Tribe of Judah

This goes out to more than my brothers at nlcc. It goes out to YOU. That YOU will know that these are real people, with different lives, yet experiencing the love of the same God. As different people, we have each experienced and continue to experience that love in a slightly different way. This is a record of our different continuing walk with God. A record of how God is both real and good in our lives. A life which we live in the same world as YOU. So it is God who is real in your life too.

What I write is the truth of what I have seen and what I have experienced.

I will start with the spiritual encounter just past because it is the most recent event. But this site will have a life far beyond this event on April 2008.

Coming into this encounter I had big expectations. This was going to be my second spiritual encounter. I am not sure what the 'purpose statement' of the spiritual encounters are, but for me, my first spiritual encounter had been a time to confront/repent behaviours and patterns of thought that I had always thought were 'natural' and just 'my personality'. Examples of these behaviours or patterns of thought might be talking back to your parents, lewd joking. But I digress. This encounter, I hoped to have a face-2-face meeting with Jesus that other people had talked about, but had never happened to me yet. I hoped for an experience beyond what I have previously had.

During the camp what I realised was that I had become proud of my academic and technical work. And this pride had affected how I treated my relationships. It had coloured them, to the point where in retrospect the thoughts were down-right arrogant. It had started to colour thoughts outside of work too. In reality my 'achievements' had been God's blessings. My abilities were God's blessings. You might say it was just hard work. And no doubt there was that. But hard work does not always equate to success. Struggles do not automatically lead to victory.

In the end I did not receive quite the 'encounter' that I had expected. Instead I received what in retrospect had been a deeper desire. A word over my life. I wanted to know where was my role in God's eyes. And the words spoken though Anne fit, and I believe them to be true. Firstly she said that in me was a well. A well whose waters should be drawn out for others. Secondly she said to have confidence to speak out, in the words and visions that I receive because they are from God. While it may sound weird to say this, words and visions do come sometimes, and many times I have dismissed them as my imagination. These words and visions don't fit with my usual thought areas or progression of thinking, nor do they have a sense of random drift. So I believe the word to be true. There is more to this than mere emotionalism, or fishing words. Later experiences and those of others will show this I am sure.