well i had a crazy experience a couple of weeks ago that i've been forgetting to blog about, so here goes.
two fridays ago i was researching what's going on in town & found this art walk at one of the malls. all of my friends had other plans, but i didn't want to let being alone stop me from doing something fun. i thought i might really enjoy this art thing. plus, i felt like the Lord wanted to specifically spend the evening with me & since i haven't done that since who knows when, i thought it would be great for us to do together. so i went to the mall & started walking through.
i passed this guy in a hat & white t-shirt walking the other direction. the only reason i noticed him is that he stared at me as we passed & i thought it a bit weird. so i'm walking along, saw an antique store & decided to go in. i'm about halfway in when i realize he's turned around & followed me in. he follows me through the store at a distance, i hang back to stay away, then he looks at me & walks out. i was trying not to be too paranoid, so i blew it off, and went on to a gallery next door. as i'm in the gallery, he walks by the entrance & looks in at me. t-shirt man was really starting to creep me out, and, frankly, ruining my art experience. i decided to try one more gallery to try & lose him before leaving. i had my confrontation all ready in my head should i see him again. you know they always say really confident & aware women are far less likely to be targets, so i was ready to confront.
anyway, i chose a very open gallery with large pictures that intrigued me. there was weird music playing & the entry said "spirit art". then i saw an indian head on the wall & pretty much wrote it off as native american witch doctor art, but decided to give it a look anyway. the artist, rickey paul (www.spiritartofmikeal.com/), was talking to a couple about his art. i caught pieces of the conversation such as "painting what he tells me in the dark," "i sign his name on all the pieces," "i don't know much about art," and also some angel stories. as i was eavesdropping, i saw an article on a table about him. apparently 6 1/2 years ago an angel started speaking to him & telling him what to paint. i was almost done walking around once, but i just had to speak to him & he was still talking to that couple, so i started round 2. this time i saw more in the paintings than i did the first time. they were amazing! when the couple walked away, i made a bee-line for him & introduced myself. i wanted to feel this guy out, what he believed was happening, etc.
so i started asking him questions about what i had heard, about what he believes. he said he believed in God, Jesus, "the whole bit", just didn't do the whole religion thing anymore. he was raised Catholic, but didn't think that the rules were a reflection of how God intended our lives & church to be. well, i can definitely appreciate that. i'm not a fan of legalistic religion & i don't think God is either. rickey said that one day he was having lunch with a friend & the friend told him that there was a 9 foot angel behind him that was saying he's "not leaving this time". the angel told the friend that he wanted a combination of the names "mickey" and "al". his name is michael (i think rickey thinks he's the archangel michael), so "mickey" is a child-like nickname and "al" is like "spirit" because he wanted their relationship to have a childlike spirit or something, so this is where he got the name "mikeal", which is the name he signs on the artwork. rickey said he used to go into a dark room & let mikeal tell him what to paint. he said he doesn't know much about painting, but after mikeal tells him he's done, he turns the light on and mikeal tells him the story behind the picture and how much to charge for it.
he believes each painting is intended for a specific person. he said they'll usually walk in, go around once & leave. then they'll re-enter and say something to the effect of ownership about a painting - "that's my painting" or "this one is for me". he said one lady did this, took her painting home, and hung it in the living room. she placed it there so she could look at it as she drank coffee at the dining room table. she said that one day as she was looking at it, her entire living room turned white, Jesus walked out of the painting, took 3 steps, and told her that otis was with him and was alright. otis was her deceased husband that she had worried about his eternal destination. hmm.
then rickey told me another story of how he began noticing a lot of native american themes showing up int he art. he asked mikeal about it & mikeal said, "shouldn't they be healed, too?" i asked him how mikeal communicates with him & he described it as a "knowing", not audible. this is how i feel the Holy Spirit communicates to me, but i'm not sure if rickey thinks God or the Holy Spirit is communicating to him through mikeal or if he just thinks mikeal is communicating to him directly of his own initiative. anyway, at this point rickey said he realized how little he actually knew about native americans.
one day an indian chief came into his gallery & introduced himself as "two bears". they spoke and he later discovered that no one else had seen the chief in the gallery. from their conversation, rickey felt like he was supposed to go north to montana to where custer fought his last battle with the indians. when he & his wife got there, there was a path to the right to the battlefield and a path to the left. he took the path to the left and came upon an indian monument specifically for two bears & his tribe's involvement in the battle. *chills* rickey's explanation of this is that two bears wanted him to appreciate what he had done in his life. rickey's wife thinks that rickey is just so close to the spirit world that two bears was able to appear to him. again, hmm.
at this point i was feeling a little weird because while i think this guy & i could be on some of the same pages, we're probably not on all. after the two bears story, i felt it necessary to ask him about his thoughts on the afterlife. his answer was that he didn't know because he hadn't been there....um, ok. he said he's died 3 times from heart attacks and come back. he said one time while he was recovering from one of his heart attacks that his wife told him he sat up in bed and began having a conversation with several angels as if they were at the foot of his bed. she said he was telling them that he couldn't wait to join them. she saw no one else in the room besides the two of them. rickey also said that mikeal has told him that he has his sword and shield ready for when rickey joins him "in the fight". i'm not sure if rickey thinks he becomes an angel upon death? i told him that i've never really believes that dead people appear to the living. i said when i refer to the "spiritual realm", i'm referring to demons & angels. he refers to the spirit realm, seeming to mean angels, demons, and spirits of people who have passed. right after i tell him this he gives me this knowing look & says, "yeah, but they show up in your dreams, don't they?"
..................................i just about peed my pants right there. 4 weeks prior to this i had a very intense dream with my deceased maternal grandfather as one of the main characters in the dream, crystal clear as if it was circa 1993. i don't have any grandparents that are alive & have lost a lot of relatives in my short life & i've always had dreams with them in them. i thought it was normal. as a side note, i'm reading the shack and in that book the deceased sister visits and plays with her siblings in their dreams, so that just draws some weird parallels. not really conclusions necessarily, but definitely parallels.
back to the story. after telling me this, i'm sure he could tell he definitely had my attention. then he casually tells me that he can read all of the people that come into his gallery like a book. he said he's not always supposed to tell them what he sees, but sometimes he is. he said i had a very strong rainbow around me (chelsey said that means i'm confused, but i prefer to think it means something awesome along the lines of promise, ha) and asked if there is a strong influence in my life named "sarah". i told him i have a lot of friends named sarah, but none really stand out as this strong influence/mentor he seemed to be getting at. in our conversation i was telling him my fascination with art and he said, "yeah, but art really isn't your thing, is it?" i was kind of confused because i've always considered myself an artistic person. he said, "you're fascinated with the process of creating something from nothing." now that is true, but i don't think it's all that uncommon. i am always looking at things around me & wondering how they are made & thinking of how i would make them, but i'm sure there are other people who do this as well. then he looked at me & said, "i'm going to tell you something." he stared at me directly in the eye for at least 30 seconds as if debating whether i could handle it. i just stared right back, assuring him i could, haha. then he says, "you're going to have 3 dreams. you really need to pay attention to the 3rd one because in it is a very clear life direction. then come back and tell me what it is. well, that's enough of that for one day." and that was it - our conversation was over.
let me just say that while i did write all of this down, i'm not just eating it up as fact about my life. i'm a firm believer in praying about this type of thing for confirmation. i will say that i felt peace and the Lord's presence throughout the entire conversation. as i said before, i'm not entirely sure this guy & i would agree on everything, i felt like i was supposed to pay attention to this experience. so of course i was hoping for like 3 amazing dreams from the Lord in a week, but it was almost 2 weeks (tuesday night) before i had a dream. let me explain the dream thing: i dream all the time, like all the time, but i know a dream is from the Lord because i remember it differently, with a distinctive clarity. i can't explain it better than that & i don't always know the purpose/meaning, but i know when i'm supposed to pay attention to it, i try to always write them down & hope i get the message whenever i'm supposed to. the next post will be my dream. could it be dream #1? ;-)
by the way, i never saw the creepy guy again, thank the Lord.
two fridays ago i was researching what's going on in town & found this art walk at one of the malls. all of my friends had other plans, but i didn't want to let being alone stop me from doing something fun. i thought i might really enjoy this art thing. plus, i felt like the Lord wanted to specifically spend the evening with me & since i haven't done that since who knows when, i thought it would be great for us to do together. so i went to the mall & started walking through.
i passed this guy in a hat & white t-shirt walking the other direction. the only reason i noticed him is that he stared at me as we passed & i thought it a bit weird. so i'm walking along, saw an antique store & decided to go in. i'm about halfway in when i realize he's turned around & followed me in. he follows me through the store at a distance, i hang back to stay away, then he looks at me & walks out. i was trying not to be too paranoid, so i blew it off, and went on to a gallery next door. as i'm in the gallery, he walks by the entrance & looks in at me. t-shirt man was really starting to creep me out, and, frankly, ruining my art experience. i decided to try one more gallery to try & lose him before leaving. i had my confrontation all ready in my head should i see him again. you know they always say really confident & aware women are far less likely to be targets, so i was ready to confront.
anyway, i chose a very open gallery with large pictures that intrigued me. there was weird music playing & the entry said "spirit art". then i saw an indian head on the wall & pretty much wrote it off as native american witch doctor art, but decided to give it a look anyway. the artist, rickey paul (www.spiritartofmikeal.com/), was talking to a couple about his art. i caught pieces of the conversation such as "painting what he tells me in the dark," "i sign his name on all the pieces," "i don't know much about art," and also some angel stories. as i was eavesdropping, i saw an article on a table about him. apparently 6 1/2 years ago an angel started speaking to him & telling him what to paint. i was almost done walking around once, but i just had to speak to him & he was still talking to that couple, so i started round 2. this time i saw more in the paintings than i did the first time. they were amazing! when the couple walked away, i made a bee-line for him & introduced myself. i wanted to feel this guy out, what he believed was happening, etc.
so i started asking him questions about what i had heard, about what he believes. he said he believed in God, Jesus, "the whole bit", just didn't do the whole religion thing anymore. he was raised Catholic, but didn't think that the rules were a reflection of how God intended our lives & church to be. well, i can definitely appreciate that. i'm not a fan of legalistic religion & i don't think God is either. rickey said that one day he was having lunch with a friend & the friend told him that there was a 9 foot angel behind him that was saying he's "not leaving this time". the angel told the friend that he wanted a combination of the names "mickey" and "al". his name is michael (i think rickey thinks he's the archangel michael), so "mickey" is a child-like nickname and "al" is like "spirit" because he wanted their relationship to have a childlike spirit or something, so this is where he got the name "mikeal", which is the name he signs on the artwork. rickey said he used to go into a dark room & let mikeal tell him what to paint. he said he doesn't know much about painting, but after mikeal tells him he's done, he turns the light on and mikeal tells him the story behind the picture and how much to charge for it.
he believes each painting is intended for a specific person. he said they'll usually walk in, go around once & leave. then they'll re-enter and say something to the effect of ownership about a painting - "that's my painting" or "this one is for me". he said one lady did this, took her painting home, and hung it in the living room. she placed it there so she could look at it as she drank coffee at the dining room table. she said that one day as she was looking at it, her entire living room turned white, Jesus walked out of the painting, took 3 steps, and told her that otis was with him and was alright. otis was her deceased husband that she had worried about his eternal destination. hmm.
then rickey told me another story of how he began noticing a lot of native american themes showing up int he art. he asked mikeal about it & mikeal said, "shouldn't they be healed, too?" i asked him how mikeal communicates with him & he described it as a "knowing", not audible. this is how i feel the Holy Spirit communicates to me, but i'm not sure if rickey thinks God or the Holy Spirit is communicating to him through mikeal or if he just thinks mikeal is communicating to him directly of his own initiative. anyway, at this point rickey said he realized how little he actually knew about native americans.
one day an indian chief came into his gallery & introduced himself as "two bears". they spoke and he later discovered that no one else had seen the chief in the gallery. from their conversation, rickey felt like he was supposed to go north to montana to where custer fought his last battle with the indians. when he & his wife got there, there was a path to the right to the battlefield and a path to the left. he took the path to the left and came upon an indian monument specifically for two bears & his tribe's involvement in the battle. *chills* rickey's explanation of this is that two bears wanted him to appreciate what he had done in his life. rickey's wife thinks that rickey is just so close to the spirit world that two bears was able to appear to him. again, hmm.
at this point i was feeling a little weird because while i think this guy & i could be on some of the same pages, we're probably not on all. after the two bears story, i felt it necessary to ask him about his thoughts on the afterlife. his answer was that he didn't know because he hadn't been there....um, ok. he said he's died 3 times from heart attacks and come back. he said one time while he was recovering from one of his heart attacks that his wife told him he sat up in bed and began having a conversation with several angels as if they were at the foot of his bed. she said he was telling them that he couldn't wait to join them. she saw no one else in the room besides the two of them. rickey also said that mikeal has told him that he has his sword and shield ready for when rickey joins him "in the fight". i'm not sure if rickey thinks he becomes an angel upon death? i told him that i've never really believes that dead people appear to the living. i said when i refer to the "spiritual realm", i'm referring to demons & angels. he refers to the spirit realm, seeming to mean angels, demons, and spirits of people who have passed. right after i tell him this he gives me this knowing look & says, "yeah, but they show up in your dreams, don't they?"
..................................i just about peed my pants right there. 4 weeks prior to this i had a very intense dream with my deceased maternal grandfather as one of the main characters in the dream, crystal clear as if it was circa 1993. i don't have any grandparents that are alive & have lost a lot of relatives in my short life & i've always had dreams with them in them. i thought it was normal. as a side note, i'm reading the shack and in that book the deceased sister visits and plays with her siblings in their dreams, so that just draws some weird parallels. not really conclusions necessarily, but definitely parallels.
back to the story. after telling me this, i'm sure he could tell he definitely had my attention. then he casually tells me that he can read all of the people that come into his gallery like a book. he said he's not always supposed to tell them what he sees, but sometimes he is. he said i had a very strong rainbow around me (chelsey said that means i'm confused, but i prefer to think it means something awesome along the lines of promise, ha) and asked if there is a strong influence in my life named "sarah". i told him i have a lot of friends named sarah, but none really stand out as this strong influence/mentor he seemed to be getting at. in our conversation i was telling him my fascination with art and he said, "yeah, but art really isn't your thing, is it?" i was kind of confused because i've always considered myself an artistic person. he said, "you're fascinated with the process of creating something from nothing." now that is true, but i don't think it's all that uncommon. i am always looking at things around me & wondering how they are made & thinking of how i would make them, but i'm sure there are other people who do this as well. then he looked at me & said, "i'm going to tell you something." he stared at me directly in the eye for at least 30 seconds as if debating whether i could handle it. i just stared right back, assuring him i could, haha. then he says, "you're going to have 3 dreams. you really need to pay attention to the 3rd one because in it is a very clear life direction. then come back and tell me what it is. well, that's enough of that for one day." and that was it - our conversation was over.
let me just say that while i did write all of this down, i'm not just eating it up as fact about my life. i'm a firm believer in praying about this type of thing for confirmation. i will say that i felt peace and the Lord's presence throughout the entire conversation. as i said before, i'm not entirely sure this guy & i would agree on everything, i felt like i was supposed to pay attention to this experience. so of course i was hoping for like 3 amazing dreams from the Lord in a week, but it was almost 2 weeks (tuesday night) before i had a dream. let me explain the dream thing: i dream all the time, like all the time, but i know a dream is from the Lord because i remember it differently, with a distinctive clarity. i can't explain it better than that & i don't always know the purpose/meaning, but i know when i'm supposed to pay attention to it, i try to always write them down & hope i get the message whenever i'm supposed to. the next post will be my dream. could it be dream #1? ;-)
by the way, i never saw the creepy guy again, thank the Lord.
1 comment:
whoa whoa whoa, that was a lot for me to digest...but totally enjoyed reading it and can't wait for the continuation.
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