Standing on the Shoulders of Giants (10 page)

I love reading testimonies of saints who have had visions of Heaven and then come back to tell what they saw and who they met. When it’s from the Lord it always blesses my heart. All of the former saints who have died and gone to Heaven are still there today. Jesus knew this very well and endeavored to help the Sadducees understand this truth.

Sometimes it is difficult fellowshipping with some Christians. They are so earthbound and carnally minded that sometimes you just want to hook up with somebody who is spiritually deep. As a minister I have to come down from the mountaintop to help others who are weak and cannot climb the mountain of God on their own. But there are times when I want to be on that mountaintop with somebody so we together can just shout and praise God until we’ve gotten it out of our systems! I believe that’s why the Lord has allowed me to have supernatural encounters in the glory realm. The writer of the Book of Hebrews understood this realm:

The phrase, “But you
have come
to Mount Zion” (see Heb. 12:22) denotes that as believers in Christ we have arrived, not that we are still on the journey and someday hope to get there. In Mount Zion are the spirits of just men made perfect. Their
bodies
are not there (except for Enoch and Elijah) but their
spirits
are. One day the saints in Heaven will all receive glorified bodies along with every other saint who is alive today. This will take place at the resurrection of the dead and all saints will be clothed in a new, glorified body that is imperishable. The saints now in Heaven have not yet received their glorified
bodies
, except for Jesus. Jesus has received His glorified body; it is not in a grave. His grave is empty. After His resurrection, Jesus received His glorified body and appeared to the apostles as a man in a body, not as a spirit without a body.

Notice Jesus said
flesh and bones
and not
flesh and blood
. His blood was poured out at Calvary for our sins. His blood in His
glorified body was poured on the mercy seat in Heaven upon His ascension. On His way to accomplish this, He revealed Himself to Mary next to the empty tomb. When Mary saw Jesus, she was so emotionally charged that she clung to Him like glue. Jesus responded to her by saying:

The high priest in the Old Testament would go into the Most Holy Place of the tabernacle once a year to sprinkle blood on the Mercy Seat to atone for the sins of the people. It would not wash away their sins—it could only cover them on an annual basis that had to be repeated over and over again.

Jesus came as High Priest into the Most Holy Place in the heavenly tabernacle and presented His blood; not the blood of bulls or goats—but His own blood. This one redemptive act repaired man’s separation from God once and for all. Through Christ, we have now come to Mount Zion. This is why He told Mary not to cling to Him. He was on His way to Heaven to present Himself before His Father as the High Priest of humanity. Once that was taken care of, He allowed certain people to touch Him during the forty days He spent on earth between His resurrection and His ascension to the Father’s right hand.

Those who have been purchased with the blood of the Lamb belong to the Church of the living God. The Church in Heaven and the Church on earth are one Church. The Church
is not divided in two, with half in Heaven and the other half on earth. We are one Church—one family.

This is why there may be special times when God allows a person on earth to come in contact in the spirit realm with the spirit of a just man (or woman) who has been made perfect. Countless people have met the Lord Jesus Christ through visions. Countless others have seen angels through visionary experiences, at times even conversing with them. Throughout the centuries of Church history there are countless stories as well of Christians on the earth who encountered a redeemed saint through a vision.

A lot of people throw up a red flag on topics such as this and quickly label it necromancy.

The practice of necromancy is calling up the spirit of the dead. The most famous instance we see of this is of Saul and the medium of Endor found in First Samuel chapter 28. The practice of consulting the dead was common among the heathen nations. It’s still very popular today in New Age and psychic
groups. What these people do not understand is that in reality, they
are not
communicating with the dead. They are communicating with familiar spirits.

What are familiar spirits? A familiar spirit is an evil spirit that is familiar with someone. Demons know information about people, even the people of God. They may know your name, the address of where you live, and can even imitate certain mannerisms of the person that are consistent with an individual’s personality. When a medium practices calling up the dead, she is in reality coming in contact with a familiar spirit. This is strictly forbidden in Scripture.

When someone dies he or she goes to either one of two places. They either go to Heaven if they belong to Christ, or they go to hell if they belong to the devil. You cannot call up dead people from hell to speak with them. Even if you could call them up, you wouldn’t be able to get anything useful out of them due to them being on fire and suffering the indescribable torments of hell. Of course, somebody is wondering,
If this is true, then how was the medium of Endor able to call up Samuel upon the request of King Saul?
That’s a good question. If you read that text carefully, you will see that it was definitely the real Samuel who spoke. Mediums believe they are truly making contact with the dead, but they fail to understand they have yielded themselves to demonic, evil spirits who share with them supernatural information. Just because it is supernatural doesn’t mean it is from God! That fools a lot of people.

What transpired was that the medium got the shock of her life when the Holy Spirit moved into the situation during the séance. King Saul had come to this woman at night and disguised himself.

Normally this woman would then conjure up the dead and a familiar spirit would accommodate her. The spirit that would be familiar with the dead person would then speak through this woman using the woman’s vocal chords. The familiar spirit would sound and talk like the deceased person, thus making it seem from all appearances that the dead person had been contacted.

The Spirit of God showed up at the séance! The medium became terrified, but Saul assured her she wouldn’t die. Samuel then speaks to Saul and through a brief message tells Saul that because of his rebellion against the Word of God he has lost the kingdom and he would be dead by the next day. Of course, an interesting question here is how exactly did Samuel speak to Saul? The Bible doesn’t clearly say. Keep in mind that the Spirit of God came upon the medium and she had a vision of Samuel. Saul did not see Samuel because he did not have the vision. How then did he hear Samuel? Most likely he heard Samuel speak through the woman’s voice.

If persons yield their voices to the devil, then it is possible for demons to speak through these individuals using their vocal chords. Likewise, the Holy Spirit can speak through an individual who yields his or her voice to Him, and speak forth the inspired utterance. This is known as the gift of prophecy. Somebody may say, “God would never speak through a witch!” However, it appears from the above text that the Holy Spirit caused Samuel to speak through the medium. God can speak through anybody he wants to, even a donkey. I sometimes think it’s easier for God to speak through a donkey than some people who are so adamantly opposed to anything that’s outside of their circle of biblical understanding.

Dr. John G. Lake once had an experience along this same line when he was praying for a woman with a severe eye injury. As he was praying, the Spirit of the Lord came upon the woman and completely healed her eye. Then Dr. Lake said the Holy Spirit allowed his former wife who had died on the mission field to speak through this woman’s voice.
³
Someone may say, “That’s of the devil.” Well, if it’s of the devil, then why did the message given through the woman glorify God and why was the woman’s eye healed? There is a true spiritualism that runs very deep that many are completely unaware of. With the Word of God as our foundation and the Holy Spirit as our guide we can discern the true from the false and not be in fear of the unknown realms of spiritual truth.

I’d like to share an interesting note about the medium of Endor. This woman lived in Endor, which is a town located in Issachar but assigned to Manasseh’s possession. This town can
still be seen today about four miles south of Mount Tabor. This woman practiced in the occult and was enslaved to spiritual darkness. Unless she repented and turned from her sins to God, she would have died and gone to hell. There’s something I’ve noticed about many of these people in New Age and psychic groups that can be observed. There’s no question that many of them are “gifted” by having an inclination toward things that are spiritual. The only problem is that they are deceived by the devil and they operate in the kingdom of darkness. Why do many of these people have such a strong attraction to the spiritual realm? The answer—because many of them are called to the prophetic ministry and they don’t know it.

I’ve seen it over and over again. A dear friend of mine who has a powerful prophetic ministry went to Scotland several years ago. His ancestry is Scottish of which he and his parents are very proud. While there in Scotland, he thought he would research his family genealogy, perhaps thinking he would discover that he was related to the former kings that ruled Scotland. Imagine his surprise when he discovered through well-kept books of ancient family lineage that for generations his family members were all witches! See, his family lineage just had that calling to the spirit realm. They were “wired” and drawn towards the supernatural. What does the Bible say about this?

Once God bestows a gift it is freely given and He doesn’t change His mind at a later time. Due to a lack of understanding,
many of those in histories past who were called as prophets were not received or understood. Often they were labeled as witches and warlocks, when in reality they were God’s chosen vessels. Such was the case with Joan of Arc who was a prophetess and seer but was labeled a witch. This was also true of King Arthur and his well-known wizard, Merlin. The truth is that Merlin was actually the King’s prophet, but he got labeled a wizard by medieval historians who viewed miracles and all supernatural phenomena as being of the devil.

A call to a ministry office is also a calling that usually runs down the family line. The children might not accept it but it is available nonetheless. This calling can run unbroken for generations because of an original covenant of blessing that someone made with the Lord. We hear a lot of teaching on generational curses and this teaching can help certain people overcome troubling barriers consisting of bad habits and addictions. However, I choose to focus much more highly on generational blessings, which unfortunately we hear much less teaching on.

The majority of those who are known as popular rock and pop musicians are called by God to be worship leaders. Many who are on the street running drugs and organizing vast networks of complex drug trafficking that net millions of dollars are called to the apostolic ministry. Without Christ, people don’t understand their gifting or their purpose. We must help them fulfill their destiny that can only be understood through salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Padre Pio (1887-1968) and Maria Esperanza
—Padre Pio is one of those saints whose life I always greatly enjoy reading about. Although unknown to many in the western Church, his life and ministry were still a blessing to thousands around the world. He seemed to somehow have one foot in the heavenly realm, which enabled him to connect with God, and the other foot in the earth realm, which allowed him to take care of necessary everyday ministry work.