Did God Allow Job To Be Attacked By Satan?

There is a common view in the Body of Christ that while God didn’t cause Job’s afflictions directly, He allowed them by not stepping in and stopping the attacks. While the little we see of the heavenly meeting-room scene in Job 1 might suggest that God did exactly that, there is a LOT more to the whole Job situation than meets the eye.

Job 1:1 starts off with “In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.”  This suggests that there was nothing the enemy should be able to do to afflict him. After all, it goes on to explain how he would make daily sacrifices for his family. Super upright for his day, right?

Try again.

Job was incredibly bound by fear, and fear is one of the biggest enemy strongholds there is.  Job 1:5 explains that every single time Job’s adult children would have a party (which seemed like it was regularly), he would then make them go through ritual cleansing and he would perform a series of sacrifices on their behalf. Why? On the off chance they might have cursed God silently in their hearts sometime during their revels. If that wasn’t sufficient, it seems Job had a lot more fear too. Job 3:25 says, “What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.” He apparently feared losing his family, his belongings, and his health because all of that already happened in Chapters 1 and 2, and in Chapter 3 he makes that statement. And while that sounds kind of mundane, I suggest that Job had a high level of ongoing anxiety about his family on a daily basis that stemmed from a deep fear that he fed daily

People like to frequently make the argument that “God didn’t stop Satan” or “God allowed it”, but they seem to ignore two key points. The first is that the ancient Jewish belief is that Satan worked for God, so that in afflicting Job they believed Satan was actually performing God’s will. Jesus clarified for the Jewish people that Satan was an enemy of God and not working for him, but Job didn’t have that revelation. The second is that Job created tons of openings in his life for demonic affliction due to an easily-identified stronghold of fear. Job invited the affliction due to legal access via sowing and reaping of fear, and the enemy capitalized on that and wreaked havoc in his life.

We like to think that God is somehow supposed to wave His cosmic arm and make all bad things go away when it conveniences us, and the rest of the time our choices somehow don’t matter. In reality, our choices, beliefs, and emotions are what dictate to the greatest degree the things that happen in our lives. Certainly there are a number of factors that influence life events, but our choices, thoughts, and emotions are by and large the biggest contributors. When people get up in arms about why God “allowed” Job’s affliction, I suppose one could make the argument that God allowed it by setting up spiritual laws that govern the cosmos that in any way at all made it so Satan could afflict the man, but that is a gross oversimplification of a LOT of things and ignores a number of other highly important issues, free will being one of them. God didn’t make robots, so He also didn’t take total control over the lives and choices of angels, humans, or any other created beings, and neither we nor He would want it any other way anyway—except when it inconveniences us, that is. So if God giving us free will means he “allowed” Satan to attack Job then sure, that would be accurate. Otherwise it’s untrue.

The thing is, God doesn’t change cosmic laws willy-nilly based on our opinion that morning or based on whatever unfortunate thing happened that day. Some people get offended over that fact, but it’s a fact. God cares incredibly much about each one of us, to the point that Jesus willing laid His life down to purchase total freedom from all demonic oppression for us. God cares far more than we will ever realize. Do we really understand that Jesus literally walked headlong into situations that he knew were going to cause him intense trauma and pain, and then continued to walk through those situations when at any second he could have said a single word and stopped the whole thing? He underwent possibly the worst torture a human can undergo, and to make it worse he knew that if he failed, then all of humanity for all time and eternity would be eternally lost. He had the biggest gun in all creation pointed at his family’s head and knew that if He didn’t go through abject torture then every single one of us would die eternally. Can you imagine how hard that was for Him? I can only barely begin to touch on how He must have felt. But Hebrews 12 tells us that He did it because He knew it would be worth it eventually.

God didn’t afflict Job. He didn’t “allow” it. He didn’t “permit” it. Job and Satan worked together to bring calamity upon him, and when all is said and done, Jesus is the one who stepped out of heaven to fix things. He did it with Job, restoring double all he lost, and He continues to bring restoration in our lives as well because God is always, only, and ever good and about abundant life.

signs wonders miracles revival prophecy holy spirit feathers gemstones oil manna wine

It Is Time For A Miracle Reformation

 

For anyone who has been following The Kings of Eden for some time, you will know that I absolutely love miracles, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and really, every way that Jesus comes and transforms lives. What I don’t love is when we as individual members of the Body of Christ do things that make all of us collectively look stupid. Just this past year we have seen a disappointing end to an extraordinary miracle, and that’s just one example. I’ll explain more of what I mean about that shortly, but I believe that we are stepping into a time we are past due for—the time for a Miracle Reformation!

Back in November of last year (2019), I was driving a trailer of belongings from Oregon to Texas, and kept seeing repeating 111’s. I ended up texting a bunch of photos to a friend because it kept happening just so frequently. Exit 111, 111 miles to the next city, license plates, and more. Normally when this happens to me, God is trying to communicate a message to me. Now, driving at 50-80 mph in a truck with an enclosed trailer isn’t exactly a great time to look up Bible verses, but when I finally was able to look up repeating 1’s and found the following:

“Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let the Israelites go out of his country.” Exodus 11:10

“He has caused his wonders to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and compassionate.” Psalm 111:4


Both of these verses speak of “wonders”, and not miracles specifically, but I think of “wonders” as miraculous happenings that cause people to ask questions, to think, and to engage in surprise and admiration of God. As an interesting aside, if you add 111 + 111 you get 222, and Acts 2:22 says, “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know,” yet again pointing to the miraculous. Ultimately, I think that God wants us to both not-harden our hearts toward miracles and also to remember them. But with so much silliness abounding in the church regarding the miraculous, sometimes it is hard not to let a little hardness or skepticism in.

For example, there is a “study” that has been passed around the internet for almost a decade now about speaking in tongues (you can read the earliest I can find of the many re-publishings of it here). It is supposedly by Dr. Carl Peterson who purportedly published through Oral Roberts University, and it says that immunity can be increased by 35-40% through speaking in tongues. Sounds wonderful, right? Wrong. First off, it is impossible to actually locate the study. I’ve tried and failed multiple times (and if anyone is able to produce it, please send it to me and I will correct this statement, but until then . . . impossible to find). Second, the only thing I have ever seen is the exact same piece of text that has been copied and pasted so many times that no one seems to know where it actually first appeared nor how real it is or isn’t. Third, if one actually evaluates the text of the documentation, it is incredibly vague. It doesn’t reference the title of the study, it doesn’t tell us where the very specific 35-40% numbers came from, and while some of the facts about anatomy and physiology written in the statement are verifiable as true, none of that has anything to do with speaking in tongues, and certainly has no connection to an unnamed, unidentified study that no one can produce. And yet, when I recently spoke with some people who were repeating these same numerical statements, they began to argue with me that they didn’t care if a study could prove it or not because “they believe the Bible and know that tongues is healthy for the body.”

Don’t misunderstand me. I believe speaking in tongues is a good idea. There is are reasons Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14:18 that, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.” Yet, when someone is challenged on the ability to produce evidence of very specific numerical claims about the effects of the practice on one’s body, I get ridiculed for not having enough faith in God. I’m sorry, but I both have faith in God and enough of a science background to recognize that a study should have actual data associated with it. And when we collectively repeat nonsense enough times that we believe it is true, anyone else with half a brain knows it is absurd and it makes us look stupid. How is that helping encourage people to pursue miracles? It isn’t.

Another disappointment in the past year is the Dalton Bible and its oil production scandal. I have written about the initial miracle here and have a guest author’s article I have shared here on my other website and then my perspective on the scandal here for those who want to read it. In summary though, a Bible began miraculously producing oil a few years back, and at some point early this year it came out that some of that oil may have been planted by a person or persons in the ministry. While the ministry vehemently denied it, the oil stopped flowing, the ministry stopped all meetings, they stopped communicating with the outside world, and then stopped maintaining their ministry web domain, apparently disbanding. While the circumstances surrounding it are sad enough, this is the kind of stuff that causes skeptics to be even more skeptical.

I think it is time we saw a Miracle Reformation—where we not only expect to see and experience signs, wonders, and miracles, but where we also have a high level of discernment regarding what is actually taking place when they occur, as well as intentional accountability that answers the sensible questions of naysayers. Having written multiple books on miracles, with multiple more in the works, I recognize that it is not always possible to provide a so-called “rational” explanation of miracles to those who don’t believe. However, I think sometimes we don’t even try to help people understand what is happening when miracles take place—and I think that is often because we don’t understand what is going on either!

It seems to be a rare breed among people of faith to find those who both seek to operate in miracles and understand what God is doing in and through them. While certainly I don’t think we have to limit God to what we can understand with our minds, I do think that we would be wise to ask Him for wisdom, knowledge, and understanding related to the things He is doing. After all, God tells us to ask Him and He will tell us the answers (Jeremiah 33:3). I believe that God wants us to remember the miracles of the past and not let current failings harden our hearts to the things of the future, but I believe God also wants us to walk in wisdom as we administrate His power in signs and wonders.

Toward that end, I have written and published two books of what is eventually going to be a 6-book series on different kinds of miracle manifestations. In each book I discuss the miracle itself, what the Bible says about it, advice on how we can discern the situation wisely, and how we can partner with God to see these wonders in our own lives. The two currently published are Gemstones From Heaven and Feathers From Heaven, available on Amazon, with additional books on oil, manna, gold, and radiance miracles in various stages of being written (I am taking testimony submissions for those books—email me at thekingsofeden@gmail.com). You can also find more goodies under the “Signs, Wonders, & Miracles category” on this website. 

Impartation and the Human Spirit – The Power of Impartation Part 4

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In Part 1 we discussed the mechanism of impartation and how we can influence its effectiveness in our lives. In Part 2 we discussed what I call Impartation Math—understanding both how we can give to others without loss on our end, as well as how the seed of impartation can help us grow in spiritual power. In Part 3 we saw how the power of impartation can be used to pursue exponential growth in spiritual power. In this fourth and final installment of The Power of Impartation series we are going to look at the influence and interaction between the human spirit, the holy spirit, and how they are related to impartation—as well as how we can benefit from that understanding.

In Numbers 11 we see an interesting interaction between Moses and God. Moses is complaining that running the nation is too much work, so God gives him a very intriguing instruction. The passage says:

“The Lord said to Moses: ‘Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you. I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone” . . . . So Moses went out and told the people what the Lord had said. He brought together seventy of their elders and had them stand around the tent. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied—but did not do so again. However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did not go out to the tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp.” (Numbers 11:16-17, 24-26)

The fascinating thing about this scripture, to me, is that God recognized that something He had placed upon Moses had a few different qualities.
1) It helped Moses accomplish something (which in this instance was governing)
2) It could be shared and/or given to others
3) It is possible to share it with someone who isn’t physically present
4) The “it” being shared is actually part of the nature of God, not just an object

It is also of note that because the process of impartation is sharing an aspect or quality of the Holy Spirit, it means that the qualities of God can be split up. What I mean by that is that having the Holy Spirit means we have access to all aspects of His being, but it doesn’t mean that all aspects of His being are actively resident or at work within us. Furthermore, something about impartation causes those qualities to be shared, revealed, or otherwise manifested when they previously were not. The main difference between the Old and New Testament regarding this is that the Holy Spirit is now resident in all believers, but all of His qualities are still not made manifest, hence the value and benefit of impartation from one to another.

We see this again in another Old Testament passage, between Elijah and Elisha, except there is something unique about what that passage shows us that is relevant to understanding how impartation functions and how our human spirit is involved in the process. 2 Kings 2:9-10 says:

“When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?’
‘Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,’ Elisha replied.
‘You have asked a difficult thing,’ Elijah said, ‘yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise, it will not.’”

Note here that Elisha didn’t ask for a double portion of the Holy Spirit that was upon Elijah, but a double portion of his spirit. Furthermore, Elijah didn’t tell him that was impossible, but outlined conditions under which Elisha’s request would be granted. Elisha seemed aware that what he was going to receive had a connection not just to the Spirit of God, but to Elijah’s spirit. In fact, we see Jesus reference this as well in Luke 1:17a, saying “he will go on before the LORD, in the spirit and power of Elijah . . .” Even Jesus recognized that it is possible to inherit something from another *person’s* spirit and not just from the Holy Spirit.

While I get that concept opens up a large can of worms (too large to cover here, and which I will be covering in the book I am now working on that will share the same title as this series—The Power of Impartation), it is important to understand there is a significant interchange between our human spirits and the Holy Spirit in impartation. There is an important principle that I see displayed in 1 Corinthians 14 that I think reveals the connection between the Holy Spirit and our human spirit. The passage is talking about tongues and prophecy, but pay attention to what it says about the human spirit:

For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. Otherwise when you are praising God in the Spirit, how can someone else, who is now put in the position of an inquirer, say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since they do not know what you are saying? You are giving thanks well enough, but no one else is edified. . . . Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. (2 Corinthians 14:14-17, 29-32)

In this passage speaks about gifts of the Holy Spirit, but he keeps referring to people praying with their own spirits. How does that work? He explains in 1 Corinthians 14, “For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit.” In other words, the Holy Spirit and the human spirit work together when one is praying in tongues. This is a perfect example of a situation where the Spirit of God comes upon our spirits and the connection of the two influences what happens next. We also see that Paul tells us the spirits of the prophets are subject to their own control, which means that our human spirits are not simply passively receiving whatever God is doing, but that we have the ability to control what our spirits are doing. Why is this important?

If we want to understand how impartation works, we have to grasp the concept that our human spirit is involved in a partnership with the Holy Spirit, but also that some aspects of the flavor of our own spirit get passed on when we impart to others—largely because our spirit is the vessel. If you will recall in Part 1 (https://www.thekingsofeden.com/2020/05/growing-in-spiritual-power-the-power-of-impartation-part-1/) I shared a story about a time I received prayer from Prophet Larry Randolph, and I could actually observe the “flavor” of the impartation in how I was prophesying over others shortly afterwards. In some way, impartation is not just a gift where we are giving an aspect of the Holy Spirit as a gift, but we are giving the gift of ourselves as well—and yet, because the Holy Spirit flows like a river through us, we don’t experience loss even as we give freely of Him and of ourselves to others. And isn’t pouring out our lives for others part of the example Jesus gave us? With impartation, we just give of ourselves in a different sort of way.

I am excited about the gift that impartation is to the Church, and while I understand I have shared just a few aspects of a larger subject, my hope is that it has given you, the reader, a greater understanding of the impact it can have in your own life, how it functions, why it even matters, and the connection both our spirits and the Holy Spirit have in this process. If you are interested in more on this subject, as I mentioned earlier I am now working on a more comprehensive book on the subject which will also share the name The Power of Impartation (the book is now finished–get it here!). If you want to be notified about it when it is in print, make sure to sign up for my email list below (if you haven’t already), and you will also receive a free e-book on how to engage the angelic realms as a thank you. Stay in touch and God bless you!

 

The Power of Impartation Series:

Part 1:  Growing in Spiritual Power

Part 2:  Impartation Math

Part 3:  Pursuing Exponential Growth

Part 4:  Impartation and the Human Spirit

 

The book The Power of Impartation is now available.  Get your copy today!

 

 

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Pursuing Exponential Growth – The Power of Impartation Part 3

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In Part 1 we discussed the mechanism of impartation and how we can influence its effectiveness in our lives. In Part 2 we discussed what I call Impartation Math—understanding both how we can give to others without loss on our end, as well as how the seed of impartation can help us grow in spiritual power. Now we are going to look at how the power of impartation can be used to pursue exponential growth in spiritual power, which ultimately looks like more effective prayers and better results. While intentional impartation may not exactly mirror exponential growth, it can help us to move in that direction at growing rate.

 

Exponential growth is growth that increases in the growth speed over time, essentially gaining speed as time passes. A good example is that of a farmer and his crops. When a farmer plants a single plant, it produces seeds—not one, but many seeds per plant. For simplicity let us say one plant produces 20 seeds. If a farmer plants those seeds and they all bear fruit, he will harvest 400 seeds. If he plants those seeds and they all bear fruit at the next harvest, he will harvest 8,000 seeds. Repeated continuously it will then be 160,000 seeds, then 3.2 million, then 64 million, and so on. At some point he will be unable to plant all of the seeds he would theoretically obtain, all due to exponential growth over time. What we are going to do is apply the concept of exponential growth and look at what could happen if we turned it toward intentional use of the principles behind impartation.

 

Before going further, I just want to point out that growing in spiritual power has to do with our own effectiveness in manifesting and releasing the Kingdom in the earth. It is not the same as having an actual relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, nor is it a substitute for developing a lifestyle of intimacy with the Godhead. Nothing in this series should be understood to be or taken as a substitute for a relationship with God, but instead is meant to show some ways we can shortcut the process of growing in spiritual power to influence our world.

 

As we discussed in Part 2, Impartation Math shows us how we can impart a small portion of our spiritual ability to others as a seed that can be cultivated and grown. But what if we didn’t just do this at random, or only do it occasionally? What if instead, a group of people caught the vision for how to grow intentionally and put these principles into practice? Let’s look at that now.

 

Imagine that a group of five people all met together weekly for prayer and/or ministry of some kind. Then imagine that each time they met, they prayed for one another to receive impartation from the measure of the Holy Spirit on their lives. To explain this, I am going with the following rules, which, while the numbers are a little arbitrary, the numbers are chosen to represent a concept:

1) Something imparted is in seed form

2) When one prays for another, roughly 1% of their total spiritual force is given away (with 1% representing a small amount, in seed form)

3) When that impartation is assimilated, the total spiritual power increases to make a new total.

4) Everyone in the group starts at 100 sp (SP = spiritual power, representing the power, force, God-points, or whatever one wants to title this)

 

If on meeting 1 everyone gives 1% to everyone else (1 sp), at the end of the meeting everyone is now at 104 points. At the next gathering, everyone gives 1.04 sp away so each person goes away with 108.16 sp. If we continue this ten times in total (rounding to 3 decimals or less), then by the end of 10 meetings (chart at the bottom) each person would be at approximately 148 sp, nearly 1.5 times what they began with, and if this continued weekly for six months, he or she would have at least 277 sp, almost 3 times the starting point.  Now, while these numbers are only a rough representation of how this works, there is a sort of spiritual mathematics that occurs when we engage in spiritual transactions of any kind, and if we are aware of this, we can make purposeful use of this in our lives.

 

Imagine what could happen if this group continued to do their weekly meetings regularly for years, with people coming and going, picking up the benefits of both giving and receiving in impartation culture, carrying it with them to other places, and with the initial group continuing to grow both in in spiritual power over time. Imagine if instead of five people it had ten or fifteen, and that in addition to regular impartation they spent time in corporate worship and intercession for their group, the region, and more. What if this was a God-designed way that we could help one another make leaps and bounds forward in our ability to see our prayers answered, miracles released, our communities transformed, and experience the manifestation of the Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven?

 

Personally, I have seen the benefits of acceleration in spiritual growth, and this has been in part through intentional focus on my part. I think that sometimes people can confuse the idea that we get everything in the Kingdom as a free inheritance with the idea that we get it for free in seed form. Jesus told a parable about the mustard seed of faith in Mark 4:30-32, saying “Again he said, ‘What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.’” The point of this parable wasn’t about just needing to have a seed—it was that as the seed grew, the increasing benefits would be revealed. I believe that impartation is essentially a means of both planting new seeds and watering those seeds we have already received from Heaven. The more intentional we are about it, the more watering the plants get, and with better nurture comes better and faster growth. Jesus wasn’t teaching his disciples to rest and do nothing. I believe he was trying to explain how growth over time would release increasing benefits, and that as we do, other people will be able to benefit from the power of God working through our lives. Intentional impartation is one way we can help maximize this growth with one another.

 

In the fourth and final installment of The Power of Impartation series we are going to look at the influence and interaction between the human spirit, the holy spirit, and how they are related to impartation—as well as how we can benefit from that understanding. Stay tuned!

 

Meeting #: Start + Add = End Total*

1: 100 + 4 = 104
2: 104 + 4.16 = 108.16
3: 108.16 + 4.326 = 112.486
4: 112.486 + 4.5 = 117
5: 117 + 4.68 = 121.68
6: 121.68 + 4.868 = 126.548
7: 126.548 + 5.06 = 131.6
8: 131.6 + 5.264 = 136.864
9: 136.864 + 5.476 = 142.34
10: 142.34 + 5.69 = 148.03

*For everyone checking my math, please note that for simplicity’s sake, I have intentionally rounded to 1 or 2 decimals in certain places when the numbers were extremely close to the next decimal, which since the numbers are all made-up to begin with doesn’t influence the point one way or the other.

 

The Power of Impartation Series:

Part 1: Growing in Spiritual Power

Part 2: Impartation Math

Part 3 – Pursuing Exponential Growth

Part 4 – Impartation and the Human Spirit

 

The book The Power of Impartation is now available.  Get your copy today!

 

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Impartation Math – The Power of Impartation Part 2

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In Part 1 we discussed the mechanism of impartation and how we can influence its effectiveness in our lives. In this segment we are going to look at what I call “Impartation Math”, or ultimately the rules behind how it functions, so that we can look in a future segment on how to make use of these principles to enhance our own spiritual advancement.  Impartation prayer is a great way to accelerate spiritual growth in the individual, but from what I have observed there is a sort of spiritual mathematics behind how it tends to function. Keep in mind this is how impartation tends to function in most cases, and is not a rule for all circumstances, as there are always outliers. However, I am confident that the concepts we will discuss are fairly reliable. Some of the information below is also discussed in my book The Gamer’s Guide to the Kingdom of God.

Impartation is a useful method to grow in spiritual power, but when receiving it from others, it seems that we typically only receive a small portion of whatever the other person carries. Thus, it often takes a moderate amount of impartation over time before we notice significant changes. Impartation is much like planting a spiritual seed, but it is also a renewable resource. When imparting to others, we don’t lose spiritual virtue, but rather pass on a seed of what we have received to the other person.

To explain the concept, we are going to look at math using arbitrary percentages I have assigned for simplicity’s sake. While the numbers are kept simple for easy math, we have to keep in mind that impartation is typically passing on virtue in seed form, requiring further growth and development to become powerful and effective. Spiritual virtue flows through us much like a river that collects in a reservoir. When we impart to someone else our reservoir level drops slightly, but is entirely temporary as it is soon refilled by the river of God still feeding it—so we are able to give freely without experiencing any personal loss. Practically speaking this means there is a limitless supply of God-energy available to us in any and every situation. Ultimately, it is the speed of the flow of one’s “spiritual river” that influences how quickly this occurs, but when we give to one another we help increase their ability to be a conduit of the Holy Spirit.

Consider that when praying, we give someone 1% of the spiritual power (or a spiritual gift) we possess. If 100 people gave 1% (or fewer people but a total of 100 separate instances), then that individual’s spiritual capacity would essentially double. There is no limit to the amount of virtue we can impart to others, but if we can only give 1% at a time it will take a while to notice the effects. Ultimately, the goal is to enlarge our reservoir so more can flow through us in any moment. This means that the speed at which we see divine healing, deliverance, and much more should see an increase over time, and really the same will occur for answered prayer as a whole. Additionally, as our reservoir enlarges, we are able to impart more virtue to others when we pray as well. For example, even if the percentage we impart remains the same, as we enlarge our reservoir, we become able to release a greater amount to others. In human terms, 1% of 100 gallons is far less than 1% of 100,000 gallons and our spirits work similarly. As we grow in spiritual power, we have more ability to release a greater measure upon those around us.

Now, if we want to see this occur on a wider scale, we would have to become more intentional about it. And as we discussed in the previous article, we have to not just receive impartation, but do something to assimilate it to truly become part of us. Furthermore, hopefully we aren’t solely relying on this to grow, and are also doing things with what we receive to minister to those around us. In Part 3, we are going to look at how we can use these principles to pursue exponential growth in spiritual power.

The Power of Impartation Series:

Part 1: Growing in Spiritual Power

Part 2: Impartation Math

Part 3 – Pursuing Exponential Growth

Part 4 – Impartation and the Human Spirit

 

The book The Power of Impartation is now available.  Get your copy today!

 

 

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Growing in Spiritual Power – The Power of Impartation Part 1

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Back in the fall of 2006 I volunteered at Global Awakening’s yearly Voice of the Apostles conference. After one of the night sessions I was tasked with driving one of the speakers, Larry Randolph, and his wife back to their hotel. We had some brief conversation on the ride there, and during that time I asked him if he would mind praying for me to receive an impartation of the prophetic gifts, unction, or whatever else one might choose to call it. He agreed, but then we got sidetracked with some other things and the prayer didn’t occur that night, which was disappointing but fine. Yet, what happened the next day taught me something interesting about growing in spiritual power and the power of impartation.

Larry was the speaker for the afternoon session, and after calling out words of knowledge and prophecying over the audience members the Holy Spirit highlighted to him, he was about to end, saying “I’ve got time for one more.” He then looked directly at me and called me up to the front to pray an impartation of the prophetic over me. At first he wasn’t sure specifically why he felt led to do this . . . until I reminded him that I had asked the night prior. He chuckled, as he then recalled that we had never gotten to it that night, prayed for me, then closed the session.

It was touching that the Holy Spirit heard and honored my request from the night prior, but what followed was fascinating to me. I had the distinct impression that I needed to take some time in prayer with God after this, but a friend came up immediately and asked me to pray for her as well, which I did. In hindsight, I should have listened to the nudging I felt, but that’s the value of experience, and I was still pretty young in the prophetic at the time.

I have a theory about how impartation works. The Bible likes to refer to spiritual virtue, anointing, gifts, etc. as oil and humans as earthenware jars (2 Cor 4:7), so let’s use the analogy of oil in a jar. If we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we can be likened to a full jar. When someone prays impartation over us, we receive an infilling of more oil, but the jar is already full, so we have to temporarily expand the jar size to fit the extra oil (yes, I know that’s not actually a thing with jars, but just go with the example).

Once the jar-size is expanded, there are two possible options:
1) the oil will get used and the jar shrinks back down to normal size
2) the oil gets assimilated and the jar permanently expands

Some believe that impartation only works if God initiates it. I have not found that to be true. It may be more effective if God initiates it, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work the rest of the time. In Acts 3:6, Peter says to a cripple that “what I have I give you”. Peter recognized that he not only had a substance but that he could give it to other people. In addition to spiritual power, we see multiple times in Acts where the Holy Spirit is given through the laying on of hands, and it references the same occurring with prophetic gifts in 1 Timothy 4:14, saying “Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.”

There are a number of ideas out there about impartation, but my observation has shown me that the two options listed above are really the only two available. Either we receive the gift of impartation and it becomes permanent, or we receive it and it is impermanent. What I have found is that we can influence how permanent it does or does not become. For example, why would I have felt nudged not to pray for someone else after receiving impartation prayer from Larry Randolph? It wouldn’t matter unless my actions were able to influence what happened in some meaningful way.

I am a huge fan of impartation prayer, as I believe it is a method God gives us to accelerate spiritual growth for ourselves and others. However, it works best when we are active participants. In my own life, I have made it a point to intentionally cultivate both my relationship with God and my prayer life, as I have noticed accelerated spiritual growth when I spend long periods of time in prayer. Furthermore, I have found that if I spend time in prayer, worship, soaking, or otherwise engaging with God in the subsequent days after receiving impartation prayer, it seems to have a positive impact on whether I assimilate the impartation or not. Anyone can get prayed for, but those who are intentional to steward the gift are those who will receive the most benefit.

If you want to enhance your own spiritual growth as far as effectiveness in prayer, healing the sick, and more, I encourage you to take advantage of impartation where it is available, but don’t be passive about it. Take it that next step and intentionally assimilate all the Lord has given you so that you can be the most effective you there is. We are going to look a bit more in the next two installments about how we can encourage exponential growth and the connection impartation has with the human spirit.

The Power of Impartation Series:

Part 1: Growing in Spiritual Power

Part 2: Impartation Math

Part 3 – Pursuing Exponential Growth

Part 4 – Impartation and the Human Spirit

 

The book The Power of Impartation is now available.  Get your copy today!

 

 

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Whatever Touches The Flesh Will Become Holy

In the midst of this entire disease issue, I have been using the time to finish writing my newest book The Gospel of Life and Immortality which I am now revising and hope to publish later this year. While doing some scriptural study, I was reminded of a very interesting parallel between the Old and New Testaments addressing how we manage those who are sick and “unclean” versus healthy and “clean,” and I want to explore the implications of what that means for us today—specifically the idea stated in Exodus 22:27, that “Whatever touches . . . the flesh will become holy.”

Leviticus 11:311-35 says, “Of all those that move along the ground, these are unclean for you. Whoever touches them when they are dead will be unclean till evening. When one of them dies and falls on something, that article, whatever its use, will be unclean, whether it is made of wood, cloth, hide or sackcloth. Put it in water; it will be unclean till evening, and then it will be clean. If one of them falls into a clay pot, everything in it will be unclean, and you must break the pot. Any food you are allowed to eat that has come into contact with water from any such pot is unclean, and any liquid that is drunk from such a pot is unclean. Anything that one of their carcasses falls on becomes unclean; an oven or cooking pot must be broken up. They are unclean, and you are to regard them as unclean.”

This passage is one of many that explains how things that are unclean make almost everything else they come in contact with unclean. If you read Levitical Law from an infection-control perspective it is actually incredibly pragmatic and would help a large group of people living closely together maintain better health and sanitation. However, the underlying thing it points to is that unclean things make clean things dirty.  If we look elsewhere in the Old Testament we see an interesting contrast when dealing with sin offerings. Exodus 22:24b-27 says:

The Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron and his sons: ‘These are the regulations for the sin offering: The sin offering is to be slaughtered before the Lord in the place the burnt offering is slaughtered; it is most holy. The priest who offers it shall eat it; it is to be eaten in the sanctuary area, in the courtyard of the tent of meeting. Whatever touches any of the flesh will become holy, and if any of the blood is spattered on a garment, you must wash it in the sanctuary area.

I want to draw special attention to the last sentence (v27) that says “Whatever touches any of the flesh will become holy.” What we need to note here is that sin offerings remove and/or cover over sin. While something might normally be unclean, if anything touches the flesh of a sin sacrifice, the item becomes holy. This is a foreshadowing of the New Testament gift we receive in Christ which he demonstrated with the lepers, where those who come in contact with Jesus are made clean, well, and whole. We see this in Matthew 8:1-3 (also in Mark 1:40-42 and Luke 5:12-13) where it says:

When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy.

In this verse, the unclean man comes to the clean man seeking to be cleansed—but there is more to it than that. Jesus was our sin offering as well, and we see that in this passage when Jesus touched the man, his flesh touched the leper’s, the unclean man became clean. The Old Covenant lived under the law where unclean things dirtied everything else around them, but the New Covenant reality is that clean things cleanse everything around them. Whatever touches the flesh will become holy, clean, well, and put in right standing and alignment.

I realize that there are many different opinions floating around the church world these days having to do with sickness and disease, but I think it is important that we refocus on the truth that is presented to us in the Bible. Romans 6:33 tells us that the payment we receive for sin is death. Sickness is just a manifestation of death at work in our bodies. Jesus as the blood sacrifice once for all sin has already touched our lives and He has declared us clean, whole, righteous, and pure with no sin or blemish or stain upon us. The gift of righteousness we receive in Christ Jesus brings us life that destroys the power of sickness that seeks to work death in our bodies. While the Old Covenant reality is that sickness would make the healthy sick, the new way of Christ is that wherever we go, it is our job to destroy sickness and make the sick healthy and whole again.

I think it is time the Body of Christ reframes our perspective and realigns again with who Christ has declared us to be: clean-makers, righteous ones who destroy sin, and that whatever touches our flesh becomes clean. In a world where a six-foot distance separating humans from one another, we need to be reminded that we carry within us the power of Christ to destroy disease. The world has cowed many in the Church into bowing to the power of disease when in fact the opposite needs to occur: disease bowing to the power of Christ in us, the Church. As we go about our daily lives, I encourage each one of us to truly consider where we stand in our own hearts on this matter. Do we actually expect the things we touch to become clean? Or are we constantly on the alert to keep everything outside of us from defiling us? I believe that as we each become more aware of the reality that in Christ we can cleanse the world around us of sickness and disease we will actually experience it regularly—and this is what God has already purchased for us in Christ! May we all step into a greater understanding of the power to redeem, heal, and restore that Jesus has bestowed upon us all!

 

 

Why God Does Not Stop Evil

Some people struggle with understanding why God “lets” bad things happen. The “why didn’t God stop it” question has to do with a lack of understanding about sovereignty and God being in control. If God was “in control” like many say, then God is profoundly evil. It would mean that God intentionally causes rape, murder, and all kinds of perverse and wicked things in the earth. And even if we make the argument that God doesn’t personally perform them but “allows” others to perform them out of His infinite wisdom and grace, then God is basically a sadist, taking pleasure in the pain and suffering of others. But that’s not who God is, what He is like, or how any of this actually even works. God isn’t in control—or at least not remotely how people like to think. And this is actually the best explanation for why God does not stop evil.

The idea of sovereignty as is usually applied to God is that God is sovereign which means He is in control of everything in creation and thus whatever happens goes according to His will. This is inaccurate on multiple points. First, sovereignty has to do with being the highest authority over a domain—and that’s all it means. Note that I didn’t say “highest authority where everything goes his way”. I simply said “highest authority”. God as sovereign simply means that there is no one with a higher level of authority that God. But that doesn’t mean everything goes the way God wants it to.

We can look at earthly examples and see this is true of any sovereign. Kings and emperors are also sovereigns—the highest authority in their domain. If a king makes a decree and not everyone follows that decree, does that threaten the king’s sovereignty? Does it somehow make him less of a king because someone disobeyed the order? Of course not. Someone breaking the royal law doesn’t change the king’s rulership in any way—it simply means that if the king wants his rulership to have any value, he has to set up enforcers throughout his kingdom—those who enforce the rules the king has put in place.

We have only to look to the first three chapters of Genesis and we can see that God doesn’t always get His way in spite of the fact that He is Sovereign over everything in all creation. Adam and Eve disobeyed His instructions in the third chapter of Genesis, and mankind has been disobeying Him ever since, but that doesn’t mean that God’s rulership is threatened. In fact, not only is not threatened, but in Christ Jesus, God has appointed us who were once His enemies (Romans 5:10) as chosen enforcers of His Divine Will in the earth. God isn’t in control and things don’t always go His way, which is where we come in.

Did you know that the Bible tells us that it is largely up to us humans to decide what happens in the earth? Psalm 115:16 says, “The highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth he has given to mankind.” Again in Amos 3:7 it says, “Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.” God has chosen to partner with us to influence the earth realm, even to the point that God doesn’t do anything without our involvement in some manner. And this is an important fact to take note of.

God set up laws in the fabric of creation that govern how the multiverse works. God is just, in that those laws govern all creation, He follows His own laws, and those laws don’t care who you are–they are impartial in their function. For whatever reason God gave mankind authority over the earth, and this means that He is bound by that decision as well. If God wants to do things in the earth He has to involve us in some way, so when we think that God hs somehow “allowed” evil, what has in fact happened is that we have allowed evil.

This is a hard pill for some to swallow because it means that mankind, then, is generally responsible for the ills that befall us and not God. It is frustrating at times to be sure, as demons make use of spiritual laws that we are often ignorant of to cause affliction, torment, and ultimately death, loss, and destruction—yet even then, they typically do it with our involvement as well.

For example, if someone has unhealed emotions, then demons use those unhealed places to set up a stronghold inside the person, then they expand their dominion inside that individual. Demons utilize the law of sowing and reaping to attract evil to that person over time through the position of their stronghold, and it works because they are using, even if in a twisted way, spiritual laws to gain “legal” occupancy inside a person. When bad things happen and we perceive that God doesn’t stop it, it’s because demons have expanded the realm of their control inside that person which allows the demons to afflict that person in various ways and ultimately we not only haven’t stopped it, but have made room in our hearts for that evil to exist.

The demonic make great use of the authority of humans in the earth to cause pain and suffering, and they do it by influencing our free will. The Holy Spirit does similarly, influencing us to use our free will to bring life all around us, but He is kind and not manipulative, unlike the enemy. The Holy Spirit invites us into a partnership with Him whereby we can together release transformation into the lives and circumstances around us.

And while we can make the argument that God doesn’t stop evil because it’s our job to, we also need to recognize that God actually stops evil a LOT. We don’t have half of a clue of the many myriad things God has protected each one of us from, but the moment something does make it through, we tend to get upset and blame God for “not stopping” it. No, God gave dominion of the earth realm to us. If something makes it through, it’s our job to do something about it based on the authority He has given us instead of blaming Him for us not adequately taking dominion in our own lives.

This past December we had to put our dog Rowan down. There was a known spiritual component to the problems that led up to the end result, and the entire thing was very upsetting as a result—both because we loved (and still love) her, but also because the spiritual issues that surrounded her death screamed “the enemy won this battle”. While I normally never blame God for anything, I found my own heart tested on this subject, as I found myself thinking from time to time things like “God, why didn’t you stop this?” The truth is that I don’t believe that God is in control and I haven’t for years, but when circumstances come up, it tests what we actually believe and reveals hidden motives in our hearts. God didn’t kill my dog, and He certainly didn’t cause me and my family pain in order to teach me a lesson about persistent subconscious and unconscious beliefs. While God in His infinite goodness certainly works terrible situations like this for my good, He isn’t causing it, isn’t influencing it to happen, and isn’t responsible for it. Humans were responsible for partnering with the enemy to bring harm to my family, and my responsibility lay, at least to a degree, with failing to protect a member of my family.

I don’t say or share any of this to bring condemnation on anyone so if anyone is hearing that from this story I am sharing, that isn’t the point at all (and I don’t condemn myself for it either). I am trying to illustrate that when bad things happen to us, it isn’t because God is permitting evil, it isn’t because we are being tested like Job, and it isn’t because God is giving us a heavy burden to bear because He will only give us what we can handle. All of those are highly erroneous beliefs developed from a poor understanding of God’s nature, and they have no similarity to who God is or what He is actually like.

The Bible says in Proverbs 26:2 that a curse that has no cause cannot come to light, meaning that if there is no access in our lives that negative things cannot have power to influence us. The issue many people have isn’t that a curse is causeless—it’s that we don’t have a clue what the cause is, and assume there isn’t one when the cause is just well-hidden. Many times we don’t know that we have access points for the enemy and the enemy wants to keep it that way. God, however, reveals ways that we can destroy the access that the enemy has in our lives so He can bring us into increasing realms of true freedom. In this process, God also reveals to us the authority He has given us to destroy works of darkness (Luke 10:19) so that we can enforce His abundant life in the earth.

 

 

Filling Prayer Bowls – Accelerating Answered Prayer

In a previous article titled Frame It! Building a Vehicle For Answered Prayer we discussed how to frame up prayer using a model of golden bowls found in Revelation 5:8 and 8:3-5, with a promise of more to come, discussing how prayer bowls get filled and how we can accelerate the process with spiritual laws and principles. In the same way that the natural world full of visible matter has natural laws that govern its function, the spiritual realm full of invisible spirit-matter has spiritual laws that do the same. Where natural laws include things like friction, drag, gravity, and thermodynamics, spiritual laws include things like sowing and reaping, focus, and agreement. When we understand how spiritual laws function, we can make strategic use of them to enhance the effectiveness of our prayers. Spiritual principles are similar to laws in that they influence how things function, but are not as specific and targeted as laws are. Alternately, to look at why prayers often go unanswered, you can read our article titled Understanding Spiritual Laws and Forces: The Paper Airplane Model. Before explaining how we can use spiritual laws and principles to do this, I want to clarify something. None of this is us earning God’s favor or earning the right to have our prayers answered. We have already been made fully righteous in Jesus Christ, and instead of trying to earn the right to get our prayers answered, the scriptures tell us that because of our position as sons and daughters of God we are to “boldly approach the throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help in time of need (Heb 4:16).” We don’t pray from an earthly position of need, but from a heavenly position of birthright and authority, decreeing and legislating into the earth that which we already have access of in heaven. However, God also wants to bring us into maturity as sons and daughters which means learning how the spiritual realms work and the rules by which they operate. The good news is that doing so will help us to be more effective in manifesting heaven’s rule in the natural realm.

Spiritual Laws

The primary law that influences most of what happens in the earth is that of sowing and reaping. Galatians 6:7 tells us that what we sow or put out, we will reap or get back. Luke 6:37-38 speaks of a similar concept, saying, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Both of these verses show us that whatever we put out, and in the measure which we put it out, we will receive in like kind in return. In the natural that means if we plant corn seeds, we will grow corn plants. If we plant acorns, we will grow oak trees—and the law works the same way for things spiritual. What this means for answered prayer is that if we want to accelerate the speed at which we get things done, we can intentionally sow in order to intentionally reap. Using the idea of prayer bowls getting filled in prayer, that means we might choose to intercede for others who are dealing with the same things we are, knowing that as we sow on behalf of others, we will reap back the same for our own situation. You can read a little more about it in another article titled Is The Law of Attraction In The Bible?
The thing about using the law of sowing and reaping to accelerate answered prayer is that it isn’t necessarily a quick-fix. It is effective, but not always fast. Think about it—when someone plants a seed, it takes months for it to grow before it produces edible fruit. Sowing and reaping is effective, but it isn’t usually instantaneous. While there are situations and circumstances that can accelerate the “growth time”, as a whole using sowing and reaping to accelerate answered prayer works best in situations that are expected to either be long-term issues or recurring ones.
A second law we can use to accelerate the filling of prayer bowls is the Law of Agreement. Matthew 18:19 says, “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” This verse explicitly states that when two people agree in prayer on something, God answers. Deuteronomy 32:30 expands on this principle, showing us that there is an exponential growth that occurs when we get multiple people involved in prayer. It says, “. . . “one man chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight . . . (Deuteronomy 32:30)” When people align in prayer there is something about that joining together that causes not just a basic acceleration but has a synergistic effect in the spirit that propels answered prayer forward.

Spiritual Principles

Spiritual laws are not the only things that help accelerate prayer. There are other principles and spiritual functions that do not fall under the category of laws that can also help us accelerate prayer. Some of the primary ones include engaging and including angels, addressing atmospheres and praying under an “open heaven”, and inner healing and deliverance.
Angels are messengers, helpers, and warriors and some of their functions include helping us do all that God has planned in advance for us to do. Psalm 103:20 says, “Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word.” One of the functions of angels is to perform God’s word, and when we pray in alignment with God’s will and nature (considering Jesus *is* the Word made flesh), angels assist us. One means of accelerating prayer is to be intentional about involving angels. In fact, if we consider the prayer-bowl analogy, Revelation 8:3-5 even shows us that angels are actively involved in the process of answering prayer. In Daniel 10:12, an angel comes to Daniel and tells him that when Daniel first prayed to God, he was dispatched with the answer to the man’s prayer, which only further demonstrates this point. If we want to enhance the effectiveness of prayer, we would be wise to include our heavenly helpers (To learn more about how to partner with angels, enroll for free in our email list and you will receive a free e-book titled Engaging Angels).

Atmospheres are one of those subjects that it seems most are unaware of on a conscious level, but if we really think about it, we have all experienced the influence of an atmosphere. Have you ever walked into a room where two people were arguing? You can literally feel the tension in the air—a perfect example of a negative atmosphere. In the same way that we can both sense and create negative atmospheres, we can sense and create positive ones. A good way to do this is to literally verbally take authority over the atmosphere wherever you are and command it to shift in a way that is according to Heaven’s design, but spending time in worship or prayer are other ways to do this. The idea of praying under an “open heaven” is essentially derived from the idea that we can have a spiritual atmosphere that is highly conducive to prayer, angelic activity, and which restrains the function of the demonic. For a revelatory perspective on this, I highly recommend the article How Satan Stops Our Prayers: Combat In The Heavenly Realms by John Mulinde. Ultimately, whether one titles it something special like “open heaven” or not, the underlying point is that we can influence a time of prayer by addressing not just the spiritual forces of angels and demons during the time of prayer, but by setting up the spiritual conditions around us at the outset of that prayer time. By adjusting the spiritual atmosphere as we start to pray we can enhance the effectiveness of our prayer time and often can sense an active release in the spirit when the things we are praying for are being answered.

Inner healing and deliverance don’t really seem like the kind of thing that would help accelerate prayer, but Hebrews 12:1 gives us a key as to how they can help. It says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us . . . (Hebrews 12:1)“ Soul wounds and demonic baggage are perfect examples of things that hinder, and they also push people toward entangling sin. Going through inner healing and deliverance helps us throw them off, as the verse recommends, so we can run forward with perseverance. While this might not seem to help with prayer at first glance, demonic resistance hinders prayer, and inner wounds eat at our faith. By addressing both of these, we remove things that erode the effectiveness of our prayers, which in turn increases effectiveness.

 

Whether working with spiritual laws such as sowing and reaping or spiritual principles such as atmospheres and open heavens, we do not have to live at the mercy of our circumstances when it comes to prayer. We can take an active part in when and how our prayers get answered, and can use Godly wisdom to partner with heaven to see God’s Kingdom manifest on earth as it already exists in heaven.

 

 

Deal with Coronavirus According To The Grace You Live In

These days, the COVID-19 Coronavirus is all over the news. Literally. I’m not sure it’s possible to watch any other news, actually, because if it isn’t Corona, I’m not even sure anyone is reporting on it even if we would be better served by not having 24/7 fear-and-panic updates. However, this entire process has gotten me doing a good bit of pondering as I have some very divergent thoughts and stances on things, all of which come crashing together when dealing with what many are choosing to call a pandemic. I have friends whom I love and highly respect who have canceled their ministry engagements and are telling their social media spheres to stay home. I have other friends whom I also love and respect telling people to not be bound by fear and to not change their life activities and spiritual practices based on disease. After reading tons of dueling social media posts from other believers and tossing in a few of my own (guilty as charged), I’ve taken a brief mental sit-back to really evaluate why I make the decisions I make, what I think others should do and why, and how we can individually review what the “right” choices are when so many different voices in both the Church and the world are saying so many different things. I’m going to look at some of my own conflicting views, and then bring it back to my conclusion that each person needs to deal with the coronavirus according to the grace you live in.

As a nurse, I recognize that diseases are very real and both can and do kill people.  I also do not want to see a single person die due to lack of healthcare availability, and this strain of virus seems to be more tenacious than other coronavirus strains and seems to have a more deadly tinge to it. If avoiding public places, engaging in “social distancing”, and generally helping prevent the spread of disease by reducing out-of-home activities can help keep people alive, it’s honestly a really wise, helpful, and kind thing to do.  Mind you, people die from the flu and even coronavirus every year, and while the actual numbers on coronavirus death ratios are, from what I can gather, massively inflated due to a lack of accurate initial diagnosis and insufficient testing, the fact is that for each individual that dies from this virus, that is someone’s mother, father, brother, daughter, friend who is no longer alive on the earth. I’m not certain this is quite the health emergency it is being made out to be, but I’m also not entirely certain it isn’t. And many people, even if a statistically small number comparative to the whole, are dying from this disease, and each death matters.  Longer-term, if it is the health emergency some claim, than many more will die, hospitals will be overrun, and even more will die, which is a terrible potential outcome, whether it comes to pass or not.  So with all of that in mind, where is my inner conflict?

As someone who has a healthy distrust for government—any government—I don’t fully believe everything we are being told. It is rare, in my opinion, that we are ever told the whole truth by the government about almost anything, so why would this be any different?  There are a number of ways certain people who don’t have our best interests in mind could stand to gain substantially from an emergency such as this.  I also think the massive closures across the board of both businesses and religious sites sets a really bad precedent, and I think the USA as a nation is going to find that our response to the coronavirus, even if totally appropriate for the situation, will send the message to people in positions of influence that if someone screams “Emergency!” that Americans will simply lay down and let the government roll over our Constitutionally-mandated freedoms.  Individuals have the right to choose not to frequent a business or religious establishment, but I don’t think that from a Constitutional perspective the government should be mandating it, whether at the federal, state, or local level.  Furthermore, as a strong proponent of divine healing, raising the dead, and immortality in Christ, I firmly believe that we, the Body of Christ, have been given dominion over sickness and death. I believe that the Church should have no reason whatsoever to fear this virus and that on some level we should be welcoming people into church services for the purpose of divine healing, and even holding coronavirus-specific healing services to see the power of God touch the bodies of those the virus has made sick.

And that right there is the conflict. I both think that self-quarantining from a scientific perspective is actually a really good idea (because scientifically speaking, it works), and that closing down churches and self-quarantining from a faith-perspective is largely a fear response and incredibly unwise on that level. On the other hand, asking to get sick is also unwise, and then the Bible even tells us to submit to human authorities as well.

1 Peter 2:13-17 says, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.”

Honestly, part of me wishes that passage wasn’t in there because my don’t-trust-government side doesn’t like that it says to submit to human authorities. On the other hand, I also don’t think God wants us to obey evil either, and the above passage also says to live as God’s slaves, not the government’s slaves. So the lines, as much as it would be nice if they were clear, are actually still somewhat blurry in my mind.

This might still not seem like much of a conflict to some, so let me get back to the spiritual side of things for a minute. It is a fact that Jesus paid for all sin, sickness, and death on the cross over 2,000 years ago. It is a fact that God isn’t the author of disease, nor does Heaven have disease to hand out. Jesus has given us power and authority over sicknesses to heal them, and over demons that cause illnesses in the body to cast them out. In the Old Testament, a disease made a normal person unclean, but in the New Testament Jesus demonstrated that in the presence of a disease, he cleansed the disease and healed the sick of their problems.  The New Testament reality is such that there is no good reason why we as the Body should need to hibernate to avoid getting coronavirus or any other disease or illness, as we should be in a position to take authority over every bacteria and virus and see them destroyed in Jesus’ name. That’s a major part of the conflict—we shouldn’t be hiding when we have divine ability to push it all back and destroy it. On the other hand, I am not new to divine healing, and I know that while theoretically that is where the Body of Christ should be at, most of the time that simply isn’t the case. And that’s where I think that each of us need to deal with the Coronavirus according to the grace we live in.

I believe Romans 12:6 offers a principle that we can use to help us decide, individually, what the right answer is for us, and I think we can each use that principle to both guide our own decisions in this as well as to keep us from holding others in judgment for their decisions which may be in conflict with ours. The verse says, “We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith . . .” (Romans 12:6). The admonition here is to do what the person is doing in accordance with his or her faith. The way I read this, if someone has a high level of faith for something, he or she will respond to a greater degree in that area than someone with little faith. For me, if I have a high level of faith for divine healing, then it would be fairly reasonable for me to hold a church service, encourage corona-infected people to come, and expect God to show up and heal them—and under the US Constitution, I would be protected by law and therefore not actually disobeying government (a lawyer friend explained this week that legally, the government can suggest/request that churches close voluntarily, but Constitutionally they may not mandate it). If I have a low level of faith for divine healing, then I probably need to bust out some hand sanitizer, don a mask, and maybe stay at home and pray from afar (everyone should wash their hands anyway, regardless of faith level—hygiene never goes out of style). In fact, if I walk in a low level of faith in that area, I am likely to not only come to harm myself, but bring harm to others, and that is the opposite of wisdom.

I think that the more people see the members of the Body of Christ attacking one another during a time when much of the world is panic-driven, it isn’t going to show them the peace that we are supposed to walk in, nor is it going to release peace to them as we bicker amongst ourselves. So here’s my suggestion: Let us each decide the grace we have individually been given, and the grace we are actively walking in, and then live it out. Let us not hold others in judgment for walking in the level of grace they currently walk in, as that is foolishness. Jesus spent his time working with His disciples, and when they questioned what others were doing, regardless of what those people were doing, whether for or against, Jesus left them alone (Matthew 12:30, Mark 9:40). We would do well to take a page out of His book and just keep doing the things that we do in accordance with the measure of faith we operate in. We would also do well to use this as a mirror to reflect upon where our level of faith for divine healing is at. Do we actually believe the promises of God in regards to healing and health? How much do we believe those promises? If we recognize we have room to grow (which we all do), what do we plan to do about it? After all, whether Coronavirus or any other disease or illness, it doesn’t wait for us to get our theology lined up properly before it decides to strike, so now is as good a time as any to identify an area of weakness and do something about it.

In the end, regardless of where each of us are at, please know that your prayers are powerful and that the single most-beneficial thing we can each do is pray, continuously, for all coronavirus sickness to be healed, for near-death situations to be reversed, and even for those who have died to be raised from the dead by the power of Jesus Christ. As we pray, God will answer our prayers and touch people all around the globe with His lifegiving power, with each prayer making it just a little bit more here on earth as it already is in heaven. Blessings to you all, and I pray along with you that this quickly passes.

 

 

If you want to learn about how to walk more readily in divine healing, check out Praying Medic’s Book on Divine Healing and his Self-Paced Online Class.

If you want to learn about how to raise the dead, check out my book Faith To Raise The Dead and Tyler Johnson’s book How To Raise The Dead.

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