This is the fifth in a series of steps I took in my spiritual journey. I pray you gain tremendous insight into the spirit realm as I take you through the years on the personal journey that would, one day, end at the throne of God.
My story continues as I return to the downtown Zanesville, Ohio library one day back in 1992.
Coming around the final bend and into the home stretch in my journey to find the truth, I took some time to assess where I’ve been and where I’m now headed. I wish I could say I was excited about this final part of the journey, but I had a certain trepidation as to what I might find because, even though I deliberately left it last, the Bible was looming larger than ever before. The nearer we get to something, the bigger it gets.
I didn’t know what to expect that day, Looking back, I wish I had the forethought to journal my spiritual journey. However, there are certain moments I remember clearly to this day while Holy Spirit reminds me of others things. Let’s proceed.
I went to the religion bookshelves on this particular day seeking to discover what Islam might offer me by way of revelation and truth. I found an English translation of the Koran (Quran or ‘Recitation’) and opened it up to the first section and began to read. I was very surprised to discover the Koran had certain selections of stories out of the Bible and that intrigued me enough to do a skim of the book. I hadn’t known the Koran to have any connection to the Bible. Actually, I thought it was going to be a stand-alone sort of social commentary book that focused on what many other “holy books” do — the principles of the body of beliefs and doctrine played out in philosophical content and opinions on what holiness really is and how to go about gaining it for yourself.
The way the Koran started out seemed to be disconnected from the rest of it. It’s as if the second section (sura) was cut and pasted from the Bible without the depth of revelation required to justify its connection and inclusion. I assumed it was there to lend credence to the book because what followed throughout the rest of the book was various opinions and thoughts and juxtaposed sayings and as I read, I got more and more confused.
I understood the Koran to have been dictated by an illiterate man named Mohammed to a scribe. Its origin is purported to have come from an angelic visitation and this angel gave him a discovery of a new perspective on life and God. A fascinating notion: Mohammed believed in one God, yet over and over, there are many statements from Allah that use the pronoun “We.” That was very confusing to me. The Koran, as I tried to read it from beginning to end, cannot be consumed in such a way. It is much more geared toward being a gathering of clusters of quotes and single, stand alone quotes — with numerous contradictions along the way.
There are many excellent statements that all mankind should live by in the Koran, but I was on a search for one thing in particular and I did not discover it within the pages of the Koran: God’s voice. I reasoned that if this God who gave me that ‘last chance’ was truly GOD, then this God I was searching for would be willing and able to communicate with me in such a way that it would be unmistakable — just like the day He spoke to me when I died and came back to life.*
Photo by Syed Hussaini on Unsplash
As a result of this spiritual journey, I came to denounce any and all ideas of a person’s choice of religion being solely based on where they were born. In other words, the notion that people of one part of the world are somehow ‘predisposed’ to conceive of God in a given way based on their lifestyle, environment, and/or socioeconomic status. I concluded from the different miracles in my life, that in every situation and revelation, if God was truly GOD, then the truth of His existence and personage would apply universally and our part in the relationship is to know Him more and more throughout our lives. In other words, He would always present Himself in a very similar way, not in the many ways the “Coexist” people imagine. The one, true God proved to me that He is God over all things. He possesses all authority in the spirit realm and throughout the universe He created and there are not “many ways to God,” but one because He is one — unified in all power, purpose, authority, and wisdom.
Arriving at this conclusion, I shut the Koran on the table in front of me and glanced around the tall book shelves as I knew what shutting the Koran meant — the Bible is next. I took a deep breath and slowly rose from the large, wooden table with Koran in hand and reluctantly returned to the religion section.
CONCLUSION
Never, ever minimize or devalue your experiences with God. You have a conscience and our conscience is actually the voice of God (Holy Spirit) speaking truth to us. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked to who say, “I’ve never heard from God,” yet they say they have a conscience. How did mankind ever get to a place where they exchange the truth of God for a lie? Holy Spirit talking to us deep in our spirit is not a “conscience” as if the conscience was some sort of psychological tuning fork or self-guided spirit guide.
Never tune Him out. He’s there to help us because He loves us and wants nothing less than an intimate relationship with each and every one of us. The more you are in tune with “your conscience,” the more you will discover there is a separate, “Still, small voice,” distinctly different from our inner voice attached to the wisdom we gain every single time we trust, and step out, on each and every word.
God is clearly not distant and unknowable, but He desires us to know Him as our EVERYTHING. He is always available to those who love Him and are about Our Father’s Business.
Prayer
Father God, I thank You for continuously guiding me into all truth by Your Holy Spirit. You have not left us as orphans, but You have displayed Your perfect love in many ways throughout our lives and I thank You especially for all You have done in mine. You have protected me from things I have not even the slightest idea about and You love me as if I had never done any wrong. You are holy and awesome, yet You still have reached out to me and, through the Blood of Your Son Jesus, have granted me the right to be a child of Yours. My Lord, as I am in process of defeating depression, help me see how my belief in religion has kept me from Your best and has even harmed me far beyond what I even realize. I repent of, renounce, and reject following ungodly thinking patterns and philosophies that have kept me in spiritual bondage. I ask that You would free me from the afflictions and oppressions the evil spirit of religion brought onto me and reveal any additional lies I have believed that have prevented me from being all You made me to be. In Jesus’ holy name I pray, amen.
* I memorized God’s voice from my Near Death Miracle where I died and went to the mouth of Hell.
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