Spiritual Connections: Practical Aspects Of Divine Love
Practically speaking, what are spiritual connections like in the real world?
I am going to speak about a special instance of spiritual connections that tends to be the most controversial: spiritual unions between men and women.
Connections in the Spirit happen to everyone and run the spectrum from brotherly love all the way up to and including marriage. Within that range, spiritual connections happen between the opposite sex. Many times these unions are for the express purpose of healing the individuals involved. Though they involve intimacy they are not primarily sexual in nature; they are Spirit-led and therefore innocent.
If this happens to you, you will be searching for answers. Know this, God is with you. However, the misunderstanding and possible persecution from otherwise well-meaning brethren may be intense. I hope this frank and honest discussion of connection love will be of some comfort and help to you during those times.
When Divine Love attracts
The special instances of Spiritual connection are those which take place between men and women. Such unions are akin to “love at first sight” in a spiritual way. They usually occur suddenly and without warning. Depending on how open the individuals are, a spiritual union can hit you like a freight train traveling at full speed. The impact cannot be overstated. For some, who do not know what is going on, it may seem like they are literally falling romantically for the other person. In a very real sense you are falling in love, just not as the world defines it.
Trouble in Lakeland
Surprisingly, many have experienced connection love to a certain degree, yet have not known what it was. Often times, connection love between unmarried people is God matchmaking. Since your choice of mate so greatly affects not only yourself but also your generations, God is keenly interested in whom you marry.
Unfortunately, connection love has been the downfall of many a minister who mistook spiritual love for carnal attraction. Some church leaders have not realized that the love they felt for a woman in their congregation was authored by God. When their natural minds took over and their carnal desires kicked in, what started out in the spirit sometimes ended up in the flesh. This is what may have happened to Tod Bently of the Lakeland Revival.
On the other hand, what may have taken place with Tod is an instance of Divine Divorce. When a minister is obviously moving powerfully in the Spirit don’t automatically assume they have sinned just because they do something odd. We should be slow to judge others lest we call what is of God, sin.
For the natural man knows not the things of God
Paul says,
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
1 Corinthians 2;14
Spiritual connections occurred in the first-century church. God authored spiritual unions, usually between men and women, were what love feasts were all about. Though God-ordained, such intimate behavior between believers upsets natural-minded people. Indeed, the familiarity that connections display between each other is astounding. Spiritual connections are, in fact, a foretaste of relationships in The New Heavens and New Earth. They are the reason why people are neither married nor given in marriage in the world to come. People who view these unions only through our earthly paradigm fail to understand them because they are literally not of this world.
Judge not that ye may not be judged
Christians who have not experienced spiritual connections tend to condemn them as sin. Even though what God is doing is pure and holy, natural-minded people accuse spiritual connections of inappropriate behavior. This leads some to strongly oppose what God is doing.
Greeting one another with a holy kiss
Spiritual connections vary in intensity. In strong connections, the love of God can reveal itself in all manner of spiritual experiences and/or physical intimacy. Intimacy stumbles onlookers who are used to judging such displays of affection between unmarried people as sin. Frankly, if these displays of affection were not led by the Holy Spirit they would be inappropriate. However, where the Spirit of God is there is liberty. For instance, when God leads a person to kiss another man or woman, it is a “holy kiss” and proper before God.
Love demands expression and spiritual love demands spiritual expression. When our spirits mingle our bodies follow suit. It is impossible to be close enough. Some day, on the shores of eternity, in God’s glorious liberty, we will love each other freely. Until then, we make due with the limitations imposed upon us in this natural realm.
As God unites people, a sort of spiritual convergence takes place. Spiritual connections are a typological representation or a “picture” of how our bridegroom (Jesus) wants to become one with the Bride of Christ (us). People who go deep into Divine Love become “one soul” in that they begin to think alike and finish each others sentences. There is a unity that transcends earthly intimacy and brings you together in such a way that you are no more two people. Space and time begin to dissolve and you know what each other is thinking or feeling across great distances. Adam and Even experienced this type of God-centered union.
Love does not seek its own
Many, who experience connection love, feel totally head over heels in love with their connection. They want to be near them always. There is a yearning to share everything they are with their spiritual partners and to become, as much as possible, one with them. Our bodies react to spiritual love in much the same way as they react to earthly love. It is just that heavenly love does seek its own and would never “use” another for selfish carnal desires.
Edenic innocence is a strange thing to us. Most of us have not experienced innocence since we were small children. Desire to us is lust. To be close to a man or woman in complete purity of heart feels weird at first. You keep waiting for your lower nature to take over, but it doesn’t. Truly, to the pure all things are pure.
Whose property are we anyway?
This leads into another area that is pertinent to the discussion concerning spiritual connections and it is this,
“If we are bought with a price, and our bodies are not our own, is it not proper for the Holy Spirit to do anything He wants with us?”
Our bodies are now the property of God, therefore if He wants us to kiss, or hug, or do whatever, who are we to resist His Spirit?
If your spouse spiritually connects with another person, can you demand that they stop? Many would say “yes, absolutely, I have a right,” but I say, “wait a minute, are you greater than God?” Remember, spiritual connections are predicated on the man or woman actually being led by God’s Spirit. Therefore, if the Holy Spirit unites two people through a spiritual union, in whatever way, we should not interfere.
What God hath joined together…
Though God hates divorce, the fact is, most of us marry unwisely. God was, for many, the furthest thing from their minds when they chose their present mate. Many people even married because they wished to legitimize their offspring. Consequently, God never authorized these natural-minded unions. Therefore, decisions made without our Father’s consent, do not bind Him.
Furthermore, your marriage may or may not survive Divine Love. If God decides your choice of mate to be in His will, He may allow you to continue with your present spouse. If God finds your marriage contrary to His will, He may choose to connect you with another and simply annul your present marriage.
Divine Divorce: the reality of the situation
The phenomenon of Divine Divorce exists. It actually takes place sometimes masked as Christians believers realizing that they have irreconcilable differences. Spirit-led dissolution of your marriage is the biblical anti-type of what happen during the rebuilding of Jerusalem under Ezra. The men of Israel, in order to return to the will of God, to put away their foreign wives and children. God blessed their obedience even in that heartbreaking situation. (Ezra chapter 9 and 10)
The unity of the Body of Christ through Spiritual Connections
The prospect of a connected Body of Christ strikes fear into the heart of the Devil. In fact, spiritual connections are the single biggest threat to Satan’s kingdom here on Earth. The Body of Christ immersed in love, spells certain doom for the Devil’s plans. Where love dwells Satan has no hold.
God says,
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
Galatians 5:22,23
The connected Body of Christ is the Man-child spoken of in Revelation chapter 12. We are about to be born, as it were, in a single day. Standing as the unified Body of Christ, it is our destiny to deal a death-blow to the Dragon and his kingdom through the unity of the Spirit created by God’s Divine love.
We ought to obey God rather than men.
God, in the end, remains all in all. His Spirit fills us as we obey His every command through revelation. Most believers never realized how far Spirit-led obedience goes. In every area of our lives, we submit in obedience to His Spirit and simply do what He leads us to do.
Most have no idea what causes the great apostasy. Many think that people will simply decide not to follow Christ any longer due to persecution. However, the truth is, the great falling away occurs because many believers refuse to accept God in the way that He desires to come. Shortly, God will reveal Himself, once again, in a way that stumbles the natural minded and many will miss the time of their visitation.
A word to the wise
Do not, under any circumstance, violate the law regarding legal age. Young people who are underage must always be off-limits to adults. I repeat, do not allow yourself to connect with anyone who is not yet of legal age. This is not only unseemly, but it will bring shame upon you and others if you do.
Dear All,
I watched a TV show about King Henry the VIII. It showed how one protestant woman believed that people should read the bible for themselves and that the holy communion was not the literal blood and body of Jesus Christ. The state, with the backing of the King, tortured her on the rack and burned at the stake simply for believing things that we take for granted today.
Every generation has to stand up for the truth that they are given. In Noah’s day it was the message of the flood. In Jeremiah’s day, it was the message that Israel would be judged by Babylon. In Christ’s day it was the message that he was the son of God. In the apostle’s day it was the message that of Christ as savior. In Luther’s days it was the message of salvation by faith, In the Anabaptist’s day it was the message of baptism by immersion. Today it is the message of Divine love and the connection experience. During each outpouring of God’s spirit Satan seeks to stop the truth from being known, often times through violent persecution.
What God is saying today is not what that He said yesterday. It was for the current revelation of her day that woman died for at the stake during king Henry’s reign. I understand that what I write is as incendiary as what that noble woman of God died for so many years ago. However, I have to confess God’s current revelation, as I understand it, just as she did then.
We cannot be weak in our faith. We must stand with God without flinching. I God says things through us the world objects to, so be it. I agree with the apostle Paul, “Let God be true and every man a liar.” Amen.
Sincerely,
Michael King
You mentioned somewhere that “all hell breaks loose” against spiritual connections. My connection and I experienced this. Neither of us knew what it was, but were 100% convinced it was from God – no one could prove it wasn’t, but many people were opposed to it, primarily out of jealousy. God expressly told me and my husband to marry, and my connection (who is not my husband) and I both knew God was leading him to marry my daughter – even after the connection was revealed to us. We know that earthly marriage is not what our connection is for, but the divine, agape love is very strong and the connection is very strong through that agape connection.
There was a powerful onslaught of demonic attack against us when our connection was revealed – and my connection is still recovering from it, although he is coming around. God has shown me that the enemy sees the power in this connection, and is enraged against us. This has taught me to learn to be very strong in spiritual warfare, and the most beautiful part is how God, Himself, speaks to me and instructs me in the connection DAILY, and confirms – to me, my connection, and even those who are jealous and oppose us – that it is HE who has done this. It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing that we don’t yet know how it will be used by God, but watching Him defend it and us – (even to the point of sending three shooting stars as confirmation to someone who asked Him to confirm our connection to him!) is priceless. It is for His glory and He will be victorious in it – and I know there is something about our connection that will -and does – drive away darkness. . .
A beautiful scripture that God gave me clearly one day to encourage me in the connection (one of many He has led me to, actually) is Isaiah 34:16 “For it is His mouth that has given the order and His Spirit is gathering them together.”
Dear CL,
Wow, just has that ring of truth to it. Thank you so much for sharing. You are very brave. God bless, Michael