Remembering what once was…

The power of Spiritual Entanglement.

 

In many places in the scriptures, God's solution to issues is to call his people to remember. In the rush of our world, forgetting is easy as new things constantly emerge.

  Where I grew up there was a section north of town that changed a lot in fifteen years. First, it was an old weather-beaten two-lane road with a thick forest. Then it became a tree farm on the west side and a small store on the east. Next thing you knew the small store left, to be replaced by a larger store and movie theater with four showings. Then to everyone's surprise the store became a strip mall with a bank. 

   The road was soon replaced with a newer road with a turn lane as the rest of the forest was removed on the west side and the state-run tree farm was closed down. Then one day very large earth-moving equipment drove in. The tree farm was leveled, and graded as the freeway next to it had new off-ramps installed. 

  The road that was recently replaced was torn up again, and expanded, forcing the movie theater to move as more lanes were added. Within months, endless amounts of gravel and cement arrived as a new mall was installed. Major store chains arrived, traffic lights were re-routed and soon the strip mall on the east was rebuilt bigger.

  At the point where the five lanes merged with the two in the north. The road was quickly widened for miles. 

  The population of the county before was highly agricultural and industry started changing almost overnight to consumer-based as environmental groups started shutting down paper, pulp, and petroleum industries. County farms that ranged from 80 to 300 acres soon got chopped up for subdivisions as many families left for Idaho, Montana, and Missouri to start farming again.

No Body Home

  In Amy Grant's haunting song called, No Body Home. You can hear the same feeling that many of us, growing up in a place like I described feel. It haunting and makes your mind wander to memories of the past.

  In the first part of the song she sings, 

“Main Street U.S.A. boarded up and dry. Knowin’ what once was here just makes me want to cry. Used to be the favorite place

Now what remains are memories even time cannot erase.”

{click on the above image to listen}

  Main Street USA 

  As a person from the West Coast, I did not understand what was being said here until I moved back east. This is in reference to the old PTL buildings owned by Jim Bakker that are now owned by MorningStar Ministries. Because Amy Grant went to college not too far away from this well-known location, her generation would have been well aquatinted with this facility as it was a favorite place for millions of Christian youth at that time.

  During my time back east I have talked with many people who wandered in and knew the place during the Jim Bakker days. Some told stories, and some pointed out key things others missed. All of them were glad that people had come back to restore the buildings. But… I recognize the look in their eyes, they miss what once was and as the old saying goes, you can never go home again even though your heart still pulls.

  That longing, that attachment to former things is something we all share. The tug of the heart at a song, a smell, or a feeling. Memories and old faces come flooding back in as your heart moves to a former rhythm thought forgotten.

Doorways

  We who are created in the image of God, and reborn and inhabited by His Holy Spirit. We are not just what the world wants us to believe. We are so much more. To remember is to call up the address of an event or moment, to possibly pull it into the present. It is more simple that people understand, yet it is its simplicity that so many of us stumble over.

  Recent advances in quantum science make me laugh a little as I now realize that if you change some of the terminology to spiritual wordage. These people as starting to find ways to measure something the Christian world has known about for a long time.

  Case in point the terminology, “Quantum Entanglement,” can easily be changed to “Spiritual Entanglement.” Quantum entanglement is defined as, “The physical condition of two more particles or physical systems being in quantum states each of which may only be described by reference to the others, especially when the particles or systems are separated by vast space.”

  We, in a spiritual way often get connected to people, places, and spiritual events, regardless of age in a strong way. This is why remembering can be so important and in some cases commanded by God.

  Many people in the Charismatic as well as in other Christian faiths have had a moment in time when God stepped in. It affected them spiritually, and emotionally in some way. By deliberately deciding to remember, we “pull” on that moment because our spirit is entangled with it on a spiritual level. 

  In time, as we do this God can teach you what parts you need to pull into the present. If you can hear the symbology of what I am about to say you will hopefully understand.

  Consider a large banquet with many guests who have only experienced the basics of food, somewhat bland, somewhat textureless. Everyone looks at the host, with hungry eyes as if to say, “Feed me.”

  The host smiles and looks at his servants and says, “Feed my guests.”

  A bit confused and empty-handed they all look at each other until one or two of them remembers how the host provided for his guests in the past. By remembering their faith grows, and by faith they turn to the kitchen and find good hot food just like the Host provided the last time. Their faith grew when they remembered.

  Entanglement can also cause us to call on the bravery he gave the last time a hard problem arrived. Or acts of faith to stand up, to heal, or how he provided kindness.

  The reality is if you experienced something from the Father's hand then you have the right to walk in it once more. The Father does not retract what he gives, “for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” Romans 11:29

  You are entangled with the goodness of God by His design and it is only you who limit it. By being the one who remembers, you are the one in the middle between what was and what can be. Perhaps that is another way we can be his ambassadors on this earth.