Friday 4 September 2015

Absent in Flesh, Present in Spirit





Scripture: Colossians 2 v 5:

"For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ."



In this verse, Paul is telling the Colossian Church that he was able to monitor their meetings and progress even though he was not there in his fleshly body. He was able to enjoy their spiritual growth be being able to visit them in his spiritual body.



This was not in any way a form of astral travel or astral projection, which are occultic and wrong as any astral travel leaves your body and soul unprotected and vulnerable to demons. Paul was able to be present through the power of the Holy Spirit.



Remember Philip in Acts  8 v 39-40 being transported by the Holy Spirit to Azotus. in the writings of John G. Lake he speaks of being taken in Spirit from South Africa to Wales to pray for a woman in an asylum who needed deliverance. Six weeks later she stood before him in Johannesburg  healed and in her right mind.



Satan cannot originate anything but trouble. He can only take the creation of God and tamper with it. In Satan's kingdom Godly prophecy becomes fortune-telling and divination; Spiritual travel becomes astral projection; Divine healing becomes faith healing; deliverance from demons becomes exorcism by strange and dangerous methods. Do not be deceived by the counterfeits in Satan's kingdom.    



Many years ago I was asked to pray in a group for a man, a chemist, who had suicided on multiple concoction of pills in his own shop. The paramedics declared him dead on the scene as rigor mortis had already set in. His wife begged and persuaded them to take him to ICU and have him hooked up to life support equipment.



This was on a Saturday afternoon. We prayed together on Sunday. I never met his wife then. On Monday the doctors wanted to switch off the machines. Brain was a flat line for this man. She begged them not to do it. Tuesday at noon this dead man sat up alive, asked for a glass of water, pulled all the tubes out and discharged himself from hospital with no memory of what he had done. He never knew we prayed.



Two years later his wife phoned me and asked me to urgently come to her house as he was suicidal again. He never knew I was coming but he met me at his front door in his shorts. His face went white and he ran through the house. His wife yelled Go after him. So I ran through this strange big house. I found him in the bathroom in the shower, shorts on the floor. I asked him why he ran.



"You were there when I died," he said, "You pulled me out of the pit!" "Who are you? Are you a spirit?". I said no I am a person and I don't remember doing that.  He truly recognised me but I was just giving God the glory that He could save this man's life. That day he became born again and a child of God.



Prayer: Father God, in Paul's day there was no media or social networking so Your gifts of spiritual communication were vital. They are just as vital today to save lives and save souls that are perishing. Let us rejoice and give thanks for God's powerful gifts and pray that they shall  increase to reach all those in peril. In Jesus' name. Amen.