Main Idea of The Voice in the Wilderness

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In ourselves we are incapable of doing any good thing; but that which we cannot do will be wrought by the power of God in every submissive and believing soul.

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I've often wondered why some individuals in the Bible were visited by angels, while others received dreams. Moses' face glowed with light after his encounters with Jehovah, and so did Zacharias' after his angelic encounter. Since each of us has a spirit within, just like Jesus did, I'm thinking that this light phenomena was Zac's spirit's response to the angel's presence.

Maybe this spirit just resides within our heads, but can access the rest of our bodies for healing purposes. Or maybe it's just it's face that glows, too. When Jesus was transfigured in the same way, this could have happened to his disciples, but they had fallen asleep. The ancient Egyptians believed humans had a spiritual double, called either the "ba" or "ka", (I can't remember at this moment).

In fact, the Holy Spirit IS the Creative/Healing force of the universe that creates life and repairs human bodies. The Spirit of God was there during Creation, and it was there in every instance of healing in the Bible, including Jesus' "miracles". Jesus asked God to heal someone, and God told the Spirit to do it. Even long-distance healing was no problem, since individual's spirits were all connected with the Spirit of God. The Spirit is somehow able to manipulate atoms, molecules, and DNA, and capable of rapid-growth technology. Somehow, healing is connected with belief, too. Perhaps healing must be visualized in order to make it possible.

If we look backward and downward at the trail of garbage we have left behind, we do not believe and limit our connection to our spirit, but if we look forward and upward, then we believe, are filled with the power of God, and can finally do something good.

For a moment, Zac looked backwards, thinking how old both he and his wife were. His weakness ended up proving to others that he did indeed have an encounter with a Messenger from God. It was an easy matter for his spirit within to make him deaf and dumb (speechless), and amazed them when he was restored and prophesied. "He had a stroke," they might have thought, otherwise.

I've often looked at stroke victim's and wondered, if I touched them, then they could be healed. I actually put my hands on a dying woman, not really intending for her to be restored, but just to see what would happen. My whole body tingled for a few seconds. I don't know if this was purely psychological, or if something else was involved. This was the woman who said, "This life is a test," and, "There here in the room. There's two of them." She was, of course, delirious by that time.

John's conception was, I believe, accomplished in the normal manner of human conception. His birth was predicted many centuries before as "the Voice of one crying in the wilderness" by Isaiah.

How can one prophesy an event so far into the future? Either time travel is involved or, some other way to view the future is possible. God, who is, who was, and who will be could be the time traveler, exist simultanneously in past, present, and future, or, it could be the Spirit of God may exist in another dimension where time is irrevelant. It's possible that God saw the future and arranged everything to work out, or saw what needed to be done so that ultimately, evil was destroyed. The plan had to be followed exactly, or the future would have changed and the restoration of humankind would have failed.

Jesus, on the other hand, was conceived by extraordinary means. The Spirit of God, the creative/healing power of God, formed the little embryo in-utero by forces we do not understand. His life was already planned out, and he had to follow the plan or risk losing everything. He would have had to return to his father a failure and lost the opportunity to be the ruler of Earth.

It's puzzling that Jesus was quiet for 18 years until after John began his work. That meant John was quiet for almost that length of time, also. There must be a real advantage in raising children in a low-population area, too. Maybe it's the negative influences of having many peers in high-population areas. Both John and Jesus sought solitude. They must have studied a lot, too, people and scriptures.

Is that something we should seek, too, solitude?

My apologies to the readers. I look at passages in DA and all of these thoughts rush out. I forget some of them because I can't type fast enough. I'll try to back it off in the future...

WHY? We like your thoughts.

Thank you, Nico. You're a true friend. I needed to hear that. I just don't want to run anyone off by being overzealous or creating a monopoly. This is such a profound book. It has the power to change people when they see more of what Jesus was like. Church services have their place, but nothing's more important than experiencing Jesus. That's what we all really need to change out of our old skins and put new ones on.

I was thinking the past several days about the solitide that JTB and Jesus both experienced. I don't think they would have gone off alone if it weren't somehow important for their missions. I don't know if you can find solitude in DC or St. Louis or any other city, but if we can shut out civilization and clear our heads, we should grow closer to God by experiencing nature, asking forgivenss for our evil thoughts and actions, asking for direction in blessing other's lives, and asking for the Holy Spirit to suppress our flawed behaviors and give us newer, unselfish ones.

By looking forward and up, the garbage of the world behind us fades and becomes irrelevant, and the path ahead becomes clearer, even if it's only a few feet at a time. I think that's it, the solitude enabled John and Jesus to focus on their missions. They studied the prophecies and the HS enabled them to understand their parts.

We need solitude, too, so God can speak to us when we can hear him.

Nico,

This solitude in nature, it's also an opportunity to develop self-control, self-dicipline, simplicity, and self-denial. In order for John and Jesus to wake the people up, they had to be able to control their appetites and passions. They also had to develop an immunity to other's opinions, actions, and the circumstances surrounding them.

When Elijah's message for our time shakes up the established religions, its bearers will have done this.

Solitude with God is also the first step in our recovery process. Solitude in nature is a time when God can speak to us and heal our wounded spirits. Most of us have to work backwards to undo the damage that we and our parents have done to ourselves...

When we're alone, far from the noise and crowds we can:

Seek Forgiveness for Ourselves and Confess our Wrongs
Seek Healing for our Wounded Spirits
Forgive others for Harming Us
Seek Self-Control
Seek to Resist Selfishness and Cultivate Simplicity
Seek Kindness in all Situations, even if Insulted or Wronged
Seek to Bless Others by Frequent Random Acts of Kindness
Seek the Power to Resist Temptation to Do or Think Evil
Develop an Immunity to Other's Opinions and Actions, and Surrounding Circumstances


Only by baring our souls to God, telling him everything on our hearts, can we be healed and start moving on. Without spiritual healing, we'll only be sharing our garbage with others, not sharing a vision of a New Life in the Kingdom of the Stars. After we are spiritually healed, then we can share something worthwhile with those who want what we have.

God knows us all. He knows our pain, our sorrows, our hopes. He is connected to us by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives life to everything living. The Holy Spirit will heal us, and more, but only if we ask and believe and never give up until we have won the victory over our evil-infected human natures.

Don't give up.

Nothing on this garbage can of a world is worth missing out on the beauty and wonder of what's in store for the overcomers. Like John the Baptist and Jesus, let's seek God in solitude, now, before it's too late.

Elijah's message will shake the world. May God turn us all into Elijah's to bring the people back to Him. It's not impossible, once we get rid of the garbage...

GT

(Thoughts after spending an hour at a nearby lake reading DA, Ch. 10)

Gary,

There is an excellent schema for working through some of those things you mentioned, i.e., the negative events, traumas, and patterns of negative interactions we have experienced, whether as children or as adults. What you refer to as "the damage done to us." I learned it at a small private clinic run by SDAs back in 1994 where I went to get some therapeutic healing for mind and spirit.

It involves charting out these things and what they have done to us based on Biblical principles. I don't remember all the Bible verses used to validate this so forgive me on that count -- but it starts with listing those things (traumatic events, negative patterns) along with who the perpetrator(s) was/were, then listing all the emotions you felt associated with these at the time, then listing the judgments you passed on those persons as a result of these things, the vows you made to yourself as a result, and the false beliefs you formed as a result. The judgments are to be repented of, the vows are to be dissolved (God breaks our false covenants with hell and death) because they are impossible to keep by very nature, and the false beliefs are to be replaced by truth. Finally, one encounters Jesus Christ in prayer with a loving community supporting them in prayer, and receives precisely what one needed when the original bad stuff was going on. You would not believe the deep levels of true healing that can take place through this simple system. I was AMAZED. I went there with 29 years of horrible, oppressive baggage and came home with all of it cleared up and GONE. Even though I've experienced some bad stuff since then that has bruised me, I have never had to take up all that junk I was carrying up until 1994 again. It was truly amazing.

It is possible this scheme could be worked in solitude, but I doubt it. The presence of a loving, if imperfect, community working the same work with you is as indispensible as AA meetings are to the AA system. Because it is important that we not be left alone with our own misgivings and doubts and fears about God's acceptance and love in those moments, but can receive the love of God uniquely through the loving hearts and prayers of human beings who are believers like ourselves struggling to get to that place of healing.

Just thought I'd share that.

Too bad the clinic doesn't exist anymore. I could use a refresher course.

Nico

You're so right, Nico. I appreciate your unexpected perspectives and feedback.

Although some of our work is one-on-one with God, requiring blood, sweat, and tears on our own, some people will need guidance to help them out of their emotional prisons. People are different, and they will need different plans to become spiritually whole. Some of us are dragging little garbage cans behind us, some of us are dragging huge, reeking, overflowing dumpsters.

Those who have been able to experience spiritual healing can move on to help others experience healing of their wounded spirits. In fact, that's the mission of Christians, first prepare themselves, then search for wounded, bleeding souls and show them what the Great Healer can do for them. First, everyone needs to have hope, then they can be healed.

Back to the chapter, John the Baptist and Jesus first had to awaken the people to their danger from sin. Church attendance and ancestry alone couldn't save them.

That's the first step, the Awakening. The next steps would be Repentance, Forgiveness, Healing, and a New Direction, beginning to live a life that would bless others. Those who claim to be Christians but aren't kind or honest, who are selfish and greedy, who don't try to help the poor and the low-lifers, they're like chaff waiting for the fire.

Nico and friends, have you ever thought of putting together some tracts, written by yourselves from your perspectives and experiences? I know all of you can write, I've seen it. Anyone capable of posting their ideas in these forums could write a tract.

All of my life, even when I didn't believe there was a God, I picked little tracts up and read them whenever I saw one. The ones with attractive art and short stories were much more interesting than the seven spiritual laws ones.

Christine had an interesting idea about a little lost lamb that had never been shorn. It would be so amazing if even one person turned to God after reading one your tracts, which would be, in effect, little sermons.

The tracts would be like little seeds, waiting for some water and sunshine before sprouting. We could be the seeders, looking for seedees, while we're seeding.

Gary

Gary, that's an interesting idea. I once had a notion to write a tract about the real blood pact, the one made by Christ (instead of with the devil or other spirits). I did, in fact, once write one called "The true initiation" which was directed toward ceremonial magickians and mystery schools. I still have it somewhere. But these are, of course, specialty audiences, not anything the common man would relate to. I would like to be able to write more universally than that.

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Christine had an interesting idea about a little lost lamb that had never been shorn. It would be so amazing if even one person turned to God after reading one your tracts, which would be, in effect, little sermons.

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Gary, just realized I didn't finish this "story".



This is a picture of a sheep that was found wandering somewhere (sorry I can't remember the details of the actual news item--lucky I found the picture!). It hadn't been shorn, as the rest of the same flock of sheep for over a year (could've been more, as I say, can't remember the details).

The made up story goes something like this:

There is a sheep named Fluffy. She wanders away from her sheperd and her family. Thinking life would be so much better off if she could just be alone to explore it for herself.

She leaves the fold and isn't to be seen again for a year. Over time, she finds the shelter that she needs; she finds a nice, cool stream of running water; she finds plenty of grasses to eat. All seems to go well and she thinks to herself, "What need have I of a sheperd? What need have I to stay in the fold and obey his rules? Silly rules, anyway. Never have time to just lie back and enjoy life."

Her carefree life continues this way. Day after day. She grows, gets stronger and more bold in her thinking. She wanders further and further from the fold and from the shelter she'd found on her own.

One evening a thunderstorm happens and she is caught in the rain. Her coat begins to weigh her down and is finally so heavy, she cannot move. She must spend the evening out in the cold.

In the morning, she wakes to find that her coat is no longer wet, but it is covered in damp mud. She still is too heavy to move.

Days go by. She's hungry. She's alone. She's tired of bleating. She's tired of crying. She thinks of her family, of the warmth of the fold. She remembers how kind the sheperd had been to her when she needed help.

Oh! How she wished she could return.

The sheperd, of course, had never forgotten about Fluffy. He'd been searching for her for such a long time. He'd even caused his fold to venture further and further from home several times over the course of the year.

He hadn't given up hope.

The spring had finally arrived--thunderstorms were proof of the change in weather. The sheep had been shorn and were ready to begin their new spring activities. The extra daylight gave the sheperd more time to search for his lost lamb.

After searching into the long night, he finally finds her!

Her bleating beckoned him closer. She couldn't come to him, but he came to her. He picked her up carefully and carried her back to the fold.

She was shorn immediately and her burden of muddy wool was taken from her. She was free. Finally free!

She no longer had the desire to wander from home. She realized that while there were things she could provide for herself, there were heavier burdens she could never carry alone. She needed her sheperd. She loved him now, more than ever.

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Did a search on Club Adventist. Here's the real story:
Photo Highlight
Shrek the 9-year-old merino wether is photographed before he has his fleece shorn at the Golden Gate Lodge in Cromwell, New Zealand, Wednesday, April 28, 2004. Shrek's fleece is believed to be 6 years old after the animal was found on the Bendigo Station hilltops during a muster on April 15. (AP Photo/FOTOPRESS, Ross Land)
Wed Apr 28, 4:05 AM ET