A
woman approached me while I was signing copies of my book Hatchlings. She
scanned the cover and saw it contained fourteen tales of the supernatural.
“I
don’t believe in witches.” She said and walked away.
What
stuck with me is the popular assumption that the supernatural is evil; the
exclusive realm of witches, warlocks, ghosts and demons. I admit those
characters do creep into my stories on a regular basis. People are all too eager
to accept that evil spirits and various monsters possess the ability to break
through to our world from the supernatural. We’re not as ready to accept the
idea of supernatural good or its ability to cross the same boundary. It’s sort
of like the notion that a person who talks to God is a saint while a person who
claims God talks back is a whack job. Maybe you’ve wondered why a person who
believes in and feels the presence of ghosts and spirits is sensitive and open
minded while a person who believes in and feels the Holy Ghost is a religious
nut. If so, you’re not alone.
The
supernatural, by definition, includes all that is above and beyond the natural
world. For good or evil, this includes the entire spirit world. To which Jesus
said: “God is a Spirit: and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
Christian worship is a meant to be a
supernatural experience the object of which is to touch or be touched by God. To
accomplish worship someone must reach across the boundary between the natural
and the supernatural; the terrestrial and the celestial. In old time
Pentecostal terms, for worship to happen there has to be a move of the spirit. Those
who are born of God have the Spirit of God. Moreover, they have the living,
spirit discerned, word of God to guide them into a celestial kingdom. Christ’s
soldiers need not be limited to being all they can be. Through Christ they can
be more than the sum of natural abilities; they can be supernatural. All it
takes is vision.
Jesus
is Emmanuel. He is God with us; not for thirty-some years, but forever “…lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end
of the world.” Christ’s statement was no theoretical catch phase; it is
spiritual reality. He is as alive and present with His disciples as when He
spoke those words. It is a case of believing is seeing.
“People
who believe in ghosts see evidence of their existence everywhere,” said a
researcher from a leading university.
He went on to say
that no matter how much looking he did at the same evidence---he couldn’t see
it. He just didn’t believe evidence existed. If evidence of the supernatural
slapped him in the face, he wouldn’t see it. He would insist there was a
natural explanation. The same can be said for God. Believers see Him everywhere
and doing all manner of things. Others don’t understand all the fuss; the Red
Sea was ankle deep; Lazarus was catatonic or in a coma; when Jesus shared the
loaves and fishes, so did all His hearers. Belief rules sight for Christian and
non-Christian alike. The difference is that Christians suppress their beliefs
and vision to get along with detractors while worldly wise men insist on their
vision and criticize detractors as blind or worse. Christians need not convince
the world of the reality of the supernatural. They only need to convince
themselves of the literal truth in what they say.
Every Christian must
keep their eyes open to is the source of their salvation; never lose sight that
salvation comes by grace. Though a Christian is saved for a hundred years,
saved by grace will never change. Christian works are necessary to a healthy
life and will glorify God. Good works testify to the reality of faith, but they
will never save a soul. Christians work because they are saved; they are not
saved because they do works. This milepost is the single most important sight
on the Christian’s journey.
Moses was a mighty
man of God. Nevertheless, the Bible says he was a meek man. This meekness came
from forty years on the backside of the desert learning that he didn’t deserve
all God had given him. In one moment of extreme frustration Moses let slip
claim to share of ownership in his deeds. That moment cost him dearly; losing
sight of God’s grace always does. Spiritual vision is necessary to spiritual
life. Where there is no vision the people perish. A godly vision encompasses
the point of origin. God sees the end from the beginning and so should His
people.
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