6. How do we perceive and communicate with God?

When the Lord reminded me of how I, as a new Christian, suffered from a lack of knowledge about just how to hear or see God, I felt moved to write this teaching about communicating with the Lord. So, all of the April 2008 blog entries will be exclusively on this very large subject about how exactly we may communicate with the Lord.

Isaiah 1:18 - "Come now (today)...let us reason together." says the Lord...

Back then, I couldn't find any teacher or teachings that explained exactly how we are to converse back and forth with God. In fact, my evangelical mentors did not even believe in such a thing and they would counsel me to just make sure that everything I did was "Scriptural" and I would be in God's will. But it was obvious to me that such a thing was impossible because there are Scriptures for a matter that appear to be contradictory.

This ignorance of theirs and mine resulted in many uncertainties and doubts within my mind for a long, long time about whether or not I was actually perceiving and doing God's will in many of my affairs. I kept fearing that I might be doing wrong in so many things because I couldn't seem to find out from Him just what His will for those things really was. But the good thing about all of these concerns of mine was that they worked to humble me and prodded me to keep digging into His Word in search of my answers.

Deuteronomy 8:3 - ...He humbled me and allowed me to hunger (for knowledge of communicating with Him and learning His ways) and (then, in His time, not mine) He fed me with the hidden manna, (the portions of His Word on this subject) which I did not know nor did (any of) my (spiritual) fathers know,

that He might make me recognize (personally understand) that I do not live by bread alone, but I live by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord (found in the Biblical Scriptures and from His Holy Spirit's voice within my own mind). (from the Amplified Bible and personalized by me)

My intense hunger for the answers to my questions about God's true will for me that I could not find, turned out to actually be His will for me at that time! It was a necessary humbling experience for me before He would give me an answer.

Matthew 5:6 - "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

That hunger was used by the Lord to prod me to diligently and humbly keep on praying to Him for guidance and to continuously search all over the Scriptures to find my answers.

Jeremiah 29:13 - When you come looking for me, you'll find me. "Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I'll make sure you won't be disappointed.

Now, after whole-heartedly seeking to find out how to communicate with God, He has personally instructed me from His Word and from events within my own life about the many ways in which we can perceive His voice and the conversational movements of His Holy Spirit within our minds. So now, after learning these methods, I have been given tremendous peace of mind about how I'm to determine His will for each of my life affairs.

John 14:27 - Peace I (the living and active Word) leave with you; My peace I (the living and active Word) give to you; not as the world gives do I (the living and active Word) give it to you.

So, do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

Hopefully, this Biblical instruction on what I have learned over the years about how to perceive the Lord and His Holy Spirit's various means of communicating with me, will shed some needed light for those of you who are also struggling with this problem. Additionally, the instruction here may be useful for those of you who do communicate with God but are not yet familiar with some of the particular means that He says in His Word that His Holy Spirit will use to communicate with us.

Hopefully, the resultant effect of this instruction will be to build up your own personal faith about how to see and hear God so that you can so do.

Matthew 5:8 - Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God!

It is compiled from much of what God's Word says about the subject of supernaturally communicating with God.

Romans 10:17 - So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word....

I now ask the reader to read the article in Wikipedia about Pentecostal and Evangelical Rhema

(this is the Greek word for utterance). This article very nicely expresses the difference between these 2 differing approaches to communicating with the Lord. My teaching here (though not Pentecostal) is about what that particular article refers to as the Pentecostal Rhema voice of God.

Before I go on, please be sure that God gives you peace of mind over what I have just taught you and over each segment of this teaching. If He doesn't, that's a sign to you to stop to ponder the teaching further until you can reach peace over it or until you can find a flaw in it. If you do find that there is a flaw in it, please be sure to comment on that flaw here so that I can improve the teaching.

Knowledge of God and His ways

In order to enjoy reliable back and forth communication with God, it stands to reason that we must first gain some knowledge of Him and the ways in which He says He will hear us and speak to us.

To begin to do that, let's first acknowledge the obvious fundamental fact that God has elected to be imperceptible to all of our outward physical senses. We can't physically see Him, hear Him, taste Him, touch Him or feel Him. Therefore it stands to reason that the only means that is left to us by which we may perceive and communicate with Him is for it to happen within our minds.

Romans 1:19 - ...that which is known about God (at any given time) is evident within....(individual people's minds)...for God...(makes)...it evident to them.

And the mind is also the place within us where, after perceiving something thru our senses, we do our pondering and believing. So this is one the place that our imperceptible God has ordained that He will communicate with us. It is in effect the Holy of Holies of our body, which is our personal temple.

Hebrews 11:6b - ... he who comes to God must (use his mind to ponder the possibility of and then reach the conclusion to) believe that He is (even though He is physically imperceptible to our senses) and that He rewards those who (mentally reach out to) seek Him. (my own amplification of this verse)

Consequently, while God remains physically imperceptible to us, He has elected to provide us with the means of learning about Him and His ways within our minds thru His written Word which is found only in the Biblical Scriptures and which we can see or hear or if blind, feel by braille.

II Timothy 3:16 - All Scripture is inspired by God...

This Word about Him and His ways is something from Him that can be physically perceived by our senses and then transfered into our minds where we can think about it. He has provided His Word to us by mentally inspiring believing men over the centuries to transcribe for us what He revealed to them about Him and His ways.

Romans 15:4 - For whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written (by God thru His inspiration to His prophets) for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope (in His existence and His plans for us). (my own amplification of this verse)

He has inspired various faithful, holy men of the past to record the Words which He (in Spirit) somehow spoke to them or showed them about Him and His ways in their own life circumstances. Today, these same Words apply by faith to all people who find themselves in similar life circumstances.

II Timothy 3:16 - 17 - Every Scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration to holy, believing men in the past) and profitable for instruction, for reproof and for conviction of sin, for correction of error and for discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God's will in thought, purpose, and action),

so that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work. (the Amplified Bible)

So first and foremost, we need to fully believe that God has actually sent His Word to the prophets for us as a means by which to give us knowledge of Himself and His ways and that all of His revealed Word is true and now resides within the Biblical Scriptures.

John 17:17b - (Jesus said,) "Thy (God's) Word is truth."

Then we can move forward within our minds, from merely perceiving this Word thru our eyes or ears or fingers, into believing what it says and then establishing a firm faith in what it says about Him and His ways for our lives.

Romans 10:17 - So faith (about Him and His ways) comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word....

After that, from this baseline of Word faith (believing the Biblical record about God and His ways), we can move forward into a deeper faith which believes that today His Holy Spirit will use His Word to actually speak to each of us within our minds about our circumstances.

John 14: 26 - "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I (the living and active Word) have said to you.

In my own experience I believe that God has so spoken to me thousands of times. I feel that His Holy Spirit has done this by quickening (emphasizing - igniting - bringing to life) within my mind, passages of His many Words of Scripture. Each time He speaks anew to me within my mind, His Holy Spirit reminds me of verses that I've seen or heard before and that He wants me to then realize as being truly pertinent to a particular matter in my life.

Hebrews 4:12 - For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective (for all time) ]. (the Amplified Bible)

Accurate knowledge of God and the way that He has for each of us regarding each particular circumstance of our lives can only be achieved by listening to the voice of His Holy Spirit as He speaks to tell us the correct applications of the Biblical Scriptures for those circumstances. Deducing correct interpretations of His Word with His Holy Spirit which apply to our circumstances is absolutely necessary if we are to be able to recognize His will for the matter. Bu faith then, this can be a true communication from God placed by His Holy spirit within our minds about the matter.

II Timothy 2:15 - Be diligent to present yourself approved to God (today and later, at the judgment) as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the Word of truth.

But, what about us instead using the many religious traditions that men nearly universally employ in their efforts to commune with God? Why must we use the Scriptures in the Bible to find out about and then communicate with God? Why not just rely upon our church traditions, especially the ceremonial rites and rituals which have been handed down to us over time?

Well, according to Jesus, religious traditions passed down amongst men as a means by which to get close to God and please Him must conform to the Bible.

Mark 7:13 - ... you are nullifying and making void and of no effect [the authority of] the Word of God through your tradition, which you [in turn] hand on...

So Jesus declared that even these, if used, must always be substantiated within the Word of God which is found in the Biblical Scriptures.

Therefore, to formulate doctrines about God we must use our minds (which are able to perceive the Words of God contained in the Biblical Scriptures thru our senses) along with His Spirit to make and then believe in them. Within our minds each of us can subjectively detect those passages that the Holy Spirit brings to our remembrance (or that we first read or hear), as being quickened by God. This belief that God has energized some of His Biblical Words within our minds in order to talk to us, then becomes a means by which God can then talk to us on different issues.

John 16:12a - I (God) have still many more things to say to you... (the Amplified Bible)

Consequently, as we journey thru life, God will give believers occasional revelations of Himself and His ways, just as He did with Jesus original 12 disciples, but not too often so as to not overburden the limits of our human minds.

John 16:12b - ...but you cannot bear them now.

A very important consideration for us to also ponder about the Biblical Scriptures is that they are a collection of inspired books that have been designed by God to sometimes appear hard to understand and in some places, to even appear to be somewhat contradictory.

II Peter 3:15b - 16 - Paul, according to the wisdom given him (by God), wrote to you (and all of us today), as also in all of his letters, speaking in them of...some things (which are) hard to understand...

So it's important to emphasize that we are to work along with God's Holy Spirit's voice within our minds, to develop well thought out, correct interpretations of the Scriptures that are pertinent to each affair of our life.

John16:13 - "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all of the truth...

Correct interpretations of the Scriptures are necessary in order to get to the truths of God and His ways and to truly hear His Holy Spirit's voice for any particular matter. Then we need to take a firm mental hold (in steady faith) of that interpretation of the Scriptures that we feel He has shown us as being pertinent to that subject in our life.

Romans 14:22 - The faith (from your Spirit led interpretations of God's Word) which you have, have as your own conviction before God.

God tells us in Scripture that this kind of subjective, personal faith by each individual is very pleasing to the Lord.

Hebrews 11:6 - Without faith it is impossible to please God for he (each person) who comes to Him must (personally) believe that...He rewards them who (so) seek Him. (my own personalization of this verse)

The first reward from The Lord for our firm faith is His peace which He plants within us that then serves as evidence to us that we are in His truth, which further reinforces our faith.

Isaiah 26:3 - The steadfast of mind God will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in God.

One other point to make here is that even though we may be eternally saved from God's wrath upon us for our sins thru our faith in the correct interpretation of God's Word about Jesus Christ's work on the cross to provide us with salvation, each of us will still stand before Jesus at the judgment to give an account of all of the rest of our beliefs. This is the place where God will reward us for those Biblical interpretations that He gave us time and opportunity to work out with His Holy Spirit's voicings. It is also the place where we will suffer eternal loss for those doctrines that we wouldn't work with Him to correctly formulate!

I Corinthians 3:15 - For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is [already] laid, which is Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One). But if anyone builds upon the Foundation, whether it be with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,the work of each [one] will become [plainly, openly] known (shown for what it is); for the day [of Christ] will disclose and declare it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test and critically appraise the character and worth of the work each person has done.

If the work which any person has built on this Foundation [any product of his efforts whatever] survives [this test], he will get his reward. But if any person's work is burned up [under the test], he will suffer the loss [of it all, losing his reward], though he himself will be saved, but only as [one who has passed] through fire. (the Amplified Bible)

This passage says it all regarding how eternally important our efforts should be to us to work carefully with God's Holy Spirit to personally formulate our own knowledge of Him and His ways for each affair of our lives!

By our correctly formulated doctrine for each matter, we can truly hear His voice when His Holy Spirit energizes His Word within our minds about it.

Reaching out by faith to sense His presence.

To perceive the presence of God near us, actually talking to us! Wouldn't that be marvelous! What a wonderful communion that would be! Well, for that to occur we need to find a way to somehow get into His presence so that we can see and hear Him.

From my own experience, the emotional sense of truly being in His presence has rarely been granted to me. And I have never heard His voice audibly as some Christians say that they've heard it. But what has always been given to me and what will always be given to any believer who has the faith for it, is the certainty that when we mentally draw near to God, He will spiritually draw near to us even though we may not in any way sense Him doing it!

James 4:8 - Draw near to God and - HE WILL DRAW NEAR TO YOU!

The Lord promises above to respond to our faithful mental outreach to Him by drawing near to us and this is how we may at any time enter right into His presence! But we must have firm, unswerving faith that this will happen, in order for it to actually occur for us. Therefore, even though He doesn't give us any physical sensation or perception of His nearness, if we draw near to Him in firm mental faith, He promises us that he will not fail to draw very near to us and stay with us!

Hebrews 13:5b - ...(God says) I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake you nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!] (the Amplified Bible)

The question is, is our faith strong and unswerving enough to believe that when we draw near to Him within our minds, He will actually be there near to us, no matter what? What about in those tough times when we feel utterly forsaken by Him? Will we still believe that when we mentally draw near to Him, that He is instantly within our proximity, even though He remains physically imperceptible? This is a personal matter for each individual Christian to deal with, but it must be dealt with correctly in order to be near to God.

None of us will ever be able to reliably communicate with God until we firmly mentally but blindly physically - sit, stand and / or walk, trusting that He always draws near to us whenever we draw near to Him, no matter what! Then, once we are truly so positioned in our mind, He will be reliable to reward us with a second communication from Him (after His Word which He energizes within our minds) which is also mentally perceptible!

Isaiah 26:3 - The steadfast of mind God will keep in PERFECT PEACE because he trusts in God.

That 2nd Communication with Him is the Peace of Christ.

Strong, unswerving mental peace is the second mentally perceptible communication from God which His Holy spirit will put into our minds, once we take up a firm mental faith in any truth that He gives us. It is a mental sense that God will instill within us about our correct faith positions on the various affairs of our lives!

Colossians 3:15 - And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality - All QUESTIONS THAT ARISE IN YOUR MINDS...(Amplified Bible)

Behind the Holy spirit's ignition of the Word within our minds, this is another mentally perceptible means that He uses by which to communicate His true will to us for any particular matter!

When we are able to reach and keep mental peace about a matter, then that ongoing peace is our proof, our evidence that He has personally spoken to us, telling us that we are centered in His grace and will for that particular matter.

As long as this peace of His is present within our minds over our faith position on any given matter, that peace decides and settles with finality the fact that we are positioned within His will for that matter! In this manner we can believe that He has truly spoken to us about any given matter. But this communication of peace too must be accepted by believing that it has truly come from God and then by taking a firm mental faith position in that belief!So again.....

Isaiah 26:3 - The steadfast of mind God will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in God.

To better grasp this concept of being spoken to by God when we find that we have peace over a matter, we need to look upon the turmoils of our lives as being similar to the storms surrounding the eye of a hurricane. The small area covered by a hurricane's centrally located but moving eye becomes totally peaceful, while the much larger area covered by the storms surrounding it, is extremely and violently tumultuous. Ship's captains caught at sea within a hurricane's gales will try to pull away from them, but if they can't, then they will try to navigate into the storm's eye in order to find peaceful respite from its destructive power.

The same is true for Christians who are attempting to communicate with God. When we seek to find a peaceful mental respite from Him from the turmoil of any uncertainty within our life, we need to navigate our minds to discover the correct Biblical faith haven that His Spirit is trying to take us into for that particular problem. This Biblically correct mental faith position will bring forth an immediate movement of God which will give our minds the peace of Christ about it and that will calm us.

Then later, whenever we are stirred by Satan to again mentally reconsider that problem and then we remember our Biblically correct faith position for it, Christ's peace will again enter and settle our minds. No matter how events swirl around that particular difficulty in our life, as long as we hold onto that correct faith position on the issue, His peace will descend within our minds to give us respite and calm.

John 13:17 - If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them!

But His peace within our minds will not occur if our faith position is wrong, no matter how strongly we hold it, because God's Holy Spirit will not give us Christ's peace about that falsehood.

So, let's sum up our discussion so far. Even though God is physically imperceptible to us, we are able to perceive His Scriptural writings in the Bible about Him and His ways thru our eyes and ears (or thru our fingers with braille). Sensory nerves then transfer God's Words through these physically means into our brains wherein we can ponder them with God in order to reach a correct interpretation of them for a particular matter. Then, also within our minds, we can go on to reach a full and firm belief in a particular correct interpretation and establish a strong mental faith position in it. In so doing, Christ rewards us with His peace within our minds about that matter. This peace is a mentally perceptible proof to us that the Lord has truly spoken to us about that matter.

Romans 8:6b - to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Consequently, as we discuss all of the other ways that our invisible God has said in His Word that He has used to communicate with men, peace is the underlying condition that we will always seek to find present in our own minds to prove to us that we have truly received a communication from His Holy Spirit and not from some deceptive devil.

Thank you.


Please go on to entry #7 for April 2008 to continue with the next segment of this extended teaching about communicating with God.

3. What are the signs & wonders that substantiate a God-given apostle?

Because of God's infinite diversity, His substantiating signs and wonders can come in any number of forms. Like the differences in snow flakes or fingerprints or iris scans or DNA, every one will be uniquely designed by God for each individual circumstance. Consequently, there is no exact criteria that can be given as to what the forms of signs or wonders from God will take.

I can only give you my own testimonies of the signs and wonders that I believe that God has sent to me and / or to others. Remember however, a Christian's major attention should always be on the Lord and His Word, not on the signs and wonders that He sends forth thru and for His believing children. They are only meant to be substantiations from God, not things to be sought after.

So here are my testimonies of some of the events that have occurred in my life that I believe are signs and wonders truly sent from God to substantiate my own apostolic ministry from Him and to speak to and / or guide me or others whom I know...


Proof from Jesus to me of my own appointment by Him as His Apostle!

One warm fall afternoon, while I was first struggling with what I felt might be the Lord's call within my spirit to become a modern day apostle, I was sitting at a bandstand in a park near my home. I was meditating upon the beginning verses in James Chapter 1 that are about the testing of our faith. Because of my mental discomfort from these thoughts that kept plaguing me about this huge matter and because of the severe trials then in my personal life, I felt that I was being so tested.

Well, there I sat struggling with whether the thoughts in my mind about apostleship were truly coming from God or from myself to self-exalt me or from some demon who was trying to tempt me to exalt myself. I wanted to step forward and embrace this office if it was truly God's will for me to do so yet I didn't want to be in any way presumptuous if it wasn't. Fully engrossed in this decision making, I didn't notice some people from a band that were active in the core of the park's bandstand, setting up for the evening's entertainment.

Isaiah 8:11 - ...the LORD spoke to me with mighty power...

All of a sudden one of the band setup guys loudly hollers into a microphone, "James! Testing! Testing 1 - 2! James! Testing! Testing 1 - 2!" Well, the band's huge speakers must have been set at their highest volume so that booming voice shouting out from them, using that name (which is also my first name) and declaring a testing with those numbers (which coincided exactly with the Scriptures from James upon which I was meditating) sounded to me just like the voice of Almighty God!

Deuteronomy 4:11 -12 - You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain (this high calling of God to become an apostle)

and the mountain burned with fire (severe, painful testings) to the very heart of the heavens (symbolizing the topmost church office of apostleship);

darkness, cloud and thick gloom (my certainty of much loss in this pursuit and my uncertainty on how to proceed in it and where it would all lead).

Then the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form - only a voice!

I literally jumped out of my seat in fear at the immensity of the sound of that voice and in the huge coincidence of the setup guy's use of those words. As a result of that booming voice and what it said, I immediately perceived that this was a substantiating sign to me from God that He was the one who was actually bringing these thoughts to me, not myself alone or some clever Satanic tempter. I felt right then and there that these thoughts were truly a test from God of my faith about the validity of apostleship for today and at the same time they were a specific test of my willingness to become one.

Deuteronomy 4:36 - Out of the heavens He let you hear His voice to discipline you...

After I heard that fearsome, booming voice I felt that this was God's way of telling me that He was testing me to see if I would believe in and move on into apostleship. So if it was, I did want to proceed into the gift and please God. But the thought of so doing was also fearsome and that created a temptation to disbelieve in the voice and shrink away from the whole idea!

Hebrews 3:7 -8 - ...just as the Holy Spirit says, "TODAY, IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, do not harden your hearts...(and) provoke Me!

So just to be sure that this sign was truly from God, I prayed and asked Him to further substantiate my apostolic ministry by sending me some other Christians who would also believe that my apostleship was truly His calling and not some Satanic deception.

II Cor 13:1b - ...every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Within a week I had met and begun to fellowship with 10 new people (one or two every day) besides the couple of brothers with whom I had been confiding all along. This was a dozen people seeking to disciple with Christ with me! And it wasn't very long after that that just as I had felt would happen, I suffered the loss of all of the worldly things that had been the mainstays my worldly life.

Philippians 3:8b - 9 - ...I (the apostle) have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him...having...the the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith!

But while those losses of mine were unfolding, these newly found brethren all agreed to meet with me one evening and our discussion turned to the subject of baptism.

For myself, I had recently come to believe that baptism should be performed immediately upon believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as one's Savior. So I explained to all of them about how, in the book of Acts, all of the baptisms described were done immediately and in the name of Jesus and also how, at the end of the book of Matthew we are told to do them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. So, since I had just been baptized myself in this manner, I proposed that they all might want to do the same.

We discussed this for a while and then reached agreement that technically Biblically, immediate baptism both in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as well as the name of the Father and the Holy Spirit is what should be done. None of these Christians had yet been so baptized, therefore they then agreed to all do so together and quickly.

However, the cool fall weather prevented us from going right down to a nearby river to do it. The Lord used that cold weather to instead lead us into another setting that He had prepared for the baptisms. He guided us there by having us soon discover that we could rent a small beginner's swimming pool at the YMCA in town for only $25 per hour (1980's pricing).

We felt that this would be a fine place to do the baptisms in warmth (our faith was not yet strong enough for cold water baptisms!). So we all pitched in a few bucks and rented the pool for one hour which would be plenty of time in which to do them all (of course not realizing that God had a surprise waiting for us there).

So, when we paid the pool rental fee, the YMCA manager insisted that they provide us with a lifeguard. We accepted this, thinking that a lifeguard was not really necessary for what we would be doing in the pool and not realizing this was the Lord's doing. So, the next night while the lifeguard was watching, I performed each baptism under this young man's gaze. I felt the Lord leading me to preach a strong fire and brimstone gospel message as a part of the baptisms in hopes that the lifeguard might be touched by the message.

Sure enough he was and when we were done baptizing the last person he asked excitedly, "Hey, before you go, can I get baptized too? I don't want to go to hell!" So we told him to repent of his sins to God and truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in his heart for his salvation. When he said that he just did that, I then baptized him also, to the glory of God. This was God's surprise first fruit of our small apostolic church fellowship!

To me all of these events were signs from the Lord that He had truly selected me to function as a modern day apostle and that He was the One bringing everyone together as He built this small church fellowship.

The following is a testimony of how God shortly thereafter supported my apostolic appointment during a major testing.

I was staying with a lovely married couple and their three children at their invitation in a suburban town near Chicago. This couple had great gospel musical abilities and they were becoming known in some Christian circles in the area. They had joined up with our fellowship and offered us their home as a place in which for our group to meet. They looked to me as an apostle sent to them by God to help them to grow in the Lord. Together, we had many Holy Spirit led sessions of Bible teachings with many, many signs and wonders occurring.

Mark 16:20 - ...the Lord worked with them and confirmed the Word by the signs that followed.

One day the leader of a larger, more established home fellowship in the town came to visit with them when I was not there and in the course of their discussion suggested that they join his group. They sensed that he craved to use their music ministry to expand his own fellowship. So they balked at that idea and told him that they believed that I was a God-given apostle sent to them to help them and they felt that they should stay with me and our small group. So disappointed, he left and said that he'd come back when I was there so that he could meet with me, which he soon did.

Meanwhile, when I heard of his visit and what he proposed, I began praying for guidance to see whether or not The Lord was leading us to merge our group in with his. When he arrived, we all sat down and engaged in some small talk for a while. But the conversation soon became stilted, and he left.

Later he called the man of the house and told him that he had met many apostles in his day and that he was certain that I was not an apostle!

Luke 22:53 - ...this is your hour, and your delegated authority and the power of the darkness...

He then counseled my friend to send me away and join up with him and bring the rest of the fellowship along too. This rattled the man of the house and he responded that he would take this recommendation into advisement and pray about it.

Luke 22:31 - Satan, by asking, obtained you...for himself...that he may shake you in a sieve, as grain is sifted, by an inward agitation, trying your faith to the verge of overthrow! (Kenneth Wuest's expanded translation of the New Testament)

So he prayed for God to reveal to him just what he should do because he was quite upset about the matter. This established minister's denouncement of my apostleship was severely shaking his faith, making him become quite uncertain about it.

A couple of days later this minister came by to inform him that the person who was providing him and his large family with a big, free house there in town had just unexpectedly notified him that he needed him to move out immediately. His landlord told the minister that he needed the house back right away for his own use. This minister then mentioned that the donations in his fellowship had been down and because of this he was now reduced in income and the only place that he could think of to move his large family into on such short notice was 800 miles away, as a guest of his family in a home on their farm.

Then this minister confided to him that he had never before in his life felt so powerless from God for this kind of a situation and he couldn't understand why the Lord was letting this happen to him. He went on to say that even though he did not want to do so, this event was forcing him to send his church fellowship to another minister and move away immediately.

Proverbs 26:27 - Whoso diggeth a pit (for another) shall fall therein.

A phone call from him a few days later, telling us that he was safely there, was the last any of us heard or saw of him. So in this manner the Lord settled with finality the matter that I had been praying about of whether or not to merge the 2 fellowships.

God went on to use this event to also restore firm faith within the man of the house in my apostolic ministry to him and his family. He soon told me that he viewed this minister's removal from the area as an answer from God to his prayer about my true apostleship.

Luke 22:32 - But as for myself, I made petition for you that your faith should not be totally eclipsed. And as for you, when you have returned to your original position with respect to your faith, stabilize your brethren. (Kenneth Wuest's expanded translation of the New Testament)

He soon shared this whole testimony with all of our church brethren and that also helped to stabilize their faith in my ministry.

Luke 23:34 - ..."Father, forgive them, they know not what they do"

I was still new at apostleship then so unfortunately I didn't pray whole heartedly for this misguided minister's well-being as I should have. This was because his opposition and ankle-bitting hurt me personally and deep down I felt that he got what he deserved from God. But today I'm more experienced and confident in my ordained position as an apostle and I'm more loving towards my enemies, so whenever he now comes to mind, I pray for God's best for him and his family.

As I said in my first entry in this blog, the devil loves to stir up strife by using misguided Christians to attack other Christians who are on a good track. But God forgives the ones at fault and works to correct them and He can be counted upon to eventually help any Christian who is truly seeking Him and His wisdom to find the truth for any matter.

Hebrews 11:6b - ...He rewards those who seek Him.

God will show them how to get past any devilish assaults that are being perpetrated by Satan upon them thru erroneous brethren.

Ephesians 6:12 - For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Manifestation Prophecy

I Corinthians 9:1b - ...have I not seen Jesus our Lord?

I had been praying for years for guidance from God about finding the truth of His will in so many issues that were pertinent to my life. Yet I believed that Jesus couldn't come to visit me to instruct me because His next appearance on earth is reserved for His 2nd coming. But, because of the many doctrinal errors that I felt that I was perceiving in every Bible teacher's teachings which I had been encountering, I felt all alone and up against all of them. So I just wished that somehow He would come and instruct me Himself. I wanted to really know the truth of His Word about the many doctrines around today that seemed to me to be contradicting it. Well, did God have a surprise for me!

Matthew 19:26b - with God all things are possible

One beautiful spring morning He did an entirely unexpected and totally thrilling thing for me that had never entered my mind as being possible. He led me to drive out to a local park in my van with one of the young sisters in our fellowship. Here we were going to pray for a while. I was in the driver's seat and she was sitting on the couch in the back when we each started to pray silently to the Lord.

All of a sudden I heard her call my name! But her voice was different? It was somehow very commanding! So I opened my eyes and turned to look at her. Well, there she was sitting in the center of the couch and she had an extremely noble quality to her posture! So, unsure of what was happening, I asked her, "Did you call me?" to which she responded, "Jim, I the Lord Jesus Christ who came in the flesh, have called the two of you to come out here this morning so that I could talk with you and answer your questions!"

I John 4:2 - This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God...

Instantly I knew that this was not her speaking but that it was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself somehow possessing her and speaking thru her mouth! Her voice had somehow become the most regal voice imaginable and her demeanor was utterly majestic.

John 7:46 - ...No man speaks as this man speaks!

This was definitely not her voice or manner! So tears began flying from my eyes like machine gun bullets! I knew that somehow thru her, right there in my van in that park, I was being addressed by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself! For Him to converse with me is what I had hoped to happen for so long but it was being done in a fashion of which I had never heard or read anywhere.

So thru my tears I timidly asked, "Is that you Lord?" to which He responded, "Yes it is I. I've been sent here today in response to your many prayers to My Father asking for Me to help you find the truths for which you are longing." Well at this statement I was struck speechless because she didn't know anything about this desire of mine! So, in awe, I just kept looking at Him (in her) but He kept her eyes shut while He patiently sat there, waiting for me to recover from my initial shock over all of this.

It took a while but eventually I stopped crying enough to lamely ask Him where she was? He then explained that He had her spirit in a pleasant place while both she and I were experiencing this gift from God which He called Manifestation Prophecy. He explained that this is a supernatural gift wherein His Holy Spirit possesses a willing person and uses that person as a vessel to converse in human form with the brethren.

He then said that He came in this manner to me because He knew that I had enough faith to believe that it was really Him so doing. He said that when we were done conversing, I was to go back to my brethren in the fellowship and help them to also believe in it. He said that I was to tell them that if they could have the faith for it, He would come thru her again that evening to converse with them also!

Needless to say I was thrilled beyond belief at His appearance but there was of course a tiny doubt within me about the genuineness of such a manifestation since I had never heard nor read about such a thing. Could she be faking it for some reason or could Satan be possessing her and tricking me? After all, the Scriptures say that the devil can come as an angel of light! So I proceeded to ask Him in her a few questions that I felt that she, in her newly embraced but still uneducated faith, could not possibly know herself.

One question I asked was about the greatness of His original disciples / apostles compared to other Christians. He surprised me by telling me how those men saw Him and walked with Him and experienced all that He had to say and all of His miracles for years and they still had trouble really believing in Him. Yet thereafter, all Christians have just read a book of words or heard preaching and testimonies of Him and thru that alone they have been able to firmly believe in Him. So why would God consider the original apostles any greater than those who never saw Him and yet still believed?

J0hn 20:29 - ... Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

This answer and this verse have been food for thought for me ever since it was given to me, especially because I believe that I also am now one of those whom He refers to as having seen Him. But technically, the truth is that I didn't really see Him in His own flesh. My encounter with Him manifesting in her is still a matter of my own personal faith that it was truly from God.

Hebrews 11:6 - Without faith it is impossible to please God for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him!

That is the brilliance of God in rewarding me with this Manifestation Prophecy gift because it is an encounter with God that must still be accepted by faith, even after testing it (but not God) with pointed questions (which I made of the Spirit within the person)!

Another question which I asked of Him manifesting in her was where the original autographs of the Scriptures are now? She could not have possibly known the answer to this question since she probably never even heard of the term Biblical autographs. So I felt that it was a good test of the validity of the Manifestation. He in her blew me away and proved that she was not the one giving me the answer by saying very matter of factly, "In Heaven."

Well, of course they're in heaven! But when I asked that question I never even considered that fact because my evil heart was masking some evil intentions of which I was not consciously aware. I was only conscious of the fact that this question was merely a test of the girl and of the Manifestation. That's why I was referring to the original earthly parchments. I consciously felt that I was merely testing the Manifestation Spirit, but not the Lord Himself and He knew it.

I John 4:1 - ...do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

However, in giving me this answer, He revealed to me another evil motive stuck deep down in my deceitful heart for asking this question. That motive was that had He answered me with an earthly place in which to find them I would have become exceedingly proud! After all, would not finding the original autographs of the Scriptures be the greatest discovery ever for mankind! And where would little old phony me have been when I exposed the secret earthly location of these original autographs? Wicked me would have been right in the center of that discovery, grabbing for glory while feigning humility!

Jeremiah 17:10 - I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

His 2 word matter of fact answer, "In Heaven." cut me to the quick causing my heart to burn. So I knew that this could be no other Spirit in her than that of Jesus Christ Himself! Satan encourages this kind of deceitful evil in a man's heart, but Jesus does not!

Luke 24:32a (the brethren) said to one another, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He (Jesus) was speaking...?"

Knowing the pain in me from this conviction of my deceitful heart's deep seated proud motive, He then encouraged me to be at peace. He repeatedly exhorted me to be at peace during His manifestation because every question I posed to Him would bring an answer that I did not expect and that would force me to face my own deceitful heart's reasons for asking it! So pretty soon, in reverent fear, I ran out of questions to ask Him.

Ecclesiastes 5:2 - Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God...therefore let your words be few!

But I was so thrilled and excited at this wonderful, supernatural gift of Jesus Christ actually appearing to me to converse with me, that I didn't absorb all of the really deep stuff that was occurring at the time. Most of it came to me much later. That morning I was just out of my mind with joy at this amazing gift from God of the Lord's appearance! I was more excited than I've ever been before in my entire life!

John 15:11 - These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your may be made full.

Yet after a little less than an hour, the Lord in her suggested that we stop and He would leave her, but only until that evening when He promised to manifest back within her, if the brethren wanted Him to so appear to them. He also suggested that we all write out our questions so that when He appeared, we wouldn't be nervous and forget them.

He then instructed me that the girl would need to be told all that had happened thru her because she was not aware of it. So I thanked Him profusely for visiting me, we said our goodbyes and He left her. Immediately, she blinked her eyes a couple of times and asked me what had happened?

So I told her everything about the Lord's use of her to speak with me and she rejoiced exceedingly along with me about His visitation. Even though she was not there for it, she was greatly thankful that He chose her as His vessel thru whom to appear.

Luke 1:35 -38 - "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the Holy One within you shall be called the Son of God....For nothing will be impossible with God."

And she said, "Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word."

Then we drove back to the fellowship house and burst in excitedly to share our testimony of this wondrous event with all of the brethren. Of course they were skeptical at first, but so were Jesus original disciples when Mary Magdalene announced that Jesus had risen and conversed with her. After we all calmed down and could more quietly discuss the event, they all came around and agreed that they too wanted to talk directly with Jesus in this manner, just as I had.

So we all gathered together that evening and when we prayed for Him to come, He reappeared within her and we all were given answers to our many questions by Him for the next couple of hours. Then, when He left, we dissected everything that was discussed and came to the conclusion that this Manifestation was truly the Lord Jesus Christ! Consequently, many times thereafter we prayed for Him to come back again and He always did.

According to the Lord (speaking thru this girl), the Manifestation Prophecy gift was given to us only after we had done all that we could do in all of our own Bible studies to find the correct answers to our questions. Now, after many times getting such manifestation appearances from Him, we no longer ask for Him to come back in that manner any more because He eventually resolved all of our questions.

He gave most of His answers to our questions by first starting with a question of His own, "What does your faith tell you?" We'd then respond by telling Him where our thinking on that particular issue was and then He would discuss our position with us. But He never redirected us thru the Manifestation to some new position. He'd only encourage us to go on in our present faith and Bible studies while watching and waiting for God to send us new teachings or events or other prophecies by which to redirect us.

Romans 14:22 - The faith which you have (currently), have as your own conviction before God.

Well, after a while we all began to understand that we should just sit, stand and walk in our current faith positions, whatever they were. As long as those positions were the best we could come up with, whether they were ultimately right or wrong, God would be pleased with us. Then, if they were right, God would be faithful to strengthen us in that particular faith position but if they were wrong anfd He wanted to correct us about it, He would somehow send us a correction.

Also, He would also always manifest in her with the greeting , "Peace be with you. Yes, Jesus Christ has come in the flesh." and He would always depart with similar words.

Collosians 3:15 - And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state] - The Amplified Bible

But when He led one of us to find this version of Col 3:15, we knew that we no longer needed for Him to manifest Himself in this manner amongst us anymore to answer our questions, because His peace in us is what proves to us that we already have the answer to that particular question that God wants us to have faith for, at that time.

Matthew 5:8 - Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

The gift of manifestation prophecy was given to us initially to answer our questions because God had no earthly teacher with pure enough doctrines that God could send to us to take us further along in our faith. But now that we knew how to interpret God's peace within us as being the umpire and the final decider of all of our doctrinal issues, this gift is only an occasionally manifested, just for those times when we feel the need to rest and comfort ourselves in Jesus Christ's sweet, loving presence!

These are some of the signs and wonders that I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has given to confirm my own appointment as one of His modern day apostles.

Thank you for allowing me to testify to you about them. I hope that you will now view my teaching ministry here as God given for your edification.