Spiritual Quest in the New Testament

Over four decades ago, I had a dream vision of many of the details of the second coming of Christ. It sent me on a lifetime quest to find out all I could about this great coming event. Today I am far from alone, as more people than ever are having visions, dreams and revelations about this wonderful change coming to the world.

One of the side benefits of the call to the prophetic ministry is the ability to discern the dreams, visions and revelations of others. Sometimes it may just be a Freudian thing, or that someone ate a sour pickle before retiring for the night, that brought on an apparition. At other times, God has clearly spoken and even when the recipient of the vision is not sure God has spoken, I am.

I have always treaded cautiously when I hear someone has had a revelation, for obvious reasons. Some revelation is false and very misleading. I don't haphazardly accept everything I hear, but I am also reticent to dismiss a matter too quickly. I have often been guided by what the Pharisees concluded when listening to the Apostle Paul's rendering of the gospel and the vision of Jesus Christ he had as he traveled on the road to the city of Damascus.

The Pharisees decided not to look too harshly at Paul because they could be seriously mistaken and thus be bucking the very God they were supposed to represent. They concluded by saying "We find no evil in this man: but if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God." (Acts 23:9b)

One of the most powerful and inspiring visions I have ever encountered came to a Louisiana based preacher and evangelist, Jesse Duplantis. Jesse is a Cajun-born Louisiana native who had in his former life run the gamut of drugs, booze and rock and roll. He is now at the center of one of the most dynamic Spirit-led ministries in the nation.

In a CD (available through his ministry based in Destrehan Louisiana) entitled "Close Encounters of the God Kind," Jesse tells of the five and a quarter hour experience he had being escorted around heaven by various angelic and patriarchal figures.

He has traveled the nation and the globe telling people about his heavenly encounter while preaching the gospel to thousands. It would be nearly impossible to cover all that he saw and heard in one article, but one single part of the vision that is most startling cannot be overlooked in the ongoing moral and legal battle against the scourge of abortion in America.

It should be noted that Duplantis has not used the particular aspects of his heavenly visitation to hone in on abortion proponents in particular. It is my special interest in that part of his visit that is the impetus for these observations- and the fact that this is the only generation in world history that seems so perfectly comfortable with 150 million abortions worldwide, with 50 million of those here in the United States.

In fact, according to Jesse, the single command Jesus was said to have given him was simply to tell his people that he was going to return very soon. Duplantis argued with Christ about that saying "Lord your people already know that." That's when Jesus gently rebuked him with the retort "no they don't Jesse."

While face down before God the Father, Jesse found he could not rise and stand because of the sheer power emanating from God's throne. What he was able to see was tiny spirits emerging from God's throne, perhaps generated by his thoughts alone, that came forth eager to go to earth and become living spirits. They would actually ask God if they could go and become part of his plan.

As I listened to the Evangelists narrative of his visit, I envisioned the thousands of little spirits being transferred to the earth where they would take up residence in the tiny little human beings being formed in the wombs of women around the globe. In my mind's eye, I could also see the thousands of them were being rejected and sent back to where they came from without a chance to begin life here with the rest of humanity.

My thoughts were not a heavenly vision from God; rather they were simply an earthly vision based on the hard cold and selfish social climate of the day. No one can claim that the Evangelists vision was any less true than mine and if we all thought about it, than yours.

I have spent the last forty and more years telling people about my own visions of the second coming of Christ and although I have had no visions having to do with little spirits and subsequent abortions I can say I have followed the abortion question every step of the way since the inception of Roe V. Wade in 1973.

I can say that I have never heard an argument for abortion that could hold a single drop of water. To the abortionist it is a choice, but to the little spirits who so willingly come to face the existence here, it is the rejection of their choice. Long before I heard of Jesse's vision I wondered what the little unborn child would say if it could answer for itself? I have never doubted that it would say; I want to live.

Even the idea that it is a woman's right to decide about her own body leaves the mind and spirit void of satisfaction. If a woman wanted to rip up part of her body and throw it away and we knew of it, we would have her committed to some facility for her own protection and given treatment until she finally gave up the notion of self-mutilation. Why is an unborn child any different? If it is only an extension of the woman's body, shouldn't that be protected even from her?

No argument for abortion can sooth the conscience of man, because there is a thirst for life in all of us that we know exists in all of humanity at any stage, not just when we emerge and begin to grow up. These matters are on a much higher level than mere acquired intelligence or even common sense; they are a product of a far more primal and universal human quality known as "instinct."

After viewing the vision of Jesse Duplantis, I will forever believe that it is even above mere instinct. I believe it is a spiritual quest to live that is supernaturally or divinely implanted in every human spirit that wants to live for the glory of God.

One thing is certain. In heaven Duplantis saw nothing destroyed or harmed. Even as he walked on beds of gorgeous flowers his feet did not harm them. No life is destroyed, harmed or threatened in the presence of God. Perhaps we should learn this great lesson and remind ourselves of it again and again each time we say these famous words.

"...Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." Matthew 6:10

Rev. Michael Bresciani is an independent columnist