Mystics arise!

Through much of my life, I haven’t given much thought to the word ‘mystic’.  I used to relegate it to someone who was ‘over the edge’ in their beliefs and kind of ‘spooky’ in their deportment.

But historically, in religious circles, the title ‘mystic’, is used to describe some of our notable contemplatives.  In the last couple of thousand years, these ancient church mystics possessed a relationship, piety, and reality in God that set them apart.  Some of the more commonly known mystics include Francis of Assisi, Ignatius Loyola, John of the Cross, Brother Lawrence, and Jeanne Guyon, just to name a few.

Religious opinion and tradition generally require that to be called a mystic, one must have had a personal transformation… or must have effected transformation in someone else.

But if you think about it, that definition should apply to any seriously devout God-person.  In Christian circles, a personal and even radical transformation is not only sought after but is a powerfully validating evidence that one has truly had an encounter with God.  In addition, it will empower that person to be a ‘carrier’ of the attributes of the divine encounter and be able to impart those attributes to others.  A bona fide encounter with God has an inherent residual within it which will emanate effortlessly and contagiously to those around… almost involuntarily.

A sad commentary is that much of the Church finds itself diluted, even mousy, without much ‘transformational’ power resident within its gatherings and practices.  This is a travesty, especially since the Church’s Theology purports such great power.

This diluted condition is not a true reflection on the Gospel, to be sure.  Rather, it’s the ‘handlers’ of the Gospel who have lost their passion, poignancy, personal devotion, and the resulting overflow.  But lest I get too far out on a tangent, let’s return to our theme.

So recently, as I did a cursory investigation about the subject of ‘mystic’and I found something surprising.  The label and the description of a mystic is not as crazy as I had believed, in fact, if we’re seriously conscientious about our faith and relationship with God, then all devout God-lovers will become a mystic… maybe even, mystical… at least by definition.

A definition of a mystic:

~ Someone who believes in unseen realities
~ One who believes that they can have access to hidden mysteries, that transcend ordinary human knowledge.
~ One who believes that they can actually know God.

It sounds like they’re talking about any passionate lover of God.  After all, doesn’t this describe the basics of our personal relationship with God?

So let’s get a little more technical in our definition of Mysticism.

1. Unitive experience (believes in union with God)

~ A sense of union with God
~ Usually a fundamental part of defining a religious experience
~ Perceiving a unity to God or the Supernatural
~ Sense of participation in that unity

2. Paradoxical (hard to explain experiences)

~ Beyond normal reason, cannot be explained
~ Yet, believed to be true
~ Knowledge was gained, yet can’t explain how that knowledge came

Well, it sounds like ‘mystic’ should define every true believer.  So, let the mystics arise, stand up confidently… and be mystifying!!! 

— MLH

DPM Update – 2019 Sept – Shefa / Outpouring

Dear Friends

Debbie & I will join Dave & Ann Clark this month for another trip to Israel.  We’ll pick up where we left off in our benevolence mission… as well as reconnect with our growing and dear friendships.  In our recent trips, we’ve made some deep relationships which have been mutually inspiring.  There can be no mistaking of Heaven’s guidance and God’s presence among us.  We’ve all felt God’s delight as we dialog about matters of the heart and share personal God-testimonies.  It’ll be a joy to see them again.

The following is just one of our many bright points in our recent trips to Israel.

We’ve become very good friends with an amazing 21-year-old young man by the name of Ezra, who describes himself as a modern orthodox Jew.  He is the great-grandson of an almost legendary rabbi, Ovadia Yosef (Obadiah Joseph), who died in 2013.  Nearly everyone in Israel knows of Rabbi Joseph and reveres him as a rabbi of almost royalty status in modern times… his picture is even posted in many Jewish restaurants.

Ezra gave Dave and I a tour of his prestigious yeshiva (religious school) Yeshivat Birkat Moshe, where he has studied with 200-300 young men for about 5 years.  We were very warmly welcomed by the rabbis, and then Ezra showed us the sizable library where some books date back 500 years.  The prolific writings of his photographic-memory great grandfather, are there in a collection that looks like rows of encyclopedias.

The really amazing part about Ezra is that he loves to dialog on any topic and easily relates it back to the Torah, Tanakh, or Talmud.  This was of special interest to us because we loved hearing his explanation of the original content and original intent of the Bible passages.  Beyond that, Ezra carries himself with much decorum and talks with ease about any topic.  One such topic was his explanation of the times we live in.

He called this present time that we live in, the “World of Process”, which might be described as the time in which man is in the process of being perfected.  He went on to say that the next world is called the “World to Come” which can have two possible meanings: after we die… or when Messiah comes.  That time is where all the ‘supernatural’ things found in Holy Scripture will occur again.  He further elaborated that the afterlife “World to Come” is not bound by time.  It is outside of time – bigger than time – so it will be and has ALWAYS been, existent.

After discussing a few topics, I asked, “What caused men of God in the Bible to experience the supernatural things, such as miracles, healings, prophecy, etc?”

Ezra said it was when they experienced the “stream” (his own word/description) out of God that they were empowered to do these unusual things.

So I asked, “How would you describe the “stream”?”

He said, “The best Hebrew word is probably Shefa.  There are lots of words to describe Shefa; such as abundance, wealth (not earthly), the flow of goodness, blessing, benefit, Divine ‘flow’, emanation or influence, etc… but the best English word is probably “Outpouring”!”

I was impacted deeply upon hearing this, because the word Outpouring, is the exact title we sometimes use to identify our Christian moves of God which are accompanied by the supernatural!  I described how we experience some of those Biblical supernatural phenomena and actually ‘reach’ for those phenomenon experiences as one of our core values.  I said that one of the common predicating factors for many of these outpourings is HUNGER… hunger for this intimate experience and for ‘breakthrough’ empowerment.

A rabbi’s description of Shefa
“Shefa is actually, on the broadest level, the flow of goodness that comes to our world from the higher planes of existence.  Shefa comes as a blessing and has many forms.  The Shefa, on one hand, is sent down… by divine direction, but on the other hand is drawn down to our level by need, by circumstance and in response to human action.” – Rabbi Fisdel

So I asked Ezra if he believed that Shefa can be experienced today.  He said, “We will experience Shefa when the Messiah comes… in the “World to Come”.  It will certainly be much easier to experience then.”

To that, I had to ask, “But if the afterlife “World to Come” is ALWAYS existent… and men of old have already experienced these “streams” and “outpourings”, then we too, should be able to experience it now, right?”  After a short pause, he concurred… and his exact words were, “We must learn to live in the stream.  It is the most amazing thing and the highest level of our existence.”

I could tell that this was a topic that was very dear to him, but one that may not be in mainstream conversations.  Shortly, I realized that my own heart was being strangely stirred.  I explained to him how I knew that I was having a mini Shefa, right there in the car.  Our discussion was so precious at that point that tears filled my eyes and I felt to prophesy over him that he was going to find himself drawn into the discovery of how to live in the “stream”/Shefa of God… that this quest would grip and consume him.  I continued, that his faith for this would rise as God gave him milestone experiences to surely take him into this kind of reality.  And he would be used to enlighten others about the validity of experiencing the “stream”/Shefa in their lives, too.  He was deeply moved and with great thoughtfulness responded, “I hope so.”

That evening was very encouraging for all of us.  Upon parting ways, Dave & I spoke blessings over him.  He sincerely acknowledged that this had been a most impacting experience.

We’re very happy to have met Ezra as he is a valuable resource of rich insights of original Biblical passages, but even more, I’m very proud of him and grateful that he counts us among his friends.  We’ve had several very meaningful exchanges since then and without a doubt, we will continue rewarding and stimulating exchanges for years to come.

— MLH