Last year, I had the joy of getting to know an incredible friend (who happens to be a very gifted psychic), Ruth Lordan. She has become like a sister to me!
I spent four months working with Ruth to get her thoughts compiled into a book packed full of her insights. Going into our contract, I wasn’t sure how I felt about psychics, mostly because I didn’t have a lot of personal experience with them.
My straight-laced religious roots had engrained the thought that psychics or mediums were bad. But as I researched for my young adult novel, I began to understand that my belief in God actually reinforces an acceptance of exactly what I was taught to fear. Wait…what?!
1 Corinthians 12 (Verses 7-11)
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.[b] 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
I grew up thinking everyone who got filled with the Holy Spirit had to speak in tongues. I was so convinced that this was a necessary step in my faith journey that I went to each altar call at church camp for years, praying for the Holy Spirit to fill me up and make foreign words spill out of my mouth. When it didn’t happen, I felt like I was somehow not right with God.
At the same time, I was encountering spirits. Hearing them. Seeing them. They terrified me because when I inquired, “Why is this happening?” I was told that it must be demons. It was horrifying to think that as a young child, I was somehow attracting demons, and here I was, trying SO hard to get the Holy Spirit to come into me. Obviously, there was something wrong with me, or at least that’s what I assumed.
Oh how I wish someone had told me that the Holy Spirit had already given me my gift. I was able to see spirits. I was able to sense if they were good or bad. Remember the verse above?
“…to another distinguishing between spirits.”
I suppose in order to discern spirits, one must first be able to notice they are among us. It certainly makes sense now, as I look back. I had never sought out to see them. In fact, I did everything I could to avoid them and pretend that they weren’t there. But they were.
Many years later, the realization that discerning spirits is a gift bestowed on some by God, became the basis for my first completed young adult manuscript, which I have total faith (okay, maybe not total because I lack solid self-esteem where my creative project are concern) will eventually become my debut novel once my agent sells it (which she can’t do until I finish the revisions – which I’m suppose to be working on now, but instead I’m procrastinating by writing this).
What does all this have to do with my friend Ruth? Well, maybe not that much, except to tell you that I firmly believe in and respect the gifts of the Holy Spirit placed upon each of us. We all have at least one, and if you do not know what your spiritual gift is, I pray you will take the time to discover it. And Ruth Lordan…well, she’s a woman with an incredible gift!
When you write a book for someone on a 4 month contract, you tend to get to know them well. And I want you all to have the opportunity to know Ruth, too! She has used her gift to help thousands of people in her forty-plus-year career working as a professional psychic. And those she has touched with her ability will tell you that she is amazing at what she does.
You can’t buy Ruth’s book yet because unlike the Earth, books are not made in seven days. But you can get to know Ruth now! Check her out at www.ruthlordan.com, follow her on twitter @psychicruth, and like her Facebook page to keep up with her daily insights and be in the loop about when and where you can see her perform gallery or private readings.
And for the record, I never did get the ability to speak in tongues, but I totally pretended to my last summer of church camp. Look at that! My desire to be filled with the Spirit was so big it even caused me to break a commandment and LIE! **Gasp** In my defense, I was more lying to myself than anyone else. I wanted to be blessed so badly that I thought if I just let gibberish roll off my tongue, it would turn into real, actual, foreign words. Bummer it doesn’t work that way. The good news is, I already had my gift. I just didn’t realize it yet.