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Question: Dear Mark....I participated in your seminar recently and since then I have gone through the supplied workbook and the textbook, have recruited 3 spiritual advisers, and have been submitting much journaling material to them.  I'm looking at taking a few not-for-credit courses with Christian Leadership University, and would like to do at least one with a Personal Spiritual Trainer.  Here is some of my journaling.  Thank you very much for your consideration. 

Answer: Your journaling below is fantastic. We are thrilled to have you as a new student in Christian Leadership University. Keep up the great work! Mark Virkler

I sat on the floor as the notes and words of worship music rose and fell like a feather caught in a gentle breeze.   I was captured in the presence of God and was enjoying the opportunity to simply rest in Him. 

It wasn’t long before He began to speak to me about how much He loves me and how special I am to Him.  I smiled as His words touched my heart but then He said something I wasn’t expecting. 

Do you like to have a plan in mind and all the details worked out before you move ahead with a major decision? I called Abraham to get up and get moving toward a destination that I would show him later. I called my original disciples to follow me. Do you see the same principle in operation at the founding of these faiths? You are familiar with my promises and you find security in them but my call to follow me was given without a plan, agenda, schedule, or destination. Abraham committed to these terms and his belief was reckoned unto him as righteousness. This is a universal principle of faith, and a call to all who believe. Can you commit to follow me without knowing where I will lead you? 

Do you consider the Bible to be an absolute source of truth and divinely inspired? You are right. Do you think it is as important to have the Holy Spirit involved in your comprehension of it as was necessary to write it in the first place? Have you ever prayed; ‘open this book to me because I can’t get it on my own’? Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. The flesh cannot comprehend them. This is an attitude toward Bible study that requires a greater level of humility, but you also know that I delighted to conceal the mysteries of the Kingdom from the wise and prudent and reveal them unto babes. Open my word and call on me to open my word to you and I will. 

“What happened?”  I looked up from my crouched position as a steady stream of bodies moved slowly past us.  Curiosity and anticipation lit their faces as if we were a display at the zoo about to do something unexpected. 

When you present my message do you use my word to do it? This has tremendous advantages if your audience will recognize the authority of scripture, so they know your message is not just on your own authority, but what if they do not? Does this leave you in an impossible situation? It shouldn’t, for you can declare my goodness from your own firsthand experience. You can start with the natural world, or with the deep human longing for transcendent meaning and purpose. You can start anywhere that you can establish common ground with another person. He who is wise wins souls, and a wise witness has more than one approach. Paul said he became all things to all people that he might by any means save some, and you are a living epistle of my gospel message. 

You have my promise that if you seek you will find. Does this sound too good to be true? Yet even this is not the complete picture, for before you seek you must desire. You must have your heart set on something before you can go after it. Have you ever desired things and sought them and obtained them only to be disappointed in them? And so along with my promise about seeking and finding I give you instruction to seek those things which are above and to seek first the Kingdom of God. Have you heard the advice to be careful what you wish for because you just might get it? I promise that you will get it so be careful to desire things that lead to and not away from eternal life. 

Mark I want to interview you. About this conversation with me. I want to ask you the questions that so many people have about how to hear me. They struggle. They think that they’re making it up, that it’s just their imagination.

It’s the same for me though God. It’s a constant struggle.

They’re not going to like hearing that. They think it’s easy for you and hope that one day they’ll find it easy too. Easy like they think it is for you.

E-Sword is a free, instantly downloadable Bible software program that I have used for many years and absolutely LOVE! It does everything I need it to do. It is easy to use. It is expandable with many free add-on resources plus additional reference books that you can purchase for a very reasonable cost. I do my Bible research with e-Sword and would like to introduce you to this amazing tool. It has been downloaded 25 million times across 230 nations, making it the world's most popular Bible study software. It is even available for iPad.

I understand and appreciate that many of us differ on our understanding of the rapture.  I posted this as a discussion question on my facebook page and received some great comments showing that this matter is important to many of us. 

Before I share my thoughts I’d like to mention a few quick things.