It seems that what we focus upon — spiritually — manifests stronger than all else. Thus, one should not overly hover over the negative, especially the demonic.
No.
Neither should one ignore it.
For when we do that, evil grows yet more insidious. (Whereas co*ckroaches scatter when you turn on a light.)
But for focus: how glorious the angels!
Take it from Blake K. Healy, that preacher in Georgia who — like some others we have written about, including a Missouri priest — can allegedly see good and evil spirits on a regularongoing basis.
That’s apparent and enthralling right from the very first paragraph of a follow-up book he has written called Profound Goodwhich we recommend, for it lends truly unique and powerful insights into what affects and afflicts us all in this life, on this testing ground called earth.
In the case of Healy, mysticism came as a very young boy who thought everyone was seeing what he did: the spirits all around us.
And it went with him throughout life.
“I walked into the back of the church feeling more confident and alive than I had in years,” he writes of one event, when he was young. “For the very first time in my twelve years of life, the dancing lights and streaks of color I saw flitting around the church sanctuary were a source of curiosity rather than confusion.
“My eyes naturally skimmed the room, taking in what was happening in the spirit.
“A tall angel wearing a silver-and-gold robe stood behind the main worship leader as he strummed the first few notes of the night’s worship set on his guitar. The vibration of the strings sent out hazy waves of glittering-laden mist that quickly moved from where the worship leader stood to fill the whole room with glistening light.
“Two more angels trailing lengths of crimson cloth behind them skipped through the air above the chairs where the rest of the congregation sat. The crimson cloth snagged on some invisible hooks or lines at intervals throughout the room, making the cloth look as if it had been artfully hung for a wedding, reunion, or some other special occasion.
“A half dozen more angels, each wearing brightly colored clothes, leaped into the room as the rest of the band joined with the worship leader and led the congregation in worship.”
As for the other end of the spectrum (for your discernment):
“I saw angels and demons during the day but for some reason the demonic beings I saw during the day did not scare me at all, while the ones I saw at night left me so terrified I could hardly breathe. After trying everything I could think of to dispel or drown out these dark visions, I became resigned to the fact that I was either crazy or the devil had just decided to ruin my life–neither of which left much room for hope.”
That’s how frequent the phenomena — not visions, but ongoing mysticism — was.
Hope came suddenly and unexpectedly when Blake found himself in that church with the praise music.
It turned out that demonic entitiescouldn’t bear “timbrel and dance” (asPsalms calls it: worship and praise from the heart).Soon the night terrors completely ended.He still saw demons, but without any fear.
Once he watched an angel trying to comfort and encourage a man as a demon that looked like a scrawny featherless gray bird floated above.It had “thin, membranous wings.”
And when it floated in front of the man’s eyes — spreading those ugly, transparent wings — they formed a prism the man was now looking through.
Everything looked different through that dark lens.
At another juncture, during a worship service, as the singing reached fever pitch, Healy claims he “saw a large black snake at the back of the room. Its tree-trunk-sized coils were covered in dark, leathery scales, and its bright yellow eyes were glowing as if it lowered its head from where it hung high in the rafters.
“The familiar fear that had been such a consistent part of my nightly life scratched at the back of my head as I saw the snake, but the feeling was easily suppressed, especially when I noticed how hard the snake was pressing itself against the back wall, as if it were afraid to get any closer to what was happening at the front of the room.”
Which thoughts do you choose? What lens? Is there discouragement, despair? Spiritual blindness? These can indicate something that needs to be cast off.
Blake has seen throughout his life (he’s now a husband and dad) that we also have those angels around us, and when we turn to them, instead of conceding to the dark, the oppression and blindness and distortions and ugliness from our lives lift.
Of course, a gift such as Healy’s only goes so far: when it comes to alerting folks about what is around them—what he sees—he quickly found people take offense: don’t care to know or believe. And so the oppression remains. We all need cleansing from time to time!
A lesson for us all.
As Christ says, look for the boulder in our own eye before the speck in someone else’s. (Though also discern what and who to spend your time around).
[resources: Healy’s books include Profound Goodand The Veil]
