When we got home from our trip to Florida, my wife and I both knew we needed to get rid of stuff in our house. We "downsized" houses ten years ago to do just that, but once we got moved in we were so exhausted that we ceased getting rid of stuff, and it has been in our house since. Now that we both have the Holy Spirit, we are thinking alike and He is coordinating our thoughts and efforts. It's just amazing!
As we have been getting rid of clothes and books, I realized we were "pulling weeds," just like I had done in the garden. There will always be weeds in the garden, and there will always be "weeds" in our lives as long as we live on this earth. Like weeds in the garden, it's easier to keep the weeds down if we maintain the right plants, keep them well-tended and healthy, and pull weeds early when they are small. Weeds also come out more easily when the soil is moist and not hard. I'm speaking about our spiritual lives, of course! Oh, I love how God has given us a world full of parables to teach us about spiritual things!
One of the areas God wants me to do some "weeding" in is the work I have done in the past in pursuit of Him. That means my blog, i.e. this blog! I've held off for a while to make sure I truly hear His voice and understand some things. He made it clear a little while ago that I need to move on with this task.
I believe He wants me to continue to use this blog, to describe my experiences for others so they can assess for themselves what they need to take to God and discuss with Him. I will see where He leads me, but to summarize for now, this is where I think "I was at" before we went to Jacksonville:
- I had repented of my sins and was chasing after God. I believe I was, and still am, in absolute love with Him, want to do His will and renounce any and all past and present sins. I believed I was living a clean life, as best I knew how, and I was amazed how my life had changed in relation to where I had been earlier. I still am!
- I had been baptized by complete immersion in water, first by a pastor whom I love, and again recently by my beloved wife. I assume the first time was "in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit," and the second time was "in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins." In retrospect, I think the first time was sufficient because my life definitely changed and I know I was no longer a slave to sin after that point. The second time probably was not necessary, but I felt better and I also learned how to baptize people at my house -- a useful skill I expect to use in the future!!
- I had significant Holy Spirit experiences, particularly after my first baptism, and that is why I believed I had Him and was born again. In retrospect, I think He was always there in some way, but I had not spoken in tongues. I have now. I believe God is helping me understand what truly went on, but I am not ready to talk about it yet.
- Because of my experiences, what I had read in the Bible, and the teachings I had learned, I believed I had the Holy Spirit and the Full Gospel, and I had no idea demons were in me and affecting my life, but God knew where I was at and He knew what I needed! Oh, I love Him so much! I described my freedom in my previous post.
Amazing!
So, to get on with "weeding," I will start with my most recent posts first, and then move to older ones, making editorial comments where appropriate, and getting rid of anything that is offensive. I trust God will guide me now, without interference, and my words will be more reliable. Saying that, I am still human, so please take anything I say to God to make sure what I say is true. I absolutely DO NOT want to mislead you! I didn't before, and I don't now! [UPDATE, July 17, 2016: After going through about two-thirds of my old posts, I decided it is best to just delete them all. Some were okay, but I saw evidence of my unclean spirits in some of them and I just did not trust any of it! Also, the main reason I was writing was to convince people that the spiritual world is real. Well, it is, but my words of human wisdom are not going to convince anybody of that. They need to experience the Power of God's Spirit for themselves, and the best way I can help them do that is let the Holy Spirit demonstrate that Power through ME!
Therefore, rather than write things on the Internet, I need to obey Jesus and:
- Go out.
- Heal the sick and set people free.
- Preach the Gospel.
- Make disciples.
So, that's what I'm going to do!]
Thank you, Jesus! I love You!!!!!!! :-)
[POSTSCRIPT: I want to apologize to anyone who read my writings and was offended by my insensitivity, lack of love, or by any behavior I exhibited through the manifestation of any unclean spirit. I am totally responsible for all of my actions, and I will not blame Satan for my behavior. I am truly sorry. Please forgive me.]
All glory to God!
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UPDATE, August 5, 2022...
Changed the color of the former updates to make them not so harsh on the eyes.
Here are some of the things I can remember about some of the posts I deleted that have not already been resurrected elsewhere in the blog...
The Chimney
We moved into my present house in 2006, shortly before I started this blog. I knew God wanted us here, and it met all of my wife's desires, but one thing bothered me. There was a smell and I couldn't figure out what was causing it. It did not bother my wife, and I don't think she could even smell it.
I eventually figured out the roof was leaking by the chimney and water had been seeping down into the crawlspace. It was during my 75 month sabbatical, so I had a lot of time available and went to the public library to learn how to fix the problem. I ended up removing all of the masonry down to the roof level and rebuilding it. The chimney was sixty years old and in bad shape where it had been exposed to the weather.
I had to clean the old mortar off of the bricks so I could reuse them. This involved gently chipping and scraping at the mortar until it came off, and it went fairly well, although I did break a few bricks. Would you like to guess how many I broke? Yup. Eleven (11).
I went to the local brick supplier and looked through their extensive stock of old brick lots. I was able to find some with the right dimensions, but could not find any with the original face texture. My chimney was built in 1946. I ended up buying what I thought might work and went home.
The chimney was for the original oil-fired furnace, but that was long gone and the current gas-fired furnace vented out the side of the house. The only thing venting up the chimney was the water heater. The original ceramic liner just barely cleared the cement that capped the chimney. I needed to extend the liner so there would be a decent projection. Consequently, I dug down into the chimney to prepare for the new liner.
The original mason had filled the inside of the chimney with bricks to take up volume and brace the liner. They were all bricks with the original face texture. Would you like to guess how many old bricks I found in there? Yup. Eleven (11).
You can't make this stuff up. LOL
I did not know anything about the significance of that number at the time, but I certainly noticed the apparent coincidence. As I have said elsewhere, I don't believe in coincidences. Not anymore.
We rented a lakefront vacation property in northwestern Michigan and the place had a kayak I could use. The lake was about three miles long and about half a mile wide, and I spent a lot of time exploring every bit of it. I listened to songs on my iPod while I was paddling, and Coldplay was one of my favorite selections. I particularly spent a lot of time listening to Clocks. One of the verses that repeated a lot was...
Home, home where I wanted to go
I remember watching fish under my kayak while I listened to that music, and it occurred to me that fish know nothing about us. They are in their watery world while we go about our lives above. It made me think about how we live in the natural world we are familiar with and know nothing about the spiritual realm we cannot see. As I listened to those words about "home," I couldn't help but feel a yearning to go to my eventual spiritual "home." My sister got worried about me when she read the original post, but I assured her I was fine.
Since I wrote that post, I lost my wife. She's gone "home." I look forward to being "home" with her.
Clubhouses
Curling was something I did with my brother and some friends when I was in high school and college. More recently as an adult, I rejoined the Midland club and participated in an open league (men and women) for five seasons. It was fun, but I eventually realized I wanted to spend my evenings with my wife. She was not physically capable of participating in that sport, and she had no interest.
The people I curled with all had one common interest: curling. One of the traditions of curling is the two teams sit around a table and socialize after their match. I got to know the people I played with a bit, but once the evening was over we all returned to our separate lives and didn't see each other again until the next league night. I rarely saw any of them outside of curling season.
When I wrote the original post, I was frustrated that churches seem to be clubhouses to me. They are religious clubs. People show up once a week for a while, participate in activities, socialize a bit, and then go home. Perhaps some do things with each other outside of those normal hours, but most don't.
I thank God that he took me out of that. I love living my life full of Him, 24/7/365. That is how it is meant to be.
There were some other posts, but I either don't remember much about them or my demons made some inappropriate contributions. I think what I discussed, above, is what I wanted to mention.