Fairy Spirits and the Lamb of God – Part 2

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In Part 1 we discussed the nature of mythical creatures, looking at whether or not they could be something a bit more than “just demons” as the typical Christian party line goes. We also reviewed at how oral tradition shapes our understanding of real life events, and how that influences our current day beliefs. You can read Part 1 here.

What do we need spirits to shepherd creation for? Isn’t that our job? Whether I sow or reap or plant or whatever, whether I watch it or not, a seed will grow without my help. But will it grow well? A mother can birth a baby without help, but will that labor go well? Nature spirits are essentially the shepherds and midwives of the plant world. They help plants, trees, and most likely even animals to grow and flourish. Most often we as humans are busy with our own lives, not busy shepherding plant growth on a remote island or deep in the Amazon. We appreciate that these plants grow on their own, but I believe they actually have God-created, God-ordained spiritual helpers.

Even so, what does the activity of Nature Spirits have anything to do with us humans? What if we could work together with the Nature Spirits to help manifest the abundant life that Jesus came to deliver? What if, in the same way we partner with angels, we could partner with these other spirits? When Jesus calmed the storm (Matthew 8:26, Mark 4:39), was he speaking to the actual storm, or to weather spirits controlling it? What would happen if we as believers started interacting with the spirits that cause storms? What if a group of believers risen up and successfully dealt with the spirits that caused Katrina—what might have happened? If believers who understood the inner workings of the tectonic plates but also the spirits that govern the shifting of those plates had been able to work with them to slow the movement and do it in many smaller increments, maybe the catastrophic earthquakes and tsunami in Fukushima, Japan, back in 2011 could have been prevented.

Some of the big-ticket items that are planetary concerns include global warming, rainforest deforestation, forest fires, famines, and world hunger. The world has turned to GMOs to find ‘better’ ways to produce crops that are resistant to blight, insects, poor environment, and pollution by altering the very fabric of created things. They have turned real food into hybrid food that is half real, half laboratory. Our bodies aren’t made to eat lab food. We are concerned about our water supply, but then pollute it with oil spills, tanker accidents, trash, chemtrails, and fluoridate our water supply. At some point, all of this tinkering with nature is going to bite us in the rear. But what if there is a better way? I believe that as we partner with these spirits that God has delegated the shepherding of creation to, we will see crops that grow bigger, faster, stronger, with fewer pests, rot, and disease, and will be able to feed far more people with the same number of plants due to higher fruit-bearing with greater nutrient density. We would be able to regrow the rainforests, but faster than ever before. We would still be able to use wood as a fuel source, but replenish it as fast as we used it instead of slowly depopulating our world’s trees. It’s the kind of stuff in the Bible where God does above-and-beyond, and we usually call that stuff miracles, but what if there was a set of spirit-beings that govern some of that stuff that we have completely ignored? I believe in the future we could possibly enter a time where we will need that super-growth of food. The human population is on the rise, and a famine could do serious damage worldwide. When the nations of the world are crying out in hunger, we will need to engage all of heaven’s resources, not just some of them. I believe quite firmly that Jesus died, as Heidi Baker says, so we would always have enough. I believe He is the solution to every problem this earth faces. Yet I also understand that God has given us both spiritual power and spiritual wisdom. Sure, we can multiply food. But God also gave us every seed-bearing plant for food. It’s not a matter of choosing one or the other—I think He wants us to do both.

And where is Jesus in all of this? I think He is the same place He has always been—enthroned in our hearts. Sometimes I think ideas like this can be threatening because it upends our worldview. It changes what we think is possible, and sometimes it makes us look at things in new and uncomfortable ways. In reality, I think this is one of the safest “new ideas” out there. Why? Because it doesn’t threaten or change a single thing about the gospel or the Bible. It truly doesn’t. In fact, it could make certain things in the Bible make more sense, not less. I mean, what was Paul talking about when he spoke of Thrones and Dominions and Powers and all of those things? Yes, many believe them to be a hierarchy of angels, but what if some of those beings are nature spirits?

At the end of the day, we have to use discernment for everything. It doesn’t matter who or what the spirit says it is, we must discern wisely. I have encountered some really freaktastically evil nature spirits, and some really awesome ones as well. At the end of the day, discernment is always key. Test the spirits.

One last radical thought—the Bible says that Israel will blossom and flower and bloom one day. What if this was the answer? With nature working with you, you can grow literally anything anywhere, even in a desert.

I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I know I have a lot of the right questions. At some point, we as the Body of Christ, the Church, can’t continue to ignore this subject forever. I have seen these kinds of beings in the spirit for decades. I have had people contact me privately to tell me stories they have never told anyone else about nature spirits they encountered simply because they didn’t know anyone else who wouldn’t think they were either crazy, a heretic, or demon possessed. I recognize this isn’t necessarily the most popular subject to some, but I don’t think we do ourselves any favors by not discussing it. So why not, here, why not now, why not us? Over time God has put me in contact with people, mostly Believers, who each carry a piece of the puzzle. I have been turned on to books here and there that have revealed new possibilities to me, new things to ask the Father about regarding this subject, and yet I think with all our wisdom and insight we understand so very little about the vast creation God made for us. The secret things belong to the Lord, but the revealed things are for us and our descendants forevermore (Deuteronomy 29:29). It’s time to seek out some of the mysteries of the Nature Kingdom and live in them.

If you want to read more about this subject, check out the following:

Fairy Spirits and the Lamb of God – Part 1

Devas, Nature Spirits, and Talking With The Trees

Engaging the Stars of Orion’s Belt

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Fairy Spirits and the Lamb of God – Part 1

Fairies. Often know as the Fair Folk or the Tylwyth Teg or Little People, they have been the subject of many, well, fairy tales. They are believed by most to be fiction, fabrication, just plain not real. But are they fake? If you think about it, we have tons of beliefs in the Christian world, especially those focused on end-times and related “strange” things about UFO’s, Nephilim, Aliens, Giants, and the like. In fact, I have heard rumors that the main reason the public doesn’t know about a lot of that is due to government coverups from the various nations of the world. In spite of all those other things, I don’t ever come across anything Christian about fairies. Or Elves. or Unicorns. Or vampires, fauns, werewolves, dryads, naiads, trolls, gnomes, pixies, brownies, dwarves, centaurs, wraiths, hags, ettins, flying horses, grass spirits, elementals, and the many, many, many others that I have simply not listed. If there is so much out there about all of these “other” beings, why couldn’t fairies be real? And what on earth does this have anything to do with followers of Jesus? Let’s dive in and take a look at fairy spirits and the Lamb of God.

There are generally only two “Christian” camps in regards to beliefs and opinions about them:

1) They’re not real. End of discussion.
2) If they are real (and if is as far as most will go), then they’re demons and that’s all there is to it. End of discussion.

There are two problems with those options:
1) I don’t agree with either option
2) “They’re just demons” has never been a good enough answer for me (and I’m the one writing this article, so I win.)

Thus, I propose a third possibility. What if God created them and we are going to interact with them by choice or by accident, so we might as well have a clue about them, what they’re about, and how to work with them? To be clear, yes, some of the spirits in question are either demonic in nature or serve Satan although are not technically fallen angels. We will look at them a bit more in a future article.

Think about this—many stories exist in almost all cultures regarding the activity of mysterious creatures that seem to roam the earth. Some are dumb as rocks and others as intelligent as humans. These creatures can be good or evil (which varies from creature to creature), seem to live parallel lives to ours, and only to coincide with ours on rare occasions. That’s what the stories say, that is. But I have another thought: what are now considered fables once began as a story from a woman or a man to their children by firelight. Those tales were passed down through oral tradition while also spreading among people groups. 50 years later, dad’s story about meeting a little green man becomes a story of “your grandfather once met a little green man….” Add a hundred years to that and it looks like “A long time ago, your ancestor met a little green man.” Add even more degrees of separations and the tale has moved so far from the inception point that the story is “One day Fred met a little green man.”

What people have come to believe over time about that little green man is based almost entirely upon Fred’s encounter that many years ago. But wait. Fred met him, but others have met little green men over time as well. And so the volume of stories about green men (or mermaids, or whomever) grows. I think the reason so many stories about these beings exist is not because someone got bored one day and made up “Fred and the Green Man” (or mermaid, unicorn, etc.), but are based in at least some modicum of truth. Sure, stories grow and change over time as people forget or change details in a centuries-long game of Whisper-Down-The-Lane, but the key elements are the same: One day a guy met a not-guy, and it was considered significant enough to keep re-telling.

In reality, how different is that from the Bible? We read about Adam and Eve, Noah, Enoch, and many others who existed long before the Israelites began to keep written records of anything. At some point all of those stories were written down, and to this day they are told worldwide. If those true stories were carried by means of oral tradition for centuries, how can we say with certainty that some of these other myths aren’t similar in some way? After all, many different cultures have a flood story of some kind. Coincidence? I don’t believe in coincidences. Furthermore, if you read the Bible, it’s mostly a collection of stories of peoples’ personal experiences, all of which revolve around the same theme—the God of the Bible sharing his love and interacting with humanity.

Take it another step, and it’s not actually that big of a jump to say that something like fairies actually might exist. I mean, we even find these sorts of characters in the Bible. Think about it. Ezekiel watched all these flying dudes chucking fireballs at each other underneath this otherworldly storm. John the Revelator saw these ‘living creatures’ with a crazy ton of eyes and wings all over the place. Have you considered all the weird combinations of human and animal parts on those ‘living creatures’?? The Bible says it, not a fairy tale. If we know that fire-tossing spirits exist, and ones that have faces of four different creatures, and ones covered all over with nothing but eyes and wings, then maybe Centaurs and Mermaids aren’t so weird after all?

Let’s assume for a moment that this isn’t quite so “out there” after all (Okay, let’s face it—it’s totally “out there”, but hopefully that some of what you enjoy about The Kings of Eden—we aren’t afraid of the “out there”, and hopefully we even make it meaningful.). The next obvious question becomes “what is the point”? I mean, if we accept for a moment that all these things do exist, then why do we care?

I had some friends ask me once if this isn’t all just some huge spiritual charade, a cosmic distraction to keep us busy on unimportant things that have nothing to do with us as humans, and even more-nothing to do with our spiritual walk. While that is possible, I think it is unlikely. First off, Paul stated something that if it is a distraction is a valid point— “. . . in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes (2 Corinthians 2:11).” If it’s a scheme of the enemy, then at least being aware of it is a good idea. Hiding our heads in the sand of Ni-ev-etee, the capitol city of La-la-land, never helped anyone. If these spirits exist (and they certainly do), then we should at least take the time to figure out what they’re about before moving on. I mean, the book of Revelation has kept people guessing for centuries and everyone has their own inaccurate opinion on the subject, but people still spend tons of time plumbing the depths of the book. How is this any worse? No, if we are to inherit the earth, take dominion over it and all that, we owe it to ourselves to at least have a clue of whether we are sharing the planet with anyone.

Let’s pretend for a minute that it’s not all just one big illusory sideshow put on by the enemy, and that there actually is a point. The faerie realm is something that has pretty much been relegated to the New Age, Wiccans, and the like—people who are unlikely to know Jesus, but who have also hit upon some tangible reality in these areas. If they are busying themselves with the fairies and don’t know Jesus, and if we care about them at all, we should at least be able to hold an intelligent conversation with them when they tell us about these sorts of things. Did you know that “they’re just demons” isn’t a very effective evangelistic tool? Delivery is nine tents of the message. Even if you are convinced they are demons, coming to the table with some data in advance allows for honest and open communication with someone instead of what amounts to legalistic finger-pointing.

And what if, perchance, those who believe in the existence of so-called mythical beings are actually onto something? What if there is a purpose to all of this fairy-tale interaction? Here’s how I see it. In the same way that God has made all angels ministering spirits sent to those who will inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:14), He has made other spirits to govern other things too. In Genesis it states that God created the sun to govern the day and the moon the night, but He created light a few days prior. The sun and moon realistically are probably both a physical object and are or have a spiritual governing entity. In Malachi 4:2 it says “the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings”. If the sun doesn’t have a spiritual counterpart, a spirit that directs the activity of the sun, then I have absolutely no clue as to what Malachi is talking about. And technically, no, it isn’t talking about Jesus. The word used there is shemesh, which literally means “sun”. Angels are referred to as stars in a few different places in scripture, and the sun technically is a star. Why couldn’t the sun and moon have spirits that govern their activity? And wouldn’t that explain a bit better why so many cultures seem to think that the sun and moon have or are gods? The realm of the Fair Folk and their ilk are all Nature Spirits. If there are angels or other spirits that govern various solar bodies (what I call Stellar Spirits), then is it hard to believe that other spirit beings govern and shepherd the activities of creation on earth?

Next week we are going to look at this subject further (read part 2 here), pondering what God’s purposes might be in creating nature spirits, as well as ways He might want us to partner with them to steward this earth for all of humanity.

If you want to read more about similar subjects, check out the following:

Devas, Nature Spirits, and Talking With The Trees

Engaging the Stars of Orion’s Belt

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The Cure For The Pain Of The World

Sometimes, the pain in this world can be overwhelming. Just the painful people with broken bodies that I work with each week are enough to want to fix the world, but that is just a fraction of the suffering present in this world. When faced with such pain, whether physical or emotional, it can be difficult to know how to move forward, especially when it seems like nothing will fix it. My wife gets frustrated with me at times because I’m always trying to fix problems, especially when she hurts. Women usually are assumed to be caregivers (and usually they do an amazing job at it), but while being problem-fixers is hard-wired into males I think this is part of how we express our care and compassion, in our infinite hunt for the cure for the pain of the world.

Certainly, it isn’t an all-encompassing search, but I believe that men deeply care about stopping the pain and suffering in this world. And nowhere do we see this demonstrated better than in the life of Jesus. This guy was amazing, and his love constantly amazes me. Just reading about how he dealt with people in the Bible, he was so incredibly kind and filled with compassion. This dude took sacrificial love to another level, and that even before giving his life on the cross. In Matthew 14, the Bible says that Jesus received word that his cousin, John the Baptist, had been beheaded by Herod. It says, “When Jesus heard it, He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself. But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities. And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick (Matthew 14:13-14).

Jesus was leaving to spend some time by himself to grieve his cousin’s death. In verse 15 it says his disciples were there, so either they followed along with the crowds, or Jesus brought them with him. Either way, no matter how much his heart hurt, he saw the suffering of the people, set aside his own pain, and ministered to them, healing all of the sick who were present out of his great love. Jesus knew that we humans need a solution for our suffering, so he stretched out his hand to heal time and time again.

I think we all wish sometimes that Jesus was not just “alive in us”, but that he would physically appear and do the things He did in the Bible. Why? Because many of us or our family members are sick or in pain or otherwise in need. Sometimes it feels like the supernatural is highly impractical. Many believers who actively minister in divine healing have difficulty getting our own spouses healed of their problems, and sometimes it can feel like divine healing only works on total strangers. Except when they are lying in a hospital bed near-dead or permanently disabled. Even in many church meetings, someone’s back pain will go away, the headaches and joint pain may leave, but the cripples come and go just as crippled as they were before.

The hard part, for me, is both the lack of healing as well as the fact that when all of this happens, or rather when healing fails to happen, I am still convinced that Jesus is the cure for the pain of the world. Why is that hard? Because I don’t understand why it doesn’t work. The only reason infirmity and disease even have the capacity to exist in this world is because of sin. Jesus conclusively and successfully paid the price for all sin for all time and eternity, so there shouldn’t be any difficulty getting people healed. And while I can list nearly a dozen things** that can influence why and when people don’t get healed, the reality is that Jesus is our trump card, and none of that should matter. So what do we do to fix this?

Personally, I talk to God about it every time something fails, if only to let Him know that it disappoints me, and to ask Him to transform me to become the solution to the problem. I do believe in using however many steps it takes to get the job done, whether inner healing methods or daily faith-affirmations or whatever else, but I also believe there is a higher reality we need to access. I believe that when Jesus told us in John 14 that we would do greater works than He did because He was going to be with the Father, that He meant it.

It is incredibly discouraging to pray for people and not see them healed. It is downright heartbreaking to have someone reach out to you to help raise their loved one from the dead only to bury them within the week. It pains me to know that so much suffering still remains in this world in spite of our efforts to remove it. I believe that in spite of the many failures we still see in healing and the many people in the Body of Christ who are still sick and dying, and even those who don’t get raised from the dead when we pray, that Christ is still on the throne and that His promises to us are still good. I believe that as we continue to pursue Him, and love Him, and continue to reach out our hands to cure the world one person at a time, that God will meet us. Maybe we don’t see it every time, but Paul explained that it makes a mockery of God to think that we can sow and not reap (Galatians 6:7). If we pray in faith and continue to believe, we will reap a harvest one way or another.

In this hour in history, God is bringing us fresh revelation and fresh outpourings of His spirit to take us to a higher level. He is preparing the Body of Christ to step into an entirely new realm of His spirit and power. We must continue to press forward, continue to believe, and when circumstances fail us, keep believing anyway. After all, what other solution is there? It is my prayer, both for myself and for you, that God would strengthen us with power in our innermost being by His Spirit so that we, the Body of Christ, might manifest the life, light, and love of Jesus Christ in healings, signs, wonders, and miracles to become the cure for the pain of the world.

**their faith, your faith, the atmosphere, angelic assistance, demonic resistance, emotional wounds, unbelief, fragments and alters, generational issues, curses, witchcraft

Define Your Vision – Bring Your Future Into Your Present

A few weeks ago I spent a little time praying about the direction God is taking my wife and me regarding our ministry and another health-related business we are building. I have been feeling a bit lost of late, not sure how to proceed in any direction, in spite of having a list of items I could accomplish, all of which would “get something done.” Somehow, this hasn’t felt like what I needed, so I took a short walk and began to talk to God about it. As I walked past a bush on a path, the Holy Spirit highlighted it to me, and he said to me, “Define Your Vision.”

As I looked at this bush, Holy Spirit spoke to me—not just in clear words, but through an inner knowing in my heart what the message was, and the message was this:
“That bush has tiny little buds all over it, that will grow into branches, with their own buds and branches and so on. The seed doesn’t know exactly what is going to happen every step of the way, but that doesn’t matter. The seed contains within itself the blueprint for the entire bush and its growth process, regardless of what happens. I want you to define your vision, your mission, to be like the seed. Define the DNA of what you are doing and where you are going. Define your vision, your end-product, from the beginning—as you grow the vision will guide you on your path.”

Interestingly, this word the Lord spoke to me is similar to something He shared with the prophet Habakkuk in Habakkuk 2:2-3, saying:
“Then the Lord replied:
“Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that he who reads it may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it lingers, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.”

There is something that happens when you define your vision—it creates a clear path. This may be part of why I have felt a little unclear of late as to where we are headed and where we are growing to. I do see God growing The Kings of Eden, and I am excited with where I see us going to this point, but how long can a visionless, planless thing sustain itself? Not far. I used to think company mission statements were stupid. Typically they are incredibly broad and vague, not offering specific ideas or concepts. Over the past few years, I have realized that a mission statement is often broad and vague for a reason—it is the outline, the outermost parameters of an organization, not the individual goals that define the path. Certainly goals are important, and planning is what moves you from one phase to the next, but if goals are a single step each, then the mission is the journey of a thousand miles.

A mission statement helps define the vision in valuable ways, but the main one is actually pretty simple, and very straightforward. When any new idea comes forth, you simply have to ask one question “How does this forward the mission?” There are trillions of great ideas in the world, but if a great idea doesn’t forward the mission, then it is not the right idea—or at least not the right idea for that group. For example, consider that a business is about the pursuit of health. While someone might have a great idea about how the business can help people enhance personal prosperity, unless it is somehow tied into health, it doesn’t match the mission. Mind you, it might be a great idea for another company, and that individual may even go on to form a new company with that idea in mind, but then he or she will design a mission and vision that match with that idea.

I personally believe this idea is applicable in far more areas of life than it might seem at first glance. You don’t have to have a mission statement for everything you do, but at least define your vision—get clear about those things that are important to you and those that aren’t. Figure out the things you want to focus most on in life, and purpose to make time for them. Identify those things that really are somewhat extraneous, and see how you can reduce or even eliminate them entirely. This even works when spring-cleaning, clearing out clutter to get ready to move, or with any other project. What belongings do you own that don’t fit with where you are headed? Define your vision, then dump the extra baggage! You will be glad you did.

There is something about putting definition to something, framing it and making it real in your mind, that gives it life and energy and helps it to spring forth into reality. If you have been feeling unclear about where you are headed in any area of life, take time to define your vision. We are in the process of doing that now, and I believe it will only help us as we move forward. I’m excited, actually, because I believe this is the beginning of many new things to come!

If you aren’t already subscribed to our mailing list and want to know how this vision and plan works out for us, fill out the brief form below to get occasional updates, as well as receive a free ebook on engaging angels as our gift to you. Be well, be blessed, and may you prosper in every way as you define your vision!

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The Truth About Sin

As the son of an Episcopal priest, I was raised in a Godly home with parents who love the Lord dearly. I was taught the disciplines of scripture reading and regular times of private prayer, all of which have held me in good stead in my life. On the other hand, I was also taught some fairly harmful things about the sin and wrath and punishment that truly aren’t the heart of God. This was especially highlighted to me recently when I hit a problem and went into an emotional tailspin. In speaking with a close friend he reminded me of something I already know, but had forgotten—the truth about sin.

Many of us have been taught that sin is this horrible thing that separates us from God. He can’t look upon sin so he had to send Jesus to shed his blood and die to forgive us. The result is that when God looks at us, he sees Jesus instead. Basically, we got to put on Jesus-masks and Jesus-colored clothing to make God like us again. But that’s not how it actually is.

The truth about sin is that it kills us. The Bible is quite clear in both the Old Testament and New Testament that sin kills. Our loving heavenly Father doesn’t want us to die, or experience death, loss, and destruction in any area of our lives, so He sent Jesus to deliver us and set us free from sin and death. Nowhere in that gospel message is anything about God being unable to look upon us. In fact, in the Garden, the Father went searching for Adam and Even when He knew they had sinned so He could help protect and restore them. The Father’s wrath isn’t against mankind, but against everything that hinders us from His love.

The truth about sin is that it poisons our hearts. Sin in and of itself is a problem, but just as much of a problem is how it seeps its way into the deepest reaches of our hearts and whispers lies to us. It tells us that we are not good enough, and that we deserve judgment. We then begin to self-loathe and self-punish in our hearts for all of our failures, further letting death work within us. Not only that, but often those things we hate about ourselves are often activities that we are attracted to *because* of sin at work within us. Certainly the demonic realms are involved in all of this, but at the end of the day, sin entices us, accuses us, then kills us, bit by bit, day by day.

The truth about Jesus is that He isn’t half as concerned about sin as we are. He already paid for it all, for all mankind, for all time and eternity. There isn’t a single thing we can do now or in the future that He hasn’t already paid for. Sometimes it feels like when we first get saved we get set free from sin, but after we get saved there isn’t that same grace available anymore. Religion has taught us that when we sin it’s punishment time, and God is ready to put the smack-down on us. This couldn’t be further from the truth. We are told to come boldly before the throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help (Hebrews 4:16). Our Heavenly Father wants us to come *to* him when we are in need, not hide from Him in our hearts. Jesus isn’t threatened by our sin because He already conquered it.

What does that look like? Ask Him what He thinks about you in the situation? If you are truly hearing the voice of the Father, it is not going to be condemning. Why? Because the truth about God is that He doesn’t condemn us. Romans 8:1-2 says, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” If we are in Jesus, then there is no disapproval or criticism from the Father. Jesus even said to a woman who had been caught *in* adultery (which means they literally saw her having sex with someone, not just suspicion or hearsay) and was about to be stoned to death “Neither do I condemn you” (John 8:11). Jesus and the Father are exactly alike, so if Jesus doesn’t, then neither does He.

How might our perspective on things change if we stopped blaming ourselves when we sin? What if we stopped getting angry with ourselves when we mess up? What if we decided to change how we view ourselves and how we view sin? Instead of seeing it as “that evil thing that we are horrible people for doing”, what if we looked at it as “that thing that hurts me when I do it, so I have to get some antidote from Jesus when I get poisoned by it.” I believe God is shifting how the Church views sin—not because it isn’t harmful, but because God isn’t angry with us for it. The truth about sin is that it kills us, but God made a way through Jesus to set us free from the law of sin and death, to bring us into His glorious liberty!

Healing through Forgiving Sin

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A few years ago I began listening to number of different messages from Kirby and Fiona Delanerolle, founders of Works of Wonder in Sri Lanka. They have truly gotten ahold of the message of immortality and what it means that we will not die, and are pursuing it with intensity. One thing Kirby touched on that I continue to ponder is that we can minister healing through forgiving sin.

Consider John 20:21-23, “Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.'” I have heard this verse many times both as a child and adult, and even while learning a lot about physical healing in my 20s I never connected the dots, but this very concept is fascinating. Think about this. Jesus didn’t just teach his disciples this at any time–he did it after he died and rose again, after having paid the price for all sin and death for all time . Luke 5:17-26 tells of Jesus healing the paralyzed man AFTER forgiving his sins, but at no point in time did he tell his disciples to do the same until after he rose again. This is significant, and I believe holds a major key to those who still have yet to receive their healing.

It is easy to do an internet search and find articles about healing through forgiveness, but that is speaking about us finding healing by forgiving others for wrongs done against us–not about healing other people by forgiving their sins. In spite of the fact that this is taught almost nowhere, I believe it is an important key to releasing the life of Christ into the earth, and it is one I fully intend to explore.

It makes amazing sense if we really look at it. Sickness is simply death-in-process. The only thing that gives the enemy the ability to make us sick is sin. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Sin causes death, so if we forgive sin, thereby removing it, then death has no hold, and giving healing–a manifestation of the gift of God that is eternal life–should be easy. Forgive sin, heal sickness, repeat as necessary.

I think healing through forgiving sin is THE solution, but it is an important key. We have gotten moderately good at healing some sicknesses, especially in the Charismatic churches, but anyone who operates in healing will acknowledge that we have a long way to go if we want to get the kind of results Jesus paid for with his life. I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I do know I am asking some of the right questions. What would happen if we taught people to forgive sins and not just pray for healing? What is the relationship between faith and righteousness? Between righteousness and healing? This subject has so much more to it and this is only the tip of the iceberg. I am convinced that as we pursue understanding not only what it means that Jesus forgave our sins, but that as his brothers and sisters He has given us the authority to forgive the sins of others, we will change the way we deal with people. We will change the way we heal diseases. We can and will change the face of health on this planet, and I believe we can do it in part by healing through forgiving sin.

Missing The Mark – When Prophecies Fail

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I had a private discussion recently with some friends regarding prophecy, and specifically when they don’t come to pass. While we didn’t all see eye to eye on every point, I thought it was an enlightening discussion, and I want to share some of what we reviewed with you all.

First, we looked at why prophecies might fail. The most obvious reason is that the word wasn’t from God to begin with, and therefore had almost no chance of coming to pass in the first place. While this is a definite possibility, even if a word doesn’t originate from God, we have creative power and can speak forth words of life, calling things that have not yet existed into reality by faith. Thus, whether a word originates directly from God or not isn’t a guarantee whether it will happen or fail.

Sometimes prophecies fail because there was demonic resistance. Actually, I personally think this is the primary reason they fail. When God speaks destiny to someone, the first thing the enemy wants to do is steal it so they can destroy it. If a prophetic word is given to us, it is so we can apply our faith and action to it, pray over the realities contained therein, and engage heaven to see it come to pass. It’s often not sufficient to let a word sit there and expect it to work all by itself.

On the other hand, some words simply don’t need an action. A word that is encouraging or comforting often doesn’t need any response other than to receive God’s goodness in our hearts, but then, those words aren’t in danger of failing to happen either. If a word does require a response, our best answer is prayer. As we continue to pray over what God has shared with us, we empower angels to remove all demonic resistance against it, and in doing so we create room in the spirit for it to occur. On the other hand, failure to do this may result in the word failing. Does this mean the prophecy was false? Not necessarily, which is hard for some to hear. It could be a missed opportunity.

Likewise, as mentioned above it is also possible that the word was false, and therefore didn’t come to pass. In these situations it means we might have failed to use adequate discernment in the first place. It’s a fact that people make mistakes, and the prophetic is no different. I have given people prophecies before that were obtuse-sounding but extremely accurate, and some that were very simple but I couldn’t have missed it further. On rare occasion I will give a word in a situation where I physically cannot correct myself as the person has already left, and I later think to myself “Wow, how did I miss that so badly?” It happens. We all must learn to walk in both grace and discernment. Grace for when people miss it, and discernment so we know when we are hearing from God and when a word just isn’t what it seems to be.

I remember a while back when someone posted a very drastic prophetic word with specific dates. He had received confirmation after sign after sign after confirmation that everything he was hearing was correct. The dates came and went and literally nothing happened. He was pretty badly beaten down by other people when this happened, which I don’t think was kind or appropriate, but was also somewhat unavoidable. When prophecies have dates attached it can be that we either heard wrong, misinterpreted what we heard, or heard correctly and something changed. Prayer alters reality, and even in the face of doom and disaster we can pray and see things change. Does that mean the man heard correctly? In spite of the signs it is possible he missed it. It’s also equally possible he hit it square on and prayer changed the outcome, averting potential disaster. How do we know which it is? We don’t—which is why I believe it is always best to extend grace to people when they mess up. It could be me in that position someday, and I’d rather receive grace, so I should probably give it to others. We reap what we sow.

One of the pitfalls of the prophetic is that there are so many variables. More often than not a prophecy is an invitation from God to engage with Him to see His will manifest on the earth. It’s rarely a statement of absolute that says what will or will not come to pass without fail, and more often it is a telling-forth of God’s highest plan and purpose. If we engage with God then those plans will probably occur, and if we do not adequately engage then we might miss out. We could engage heavily and the warfare might just be so intense that it still fails, or the situation could change in prayer and the whole scenarios just ends up very different than we originally thought. Or, we could sit on our laurels and do nothing and it still happens. When we hear the original word do we ignore it, or do we activate our faith? And how much of a difference does that even make?

My purpose in making this as confusing as possible is to point out that there are a number of spiritual dynamics at play when a prophecy is given. It is rarely as cut-and-dry as some try to make it seem, and very rarely is a failed prophecy the result of a false prophet who intentionally misleads. More often than not it’s the result of any or all of the dynamics mentioned above and then some. Regardless of the reason that a word doesn’t come to pass, I encourage you to keep your head up and don’t let disappointment get the better of you. God has good plans for you to bring health, life, and abundance your way. He doesn’t cause bad things to happen to you, and He only works toward your good. Draw a bit nearer to Him today and listen with your own heart at the things He would share with you. Let Him minister to your soul in every place of disillusionment and frustration. Let Him lead you beside still waters and restore your soul.

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Prophetic Bulletin: Billy Graham’s Passing Is The Sign Of A New Era

The past day and a half since Billy Graham’s passing, I have been asking the Lord what He wanted to say about the event, as I felt there was prophetic significance to it. I had something else planned for my weekly blog post, but held off on posting it as I wanted to hear clearly what God wanted to say, and to make sure that I wasn’t simply creating something out of my own mind.

From the time I heard about his death, a scripture verse has been rolling around in my mind. “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. (John 12:24). Mark Chironna prophesied years ago that God was getting ready to release a multitude of people to do the work of the Kingdom (link to clip at the end of the article), and Benny Hinn stated that the sign this would be so would be Billy Graham’s death. Personally I don’t like the idea of using one person’s death as a sign of something, because God is anti-death. Nevertheless, the contents of John 12:24 matches with the word Mark Chironna/Benny Hinn gave—that ultimately this event would bear much fruit, multiplying into many seeds from the one.

The Lord impressed a second verse upon me as I was pondering and meditating on this matter: “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 22 And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins. (Mark 2:21-22)”

I believe this verse signifies that Reverend Graham’s death is the sign that an old wineskin has ended and a new one is being established. To be clear, it could sound dishonoring to Billy Graham to call him an “old wineskin”, but that isn’t where I am coming from, and is NOT what I am saying. Usually, wine gets better as it ages, so old wine isn’t bad—just different. Every year the same vine will produce different grapes, and those different grapes will be similar, but invariably have different flavor from the year prior. A new wineskin is designed for new wine not because it is better than the wine in years prior, but in order that the two would be compatible.

Reverend Graham was born almost a full century ago, having died yesterday at age 99. It is a fact that God used him mightily to bring many people into the Kingdom. My parents took me to one of his crusades at the Phillies Stadium in Philadelphia when I was a kid, and while I don’t remember much of the event, I do recall that hundreds of people streamed onto the field when he gave an altar call for people to come and get born again. We honor him for what he has done and for the legacy he has left with us, but we also look forward into the new that God has for us.

What I found most fascinating about the verses in Mark 2 is that I didn’t know the address of the verses when I first began to meditate on them, but when I looked them up I realized this section of verses began on 2:21—the same as the date of Billy Graham’s death, February 21! This, to me, is a clear prophetic confirmation that this is what the Lord is saying: Billy Graham’s passing is the sign of a new era..

We ought to spend some time praying for the Grahams as a family, as this must be a hard time for them, and even more so because it is so highly publicized. Let us pray that they would have grace and peace. We ought to pray and ask the Lord to help us step into the NEW that He has for us. As one era is drawn to a close and another era opens up, God is releasing new revelation to us as the Body of Christ. Finally, I encourage everyone to take some time to ask the Lord what new things He is releasing into our lives, and what this spiritual transition will look like for us personally.

Clips of other prophetic words on Billy Graham’s passing:

Mark Chironna and Benny Hinn

Kim Clement

Kat Kerr

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Acts of Love, Service, and Sacrifice

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Valentines Day is one of my least favorite holidays, albeit nowhere close to my distaste for Halloween. While the idea behind it is literally lovely, I have a hard time matching up with the commercialized push to “do something” for your spouse and other loved ones else you don’t truly love them. I am horrible at keeping up with holidays to begin with (Exhibit A: three feet from me is my parents’ Christmas present that I still haven’t sent them and its now the middle of February), so having a holiday that comes just two weeks after my wedding anniversary is a recipe for failure. With all the commercial focus on loving one another, I want to take a moment and consider how God demonstrates His great love for us—through acts of love, service, and sacrifice.

In John 15:13, Jesus spoke to his disciples about love, saying “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” In Ephesians 5:25-28, Paul speaks about how husbands should love their wives, saying “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.” Jesus in John 13 even did a physical act of service, washing his disciples’ feet to demonstrate to them through both service and physical touch His great love for them. I find it interesting that in our commercialized world we are so focused on love as gift-giving of expensive items that we forget true demonstrations of love also include acts of service and sacrifice.

While it is true that each person has ways he or she gives and receives love best (check out The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman), God’s greatest gift of love was an act of service through personal sacrifice. And this wasn’t just an old sacrifice—it literally changed the course of humanity and shifted the balance in our favor, removing the death and decay from sin and ushering in the manifestation of abundant life God planned for us from the beginning of creation. However, it didn’t stop there. He gave us His Holy Spirit to continue that transformative work within us on an ongoing basis, speaking and releasing love to us every day. As it is written, “And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5). If we want to consider how to spread that love best to one another, I believe it looks like every-day acts of love, service, and sacrifice, not as a one-time event.

These acts of love always have to be massive. How about the time when we don’t feel like turning the light off but our wife is also in bed next to us and doesn’t feel like it either. That time our wife wants a foot rub and we are exhausted, but instead of saying no, or even telling her we are tired, we just do it anyway. The time where for no reason whatsoever, and because of no special holiday pressuring us, we go out and get her some flowers or some other small something. That time we put down our electronic devices and purpose to fully listen to whatever it is she is saying without trying to solve the problem (guilty as charged). The time where we don’t feel like cuddling because we are tired, hot, cranky, don’t like it (not sure this one even exists), or whatever else, but that we hold her anyway (Mind you, these ideas can apply to women just as much as men, but I’m a dude, so that’s what you get). These are all little things, and the big things are good and important too, but it is acts of love, service, and sacrifice on a daily basis that truly do what God does–shed love abroad in our hearts.

If our job is to BE Christ to people, then we will look for ways to do that not just with our wives, but with our children, family, friends, and even coworkers. After all, in John 13:34-35 Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (emphasis mine). If all else fails, life happens, or the world falls apart, commercialization has no hold on the future, but we can never go wrong with acts of love, service, and sacrifice.

If Jesus Were Here, He Wouldn’t Turn Them Away. I Can’t Either.

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Last week I was blessed to be able to help administrate the A Revelation of Jesus Christ event, hosted by Hearts of Fire Ministries. This was a two-day event here in Portland with David Hogan. While the event was amazing, and hundreds came and received a touch from Heaven, we ran into a problem. The church venue we normally use was unavailable, so we had to use a significantly smaller church. This meant that literally hundreds of people who wanted to attend were unable to get tickets—we sold out every seat we had and then a few dozen more we didn’t have days prior to the event. Keep in mind that at every event we do, we get walk-ins, and normally that would be perfectly welcome—we have space for everyone. But not this time. We were literally turning people away who came in-person to the event because we had no place to put them.

At one point I was put in an extremely awkward position by another staff member, albeit through no fault of her own—the entire registration process was awkward due to the popularity of the speaker and the lack of seats. This coworker asked me to “deal with someone” that needed to be turned away from the event because she was crazy busy dealing with other things. By all rights she was, and I was available, so having me deal with the problem was a good choice, but there was an issue: the “problem” was people. A man had brought his disabled, brain injured wife to the event. She is a fan of Hogan’s and has followed his ministry for years, but that wasn’t the major issue. What got me was the fact that she literally crawled her way into the building and across the floor to the registration table. I kid you not—I watched the entire thing. I would expect to see something like this elsewhere in the world, but not in the U.S.A.

So here I am, on staff with the ministry hosting a “Revelation of Jesus” event, and a disabled woman is crawling across the floor who wants to get prayed for by the speaker because she wants to be healed. And I’m the guy who has been designated to say “Sorry, no room at the inn. Move along please.” I didn’t know what to do, so I did the only thing one can do in that situation—I said a quick prayer in my mind to the God of the Heavens and the Earth: “God, I DON’T want to turn her away. What do I do? Help me.”

I began to talk to this husband who lovingly brought his disabled, wife to this event, and was just honest with him. I said “Sir, I’ll be honest, I don’t know what to tell you. We literally don’t have any more room to put people, so I just don’t know how to help you. However, I don’t want you to leave without your wife getting prayed for. Can we pray for her?” He was very gracious and happily agreed.

A few other believers, including Joshua Shaw and friends of Walk After Christ Ministries had at that time just bent down to pray for her. I had her crawl to an alcove on the side so people could walk around us, and we all continued to pray for her. After a short while, I left her in Joshua-and-Friend’s capable hands so I could take care of other administrative duties for the event, but I simply couldn’t find it in my heart to send her away. And neither could I send away the other people who came with canes and walkers and wheelchairs all seeing a touch from Jesus Christ, the Master Healer. Keep in mind that we were still out of chairs. I won’t say exactly what we did do, but it was a fire marshal’s nightmare.

Here’s the thing: I know that I lack in a lot of ways in life, but if there is one thing I am not willing to lack in, it is the love of Jesus Christ. The biggest struggles I have ever had in my life, with no exaggeration, have had to do with how to love people when they were exceedingly unlovable. Over the next day and a half, each time someone come to the event without a ticket, and they had some clear and visible disability, I simply couldn’t find it in my heart to send them away. From the first night with that man and his wife, and every time after, I could only think to myself:

“If Jesus were here, he wouldn’t turn them away. I can’t either.”

And you know what? God was faithful to my cry for help each and every time. Someone’s friend didn’t come the one night, so that woman gave the extra seat to the crawling-woman, who by the time she went to go to the sanctuary, was walking upright (Yaay Jesus!!). Another man who had a walker with a seat, he put it against a wall on the side of the auditorium and just used that as his chair. Various wheelchairs we wheeled up front and placed at the sides of the stage. One way or another, we made a way for people to stay, and God rewarded that faithfulness. One young woman regained mobility in a leg that she had lost movement in from a car accident, and began to walk. A teen girl began to feel new sensation in her leg and hip in spite of having become paralyzed from the waist down a year prior. A number of people were delivered from demons, many received a strong touch from heaven, and the Kingdom of God showed itself strong on our behalf.

I often don’t have the answers to life’s problems. I often don’t know what to do when things start getting out of control. But I realized something last week. There is a God who rules over the heavens and the earth who has all wisdom, all power, and all authority over every sickness and disease, pain, poverty, and problem. This God came to earth as Jesus to destroy the power of sin once and for all time, to remove the bondage to death and decay which as enslaved both mankind and all creation since the Fall. And this Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and will be forever and ever. If he wouldn’t turn someone away, we don’t need to fear that we will either, because as Jesus once said to Heidi Baker, “I died so there would always be enough.”

Fairy Spirits and the Lamb of God – Part 2

Fairy Spirits and the Lamb of God – Part 1

The Cure For The Pain Of The World

Define Your Vision – Bring Your Future Into Your Present

The Truth About Sin

Healing through Forgiving Sin

Missing The Mark – When Prophecies Fail

Prophetic Bulletin: Billy Graham’s Passing Is The Sign Of A New Era

Acts of Love, Service, and Sacrifice

If Jesus Were Here, He Wouldn’t Turn Them Away. I Can’t Either.

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