Why Desperation Doesn’t Move God—And How You Can

Having been in Charismatic circles for nearly two decades, I have been around long enough to hear a good number of leaders, teachers, and speakers say that “Desperation moves God.” Well, I’m here to tell you that desperation doesn’t move God, but that there is also good news—while it doesn’t, there is something that does.

Why do I say desperation doesn’t move God? Because it doesn’t. But even if we aren’t willing to just take my word for it (which you shouldn’t), a simple look at life situations tells us this is true. How many desperate people in dire situations do you know of where the solution to the problem has not been dropped into their lap? If desperation moved God’s hand, then the most difficult of circumstances would always be solved. Those who live in war-torn areas, have been raped or kidnapped or sex-trafficked, physically attacked, been on their deathbed from a sickness or disease, or any other highly problematic situation would always see divine intervention saving them if our distress was what moved God.

I know a number of people who got pretty distraught around the time their loved one either fell mortally ill, or right after they died—and had asked God to move—and yet still the desired result did not come. If desperation was what it took to get God to move, then I would never walk away from a dead-raising opportunity with the dead not raised. Why? Because if that was all it took, I could easily channel my inner emo and muster up all the hopelessness needed to put me in such a position to receive from God. But more often than not these circumstances become an opportunity to fellowship with the hurting in their suffering instead of seeing God do a miracle. If desperation moved God, things would turn out differently.

In some ways it is probably good that it isn’t what gets God to move. Why? Because despair is an extremely fickle thing. In fact, being desperate is essentially an unstable emotional state and in addition to being highly unreliable, is both undesirable and non-duplicable. It is unreliable in that it is difficult to control when we become desperate, not to mention that it is not a healthy state of mind to be in. As such, it is also undesirable. If it was good for us, and got Kingdom things accomplished, then it would be something we would push ourselves into, and that would be terrible. Can you imagine people intentionally damaging their emotional state in order to get miracles to happen? I’m actually thankful it doesn’t work that way, or that’s what we would see.

Finally, it isn’t able to be duplicated. While sure, I guess we could depress ourselves enough in a given situation to replicate results, desperation doesn’t grow as the fruit of the spirit becomes more evident in our lives, and thus we actually can’t grow more desperate as we become conformed into the image of Christ. If we do, then we have to question if we actually are being conformed more into His image. Given that desperation isn’t something we should aim for to begin with, as it is usually an indication of striving and trying to do things in our own power instead of connecting with and relying on God, it isn’t something Jesus taught his disciples to do. The reason that matters is that Jesus was training his disciples to go and perform miracles. He taught them to heal the sick. He intentionally revealed to them how they could get God to move on their behalf, and desperation was nowhere in his curriculum.

So what does move God?

Faith.

Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

Faith is pleasing to God, and when we please God, God rewards us for seeking Him. Desperation is the utmost of doubtful striving because we don’t actually believe we have a solution to the problem. After all, if we thought we did have one, we wouldn’t be so desperate. Faith, on the other hand, not only helps us connect with God, but it releases good things upon us as a result.

The next time you hear someone tell you that desperation is the key to moving God, just remember that it not only won’t, but can’t. But faith both can, and will, and it is through faith that we inherit the promises of God in Christ Jesus. Even better, faith, like a mustard seed, can be cultivated and grown over time with no damaging emotional effects, and we can share it with those around us, bearing even more of the fruit of the Spirit as we are conformed continually into the image of Jesus Christ.

How To Break Ungodly Cycles Through Sowing and Reaping

Recently my wife and I gave someone a gift. The nature of the gift is unimportant, but the goal and reasoning behind it is significant, and I believe holds a key to the breakthrough that some people need in areas of their lives.

The Bible shows us multiple places where gifts were used to release honor, peace, favor, and blessing:

Genesis 30:20: Then Leah said, “God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honor, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun.

Genesis 32:20: And be sure to say, ‘Your servant Jacob is coming behind us.’” For he thought, “I will pacify him with these gifts I am sending on ahead; later, when I see him, perhaps he will receive me.”

Psalm 45:12: The city of Tyre will come with a gift, people of wealth will seek your favor.

Psalm 112:9: They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, their righteousness endures forever; their horn will be lifted high in honor.

Proverbs 18:16: A gift opens the way and ushers the giver into the presence of the great.

Proverbs 21:14a: A gift given in secret soothes anger . . .

Gifts, especially well-timed gifts, are a tangible way to demonstrate that someone has value to you. When someone is angry with you, a gift can help them feel like you care about the things that upset them and help usher them into a place of peace. When someone receives a gift, it can be a means of honoring them, and honor has a way of releasing favor in return to the gift-giver. It was customary in the Old Testament to bring a gift any time one met with a king or ruler, partially for those reasons.

In our situation, we wanted to resolve underlying tension in a relationship and make room for a blessing in our lives. In order to accomplish this, we felt the best way to do it was to give the other person a gift. This gift-giving was an intentional act of honoring and blessing them, and we did this with full awareness that the law of sowing and reaping goes in effect.

Every action we make in our lives has ripple effects because each of our choices are part of a cycle of sowing and reaping. We wanted a different outcome in the relationship and in the things that relationship touched upon, so we intentionally sowed honor and blessing into that person’s life. This individual felt blessed, we enjoyed giving the gift, and a couple of hours after we did this, I actually felt a subtle but specific shift in the spirit. It is difficult to describe exactly what that felt like, but it isn’t a feeling I tend to experience. While it was very subtle, it was uncommon and thus noticeable to me. While the shift in the spirit felt faint, it showed me that our gift-giving had influenced the kind of change we were looking for.

In reading this, some may find this action of ours to be highly self-serving. The truth is that sowing and reaping is designed in such a way that it is impossible to be entirely self-serving. If we wanted to sow and reap in that relationship arena, we had to actually expend time and energy to sow into the relationship in some way. While yes, part of our motivation was to influence something in our own lives, we did it through a demonstration of love, and as the Bible says, “against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:23). The issue here isn’t really about being self-serving because in order to obtain the result we had to give something to someone else and bless them. It’s actually a scenario where everyone wins, and that’s the kind of situation God likes.

Many individuals are struggling in relationships, jobs, with finances, in the business arena, or in other areas of life. I firmly believe that a key to freedom and breakthrough in some of these situations is intentional sowing of a gift. It is time to purposefully engage the law of sowing and reaping and choose to honor and bless someone who we feel holds the key to our breakthrough. In some cases it may be that a relationship needs resolution. In other situations it could be that a gift will open the way for favor in a situation. A gift doesn’t have to be money either. It could be an object of value or something that demonstrates meaningful thought. It could be an act of service or a gift of time. A gift doesn’t have to be money to be effective—it just has to be intentional and well-chosen for the desired purpose. It isn’t a bribe, as we aren’t relying on the gift to manipulate someone into doing something. It is a means of blessing an individual in such a way that it shifts the spiritual climate through the law of sowing and reaping to release a similar blessing into our own lives. I encourage you to give it a try, and if you do, please leave feedback on the results!

The Glaring Failure of the End Times Church

Most Charismatic and/or Charismatic-leaning churches and denominations tend to agree that we are in the “End Times.” The point of this article isn’t to argue whether we are or aren’t in that era, but to look at a serious failure of the Church as a whole—a failure that for reasons I don’t understand hasn’t managed to correct itself in roughly 2,000 years.

To see what this glaring failure is, let us take a look at John 11:23-26, which says:

“Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’
Martha said to Him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’
Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?’

See it yet? If not, let me share it with you.

Even though 2,000 years ago, while he was here on earth,Jesus corrected someone on their end-times beliefs, we are still looking toward a last-day resurrection instead of living it out right now. Yes, the glaring error of the church is our end-times view of the resurrection.

Think about it—in John 11, Martha is upset her brother has died. She says to Jesus “I know I will see him again when everyone gets resurrected at the end of time.” Jesus replies by basically saying “Yeah, I get that, but not only can he live right now, but he will live right now” and then goes on to demonstrate then and there what he just told Martha by raising Lazarus from the dead.

The thing I can’t understand is why, 2000 years later, we are still so focused on the end-of-days resurrection that most people completely ignore Jesus’ response to Martha. It has huge implications for our beliefs! He didn’t argue with Martha’s theology or tell her there wouldn’t be an end-of-days resurrection, which leaves us to assume that there will be one. However, we have passed over the fact that Jesus ignored it because when He is present, an end-times resurrection becomes completely irrelevant. How so? Let’s take a look at what Jesus replied to her.

“He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” In normal-day language, he said “If you die, then you will be raised from the dead and live again, right here, right now. If you are still alive and believe in me then you will never die.”

News flash! The Church has been so focused on the last-day resurrection that we have all but completely ignored the fact that Jesus literally told us that if we believe in Him then we never have to physically die!! And if we don’t die, we will never need an end-times resurrection. Think about the ramifications of that! This is the glaring failure of the end-times church—we have learned to give up when Jesus has told us over and over again that He has planned something totally different for us.

If we don’t actually have to die physically, then wouldn’t we start living our lives differently? Instead of planning for retirement for when we grow old and feeble, would we start making plans like Caleb in the Old Testament? He wasn’t reclining on pillows while someone woke him up after his mid-morning nap and wiped the drool from his chin. While he was in his 80’s he both commanded and led a war charge to take over a new territory—not the picture of someone who had one foot in the grave.

If people like Caleb in the Old Testament can access this while living under an inferior covenant, isn’t it time that we, the children of God, living under the new covenant that gives life, do far better? It is time we get the revelation of the gospel that Jesus and Paul preached—the gospel of life and immortality (2 Timothy 1:10-11) that says that because Jesus has taken the keys of death, hell, and the grave and has destroyed the written code of laws set against us, that we are no longer subject to physical death and have the right and authority to command life into any and every situation. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. It’s been 2000 years, isn’t it time we started doing something about it?

To read more of God’s plan for our future and how to get there, grab a copy of my book “The Gospel of Life and Immortality,” available on both Kindle and in Print on Amazon.

No Longer Alone

One of the things that hit me pretty hard in the past few weeks is that we all have times when we feel like the world is crashing around us. It’s honestly quite hard when that happens, and it is even harder when we feel all alone in the process. Sometimes calling a friend helps us get back on track, and that’s something I highly recommend (provided the friend is loving, supportive, and kind). But what do we do when we feel all alone? I’m not talking about lonely—feeling like there’s no one around us—but alone, like no one is out there and we are in it for ourselves?

The best cure for being alone is to learn to experience the truth that we are never alone.

Jesus said and did a lot of really strange stuff. Really though, he did, and anyone who says otherwise is selling something. I mean, who goes and tells people to literally eat his body? Or that he is bread? Who goes and sticks spit-mud into someone’s eye so they can see better? Who expects to find fruit on fruit trees when it isn’t fruit-season, and then curses them when they don’t make fruit? Jesus did all of that, and more. And yet, in spite of all of the strange things He did, His followers have grown from an initial twelve to what amount to billions over the past couple thousand years. If we can learn anything from the odd things Jesus said, it’s that He said them for a reason and that He said all of them because he meant each and every single thing he said.

Deuteronomy 31:6 says, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” While Jesus didn’t say that Himself, He is God, which means Jesus will never leave or forsake us. But there is something Jesus said that is pretty similar, and I think it is important that we pay attention. In John 14-16 he was talking to His disciples about important things surrounding his death and resurrection, and had words of wisdom for them to continue on after he was no longer with them in person. During this time, Jesus said something of note:

In John 14:16-17 Jesus said, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” Again in John 16:7 he said, “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”

Jesus was pretty adamant that we would never be alone, and the Holy Spirit literally lives both with us and in us at all times. It can be difficult to accept this truth at times, especially when everything is going wrong and we feel completely alone. However, I think it is important for us to cultivate a relationship with the Holy Spirit so that even when we feel alone we can experience His presence around us and encounter the never-alone that Jesus promised us.

It can be really hard when we feel all alone to spend time with an invisible God and have that feel comforting in some way. But when we build a habit of spending time with Him and we actually develop a friendship with Holy Spirit (2 Cor 13:14), we don’t have to feel alone anymore. A few ways to do this are through something called Soaking Prayer, Resting in His Presence, or a similar means of encountering God called Contemplative Prayer. I highly encourage spending time learning to cultivate a relationship with the Holy Spirit in general, but especially for those times when we feel alone, He is always with us.

(Note: If you truly feel hopeless, alone and are at the point you want to hurt or harm yourself in some way, or even end your life, please call the national suicide helpline—1-800-273-8255. Someone is there to talk to you and help you through the tough time you are having. No matter how bad things feel or seem, there is always hope, and things can always get better. www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org)

Spiritual Authority to Cast Out Demons and How It Actually Works

The subject of casting out demons is growing in popularity in some Christian groups, and for good reason—it is an important need and people are realizing their ignorance and choosing to learn. However, in order to take authority over a demon to cast it out, one actually has to have that authority. One of the subjects that I think is fairly poorly understood among Christians is that of spiritual laws and their relationship with spiritual authority. There is a lot of teaching out there about our authority in Christ, but far less on the subject of spiritual laws. Why does this matter? Because casting out demons is normally based on spiritual authority, and spiritual authority is based on spiritual laws. It isn’t a matter of “we can do whatever we want because we know who we are in Christ” but “through Christ we can operate to the extent of our authority based on existing spiritual laws. Now, before someone levels the heresy finger at me, lets discuss spiritual authority and how it actually works.

Authority of any kind is obtained through power delegated to an individual from a governing body. In order for a governing body to govern, there have to be rules in place that decide what is and is not permitted—in other words, laws. For a person to operate in spiritual authority (which is spiritual power that has been legally delegated to an individual based on existing laws made by the governing body), there must be spiritual laws.

I hear people teach on this subject, saying things like “Take authority over a demon and cast it out”—and they are 100% correct in teaching that. But sometimes even when one does that, the demon doesn’t leave. So how does that work, and why does the demon not always leave when we command it to in the name of Jesus? This is where understanding spiritual laws come into play.

First, before anyone decides I am wrong and that demons have to leave every time they are commanded out, let’s look at what the Bible shows us. We’re going to look at three separate situations that deal with spiritual authority and casting out demons, and what that means for us and our beliefs about whether demons can resist or refuse being exorcised.

The first is found in both Mark 5 and Luke 8, and recounts Jesus’ encounter with the Gadarene man possessed by a legion of demons (a legion is roughly 4,000-5,000 men). In it, Jesus actually had to command the demons out twice (as the first time clearly didn’t work and only agitated them further), and the second time only occurred through bargaining.

Mark 5:6-8 says, “When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!’ For Jesus had said to him, ‘Come out of this man, you impure spirit!’” This passage shows us that the demons started yelling after Jesus commanded them out, and it was then that they started speaking through the man’s body.

Mark 5:11-13 continues the story, saying “A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, ‘Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.’ He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.” I can’t pretend to understand what was going on that Jesus needed to let the demons go into pigs instead of sending them to the Abyss, and the passages are written in a way that suggest Jesus had the authority to send them there if he wanted to. Maybe he just felt like it, maybe he had another reason he chose the pigs, but in doing so it destroyed someone else’s livelihood (which is something Jesus would likely have avoided if circumstances were different), so Jesus probably had a good reason for doing it that way. Regardless, not only does this passage show us Jesus bargaining with demons on exactly how they will leave a man, but he was forced to command the demons to leave two times before it actually took place. If Jesus has to command demons more than once, even if it only ever happened to him one time (and that’s only what was recorded), we shouldn’t be surprised if we run into the same problem.

The second situation that shows us something about casting out demons and spiritual authority is in Acts 19:13-16 which says, “Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, ‘In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.’ Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?’ Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.”

It was not unheard of in that day for certain Jews to perform exorcisms. This family exorcist-team heard about Paul doing it and decided to try his method, not realizing that Paul wasn’t working with a method like they typically did. Instead, Paul was operating out of spiritual authority. Notice that the demons not only recognized that both Jesus and Paul had spiritual influence, but that the demons also recognized that these seven brothers did not possess that same authority. The end result was a badly-failed deliverance.

The third passage is Phillippians 2:10-11 which states, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Yes, one day in time or eternity every knee will bow, but that hasn’t happened yet. Thus, it is only in theory that demons must obey, and in actual practice we sometimes have to make them obey.

What can we learn from these passages?

First, if a demon doesn’t leave, simply repeating oneself isn’t necessarily going to get the job done. Does that mean that it can’t work? No. What it does mean is that we will need to figure out why that demon is able to resist being cast out. The ability of a demon to enter a person is based on spiritual laws, as is its ability to remain. That’s why the topic of spiritual laws is relevant to deliverance to begin with. Demons already know spiritual laws, and know those laws well enough to know when they can and cannot remain in a person. When a demon is able to resist being cast out, it is usually because there is something connected to that individual that is making room, giving permission, or in some manner making an allowance for that demon to remain. Demons know these laws and that’s why authority doesn’t always work to cast them out. Theology that says authority always works to cast out demons is theoretically correct but in actuality wrong.

There are a number of things that can either give or help give demons access to a person. Unhealthy emotions and/or beliefs, sinful actions and desires (and feeding them over time), curses, generational iniquity, any form of abuse, and intentional engagement with the demonic are some of the main ones, but this is not an exhaustive list. The way this works is that all of these involve some human’s free will—and our free will is a significant contributor to demonic involvement in situations. There is a principle in the Bible that says that whatever happens on earth requires human involvement and agreement (Psalm 115:16, Amos 3:7). As such, for demons to afflict us and latch on to us generally requires someone (whether us personally or others perpetrating evil upon us) to utilize their free will to permit it.

When interrogating a demon to find out how it was able to gain access to a person, I have heard demons say on multiple occasions things like “They let me” or “They gave me permission.” Keeping in mind that demons lie as commonly as we breathe, the things they say are often a twisting of truth. For example, if someone has spent a lot of time engaging pornography, and have spirits associated with lust and perversion, while the demon may claim that he or she “gave them permission”, it wasn’t like someone sat there and said “demons of lust and perversion, please enter me.” But that’s what the demons make it sound like. No, it was that person’s actions which engaged the law of sowing and reaping (what you put out you get back) and the law of focus (what you engage will engage you). It is only by understanding spiritual laws that we can get a better handle not just on how people get demonized, but why demons are sometimes able to resist our efforts to cast them out. In the above example, if the spirits of lust and perversion won’t leave, it is usually beneficial for the person to renounce whatever actions, thoughts, words, activities, etc. they have engaged in that would constitute a form of spiritual agreement between them and the demonic. Again, while one might not be consciously invoking demons, the energy that our actions release has an attractive quality to it for either light or dark, good or evil. In fact, Proverbs 18:21 says it like this: “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” While this isn’t just limited to the words we say, this is a perfect example. The things we speak, or really the energy we put out in any manner, will cause us to receive the fruit of those words or actions.

When we want to cast out demons, we need to identify where we operate in spiritual authority, areas of weakness or bondage in our own lives that undermine our spiritual authority, and our own limiting beliefs. We also need to recognize that in addition to learning how spiritual laws function, which is vital, we also have to *develop* our spiritual authority. Believe it or not, spiritual authority can be grown (we will look at that subject in another article). The Bible says in Luke 2:52 that “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” While not technically authority, this passage demonstrates that Jesus had to grow in aspects of his walk as he journeyed through life, and we are no different. While in Matthew 28:18-19a, “Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go . . . ” it doesn’t mean that they received all authority. He received all authority and has delegated it to us, but we don’t necessarily walk in all of it at once. In John 16:12, Jesus said to his disciples, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.” He recognized that their ability (and likewise ours) to handle everything he had for them at that time was limited, and v13-15 goes on to explain that the Holy Spirit will reveal and release more to us as we become ready for it.

Ultimately, spiritual laws help give us insight into how the spiritual realms operate, how the angelic and demonic are able to function, and ultimately give us a glimpse into how we can become more effective in casting out demons. Specifically, growing in spiritual authority is an effective means to reach that end, but ultimately there are a good number of tools we can use and even new ones we can develop by understanding how spiritual laws influence both spiritual authority and how to more effectively cast out demons.

Faith Lessons: Buying and Selling a House

For those who have been following along for a bit, you know that we have packed our house in Portland and are moving to the Houston area of Texas. The process began in the first quarter of last year, but the past ten months have consisted of her making a bunch of declarative statements about what is and is not going to happen in this moving process . . . and I basically shot all of her ideas down over and over again. She stuck to her guns, and as things have moved forward, so far she has had most everything she has been steadfastly declaring pan out the way she has been praying for it to. While I don’t normally look to her for lessons on how to engage faith, I have to say that I have learned a lot from her in the past few months.

I am somewhat Type A, and I don’t like messy change with a bunch of moving parts. I like to administrate problems out of the equation instead of fly by the seat of my pants and make decisions as things come up. Sunshine prefers it the opposite way, which is a struggle for me at times, but this time around I think the lesson has been more about purposefully engaging faith and trusting God to walk us through each step of the process. I once heard someone say that the Bible says “Your word is a lamp unto my feet”, not a 100-yard spotlight down the road, and the lesson applies here.

In this process I have become more acutely aware of how my own fears were playing into my unbelief and even discouraging her in the process. There are times to make decisions out of human wisdom, but there is a difference between being wise and being afraid. If we operate out of fear, we will think that something is wise because it is less risky or causes less fear even if it isn’t the best choice for us. However, when we aren’t operating out of fear we can be free to choose to do something in faith *or* we can choose to do something that we consider wise based on true wisdom instead of being guided by fear.

I’m still not 100% at rest with this move, but that has much to do with the fact that I will miss my local friends, my job and my coworkers whom I enjoy a lot, and we are making a huge life change in faith that things are going to “work out” on the other end. What I am finding, however, is that while my emotions may not always be totally on board with the move, God has been faithful to come through with the solutions we need as we need them. While it would be nice if God showed up early at times, He has met each of our needs every step of the way.

I recently heard a speaker point out that we have the God-given power to alter probabilities. When we engage our faith toward something, we shift the probabilities of certain events occurring in our favor. No one told my wife how we were supposed to find a new house, pack, and then sell our current house. However, months before we did any of this she made some very conscious decisions about what she wanted to see happen. She activated her faith, the time-space continuum shifted (in spite of my fear-based attempts to shift it back), and many things have continued to work out step by step as we go. There has been a lot of warfare along the way, but the lesson here for me has been a reminder that we truly do get to choose a lot of what happens in our lives. I have a choice each day and with every choice I make to partner with God in faith or partner with the enemy in fear. What kind of choices do I want to make, and what kind of person will that transform me into over time? I choose to become a man of great faith, and I am thankful that from time to time God reminds me how to walk that out.

Practical Tips To Engage the Flow of Revelation

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.22″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.0.10″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” hover_enabled=”0″]As an author and spiritual teacher, I find the process of engaging the flow of revelation to be an important one. I have found myself pondering at times what that special something is that turns something from knowledge or information into revelation insight that brings inner transformation. At other times, I have questions about things that I simply don’t sufficiently understand, nor do I have anyone I can ask who gets it better than I do. Thus, I have had to learn over time how to engage the flow of revelation from God.

Because I enjoy writing, one of the ways I have learned to engage the revelatory flow is to write. Part of why this works is what I refer to as the Law of Focus, a subset of the Law of Sowing and Reaping. This spiritual law basically states that whatever I focus on and engage, I attract to me. In the process of focusing on a topic, I end up receiving revelation simply in the writing process. I do also study the Bible and relevant material from others, but even as I ponder and study a subject, new ideas come to me. Sometimes when I study I gain profound new understanding as my research turns into an interactive revelatory flow.

In reality, all information is knowable in the spirit, and anyone who knows how to access it can access revelation simply by wanting to. However, multiple factors can influence how easily we do or do not receive that revelation. If we want to engage revelatory flow, we should do things that position us under the spout where the revelation comes out. Prayer and fasting are two tools we can use to help position ourselves, as is surrounding ourselves with others who are headed in the same direction. However, at the end of the day much of what this all does is still make use of the Law of Focus.

While I do all of those things at times as well, this is why writing is such an important key for me. I tend to process well when speaking out loud, but finding someone who wants to listen to me talk something out isn’t always possible, which is where writing comes in. Another great way to do this is to teach or speak on a subject, but that is often limited to those who already have a platform of some kind. While I understand that teaching a subject you might not fully grasp in order to learn about it might seem disingenuous, I believe in championing messages we have not yet fully apprehended. I wrote about this in an article titled “Forerunners and Imposter Syndrome” which explains why I believe this can be important:

The apostle Paul ran into this same problem, to the point that he repeated himself twice when speaking to the Philippians about this in Philippians 3:12-14, saying, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Paul was very clear that he had not already attained the fullness of the revelation he was preaching, but he didn’t let it stop him from proclaiming the revelation.

I had a dream the other night that seemed to suggest there are two main ways God gives us a message He wants us to carry. The first is as a prophetic revelation, and this typically comes first. Prophetic messages are often those given by the forerunners, as they are speaking of realities that have not manifested as of yet. The second are apostolic messengers—those who have lived out the message, have struggled through the ups and downs as they have pioneered the experience, and who have become the living embodiment of that which they speak. Neither means of carrying a message is better than the other, nor is either inferior to the other; they are simply different. Apostolic messengers carry the experiences within them, while the prophetic messenger is often speaking of things he or she has yet to attain to. It is important to understand whether a message is prophetic or apostolic as defined above, as prophetic messages are those that place us in greater danger of Imposter syndrome.”

The point of releasing a prophetic message is that while we have not yet fully grasped or lived out the content of our message, by releasing the revelation we have, not only do we pull on heaven to give us more but we also help position others to do the same.

While not everyone is an author, teacher, or speaker, we can all make use of simple tools to engage the Law of Focus and activate the revelatory realm. Journaling and discussion with others are two easy ways to do this. Another option is to talk to an empty room. I like to pace while I talk, and if I am on a long phone conversation I can be found doing laps inside the house or wearing a hole in the grass, and have done the same while practicing preaching messages. While at first it feels a little strange to talk to no one, as long as I ignore the fact that I would look like a total idiot to anyone watching, all goes well and it is very fruitful.

Regardless of the method used, whether in public or private, there are a variety of different ways we can actively engage the flow of revelation which in turn will enhance our spiritual growth.

If you have other methods they use to engage revelatory flow, please share in the comments below and let us know!
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Unmasking the Lie of Premature Death

Raising the dead is an un-touchy subject—in that most people don’t want to touch it. For those of us who aren’t afraid to engage what Jesus commanded us to do, there are a lot of theological roadblocks that often get tossed in our way. A few of the more prevalent ones are “Is it God’s will?”, “Is it the will of the deceased to be raised?”, “Are they unsaved?” (as though we should only raise them if they are, and if they are saved then let them go). All of those have very rationed, biblical answers (all of which end with “be obedient and raise the dead). We’re going to tackle a different one today, unmasking the lie of premature death.

There is a belief out there that says “It’s okay to die, but only if it is not premature.” The other side of that coin is “We are only supposed to raise the dead when it is premature death, and the rest of the time we should let them go.”

What even is premature death?

In theory, premature death is when someone dies before their “appointed time”—so let’s look at that. What does the Bible say about our appointed time to die? Scripturally speaking, the notion that any of us have an appointed time to die comes from Hebrews 9:27-28 which says, “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.” Now, when read in-context this passage is saying that Jesus died once for us, as us, in place of us to bear all of our sin. However, most people like to quote verses 27 without the second half of the sentence (v27 ends with the word “judgment”) and in so doing entirely skew the meaning. For believers, we did die once, already, through Christ in baptism (Romans 6:1-7 elaborates on this quite clearly). So even if we ignore the context of this passage and just focus on the “appointed time to die”, as a result of Jesus’ sacrifice we no longer have an appointed time to die—as Jesus already took our appointment.

Furthermore, the entire “appointed time to die,” scripturally speaking, has always been in context of the wages of sin being death (Romans 6:23), not that God needs us to die in order to exit the earth. Nevertheless, people still like to believe that we are required to die, and incorrectly use Hebrews 9:27 as their proof-text. The other references that are less-commonly used, those of Ecclesiastes 3:2 and Psalm 90:10, are based on the writers’ observations about the lives of people, much like how a scientist would observe things and then write down what they saw. Those passages are not a prophetic pronouncement about what all humankind is destined for, but simply a recording of observations. In fact, the entire book of Ecclesiastes is written from the context of Solomon sharing his earthly observations and temporal wisdom, not that of a divine seer who has delved into the mysteries of God.

How do we know if someone died prematurely?

Normally, the notion is that someone has had a premature death if they died young. And if you thought “wow, that’s pretty ambiguous,” that’s because it is.

Profoundly ambiguous.

Most people who believe there is a “time to die” apply it to situations in an extremely illogical manner. They pretty consistently say that if someone is young then it wasn’t their time and if they are old (which usually means 65 or older), then it probably was their time to go. This entire idea is illogical in nature, not to mention incredibly arrogant. I mean, who is the person who gets to decide whether it was “someone’s time” or not? It’s pretty arrogant to think that we get to decide when it is other people’s time to die. When Job, in his arrogance, was accusing God of not being just, do you know what God’s response was?

“Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:
“Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:1-7)

God did nothing for two whole chapters except throw questions at Job that he was incapable of answering because he was a human with the limited knowledge, power, and capacity that humans have, and not the Almighty Creator-God of the Cosmos. God basically spent His time saying “And who exactly do you think you are??”

Once we start breaking down the “time to die” concept, it is applied in an incredibly arbitrary manner based completely on supposition and not on some sort of knowable information that can be consistently applied. In fact, it is pagan belief systems that believe our life-length is determinable, not Christianity. For example, in Greek mythology, the Fates (or Norns in Norse mythology) determine the length of your life by spinning a string, your “life line”, and when they decide your string gets cut, you die. It is entirely arbitrary based on whatever those god-beings feel like at that time, and if they feel like cutting you off in your twenties, they are fully within their rights and powers to do so. Good thing we don’t belong to their kingdom!

What does the Bible say about death and age?

If we wanted to know what the Bible says about death and age, we would find it says the opposite of most people’s beliefs on the subject. According to 2 Timothy 1:10, God has abolished death in Christ. Abolished it! It is no longer legal. Romans 8 goes into great length to explain that we no longer live under the law of sin and death but rather the law of the spirit of life. As explained above, the OT verses that refer to a “time to die” are not pronouncements of that-which-shall-be, but scientific human observations of what they saw happening around them. In fact, there is a prophecy that is a pronouncement of things to come which states:

“Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child; the one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed. They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people . . . (Isaiah 65:20-22a)

The prophet Isaiah foresaw a day when death would be extremely uncommon, as people would be living multiples of hundreds of years long at minimum. Furthermore, this falls entirely in line with the teachings of Jesus. There are numerous verses in scripture that speak of this reality of long-life, but that isn’t all. There are many verses where Jesus explained that those who followed him would, in fact, never die (John 6:50, 51, 54, John 8:51, John 10:10, 28, John 11:26). Actually, get this. Do you realize that the most-quoted verse in the entire Bible speaks of this? John 3:16 says, “God loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believed in him would not die but would live forever (emphasis mine).” John 3:16 literally states that we are not supposed to die!!

So what should our response to all of this be?

Honestly, it’s quite simple. All death is “premature death” because according to scripture, we aren’t supposed to die. John 10:10 says that it is the enemy who brings death, and 1 Corinthians 15:26 also refers to death as God’s enemy. If we truly believe what the Bible says, the only response we can have to death, regardless of age, is one thing:

Raise the dead.

Don’t complicate Jesus’ simple command in Matthew 10:8 and add provisos or conditions such as premature death, if the person wants to come back, or any of the other highly spiritual-sounding but highly religious and extremely disobedient excuses people come up with. If we truly want to do the will of God, then it is time to move past the lie of premature death and simply be obedient to Jesus’ command to raise the dead.

If you are interested in learning more about how to step out in faith and raise the dead, I recommend the following:

Read my book Faith to Raise the Dead and Tyler Johnson’s book How to Raise the Dead, or for a quick-reference guide, grab a copy of Practical Keys to Raise the Dead.
Attend a training with the Dead Raising Teams led by Tyler Johnson of One Glance Ministries.
If unable to attend in person, buy his School of Resurrection audio series, invite some friends over, and have your own virtual DRT training.
Start looking for opportunities to pray to raise the dead. As you put yourself out there, opportunities will open up to you (pets included!).

5 Criteria Jesus Used To Choose Whom To Heal

One of the things I run into frequently when teaching people about healing the sick (but which also applies to raising the dead, casting out demons, and more) is the issue of “Jesus didn’t heal everyone he saw.” So how did Jesus choose who He should heal? I have found 5 criteria he used, and which we can also use, to help make that determination in our own lives.

Before answering that question, I think we need to take a step back and look at the motivations behind the question/statement surrounding the idea that Jesus didn’t heal everyone. It is usually one of two things:

1) Someone is legitimately trying to understand when and for whom to release divine healing
2) Someone is trying to avoid being obedient toward doing the things Jesus commanded us to do

The second group is all about shirking responsibility. While one can make the argument “There isn’t enough time in the day to heal everyone so I have to pick and choose”, the ones pushing that line of reasoning are rarely so busy healing the sick that it’s even a relevant question to ask. For them, the question is a method of avoidance, not an honest attempt to understand how to walk out what Jesus commanded. The only solution for that group is to repent—change their way of thinking and doing things. Anything else is a waste of time and energy, and I don’t tend to give much time to this group of individuals for that reason—I want people who want to grow.

The first group is typically already active in some way in healing ministry, or if not, usually desires to learn and grow to be effective in healing the sick and injured through divine healing prayer. For this group, I will gladly take the time to identify the 5 criteria Jesus used to know when to heal the sick, which are as follows:

1. Does He Love Them?

In order to know whether or not to heal someone, we first need to know “Does God love that person?” The answer is obviously “Yes!“. Why is this relevant? Because healing is a manifestation of God’s love. It is His mercy, goodness, and great kindness that causes Him to heal us. Thus, if God loves someone, it is His desire to see them healed.

2. Did He Die For Them?

If we want to know if we even *can* heal someone, we need to know if Jesus died for them. Why does this matter? Because Isaiah 53:4-6 lays out a list of things Jesus accomplished when He died on the cross and rose again. The passage is as follows:

“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

Jesus took all of our emotional problems, physical maladies, and our sin. In their place, we get to be healed. If Jesus died for someone, then He already purchased their healing on the cross over 2,000 years ago, and thus we can always pray for the sick and know with 100% assurance that it is God’s will to heal them. In fact, God can’t even say “no” to something He already paid for . . . not to mention that all the promises of God are “yes” and “amen” in Christ (2 Cor 1:20)!

3. Did God tell Him to Do It?

The most obvious times we should heal someone are the times where God tells or shows us to. Jesus said “I only do what I see my Father doing (John 5:19-20).” While in context Jesus was responding to people getting angry at him healing someone, and Jesus was explaining that He was doing it through God’s power and not on his own, the underlying concept remains—that we should partner with God and do what He is doing when He is doing it. When God is trying to heal someone, it’s time for us to step up and step out!

4. Have They Asked For Help?

While it is true that Jesus didn’t necessarily pray for and/or heal every person he came across who had a malady, He *did* touch everyone who asked. In fact, Jesus even preached this very thing when He said “Give to those who ask . . . (Matthew 5:42a)” Any time in the Bible that someone came up to Jesus and asked Him for help, He helped them. That is the example that Jesus modeled for us, and we as the Body should walk out that same example. While one may not stop for every person, we *should* make every effort to help those who ask us to help them.

5. Does He Care?

The last criteria I see Jesus using to know when to heal the sick is where the Bible says “He was moved with compassion.” When Jesus saw a need and His heart was moved with a desire to touch them, He did. We don’t always have to have some special directive from God in order to heal the sick. Sometimes all we need is the desire to touch people with love and compassion, and the Bible says that God gives us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4). In fact, if you will recall above that in John 5:19-20 Jesus said He did what He saw the Father doing, in verse 21 Jesus said, “For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.” Yes, Jesus literally explained that if He felt like healing or resurrecting someone, then He would go ahead and do it—and we should do the same!

These are the five criteria I have identified that Jesus used when deciding when to heal the sick. I believe the same applies to raising the dead as well as to many other situations, but regardless of why one steps out to heal, the truth is that people don’t generally get healed unless we decide to step out in faith. So whatever you do, don’t get rigid in the way you do things, be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and don’t be afraid to take a risk and go be His hands of healing!

Frame It! – Building a Vehicle for Answered Prayer

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One of the areas of “study” that I have a personal interest in is that of spiritual laws. And when I say “study” in quotes, its because it isn’t exactly something you can easily find books about (which is why I plan to write one at some point). Nevertheless, I do find that as I go, I tend to discover certain keys and principles that explain the underlying functions and influences that alter the world we live in. At the end of the day, we all want our prayers answered. In this case, I want to share something about prayer, and how we can make use of what I refer to as “framing” to work as a vehicle for answered prayer.

Revelation 5 and 8 shed some light on how framing in prayer works, so we are going to look at the verses and then I will break down how we can put this principle into practical use.

“And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people (Revelation 5:8).”

“Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake (Revelation 8:3-5).”

To summarize, these verses show us that in the spirit there are golden bowls that collect our prayers. Each bowl has a defined size, which we know because it is possible to fill the bowls. If something can be filled, then it has a quantity associated with it—which means prayer can in some way be quantified, which is its own discussion for another time. However, what this means for us here is that we can release a certain amount of prayer that will fill up a bowl, and the result of filling the bowl is that the answer to our prayers gets sent from heaven back to the earth.

If bowls get filled in response to our prayers, and we are the ones who get to decide what we are praying, then *we create new bowls based on our prayers*. It’s kind of profound, actually, that we have the ability to make spiritual containers in response to the things we pray, both individually and corporately, and that again opens up an entire other line of understanding about how we co-create with God, but I digress. Knowing that we have the ability to create containers to obtain answered prayer, we can make use of this fact to intentionally make new containers. The benefit of intentionally making a new container is that we can intelligently design the parameters for when and how that bowl gets filled.

Certain types of prayers, especially those that are to obtain or develop something new, are of particular benefit for this sort of task. I will give an example that I encourage the ministries I have been involved in to make use of, but this has applications for business, home life, and more.

Pretend that someone is starting a ministry, and they want that ministry to be prepared to grow into everything God has intended. We can assume there will at least be a president/founder/leader, and depending on the organizational structure, other subsequent positions. If a ministry wants to make intentional use of this framing strategy, they will develop job descriptions for all of the potential ministry positions, even if they don’t have a need for it or even room for it yet. For example, let’s say that one eventually wants to have a Prayer Director to lead intercession and prayer strategies and various intercessory positions, a ministry school with a School Director and instructors, a Worship Director with worship leaders, a Chief Administrator, Financial Officer, and more, then one should begin by writing out a job description and qualifications for each of these positions. By doing so, it creates definition.

So much of answered prayer is relative to our intentions toward what we are praying about. If the leaders of a ministry set out a bunch of definitions for positions in advance, even before the need is fully there, this accomplishes a few things, both practical in the natural and functional in the spirit. In the natural, it helps the leadership get an idea of the type of person they are looking for to fill the position, which means that when that person shows up, they will be likely to notice (more about how this works with the Reticular Activating System works here). In the spirit, however, this definition influences the conditions for when and how the prayer bowl gets filled, and as a result how the position gets filled.

By “when and how”, what I mean is that by defining what a particular position should look like, and the characteristics needed of the person filling it, the prayer bowl that gets created will work to answer prayers toward filling that position using that definition. In other words, let’s say that we need a Prayer Director who has leadership qualities for leading prayer teams, administrative qualities for keeping prayer needs-lists updated and other related organization-relevant stuff done in an organized and timely manner, sensitive spiritual perception to be able to tune into the ministry’s needs, and also high levels of faith, power, and authority in the spirit to accomplish much in prayer. If one does not pre-define what they are looking for, then they will end up with someone in that position, but that person may or may not have all the skills needed for the job. On the other hand, by defining all of those as needs under the Prayer Director position in advance, when praying for God to send a Prayer Director, what one is then praying for is for God to provide someone that checks all of those boxes. When the prayer bowl gets filled, the end result is going to be a person coming alongside the ministry who can meet all of those needs.

While not every situation needs definition, there are some things that definitely do. If you are a business owner and want to grow your business, define the areas of growth in as much or little detail as you like, recognizing that the level of detail you give will influence how your prayers get answered. If you are looking for a new home, or a vehicle to buy, or anything else at all that involves “new” or “change”, then framing up your needs in advance will design a prayer bowl to more specifically fit the needs you have anticipated. As far as what it takes to fill a prayer bowl, and how we can use spiritual laws and principles to accelerate that process, we’ll have to take a look at that in another article.

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