Adventures in Mystical Theology

As Christians we tend to avoid the word 'mystic' or 'mystical' in any of our vocabulary regarding our prayer life. We are openly aware of the eastern mystics and the associations to New Age practices and meditation. The word mystic is another Christian heritage vocabulary word high jacked by the enemy. And so is meditation, another word that has been taken from us. The Bible tells us we are to meditate on the word of God, Psalm 1.

1 Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the LORD,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers. 

Psalm 1


We are to meditate on God day and night. This is not an eastern meditation practice where we sit in a lotus position, do strange breathing, and dwell on our inward sevles. This is a meditation on God's word by either thinking about it during the day during our regular activities or by slipping away to a quiet place to be in the company of God and reflect on His word. Christian meditation is focused on God and His word. Eastern meditation is focused on self and self-enlightment with all the breathing, yoga, and so forth.


Now that we know the differences between Christian meditation and eastern, let's look at the definition of mystical theology. Early church scholars divided Christian prayer life into basically two categories, ascetical and mystical. Ascetical is when we engage and pray to God, whether through mental prayer, vocal prayer, praise and worship, reading the Bible, and so forth. It's all our efforts from within to reach God. Mystical theology is when God comes to us! Our prayer lives have matured into a union with God. A marriage! Like in all good marriages the husband likes to bring gifts to the bride. This is the analogy to mystical theology. The 'mystic' refers to the mystical body of Christ. We're using very old Church terms here.


Now what does a mystical adventure look like? Well, my wife Lisa and I like to go outreaches, like New Age and pagan fairs to share the love of Christ to the lost. We attended one such fair recently and had some incredible encounters. Now we're ministering to psychics and pagans. The ministry has to be supernatural to reach people already moving in spiritual things -albeit the wrong spiritual things.


In one sit down encounter, I was with our friend Katie, from Lion's Pride, who we do street ministry with. A woman, named Norma, came to us for a spiritual reading. We offer Holy Spiritual readings, not psychic readings. And sometimes it freaks out the psychics to see two or more people on a team to give a reading. The psychics think, one person is the grand poopa master psychic and the other person is the understudy. Psychics always work alone. We use terms psychics are comfortable with. For instance, using the word Jesus at first or Holy Spirit may make them uncomfortable. So we use the word creator of the universe and Spirit of Truth. Names of God they are comfortable with. During these encounters we already know we're in the presence of God and He is here with us to speak to His lost. He is very gentle in His encounters but He does get straight to the point.

Katie and I had Norma invite the Spirit of Truth into our session for a Holy Spiritual reading. This way Norma is initiating the dialogue and inviting the Holy Spirit to herself. Katie and I use sketch books because God gvies us revelation in pictures. Some people get words and some get songs, and so forth, during this time in speaking with God. Katie and I had some moments of quiet before we started sketching. Be still and know that I am God.

Norma wore these vibrant blue feather earrings. I was given word of knowledge that she knew about her guardian angel. The colors of the feathers represented the colors of the feathers on her guardian angel. But I wasn't comfortable with this amount of information to move forward.

I sat and waited for more information to come. Now here is the mystical moment, I saw in the spirit, what I thought was a pixie or a fairy -which in warfare never mounts to anything good. I was thinking it was going to be another go time and a spirit eviction.

So I looked at this creature flying around like Tinkerbell, only this spirit was the size of a person and not a pixie! And it had wings, that were translucent, and flapped very fast like a humming bird. The spirit had the face of a woman and she revealed to me she was angel. She was Norma's angel for creativity, only, there was so much conflict going on spiritually, she was also now a warring angel. She stopped flying and and showed me how her humming bird wings.  When her translucent wings stopped fluttering her wings spread out into full white wings. I sketched as much of her wings as I could on the sketch pad. Then Norma's creativity angel showed me another angel in the picture, he was big, I was not allowed to see his face, only his wings. His tip feathers were the same blue as Norma's ear ring feathers.

This bigger angel showed me that he saved Norma's life when she was four and I was to ask Norma about it. He showed me that he had his big colorful wings wrapped around her to protect her as a child. I drew this picture on the sketchpad for Norma. And a couple of other quick sketches of the angels that represented what I was seeing.

Katie started off the Holy Spiritual reading session. Katie said while she was sketching, Elton John's song, "Candle in the Wind", was playing in her head. This song is also known as the "Norma Jean" song. Katie shared the song she heard in her head and Norma commented her full name is "Norma Jean", she is named after Marilyn Monroe.

Katie shared with Norma her drawing of Spree Candy, sweet tarts, sweet in the middle and tart on the outside. Norma laughed, and said her daughter calls her "kumquat", because she is sweet in the middle and tart on the outside.

Katie also shared with Norma a picture she sketched of Norma in the shower, washing her hair, cleansing it. And one other drawing she drew of Norma being a wild flower and free spirit.

When it was my turn, I had to ask Norma about the angels. The creativity angel was certain Norma saw her or knew about her. So I asked, Norma, what do you know about your angels?
Norma, replied, "do you mean the woman?"

I said, "um -yep!"

I told Norma the angel assigned to you to help with your creativity. Are you an artist?

Norma answered, No. But she loves art and always wanted to be an artist.

Norma was kind of tickled I saw her angel too. Then Norma asked me, whose spirit is she from? When did she die?

I told Norma, her angel was never born, it is a created being of God. Her composure kind of changed there at this point. It was a gentle revelation shift. Well, more to come, I had to deliver it as the angels wanted me.

Then I asked, "What is your spiritual back ground?"

Norma answered, "I have lots of native American spirits I contact."

I then told Norma that there was another angel in the picture. And she was excited to hear that. I told Norma I was to ask her about what happened to her when she was 4 years old?

She stops to think, and then answers, "Oh ...I fell out of a moving car!"

I told Norma that this other angel is the one who saved her. Her face became serious at this point. The Holy Spirit revealed to Norma an event we had no prior knowledge of and the fact angels were there to save her.

The big angel has a message for you, he says you made a big shift away from your spirituality from the time you were 4 years old until now.

Norma that about what I said and she pondered for a moment. Then she answers, "I used to be a Catholic".

Once more the Holy Spirit had Norma's undivided attention.

The angel, whom I didn't see his face, conveyed he was working overtime in her new spiritual endeavors.

It was a meesage for Norma to process. Katie and I didn't go in to close the deal. Norma knew who Jesus was. She was a prodigal daughter. But now that she was given definitive information about the angels she knows about and that they're creations of God. She got her world rocked.

Norma was very excited about her encounter and wanted to keep the drawings Katie and I made for her.

Why didn't we close the deal, so to speak? The Holy Spirit spoke directly to Norma through Katie and I. It was up to Norma to be convicted by the evidence the Holy Spirit presented her. It was her free will to leave the church and her free will to return to Christ. Katie and I didn't need to add anything to the encounter that was orchestrated by Jesus.

Seeing the angels and receiving word and pictures from God, like Katie and I experienced, is a mystical experience. Seeing angels and giving prophetic words - It's how God wants to operate through us. Just make yourself available and work on your relationship with him. There are dry days, weeks, and months for me where NOTHING supernatural happens. It's all up to God. Work on your union with Him and enjoy His mystical presence. He is always with us. With or without the supernatural experiences. So don't chase those mystical experiences -chase God.