CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD
By Dr. Janet Bowden
Edited by: Dr. Lee Warren
2000 PLIM Retreat, (c) 2000 PLIM REPORT, Vol. 8 #5
Theme: Inner Journey, Part 6
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See Related Articles: Esoteric Mysteries Revealed
Introduction
Now mankind has always desired to communicate with the Creator, but his methods were not according to Elohim’s revealed knowledge. How to communicate with God was a great mystery since He had not revealed Himself collectively to man as He did to Moses and Israel at Mt. Sinai (Deu. 4:32-33; Ex. 19th chp.). To His chosen people, Elohim provided a direct and consistent communication line to Him (Num. 12:6, Psa. 105:15; Matt. 23:37). However, vast segments of mankind were left to their imaginations on how to talk with the gods of their imaginations.
So for the most part, mankind collectively began to communicate unknowingly with other spirits (i.e., “fallen angels”) that masqueraded as gods of this creation. The Apostle Paul said that according to the purpose, Yahweh allowed or winked at this ignorance (Acts 7:30) since many people thought that they were conversing with Elohim.
Yahweh created Israel to be a model for the Gentile nations to demonstrate the true and only way to worship and communicate with Yahweh Elohim the Creator of Heaven and earth. Elohim revealed to Isaiah the prophet of Israel the following: “I, Yahweh (the LORD), have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. (Isa. 42:6)”
Now the Messiah told the Gentile woman whom He met at Jacob’s well (Jn. 4:4-6) that she did not know what she worshipped. Yahshua declared: “Believe me, woman, … You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we [Jews] worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews (Jn. 4:21-23).” So the Messiah is telling the woman that she does not know what she worships and it is Israel that has the knowledge. Now Israel is playing out the role of spiritual illumination since they know how to communicate with Elohim according to the covenant He made with Israel.
Many religious historians fail to see that the Gentile nations are playing out the role of ignorance of the true and only Yahweh-Elohim, for they do not know Elohim, even though they did hold conversations with Yahweh and the gods of their belief. Now that we understand that Elohim did not reveal Himself to the Gentile nations as He did to Israel, we can see why the Gentiles walked in spiritual darkness. They had no knowledge of the divine purpose, pattern and plan of Yahweh-Elohim.
It should be noted that Elohim did appear to the various Gentile individuals and directed their affairs although the Gentiles were ignorant of who communicated with them.. For example, Elohim appeared in visions and dreams unto King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (Dn. 2nd; 4th chp.). and other Gentile prophets, such as Baalam (Num. 22nd – 24th chp.).
What is the intent of this article?
This lecture will examine the methods, techniques, rituals, and procedures that mankind has utilized, first in ignorance, throughout history to hold conversations with the gods of his imaginations. It will explore the source or origin of the incorporeal realm. It will examine, analyze, and compare the consequences of these communications with the gods.
How did Gentiles communicate with their gods?
Although Gentile cultures differ from each other over the various deities worshipped and various ritual ceremonies used, the basic means of communicating with their gods were the same in principle. They prayed to deities and used more direct forms of communication with spirits, such as channeling, chanting, meditation, sorcery, fasting, divination, and drugs.
We will briefly, due to space limitations, examine some of these methods. All of these methods are a means to an end, which is to communicate with spirit. It should be noted that some of these methods are not evil, such as meditation and prayer, but basically depend upon the mindset of the individual.
Many Christians believe that all these various methods are evil of themselves. Their error is not discerning that there are two mysteries involved: The Mystery of Righteousness and the Mystery of Iniquity. For example, Satanists and Luciferians pray and mediate, but it is to the “spirit of darkness,” not truth. So prayer and meditation of themselves are not evil, but when they are used as tools or a means to hold a conversation with evil spirits, their end becomes evil or wicked.
Israel used many of these methods as Yahweh instructed them. Channeling is not evil, for Elohim used this method to communicate with Israel. For example, the ‘spirit of Elohim’ channeled through many of the prophets of Israel. Basically, this makes channeling a universal principle.
Finally, certain of the methods, such as taking drugs to communicate with spirits, are physically dangerous to the individual. However, drugs put the mind in a trance in which spirits can communicate with and speak through men.
Gentile priests, shamans, witch doctors, witches, etc., used these methods to communicate with Spirit. These methods basically involved the priest being put into a trance whereby spiritual communication could take place. The people for the most part did not have direct access to the spirit, for the priest or shaman was the mediator between them and the spirit world. Here are a few methods that the Gentiles used to communicate with their gods. It should be noted that many of these methods were not referred to as they are today. For example, channeling was not called by this name, for cultures had their own word.
· Drugs The priests, shaman, etc,. from various cultures, such as the American Indians, used various hallucinogenic drugs, such as peyote, mescaline, mushrooms, etc., in their religious ceremonies and rituals. These drugs put their mind in a trance or an altered state of consciousness, much like the dream-state. It was in this state that various spirits communicated with them. This is very dangerous, for in this altered state of consciousness the mind is very vulnerable to suggestions from the spirits and the individual’s subconscious mind can act without the consciousness mind being aware of the consequences of its actions. This is why the news often features individuals caught doing things liking raping, murdering, etc., but not having any recollection of these activities. In the 1960’s Americans experimented with drugs to get high. The Harvard professor Timothy O’Leary advocated the use of LSD. He said turn on, drop out, tune in.
· Channeling or Mediumship By definition, channeling is basically the same as mediumship and according to Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical & Paranormal Experience, it is defined as a form of communication from a source other than the individual’s conscious self. This is one of the oldest forms of communication with spirits and is found in all cultures, such as Egyptian, Greek, Chinese, Tibetan, and Assyrian. In the King James Version of the Bible, “mediums” and “wizards” are referred to someone linked with “familiar spirits (Lev. 20:27; 1 Sam. 28:7).” The person enters a trance voluntarily and various spirits are allowed to enter the body and speak, write, etc. through it to convey their message. It occurs when someone usually permits a spirit entity to possess them for some form of psychic knowledge or power. Channeling also could be for psychic diagnosis or healing, or to use the person’s vocal cords to speak in order to give spiritual teachings or practical advice. Various forms of spirit communication by channeling exists, such as automatic writing, narrated visions, and inner voice dictation. Many people say they channel entities that claim to be angels. Concepts in modem psychology are tools to camouflage the demonic and expanding influence in society under another name.
Virtually every occult power or spirit manifestation has been explained” psychologically or parapsychology, or endorsed humanistically, as the “new powers of the mind.”
Now these spirits could be angels, spirits of humans that are dead, demons and other spirits of the people’s imaginations, such as from nature or totem spirits. To bring about this trance state, there are many methods available, such as mediation, prayer, self-hypnosis, fasting, chanting, dancing, sleep deprivation, breathing techniques, smoking herbs, or taking hallucinogenic drugs.
· Divination In an attempt to communicate with the gods and spirits to learn their will, various methods were used, such as reading tarot cards, etc. The Babylonians read animal livers. The Chinese cast lots of sticks and interpreted the lots (called “I Ching”). Egyptian priests slept in the temples awaiting a dream or vision. Roman priests read the signs.
· Fasting Lack of food for long periods of times allows the mind to enter an altered state of consciousness whereby the spirits can communicate with the individual. Most cultures holy man/woman use this method to commune with spirit, as was stated in the section on mediumship. The Messiah fasted 40 days in the Wilderness after being baptized by the John the Baptist (Mt. 4:1-4) and the spirit of Lucifer or Satan appeared to him to test him.
· Chanting Another method whereby communication with spirit can be achieved relies on oral repetition. Basically chanting, used by all cultures, is the continuous recitation of some mantra, phrase, and religious rite that causes an altered state of consciousness where communion with the spirit can take place, as was stated in the section on mediumship.
· Sorcery Conjuring or summoning spirits is done using words of powers, incantations, and formulas for malevolent or benevolent purposes. It is also a means of communicating with spirit. Most pagan cultures used some form of sorcery or magic.
· Meditation By definition the ultimate goal of mystical meditation is the union with the Absolute God. There are many methods of meditation, such as yoga, too numerous to cover in this article, that were used by various cultures.
It must be understood that the above methods were used in conjunction with gentile idols, ceremonies, and ritual feast days. This was the gentile’s means of communicating with spirits even though they were not given any discernment of the spirits.
How did Israel communicate with spirit?
As was stated in the introduction of this article, Israel was given a proscribed pattern of how to communicate with Elohim. It was not left to their imaginations, for He appeared to the prophets of Israel in dreams and visions (Num. 12:6). For example, Moses, Aaron, Nadad, Abhiu and 70 elders saw the Elohim of Israel and communed with Him (Ex. 24:9-10). Moses and Jacob said they spoke to Him face to face (Num. 12:7-8; Gn. 32:30).
The exact knowledge of how to communicate with Elohim was revealed to Israel in the form of the tabernacle and the temple. Elohim forbade Israel from mimicking many of the Gentile’s customs of communication with spirit even though they were similar in many cases (Lv. 20:27). For example, the high priest used divination when he would ask two stones, called Urium and Thummin kept in the breastplate, to give him answers on numerous matters. These stones represented Yahshua the Messiah and were, in reality, a form of divination.
Did Elohim communicate with Israel in the Tabernacle?
It was through these structures that Elohim dwelled with His people and revealed the exact method of communication with them. Now Yahweh Elohim told Moses that He would dwell in a cloud above the Mercy Seat between the Wings of the Cherubim of the Ark of the Covenant, in the Most Holy Place or the Holiest of Holy in the temple (Lev. 16:2; Num. 7:89). This is where Moses’ communication with Elohim took place.
Truth seekers can use the tabernacle pattern to learn the principles of how to communicate with Elohim. In order for Israel to communicate with Elohim the High Priest had to offer up a sacrifice on the brazen alter of sin sacrifice in the Court Round About of the tabernacle. The next step was the brazen laver where the sacrifice was washed and the high priest washed up. This allowed the priest to enter the Holy Place. This was where he placed the blood on the golden altar of incense, and lit the seven-branched golden candlestick.
Finally, the high priest was allowed to enter the Most Holy Place, which is where the high priest communicated with Elohim, on the Day of Atonement, for this was His dwelling placed (Lev. 16:2). The important point to note here is that there had to be some type of sacrifice before communion with Elohim could begin.
Was Yahshua the Messiah the direct form of communication?
The Gentiles used all the methods above for the express purpose of communicating face to face with the spiritual realm. This was done to find answers to various questions and help to overcome various crises. The reader must keep in mind that this dwelling place of Our Heavenly Father was a great mystery among the Gentiles. Paul said that the Messiah within is the mystery to the Gentiles. “the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them Yahweh (God) has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is the Messiah (Christ) in you, the hope of glory (Col. 1:26-27)”.
It was to Israel that Elohim revealed Himself, showed His dwelling place in the temple and tabernacle, exposed how to communicate with Him, and later manifested in a physical body who ministered among them. Yahshua the Messiah, being Elohim incarnated, was the revelation of Elohim in the flesh. So, when Israel spoke with the Messiah, they were in reality speaking to the Creator of heaven and earth in a body.
Philip, one of the Messiah disciples, asked the Messiah to show him the Father (Jn. 14:8). Yahshua said to Philip: “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father (John 14:9)?”
The Messiah finally tells Philip that He and the Father are One. He said: “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works (Jn. 14:10).”
Was Yahshua’s physical body the Temple for Israel?
Yahshua’s physical body, which the Herodian temple symbolized, was the temple of Yahweh. True communication with Yahweh was with the Messiah while He was in the fleshly body. After his death, burial, and resurrection, His spirit was revealed in the temple of man in their hearts and minds.
Now the irony of the tabernacle and the temple was that Israel did not understand that these structures were symbolic of a man’s body. Elohim did not reveal this to Israel until after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul wrote that the body was the temple of the Holy Spirit. He said: “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own (1 Cor 6:19)?” Thus, under the New Covenant, the communication between man and His Heavenly Father takes place within the hearts and minds.
Modern age
In this modern age with all its technological innovations, wisdom of the physical universe, and perception of modern psychology, mankind is no closer to their Creator in terms of understanding and communication with Him than their primitive and superstitious ancestors.
The ignorance in grasping how to communicate with Spirit is profound because people refuse to accept the words of the Messiah that He is within us (Col. 1:26). Christianity with all its ceremonies and rituals has failed to satisfy the inward yearning of the people.
Now the New Age religion of today is, in reality, nothing more than the old pagan ways modernized. James L. Hirsen, Ph.D. in his book The Coming Collision describes the new Age religion as follows. “Today what is termed New Age is actually an amalgam of many ancient concepts. Babylonian paganism and selected mythologies are combined with elements of Hinduism and Buddhism. Western pseudo-scientific language is added to form the modern day New Age philosophy (p. 65).”
The point being made here is that since paganism is the basis of the New Age religion, then the methods of talking with God are the same today as those of the ancients, which have already been discussed in this article. Communicating with spirits is done with no discernment as in the famous case of Jane Roberts interacting with the spirit Seth or J.Z. Knight channeling Ramtha.
The error that New Agers make is that they communicate with spirits without knowing the types of spirits with which they are dealing. They have no criteria for testing spirits as the Apostle John admonished the assembly to do 2,000 years ago (I John 4:1).
Conclusion
Basically, there were two forms of worship by the pagans and Israel. First, the old religious worship for the masses was centered on material representatives of gods made of wood and clay, superstition, and worshipping in churches and temples, the place where the gods live. The second form of worship consisted of direct contact with spirits usually during altered states of consciousness. This worship included methods, such as channeling, drugs, meditiation, etc., where the shamans or priests/priestesses entered an altered state of consciousness.
Questions were asked, prayers were sent forth. Petitions, praises, and thanksgiving offered. Pagan worshippers were ignorant of the intent and motivation various spirits who could grant their requests in return for desiring to communicate with them and going along with them to worship anything (a rock, tree, etc.) other than Yahweh.
Now visions and dreams are all results of an altered state of consciousness where Elohim speaks to mankind. When the angel of Yahweh spoke to Moses at the burning bush (Ex. 3:1-4) and the children of Israel in a cloud atop Mt . Sinai (Ex. 19th & 20th chp.), this was a vision or an altered state of consciousness. This is the means or state where the spirits (Good or Evil) communicate with humans. The altered state of consciousness in itself is not bad or evil as many Christians teach and believe.
Now we are in a spiritual age, after the death, burial, and resurrection of the Yahshua the Messiah and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In this age we should be worshipping our Heavenly Father in Spirit and Truth with our hearts and minds (Jn. 4:21-24) under the New Covenant (Heb. 7th & 8th chp.). Elohim said those He poured out His spirit upon would have visions and dreams and would be able to prophesy: the young and old, male and female (Acts 2:16-20).
The end is determined by the beginning. In the realm of eternity or heaven there were only angelic beings and their estate was incorporeal. Lucifer in that realm had to manipulate their hearts and minds to capture their souls. What is transpiring in this realm is a reflect of what happened in heaven. The method of manipulating so called states of consciousness is the door to communicating with Lucifer and His fallen Host. In contrast, one does not deliberately need to cultivate a state of consciousness to communicate with Yahweh. One only has to have faith.
Yahweh said: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For everyone that asketh recieveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened ( Matt 7:7-21).”
Yahshua also said: “I am the Door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (John 10:9-11).” Yahweh opened the faith to all nations (Acts 14:27). Paul states: “for a great door and effectual is opened unto me ( I Cor. 16:9).” Also see Rev. 3:6; Rev. 3:20; A door was opened in Heaven (Rev. 4: 1).
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