Replies

[Permission granted by the author of this, a believer and a person of prayer, to forward this.]

24 January 2006
To Forum Member: Thanks for your input. Am
responding below to the group on the thread, and
not just to you. There is that curious Scripture
about the demon (I think it was) answering God
that the demon would go and do the requested
deed.

But The Almighty God of The Bible is not a god
that he would lie.

As Spock articulated in the alternative universe
show -- a universe based on evil would
self-destruct in Stardate Umpteeump.

Life and reality are complex. There seem to be an
infinite number of facets on the diamond.

It is easy to assume that the facets in our view
are on one side or the other of OUR line or
criteria on this or that issue. We may not see
*our* error until we see the whole diamond.

It's easy for me, as well, to shake my head in
puzzlement about the non-event following the
prophecies.

However, it still remains that I have no
explanation for the children's visions and other
factors with this packet of prophetic inputs. You
folks who are posting on the forum here think
your explanation that it's all hogwash, silly,
deluded, evil, etc., is valid. I can understand
your positions and feelings. Very understandable
-- especially from your perspectives.

But I'm not at all willing to take a meat axe in
judgment to arrive at a seemingly tidy (but
inadequate) explanation.

I shall continue to consider the jury still out
until and unless God Himself helps me understand
all the above FROM HIS PERSPECTIVE because HIS
PERSPECTIVE is the only one that counts.

You are framing all this from your perspective
and your standpoints. Understandable. We all do.
You conclude that you have all or sufficiently
close to all the information necessary for such a
stance. I don't.

FRAMING -- Framing an issue, situation or reality
is crucial. We can frame a picture and see only a
tiny pine tree. We can frame the same picture and
see a mountain. We can frame it again and see a
range of mountains, or even a continent ... a
globe, a solar system. The larger-scoped frames
do not alter the truth of the lone pine tree. But
it sure does bring a host of other factors into
the picture.

I don't think we know much more about the
situation with the prophecies and the non-events
than maybe an acre's worth of facts around the
lone pine tree. That's likely too few facts to
form the hard rigid judgments that are being made
on this forum.

I do know that more disturbing times in my life
than I like to remember, God has done some very,
very, very curious things to get me into the kind
of space that was necessary to deal with this or
that aspect of my psyche or spirit or person or
maturity (rather lack of). In my younger years
I'd have declared that God would never do such a
thing. But whether one says He allowed it or did
it, He brought it about. And, the result was
beneficial. And, it was true to His righteous
character all along the way whether I thought so
at the time, or not.

Not one of us is in a position to judge God
whether we think we are, or not.

There are many paradoxes in life. Some look like
blazing, brazen contradictions. In my experience,
that's usually because we cannot see the whole
picture. Some facets of the diamond look blue and
others red because of our perspective. God's
perspective is very different.

That does NOT mean we end up with a rubber Bible.
It does mean we ought to maintain some serious
humility whenever we feel inclined to judge God.

I would be quick to judge some of the prophetic
folks if I felt it were warranted. Many of my
close friend believers I've fowarded such to have
certainly already judged them as you folks have
done. I personally don't feel that's called for
in this situation. I have detected no conscious,
deliberate or even deluded hoakiness.

That does not mean I understand or know how to
explain how things turned out. It merely means I
have no need to come down in a black/white harsh
way on the issue at present. I don't know enough.
You think you do. I can understand that. But for
myself, I just don't know enough so I will
withhold judgment.

I'm certain that God WILL HAVE the LAST WORD on
the matter and IN HIS TIME and IN HIS
WAY--whatever that will be.

There are certainly secular news items which
still indicate that the world is getting locked
more and more fully into a situation that only
great trauma will relieve. I'll post shortly in
this thread a doc about Iran threatening to SEAL
OFF THE PERSIAN GULF.

There are other reports of deepening,
intensifying moves by Russia, China, etc., which
clearly are along lines of Biblical prophecies
headed toward a major conflagration.

The non-events of 23 January do not at all
indicate that we should go back to naive
lullabies. Doing so would be very ill-advised.

Somehow I'm reminded of the curious Scripture
about Moses changing God's mind. That's somewhat
of a mind-bending, mind-boggling thought in and
of itself -- that God would change His mind for
any reason and that a man could influence God's
mind to change is a whole 'nother level of
boggling.

I don't know for certain that such happened here
with the intercessory prayers. However, I do know
that the Dallas area sure had a lot of prayer
going up. I do know that such earnest, heart-felt
prayers do change things.

My personal perspective had been and remains that
the bulk of the things predicted were to be
spread out over the next however many months AND
that no amount of prayer would more than moderate
or delay them. That, essentially, sooner or
later, they will transpire.

I still feel that way. I really do not doubt
that, at all.

I have felt for several years that I wanted to
get back to [xxxx] before the world started falling
apart, and then I couldn't get back there due to
circumstances beyond my control. I still feel
that's valid -- especially from a natural
perspective.

Alongside of that, I've begun to feel that God
will get me back there in His ways and timing for
His purposes which may be different than I
imagined them to be. He's certainly capable of
transporting me there any number of ways in any
kind of situation or condition.

At the moment, if I HAD to guess, I'd guess that
God was somewhat moved by prayer and somewhat has
decided to do things a bit differently because of
unknown factors on the geopolitical, spiritual
world stage. I don't know how to explain that.
Wouldn't God have known what was going to change
and what prayers were going to go up? Certainly.
I don't know how to explain it. It's just a mild
to moderate conjecture.

Sometimes I want to yell at God about "2,000
years soon" is rather ridiculous; and that, given
His timelessness, He must not understand our
perspective on time if He can write in His Word
that Jesus is coming back -- essentially 2,000
years -- soon.

But I know in my heart it's a somewhat silly
thought. God understands us thoroughly -- even
about our perspective on time versus His.

At this point, I remain convinced that the bulk
of those sources heard and heard accurately from
God. Something happened or there was "something"
about the timing. Seems wrong. Looks wrong.
Sounds wrong. Feels wrong from a certain type of
reasonable, normal perspective. Easy to label it
"false prophet-ish". But I don't believe that's
so. I don't know how to explain that.

I still choose to 'allow' God to be God. He's God
and I'm not. He owns everything. I don't. He has
all the power. I don't. He knows what He's doing.
I occasionally think I do.

*** +++ ***
Written by a believer and person of prayer
USA