Truth from the Prophet Haggai

As a new Christian I wanted to meet with other Christians, so I joined Women's Bible Study Fellowship for a study on the minor prophets of the Old Testament.

The format of the meeting was to have a speaker first, then to meet as a group to answer questions based on Bible readings. During one of the meetings, the speaker said that all Christians should question whether they are really saved or not. I pondered over that and then prayed about it. I didn’t think about it again, but that night when I was doing the Bible study it came back to me. We were studying Habakkuk and I was having a problem.

I was working on the Bible study question about a verse in Habakkuk. I looked at the verse, but the question didn’t make sense. It didn’t seem to fit the verse. I looked up to see that I was reading the book of Haggai, not Habakkuk. They are close to each other in that section of the Old Testament. No wonder the question made no sense. So I turned to the book of Habakkuk and tried again. Still the verse and the question did not match. Then I realized I was reading Haggai again. A third time I turned to Habakkuk. It happened again. I thought this was strange and that perhaps the Lord had something to tell me in Haggai.

I looked down and read the verse below. It was the answer to my prayer:

I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord Almighty. - Haggai 2:23,

New Life

So much changed in the first few months after my salvation. I felt like the world had changed, but I knew it was me. I realized I was a sojourner on Earth and that it wasn’t my home. My politics changed. I was a registered democrat, but I realized that the government was not likely to solve the world’s problems. No – I didn’t go so far as to register Republican, but man’s idealism wasn’t going to be translated into reality. That’s probably a good thing to remember in these hard economic times.

I forgave my father. The funny thing was that I didn’t know I held anything against him. But I thought about his life and realized how life had shaped his personality, including how he behaved toward his family. I cried for him and loved him deeply from that day on. He was saved on his deathbed, but I will get to that story later.

I saw my new body in a vision. It was great – a dancing fountain of light ranging from silver to dark blue. This might not be true – I am not sure where my visions came from back then, but it appeals to me. The occasional visions I had became a source of concern to me though. How did I know where they were coming from? The solution was simple. I prayed that the Lord would filter them so that only visions from Him would come through. This worked. From that point on the only vision I had, with few exceptions, were of crosses. I’ve seen hundreds of them over the years, but I’ve never seen the same one twice.

I drove past a bulletin board that proclaimed “I found it!” I knew there were others experiencing the same thing as me. I didn’t find a church though. I tried a few, but their teaching didn’t line up with what I was reading in the scriptures. I guess I was born-again contentious. I did find Women’s Bible Study Fellowship and learned more about the scriptures. It was nice to have women to study with. More on that next week.

Behold, all things become new – 2 Cr. 5:17

The First Ten Days

The ten days after I was born again were amazing. I think of them like my honeymoon. I walked, lived, and breathed in alignment with God. It seemed I only had to think a thing and it was so. If I read a passage in the Bible that I did not understand, I would only have to turn on the radio to hear the answer. One time I prayed over a verse and the phone rang. It was Olive. She did not even say “hello.” She just explained the verse to me.

My niece came over for dinner and I shared my story with her. As I was preparing dinner I decided to serve some canned peas. I searched for a can and, remember how the Lord and I had been working together, jokingly I told my niece that I would pray that I could find the peas. There was not a can of peas in my pantry. Deflated I took a can of green beans and opened it. There were peas in the green bean can.
By the next day I was getting cocky. I prayed that if I was aligned with the will of God, I could use $100. When I went out to my mailbox, guess what was in there? Apparently I had overpaid the escrow on my house that year.

I saw my demon leave. I didn’t realize that I had one, but when I saw the demon’s face I knew it was mine. I would not be honest if I didn’t confess that we had a lot of fun together, but where I now live, my demon could not come. I haven’t missed it, praise the Lord.

By the tenth day I was beginning to realize that I might have trouble fitting in with everyone else on the planet if this kept up. The Lord stepped in – I popped a contact lens. By the time I found it I was back on Earth. But I was changed. I became a sojourner here.

The Lord still whispered in my ear that He loved me. I was safe.

Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? – SgS 8:5

The Spirit Testifies

I wish I remembered more about the year that passed from the time I prayed with Olive and asked God to show me if the Bible is true or not. I know it was an amazing year.

I started by making a pact with myself that I would verify everything I learned. By this I mean that I wanted to be sure I wasn’t talking myself into believing the Bible. I wanted evidence to substantiate what was happening in my life. I wish I could describe all of the events that occurred that year better, but this it the best I can do:

There are four witnesses that provided evidence for me. One was the way world lined up with my thoughts as the Spirit of God testified to my Spirit. One was the witness of other true Christians who related experiences like the ones I was having. One is history which supports the stories in the Bible and demonstrates how God blesses His people. The fourth is current events in my life and the nightly news. Snapshots in my life included the way songs I heard on the radio seemed to testify of Christ. This was unusual since I only listened to rock and roll stations. Olive was a continuous witness using the Bible to answer my questions as they came up. Reflecting about history, I began to see the role Christianity has played over the years. It seems that as Christianity is freely practiced in an area of the world, that area prospers. I think this is more than the result of conservative living; it is that God has blessed these nations. As for current events, Israel is always in the news and it is easy to see how that nation’s constant affliction could be God’s chastisement for rejecting their Savior. This is not a politically correct perspective, but it provides food for thought.

I had other more personal evidence. I had many epiphanies that year, complete with whole body rushes. I heard a voice in my mind that I believe was the Lord, telling me he loved me. After a year of this, I was ready to look past the dragons guarding the treasure. In the parable of the sower the tares (I called them the Christianeze) and the wheat (Christians) grow up together and only the angels can separate them. I think of the Christianeze as the dragons.


Then I read in the Book of Revelation how there was a blessing for anyone who heard the words of this book. I wanted that blessing. I thought of how Jacob wrestled with the Angel and would not let Him go before he was blessed. I read Revelation over and over again, determined to read it until God blessed me. After the seventh time, I got my blessing.


Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. - Mat 13:18

The Hounds of Heaven

Being a child of the 60s I was always trying to fund a path to enlightenment. For years I tried drugs to ‘expand my mind,’ but that ended up being a waste of a decade or so. When I got high I’d either end up with hitting a ‘wall of fear’ or I’d run into the pit of despair. The wall of fear was strange because there was nothing I was afraid of. The fear was real right down to the goose bumps, but I could never find the cause. The despair was also strange. It had nothing to do with me. I felt like I could feel the despair of the world. It was like I was tuning in to people’s suffering all over the planet.

With all that effort I got no closer to God. I tried a few religions. Christianity was not one of them. It seemed to me that Christianity was about hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness. The Christians I had met seemed to be out to convert me in order to get more notches on their belts. I figured if Heaven was where the Christians are, I’d go somewhere else.

I tried new age religions like Eckankar, but I really didn’t expect my soul to leave my body and fly about the planet. Why would I want to do that, anyway? I looked into Scientology, but that seemed to be just more science fiction. I looked at Budhism, but the idea of everything becoming one in the end didn't sound attractive. I like being an individual. I checked out what the Hari Krishnas believed. They thought I should leave behind my relationships and obligations and come into their monastery. I like their food and their art, but that was about it.

Then I was laid off at work for a few months and working part time. With my free time, I started thinking about possibilities for the afterlife. I wondered if a person, like the writer of a book, might not be able to create their own eternity. The more I thought about this, the more I realized how little capacity I had to be creative enough if this was the case. Eternity is an awfully long time. If I had to rely on my own creative power, there would be nowhere near enough to fill this void. I’d last a week or two, and then lapse into eternal boredom. If I relied on the creative power of others, I would be subject to their whims. I realized that if I was left in eternity with only these choices, I was utterly and irrevocably lost.

I had walked around the perimeter of myself and saw myself lacking. An eternity alone is a thing to be feared.

At this same time I was getting to know my Christian landlady, Olive, better. My husband and I had rented a house from her one winter and she had done something very unexpected. My part time job was with a realtor and I heard the agents talking about what a shame it was that a couple was going to lose a deal on a house because they couldn’t come up with a down payment. I heard the realtor say the house was $10,000. That got my attention. I asked about the house and went to see it. My husband told me to buy it if I liked it and I did. We gave the first couple some money for their trouble and bought their contract from them.

The house needed a new roof badly and was starting to deteriorate. I told the Olive we would move out when we could come up with the money to fix the roof. To my surprise, she offered to lend me the money. Who would think a landlady would lend a tenant money to move out? We made an arrangement and I paid the Olive back at $100 a month over four months. This meant going to her house to pay her back. During these visits she would answer my questions and I learned about Christianity from the believer’s perspective rather than from the media or the Christianeze.

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. – Isa. 9:2

Born Again

I always knew God loved me. I think most people do on some level. I didn’t think there was a way to find out about more about Him though. How could a person know which religion was right? Then I rented a house from a woman named Olive and she had answers to all my questions.

Our conversations started because I found myself feeling guilty whenever I was around her and I didn’t know why. I’d replay our conversations in my head, but there was nothing she said that would make me feel guilty.

So I was curious. I knew she was a Christian and approachable. I knew all the arguments against Christianity, so I started asking her questions based on what I believed. She answered all of my questions using the Bible. I was amazed that the Bible had these answers. Olive told me that the Bible said I was a sinner. I figured I wasn’t any worse than anyone else I knew, so I had a hard time believing that. I prayed with her, and in my prayer I asked God to show me whether or not the things the Bible said were true. I wanted to know.

A year went by and it was an amazing year. The Lord intervened over and over again in my life. I’ll write more on that later.

On New Years Eve, 1977, as I was reading a pamphlet on prophecy by Tim LaHaye, I found myself disagreeing with him and the way he was using the Scriptures. I was searching my Bible to verify what he wrote and suddenly, like a door opened, I recognized God’s voice in there.

Have you ever had a letter from someone you love? Then you know what I mean. You don’t have to see the signature on the letter, because you recognize the voice of the person through what they write. The God I knew since I was a child wrote the Bible, I recognized that. I recognized the Master’s voice in His Word.

It was New Years Eve, 1977, then it was New Years 1978. I didn’t notice when midnight came. But that night my whole world had become new.

And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. – Rev 21:5