When Spiritual Beliefs Work

[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” text_font_size=”16″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] I had a fairly challenging night the other night at work.  When I got home, I found myself wondering if I had done the right things—not because I had said or done anything wrong, but because the situation itself was so incredibly bizarre that there was a lot of room for reflection, introspection, and generally being conflicted about the entire matter.  I struggled with societal beliefs and ideas about judgment versus the immeasurable and boundless nature of God’s love in the face of really unpleasant circumstances.  I wrestled with the various roles and responsibilities I have, along with moral, ethical, and spiritual values that I hold, and looked at how to best mesh them in the situation.  And while I cannot go into details on the subject itself, I had a very meaningful conversation with one of the chaplains where I realized that times like this are when spiritual beliefs work.  After all, if they don’t work when the going gets rough, what good are they? In the conversation with this chaplain she asked me how I dealt with stress, and how I felt my beliefs helped me to deal with this situation the way I had.  I shared how I had grown up in the Episcopal Church but now loosely define as a Nondenominational Charismatic Christian, and that as my beliefs have drastically changed over the course of my adult life, my views about God, love, judgment, heaven, and hell have changed as well.  I explained how the core foundation of my spiritual beliefs now begins with the premise that we have a God whose nature and essence is, above all else, pure love. I spoke of how this God of immeasurable love does not send us to hell or whatever one believes is a negative afterlife, but that we in our own limited thinking choose our own inner darkness over the surpassing love He constantly extends toward us, but that even our own ability to choose darkness in the face of God’s love is like pitting an ice cube against a forest fire.  The ice might last for a few brief moments, but ultimately it doesn’t stand a chance. I heard myself saying that in this situation I had a choice to make, whether to choose to sit in judgement in a situation where that wasn’t my job to begin with, or to choose to walk forward in love and compassion regardless of the outward circumstances, and that it is this undergirding belief in the immeasurable goodness of God that provided the encouragement for me to do so. As I replied, I found my own words to be somehow very therapeutic, and they seemed to touch the chaplain as well.  She literally thanked me for being the person to deal with the problem, and for being someone who could share love in that way in a scenario that needed it.   I realized that while the situation itself was taxing in a hard-to-describe way, I felt blessed that I had the opportunity to manifest the love of God there.  I began to gain a broader perspective on how God had orchestrated things, positioning me in a unique way to become the solution to the problem.

I was reminded that THIS is when spiritual beliefs work.

Jesus instructed the people in Matthew 5:14 saying that we are the light of this world.  When darkness threatens to close in and doubts, fears, and uncertainty seek to steal the life from a circumstance, the love of Jesus Christ that has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit IS the means by which we light up this world with the ever-burning flame within us.  In any situation, God has prepared us to become the solution to the problem.  He has positioned us to carry His love into dark circumstances, and even as we do this, like a holy virus that love spreads out in ever-widening circles, transforming those we come in contact with. I don’t know that I will ever know the true extent of the impact I had on this situation.  I know that I am blessed to have been a part of it, and my wife pointed out it was almost as if I passed a test.  I believe that my words, much less my actions, touched this chaplain in a profound way—and not because I even meant to.  She was helping me, and in doing so, I believe I ended up encouraging her in turn. It is humbling to know that this hope we have in Jesus Christ works even in those times we aren’t meaning for it to.  That His transformative power works in us whether we work on ourselves or not.  That in the same way that water wears down a rock over time, the river of God’s love flows through us whether we are paying attention or not.  In the end, this is the true test of whether spiritual beliefs work or not—when in our weakness, God is strong through us.  Go be the light of the world, but don’t try so hard.  Just go and be, and watch the God of Wonders do His thing. [/et_pb_text][et_pb_code admin_label=”Code”]<script type=”text/javascript” src=”https://app.getresponse.com/view_webform_v2.js?u=B40ZB&webforms_id=6653905″></script>[/et_pb_code][et_pb_comments admin_label=”Comments” show_avatar=”on” show_reply=”on” show_count=”on” background_layout=”light” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_button=”off” button_letter_spacing=”0″ button_use_icon=”default” button_icon_placement=”right” button_on_hover=”on” button_letter_spacing_hover=”0″] [/et_pb_comments][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

Transforming a Culture on Purpose

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I wrote this article last year, when it first aired as a guest post on PrayingMedic.com (here) and JesseBirkey.com (here).  As the new year starts I believe it is important to re-consider our goals and perspectives and how we can make a positive impact on society by transforming a culture on purpose.  Read on:

 

I have had the privilege over the past number of years to become increasingly connected with certain other believers who not only hold similar Kingdom values, but who have a similar goal in mind–to transform our culture by changing both what people think and how they think about it.

While this may sound a bit creepy at first, let me clarify. There is a group of individuals who are already doing this, and have been at it for years. Sometimes called the Illuminati, sometimes given other names, their goal is world-takeover on the highest levels, and they realized a long time ago that the way to do this was through socialization–changing what and how we think, as these two things directly impact how we live. I, too, want to transform our culture, but in a very different way. I believe it is our job to change the way the world thinks in order to see the Kingdom of God manifest on earth as it already is doing so in heaven.

This transformation doesn’t happen overnight, nor does it happen by accident. No, it is the result of an ongoing, purposeful attempt to steer thought and conversation in specific directions. Take, for example, the idea of Spirit Travel. I can remember that ten years ago, no one in Christian circles was talking about this subject. The VERY few people who were said almost nothing about it and the whole thing was very hush-hush. In other words, people were doing it and just not talking about it because the rest of the body would freak out about it.

Three and a half years ago I posted a Facebook note titled “To Project or Not to Project: That IS the Question” talking about spirit travel including terminology on the subject as well as common beliefs on the subject and offering a new perspective on this poorly-understood topic.  The conversation thread had over 200 comments, with a number of people who got extremely accusatory toward me, almost as though by discussing the topic I was directly performing witchcraft on them–which is absurd.  With a number of other things that went on behind the scenes I ended up having to block a number of people, as some were clearly not ready for this subject.  Just a few weeks ago (now this past spring), a close friend posted a thread on Facebook about Spirit Travel and got over 100 comments, only one of which was negative!

What was the difference between three and a half years ago and now? A lot. Over the past few years these friends of mine and I have done a lot of discussion on the subject. We have attempted to educate people on the topic and it seems to be working. I am not saying that my little group of friends and I have been single-handedly responsible for this shift. I should mention that conveniently, in the past three years there has been a significant increase in the number of people who are teaching on this topic, three main ones being Ian Clayton, Mike Parsons, and Justin Abraham. What I am saying, however, is that because we have been purposeful about shifting the conversation, it has opened many people up to the concept so that when these teachings by these other ministers have come along, the soil of their hearts was tilled and ready to receive.

There are a number of things I am pretty purposeful about talking about and sharing, including but not limited to translocation and spirit travel, resurrection from the dead and immortality, miracles, and inner healing and deliverance. I believe each of these areas needs additional attention from the Body of Christ, and that each of these subjects holds keys to transform this world. The point of being purposeful isn’t to bend the world to our will so much as it is to create a platform where a free flow of ideas creates an openness to the topics we find important. There is something about this idea of “collective consciousness” where when enough people get on board with a topic it starts to reach a critical mass. As this happens, the flow of revelation that comes from heaven to earth actually increases based on the demand we are placing on that revelation.

Our methods are pretty simple: open conversation on a subject even if it is poorly regarded, help other people view the subject in a new light, and continue to share new insights as we get them. As this happens, invariably new people with different insights are drawn into the conversation, and the total body of knowledge on the subject increases. As this happens, more and more people begin to get heavenly downloads and jump on board, and like a snowball rolling down a hill, the movement grows. I feel it is safe to say that just based on the response to Spirit Travel three years ago versus now that our methods are working. I should mention that we are very transparent about this, as evidenced by such things as this article you are reading now. Our goal isn’t to manipulate for untoward gain, but rather that as we all grow, we are better able to access Kingdom tools that God designed for us long ago.

I believe this is a method God has given us to help transform the earth, and I encourage you to see how you can put this to good use in your own life! You might begin by identifying key areas that you feel God is leading you to purposefully engage, and take a risk–step out on a limb and share something you might not get good feedback on. I know in my own life I began to talk about things because I believed that many other people were experiencing similar things but were too afraid to talk about them. By stepping out and being the “first one” I broke the silence. It was pretty amazing to me the number of other people who had confirming experiences, some of which were even more radical than my own! The key isn’t to get positive feedback, but rather to start the conversation. By opening up the floor, whether on social media, your own blog, in conversations with family and friends, or all of the above, you are putting a demand on heaven and God is ready and willing to respond! The flow of heaven is far more directed by our desires and expectations than you may think. Things are accelerating and change is breaking through at unprecedented speeds. Get started today and be surprised in a few years what differences you see.

 

 

If you would like to read more about the subject of traveling in the spirit, pick up a copy of my book The Beginner’s Guide to Traveling in the Spirit, available on Amazon.com in both print and Kindle.

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The Weight of Sorrows – Emotional Roots of Physical Disease

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I talked to a coworker recently when she shared that her back hurt, but as strange as it might sound,  she thought it hurt because she was stressed about her divorce. More specifically she was having a hard time filing her divorce paperwork due to issues converting scanned files into appropriate electronic format to file and this was causing her great stress. I told her I didn’t think it was strange at all, and began to explain about the emotional roots of physical disease and how our bodies store emotions.

For those who are unfamiliar with this concept, emotions are a somewhat ethereal in nature, and are somewhere between spiritual and physical in nature. As such, while they get stored in various organs and tissues, they don’t have an obvious physical form like the natural elements do. This is true of both positive and negative emotions, and the book of Proverbs has a number of verses that speak on how various emotions affect different parts of the body.

Proverbs 15:13 says, “A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.” A heart that is filled with joy is good for the complexion. Proverbs 17:22 says, “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” A cheerful heart helps keep us healthy, but our bones are negatively influenced when the world weighs us down. Proverbs 14:30 says, “A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.” Peace brings life to the body, but envy is harmful to the skeletal system as well–because envy is stored in our bones! The end result of emotions stored in organs will vary based on the emotions stored there. For example, someone who is bitter may very well get arthritis because they have chosen to lock in on their negativity, so their joints become locked and deformed. There have been stories of people who, upon forgiving someone and releasing the bitterness and judgments, were instantly healed of their arthritis. Likewise, many other negative emotions can be stored in the body and cause health problems. Interestingly, when someone cries because they are sad, the chemical composition of their tears are actually different than when their eyes are simply watering because actual emotions are being released through the salts in the tears.

In my coworker’s case, she felt, and probably accurately so, that the emotional burden she was carrying was making her back hurt, which isn’t surprising from a prophetic or interpretive perspective if we figure that the lumbar spine is designed for load-bearing–although not for emotional weight. If we don’t deal with our emotions, they WILL express themselves, but will trickle down from the emotional realm into the physical body, and will manifest accordingly. There are a number of different books that talk about this heart-body connection, but my wife and I use two books when we are looking up what emotions might be connected with physical ailments we are experiencing, Feelings Buried Alive Never Die by Karol Truman, and Heal Your Body by Louise Hay. These are not “guaranteed” to be correct, but oftentimes resonate with us and help us process through the emotions.

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In the case of my coworker, we had some time to talk privately, so I took the time to share some things I felt like God was showing me about how she was feeling, and conversationally prophesy over her the message of life and hope that God had for her, helping remove the burden of guilt and shame that she had been carrying. Given what I have shared above about releasing negative emotions, I was pleased to see that she began to cry as I spoke words of encouragement and strengthening to her, knowing that God was helping heal the very problems that had been troubling her heart and causing her pain. While I did not ask whether her back pain improved at that time or not, I was heartened to see the goodness of God in action, as it was said of Jesus “a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out” (Matthew 12:20a).

It is important that we understand God’s nature when it comes to dealing with emotions. Jesus’s solution to problems was to “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29-30). When we take upon ourselves his ability to rest our souls, our problems can heal and we are set free. I usually use a short prayer, adapted from Praying Medic, to help swiftly resolve negative emotions. One of the books I mentioned earlier, Feelings Buried Alive Never Die, also has some really good formula-prayers to help work through and resolve negative emotions and are a good place to start when struggling with difficult emotions or when seeking physical healing for any malady.

Below are the books I referenced in the article that have useful information to help with emotional healing.

A More Excellent Way is a book by Pastor Henry Wright that deals with this subject matter as well.  His book explains systematically how our beliefs and feelings influence our health.

You can also try flower and gemstone essences which are designed to assist with bringing up and resolving unhealthy emotional patterns.  Freedom Flowers is the brand I use, as I have known the owner for years and trust the quality of the brand.

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Limiting Beliefs – Part 4 of Divine Healing that Works

In the previous installment of this series (here) we looked at soul fragments–what they are, how to identify when fragments are at work, how they influence us, and how they contribute to sickness and disease.

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The last major contributor to sickness and disease is our belief systems.  When we believe inaccurate things about ourselves and God’s nature, it influences how we perceive the world.  As I mentioned at the beginning of this series, we have to continually work with God to renew our minds and gain better understanding of God’s nature so that we become like Him.  Part of why this is so important goes back to how God made us—in His image.  God is a creator, and since we are made in His likeness, we also create on a daily basis.  Science has been able to prove that our minds and hearts send out energy waves on multiple types of wavelengths of the energy spectrum on an ongoing basis.  The principle of sowing and reaping comes into play here, as well as Proverbs 23:7 which says “as a man thinks in his heart, so he is”.  What we emanate out in vibrational patterns from our heart and mind, we receive back in like kind based on how God set up the laws of sowing and reaping in all of creation.  In other words, we literally create at least a portion of both the positive and negative things in our lives based off of the frequencies we emit, both conscious and subconscious.

Our awareness of the frequencies we are emitting is irrelevant–if we have beliefs that we hold, whether accurate or not, we will reap the results of those beliefs.  If I believe the world is out to get me and God is angry at me, I am prone to having my life experiences further confirm my star-crossed existence.  On the other hand, if I believe that God works everything in my life for good and that he has blessings to lavish on me each day, I am going to attract those blessings to me as a natural result of sowing and reaping without even giving it conscious thought.  The difficulty with this is that we tend to emit both positive and negative frequencies based on the level of healing we have–attracting both health and life and sickness and disease at the same time.  As I mentioned before, we emit darkness and light, and attract both angels and demons.  The more we consciously focus on good things, the more we minimize negative attraction and enhance positive attraction, all of which help the healing process.

Positive affirmations are one method people use to transform their beliefs–essentially rewiring their subconscious beliefs through repetition of an idea they want to believe on a deep level.  This can be a useful method to help transform one’s thinking, but at the end of the day it is only a means to an end.  In my opinion, the main problem we have with limiting beliefs has to do with our perception of our value.  In other words, it’s an identity problem.  When deep down we don’t really understand who God has made us to be and how He values us, that insecurity is going to trickle down into every aspect of our lives.

I have a few friends who spend time each day resting in God’s love for them.  For one it involves meditation, and experiencing God’s presence and love.  For another, it involves conversation with God where He simply reaffirms each day to my friend that He loves him unconditionally.  For each person it is going to look different, largely because we each experience and receive love differently.  Author Gary Chapman has broken the ways we receive love into 5 categories in his book “The 5 Love Languages:  The Secret to Love that Lasts”.  He has written an entire series on the subject, but the overly simplified version is that we each have a primary way in which we give and receive love, and one or more secondary ways as well.  The 5 languages are: physical touch, gift giving (and receiving), acts of service, quality time, and words of affirmation.  Each method is good, but some are more meaningful to us than others depending on our preferred “language”.  Personally, I prefer physical touch above all others–which means I tend to hug my friends, give shoulder rubs, etc. as a way of showing love.  I do it naturally–and I always have.  While everyone likes to receive gifts, it’s really not my love language, and it speaks to me far less than other things do.

Connecting this idea back to our beliefs, we all have a need to feel and believe that God loves us.  I believe the vast majority of the deficits we experience in our lives are at their core a result of feeling and believing we are unloved.  If we are able to identify the ways we experience love, and then focus on spending time with God in those ways, I believe we can reduce the amount of time it will take for us to go through inner healing, as well as to transform our beliefs about God.  When we know God loves us, it changes our outlook on life.  For some, it may involve hearing words of love daily from God.  For me, I need to have an encounter with His presence–feeling God’s energy on my skin, which when I take the time to do, I enjoy greatly.  For another person, they need to develop a heart of gratitude for the many lavish and even simple gifts that God gives them throughout the day–whether a physical item or something as seemingly irrelevant as a heart-shaped coffee stain from their morning coffee.  Whatever primary and secondary means we use to most effectively experience love, we need to capitalize on them and focus on experiencing God in those ways throughout our lives.  As we are transformed by God’s love, our beliefs will naturally transform–and when our beliefs about Him change, our experiences will transform in line with sowing and reaping as well.  When our experiences change, we will learn new things from our experiences about God, further cementing those new, positive beliefs.

While this blog is about how to get physically healed, it may seem that all we’ve done is talk about demons, emotions, fragments, and beliefs, and haven’t actually addressed how to get people healed.  I have been laying the necessary groundwork to understand the factors that contribute to physical disease and prevent healing, which we will continue to do before we start talking about praying for physical healing.  In the next installment of this series we will move beyond understanding about demons and look at how to actually cast them out.

 

Divine Healing that Works-  The Complete Series

Part 1 – The Root Cause

Part 2 – Demons and Deliverance

Part 3 – Fragments

Part 4 – Limiting Beliefs

Part 5 – Casting Out Demons

Part 6 – Emotional Healing

Part 7 – Triggers and Healing Fragments

Part 8 – Faith For Healing

Part 9 – Power and Authority For Healing

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Shortcuts and Long Delays

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I have never been known for my extreme patience. When it comes to most things, especially spiritual things, I am all about the shortcut. I don’t see any reason why we should make it a goal to take things as slowly and painfully as possible if we can speed up our spiritual growth. From a perspective of spiritual power and effectiveness in healing and other ministry, I feel that there are so many hurting people that we need to learn how to effectively accelerate our growth. To this end, I have written multiple chapters on the subject in my latest book, The Gamer’s Guide to the Kingdom of God.

In spite of my preference for the fast-track, there are some things that simply don’t have any shortcuts–one in particular is relationship with God. There is something about spending time with God, whether Father, Jesus, or Holy Spirit, that cannot be accelerated. It’s an ongoing, daily living-life that has no turbo-charge button and no special shortcut to take to speed things up. Even if there were, the speeding up would be the equivalent of slowing down, because when it comes to relationship with God, the journey IS the destination.

There is an awakening in the Body of Christ in this time to the mystical realms–of oneness with Christ Jesus, being fully consumed by his passion and his love. This is not a process that can be accelerated, in the same way that one cannot quickly throw a pot. The process of firing that pot is equally painstaking and slow, as the temperature must be just right or the pot will fire incorrectly and be ruined. Turning our heart of affection towards Jesus is a daily, even hourly event. As we turn our hearts toward Jesus in love, there is a communion that takes place with Him where we encounter His love, and a sensation of that love wells up within us, often causing outward visible signs of that inner, invisible working.

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The deepest spiritual growth is not in who is the most spiritually powerful, who can work the most miracles, or who can heal the greatest number of people. It is not in delivering accurate words of knowledge and prophecy, nor in the ability to cast out demons or combat principalities and powers of darkness. Love is the preeminent law of the universe, and this love can only be cultivated fully through the Being of Perfect Love, Jesus Christ. As we engage in oneness with Him in our hearts, we attune ourselves to the frequencies of the universe–the stars, plants, animals, the elements, and even the heart of humanity. The love of Jesus is what truly transforms us into His image and likeness, so that we, too, can release light, life, and love into the world and in so doing to transform it. Spiritual power is of some value, and to be effective in the Kingdom we must operate in spiritual power, but nothing can compare or compete with the all-encompassing love that is Jesus, in whom we live and move and have our being. No, there are no shortcuts to attain to this goal, and short cuts do make for long delays. The good news is that relationship with Jesus, the mystical union of our hearts with His, is but a moment away, a moment to turn inward and turn our hearts heavenward. Let us be a people who remember the journey is the destination, and as we remember, let our hearts once more entwine with His.

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The Time for Figs

I was listening recently to a podcast by Justin Abraham of Company of Burning Hearts out of Wales. In it he was talking about time, and how we are not meant to be subject to time, but rather reign over it. I have given this subject some thought over the past number of years as I have explored what I refer to as time and space alteration miracles, but have had minimal success duplicating results. In addition to the revelation contained in the message, it sparked a number of thoughts in me as I listened.

Romans 8:19-21 says: ” For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” This is a key verse in understanding our intended dominion over time–that time itself, as part of creation, is under bondage to decay, and that as the children of God it is our responsibility to bring time out of the domain of decay and under our dominion, where we will rule and reign over it and steward and direct time as we see fit. It is only from that place that we can understand our purpose over time, and then get an understanding of Jesus’ perspective on the same matter.

There is a story of Jesus and his encounter with a fig tree that always struck me as strange, because it did not appear to demonstrate his heart toward creation in any way. In fact, his attitude toward the fig tree seemed downright heartless, but in looking deeper I believe it illustrates an important lesson about who we are meant to be and how creation is meant to respond to us as the sons and daughters of God.

“The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.”
“In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”
“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. (Mark 11: 12-14, 20-25)”

I always had trouble with this passage because Jesus cursed the tree for not bearing fruit when it wasn’t even the season for bearing fruit, and I can safely assume that Jesus knew that. I also don’t think he was just in a bad mood and releasing his temper on the tree. No, this is about time and seasons. As a son of God, Jesus lived (and still lives) in a realm where all creation can respond to him according to his desires. He passed this legacy on to his disciples in John 15 when he said “ask whatever you desire and it will be done for you.” (Verse reference here). What was really happening is that Jesus desired figs, but the tree did not respond and give him figs in spite of his ability to change the flow of time and to live out of a different realm of time than the creation. When Jesus is around, time can go forward, backwards, skip around, or even stay still–it doesn’t matter because the sons of God reign over creation–they are not subject to it.

time travel path 2

I confess to not understanding why the tree didn’t produce fruit under those circumstances, but the scriptures have many references to time not working how we always have assumed it does. Joshua fought a battle where the sun stood still. Hezekiah prayed and time turned backwards by hours. Jesus was slain before the moment of conception of time and space–he was the slain lamb outside of time! Time has no dominion over Jesus nor does it have dominion over what he purchased on our behalf. We have been brought into the inheritance of the sons of God–those who live outside of the constructs of space-time, outside of the finite rules of mass and conservation, energy and motion. All things are possible with God because we are now born from above–from heaven, from the eternal outside-of-time-and-space realm where there is no law. As He is NOW, so are we in this world.

Related posts:

Time Warping

Translocation: Shifting Space and Time

Translocating Under The Tuscan Sun

Time Warping

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Today we feature a guest blog on Time-warping written by a friend.  For various reasons she prefers to leave her name off the post, but there is follow-up information at the end if you want to get in touch.  Enjoy!

“This all started a few years ago when I was praying in tongues a lot. By a lot I mean 1, 2, 3 hours a day. Speaking in tongues during drive time, and singing elsewhere in case somebody could hear me. At some point during that intense spiritual activity, I started making really good time.

It was like time would stand still and I’d keep going.

At my job, there are logs of where I was at what time, for accountability purposes. There is plenty on record of me being in two places, not at the same time, but a minute or so apart. There were very few days where I wasn’t going home hours ahead of schedule.

I worried about this in the beginning, and decided that since I wasn’t entirely in control, I wasn’t going to worry about it and I wasn’t going to falsify data, even if I could figure out how to. I would run around and let the chips fall. This has resulted in shiny-shoed government officials following me around with stop watches and later, GPS tracking my whereabouts and speed.

I was out walking one day when a guy came flying out of his house yelling at me. “How are you faster than me when I’m faster than you?” I walked back puzzled. He elaborated that I can be out for a casual stroll while he power walks or runs and I always beat him. I hadn’t realized I was in a race. Things like that make me a little nervous that I’m being noticed. Evidently I don’t look like The Flash, since he was commenting on how slow I seem.

Is This Supernatural Transport?

This is the first thing people assume.  I don’t think so. I don’t believe I’ve ever had that happen, although I’m certainly wanting that. I don’t think it’s that, because I’m cognizant of everywhere I go. I don’t have the “skip” that transporters have. It doesn’t feel any different as far as speed, the only thing I notice is that it goes smooth for me. I seriously think the time just changes. I also know how to function efficiently in the natural realm, and that factors in as well.

So why was this happening? That’s still the big question. At the time, I was writing my book, and running a business and I’ve since added a second business, so in some ways it made that possible, but there were also some drawbacks in what a friend referred to as “spiritual jet-lag.” There would be this period afterward where I wasn’t being tremendously effective with all my new found time.

For lack of a better way to explain, I was having a hard time functioning in the here and now. Not that I couldn’t, I just didn’t want to. I was a bit sullen and resistant coming out of it. I didn’t want to have a “normal” conversation with someone, I didn’t want to go home and sit on the couch with my husband and watch tv. I felt like I had been ruined for “normal.” The problem was, everybody I love still lived in “normal.” It broke my heart.

There were lots of nights where I would go up on the mountain and grieve and pray before I felt like I could go be around people again without being crushed. Not exactly a time saver at that point, and I felt responsibility to do “important” things with my gift of time. Yet I did get past that stage, and I find that I’m fine and functional anywhere, anytime now. I also understand that sometimes the gift of time is just that; a gift, with no strings attached.

How To Bend Time

I teach a business class for spiritual entrepreneurs and the following is excerpted from the module on time management.

While I can somewhat lean into this and get it to happen, this is far from a formulaic promise that you’ll have the same results. I’m still figuring it all out. I will say that following these steps will lead to good fruit, even if it’s not the same as mine.key to time

 

 

1. Pray in the Spirit

As I said earlier, I really believe this is where it started for me.  While I think it was more of a catalyst to get me into a proper mind frame than the actual activity itself, it did the job.  I’m not going to tell you that you need to pit in the time I did, because this is certainly not a “works” thing, but for me the 2 hours a day blew the lid off in several ways.

2. Mind Frame.

You can’t step out of time in anything less than a full peace. Being at rest even in the midst of activity is key. Having scarcity mentality in the area of time will stop you up. So will offense or any other negative dwelling place.

3. No Time Excuses

“I don’t have time” can no longer be a valid reason. This doesn’t mean you say yes to everything, it means it can’t be your go-to excuse for why you say no to someone.

4. One With God

Get a revelation that you are one with a God who is outside of time, therefore you are too. He’s in you, you’re in Him, head knowledge doesn’t cut it. Ask Him to show you this personally.

5. Ask That You Would Walk in Wisdom.

Something I have been turning over in my head for a couple years, is the verse “walk in wisdom towards those outside, redeeming the time.” It continues, “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt that you may know how to answer every man.” Then in Ephesians 5 we have “redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” That chapter is all about having your act together on an inner level and walking in wisdom. I’d recommend a review of that whole chapter since it does address being filled with the Spirit, and speaking and singing in tongues.

So if you’re going to redeem time, wisdom is the common denominator. Wisdom, we are told, is available to anyone who asks.

Kairos Vs Chronos​

Redeem means to take the power from another. Kellie, a student in my business class gave us a good lesson on Kairos vs Chronos. The gist is Chronos is the Greek god of time. This is where we get “Father Time” and chronological time. We need to not empower that dude. So we’re clear, other gods = demons. Kairos of course by the New Testament is an appointed time in the purpose of God.

​

Wikipedia says Kairos “signifies a time lapse, a moment of indeterminate time in which everything happens.” I quite like that definition. Kairos is smack dab in the middle of where we want go be. Redeeming the time, I believe is stepping out of chronological time and into Kairos.​

Note: I don’t believe that chronological time in and of itself is evil, only that we aren’t to be subject to it. God uses it, and so should we. It should serve us, not the other way around.

Here’s your Einstein on the matter. He of course said that time is relative. “The perception of past, present and future is a stubbornly persistent illusion.” Take that Chronos. We are made to have eternity in our hearts.

If you’re in Him and He’s in you, then you’re outside of time. Actually, it’s a dual thing according to what you choose to engage. When you prophesy, you are pulling from the future. When you observe something in the past, you change it. Google the observer effect in quantum physics. You are always moving in and out of chronos time.

Time Change is Linked to the Battle Between Good and Evil​

Time changed at the fall in Eden, again in the days of Noah, then again at the cross where the curse became null and void. This verse from Daniel’s end times vision is interesting. 7:25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.”

This “wearing out the Saints” thing gives validity to my thinking that a posture of rest is crucial. It’s yet another Kingdom paradox, to go faster, you get out of your hurry and rest. To be clear, rest in this case does not mean inactivity, rather finding your rhythm and being at peace in your work.

I found it useful at one point to draft myself up a prayer. I tend to think better on paper, and I’m not a verbal processor whatsoever. Here’s mine to borrow.

I repent of any areas I have not been walking in wisdom. I repent of animosity towards others for taking my time. I forgive those who have been careless with time; mine, theirs, those that I care about… I ask forgiveness for judgements about time; mine, theirs… I repent for wasting time, not understanding time or my relationship with it. I repent of every time I have used it as an excuse, or believed that I don’t have enough. I repent of coming into agreement with Chronos, and toiling under the sun. I declare that I am free from their influence! Show me a better way! I repent of clock watching and schedule sticking. I declare those things serve me rather than me serving them. I am not a victim of a 24 hour day.

I want unlimited time, not just at work, but in relationships, at home, in the garden/secret place. I want enough to go around. I ask for a repayment of time that’s been lost. That it would be supernaturally made up.

No more running out of time, I declare that I am one with a God who is outside of time and space, therefore I am too. I am not under the sun, or any other natural cycles but the Son. I have all the time I need. Show me what to do with my time, teach me to steward it well, but also set my mind at ease when I warp so that I’m not worried that I’m doing the wrong thing with my gift of time. I repent of thinking that I have to do big things with the surplus, and may there always be a surplus.”

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Please share any time warping adventures you have here in the comments, and add any insight you have as well. If we all pool our knowledge, we’ll be that much more effective!

You can get in touch with my friend at my Yourdreamventure.com, as well as Freedom-flowers.com.  If you are interested in business, you can join us, as well as a bunch of other cool people in her Facebook group titled “Dream Ventures: Prophetic Profits for the Business of Your Dreams.”  Thanks again for joining us!

Related Posts:
Translocation: Shifting Space and Time

The Time For Figs

Translocating Under The Tuscan Sun

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The “Q” Word

On most nursing units the “q” word is never uttered, lest mayhem and chaos soon follow: quiet. Just the other night I mentioned that my patients were doing well and it should be a quiet night, when another nurse said “you just jinxed yourself.” My response was simply “I don’t believe in that.” As a believer I find it frustrating at times that this Q-taboo seems to be so prevalent in the industry, as though that one simple word by itself carries so much overarching power that all other circumstances will fall under the weight of its mighty domain.

Little with gesturing with finger for keeping quiet
Little girl gesturing  with finger to keep quiet

The word “jinx” originates from the latin word jynx, describing a wryneck bird. It is found in Africa, Asia, and Europe, and in addition to being used in spells and divination, it has the unique ability to turn its head 180 degrees. Interestingly enough, most common uses of the word “jinx” refer to a situation being turned 180 degrees on its head, although I don’t believe this has anything to do with the etymology of the word. Basically, a “jinx” is a mental construct describing a spell or curse, and has come to hold meaning over time.

 

Fast forward to the present, I find it quite strange that speaking positively over my night is somehow construed by others as a negative. Proverbs 18:21 says “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.“ The words we speak carry power, and we have the ability to choose outcomes in life situations based on the things we choose to speak and believe. I find it fascinating that believers and nonbelievers alike recognize this truth. For example, some believe that saying the q-word will bring calamity on their life, and so they avoid “speaking death” over their situation. On the contrary, I recognize that my words carry the power of life, so I choose to speak positive, lifegiving statements over my workplace, such as the night being quiet, which means there are no major problems or emergencies that will come up.

 

I encourage you to pay more attention to the things you speak in this coming week. Are the words you use lifegiving, or do they tear down, uproot, and destroy? While words themselves carry far less power than words spoken with emotion behind them, the things we say still carry a measure of our God-given authority and power when we speak them forth. Let this be a reminder to us all to choose wisely the things we speak, that we would constantly engage the Kingdom of Light in all that we say! Blessings to you!

 

Feeding Faith

Life is filled with tension, and my job as a nurse is no different. On the one hand I have sick and sometimes terminally ill patients, and on the other hand a strong belief in God’s desire to heal everyone, no matter the problem. I have been noticing my own responses recently to various terminal conditions from a nursing perspective, and in a world where there is no solution and no divine hope, those responses make perfect sense. On the other hand, I have this part of me in the back of my brain that is saying “there is always a solution, but it’s not going to happen in this case, so what does it matter?”

Tonight, I started thinking a bit more about this perspective, and realized I needed to look at it deeper, as it’s both incongruent and in my opinion an unhealthy belief. I started by considering what I believe the ideal to be–where everyone is healed. Knowing that doesn’t usually happen, I considered further–that a lack of an ideal situation shouldn’t really change my end-goal where all are healed. If the end-goal isn’t changing, then my expectations shouldn’t change regardless of the situation. Previously I have generally done this internal analysis on the likelihood of someone getting healed in that situation, and then engaging my faith after I decided it was likely to occur, but God is reminding me that’s a silly perspective to have, as well as a fruitless one.

When we start to decide what we are willing to believe for based on the likelihood of it happening, while there is a measure to which that can be wisdom, I think most of the time it actually engenders more doubt than it does faith because it starts with the question “Will this happen?” If the answer is no, then faith has no home. However, if we start with the question “What is God’s will?” then we don’t really need to consider whether something is going to happen or not–we simply need to release faith. Whether it will happen will depend on a variety of factors–their level of inner healing, what and how many and how powerful the demons blocking the healing are, the atmosphere in the area, my faith, their faith, the influence of angels, the influence of those around us, and even certain planetary and solar cosmic energies based on where in the universe the planet is that that moment in time. In other words, it may be a crap shoot after all is said and done, but the fact is I can’t manage most of those things. Out of the eight items I mentioned above (and I’m sure there are more involved that I’m simply not aware of), only ONE of them is something I can directly influence–my faith.

My faith is the only thing I am responsible for when it comes to making healing or miracles happen, and in reality it is the only thing I have any control over. I can’t make someone else have faith for healing. I can’t always make the atmosphere be just-so and help me out, or at least not always at a moment’s notice. I can, however, cultivate a lifestyle of faith so it doesn’t matter what else is happening around me. Faith is not simply obtained, but it is cultivated. In the parable of the mustard seed Jesus spoke about faith as something that grows and produces fruit–more than anything else in the garden!  Faith may not start out big and strong, but it will grow if we feed it properly. I came to the realization that I was feeding doubt more than anything else, and if I want ANYONE to be healed then I must stop feeding doubt and feed faith.

 

I want to end with a story I believe expresses this idea, and where the two wolves can be likened to faith and doubt. There is an old Cherokee tale about a grandfather teaching his grandson about life, and he told the boy a story about two wolves fighting — one who is good and kind and only fights when attacked, and who always seeks the best in everyone. The second wolf is angry and mean and evil, who fights everyone all the time. He is angry for no reason and will attack without provocation. As the story goes, the grandfather explained that these wolves are alive inside of him fighting every day. “Who wins?” the young boy asks? The grandfather answered, “The one I feed.”

 

feeding wolves

The Anatomy of a Miracle

Miracles are often thought to be this mysterious thing that rarely ever happen in life and are entirely dependent on God “sovereignly” doing something without our input at all. Fortunately, this is not entirely accurate and there are a number of things we can do to actively engage miracles. The first thing is to actually believe that we can perform miracles. The old pattern of belief said “if God wanted me to have miracles, He knows my address and knows where to send them. No miracles means it isn’t God sovereign will.” The old posture is one of helplessness and complete dependent on a God that may or may not actually want to pour out His power upon you. Instead of this viewpoint, I want to show you some keys on how to transform yourself to come to a point where you are able to regularly work miracles like Jesus did.

Emanating light from hands

The old posture about miracles is supported by the common belief about sovereignty, but the problem is that sovereignty doesn’t mean what we think it means, and is rather a title for Gods positional authority, whether His will is always being done or not. This means that it is possible for God to be sovereign simultaneously to things not going His way. To break it down further, God’s sovereignty means that he is the highest authority, period. In spite of this undeniable fact, things in life do not always match up with His will–else Jesus wouldn’t have needed to pray for “your kingdom to come and your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven” if it was happening all the time already! Instead, Amos 3:7 says, “Surely the sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.” Even God, in his sovereignty as the highest authority in all creation, doesn’t do anything without first involving people so that people pray and His will manifests in the earth. This is a self-imposed limitation that God has created because he wants our interaction (I will not go into this further here but may in a future blog post). Thus, miracles are actually not just dependent on God, but dependent on our interaction.

 

Miracles don’t usually come about by random chance. Rather, when understanding the spirit realm and how things come from the invisible into the visible world we can be more consistent in making it happen. Hebrews 11:1-3 says, “Now faith is evidence of what we hope for and substance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.” Faith is a force–a substance that takes the invisible and makes it visible. God formed the universe out of this substance, and He has given each of us faith as well. We can extend that force in our lives and use it to work miracles. Faith is a key to miracles because miracles happen, in part, when we use the invisible force of faith to alter the invisible world.

 

If faith can create miracles, unbelief can suffocate them to death. The areas of unbelief in our lives will have a direct impact on the effectiveness of our faith. Working over time to alter our beliefs about God, ourselves, and the world around us will also help removed unbelief in our lives. Getting deliverance from demons will also help with this problem, as they constantly whisper lies that can feet it. When the demons aren’t present to feed the unbelief and we have dealt with our own beliefs on the subject, the two main sources of food for the doubt will be gone, and when the food is gone, the unbelief will wither and dry up. Healing from inner hurts also helps in this process as it can help remove access that demons use to influence us. Additionally, healed emotions can help us to have a right perspective about things and this affects our beliefs too!

 

Miracles usually begin with a seed. Like most things in life we start off with something small, and we use it to grow and learn. As we do so, it also grows within us. Music lessons are a perfect example of this. When I was first given a guitar I could barely play a single chord, and my strumming ability was nonexistent–I was a one-strum wonder. As I continued to practice and play the guitar, I began to learn a few more chords and my strumming ability also increased. Eventually I got to the point where I even began to memorize songs and write my own! What at first could not even have been considered a skill has now become a useful tool in my life, but it took practice over about ten years of time to reach where I am today, and even by worldly standards I am still a novice, but a novice that doesn’t sound horrible anymore. Likewise, miracles begin in seed form. We may not see a lot of fruit early on, but all plants have to take time to grow before the fruit is visible. First the seed breaks open and forms a stem, then leaves, and eventually the fruit will appear, but this happens last. If we don’t see any effects when we pray for and command miracles, we may simple be lacking in practice and maturity in this area! Instead of getting discouraged we need to take the opportunity to practice!

 

Scripture meditation can play a part in miracles as well. As we consider the things that God has done in the past and allow our understanding to be altered by pondering and focusing on those past-miracles, we can transform our faith and expectation and feed the seed of miracles within us. It is best to choose scriptures that demonstrate miracles to us or reveal an aspect of God’s character or our inherent rights as His children that plays a part in our ability to believe for miracles.

 

Experiences play a big part in our ability to work miracles. While it is possible to work miracles without ever experiencing them, even just one miracle experience is valuable. Having experienced a variety of miracles firsthand, I can say there is a transformation that can happen in our mind when we witness a miracle. I say “can happen” because whether our mind transforms from that experience is partly based on our heart. If our hearts are closed off to God or the miraculous, it is unlikely we will absorb the spiritual nutrients that are released in that miracle event. Conversely, if we are open and ready to experience and receive all that God has for us, witnessing miracles firsthand is a priceless event and will certainly help transform our minds! As a side note, unlike the original disciples, we didn’t have three years of watching someone perform miracles in front of us very day, so we may need to pray in and seek out opportunities to witness miracles firsthand.

 

Paired with scriptural meditation and experiences are visualization and imagery training. Ephesians 1:20-21 says, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” When we imagine and visualize the miracles we are expecting and believing for, we are able to shift our faith and release power. When we do this, this scripture says we will see even more than we were imagining in the first place! The key to this verse is that God is able to do more than we can think, imagine, ask, and visualize according to something–His power at work within us! If we want miracles, we have to put the faith within us into action. It’s not enough to just have it–we need to work it. Interestingly, our subconscious mind doesn’t actually differentiate between fact and imagination. In other words, if we can imagine it, our subconscious belief systems will process it as real data alongside our real life experiences. If we imagine doing miracles it is the same to our minds as if we actually just performed those miracles! Using visualization, we can actually reduce unbelief and increase faith and that without even having to witness a miracle. This is a tool that I believe God has given us so that even if we can’t experience miracles firsthand, we can get some of the same faith-benefits as if we had experienced miracles. Keep in mind here that one experience of an actual miracle is many times more valuable than that of visualization so if given a choice, go see the real deal. However, this is a fantastic tool to use either alongside experiences or instead of them if they are unavailable.

 

Regardless of whether we are talking about growing a leg out or healing cancer, causing rainclouds to form from nothingness or for a mountain to upend itself in the nearest body of water, or even stranger things such as turning our bodies completely to fire or translocating regularly from place to place, all of these things are miracles and we have a responsibility to this world to become proficient in the miraculous. Jesus himself said in John 14:11, “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.” Miracles are a form of evidence that proves the Kingdom of God is at hand. They destroy works of darkness and release the light of heaven into the world. God is into miracles and we need to be as well. With the above tools under your belt, go forth and do mighty works!

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