{"id":4,"date":"2010-11-18T20:47:16","date_gmt":"2010-11-18T20:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/prophetormadman\/2010\/11\/the-calling.html"},"modified":"2010-11-18T20:47:16","modified_gmt":"2010-11-18T20:47:16","slug":"the-calling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/2010\/11\/the-calling.html","title":{"rendered":"The Calling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Bruce Adams<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Before hearing God sometime back in 1996, I believed my life<br \/>\nwas pretty much like most others in this world.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>I was a father, a husband and a businessman.&nbsp; Many would say I was living the American dream:<span>&nbsp; <\/span>Living in Florida with a loving family, a beautiful home on the water, complete<br \/>\nwith a heated pool and spa as well as a boat docked in the back yard.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>I remember thinking,<span>&nbsp; <\/span>&#8220;What more could anyone ask for?&#8221;<span>&nbsp; <\/span>In the way of the world, once that<br \/>\nquestion had been asked, it did not take long for my mind to come up with many<br \/>\nsomethings more.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>The answer that<br \/>\ncame to me was to create a company that would make millions of dollars, so<br \/>\nrather than take that occasional trip to Europe with my family we could travel<br \/>\nwherever and when ever we wanted to.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Without going into all details, I developed a business plan<br \/>\nand worked on it over the course of the whole of 1995. Oddly enough, it was<br \/>\nonly when everything was in place and I was ready to launch a new<br \/>\nbusiness that my life and my view of reality took a turn, to put it mildly.<br \/>\nThat turn was triggered by hearing God speak to me and tell me to forgo the<br \/>\nproject I had worked on for so long. Additionally, I was I was told specifically to start<br \/>\nmediating every day.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>With no<br \/>\nsmall degree of hesitation, I put my business plans on hold.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>And I began to meditate.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>When I first began meditating, I felt<br \/>\npretty silly because nothing seemed to be happening.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>On numerous occasions I remember asking myself,<span>&nbsp; <\/span>&#8220;What are you doing? Are you<br \/>\ncrazy?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">I keep asking for signs to show me that what I was told had<br \/>\nindeed come from God and not just my imagination.<span>&nbsp; <\/span>One day in particular, I was feeling that it was too hard to let go of the picture of the future I had<br \/>\nplanned for both myself and my family. What was happening to me seemed too bizarre to<br \/>\nblindly trust and justify throwing away my dreams. Yet, there was something<br \/>\nthat told me what I had experienced was real. The internal struggle seemed at<br \/>\nthat time almost too much to take. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Realizing that there was no one I could talk to about what<br \/>\nwas happening, I asked God to show me that indeed these new sensations, this<br \/>\nnew direction was coming from Him. Immediately upon my asking, while stopped at a traffic<br \/>\nlight, a bird appeared and flew to the drivers&#8217; side window beside me. Up<br \/>\nto that moment I had never seen a bird flutter in mid air and stay in one<br \/>\nspot other than a humming bird. I am not an expert on birds but I can say it<br \/>\nwith complete certainty this was no humming bird.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Although the experience lasted only for a couple of minutes,<br \/>\nwhen that bird make eye contact with me I knew God had sent the<br \/>\nconfirmation I had just asked for.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Over the next few months I continued my regimen of<br \/>\nmeditation and prayer.&nbsp; All that time I did not know what to make of what was happening.<br \/>\nToday however, I now know I was being prepared for a role I was<br \/>\nplay. That role is prophet or madman.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Once I accepted that I was here to do something other than<br \/>\nlive the life I had previously known, I was given a message to write a<br \/>\nspiritual book.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Possessing little or no understanding of the world<br \/>\nreligions, not to mention metaphysics,<span> <\/span>I thought I was<br \/>\nbeing called to do the impossible. Day after day I would meditate and pray for guidance. My prayer was always<br \/>\nthe same, &#8220;God, just show me what you want me to write.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">What happened next made every moment of my life and every<br \/>\nmemory of that life appear to have been a kind of dream.&nbsp; I wish there were some way to convey a picture of the<br \/>\nconnection, the union I experienced, but words fail.&nbsp; The only way I can come close to describing my experience<br \/>\nwith words is to say I was instantaneously gifted with an overview of the whole<br \/>\nof Creation and a realization that we all are a part of a living consciousness<br \/>\nthat is infinite and beyond the boundaries of linear time and space. I was left with not<br \/>\nonly the picture of all dimensions of time and space as an interconnected whole,<br \/>\nbut with clear direction that I was to write about and teach what I had been shown.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">I can honestly say that although there are times when my ego<br \/>\npersonality shows me that it is a breath away and I can have a<br \/>\njudgmental thought on occasion, I can never forget that there is another level of<br \/>\nawareness available to each and every one of us in this world.<br \/>\nRegardless as to what nationality we come from or what religion we are practicing,<br \/>\nthe truth I am here to share is that Our Creator is Unconditional Love and<br \/>\nEver Present. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Each and every one on this planet is equally a part of the<br \/>\nsame living consciousness.<span>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>It matters not so much what name or label you use. What matters is how you interact with every other one of Our<br \/>\nFather&#8217;s Children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&nbsp;It is a wonderful step in my journey to join Beliefnet and<br \/>\nto be given this opportunity to meet so many of my brothers and sisters in our<br \/>\nhuman family I haven&#8217;t had the opportunity to meet yet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Love and Light,<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Brother Bruce<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Prophet or Madman<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Bruce Adams Before hearing God sometime back in 1996, I believed my life was pretty much like most others in this world.&nbsp; I was a father, a husband and a businessman.&nbsp; Many would say I was living the American dream:&nbsp; Living in Florida with a loving family, a beautiful home on the water, complete&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":234,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2,3,4,5],"tags":[17,13,15,16,10,14,152,12],"class_list":["post-4","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-enlightenment","category-higher-consciousness","category-laughter","category-seinfeld","category-spirituality","tag-creation","tag-higher-consciousnes","tag-meditation","tag-prayer","tag-prophet-or-madman","tag-slavation","tag-webisodes","tag-webseries"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Calling - Prophet or Madman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/2010\/11\/the-calling.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Calling - Prophet or Madman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Bruce Adams Before hearing God sometime back in 1996, I believed my life was pretty much like most others in this world.&nbsp; I was a father, a husband and a businessman.&nbsp; Many would say I was living the American dream:&nbsp; Living in Florida with a loving family, a beautiful home on the water, complete&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/2010\/11\/the-calling.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prophet or Madman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-11-18T20:47:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Johnson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Calling - Prophet or Madman","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/2010\/11\/the-calling.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Calling - Prophet or Madman","og_description":"By Bruce Adams Before hearing God sometime back in 1996, I believed my life was pretty much like most others in this world.&nbsp; I was a father, a husband and a businessman.&nbsp; Many would say I was living the American dream:&nbsp; Living in Florida with a loving family, a beautiful home on the water, complete&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/2010\/11\/the-calling.html","og_site_name":"Prophet or Madman","article_published_time":"2010-11-18T20:47:16+00:00","author":"Chris Johnson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/2010\/11\/the-calling.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/2010\/11\/the-calling.html","name":"The Calling - Prophet or Madman","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-11-18T20:47:16+00:00","dateModified":"2010-11-18T20:47:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/#\/schema\/person\/4e94f88eb1ed2f6bd6fcd5a2059a3d6e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/2010\/11\/the-calling.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/2010\/11\/the-calling.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/2010\/11\/the-calling.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Calling"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/","name":"Prophet or Madman","description":"Beliefnet Voices","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/#\/schema\/person\/4e94f88eb1ed2f6bd6fcd5a2059a3d6e","name":"Chris Johnson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fbe\/fbe2f70f83a998bab664fad98361c017x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fbe\/fbe2f70f83a998bab664fad98361c017x96.jpg","caption":"Chris Johnson"},"description":"Chris Johnson has been an ordained minister for forty four years. He says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153So you'd think I'd know a thing or two about these spiritual matters. On the contrary, the deepest profundity I've been able to manage is to try to live my life in accordance with the Golden Rule. So that's what I do and have advised others to do through my social work as a founder of the National Optimists Party. Yet on a personal level, the fact of the matter is that while, over time, I've found myself with an increasing sense of awe and reverence for the magnificence of creation, I've experienced a receding sense of understanding and familiarity with the Creator. Imagine my good fortune to run into Bruce Adams, a fine soul whose ears are directly attuned to the Creator's frequency. I'm looking forward to learning a lot and enjoying myself immensely as I join Bruce and my good friend Steve on our lighthearted spiritual journey all across this great land looking for and ministering to the souls of America.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/author\/cjohnson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prophetormadman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}