Is It A Boy Or Girl
By Phil Scovell
2 Corinthians 12:1
It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to
visions and revelations of the Lord.
Well over 25 years ago, my wife had a early term miscarriage.
We never new if it was a boy or girl. My wife always felt that it
was a little girl but, of course, there was no way of knowing.
Soon thereafter, our youngest son, our last child, was born.
Before explaining what I am about to say, I need to offer
some background. When I write fictional stories, especially those
you read on my website, and I have many others I have started but
have not finished, it obviously must begin with an idea. Sure, I
can use anything as an idea but I have noticed, over the years,
that my idea normally begins with a person. This person normally
appears in my thoughts as just a person and nothing more.
Sometimes I awaken in the morning and the person, or idea, will be
there. It may not develop for weeks or months but the idea
generally never goes away. If I take time to meditate, by that I
mean I focus on the idea and try to develop a story around the
person I think I am seeing, the story begins to unfold for me.
Most of my story telling, as I see it in my mind, I conduct
sitting outside in our backyard on our deck swing. I simply
think about a person, a fictitious person, and make up a story
about them. Let me show you what I mean.
Keep in mind, many times, as I said, I see the person, or
idea of a person first, and without any encouragement on my part;
he, or she, just appears in my thoughts as I sort of day dream.
As I finished my most recent Christian adventure novel, and
began proofreading and editing it, I was sitting out on our deck
swing and thinking about what I might do next. I was sort of
surprised I was already thinking in that direction because I had
already decided that I had two other Christians fiction novels I
had started and I wanted to finish those. One is a Christian
romance and the other is a Christian adventure western and I have
several chapters already finished in both manuscripts. However,
as I sat on the deck thinking, I saw, in my mind's eye, as they
say, a man. He was walking down a long and broad side walk. He
was alone and as I looked closer, he had on baggy clothes. Each
of these ideas came to mind within seconds.
I continued asking myself questions, such as, "What is he
doing? Who is he? Where is he going. What is behind him?" When
I wondered what he was leaving, because that's how it felt, I
realized that the man was leaving a prison and he wasn't looking
back. I looked at the figure I was creating in my mind, that just
suddenly appeared there, and I realized he was 76 years old. He
had just been released from prison after a 50 year stretch. He
had, my mind told me, killed a police officer. I could tell much
more about this story, because a great deal of the story unfolded
within minutes as I sat on my deck swing day dreaming, as I call
it, but you can read the book later to find how it ends.
You may be wondering what all this has to do with my wife
having a miscarriage. Me, too, so let me finish what I started to
explain.
As I just described, I was once again sitting on our deck
swing one day. I had been engaged in a speculative conversation
with a couple of people recently and we were discussing what we
thought Heaven was going to be like. My drifting thoughts came in
contact with a chapter in one of my books where a man dies, goes
to Heaven, and the entire chapter is this man and his experiences
in Heaven. As I retraced my thoughts by reviewing what I had
written in that chapter, I suddenly saw the mental picture I was
holding in place as I thought about Heaven, and it instantly
changed. It was me, to my surprise, just entering Heaven, and I
saw Jesus off to my right a few feet away as if He were there
waiting for me. I smiled. Before Jesus could speak, I heard, to
my left, a voice say, "Hello dad." I turned and saw a young man
walking toward me from slightly to my left. Thinking this was
still part of my creativity going on and this was a story idea
unfolding, I realized the young man had said, "Hello, dad." Wait
just a minute. I look closer at the young man's face. He looked
like a combination of what I think my oldest son, and youngest
son, look like but I knew it wasn't either. It couldn't be
because they were both still alive and so was I, for that matter,
so what was happening?
The young man had called me "dad," but I only had two sons.
I heard myself saying, "Excuse me but do I know you?" The young
man smiled and said, "Yes. I'm your son that miscarried."
Of course, this raises a lot of unanswered questions. For
example, was it just my creativity at work? Was it the Lord
trying to show me something? Was it real? Was it true? I do
know, on the other hand, when I begin a story idea, I control what
goes on, what is said, and I just drift along with various ideas
that quickly come to mind; discarding some while adopting others
as a valid part of the story. I also change directions. In other
words, if the story progresses down a cul de sac, or some sort of
a dead end, I simply manipulate the story until it feels right,
erasing a new character in my mind, creating a different story
line, or whatever it takes to allow the idea to perpetually flow
without much resistance. What I experienced sitting on the swing
about Heaven wasn't like anything I had experienced before in
creative writing or writing I do of any other type. So what was
it? Is that child we lost many years ago a boy? Is it a girl as
my wife, at the time, felt? We'll find out one of these days but
this experience was not mythical, mystical, or my creative
abilities at play; it was simply too real and unexpected. Nothing
I saw or thought was preconceived, by that I mean, it did not
develop as thoughts do in my mind; it was just suddenly there,
playing itself out, conversation and all.
I have experienced just such events many times but only
verbally. By that I mean, I have spoken directly from my newly
recreated spirit, where the Holy Spirit dwells, and heard myself
saying the words but those words were registering within my
thoughts at the moment they were being spoken. In other words, my
mind was hearing what others were hearing in real spirit time, as
I call it, directly from my spirit as the Holy Spirit ministered
to me, or, as in most cases, to others. Another way of describing
it is that my mind does not think the words before they are
spoken. So the spiritual phenomenon is not foreign to me. In
fact, I prayed just such a prayer, with several witnesses present,
about a church God specifically called upon me to pray about. It
was, in short, a prayer of judgment, if they did not repent and
change their ways. Two weeks later, the church, and Christian
school, was shut down by the city for a week due to health
problems related to the congregation. Within a year, the church
closed and sold their property and building. I have never had, on
the other hand, such a open vision of this type except in dreams.
The point is, what do we do with extra Biblical experiences
as Christians. Do we ignore it, believe it, or accept it as fact?
Do we live and die by them? The Scriptures, both Old and New
Testaments, are replete with just such experiences yet we are told
by many, well known, popular, and apparently, successful,
ministers of megachurches, or those claiming to be Biblical
scholars, televangelists, or famous authors, that anything
external of the written Word of God, is invalid. Some go so far
as labeling it demonic.
I always begin by asking myself some questions. First, what
is the message, or meaning, behind what seems to be a spiritual
experience? I'm asking myself if the experience has a Biblical
base. Of course, since Satan can appear as an angel of light, and
demons, to say the least, are deceitful, we must use spiritual
wisdom and discernment to determine the truth. In this case, as
has already been stated, that such open visions are commonly
reported in both Old and New Testaments, then, present day
experiences, such as mine, can be considered Biblically and
spiritually valid from that standpoint alone. Unless, of course,
you believe all such extra Biblical experiences died out with the
last apostle; whoever he was.
Secondly, we must use common sense. If you heard, in your
thoughts, or what some identify as their spirit, a voice, in the
form of thought I am talking about now, telling you that you
should marry someone in your church and even her name is stated,
what should you do? First you should, if using common sense, say
to yourself, "Wait a minute. I'm already married," and next you
should say, "and she is married, too. What gives here?" In
short, a Christian without horse sense won't be stable; pun
intended.
Thirdly, If it clears the Biblical test and the common sense
test, put it to the acid test. That is, if it is prophetic, as is
the situation in my case, I'll have to wait till Heaven to see if
it was of God or not. In truth, I need not have to believe the
vision, although I do, but believing this type of vision isn't
necessary for salvation, doctrine, or anything else. Then why did
it happen? Because, me and Jesus are buddies. What's your excuse?
How Big Is God? The Size Of Your Mouth.
WWW.SafePlaceFellowship.com
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