Angels are everywhere.
I've believed in angels for a long time, though they never seemed real to me. Besides,
people think it's a little weird when you talk about them, especially guys.
I just always believed because my parents did one of their "staged
conversations" one night around 1960, the kind I think they wanted to help me
overhear in order to "burn something into my brain".
They were talking about hitch-hikers, and how you should give them a lift because you
never know when they will make contact with you with a message from God that makes a
difference in your life. And you might not even know they're angels, it might be the
person sitting next to you at work who just happens to say something goofy that just
happens to be exactly what you needed to hear for some reason that no one else could
possibly understand.
It's the same thing I talk about in my 
letter to Barry Manilow about a girl I met long ago named Mandy. And a
lot of the same thing involved in a story I heard about Sufis. The story goes that someone
in a village says that they knew that the Messiah was among them, and they all wondered
who it was. They asked themselves, is it me, is it you? And what they decided they needed
to do, from that moment on, was to treat everyone they interacted with as if they were the
Messiah.
Can you imagine what a difference it would make in the world if we treated
each other with the same respect we'd give God?
Another example is how when I was a little child, Reverend Culwell said one day in a
sermon "one day the anti-Christ will take your Bible away from you, and you'll have
to remember it." It's part of why I was so willing to learn Bible verses in Sunday
School.
Before my mother died, she gave me a few things and was sort of adamant about wanting me
to have them. One was her Scofield Reference Bible. She had used a red marker to mark the
words of Jesus, like a red-letter edition, as well as the instructions to the "Son of
Man" in the end times.
In the midst of one incredibly intense Psychotronic psyop against me consisting primarily
of sleep deprivation - I think it was 85 hours, I used TM techniques to save and restore
energy - I became convinced that, for reasons I'm sure I'll tell years from now, I
should burn a few books.
One was a book listing all of the Hit Records from the Billboard Hot 100 since 1955. Being
in radio and loving music, it was a good thing to have around.
Then, came Hillary Clinton's book, It Takes A Village To Raise A Child, a concept I
believe in but, let's face it, you'd better have a good community raising that child. It
was weird. It burned like a Ouija board I once burned. I couldn't keep it lit.
Unfortunately, I also burned my mother's Bible, something I really regret. It had things
in it I've never found in the limited number of other Bibles I have to research in. And I
know I documented what I want to tell you somewhere in my 100's if not thousands of pages
of documentation and web logs and all...
But, back when I really started my inquiry into being the Son of Man, I came upon this one
verse that said musicians are the Angels of God.
I thought, cool, I have help. And they know who I am. Because it also said
they knew more and were more powerful than me, until they weren't, and would guide me.
It made me believe I finally, fully understood why I felt so at home talking to the
musicians I was privileged to interview when I lived in Los Angeles.
Just as I thought, the Bible says the Son of Man, Christ, would be welcomed and assisted
and all sorts of great things, and I thought, cool, my life's going to be a little easier
from now on.
I hadn't read and fully understood the part about tricks and traps and the
idea that I couldn't understand when I read it, that no one would help the Son of Man, and
He would go away, and come back later.. and the rest is prophecy that is not complete in
the short term, at least the King James version of the Bible. So, let's just say, what
will happen next is somewhat unknown to us.
Just for the record, I went away. I'm back.
Here's what I really wanted to talk to you about.
It took me some 47 years before I began to comprehend my purpose in life, what I call my
spiritual identity, now understood by me to be called a triunary being. Other people had
to tell me to read the Bible to realize who I was, to recognize my purpose and being in
this world, my responsibilities and commitments to God. That it was a time for me to do
what He asked, the most difficult part of the work that always comes at the end of a
project, when anticipation and expectations are high, and the little details are being
worked out and implemented, the details that often mean the difference between success and
failure.
It's like having a producer or art dealer... will they actually seek a place for your
work, or will they simply display the easy parts that are the most popular, like an album
record companies burn out on the radio to maximize sales, leaving geniuses like John
Denver and Barry Manilow overexposed, diminishing their careers, in the same way that
eating the same food everyday would make you want to eat something else.
For some artists, most artists of one sort or another began their art, and then with an
incredible personal effort, pursued a profession in their art, but because of the
pressures and distractions, have lost something of the inspiration and spirit that moved
them to love and do nothing but their craft in the first place.
Bob
Dylan - Slow Train Coming - 01 - Gotta Serve Somebody
I want to ask you to think back and relive that first moment when you felt
the joy of music and art go through you like a ghost. Like a wave of joy and freedom that
can not be experienced in any other way. I know that feeling. I know you do too. What is
that feeling? What is it really?
I wrote a song for Donnie McClurkin to sing, "Bless the Fallen Angels", and I
don't know if he ever got my emails with the subject lines "Oh God Part IV: Golden
Visions", which may seem odd to you, but I saw him on CNN one day, and He said there
was this one song that God dictated to him while riding in a plane. I thought, since He
believes in that, maybe I'd see what he'd do if someone sent him a song - you know, as
Christ - and see if he'd even check it out.
And the reason I actually chose him was because after the interview, I checked him out on
the web and he had this one song, I think it's called "When He Comes Back", and
it made me believe he might be faithful enough to want to check it out and see if God
really does work in mysterious ways.:} I wonder if he saw the lyrics and didn't realize I
wanted to empower fallen angels to return to God, and because of the way God works, God
had and has a reason for him to be part of what needs to be done for some special and
important reasons. It was, after all, a horribly recording made under DEW and Psychotronic
attacks.
I had another reason for choosing him. He mentioned on TV that Andre Crouch had a gift
that he could give to other people, about music, a gift that McClurken also had, he called
it "the touch". In another chapter, I talked to an Angel, about the time I
interviewed Billy Preston, I mention that I experienced the same thing with Preston as I
did with my pastor in Vacation Bible School, the aura of gold around him as we spoke that
I now recognize as being divine and angelic, the Holy Ghost filling him and the space we
were in.
A few days later, I attended a concert at the Roxy... Billy Preston was the show, and he
was awesome. At one part, he passed around the mic to his friends to sing an impromptu
verse to a gospel tune, and I have to admit, I was hoping they'd pass the mic to me, but
Andre Crouch was there and so was this young man I barely remembered until I started
sending him those "Oh God" emails. And then I couldn't help wondering what Billy
Preston might have told him, because I just know Billy knew who I was. It was Pastor
McClurken.
Because of government Psyops, I assume, anymore, that important emails never get
delivered, because I rarely, if ever receive responses, especially on important matters.
And, unfortunately, I trusted a fallen angel to assist me in contacting him, and I assume
he never knew I was trying to contact him. Besides, I know people like him get a lot of
correspondence from fans, and no one can keep up with that, even when you're doing a cheap
imitation of George Burns. :}
And of course, if you're not on the watchtower to look for Christ, you likely wouldn't
believe it even if he stood before your eyes. I was originally going to visit his church
on my birthday with a letter and a tape of the song in his collection plate, and then
leave. Unfortunately, due to another psyop, I ran out of money and couldn't do it.
I wonder how many angels know that they are angels?
This message, this chapter is a call to consciousness and awareness and
action. It's God's message to you, His Angels in this world in the flesh.
Let me ask you, angels... and if you're sitting there saying to yourself, with an odd sort
of eerie feeling coming over you, am I an angel? You probably are, or the thought would
not have occurred to you.
Did you ever get the feeling there was something of a greater purpose to your music other
than making music, earning a living, becoming famous and.. whatever...?
I know you have.
Just like all the professional musicians I've talked to, when I've asked them how their
music comes to them, not one has ever failed to declare it's a gift, and that they're
blessed to be given the opportunity to make a living and their lives the way they do.
And I've had conversations with some very famous people who said something I didn't want
to say in public before, thinking people would think I was weird or something. And that's
the fact that, sure, I can craft a song for a particular subject, manufacture a tune and
its lyrics for a specific purpose or message... like Barry Manilow did with commercials.
But when I just let it happen, when I strum the guitar and it flows and the lyrics pour
out like sweet syrup on hotcakes, I know that I've sort of tuned into God's radio station,
and my job is to write it down before it passes like a fleeting thought that means so much
and is forgotten in the blink of an eye. A thought that, later, you might realize is a
significant message to you or someone who's heard it who you don't even know.
Like songs I've been writing since I was a child that seem to fit the context of this
book, some 40 years later. Like a book or book with a soundtrack he's been having me
write, bit by bit, song by song, chapter by chapter throughout my life, and I didn't even
know it.
Years ago, while working in Los Angeles, I'd always make sure I gave good reviews to my
favorite musicians and bands, when they deserved it. One of my favorite groups of all time
is Ambrosia.
Their management and producers, Freddie and Teri Piro, liked my work, I
interviewed the guys once, did a great review but never got to see them in concert.
Otherwise it was nice, very nice.
Anyway, they called one day and asked me to come up to their offices in North Hollywood,
and it looked sort of like a peasant village, very comfortable for a country boy like me
in Los Angeles. They were interviewing me for a job to be their publicist, as well as to
manage their recording studio. I'm not sure, but I think they were the founders of Word
Music, and Amy Grant was one of their artists, distributed by Warner Brothers Records
before it got taken over by Time Warner.
Some of the members of Ambrosia were in the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the
conductorship of Zubin Mehta, and also were in the band the Alan Parsons Project, trying
to tell us all about the "Eye
in the Sky".
In this interview with Teri and Freddie, who I really liked a lot, very down to earth, at
least in the way I knew them... they asked me about the Knack, I said they were funny but
I liked them a lot. Teri said they were a burnout group doing a copycat of the Beatles to
sell records.
Ok.
Then she said, if you had a Christian Record Label, what would you do to get that music
played in mainstream radio and media. I said, I'd take the songs with the most ambiguous
lyrics, release them as mainstream singles, and then let people hear the whole album with
the complete message of the artist, and let people who like their mainstream music get
exposed to the Christian message.
I didn't get the job. She said I deserved better. I couldn't imagine having a better job
than managing a recording studio, that I assumed I would have been able to use when it
wasn't in use. Prince and I would have had more in common then.
Nonetheless, in retrospect, I wonder if I was giving her fresh advice, or if she was
trying to tell me something. But a few months later, Amy Grant had what I believe was her
first main stream single hit.
When I finished the first short version of "For the Love of the World", I
thought these musicians knew who I was. I still believe some of them did and do.
Nonetheless, I sent a copy of the book to David Pack, the lead singer of Ambrosia, who
also did a single called "The Key to You" with David Benoit. Of course, at that
point, I'd given a lot of thought to the Ambrosia song
Ambrosia
- Make Us All Aware
I asked him to give a copy to Teri & Freddie and others. Roby Duke was
very nice in exchanging emails about some other issues, and I sent him a copy too. Jackson
Brown, Billy Preston, and a whole bunch of other people in some of the old time groups,
including a management group that includes Grand Funk, Three Dog Night and a bunch more. I
quoted Grand Funk, told them I was their Captain, as in Three Dog Nights' "Family of
Man".
Nonetheless.. A few years after that interview, I called Teri up and asked her if she
remembered me, from the reviews and the interview, as well as my cameo shot on the Joker's
Wild when my wife was on and was one of the top prize winners of the year.
I told her I wanted to submit some songs to her for publication and for other people to
sing. She said, if you really think they're hits, like you're really sure, send them to
me. I never contacted her again. :} How do you actually know for sure? :}
This year, in a moment of exasperation, I sent him an email again. Of course, no response.
But I was fascinated because about 6 months after I'd sent him the first book, I read that
Pastor Rick Warren, in his way, was able to show David how to have God reveal his true
purpose in life to him. And it was basically to help other musicians, unknowns to use
their gift more in the context of the work of God.
God Bless You David. And thanks to Rick Warren.
Interestingly for me is the fact that, if I'd built this thing called the FARM and the
Family of Artists and Musicians as I'd wanted to long ago, I'd have suggested to David to
do some very similar things. Just as Billy Preston agreed to do in that special interview
I had with him that day at Motown Records. To teach and empower others in the arts.
I guess God gets His way with us willing servants one way or another, hey David? :}
Back in those days in Los Angeles, Bob Dylan's album "Slow Train Coming" came
out. Back in the 60's, I enjoyed a number of his singles and knew he was a cultural icon,
though I didn't know why. I was just a few years too young.
But in 1979, the album came out, I listened to it, it was quite different than anything
I'd ever heard him do before. I actually liked it better than anything I'd ever heard him
do before, as an album and content, and an old folk artist doing music in a more modern
genre and with substantially different instrumentation.
Legendary concert promoter Bill Graham would have called him one of those musicians who
were the voice of a new generation asking for a more Christian culture, one that adhered
to the Golden Rule. I have to admit, I wasn't aware of that when I listened to some of the
music from people some ministers now call "old hippies". But I did notice they
had some good ideas about how people should treat each other, just as I've noticed that
most of the people who identified with that culture during that era quickly abandoned the
more peaceful philosophy in the 80's, the era of money under Ronald Reagan, when the world
really changed.
The thing that was different about Dylan's music on that album, like many other albums by
people in that time period I didn't think were spiritual or religious, was that the lyrics
were about Christianity. About the Second Coming, actually.
Bob
Dylan - Slow Train Coming - 09 - When He Returns
I gave him a good review because I knew people would be interested in
knowing Dylan had a new album, and because musically I liked it. And even agreed with the
lyrics. But because of the erroneous image given to him and many other artists back then,
like John Lennon and the Beatles, I thought his counter culture ways weren't Christian.
I thought, Dylan sold out too. He went Christian and gave up the "new ways".
Shows you how little I knew about these Reagan Christians, and born-again Christians and
such. :}
I talk about Aesopian communications, like the French underground used to use when their
country was under siege. In a way, these 60's musicians had a language of their own, as it
seemed much of America did, just like fad words are used in music and society today.
He used to say, you can't trust anyone over 30. I thought he was talking about people over
30, who had conformed to a materialistic paradigm and given up on the idea of a world that
is - as I say - fair, like God intended. Where people live what I now call the Golden
Rule. Back then, I thought of it as people being considerate of one another.
I don't know if he was saying that in code or not, but a more modern and useful
interpretation of that remark might say:
There's an organization called Masons, filled with good people, who are being used as a
front organization by powerful people called Free Masons who are perpetrating evil, and
they are designated as Free Masons ranked above 30.
This would include people like Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Bob Dole and so many people who are
affiliated with them that it would make your head spin.
All this is why I took the advice of the Doobie Brothers early on in my "new
education" called becoming, listening not to music as romantic love songs or protest
songs necessarily, but just to hear the common themes, the words and the definitions of
the words they were using, and to listen for the overriding messages of peace and love and
unity... talking about all of the things that comprise what they may or may not know is
part of God's Kingdom, being counselors to heal people's hearts and giving voice to the
questions and concerns we all share.
They're prophets, and when you Listen
to the Music as if the musicians were God's angels, you begin to understand things and
listen in a whole new way.
And sure, we all love to hear romantic love songs and such, but have you really asked
yourself why you like you like to listen to love songs? Why you like to hear songs by
artists singing introspective lyrics? What do you really receive from listening to it?
What part of you does it satisfy or give perspective to?
I doubt musicians and artists truly understand the importance of their work to society. To
people's lives, hearts and souls. To the part we and they don't talk about in public. The
truth inside of us that we're afraid to let anyone know.
For Christian and spiritual artists, please understand, I'd love to hear
your work, and have people know it and love it. But the reason for rock and roll, whether
artists know it or not, was to deliver the message to people like me who didn't go to
church or hang around groups of Christians who listen to your music. It's another
part of the Matrix of God. God reaching out with arms open wide to all people. God likes
Jazz a lot too.
I was listening to Todd Rundgren's album "Healer" the other day.
Someone asked me, is that whole album Christian music. I laughed. I wondered if Todd
Rundgren had ever heard his music described as Christian music before. To me, it's always
been very spiritual, especially if you have a sense of humor about such things, but I
never thought of it as Christian before.
I told her, I guess it's all in the way you listen to it.
Todd
Rundgren - Healing - 05 - Compassion
Sometime in the 90's while working at KWAV in Monterey, I remember hearing
a song I'd read about for the first time, written by Van Morrison, and made even more
famous by Rod Stewart. It's Have I Told You Lately That I Love You, an exquisite love
ballad that I love to listen and sing to. Which is actually a song Morrison wrote praising
God.
Rod
Stewart - Have I Told You Lately
What a great Valentine's Day gift.
One time, I bought a set of 20 acrylic colors and some of those canvases with cardboard
backing that are ready to paint. And I was just getting to the phase, like the Dalai Lama,
where I laugh at everything. I watched a special on CNN on the Dalai Lama, and he was
telling the monks they government said they were going to kill them all, and they all
laughed, and I actually understood.
Anyway, I got these paints, set up an easel and painted a first take on the canvas. Then,
for fun, just to test this, what this Bible says about how God was in control of my life
and I should just follow His lead, your lead, I turned the canvas upside down and said
"Okay God, paint something."
I painted and painted and painted and when I thought it was about through, I turned the
canvas upside down again, and it was the first thing I've painted since elementary school
that actually looked like something. It was the head of a goat with space aged blue
sunglasses, a strange crown with a piano on top of his head, and over his shoulder, what
must be a demon spirit looking over his shoulder (that was originally painted when it was
upside down as a peace sign) and the sun shining down in the background. I thought, God
DOES work in mysterious ways, and he really does have a strange sense of humor. Now, being
on the cusp of Aries and Pisces...
For more fun, you might want to look at the fun letters I wrote to Leon Russell about his incredible Blue Album that I bought something
like 9 copies of over the years. My letter to Streisand is kind of fun too.
My point is this.
Did you musicians and artists know that you're angels and prophets, and sort of on the
front lines of speaking God's ways into the hearts and minds of the people who listen to
your music and view your art?
Do you realize how your work is like delivering healing messages as counselors and those
who've inquired and sought wisdom, shared through your creativity, sort of like painting a
picture or writing music with God, not like He's doing it for you and not like you're
doing it without Him, but like you're playing a concert with Him?
It's kind of interesting to think about, isn't it?
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord... Whether Christian or Jazz or whatever genre, you are
the voices, the representatives of the hearts and souls and the hopes of the people you
sing, play and create with. And like the Living Word of God, the Bible and His faithful
servants, every person who hears or sees what you do derives a special, unique meaning to
what they perceive, experience and decide because of your influences.
That painting I did... the next one I did, a few weeks later after God revealed more and
more as I awoke to the world and His wisdom and His purpose for my life, is my favorite so
far, and looked even prettier when I saw it in the sunlight for the first time before
slipping it into someone's mail slot, in hopes they'd "find their way" somehow
despite whatever might have happened.
To me, as abstract as it was, it was like an owl hiding behind the leaves
in a tree, peeking out, barely visible to anyone not looking for it or knowing it was
there. I thought it represented who I was and what was going on in terms of my own
awakening at the time.
God's angels are everywhere, and they do funny things, and they don't even know why, or
what it might do for the person or things or animals they do them for. It just feels
right. And then God thanks them for delivering the gift they didn't even know they gave,
and puts it to use.
No wonder Lou Dobbs says there are no such things as coincidences. It's not like I even
gave that a thought before now. And now I'm sitting here thinking.. maybe you are too.. I
wonder what else God's had me do that will come back to haunt me later? :} It's sort of
like dealing with random acts of kindness and instant karma all at the same time :}
So, I have to admit that I take some liberty talking to you angels this way because I know
a little something about what you're really like inside, and all the fancy clothes and
limos don't fool me into believing that you're not still the same person you were when you
"made it". And don't forget, all the people in the world who can whistle, hum,
and throw mud on the ground and think it looks good in some way are God's angels too, so
you don't have a corner on the market.
But you pros.. now or before or yet to be... you raised your hands and said "I want
to do that" when God was asking for volunteers, and there you were, the guileless
angels that you were, thinking it sounds like tough work but it could be fun spreading all
that love and wisdom of God around. And here you are.
Marvin
Gaye - What's Going On - 08 - Wholy Holy
I call you all Charlie's angels, because my dad's name was Charlie, and I
have this inside track on His spiritual identity too. I also call you crazy angels, just
like Paul Simon does on his album, because I love you so much and I know a little about
how you actually are in your own inimitable ways. Crazy about the beauty and wonder of it
all. And you can't convince me that isn't true.
So, someone had to tell me what I needed to know to do what I told God I wanted to do when
the time came.
I ask you to open your hearts again, let the little kid out for a while, listen to Minnie
Riperton's "Perfect Angel" album, it's mostly on YouTube... and in the letter to
Minnie, there's a few cuts I'd like you to hear.
Now, I know I'm behind on keeping up with arts and music, and there's people out there
like Wyclef Jean and Eminem and Michael Jackson and Prince and my (special one) Alanis
Morrisette, and Jackson Browne and James Taylor and Carole King and Carly Simon and
Michael McDonald and the Doobies and Neil Young and Michael Tomlinson and Mariah Cary and
Paula Abdul and Chaka Kahn and the list goes on and on and on of people I know are out
there on the same team, and probably don't even know it, and would be surprised to be
called angels even if they knew they were.
And when I send people like Jewel emails... Jewel, who sort of painted one possible vision
I had of my private, more intimate part of life when she recorded Painters, and reminded
me what my vision of heaven was like, and then lead me to listen to the song
"Amen" which asks "Where Are My Angels?"... please understand and tell
your agents and managers that I'm only writing to you about God because your lyrics and
work make me believe you know things that I know, that I've never heard anyone else say
before, and I want to share the wisdom God blesses me with with you, and hope you'll want
to share your blessings with me.
Like Todd Rundgren and the Bourgeois Tagg say, we've been "Waiting
for the worm to turn". Apparently, I'm the worm, and I turned.. counting
blessings instead of RV's... it's time for us all to, as Kenny Loggins says in "This
Is It", make no mistake who you are, just as he also sings "It's About
Time", and Mike McDonald sings some say it's a hopeless fight but I say "I Gotta
Try", and Wycliff Jean sings "How Come? and we all tell a story that's bound
together as one in the matrix of God.
Despite the fact that Barack used another one of my themes when MTV put on
the We Are One concert, I say, sort of like Thoreau said, We Are One.. A Majority of
One, ONE huge body of citizens united in common values, moral and ethical values, like we
believe in our hearts the world should be like. What I declare as the Kingdom of God on
behalf of the Almighty God.
James
Ingram with Michael McDonald - Yah Mo Be There
It's time for the suffering and the devastation of this world to end, and
I know you want that. Empower me and let me empower you to make it the way you know God
Planned it.
Global peace and abundance for all. No one can take it way from you.
It's a whole, new world, and all you have to do is want it. Let God
provide it. And find that angel in you, the one that believes you're bound to a system
that suppresses your soul. I know you know what I'm talking about. I just want you to know
you have permission and the blessings of God to feel it and live it and know it in your
hearts again.
Marvin Gaye knew what he was talking about on his album "What's Going On", from
Mercy Mercy Me to God is love and Who
Will Save the Children?.
I don't believe it's possible for anyone to listen to that album without knowing that
truth, that God is love, that He is perfected in us as we are perfected in Him, and that
He wants us to learn of and share the secret and gift of that perfection now.
As His servants, the canvas is empty, and the paint is fresh. The rest is living art.
Create. What would you like to see in your image? God wants to know if you and He have
things in common.
He thinks we do, and He asks you to see it and hear it fully.
That truly is God's message to you, his angels, and to me, His servant.
We are one. Forever. In love.
James
Taylor - Mud Slide Slim - 04 - Riding On A Railroad
Update: 6/7/2009 Here's a little of the synchronicity of my life. I wrote
all that stuff about David Pack and Ambrosia. This morning, while writing to Barry
Linn, I accidentally found and clicked on a Google ad for someone named David C. Pack, and
on article called: http://www.thercg.org/books/hwpwc.html How World Peace Will Come.
I have to tell you, I've only read a small amount of one of his articles,
and I've only scanned the titles of what else he's written, but he looks like a true
prophet to me in many ways. It gives me a great deal of hope to know that there is
someone who appears to understand. Someone tell Pelosi he gets it.
Todd
Rundgren - Initiation - B02 - Eastern Intrigue
