The Day I Couldn’t See My Angels

Distracted by Heaven

I had traveled out of town and was in another city. I woke up early my first morning there and immediately attempted to engage the supernatural. I wanted to connect with Jesus and also my angels. Only problem was, I couldn’t see any of them.

What was going on? Oh man. Is it because I’m in a different place? Can I not discern as clearly here? I know they’re with me, so why can’t I see them?

You can imagine my relief when two familiar friendly faces shifted into view.

Hey, where have you guys been? What’s going on here?

Poje motioned with his head over in Jesus’ and Father’s direction.

They don’t want you to see us easily, because then you’ll feel obliged to engage us in conversation.

I scrunched up my nose and raised an eyebrow doubtfully, glancing at Shobi. Surprisingly, he agreed.

It’s true, Milady. Father knows what you need most right now is sleep. You’ve had a short night and they want you to get more rest. Sweet dreams… now go back to bed!

Broken Focus?

Well, that worked for me. I’d crawled into bed just a few hours before and I was still exhausted. So I promptly rolled over and fell back asleep.

Later that morning when I woke up again, this time refreshed and well-rested, I reflected back on our conversation. It was only then that I began to realize what their words actually meant. And it was awesome.

We live in a world of singing cell phones, pinging text messages, email notifications, tweets, status updates, radios and TVs blaring everywhere. It’s non-stop. Literally constant pulls on our attention in a hundred different directions at once. I need to go out of my way, regularly, to create a space of quiet. I must be intentional and relentless in my pursuit of a place of peace.

Undistractability

Jesus didn’t have any of these 21st century distractions, yet He still made it a point to get away. To go to the lonely places. The quiet places. The wilderness and the mountains and out away from everything that would disrupt or get in the way of His focus on the spirit realm, His communion with Father.

So how much more so do we? I do my best to minimize the incessant barrage of superficial cares-of-this-world diversions from ultimate Kingdom reality. I continuously endeavor to look past the natural realm noise and quiet down so I can clearly pick up on the signals of the spirit. Usually (and when I say usually, I mean always) it’s been that this physical world is a distraction to my focused intention on the supernatural.

Not Anymore

But all of a sudden, now it’s the opposite. God was saying He didn’t want me to see my angels in the spirit realm because then I would be distracted from what I should be doing in the physical realm (letting myself sleep).

Wow, so we’re saying that with practiced focus, the supernatural world can become just as real to us as the natural world?

So much so that it’s possible for the spirit realm to actually distract us from the physical realm?

We can set our minds so fully on things above and so little on things on earth that Colossians 3:1-2 is essentially made flesh in our lives?

Now that’s what we’re going for. That’s what I’m talking about! I’m excited about the potential of all that means. Living in such a way that we’re actually able to be distracted by heaven?

Bring. It. On.