F.R. Giles

About F.R. Giles

So asking F.R. Giles what he wanted people to know about him, I received some answers that were quite unexpected.

"It's not so much that I want people to know me, but rather that they come to know God. You see, I could spend time going on about my childhood and growing up on a large property by the wilderness and all my adventures there. But wouldn't it be better to tell of how God spoke to me and sent all the birds and other little creatures to interact with me then? I could go on about my parents and how we went to church and how I attended a Christian school. But I would like to tell you about the nightmare I had as a child with the wolves chasing me and then how I prayed desperately not to have those kind of dreams anymore. And I didn't... not for years after that."

So I asked him, 'Yes but what did you do in school? What subjects did you like? Did you play sports at all?'

"Well" he said, "I suppose I could tell you how I enjoyed reading and that I had a class with a nun for a teacher and that she would give out candy for the most creative writing. And that I always got the candy. I loved to write. I could tell you how we played ball at recess and I was good at it. But I would rather tell you how one day an older boy was running with the ball and I tried to stop him, accidently ripping part of his coat. He tried to beat me up. But God supernaturally stopped him."

"What about after your school years?"

"Oh well, I suppose I did a lot of things. Got into some trouble as everyone can. But I worked and I had friends who liked to have fun and we all lived together in an apartment. We even got ourselves evicted. Shame that. But I would much rather tell you about going to that inner city church and how the Lord got hold of my life then. And how much I realized I needed Him. I jumped straight up out of the mess of my life and dove into it. 'Saved' then baptized and then one night while sleeping in the same room as one of my 'unsaved' friends, across the room from me, I woke up singing. I was singing a praise song. It went 'Create in me a clean heart oh God and renew a right spirit within me.' That was a start. But I kept on singing and I felt this presence hovering over me and my body felt like it was on fire. Then I started to sing with other tongues and speak in other tongues and praise God out loud. And this went on for well over an hour. And my roommate did not wake up!"

"What happened to you after you were evicted?"

"The Lord separated me from my friends and I went on to pursue a more religious life. Though I suppose like all people I went back and forth between spiritual and religious."

"What do you mean?"

"It seems to me that religion can only get you so far if you do not cultivate a deep relationship with Jesus and God and the Holy Spirit."

"Did you do that?"

"At times I did and very well. Not so much at other times. But I tried to follow the course God laid out, even if I had my wandering times like Moses in the desert."

"What kind of jobs did you have?"

"Oh so many. One of the first was a pizza delivery job. I loved it there. But eventually years later I wound up working at a Christian home for the disabled. That is a place which helped me learn so much about the Lord's ways. I could tell you all kinds of stories about that. But I want to tell you about when I was nineteen and how I was working at a group home one night after everyone had gone to bed. I was at the kitchen table talking to the Holy Spirit. I asked Him to reveal the Word of God to me from God's perspective instead of my own. And He opened it up to me. He began to show me things I never knew. It was a lot to take in."

"So what did you do then?"

"I studied it and I wanted to share it, but it wasn't ready to be shared. So I put it away and sometimes I came back to it but not really. I went on with life. Got married. Changed jobs many times. Went to church off and on. Took a lot of time for myself instead of the Lord. Which to me now, I wish I'd have spent more time with the Lord over the years. I don't mean I never did. There were plenty of times that I did. But more times that I did not."

"So what got you back to studying and how did you start writing these books?"

"Well many years later after some truly dark times I got to really spending time with God again. And He began to speak to me to the point where I could hear clearly what He wants. The first book He directed me to write was 'The Nine Tenets'. And I love that little book. Then I wrote one based on going through dark times in our faith called, 'Jesus in the Dark'. It's quite popular really. 

"What about your devotional book?"

"Oh yes. I wanted to put together that book mainly because of all the visions I had during my time at Shiloh."

"What is Shiloh?"

"Shiloh was a beautiful little group of people who had a church focused mainly on worship. We would worship for hours, lost in the Lord's presence as we listened to worship music. Then we would have some prayer and share what we felt the Lord was telling us. During this time we had many visions and would always write them down. So I decided to take my visions and put them into a devotional. But there weren't enough for a whole year so I included many other things like words I had received and parts of old time sermons and also some stories of God moving in my own life, and old hymns, etc. That became the 'Shards of Light' devotional.

"And what about now? This project you are working on now is amazing."

"You mean 'Rivers of Light'. Yes. This is what the Holy Spirit began to reveal to me when I was nineteen. It is a commentary on the Book of Genesis and what I call a personal translation. It astounds me with every verse. There are fifty chapters in Genesis, but by the time I got through just ten chapters of translations and commentary I realized I had too much for one book. So I've finished and published a couple books so far and I know there will be at least four or five volumes."

"Wow! Is there really that much to it? Why?"

"Because I take it word phrase by word phrase from the Hebrew and find all the possible meanings. I discuss it with the Holy Spirit and ask Him to show me what I cannot see on my own. Every scripture is opened to me and I begin to see the purposes and plans of God."

"What do you plan to do after that? Any other projects?"

"There are a lot of books in my head but I will ask the Lord what direction to go. Also, I believe there may be a ministry on the Lord's heart for me beyond writing. When I was younger, my wife and I went to a Monastery where they have a ministry of hospitality. We stayed for a couple days. It was a place where you sought the Lord and took a vow of silence so you could reflect and pray. I often thought that a retreat like that, combined with places of worship could be beneficial for people in the ministry. I don't know. Maybe, since I feel the Lord has put it on my heart... but I don't know for certain. Whatever God wants."

"What would you like to tell anyone who is interested in your books?"

"Thank you. I hope that you get the opportunity to read so maybe the Lord can use them to enrich your faith. That is the purpose of them after all. May the Lord guide you on your journey closer to Him each day."