In my previous posting (Possess-the-Vision) I communicated that I was going to present the spiritual experiences of my life that led to the creation of the Possess the Vision Mission Statement (PTV Mission-Statement.)

The experience I am about to communicate to you took place while I was in grade school. It will prove to be quite unbelievable to most people, and to be perfectly honest, would have been disregarded by me as well if it were not for all of the other unexplained spiritual experiences of my life. It is the story of a warning that comes from God in the form of a dream and then is followed up by an intervention from God.

The Morning Star Rising on the First Day

THE ESP EXPERIENCES

After I entered elementary school, I started to encounter things that could not be explained by the laws of physics. Some would call these strange experiences extrasensory perception (ESP). For example, I would dream things that would come true and know things that were to happen before they occurred. You know, I would have a premonition of things to come. Here is an example:

I DREAM THAT I WAS LIKE A SUPERMAN

One night I had a dream that I was standing in the middle of the street and an oncoming car was coming toward me at a high rate of speed. Rather than run out of the way to escape, I braced myself and extended my arms toward the car to absorb the impact. The car sped directly into my outstretched hands where amazingly, it was stopped dead in its tracks.

The car was a gray 1940’s model with a v-shaped hood that culminated in a rounded point at the exact point where my hands contacted the car. I could see my hands against the gray automobile just as one would see them through their own eyes, and I was in awe of what had happened. I remember having the feeling of extreme physical strength and I imagined that this is what Superman must feel like—knowing that you can muster unbelievable power and use it to achieve incredible feats. I truly felt invincible.

A few days later, I was playing with one of my friends who lived down the block. We were flying a new helicopter/saucer toy that he had just received. The helicopter was simply a bladed saucer sat on top of a handle that launch the saucer into the sky when the string was pulled.

We were having a great time, my friend would launch the helicopter and I would try to chase it down and catch it before it hit the ground. On his last launch he pulled the string with all he had and the saucer soared high into the air, above the house tops. Just then a strong breeze kicked up that carried the saucer out into the street. Being totally focused on catching the saucer, I started running after it as fast as I could.

As I was not paying much attention to where I was going, my friend’s mother started shouting to me, “Joe, don’t go into the street. Joe, stop!” I remember hearing her words but they seemed faint and very far away. I was in the middle of the street by the time I caught the saucer. It was then that I could hear my friend’s mom screaming for me to come back. I turned and looked up the street and there it was, the gray car of my dream turned nightmare, was speeding toward me. There was no time to get out of the way, so I simply held my arms out in front of me, just like I did in my dream. I could hear the tires squealing in response to the locked brakes. The car hit my hands and stopped. Unlike the dream however, it was evident that it was not my power that stopped the car. I realized that I was not all-powerful as I believed in my dream. The car had knocked me backward even though it just barely touched me. I stood there and watched the front of the car rock back and forth in reaction to the sudden stop. I did see my own hands against the hood of the gray car just like in my dream though. I then realized just looked death square in the eye.

My friend’s mother ran toward me screaming at me to listen to her. Somehow her voice grew distant again as I wondered about my dream that had became reality. How could a dream possibly come true? Why were the real life details being so accurate on one hand while the feelings of power and strength are so wrong? Something stopped that much sooner that it otherwise should have, but it sure was not me. I did not know what to think about this when it happened. As fast as the car was moving, how could it have stopped so quickly?

The body of Christ - On Earth as it is Heaven

Was it possible that some power that I did not understand stopped the car? Was it possible that this power also tried to protect me from this circumstance by giving me the dream in the first place? Or was it a notice to me that that there was a power here to protect me? If so, was it possible that nothing could harm or hurt me? If so, then the big question had to be why?

Well, being like many young boys, I spent about five minutes thinking about it before I filed it in the back of my mind where it was not thought about again for quite a long time.

Looking back on this event now I can say that God intervened in my life and that it was His spiritual power that protected me. If one were to take this event as one single isolated incident then I would have to say that perhaps this was simply just a coincidence. But as it turns out, it was far from an isolated event but rather just one of a string of unbelievable experiences that either communicated a message to me or protected me from harm.

So what does this have to do with the vision? Fundamentally, it shows that we have a heavenly Father who loves and cares for us and who is willing and able to use His power to protect us. This is especially true of those who put their trust in Him and follow His direction (I did put out my hands like I saw in the dream.) I believe that it teaches that spiritual discernment can be achieved if we have faith and pay attention, and I believe that our decision based upon our discernment are critical to our overall welfare and relationship with God.

I know that much of this may be a stretch right now, but stay tuned as we share more about what happened to me in future postings.

May God’s blessings be upon you!

Papa Joe