in mid 2009 and early in 2010. Each is burned into my consciousness and I believe I'll remember them forever.

These visions are particularly poignant to me because as a boy and young man I was a very keen mountain and wilderness trekker and I still love the outdoors.

Vision 1

We are in a clearing, just Jesus and me, high on a mountain at the tree line. It is morning and we have finished packing our camp for the next big push up the mountain. I'm aware that this is a very important mission we are on. I am fastening my backpack and Jesus is a few metres away tying His boots. Jesus glances over His shoulder at me, there is a very soft look on His face, loving. At first I am puzzled - Jesus says nothing, He clearly wants me to follow Him; we are on this walk together. I am part of His team. Then I realise, He doesn't have to say anything, doesn't have to encourage me or give detailed instruction. He knows me so well and loves me so much that He can go about His plan knowing that He can trust me, knowing that in my clumsy imperfect way, I'll be sufficiently prepared and fully willing to follow where-ever He leads. I know that I am His beloved. Then he simply turns and starts walking up the mountain trail.

Vision 2

The second scene is a few minutes later. Jesus stops and waits for me to catch Him up. He steps up to me and hugs me, puts His cheek on mine, leans back so He can see me, smiles. Then He turns and continues to walk up the mountain path.

In none of these five visions does Jesus speak, neither do I; the whole point is that our relationship has reached the point that we no longer have to talk to be with each other or to share our thoughts and hearts.

Vision 3

Jesus gave me this third vision some weeks later. Jesus is leading, I am following. We are walking up the same path up the same mountain. This is simply later on that same day, a little further on our journey together. I remember that Jesus is showing me these things for a reason: I am His, He loves me, He has complete faith in me, He knows me so well that He can trust me completely, He can trust the work He has done in me that I will follow and we will accomplish His goals - I don't even know what these are, neither do I care, for I am with Him and He is leading me.

A gap of several months passed between the 3rd and 4th visions. In that time I was growing in my gifting in the prophetic and in teaching. The Lord lead Trish, my wife, and me into a new work which began in January 2008 and has been a delight to many. Our children are growing in Christ, five of the six belong to Jesus. The sixth, and his wife and kids, have been promised to us.

Vision 4

We are much further up the mountain. Jesus is still leading. Conditions are much harder. The path is steeper, indeed it is almost non-existent, it is comprised of big stones and boulders so each foot must be placed with precision so as not to slip or turn an ankle. The sky is grey, everything is wet, it is cold. Our sense of purpose and direction is unchanged. We press on full of confidence and a certain hope. This journey is immensely satisfying.

Vision 5

At last, we round a bend in the path, we are now very high, we can see the valleys and other lesser mountains around and below us. We are very near to the summit, indeed we can see it, over there, ahead of us, up and to the right. I feel a surge of excitement. Then I realise that between us and the mountaintop is a rock ridge. It is narrow with almost sheer falls to both left and right. We are so high that the sky is pale blue. It is very cold, nearly freezing, but there is no snow or ice for us to cut steps into to climb the ridge. This is much more difficult climbing than I have ever done. This is technical. Dangerous. All I have are my simple trekker's skills and Jesus. Jesus' confidence is unbounded. He knows that we will succeed and reach the goal He set; the summit of this mountain. He knows, so I know. I am ready to follow ..

Praise Jesus.
Amen.

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Be blessed.

Good Gifts – T6

Testimony 6: 1988: God Gives Good Gifts

Our fourth child, Patrick, was born in March. He had all the normal tests and appeared fine. In July of that year, on the eve of our huge holiday trip, we heard from the New Jersey Health Department that his test for galactosemia showed that Patrick was at high risk of brain degeneration leading to mental retardation; he should be checked immediately and we should be ready to take him to hospital at a moment's notice. Our station wagon was all packed. We were planning to leave at 2:30 the next morning and drive to Rhode Island to house-sit for a lady who was flying to Europe. This had all been planned for months. What should we do?

We called our local doctor who was away. We called the local hospital who immediately went into great lengths about stuff we should do over the next few days, at huge expense. Clearly they were telling us to do every possible thing, so that if a problem arose and we sued them they would be covered. We had no idea where to go for practical advice as we were many thousands of kilometres from our own Australian network of friends who included doctors, midwives and nurses. Meanwhile, we were aware that our Lord had been teaching us to trust Him in all circumstances.

So we prayed. Lord? Is Patrick at risk? What shall we do? We felt a great peace. Patrick was a wonderful baby boy, a gift from our loving Father. This was the Lord's reality. We were to press on and go on our month-long house-sitting and camping holiday.

We didn't forget about this threat and wondered if we had heard aright from God. Soon we learned that the neighbour of our house-sit was a doctor. After my prayer time next morning I walked over to the doctor's house to speak to him. Praise Jesus, he answered the door with his Bible in his hand; he was Christian! The doctor was part of a "walk-in centre", a new concept in 1988; they have much diagnostic equipment and offer a wide variety of medical services besides simple diagnosis and prescription. 

Our doctor arranged some tests and then saw Patrick immediately the results were in. He was God's man for Patrick, he had the courage to say the truth rather than fudge his answer to be safe from a lawsuit. Beaming, he told us that Patrick was perfectly well and we could ignore the results of the original test. To this day Patrick has been a perfectly normal kid; he's now a young Christian man, at university, studying to be a primary school teacher, he has the most wonderful affinity with little kids and will be a blessing to many.

Amen.

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Be blessed in Jesus.

David & Goliath Today

A Vision of the Present Cosmic Battle

Emailed to many from Perth, Western Australia, on 24th January 2009:

At a recent church meeting where many from different Christian congregations were gathered, a visiting pastor was leading. He asked a young local man named David to come and stand in the centre, as representative of all those under thirty, and lead us in prayer in tongues. This David did. The whole meeting was in unity, and, as we prayed, Jesus gave me a vision.

On my right, on a vast field cleared for battle, were legions of huge men, like the family of Goliath. These were warriors, wild eyed, immense in size, with faces like crags, muscles like boulders, legs like oak trees, hands the size of dinner plates and fingers like steel claws. Their clothing was full Bible times military dress as described in Ephesians 6. They were battle hardened. These are Satan’s forces today, demons on the earth, equipped and ready on their chosen battle field.

Across a narrow strip of land were a myriad of young men. No. Young men and young women together. These are the Lord’s army. Jesus’ chosen ones. The ones who have offered themselves. They were standing alert and bright eyed yet relaxed, dressed in the clothes of our own young generation; boardies, tees, jeans, sweats. Clothed with Christ. Each carried a slingshot and a few small stones; these were their weapons, the Words of God himself. Ready. Jesus. Jesus is the Word of God.

As I watched, a clear line appeared in the earth between the two armies. "Lord" I asked, "what is the line?" 

"That line represents the greatest advance Satan will ever make against humankind in all of history, see, his demons have almost reached that far. We will see greater advance but they cannot go beyond the bounds I have set, which you can see". As I continued to watch the Lord went on: “the demonic forces have never been better equipped. You can see no weapons in their hands. They will fight with every weapon from the present age:

* media power of Fairfax and Murdoch and other mammoth conglomerates
* behaviour examples set by celebrities and royalty
* radical attitudes and behaviours espoused in today’s music
* corruption of promiscuity, homosexuality, abortion and sexually transmitted diseases
* loss of purpose and death from drug use
* chemicals and additives in food and drink causing allergies and illnesses
* corporate, executive and government greed for wealth and power
* cultural demands for conformity and "political correctness".

In my spirit I knew that the final battles are now, they will continue long and hard. Many who were represented in this vision will die fighting, as many around the world are dying daily for Jesus and his gospel. My overwhelming emotion was one of gratitude and hope and awe; the church is rising up, Jesus is assembling his forces. Victory, already won in the heavens, is assured on the earth. We can rejoice, even as we commit everything for our Lord. Praise God, Father, Son and Spirit.

Amen.

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blessings ..

Smallest Thing – T5

Testimony 5: 1988: Even The Smallest Thing

"He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all - how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:32)

During a two year period when we lived in the U.S.A. we went on holiday to Rhode Island. We found a lot of Christian activity there so took advantage, seeing as I didn't have to go to work every day.

One night as we were preparing to go out Trish had a really rotten headache. We battled through and got the kids ready and we were nearly out the door when Trish said that her headache was so bad there was no point going. I was a typical husband. Now? She tells me now? We are all set to go! I said I would ask Jesus to heal her head. I had no faith but was going through the motions, I don't even know why. So I laid my hand on her head, my memory is that we were standing in a doorway upstairs. I prayed quickly. Then I dashed off to do the next thing.

Within minutes we were in the car and heading out. I asked Trish how her head was. Fine. Completely fine. Jesus healed her despite the lack of faith, despite the casual approach, despite the rush. And, as Trish has said, this was really not a very important thing. But He did it. A gift. Because He chose to. He even gives parking places! Jesus our King. 

Hallelujah!

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Be blessed in Jesus!

Jesus Calls Me – T4

Testimony 4 - (1985)
Jesus Call Me To Himself

We were expecting our third baby when we attended an Anglican charismatic conference in Manjimup (a country town in the Southwest of Western Australia). This was where I finally gave in to Jesus.

The keynote speaker was Father Terry, then the parish priest at St Paul's, Darien, Connecticut in the USA. Terry talked about John Baptist announcing that Jesus would come and baptise His people with the Holy Spirit and with fire, and what this means in the light of the Book of Acts, the Gospels, the New Covenant and the whole Word of God. He was talking about the charismatic element in Christian life and the life of the Church.

By now Trish, my wife, had been an enthusiastic born again Christian for a few years, but I was not. In truth I was "sitting on the fence", with one foot either side. Really I just went along, I enjoyed the singing and fellowship. We were familiar with "life in the Spirit" that was why we were at this conference.

Terry's teaching was very compelling, it had a certain academic and scriptural rigor, I saw things more clearly than I had previously. On the Saturday night, as we drove to our friend's house where we were staying, I told Trish that for my birthday I wanted one of the new NIV Bibles. She immediately asked "so you are ready to give your heart to Jesus then?" "No", I replied, "not yet", I knew that I would have to bow my knee to Jesus when I became Christian, and I didn't think I was able to do that. "Maybe next year".

Next morning we did Sunday Church at the conference. At one point Terry asked if there were any present who wanted to give their heart to Jesus that day, who wanted to become Christian right then and there. I had thought this through the previous night so stood quietly, a bystander, with my hands clasped behind me. Soon, very clearly, I felt strong fingers encircle my right wrist and tug me backwards. "Very funny", I thought. Trish had gone out to check that our kids were ok; no doubt this was her having fun with me as she returned to her seat. Imagine my surprise when I turned and nobody was there. No Trish. No-one was near enough to have reached out to touch me.

Who held my wrist? Who tugged my arm? In my innermost self I knew that it was Jesus. "Come now", He seemed to be saying, "don't wait till next year, I want you now".

Straight away I went to the front, I did whatever was asked of me, probably I prayed a "sinner's prayer", it was all just "extra"; I already had said "yes", I already knew that I belonged to Jesus, I was in a cloud of love. I was almost forty-three years old.

I have never for a minute doubted that Jesus actually came and took hold of my arm, and drew me to Himself. No matter how tough things have gotten over the years: how my life seemed to be inconsequential, how I was unemployed for long periods, how spiritually I was stuck, how I seemed not to be growing in Christ, not going anywhere for years at a time ..

Trish and I had serious trouble with our marriage for a time. My memory is that neither of us moved out because we both wanted to keep the children. Truth be told, I was more scared of God, who had given me Trish, than I was of Trish herself. After much prayer we decided to link up with Jesus into a three strand cord (Ecclesiastes 4:12). He has kept us together, bonding us ever stronger and closer.

Now, thirty (in July 2010) years later, I see Jesus' plans for me, for Trish, our marriage, our family, our salvation, and His Kingdom, all working out. There was never no progress. But it was always His progress. It is His plan, He equips and makes ready in His own time. Patience and perseverance are fruits of Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22). We do not grow and become patient by living only in gratification. God is love (1 John 4:16), Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9).

Amen.

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Be very blessed in our lovely Lord Jesus.