Note on "Interesting Things to Think About #3: the Rules of Prayer": the Gospel is Real
After posting Interesting Things to Think About #3: The Rules of Prayer, it occurred to me that I had no clue as to how anyone not baptized in the Holy Spirit could really pray. I can hardly lay out as a rule that to properly pray you must be born from on high, but I must. The Bible is quite clear about it: "Amen, amen, I say to you, if [the] human [being] is not born from above (lit. Aramaic: from the head), they cannot see the Kingdom of Allaha" (John 3:3 Alexander). Young's Literal Translation says, "he is not able to see the reign of God."
How can a person believe in a thing if they have never heard of it? Abdullah did not teach Neville Goddard about the Promise, because Abdullah had never heard of the Promise. I mean he had, but he had never experienced it. Abdullah knew the scriptures backwards and forwards, but that does not mean he knew the Promise as one would by experience. Neville only learned it through experience: "What the heck was that?" How does one not baptized in the Holy Spirit yet enter that experience to actually pray?
When I knelt to ask for the gift of tongues in Hawaii, I had no idea what was about to happen. I was as much as captured by the trance which brought me into the baptism in the Holy Spirit. I could not on my own pursue that which I did not know. I had to discover by experience, so God took me over!
I had had one certain experience before I asked for the gift of tongues which gave me great perspective. In an earlier meditation of an occult nature, I encountered a demon. A real demon, a deceiving spirit, which had led me to the point of possession. That this "demon" was of my own ignorance is beside the point; it was real. As I encountered it, I was suddenly made able to see that this spirit needed my permission (by the lowering of my own natural authority over it) to enter my mind where it might wrest control. I recognized that this eye-opening action upon my mind was performed by Someone who did not need my permission to deal with my mind, because he was of a higher authority than I. Obviously, there was a real Lord monitoring my mind and powerful to act effectually in my real life. THAT was an absolute certainty I had going into this prayer.
Having had that experience with God/Jesus, and having seen people baptized in the Holy Spirit at the House of Praise in Kaimuki, when I asked for the gift of tongues and found myself rejected, I took that rejection seriously. Dead seriously. In terror. When it says, "The fear of YHWH is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 1:7), yeah, it really means fear.
Going into the prayer I was in one kind of relationship with God, and after the trance that ensued I was in another kind of relationship with God. God deals with each relationship differently. These kinds of relationships are dispensations, or in Greek, oikonomia--administrations or ways he deals with us. It is like he has different households: God administers each household or relationship according to its own level, whether we be saints or swine. He wants us to be constantly moving to better households. After the prayer/trance, I had an entirely different attitude, mindset, and worldview than I'd had going into it.
What changed for me in that trance was the state of my inner nature. I went into the prayer as the lord of my life. I had always lived as though my life were my own. I decided what I wanted to do, and I did whatever I wanted (or at least whatever I thought I could get away with). Becoming a Christian in Kaimuki, I had "given" myself to God. But I did so as his peer, reservedly, as though I was simply loaning myself to him. If I did not like what he did with me, I was going to take myself back! In the trance, God called bs on me. I saw the Lordship of God over my creation, that "my" life was His! He owns me. I was a thief! My life's my-ness was an illusion of my ignorance. Suddenly, I wanted nothing more in life than to abandon this claim, to get rid of my rebellious filth, to very literally un- everything of my having any form of control over myself. I was ready for flat-out prostration.
From my prior experience in occult exercises, I was able to cast self-control out of myself, and in that total and complete surrender and submission I was finally accepted by God and baptized in the Holy Spirit.
What does one do in lieu of that?
I am NOT saying that there is a do-it-yourself baptism in the Holy Spirit. I am saying that the Kingdom of God has to do with attitudes, and we are in charge of that. God would not tell us to go somewhere if there were not someway for us to get there. Neville noted that 'repentance' means a radical change of mind, a total shift. He also noted that repentance and prayer are nearly synonymous terms. And I am telling you that God can take you over. We are invited into experience: "Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you will find. Knock and it shall be opened to you. For whoever asks, receives* (is set), and [whoever] seeks, finds. And whoever knocks, it is opened to them. Or which man among you, when his son asks him for bread, why, does he hand him a rock? Or asks him for a fish, why, does he hand him a snake? And if so you who are wicked know the performance of good deeds toward* (to give to) your children, how much more your father in heaven shall bless* (proffer goodness to) those who ask him?" (Matthew 7: 7-11 Alexander). Cf. Luke 11:9-11 . . . "If you, who are wicked, know the performance of blessings to be imparted for your children, how more greatly your Father from heaven shall dispense the Holy Spirit to those that ask for it? For whoever asks, receives, and [whoever] seeks, finds and [whoever] knocks, it will be opened to him."
Our Father is the consciousness we are of, and I suppose you could say that the Holy Spirit is his consciousness, just as we are that consciousness in ignorance. We are all working on awareness to make consciousness manifest, and that, again, has to do with attitudes. We can do attitudes. We can attain attitudes of faith and trust, humility and submission, exaltation and praise, confidence and belief, expectation and relief, adoration and gratitude, exuberance and assurance. The thing is, in imagination (and by that I mean in a relaxed, theta state imagining) we assume them all as existing: “Isn’t it wonderful!!?” It is a place to find, for sure.
Happily, prayer experience gives evidence. “When it works, you have found him” (Neville). Nothing convinces like prayer fulfilled. That is why the Bible is a prayer manual, and why Neville taught prayer constantly, which is the subject of my next post.
How can a person believe in a thing if they have never heard of it? Abdullah did not teach Neville Goddard about the Promise, because Abdullah had never heard of the Promise. I mean he had, but he had never experienced it. Abdullah knew the scriptures backwards and forwards, but that does not mean he knew the Promise as one would by experience. Neville only learned it through experience: "What the heck was that?" How does one not baptized in the Holy Spirit yet enter that experience to actually pray?
When I knelt to ask for the gift of tongues in Hawaii, I had no idea what was about to happen. I was as much as captured by the trance which brought me into the baptism in the Holy Spirit. I could not on my own pursue that which I did not know. I had to discover by experience, so God took me over!
I had had one certain experience before I asked for the gift of tongues which gave me great perspective. In an earlier meditation of an occult nature, I encountered a demon. A real demon, a deceiving spirit, which had led me to the point of possession. That this "demon" was of my own ignorance is beside the point; it was real. As I encountered it, I was suddenly made able to see that this spirit needed my permission (by the lowering of my own natural authority over it) to enter my mind where it might wrest control. I recognized that this eye-opening action upon my mind was performed by Someone who did not need my permission to deal with my mind, because he was of a higher authority than I. Obviously, there was a real Lord monitoring my mind and powerful to act effectually in my real life. THAT was an absolute certainty I had going into this prayer.
Having had that experience with God/Jesus, and having seen people baptized in the Holy Spirit at the House of Praise in Kaimuki, when I asked for the gift of tongues and found myself rejected, I took that rejection seriously. Dead seriously. In terror. When it says, "The fear of YHWH is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 1:7), yeah, it really means fear.
Going into the prayer I was in one kind of relationship with God, and after the trance that ensued I was in another kind of relationship with God. God deals with each relationship differently. These kinds of relationships are dispensations, or in Greek, oikonomia--administrations or ways he deals with us. It is like he has different households: God administers each household or relationship according to its own level, whether we be saints or swine. He wants us to be constantly moving to better households. After the prayer/trance, I had an entirely different attitude, mindset, and worldview than I'd had going into it.
What changed for me in that trance was the state of my inner nature. I went into the prayer as the lord of my life. I had always lived as though my life were my own. I decided what I wanted to do, and I did whatever I wanted (or at least whatever I thought I could get away with). Becoming a Christian in Kaimuki, I had "given" myself to God. But I did so as his peer, reservedly, as though I was simply loaning myself to him. If I did not like what he did with me, I was going to take myself back! In the trance, God called bs on me. I saw the Lordship of God over my creation, that "my" life was His! He owns me. I was a thief! My life's my-ness was an illusion of my ignorance. Suddenly, I wanted nothing more in life than to abandon this claim, to get rid of my rebellious filth, to very literally un- everything of my having any form of control over myself. I was ready for flat-out prostration.
From my prior experience in occult exercises, I was able to cast self-control out of myself, and in that total and complete surrender and submission I was finally accepted by God and baptized in the Holy Spirit.
What does one do in lieu of that?
I am NOT saying that there is a do-it-yourself baptism in the Holy Spirit. I am saying that the Kingdom of God has to do with attitudes, and we are in charge of that. God would not tell us to go somewhere if there were not someway for us to get there. Neville noted that 'repentance' means a radical change of mind, a total shift. He also noted that repentance and prayer are nearly synonymous terms. And I am telling you that God can take you over. We are invited into experience: "Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you will find. Knock and it shall be opened to you. For whoever asks, receives* (is set), and [whoever] seeks, finds. And whoever knocks, it is opened to them. Or which man among you, when his son asks him for bread, why, does he hand him a rock? Or asks him for a fish, why, does he hand him a snake? And if so you who are wicked know the performance of good deeds toward* (to give to) your children, how much more your father in heaven shall bless* (proffer goodness to) those who ask him?" (Matthew 7: 7-11 Alexander). Cf. Luke 11:9-11 . . . "If you, who are wicked, know the performance of blessings to be imparted for your children, how more greatly your Father from heaven shall dispense the Holy Spirit to those that ask for it? For whoever asks, receives, and [whoever] seeks, finds and [whoever] knocks, it will be opened to him."
Our Father is the consciousness we are of, and I suppose you could say that the Holy Spirit is his consciousness, just as we are that consciousness in ignorance. We are all working on awareness to make consciousness manifest, and that, again, has to do with attitudes. We can do attitudes. We can attain attitudes of faith and trust, humility and submission, exaltation and praise, confidence and belief, expectation and relief, adoration and gratitude, exuberance and assurance. The thing is, in imagination (and by that I mean in a relaxed, theta state imagining) we assume them all as existing: “Isn’t it wonderful!!?” It is a place to find, for sure.
Happily, prayer experience gives evidence. “When it works, you have found him” (Neville). Nothing convinces like prayer fulfilled. That is why the Bible is a prayer manual, and why Neville taught prayer constantly, which is the subject of my next post.
posted by Daniel C. Branham-Steele at
4:04 AM
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