‘God has called you to become a prophet, Peter. It is a great gift, a great privilege, but it carries with it a great and grave responsibility. A prophet must speak to a world that would rather not hear the message that he brings. All prophets have first to be purified themselves before they can help purify others. Like the One you wish to follow, you must spend many hidden years where all the prophets are prepared before they return to the world. One day in God’s good time, not yours, when he thinks you’re ready, not when you do, there is a work for you to perform. God will do his part if you do yours, and your part is to pray, trust and not worry.’
I have heard the expression ‘walking on air’ but I had never experienced it until that day. It was as if I was several inches off the ground, as I made my way back to my place in the church. Apart from certain things he said to me about my future, which are personal and private, he said nothing that I hadn’t heard before, or wouldn’t hear in the future. In fact, I had heard and would hear more profound truths about the spiritual life explained at length, but never again would I receive what I received from him. He was a true mystic, and so when he spoke, he spoke with a power that came from within, that not only gave the words that he spoke a depth of meaning far deeper than the mind alone can grasp, but a power too, that strengthened you to do the word that was spoken to you.
My belief in reincarnation dates from that meeting – not the reincarnation of every man, but of the perfect Man, who makes himself flesh again in as many different ways as there are those who would receive him.