The Seer

My first reaction to much of The Seer was rejection. Some of James W. Goll’s stories about visions and dreams made me uncomfortable. That discomfort turned out to be part of what I needed to examine.

Goll writes about spiritual gifts, abilities Christians understand as given by the Holy Spirit. Christians speak of the Spirit when describing God at work in and through people. He argues that these gifts remain active today, including experiences through which people believe God communicates in pictures, dreams, and visions. A “seer,” in the language of this book, is someone who receives that kind of visual impression.

More than an unusual experience

There are places where I question Goll’s theology, his understanding of God and the Bible. I did not finish this book agreeing with every story or explanation. What kept me reading was the purpose he gives for these experiences: knowing Christ more deeply.

Goll makes that distinction clearly. Visions are not meant to be collected like interesting adventures. Their value is in whether they draw us closer to Jesus. His discussion on page 135 helped me return to passages I would otherwise have dismissed.

What was I afraid of?

Some of Goll’s accounts caused a familiar twinge of disbelief. If I am being completely honest, there was fear in it too.

My understanding of how God works had already shifted several times before I read this book. Even so, I could feel myself reaching for the safety of what I had personally experienced. Anything outside that boundary seemed suspicious simply because it was unfamiliar.

That is worth questioning. Something being strange to me does not establish whether it comes from God. Equally, an extraordinary story does not establish that it does. I want to remain open without handing over my judgment.

Open, and still discerning

I might not have finished The Seer if I had picked it up at another point in my life. But Goll’s emphasis on closeness to Christ made me look more carefully at my own resistance. Was I evaluating what he said, or protecting myself from an experience I could not control?

The book’s greatest effect was to make me ask where my disbelief might be getting in the way of the Holy Spirit. I want to know God well enough to recognize his work, including when it does not look the way I expected.

My prayer is to draw closer to him: to reject nothing merely because it is unfamiliar, and to discern everything.

Book discussed

James W. Goll, The Seer: The Prophetic Power of Visions, Dreams, and Open Heavens (Destiny Image, 2005). The discussion of the purpose of visionary experiences refers to page 135 of the edition I read.