‘…but mercy (full of glad confidence) exults victoriously over judgement’ – James 2:13 (The Amplified Bible)
Quite some time was needed to gain a full understanding of that awesome visitation thirty-four years ago and being confronted by the absolute holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. No wonder I was intensely convicted and suddenly knew personal judgement definitely IS TRUE! As mentioned, I fully expected to take my last breath there and then and be dropped down into Hell.
It was a few years until I heard that “mercy triumphs over judgement” – yes indeed it does and thank you for being so gracious to me, my Lord. May it be similarly so for the multitudes who don’t yet know You.
That life-changing encounter used two personally intimate aspects of my life, unknown to any living soul, to grab my attention and thereby validate the experience as being real, not imaginary. Even more amazingly, both validations are directly related to the 1st and 2nd Advents! Thus, they could not but enhance my interest in End-Times that had begun only a few years earlier when reading The Invisible Hand (as described herein). Yet it took me 30 years for it to dawn upon me that when that happened I’d been given the first two pieces of an ‘invisible jigsaw’!!!
The First Advent was when Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea about two thousand years ago. Hence, the four weeks leading into Christmas are designated within the church calendar as Advent, and which start the church year. The Second Advent is coming soon and is expected to begin in the city of Jerusalem.
FIRST VALIDATION
I inwardly ‘knew’ that heavenly visitor was indeed Jesus Christ himself, and that His impressive swift descent was a foretaste of His promised return in all His glory.
The event reminded me of my favourite picture in mother’s Missal, or service book of the Roman Mass. This gave the scriptures for Sunday services throughout the year together with a picture symbolising the theme for each service. As a boy very keen on astronomy I’d been fascinated by the picture for the First Sunday in Advent. It depicted Jesus standing on the clouds over a burning earth in the midst of sun, moon and falling stars, telling of events before his Second Advent!
The validation referred to above came almost as unusually. On a healing retreat six years later, a minister told me God would show me something after lunch. Indeed He did for a lady whom I’d never met and was seated at my table confided after lunch that the Lord told her to show me something she greatly treasured.
It was a photo taken from an aircraft over a thunderstorm. When developed, the photo bore an image of Jesus Christ as though standing within the clouds. But the facial features were hazy; exactly like Jesus in my dream because I’d not seen His face!! (I seem to recall hazy clouds at the foot of the image. This one shown is published by Bible Probe.)
My legs gave way upon seeing this photo as I couldn’t remain standing but had to drop down into a nearby chair! My companion, Yvonne, said I went so white she thought I was going to faint or fall. Continue reading
Its closing command is timely regarding an on-going chat over eschatology, BUT then I noticed the verses’ reference echoes the home-address number of the location (212) of my life-changing dream!
Then suddenly, with a loud crash and a bang, I watched as the whole Jenga Tower fell to the ground, and all the pieces were scattered.
Richard's Watch 