The Morning Star Rising on the First Day

Review of Prior Postings

In prior postings I have communicated how a life threatening illness sent me to the emergency room near death. My spirit left my body and I experienced the truth of our spiritual reality, of heaven and hell, and the Judgment God. 

If you would like to read the details of these postings, please use the following hyperlinks:

The-Initial-Attack

The-Intensive-Care-Unit-and-the-Initial-Prognosis

Entering-the-Spiritual-Realm-of-Death

A-Journey-to-Golgotha

Inside-the-Lake-of-Fire-the-Second-death

Confronting-Satan-in-Hell

Judgment-Day

Reliving-my-sins-before-the-Judgment-Seat-of-Christ

Gods-Question-on-Judgment-Day

Opening-the-Books-on-Judgment-Day

Repentance-Brings-Salvation-Even-on-Judgment-Day 

 I lived through the Judgment as I made a promise to God to change. I returned to the physical world and underwent several calamities that also brought me close to death. What I did not know was that I was under spiritual attack, an innocent victim of spiritual warfare.

 If you would like to read the details of these postings, simply click on the following hyperlinks:

 Back-from-Death

The-Physical-Impacts-of-Spiritual-Attack

The-Stench-of-Death

The-Aftershocks-of-Spiritual-Attack

Spiritual-Attack-Brings-a-Hopeless-Outlook

A-Catheter-in-the-Aorta

A-Healing-Miracle-Follows-Meager-Attempt-to-Find-God

Standing-Firm-for-What-God-put-into-my-Heart

The-Spiritual-Attacks-Continue

Spiritual-Warfare-Changes-Everything       

Satan-Calls

 The past three postings address my surrender to God, (I-Finally-Surrender-to-God) and the beautiful vision of the world to come (Surrender-is-Followed-by-a-Glorious-Vision) and my dramatically changed (Gods-Plans-Begin-with-Blessings.)

GOD’S PLAN BEGINS WITH BLESSINGS

The vision that I saw that night was an experience of an eternity. But morning came and it was back to the reality of everyday life. I had not escaped the job problems that, in retrospect, I really brought upon myself. I received the poorest job performance review of my career and while it was quite unfair, I expected it. I had a big mouth and told the truth once too often. Shortly after the performance review, my boss called me into his office. He told me that I did not have what it took to be a manager. As a result he urged me to take a downgrade to a technical position. I coldly refused. I figured it was just a trick to get me into something that I could not handle. Granted, my performance review was less than an average, but it certainly did not communicate incompetence. Therefore, it could not be used as grounds for a demotion. In addition, I had more than ten years of great reviews which certainly would support my case.

But, there was no misunderstanding that this guy was out to get me by hook or by crook. As fate would have it, an opportunity was soon to come his way. Revenue of the business had become very poor. The economy had taken a nosedive. As a result, the management team requested that the IT department take an across-the-board headcount reduction. This was music to my boss’ ears. It was evident that he planned to surplus my job and cut me in the ensuing reduction in force initiative. In the meantime, the company decided to offer employees an attractive severance package. This meant that you could voluntarily leave the company and still receive retirement benefits. To qualify, you had to be near retirement age and have twenty or more years of service. I qualified for the twenty years of service rule. But, I would not meet the age requirement until my next birthday. The package was nothing more than a special early retirement offering. It included health insurance benefits until age sixty-five. In addition, since I worked for an airline, my wife and I would also receive retiree flight benefits for life. On top of all this, they would give me a year’s salary as a severance. This was a great package, if I could only get a waiver on the age requirement. I talked with the personnel department and was successful in getting a time bridge on my retirement date to my birthday. They decided to allow me to take a management leave of absence until that date. My boss had a different idea though. He tried to get me fired just a month prior to my eligibility for the retirement package. My response was to tell the personnel department that I planned to file an age discrimination suit if I was denied the package we discussed.

They understood my point of view and the ultimate consequence completely. Despite all of this, my boss was successful in eliminating my position in his department. He told personnel that he had no work for me, and that I should be terminated immediately. I had heard through the grapevine that the two departments were battling each other behind closed doors over the issue.

One day out of nowhere I was notified that a director that I had previously worked for was offering me an open managerial slot to enable me to work until I qualified for the severance package. I did not realize it at the time, but God was there again taking care of me just like all of the other times. Again, I thought that I had received a lucky break. What I certainly did not know was that this was just the start of God’s plan for me. I had promised to do whatever He wanted. Now, He was going to take action. He was going to lead me directly to where He wanted me to go, and what He wanted me to do. In addition, He was going to shower me with blessings and favor everywhere I went. This was just the start of the new life that God had in store for me. God was going to make my world blossom, just like in the vision.

I realized the first part of God’s program when the early retirement package was awarded. The next step was finding gainful employment, so I started looking around for another job.

Surprisingly, a very well know Entertainment Company in Burbank, CA sought me out. It is a long story, but my resume coincidentally just showed up there. They wanted to hire me over the phone. I couldn’t believe it. Even though anyone else would jump at a chance like this, I was cautious. I asked them to fly me out for an interview. They really wanted to hire me right away, but I was still several weeks away from completing the time element for the retirement package. Again, I had good fortune shining on me. They decided to wait for me to become available so that I would have no gap in employment.

So, we moved to California for a thirty percent raise. I also had a retirement package in my pocket that would start to produce income in five years, and I had medical and air travel benefits. In addition, I had a severance check for one year’s salary. We moved into a nice apartment in the town of Santa Monica, California, just three blocks from the ocean. It was just the place to enjoy beautiful views of both the ocean and the mountains from our deck. What a change of events. Not bad for someone who was still clueless about what God intended to do. He was putting everything in place. Unknowingly, I just went with the flow.