**For the previous posts in this series on visions, see these links:
All About Visions: Discerning the Meanings
All About Visions: Sharing the Message
Visions come in all sorts or different ways. Many of them are interactive! This was the case in Bible times, and this is still the case today.
Then He said to me, "Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel." So I opened my mouth, and He fed me this scroll. He said to me, "Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving you." Then I ate it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth.
Ezekiel 3:1-3
Here we have Ezekiel in a vision that transcended his current reality. It was much more real than 'real' life! I would call this sort of experience a trance vision. In it, one may move, touch, taste, smell, etc. the things being seen. They may talk to other people or to angels. I would consider this kind of thing to be an out-of-body experience.
And it all started for Ezekiel when "the heavens were opened" (Ezekiel 1:1). That's when it starts for all of us! God comes down and sets up habitation with us. And that's when the supernatural things of God start to happen. That's when we can 'walk into' a vision and really experience it--earthly senses included.
Interactive visions may come for many reasons--but one of the main reasons is so that we know how to intercede. Visions are a wonderful way to conceptualize God's will, and if we know His will, then we'll also know how to pray for others. We'll know how to intercede and pray into God's target. (More on this in a future post). So, how do we have an interactive vision? Let's look to the Word:
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."
Matthew 7:7-8
"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?"
Luke 11:11
So, we can ask in faith, not doubting, and then receive! Now, seeking may be a process, even a long one, of drawing closer and closer to the Lord. But He gave us a wonderful promise there! We ask, we believe, we receive--and we do so by living within the Holy Spirit. While we're there, God will decide exactly what to give us, but we can trust that He is gracious an faithful to give.
If God is willing to give of Himself, then the question is, how do we position ourselves? How do we get into the Spirit? Music can be a major way. Praise and worship can intensify the work of the Holy Spirit, who is already alive and active within us. Music can activate the prophetic, it can activate visions ...it can activate our understanding of a parable that the Lord has already spoken. Music can bring us into the Spirit. Let's take a look at the Word, again:
But now bring me a minstrel." And it came about, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the LORD came upon him. He said, "Thus says the LORD....
2 Kings 3:15
"I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre."
Psalm 49:4
John was in the Spirit when God gave him revelation (Revelation 1:10). He was told to "Come up here" (Revelation 4:1)! And it can be just the same today. We get into the Spirit and the Lord extends His arm and takes us into a vision. He allows us to walk into it, to interact with it, and to change it, all for His purposes and all for His glory. We may see the resurrected Jesus. We may see angels. We may see family members that we need to pray for. Or we may see things that are mostly symbolic. It's God who gives the vision, and it's God who decides what He will.
We should all be seeking the Lord for a full portion. He wants to give us all our daily bread. He wants to give us all something powerful enough to radically change us! God satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things (Psalms 107:9). He fills them!
All About Visions: Discerning the Meanings
All About Visions: Sharing the Message
Visions come in all sorts or different ways. Many of them are interactive! This was the case in Bible times, and this is still the case today.
Then He said to me, "Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel." So I opened my mouth, and He fed me this scroll. He said to me, "Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving you." Then I ate it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth.
Ezekiel 3:1-3
Here we have Ezekiel in a vision that transcended his current reality. It was much more real than 'real' life! I would call this sort of experience a trance vision. In it, one may move, touch, taste, smell, etc. the things being seen. They may talk to other people or to angels. I would consider this kind of thing to be an out-of-body experience.
And it all started for Ezekiel when "the heavens were opened" (Ezekiel 1:1). That's when it starts for all of us! God comes down and sets up habitation with us. And that's when the supernatural things of God start to happen. That's when we can 'walk into' a vision and really experience it--earthly senses included.
Interactive visions may come for many reasons--but one of the main reasons is so that we know how to intercede. Visions are a wonderful way to conceptualize God's will, and if we know His will, then we'll also know how to pray for others. We'll know how to intercede and pray into God's target. (More on this in a future post). So, how do we have an interactive vision? Let's look to the Word:
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."
Matthew 7:7-8
"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?"
Luke 11:11
So, we can ask in faith, not doubting, and then receive! Now, seeking may be a process, even a long one, of drawing closer and closer to the Lord. But He gave us a wonderful promise there! We ask, we believe, we receive--and we do so by living within the Holy Spirit. While we're there, God will decide exactly what to give us, but we can trust that He is gracious an faithful to give.
If God is willing to give of Himself, then the question is, how do we position ourselves? How do we get into the Spirit? Music can be a major way. Praise and worship can intensify the work of the Holy Spirit, who is already alive and active within us. Music can activate the prophetic, it can activate visions ...it can activate our understanding of a parable that the Lord has already spoken. Music can bring us into the Spirit. Let's take a look at the Word, again:
But now bring me a minstrel." And it came about, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the LORD came upon him. He said, "Thus says the LORD....
2 Kings 3:15
"I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre."
Psalm 49:4
John was in the Spirit when God gave him revelation (Revelation 1:10). He was told to "Come up here" (Revelation 4:1)! And it can be just the same today. We get into the Spirit and the Lord extends His arm and takes us into a vision. He allows us to walk into it, to interact with it, and to change it, all for His purposes and all for His glory. We may see the resurrected Jesus. We may see angels. We may see family members that we need to pray for. Or we may see things that are mostly symbolic. It's God who gives the vision, and it's God who decides what He will.
We should all be seeking the Lord for a full portion. He wants to give us all our daily bread. He wants to give us all something powerful enough to radically change us! God satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things (Psalms 107:9). He fills them!
No comments:
Post a Comment