What about ‘higher consciousness’?

Recently someone very respectfully asked this question on one of my social media platforms:

“I have some concern about the term ‘higher consciousness.’  This is a term used by New Agers.  Is it a me-becoming-a-god level of consciousness?”

Let me start out by saying you are powerful to have your own opinion and are under no obligation in any way to agree with me.  Be free and be powerful in your journey in God.

In response: Our Bible proves that revelation is not stationary… it moves… it evolves.  All through recorded history, God has upgraded our understanding of His heart for His people and the world.  From one dispensation to the next He unveils higher and deeper parts of His heart.

Take a look at Jesus; He introduced God as “our Father”.  That was considered blasphemy to the religious of the day.  But now, this revelation is the core doctrine for believers in Christ.  So God through Jesus revealed a higher understanding of our identity that was quantum leaps beyond the conventional wisdom of the day.

And God actually says He has reserved some revelation for the ages to come.

“And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, that in the AGES TO COME He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” – Eph 2:6-7

In other words, there are riches of Grace and greater enlightenment that He has reserved for future ages.

And when we use the word ‘age’, we must not fear the ‘new agers’.  They only stole it from the Bible.  The Bible was here long before anyone ever thought of being a new ager.  We must be so confident in God’s heart that we’re not intimidated by the devil’s usurpation of a word or concept or reality.

Regarding ‘higher consciousness’, I’m confident that you have a much higher consciousness of God now than before you met Jesus.  And it would be naïve to think that we’ll not have a higher consciousness of God, His heart, His intentions for us, and our identity in God… 5-10 years from now.

The fact that new agers have taken ‘higher-consciousness’ down a Godless path and sought to have ‘enlightenment’ apart from God (and suffered the negative consequences) should have no bearing on Holy Spirit’s leading of us into our God-ordained identity and our inheritance in God.

Someone has appropriately admonished us, “We should have more faith in God’s leadership and ability to keep us, than in the devil’s ability to deceive us.”

Regarding “becoming-a-god level of consciousness”, I have written about this subject on my blog, Beyond the Map, in: What if ye are gods?

Let me cite a few more occasions of Biblical higher consciousness.

Paul was definitely ushered into a higher consciousness when he was caught up to the 3rd heaven in II Cor 12:2.  Did he come back a different person?  You betcha!

Romans 12:2 says that to be transformed (Greek metamorphoo = transfigured) we must actually get a new mind!  A better mind… a higher mind.  And this will actually transfigure us!  I wonder how many will call it ‘of the devil’ when believers begin to transfigure?

Col 3:2 actually charges us to “set our affections on things ABOVE”, not on the earth.”

II Cor 3:18 says that when we behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we “are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

Did you notice that we’re looking at the glory of the Lord… but ‘as in a mirror’, we’re actually seeing the glory that is on us because He is in us… and that as we behold, it actually transforms (Greek metamorphoo = transfigures) us.  And the Spirit of God is the One who is leading us into this.

Here are a few more verses addressing our oneness (homogenizing) with God.

till Christ be formed in you – Gal 4:1
unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ – Eph 4:13
that you would be filled up with all the fullness of God – Eph 3:19
I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one – Jn 17:23

Now, just for grins let’s look at a few changes that have happened in our lifetimes.  Here are a few things that we use to think were ‘of the devil’:

Instruments in church
Drums in church
Electric guitars in church
Tambourines in church
Speaking in tongues
Prophecy
Healing
Interaction/participation with angels
Interaction/participation with the ‘cloud of witnesses’

What other things will God unveil to us in the future??????

Truth be told, I’m practicing things that I can’t put on social media yet.  It’s just not commonly accepted and there would be a predictable ‘kickback’ from those who haven’t traveled this journey, yet.

I hope this has helped bring context and understanding to your question regarding ‘higher consciousness’.  I applaud you, that you are like the ‘noble Bereans’ who went back to the Word of God to see if these things really are true.  God bless your journey into His heart!

You are welcome to counter the thoughts and views found above… but just for the sake of everyone who might be reading our dialog, let’s make any further exchange private, by taking our conversation to text or email.  That way we won’t fuel the ‘haters’ and we won’t confuse or discourage the immature.

— MLH

Twenty-two year old dream finally tells its meaning

Have you ever had a dream and wondered what it meant… so you just archived it in your journal and forgot about it?   I did.  But 22 years later I realized I had been living the dream unaware… and that dream validated all that we had lived.  Isn’t God good to surround us with His affirmation?

Back in 2010, one of my Wisconsin spiritual sons (my great friend John Collins), visited KC to attend the IHOPKC Awakening meetings.  We’ve been best buds for many years now… and he’s a great source of joy for my life.  In a vulnerable moment, I just wondered out loud, “Is anything we do, really registering in Heaven… does it all count for eternity’s sake?”

The conversation drifted to our family’s move to WI in 1989 and back to KC in 2000.  They asked why we moved… and if we had any confirmations to help us make that move.  I said, “We had many confirmations and dreams that I’ve recorded in journals, but I’ll tell you a dream that I’ve never told anyone.”

(Later I checked my journal and found it recorded in August of ’88… eight months before we moved to WI.)

In the dream I was up on a cliff, looking out over an ocean when I saw a Sasquatch (Big Foot type creature) floundering in the surf and being washed toward shore.  I jumped off the cliff and into the water to rescue him.  When I got near to him, I realized there were two Sasquatches.  He told me that he had been taking care of some people, but the problem was that he was now tired.  He went on to say, “There are 150 more like us in WI”.  Then the dream ended.

I felt like the dream’s meaning was that when we move to WI we would meet people who were either unsaved, spiritually unawakened, or discouraged and they needed help… we were to help them find God or find their ‘footing’ and passion in God.

By the time I finished telling the dream, John’s eyes had gotten big and were telegraphing that he could hardly believe what he’d just heard.  He said, “Mark, you’re not going to believe this!  When I was in high school, my nickname was Sasquatch!”

We were both incredulous and just stared at each other for a moment… absorbing what we’d both just heard and what it meant to us.  In other words, God had let me know His plan for us to meet and run for God together… and this was four years before we ever actually met each other.  John had other good friends who encouraged him toward Jesus, but I happened to be there when he profoundly gave his heart to Jesus.  He and I have been best of friends for nearly 25 years.  I’m so proud of him that he’s never ‘fallen off the wagon’ in his spiritual passion for Jesus.

John and wife Nettie on a cliff overlooking the surf in Hawaii

I exclaimed, “John, why didn’t you ever tell me that your nickname was Sasquatch?” to which he replied, “Mark, why didn’t you ever tell me the dream?”  We both laughed… and then we hugged each other while tears flowed freely as we both saw that the hand of God and His design had been actively at work in our lives the whole time.  God really did have a plan… and Yes! It really does matter what we do here on earth!  Twenty-two years after the dream, its relevance and meaning were unveiled to us and we realized that we had been living out the fulfillment of the dream and God’s plan for us, all the time.

Hearing God’s voice and receiving His affirmation, confirmed our past and gave great hope for our future.  We both said, “We can live off of this moment for a long time”.  God had encouraged our hearts, Big Time!!!

You may have a dream that hasn’t come true yet.  But what if you’re actually already living out the dream… you just haven’t bumped into that missing ‘key’ for the dream to make sense?

Lord, we bless those dreams to ‘come alive’ and ‘deliver’ their powerful confirmations in our lives.  Amen

— MLH