Video Journal: Deja-vu

About a year ago, Vanessa and I noticed that something strange was beginning to happen.  Whenever we were out on the streets, people would say that they were sure they had seen us before.  Normally they would ask if they had seen us earlier that day.  People always seemed to think that we'd been at a movie with them earlier that afternoon or something.

This happened about a half dozen times within one week--almost every day.  We noticed that God was telling us something!  People were recognizing us according to God's eternal purpose on this earth.  Before they saw us in person, they knew us in spirit.

This went on for about a week.  Then I began to get frequent feelings of deja-vu.  I noticed that they happened whenever I began doing something important--like when I ministered in a new place, when I encouraged someone, or when I did something for the first time.  I'd get the sense that I'd seen this all before.

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." 

Deja-vu began marking times and seasons.  I realized it was the Holy Spirit confirming that I was on God's predestined path for my life (Jeremiah 6:16).

"And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,"

Snapshot: Received Chronology

Recently I've been thinking about how God pre destined our lives according to His purposes.  (I've blogged a lot about this; just search the posts for "time" or "Ancient Paths" to find similar posts).  My walk with God has been getting renewed recently.  I'm learning that our faith requires a lot to be maintained.  Spiritually, we're either getting better or getting worse.  And I want to get better!

I've also been getting a lot of deja-vu recently.  I feel God's heart behind the actions I take throughout my day, and I'm aware of His presence guiding me through this simulation phase we have to carry out here on earth.  I can feel by the Spirit that my whole life is being guided towards sharing His Glory, in a way that He designated in the beginning!  Glory to God!  Some things only He can teach, and He will teach the truth of all things as we receive and abide in His anointing (1 John 2:27).

Yesterday I was reading a Bible handbook with notes on the whole of the scripture.  The Lord guided me via random reading to a specific subtitle called, "Received Chronology".

And this was quickened to me, that we each receive an ideal life layout from God.  We each receive that which is beautiful for our lives--we each are given a blueprint that is designed to bring God Glory. And we all have God offering to take us "from glory to glory" (2 Corinthians 3:18), if we just give our shortsighted ideas of optimal to Him first.

In other words, God gives all believers a "Received Chronology".  He gives us all His best.  He gives us life to the fullest, a life where we realize our position with Christ was established before the beginning of time.  God wants to show us that He is guiding us in a plan that He ordained from the beginning.  and while on this plan, He wants to give us confirmations that we are right on schedule.  The closer I get to God, the more I have deja-vu.  And God has ways to speak to all of us.  There is truth in the saying, "there is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9).  The closer I get to those Ancient Paths, the more I realize that timeless perspective.

Synchronicity: The Ancient Paths

In the last post on synchronicity, I described how God pre-arranges our lives to meet His conditions.  This can be observed by the occurrence of deja-vu that I believe is used by God as a confirmation.  For me, deja-vu occurs when I am set up into God's will, and current situations trigger a pre-ordained memory.  This happens because, in God's eyes, I am in the right place at the right time, traveling through the joy set before me (Hebrews 12:2).

Let's yield to the pathway that God has set out for us.  Let's familiarize ourselves with how it feels to please Him, so that we know when His presence truly goes before us.  Let's have no schedule or priorities outside of the things God approves.  Let's worship The Lord our God, "and serve Him only"  (Matthew 4:10).

"This is what the LORD says: 'Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, 'We will not walk in it.'" Jeremiah 6:16

There comes a time when we need to pause, see our lives through discerning eyes, and seek God for distinctive direction.  The verse implies that, if we ask for the good way, we will be directed to it.  If we ask, God will show us where to walk.  Rest follows as we go along this ancient path, even though it leads us into new territory.  Our path is an ancient one, because it was formed by the Creator before time began.

When on the ancient path, you experience a knowing God.  You experience a oneness with Him that allows you to realize that He knew you from the beginning.  You discover that from the start, He has pre-arranged the fullness of your walk with Him.  His Word becomes ancient yet a new thing, and His everlasting life becomes apparent.

Walking humbly with God along this path is a thing He greatly desires; the goodness of which was revealed in the beginning (Micah 6:8).  You experience peace and blessed assurance.  And you will never forget all His benefits (Psalm 103:2)...one of which is plenty of synchronous confirmations of His love!

Synchronicity: Deja-vu

Another post on synchronicity, this time with mostly real life examples. Often God aligns our current perception of things with memories or dreams from our past.  He does this with precision, which is possible because He's outside of time.  When our current position in time revisits the qualities of an older version of events, deja-vu results.  I think deja-vu is usually caused when present circumstances trigger a similar thing from our past to be strongly remembered.  In short, my opinion is that deja-vu is the result of a sudden remembrance of formerly forgotten moments, in particular forgotten dreams.

If we are saved by God, it is because He pre-ordained it from the beginning.  He had a mission for us since before our creation, and He divulged snippets of this calling to us in these present days.  Dreams are a major way that God inspires us for our future.  Many old testament prophets had powerful visions or dreams at the onset of their prophetic calling.

For me personally, I take deja-vu as quickly good sign.  I feel it's from God's heart of love and designed to comfort, and I believe it's a part of being raised up [above time and circumstances] and set "in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6).  If we are set irrespective of time with Him, then it's likely He has given us distinctive times in this life when He has also set us high and provided an anchor of remembrance.  These moments of deja-vu often have been produced by prior forgotten dreams.

When Vanessa and I are doing street ministry, we sometimes meet people who swore that they've seen us before.  For some reason, this occurrence was especially pronounced in Springfield, MO this summer.  We would be walking around, and multiple groups of people would say, "Didn't we just see you?" or even, "Weren't you just downtown?"  In reality, we had never seen these people, nor had we been downtown yet.  This happened most on the first day that Vanessa and I went downtown together, before we had arrived down there yet.  I believe these people were experiencing something similar to deja-vu, and I believe they probably had dreamed about this situation prior to experiencing its physical manifestations in this present world.  Either that, or God planted triggers in their subconscious minds that made them react strongly to seeing the two of us.  Either way, we felt taken aback by this.  God had aligned us with others and caused a pre-ordained re-awakening to happen in them as means of confirming Himself to us.  As we thought about this, we felt blessed!

"Have you not heard? Long ago I did it, from ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass..."  Isaiah 37:26

So God plans things well in advance, from the "what was".  Now, in the "what is", He brings things to pass.  And He gives us a measure of understanding that allows us to secure certain moments in time, and identify them as having eternal origins.  Deja-vu comes in, being brought about by a synchronous merging of present time and dreams, which are often outside of time.  I believe that God uses deja-vu as a marker to reveal to us the security we have walking along His path.  As we walk in His will, deja-vu is one of many devices He can use to bring pre-ordained events to remembrance.

"Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them."  Psalm 139:16

We obviously don't have all the insight into God's book for us, but as we "see in part", God can through deja-vu show us that His purposes and His story here on the earth has eternal sureness.  Through the remembrance, by the Holy Spirit, of previously forgotten dreams, we can know that "The Lord is God" and realize what it means to have been created and narrated by Him.

"I knew you before I formed you in the womb; I set you apart for me..."  Jeremiah 1:5

Wal-mart Testimony

Today Vanessa and I headed to Wal-Mart to run some errands.  We have some great memories that were made in that store.  When we first started doing street ministry, I did a lot of it in Wal-Mart as to avoid North Carolina's early summer heat.  We've seen many miracles and healings there. I like to call Wal-Mart "the Kingdom of heaven".  Not to stereotype or anything, but "blessed are those who are poor..." (Luke 6:20)

Anyways, we stayed yielding to God while running our errands.  We prayed to be used.  This wasn't about ministry.  This wasn't a complicated "mission".  Instead, our entire lives ought to be a mission dedicated to God!  God simply requires our attention and our time, and then He can use us.  So many are too busy to have their overcrowded schedules "moved with compassion"!  (Matthew 9:36)  So many Christians believe that their time belongs to them.  Let's dedicate our time to God.  This is part of offering ourselves as "living sacrifices" (Romans 12:1)

Back to what happened today, we got to Wal-Mart and God was so faithful.  If you are doing God's will, you will become familiar with having God's blessings overtake you along the way (Deuteronomy 28:2).  The entire time, God quickened to us different people, images, and things to buy.  He is a God of the details, too!  We were guided so personally and intimately.

Early on in our errands we ran into an older man who we thought might need prayer.  He was wearing a bright orange sweater and a cross.  He didn't want prayer for anything initially, but he was sure that he'd seen us before.  But we didn't recollect it!  As an aside, this happens to Vanessa and I sometimes when we are ministering.  People will say that they've met us before, when it is often impossible that they'd done so.  We believe it is deja-vu and indicates that God has pre-ordained certain moments.  Remember, God has set us in high places with Christ Jesus(Ephesians 2:6).  This man was more open to prayer after this strange event.  We prayed for him after heading on.

After that we were led to a woman named Melissa as she was standing in the pharmacy line.  She had a chronic degenerative disease and was in constant pain.  We said a short prayer for her...I was prompted to thank the Lord, over and over again, for His love.  After prayer we asked Melissa how she felt.  She told us she was receiving God's healing power, indicated through warmth and tingling.  Glory to God!  As she realized she had been healed, you could tell she was fighting back tears.  So were we.  She was in a hurry and Vanessa and I didn't gather much info on her life, but we left knowing that God had completely healed her.

It's such a gift to be used in street ministry.  This kind of stuff is my passion, and Vanessa has been such a blessing in being the more talkative half of our ministry partnership.  God knew what He was doing in bringing us together!  Praise Jesus for including us in His plans.  He's so gracious to send his workers something to harvest.  Praise God!