A Vision of Jesus

When I was about 14yrs old, I wanted to start a weekly, lunchtime Christian meeting in my high school. So I asked one of my more senior friends to come with me to approach the Principal to ask permission.

We went up to his office and knocked on the door.

“Yes – come in. Who sent you up here? What have you done wrong?” he said.

“Sir, I haven’t done anything wrong. We just want to talk to you,” I said.

“Well, come in then,” he said, looking somewhat amused.

“Sir, I’ve become a Christian, and my life has changed,” I said, “First of all, I want to apologize for any trouble I ever caused any teachers before I was a Christian. Secondly, I want to ask your permission to start a Christian meeting at lunchtime, so I can tell other kids about JESUS, so they can have a chance to get their life changed too.”

He thought about it for a moment, and then answered, “No. Everyone has their own religion. If I let you promote your religion in the school, the parents will hear about it, and it may create schisms. I’d rather have no religion at all in the School.”

So I thanked him for his time, then left.

I went and reported to my friends: “He said no – but let’s pray that the Lord will change his mind tonight while he’s asleep.”

That night before I turned the light out to go to sleep, like my friends agreed, I prayed: “Lord, please change his mind tonight while he’s asleep.” Then I turned the light out, and went to sleep.

Sometime during the middle of the night I woke up, because my bedroom was full of light. I looked up and noticed that the light-bulb wasn’t on, so I wondered where the light was coming from.

Then I saw Jesus sitting on the end of my bed. I was automatically drawn out of bed and sat on His lap. He held me in His hands. His whole body and even his clothing was shining and lit-up the whole room. I looked in His face and I thought, “Ohhh – it’s Jesus.”

He had slightly long hair and a scruffy beard. He wore long white clothing like what you see in pictures, only it wasn’t pristine clean. It looked like He was at the end of a long day. I saw the marks in His hands where the nails went through. They were still red – still an open wound. When I saw His wounds, I felt loved, knowing He died for me.

And I don’t know what made me do it, but I looked down at His feet also. I saw He was wearing sandals, and they were a little dusty too – like He’d been outside for a full day, walking the streets. (And that is still what Jesus does today. The Bible says, “Behold I stand at the door and knock…” Jesus is still out walking the streets, knocking on the hearts of men. If any man hears His voice and opens the door, He will come into Him, and sup with Him, and he with Him.)

And I saw the holes in His feet where the nails went through.

When I looked into His face I remember thinking to myself, “Gee! You’re not very good-looking are you, Jesus!” He smiled. I could tell He knew what I was thinking. But it didn’t offend Him – He thought it was funny too.

But then when I looked into Jesus’ eyes, I thought, “Ohh – this is the most beautiful face I’ve ever seen in my life.”

His eyes were like oceans of liquid love. I felt as though I could see for miles into His eyes, yet all I could see was love, purity, gentleness, meekness, tenderness, compassion. I searched around and deep into His eyes, yet I could find no unwholeness anywhere. Have you ever looked into deep water so crystal clear you can see the bottom? That’s what Jesus’ eyes look like. I feel like I could write a thick book about all the things I saw in Jesus’ eyes, without Him even having said anything about them.

One thing I could see in Jesus’ eyes is that He never takes His eyes off His Father. As much as I could tell how delighted He was that He was allowed to be with me, it seemed He always had one eye on me and the other on His Father, or it seemed He would regularly ‘look’ up and away to His Father, then give me His attention again, as if to check in with His Father’s will – just to make sure it was still okay with His Father that He was still visiting with me. Despite feeling so thrilled that He was allowed to be with me, He was careful not to stay one moment longer than His Father willed. It seemed He was as delighted, if not more delighted, to be with me, than I was to be seeing Him!

It was as if Jesus was thinking, “Last time I chose His will over my own, the result was soooooo good – so now I can’t wait to do His will again.” Doing His Father’s will was not grievous to Jesus. He absolutely delighted in it and eagerly sought it.

Another thing I could see in Jesus’ eyes – without Him saying anything, just by looking in His eyes – was that Jesus’ love is strong enough to enable Him to keep reaching out in love, even to those who reject Him. Humanly speaking we tend to withdraw from those who reject our love. But Jesus doesn’t do that. He keeps reaching out in love, even to those who are rejecting His very love. It turned out I was gonna need those qualities, to keep preaching Jesus at High School.

Jesus said to me in the vision, “So, you’re thinking of starting a meeting at Bremer, hey.” (Bremer was the name of my High School.)

I said, “Yeah.” And we talked about that.

I guess I must have fallen asleep in His arms – for the next thing I knew, I was waking up in the morning, feeling refreshed, in bed.

That morning at School my friend who had approached the Principal with me the day before told me that while he was walking along, when the Principal saw him, he came running down the steps, saying, “I’m so glad I’ve found one of you boys. About that meeting you wanted to have – something has happened to me overnight. I’ve changed my mind while I was asleep. Now I want you to have that meeting. Which room would you like to use?”

So I chose the best room in the School. It had carpeted floors, ceiling fans, and audio-visual equipment. And every week for the rest of my High School years, we preached the Gospel. Attendance varied, but a couple of times it happened that over 100 students came, voluntarily, at lunch time. We gave salvation calls, and laid hands on people to be healed or to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke with tongues or prophesied. We used to personally announce the meetings during school assembly. One time, I asked permission to give a speech during assembly, in which I preached the Gospel to the entire school. On the weekends, we would arrange to have the new converts picked-up for church. And a couple of these became missionaries in future years.

So that’s how the Lord answered our prayer to change our Principal’s mind while he was asleep. And while Jesus was in the area, the Father allowed His Son to visit with me too – but He had to wake me up first to do it!

Evangelistic enterprises such as mine all begin with desire.

“Decree a thing, and it shall be done unto you.”

“Ask anything in my name, and I will do it.”

Desire is what inspires us to ask. “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray…”

So whatever you desire to do for Jesus’ sake – for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven – ask. Make a move. By beginning to enact it, like I was when I approached the Principal – you are decreeing it and you are, whether knowingly or unknowingly, acting your faith. Therefore Jesus will come through for you, and move heaven and earth to open doors for you, like he did for this 14yr old boy.

“Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life” (Isaiah 43:4).