I Must Become The Answer

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I forget what I was doing the other day, but I found myself thinking about what I would do if someone close to me died. I thought that the first thing I would do would be to call my friend Tyler, the founder of The Dead Raising Teams (DRT), who teaches and trains people to raise the dead. Then, I thought about the fact that EVERYONE who has ever heard of him probably has that very same thought. After all, when someone dies an we want to pray them back to life, we all want someone we think can get the job done, right? Then it hit me that I must become the answer.

Its not like this was an entirely new thought—I have had it before about other things, and I firmly believe that relying on Christ in me is a much more effective method of releasing Kingdom solutions in any problem situation. However, there are times where we discover areas where our minds haven’t yet been fully renewed to understand the Kingdom reality God has place within us, and that He has given us power to release that Kingdom and make it manifest in our world.

The truth is that while Tyler is an awesome friend and a really great guy, there is nothing about him that is any different than me in regards to raising the dead other than him being more well-known. We both have the same Jesus living inside us. We both have access to the power of the same Holy Spirit. We both have been given authority over all sickness, disease, infirmity, and death by the very same God of the Bible. So why is he my instant solution?? I must become the answer.

Someone once told me that God’s name “Jehovah Jireh” doesn’t just mean “God provides”. It means “I will become whatever I must become.” In other words, God calling Himself Jehovah Jireh means He is committed to becoming whatever solution we need in any situation. If the problem is lack, He will become our supply. If pain or sorrow, He will become our healing and joy. If death, He is and already has become our abundant life.

At the end of the day, I can’t depend on anyone else, no matter how good of a friend they may be, to manifest the Kingdom on my behalf. If someone in my family dies, I am the designated resurrectionist for the situation. Friends may let me down no matter how hard they try, but God has said that He will never leave or forsake me (Deut. 31:6, Heb. 13:5). He is the friend who sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24). At the end of the day, there is only ever God, and me.

I must become the answer, and so must you.

If you want to learn more about how you can be a resurrectionist, check out the resources below. If you want to grow quickly in this area, I highly recommend five things:

1. Sign up for our Raise the Dead Initiative mailing list here to receive updates, and connect further.

2. Get some books. I have written two books on the subject: Practical Keys to Raise the Dead and Faith to Raise the Dead. Tyler’s books are How to Raise the Dead and The Dead Are Raised, and be sure to check out Father Hebert’s encouraging book Saints Who Raised The Dead

3. Join the RDI on Facebook: Raise the Dead Initiative The Raise the Dead Initiative is a group I started to help grow the Body of Christ in this area, and I will eventually develop an RDI teaching curriculum to train believers to pray for and raise the dead. You may also be interested in The Dead Raising Team and Dead Raising Campaign Facebook groups.

4. Look at how you can host or attend a Resurrection School in your area. Contact Tyler Johnson via his website at http://www.oneglance.org/ to arrange the event. Tyler is an awesome man of God and good friend who regularly teaches Resurrection Schools to help transform our understanding on the subject of resurrection life. He has Dead Raising Teams around the world who are ready to mobilize in their area to release the abundant life of Jesus Christ.

5. Watch/listen to David Hogan’s YouTube Series on the subject of Raising the Dead: Session 1 Session 2 Session 3 Session 4

6. Look for and actively engage opportunities to raise the dead in your area by reaching out to friends when you hear that someone has died.

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When Running Away Is Winning

I recently had the opportunity to spend some time with some wonderful friends—kindred spirits really—at a conference. After the evening session we went out for a bite to eat, and the events that transpired showed me something—that sometimes, running away is winning.

Three of us walked into a nearly empty Thai restaurant just before 10pm. The hostess informed us they were nearing closing, so we talked to her for a few minutes to see what and/or if we could get some food while one friend went to the restroom. During this time, someone behind the two of us said something to the effect of “I hate it when pedophiles stare at my kids.” We turned around, not having noticed the family at the table behind us before, and not sure the guy was even talking to us at first.

Turns out he was.

In that first second or two, thoughts flew through my brain so fast that it takes more timeto describe them than it did to think them. First, I thought the comment was really strange. Then I realized this guy was not all there up top. I was guessing mental illness of some kind, and the best solution to the problem was to engage as little as possible. . . until my friend turned around and said “Are you talking to us? I’ve got four kids of my own, man.”

Oh No!! He just engaged! Mayday, Mayday, We are going down!

This man responded to us in negative fashion and my friend replied to each of his comments as we walked away in search of a table. The problem was that each comment from this strange man escalated the level of severity and danger of the situation. First it was “I’m in the military and I’m not afraid of you” as he stood up and walked toward us. He wasn’t tall, but he was fairly muscular and we really didn’t want any trouble. My friend’s reply was “We don’t want to fight you.” Shortly thereafter it went to “I will pull out my Beretta and shoot you.” I did my best to get my friend to disengage, and he quite graciously apologized for offending this deranged individual, who then sat down and left us alone for a few minutes.

We sat down at a table, all the while hearing him mutter under his breath about how angry he was at us, cursing, etc. Literally we had done nothing except stand near him for all this to occur. I noticed at this time that he was drinking beer, and guessed that in addition to his drunkenness he probably also had PTSD and another underlying psych condition as well. At any rate, things just felt very wrong, and with this guy ramping himself up all on his own, we were in potentially very real danger. After all, it wasn’t clear if this man’s gun threat was as close as his pocket, his car, or was sitting at home, and we didn’t want to find out. I quietly told my friend we needed to leave, so he went outside just as our other friend returned from the bathroom and sat down.

Not wanting to upset the crazy man two tables down, I very quietly said to this friend “Please leave the restaurant, I will explain outside.” He sat there and looked at me funny. Again I quietly and calmly said “Just go outside, I’ll be right behind you to explain.” He still sat there. Remember, too, that he had been in the bathroom the entire time and missed the entire situation, shooting threat included. Again I near-whispered “Please listen to me. I need you to go outside, I will explain. Please go outside.” I think he must have picked up on the urgency in my voice because he did, thankfully, so I spoke briefly with the server then followed him out. Even as we got in our vehicles to leave, this man got up from his table, walked outside, and headed toward my truck, posturing clearly to make sure he drove us off.

While none of this sounds super-spiritual at first, I think there is a valuable lesson here. The demonic realms want to embroil us in problems at every turn, and one such problem would be a situation where we have an escape route but we choose to stand our ground just so “the enemy doesn’t win.” The truth is, sometimes running away from danger is winning.

Consider this:

As best as we could tell, this man was manifesting demons in a big bad way, presumably both from the glory of God on us and in order to try to stop what God was doing that weekend. I should mention here that my two friends were also the keynote speakers at this event. Imagine if we had gotten into a brawl (did I mention this was a Thai food place and not a bar?). As long as the guy didn’t have a gun on him, we probably would have won given that it would have been three-on-one and one of my friends is a muscular beast. That said, I am positive we all would have been injured, possibly with broken bones, and might have gotten arrested as well until the police could sort things out. Any way it went, the only way to avoid a total disaster was to do what we did—run away.

Sometimes when we are faced with what are ultimately spiritual battles, we feel we strongly need to stand our ground. On the other hand, sometimes wisdom is the better part of valor, and leaving the combat zone is the best way to go.

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The Tree Across The Road

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Once, a number of years ago, my wife and I were visiting my family in Virginia. While there, we borrowed my dad’s truck and headed north to look at some belongings we kept in a storage facility we were planning to clear out. It was late at night and long since sundown when we were driving back to Virginia, roughly a three-to-four hour trip, made longer and slower by a rainstorm. We had crossed over the state lines and were officially in Virginia, on a long stretch of highway that was only two lanes. Traffic was stalled, and we were entirely unsure why—but after almost an hour of mostly sitting there and inching forward, we discovered that in the storm, a massive tree was struck by lightning and had fallen across the road.

Well, after having waited there for so long, none of us were willing to sit and do nothing until someone else came to rescue us. I and a number of other travelers began looking through the tools with us (I opened my dad’s truck box to see what tree-destroying goodies he had packed) and we began to dismantle the tree bit by bit. It was slow going, especially since no one had come prepared to cut a tree away from the road, but there were a good dozen or two of us either sawing and/or hacking or helping pull large pieces of brush away from the trunk once freed—all done by the yellow light of car headlamps.

The event itself was somewhat fun in spite of the setback, and even the wet shoes and clothes from being outside in the rain playing with tree limbs weren’t enough to kill the overall enjoyment in the midst of what was an otherwise frustrating situation. Truth be told, it just felt adventurous. Not only that, but the overall atmosphere and attitude of all involved was pretty positive. We all just pitched in to help out, working with total strangers as a team to reach a common goal, long before we had “sanctioned help” from the authorities.

Eventually the police did arrive and brought workers with them who began sawing up the main body of the trunk, and this time with the right tools. Even *while* they were clearing the road, they turned traffic away and sent them somewhere else. We found a back-road nearby and made an educated guess that it would take us where we wanted to go, since cell service was nonexistent at that location and using a GPS map was out of the question. Eventually we got around the roadblock and back on the highway.

Reflecting on that time, I couldn’t help but see this as a picture of many in the Body of Christ. At least in the Western Church, we have been taught this notion that many things are the job of “Big names” and “Ordained ministers” when in reality, even if those we view as authority figures in the Body don’t step up, we are still going to get the job done. Furthermore, even when the authority figures do get involved, usually pastors and other leaders, there tend to be a lot of restrictions on who is permitted to do what. The police were much like this when they came to manage the fallen tree. The rest of us were already working on getting the job done, and not only did they cast us aside, but they didn’t even let us remain on the road, knowing full well that a single lane would be cleared shortly.

There are a few different responses we can have to this type of event when it happens inside the Body of Christ. The first is to give up, get bitter, and decide to stop moving forward. The second is to give ourselves over to the authority figures, give up our vision, and join them with whatever they are doing, regardless of where we were headed previously. The third option is to simply continue on our journey, bypassing those who are supposed to be on our side but ultimately are setting themselves in opposition to us, and keep advancing anyway.

That’s not to say that all pastors or other leaders are bad. Many of them have been put in positions of influence due to the call of God on *their* lives, and are faithfully walking in what the Lord has called them to do. Nevertheless, they are just as human as we are, and prone to the same mistakes and oversights as anyone else. If you have felt passed-by or looked-over by those in positions of influence within the Church, don’t let that stop you from walking in all that God has intended for you. In the same way that we began to dismantle the tree without “official” approval, you too can begin to dismantle powers of darkness and release the light of Christ into your surroundings regardless of who is for or against you.

For those who haven’t read Gemstones From Heaven, I explain in the first chapter that many of the encounters in that book came from hosting meetings at our house. My wife and I didn’t need a stamp of approval from someone else; we simply opened our home, invited people, and let God do the rest. If you feel like God is calling you to step into something, I encourage you to pray for clarity, then walk boldly forward on the journey. It’s going to be exciting!

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A New Level of Trust For Provision

A few years ago, my wife’s college, Heald College, was shut down by the Department of Education in a push to try to punish its parent corporation, Corinthian College. It was a shame that Heald was shut down partly because a lot of jobs were lost, and partly because the school itself had a rich history of education without all of the shady dealings that Corinthian College engaged in, and who had only bought it a few years prior. At any rate, this also meant that my wife’s income was going away, and this meant God had to bring us into a new level of trust regarding our finances.

Almost all of our married life up to that point, my wife and I had both been employed, and for most of that time, she made far more money per hour as a college professor than I did as a nursing assistant—multiple times what I made, in fact. After graduating from nursing school and working at a rehab facility my wage rose to meet hers, but with her losing her job, we simply weren’t going to have enough money to meet all of our monthly expenses.

We had known this school-closing was coming in advance, and I had already been looking for a new job, so I was pleased to finally get an interview for a position at a local hospital. I ended up being offered the position, and when they told me how much I was going to be paid, I was blown away. I literally got a $10 per hour raise moving from my current job to the new one based off my nursing experience. Furthermore, that didn’t include a sizeable shift differential for working night shift. I accepted on the spot—so quickly, in fact, that the HR person stopped me and said “I haven’t told you the whole offer yet.” I was clearly excited to get the job.

All of our money troubles did not evaporate overnight, but my I began the new job right as the school closed, and my wife did receive six months of unemployment on top of that—which helped us out a lot as we transitioned into this new level of income which, in spite of the raise I got, was still less than we had been making before. Eventually, with cost of living increases, raises from yearly service, other bonuses, and picking up additional shifts here and there, my income has roughly matched where we were at before.

This hasn’t been especially easy on my wife, partly due to her job loss and partly due to a much-needed transition due to health issues. Even the transition to spending more time at home raising our grandchildren and homeschooling them has presented its own challenges, none of which have been any easier than going to work. What I did discover in that situation was that God was not only ever-present to help in our time of need, but everything worked out SO smoothly! Not only did I get a higher-paying job at just the right time, but I was able to time it to get myself two weeks off for a road trip, storage clean-out, and ended up writing Gemstones From Heaven while on that trip.

What I felt the Lord show me from all of this was that His goodness and abundance are ever-present. Certainly there are times we feel and/or experience more lack than at other times, but there are other times such as this where even though we didn’t spend hours in prayer over the situation, and in fact I began job-hunting before the College closed, God positioned us just how we needed to make everything work for our good. I am reminded that in every situation God is working things in our favor, even as it says in Romans 8:28 that, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” God calls everyone to His purposes, so we can trust that He is actively at work in our lives to bring good things out of those that appear less-than-good. And I thank God for that!

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Christianity Versus Nudity

I was talking to a friend a while back when we were doing some home-improvement projects. It was hot out and she asked if I minded if she took off her shirt as she had a somewhat sporty bra on (which I should mention covered more than many bathing suit tops do). I didn’t care and my wife was fine with it, but that launched us into a discussion about nudity and social appropriateness. This made me think later about nudism for believers, and why it would or would not be recommended as a practice/lifestyle for followers of Jesus.

The first knee-jerk reaction I can imagine many would have is “No! That is sin!” And maybe it is. That is certainly a real possibility. And maybe it isn’t. And maybe it just depends. And that is exactly what I was pondering, so let me bring you with me to review some of what I considered and where I ended up.

First, we know that in the beginning nudism was the norm. Eden as a whole was obviously comfortable to Adam and Eve, and I would suggest the way their bodies were made that they were impervious to injury or discomfort, having the ability to regulate their temperature, etc. to meet their needs at any time, making clothing entirely unnecessary. While much of that is speculative, for the first portion of Adam and Eve’s lives, clothing simply did not exist.

In fact, even after they ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, observed they were naked, and then hid out of shame, God didn’t actually complain a single time about their nakedness. He simply asked them “Who told you that you were naked? (Genesis 3:11) God was entirely unconcerned about their nakedness. What He was bothered by was the fact that they were bothered by it, especially since that was a symptom of a deeper problem—their sin.

As I consider all of the various sex and sex-related issues that exist in our world—lust, homosexuality and transgenderism, rape, pedophilia and varying other kinds of deviant sexual behavior, and more, I cannot help but consider that the Church’s stance has largely been reactionary. “Avoid all of these things and you should be able to avoid sexual sin” is typically the Church’s go-to modus operandi. On the one hand that’s not a bad idea, in that we collectively teach self-discipline, however ineffective it often may be. Self-discipline is a healthy skill to possess, so that’s not bad in and of itself. However, the problem is that self-discipline isn’t enough by itself, and that is often what the Church brings to the table. If you discipline yourself enough, talk with other people of similar gender to keep yourself “accountable”, and avoid areas where you might give in to weakness, and pray a lot about it, that should be sufficient.

Again, I’m not just bashing on the church, because most of those above (minus the accountability one) are actually really good ideas. For example, avoiding hanging out with people who do drugs because of a propensity to do drugs with them is just wisdom. Assuming people are going to tell the truth to an accountability group, however, is probably a little naive. I suggest what we need is a different approach.

What if we were to proactively teach people how to respect and appreciate their bodies in all of its nude form? If we weren’t so incredibly prude about it to the point of body-shaming when we think too much skin is shown, we might help people, especially kids, develop a healthy self-image early on which would reduce sexual problems down the road. After all, nudism isn’t about being sexual—it’s about not being ashamed of being unclothed whether alone or around other people, and preferring that state due to physical comfort. Anyone who believes pure nudism has anything to with sexuality is misinformed.

Certainly being around others in the nude gives one the ability to lust or whatever else, but that’s part of the Church’s problem—we are so focused on the potential negatives that we completely ignore the possible positives. What if, instead of worrying so much about how someone might negatively lust, we were to teach people that it’s okay to enjoy physical beauty and that it doesn’t HAVE to be sexual? As a nurse, I see naked people all the time. ALL the time. To be honest, probably around 98% of them don’t really have bodies I consider lust-worthy anyway. Another way of saying it is that most people aren’t all that attractive in the nude, so the idea that we are going to go into some sort of sexual craze when unclothed around others is silly. Furthermore, nudism doesn’t have to be a social thing.

A small portion of nudists are social; most we will never know about. For some, they enjoy simply wearing little or no clothing in the privacy of their own home and would have no intention of doing so in public. In fact, while I am not a betting person, I am sure that I would win the bet if I were to assume that a number of readers fall into that category—those who enjoy some level of private nudism but no one else knows about it because it’s just that—private.

Much of what decides this issue for each person has to do with what he or she deems appropriate. Well, appropriateness is cultural, which is something else to remember. The United States is one of the more reserved when it comes to bathing suits, especially for men, whereas in other countries, such as in Europe or South America, it is entirely normal for men to wear bikinis or bikini briefs or similar—a far cry from the nearly-shin-length board shorts that are the current trend. In some places in Europe, it is entirely normal for women to go topless, and no one thinks a thing of it because it is a cultural norm. While the Western Church is typically aghast at this behavior, again, it isn’t inherently right or wrong any more than some aboriginal dude wearing basically nothing more than a thong as his daily-wear is inherently wrong. It’s just a different culture with unique cultural norms—and in such a setting, they too have ideas of what is appropriate and inappropriate, but they would just be vastly different than what you or I might be used to.

I believe the underlying issue that many believers have with nudism isn’t actually about the practice itself, but reflect their own underlying insecurities, fear, shame, and sexual issues. I’m not saying that nudism is the solution to all of life’s sexual problems, because it isn’t. On the other hand, if I had children of my own I would seriously consider raising them in such a way as to at least be comfortable around others in appropriate settings while in the nude because I believe that minimizing the shame, fear, and insecurity of nudity growing up leads to an overall healthier perspective when it comes to dealing with sexual appetites as an adult. It is my hope that believers as a whole can stop vilifying the human body as though it were inherently evil, and I believe that if we truly want to get at some of the behavioral aspects of sexual immortality, a healthy dose of nudism might just be what some people need.

I should point out, in closing, that at the end of the day the only real solution to sexual problems is the Holy Spirit, the one who is responsible for leading and guiding us into all truth. Romans 8 explains that as we walk by the Spirit we simply will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Behavioral discipline such as that which I believe healthy nudity can provide is just a piece to the puzzle, or maybe a step in the right direction, but the transformative power of God is at the end of the day the only true solution to the issue of sexual perversions, lusts, and immorality. Regardless of how you manage your own sexual health, I encourage you to continue to be led deeper into communion with God by the Spirit of God, because as you do, you will understand and experience the true freedom found therein. Blessings!

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Domestic Violence in the Church

A few years back, a family member, a Christian, had to divorce her husband. At first glance that sounds horrible, but did I mention that he physically beat her regularly, and emotionally abused both her and the children? Just in the past two days, my wife and I rescued a neighbor from a lengthy period of domestic violence including both physical and sexual abuse. The Western Church as a whole is very unhealthy in regards to how we deal with both victims and perpetrators of domestic violence, so I’m going to share some of my own observations from walking out an almost ten year process alongside this family member. Domestic Violence is evil.

1) The Church is historically terrible when it comes to dealing with Domestic Violence (DV). Pastors can be some of the worst advice-givers in these situations, often putting the victim in significant danger by telling them they have to stay in the marriage. Depending on who you talk to, the victim should have stayed in the marriage and “made it work,” in spite of the physical and psychic harm to his or her person and to the children. After all, marriage is an unbreakable covenant, and to divorce for anything less than marital unfaithfulness, aka adultery, is adultery, right? Wrong. Consider that abuse of any kind is about as unfaithful as someone can get. This is not a demonstration of love, but of a need for power. The Bible says that we husbands are to love our wives and treat them just like Christ did the Church, laying His life down for her (Ephesians 5:25). Abuse is the opposite of that, absorbing the victim’s emotional energy like a soul-sucking vampire in order to feel empowered.

Christians often tell DV victims to just pray and hope that God continues to work on the spouse’s heart, in spite of the fact that the spouse’s heart is hardened and not very open to the life-changing power of God. Mind you, God is more than capable of transforming anyone’s heart, hard or not, but you can just as easily pray for him or her from a safe distance as you can while in the middle of abuse. Bible-thumping people into staying in a dangerous, even life-threatening situation is not the will of God as outlined in scripture, and if you are telling someone otherwise, you are in opposition to God; working as a pawn of Satan in this area. Religion is not a reason to remain in abuse. If anything, it is the holy empowerment to find freedom from it. Anyone who tells you otherwise has a religion you should have nothing to do with. Run from it.

I have some friends who I love dearly, but their “solution” to the problem was to occasionally remind us that God’s desire was to restore the marriage, and then they would cite all the situations they knew of where it happened for someone else. That’s wonderful and all, but when in the middle of dealing with the actual problem, “restoration” is the last thing on anyone’s mind. Safety and security are the starting point to a long road to recovery, and if God wants to restore somewhere in that process, He is well able to do so, but it’s not an appropriate focus, especially not when the victim is still being victimized. God will work out those details down the road if He so chooses.

2) Domestic violence of any kind, whether physical, mental, or sexual, is abuse. Period. It is not earned, welcomed, or deserved, and it is never the victim’s fault. An abuser gains inner power and well-being from the mistreatment of others. The behaviors of the attacker are not the fault of the victim, no matter how many times someone says otherwise. This is important because most likely the abuser has gradually brainwashed the victim into believing that the victim IS the one at fault for the abuse he or she receives.

3) Domestic violence can occur to either gender, by either gender. While yes, it is predominantly a male-attacker female-victim, that is NOT always the case. Don’t make assumptions, and don’t treat a male victim like he should have been strong enough to act differently. He’s a man after all, right? No, that is a societal message that has no basis in reality, much less in an abuse-scenario. Don’t kick a victim while he is down just to perpetuate an unhealthy social message.

4) DV can be deadly. If the victim doesn’t leave early on, it usually takes a long time for him or her to leave the relationship, and sometimes they never do. Sometimes, even if they leave, they go back into the abusive situation. I believe the statistic is that the average number of times for a victim to leave and then RETURN to the abuser is somewhere around seventeen times before they either leave for good or are killed. A portion of all DV encounters WILL end in the death of the victim.

I will say this to anyone and everyone who is in an abusive situation, whether you are thinking about leaving or not. First, do it and get yourself and your family safe. You may not be dead now, but there’s always another day, another opportunity for violence to escalate, and you never know when the tipping point will come. It might have started with emotional abuse only, but eventually it will progress, and one day you might not be around to tell the tale. It took my family member narrowly escaping being strangled to death before they got the courage up to leave.

5) DV victimization is a VERY big deal not just for the present, but for the future. Consider that when children are involved, this sets up an unhealthy cycle for them in the future, predisposing them to either be the victim again as an adult, or an attacker of someone else. The abused rejoin the cycle as either abused or abuser, and the cycle continues for yet another generation. One of the most important things a family member or friend can do is to be a safe and significant role model in that child’s life to help break the cycle of abuse.

6) At the same time the abuse is not the victim’s fault, staying in the relationship IS his or her fault. Keep in mind that while I say this, it is a sort of double-edged sword and/or there are two sides to the situation, so bear with me. I will go into signs of abuse in a bit, which includes loss of resources to escape, which is part of why people stay—they don’t feel they have a way out. Also, if children are involved the abuser will frequently threaten to take the children away forever via full custody and/or kidnap, and/or harm the children in some way if the victim does not comply. This fear is crippling in many cases, which is a major reason why the victim does not leave, and this is something that outside observers need to understand. This is one side of the why-they-stayed blame issue.

On the other hand, it is entirely normal if family members and friends are angry as to why he or she stayed in the abuse. I know I have felt this way. At the end of the day, the abuse is not the victim’s fault, but remaining in the relationship is, and no amount of justifying or explaining the reasons for staying absolves the victim of this key responsibility, especially if children are involved. This is an unpopular thing to say, especially in circles dealing with therapy and recovery, because, referring back to my first point about the abuse not being the victim’s fault, this kind of statement tends to put blame back on the victim.

Here’s where things get hairy though. The abuse isn’t the victim’s fault, but no one else can make them leave either. In my situation, my wife and I provided ongoing support to this individual, to the point that we eventually provided secret emergency cash and a burner phone to help ensure they were able to get out safely, and eventually we did pick the kids up at midnight one night when the cops were called, and from there everything went gradually uphill. The kicker is that we had the children staying with us every other weekend anyway, so at any point in time the individual could have left, knowing they were safe with us. This was a point of significant anger and frustration for me, not because the abuse was the victim’s fault and not because they weren’t already being brainwashed into what is called “learned helplessness”, because they were. It was that we provided opportunity time and time again, even when we didn’t quite recognize the signs, and yet it took over five years to go from the start of the abuse to the time this individual left, having produced multiple children in the process—children whom I love dearly, and who would not have become co-victims of the abuse if the main victim had left sooner.

As someone who was involved in the rescue process, and also was in family relationships with both the victim and abuser, it is important to recognize that the victim isn’t the only one affected by the abuse. The domestic violence happening elsewhere in the family negatively altered entire YEARS of my life. Even though I wasn’t the victim, I still had to deal with the abuser on an ongoing basis, and yes, even though much of that time I didn’t know the abuse was happening, all of the common relational problems surrounding the situation were both noticeable and highly problematic, and the resulting years of climbing out of the issue after the fact have been ongoing. My wife and I have probably fought more in our marriage over that relationship and resulting negatives from it than all of our other marriage squabbles combined. The direct victim ends up only being the main victim—everyone else pays a price too.

7) After leaving the abuser, the recovery process begins. This is a long process, and needs to be treated as such. Breaking the silence is the first step to recovery, because the abuser made sure to keep the victim silent about the abuse. He or she must be able to talk about it in a safe place. This is where the “not the victim’s fault” piece comes in again. If you are angry as to why they stayed, talk to someone else about it in the short term. You can discuss it with the victim later, as they get through some of their own process and de-programming from victimization. If you can continue to be a safe place, you will help the victim heal much faster than if you toss blame at them left and right, even if some of it is warranted.

Another important key in the recovery process is staying out of other dating and/or marriage relationships. I have seen more than one situation where the victim gets out of one situation only to end up in another, similar situation. Why? Because their same inner patterns that helped attract the abuser the first time are still in play. Unless significant inner healing occurs, the victim will simply attract a second abuser.

This attraction issue is very real because it is part of how the laws of the universe were set up. Another more “Christian” term for it is sowing and reaping, but it involves releasing our hopes, dreams, fears, doubts, and judgments into the cosmos. In the same way that we are co-creators with God, we co-create our reality through sowing and reaping. When I say we attract something, this is literally what happens. Mind you, we are not the only ones doing the attracting—everyone is. An abuser attracts a victim just as much as most victims attract an abuser. This is not always the case, but it is probably true for the majority of situations. It is unconscious, however, on the part of the victim, and thus not something he or she knew to avoid. This is why it is so important to go through inner healing to change those inner messages and beliefs and resolve inner wounds. Otherwise, the risk of entering a new abuse-situation is very high. I watched what happened to my family member after they remarried shortly after the divorce was finalized, and I can say that about 95% of the situation remained the same with the new spouse, minus the physical abuse. If you don’t take time to heal, you will pay the price yet again. Unfortunately, the rest of the family gets to go along for the ride, so whether we want to be involved or not, we often get dragged in yet again. Please, if you are a victim of domestic violence or any other form of abuse, do yourself, your children, and the rest of your family and friends a favor. Take time to heal, and take a long time to heal before getting into a new relationship. I suggest a minimum of 2-3 years before even considering the possibility of seeing someone new.

8) Some basic signs of abuse:
The abuser typically isolates the victim from family and friends, oftentimes also separating them from money and any other assets that might aide in their escape. If you are watching a family member slowly draw inward, makes excuses for why their cell phone never works, doesn’t have any money ever, and things just feel sketchy, this may be why. It is a common pattern, and is specifically done this way to keep the victim powerless. He or she may also not like to go swimming in the summer, wear sleeveless shirts, or do anything else that causes skin to be exposed. Unless he or she is taking a medication that causes skin sensitivity to sunlight, it can be a sign of being beaten, and the clothing is to hide the bruises.
If a child starts getting more secretive about their body, acting strangely, begins getting regular urinary tract infections, or starts just having more “family secrets” in general, these are all potential signs of abuse, and should alert you to pay more attention and to start looking for corroborating signs. I witnessed signs of abuse with the kids involved for a good year or two before I realized what they were. It was only as we were already getting the kids to safety that some of the strange behaviors started to make sense and it all clicked. As a nurse I have been taught to report abuse when I see it, but it can be easier to spot it at work when I have the “nurse-hat” on than in an outside situation. It is easy to read about signs of abuse, but much harder to see them in your own surroundings.

This is a longer post than normal, but the information I have shared here is of utmost importance. The Church of Jesus Christ cannot sit back and watch idly as our family, friends, and even other church members go through abuse without getting involved. Often the victims won’t want your involvement, but that doesn’t matter. You may save someone’s life by speaking up. And if your version of “speaking up” is to tell the victim to remain a victim, then you are part of the problem. Matthew 18:6 and Luke 17:2 both say, spoken by Jesus himself, that it is better to drown yourself than it is to drag a child down into a bad situation. I suggest that if we were to continue with Jesus’ analogy, encouraging someone to stay in an abusive marriage, especially when kids are involved, is a self-drownable offense. While I am not suggesting anyone go drown themselves (really, don’t), just don’t be that person Jesus was talking about. When in doubt, just be like Jesus—he was always the solution, never a contributor to the problem.

If you are being abused or suspect someone else is a victim of domestic violence, here are some resources you can turn to:

The National Domestic Violence Hotline:
Open 24/7
1-800-799-7233
1-800-787-3224 (TTY for Deaf/hard of hearing)
website: http://www.thehotline.org/about-us/contact/

The National Sexual Assault Hotline
https://www.rainn.org/
Hotline: 800.656.HOPE (4673)
Online chat hotline: https://hotline.rainn.org/online/terms-of-service.jsp
To learn more about the hotlines: https://www.rainn.org/about-national-sexual-assault-telephone-hotline

Volunteers of America: Oregon
Resources: https://www.voaor.org/other-resources-for-domestic-violence-survivors
(If you aren’t from Oregon, this group should still be able to refer you to somewhere that can help you better)

Finally, there is always 9-1-1 or the phone number to your local police department. I encourage and even implore you to speak up. Break The Silence.

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The New Has Come

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Having not shared about immortality recently, I was trying to figure out what to write for this blog post, but wasn’t sure what to say. I asked Holy Spirit what his favorite verse was on the subject, and He told me it was 2 Corinthians 5:17. Not knowing offhand what the verse said, I looked it up. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” I’ll be honest, while the Bible has a vast number of verses that reference this promise from Heaven that we can be set free from the curse of death, this is not one of the ones that has ever come to mind, so I asked Holy Spirit, “What is it about this verse that you like so much?”

“I like how it reveals the Son.” He said. And while that verse doesn’t seem at first glance to do that, verses 17-21 do. They speak about how Jesus was reconciling the world to the Father, not counting our sins against us and making us the righteousness of God in Jesus. So what does revealing Jesus as the Reconciler that have to do with immortality? Everything.

Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.” Romans 1:17 quoting Habakkuk 2:4 says, “The righteous shall live by faith.” The payment for sin is death, so what is the payment for righteousness? If one goes throughout scripture, righteousness and life are integrally connected. Eternal life comes through faith in Jesus, and the righteous shall live by that same faith. This ultimately means that as 2 Corinthians 5 tells us, because Jesus has made us righteous in Him, that we shall live and not die. All of Romans actually addresses this issue–that we have already died with Christ and the law of sin no longer applies to us. If sin no longer applies, then we no longer are to reap the payment for sin, which is death.

The biggest struggle I find people have with this idea, in spite of the fact that the scriptures clearly say otherwise, is that we have grown accustomed to this idea that we are all fated to die. Jesus died to do away with sin, and as a result do away with the penalty, which is death. John 3:16 states this plainly, saying that God did not want us to die but instead, live forever. We have for centuries interpreted this to mean “everlasting life in heaven after we die” but the verse doesn’t actually say that–it very clearly states that God didn’t want us to die and to accomplish this He sent His Son.

If we go back to Genesis we have to remember the warning God gave Adam: “. . . you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:17). The very FIRST warning God ever gave to His children was to prevent them from dying. We have been incredibly sin-focused as the Church, but God is focused on life and death. The reason Jesus set us free from sin was BECAUSE it kills us and God loves us so much He doesn’t want us to die.

The Church is entering a new period of theological revolution. Much like Martin Luther redefined our understanding of salvation, God is yet again re-revealing who He is and what His purposes are in the earth, not so much doing a new thing, but bringing deeper revelation on what He has always been doing. As this occurs, we will discover experientially what Holy Spirit’s favorite verse on immortality says: that we who are in Jesus Christ have been made into new creations because the old, sinful, mortal version has passed away and the new version has been clothed with immortality. Even as Paul said in Philippians 3:12, “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.” The apostle Paul pressed forward to attain to this gift of immortality which is in Christ Jesus, having been appointed an apostle and teacher and preacher of the gospel that speaks of that very gift (2 Timothy 1:10-11). The practical revelation of how to walk in this reality is even now being released from Heaven and pulled down into the earth through men and women who have become convinced of what the scriptures say–that we will live and not die. I pray that even as God brings clarity to this plan for immortality, the only plan He has ever had, that you will grasp hold of this revelation and make it your own.

To help better understand this subject and read more on God’s plan for our future, grab a copy of my book “The Gospel of Life and Immortality,” available on both Kindle and in Print on Amazon.

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Why I Focus on Healing Fragments and Alters

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Some people have a serious misconception about healing fragments and alters that creates a significant barrier to the healing process. In the past I have had a few different people approach me online to point out they believe that my “focus” on trying to tell everyone their souls are broken into pieces is creating more brokenness, and giving the enemy greater room to afflict people by speaking death over them. I believe inner healing is incredibly important, and I take it quite seriously, both in my own life and that of others, so I feel it is important to clear up some misunderstanding, and to explain why I focus on healing fragments and alters.

Let me ask you this: if, as a nurse, I educate a diabetic patient about their diabetes, informing them of the risks and problems associated with their condition, am I making their diabetes worse? Of course not. On the contrary, by educating the patient about his or her pre-existing condition, I set up conditions to help manage and even help heal the problem (And yes, Type II Diabetes can be reversed).

If someone is unaware of a preexisting problem, he or she cannot fix it. People die from unexpected heart attacks every day because they were unaware they were in danger. Educating the public about the risks of a diet and lifestyle that promotes poor cardiac health does not, again, exacerbate the problem. It gives people room to turn things around before a fatal problem rears its ugly head.

Healing fragments and alters is no different. If someone has struggled much of his or her life with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) the problem of multiple fractured parts is readily apparent. But what about everyone else? Abuse is a common cause of DID, but what about all of those people who have suffered abuse but haven’t manifested the symptoms? Did they somehow escape the problem, or are they still suffering from a more covert version of the same issue?

I personally believe that every adult human has these fractured parts that need healing and integration into the core self. Some don’t share that belief, and that is okay. There is no rule that says we have to agree on everything. Nevertheless, disagreeing with me that everyone has the problem doesn’t negate the fact that some people verifiably do have this problem. If you don’t feel this subject speaks to you, that’s fine, but it doesn’t make the problem go away for those who are affected by it—and people are affected by it.

What about the accusation that pushing this view is only creating more brokenness, and is speaking death over people instead of life? Again, it comes back to the goal. I don’t talk about this subject to afflict people any more than someone who teaches about the problem of sin does so to add more sin. No, we educate about the problem so we can connect people with a solution. When I share that we have inner brokenness, the goal is to help connect people with resources to become whole. For those who regularly follow my blog, you will observe that it is very rare that I discuss some type of problem without providing possible solutions or at least a direction to help move forward at the end of the article. I have written a lengthy 9-part blog on physical healing to point out the reasons why people don’t heal, all in order to connect people with solutions.

We all want answers to life’s problems, and I firmly believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only lasting solution to those problems. However, in spite of the fact that this gospel has been preached for 2,000 years, we rarely see the level of results that the Body of Christ ought to be seeing for what we teach and preach. I personally am not content to continue to rehash the same teachings that haven’t borne significant fruit before and expect that repeating them enough times will somehow gain better results in the future. Thus, I start asking intelligent questions to uncover hidden problems. Why hidden problems? Because if they were obvious, we would have fixed them already.

God has been giving healing ministers revelation on this subject for decades, possibly even centuries, but it has taken time to become more mainstream. My personal goal with this is not just to see those “difficult cases” receive healing, but to accelerate the healing process for everyone. What if methods that work with healing fragments and alters were able to condense decades of prayer counseling and professional therapy into just a few years of work? What if we could get people healed from significant issues such as lifelong Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) or even lesser problems, in such a way and with a speed that they don’t pass these issues on to their children? Wouldn’t it be great if, when we prayed and asked God to accelerate the healing process, we actually expected God to give us wisdom and revelation to make that occur?

I am convinced that is what we are seeing now in this new wave of inner healing that focuses on restoring and integrating broken parts of the soul and spirit. It is not and has never been about creating more brokenness—that would be stupid and counterproductive. It is about identifying pre-existing problems and connecting individuals with the resources they need to become whole. This is why I have such a focus on healing fragments and alters—to help usher in greater healing and freedom for every single person.

As with every other blog post I write on these types of subjects, here is the part where you can find help if this subject speaks to you:

1) Check out my coauthored book Broken To Whole: Inner Healing for the Fragmented Soul. I and my coauthors discuss this subject, and others, in significant depth, providing practical solutions for those struggling in this area, and education for those who aren’t sure if they have this problem or not—and if you aren’t sure, get the book and let it help you find out! This could be an answer to your prayers for solutions.

2) For those who are concerned that this view is not scriptural, I encourage you to read another article featured on my blog titled Healing Fragments and Alters: From Genesis to Jesus by Matt Evans, healing minister, guest author, and one of the other coauthors of our book Broken To Whole: Inner Healing for the Fragmented Soul. It is mentioned in a number of places in scripture; the book goes into more detail than the article, but the article is a great starting point.

3) Pick up a bottle of Fragment Finder flower essence from Freedom Flowers, specifically designed to help accelerate the healing and integration process.

4) If you want to pick up both the book and the essences, you can get the Broken To Whole Essence Kit, which includes both the book and a five-essence combination that should help address the most significant aspects of this process of soul healing.

5) Connect with a prayer counselor and/or inner healing minister to jump-start your journey to wholeness. Check out our Resources Page for contact information.

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Devas, Nature Spirits, And Talking With The Trees

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My first conversation with a tree was back in 2007 on the island of Oahu; it was a palm tree. It wasn’t a very nice conversation either. In fact, I can’t really call it a conversation as it was completely one-sided—the tree told me to get off its island. How rude. My wife and I did leave a few weeks later, but certainly not at the direction of that particular tree. While I suppose it might not have been the first time I had talked to a tree, it was the first time one talked to me, or at least it was the first time I was listening.

Another time, a year or so later, I was taking a lunch break at work, and sat in the middle of a small grassy field to eat. In the spirit I observed a small green guy moving around on the grass. He was about twelve to eighteen inches tall, and it seemed to me that he was the spirit over the grass I was sitting on—not just that little patch beneath me, but that entire field. We didn’t converse, and I was content to simply observe him. Not only that, but he threw a piece of grass at me. I’m not kidding. While I was there watching him, a small piece of grass landed on my chest out of nowhere. As I was the only visible being around, it kind of left him as the only available culprit. I don’t think he was being mean though, just expressing himself, I guess, or maybe playing? I don’t know for sure, but I’m sure if he was aiming to afflict me in some way, it would have involved more than a harmless piece of grass.

Since that time, I have discovered a bit more through my experiences of dealing with plant spirits, and history has a bit to say about them as well. Many cultures recognize the existence of these spirits, including the Greeks and Romans, various Native American tribes, and the druidic people of Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales. The Japanese call these spirits ‘Kodama’. Ancient beliefs in things such as forest spirits and nymphs are largely rooted in this truth: Certain spirits exist that are connected to particular aspects of the physical world, including certain plots or areas of land, rivers or sections of waterways, and plants. It is the job of these spirits to be caretaker or shepherds of the thing they are connected to. Initially I used to observe them in relation to trees and other plants, but I have since begun to see spirits that are connected to rocks, ground, rivers, and even the wind, storms, and stars as well. Some of these spirits are benevolent, but certainly not all of them. As best as I can tell, only some individual plants have spirits that watch over them, although most plants have some sort of caretaker, even if in a group and not individually.

To make this a little more confusing, I’ve not quite figured out the difference between the spirit of a plant itself, and the caretaking spirit of a plant. What I mean is that I have had conversations with both plants themselves and plant spirits. What differentiates the two is that the first is the actual physical plant. The second is an ethereal spirit being that is in some way associated with the plant or plants in question. Some have called these spirits “devas”, spirits that are more like angels in that they deal with the essence of the form of the plant, addressing the ethereal energies that make up the fiber of its very being. I have also seen what I might term “nature spirits”, spirits such as elves or fairies that actually deal with the plant itself on a level somewhere in-between the physical and the ethereal/energetic realm.

What makes all this so difficult is a few things. I have talked to plants, devas, and plant spirits, but being that it is spirit-to-spirit communication and I am human, it can be difficult to tell the difference between them. When I think I am talking to a plant, it is theoretically possible that I’m actually conversing with a plant spirit that I simply was not aware of. I have also found that it’s awfully difficult to observe nature spirits without their awareness of it. And when they’re aware you’re watching, at least the ones I have seen, they are unlikely to continue doing whatever it is that they do normally, and are more likely to respond to your presence. After all, most humans neither see nor interact with them so I suppose it must be exciting to them, or at least a vaguely curious thing when one of us does.

What I find even more interesting is some of what legend and myth tells us about the subject of nature spirits, devas, and the like. Dryads, a common term for tree-nymphs, are supposedly caretakers of trees. Technically, dryads are specifically spirits of oak trees, but the term is often broadly used to generalize all trees. Hamadryads, however, are a slightly different breed. Like dryads, they too are caretakers. However as legend has it, they are so closely tied to the tree they inhabit, if the tree dies, so do they. Dryads do not have this level of mortal connection with the plants. If a tree dies, they might hurt or be upset, but they don’t die. While myths can actually be a good source of information, with truths hidden among the fiction, in this particular instance looking to myth only serves to muddy the waters further. At what point does a plant live separate from a plant spirit, and at what point can a plant spirit live without the plant? If the spirit dies, does the plant die too? I have no clue, and I suspect that it varies.

What I have figured out is this: Plants and plant spirits generally enjoy communication with us. I have met some particularly mean or ill-tempered plants, but most are generally happy. Personally, I’ve noticed that evergreens tend to be grumpier than most. It may just be me, but I have met fewer happy evergreens than other plants. However, the evergreens in Oregon seem to be a bit cheerier than those on the East Coast U.S.A. Although since evergreens do get targeted yearly around Christmastime, I suppose they’ve got something to be grumpy about. I mean, who ever heard of a “Christmas Sugar Maple” or “Christmas Willow”?

Plant spirits live all over the place. You can’t really get away from them, nor should you try. They live most places where plants are, and in reality, if there are no plant spirits around then you probably need to bring some greenery into your life. While it might not be clear to us as of yet what benefit we get from having these beings around, we do derive benefit from plants, and as such should be appreciative of what they do. Which begs the question: What exactly do plant spirits do?

Answer: As I stated earlier, they are hard to observe. So instead, I decided to just ask Holy Spirit, since He knows everything. This is what he told me:

Plant spirits’ job is to care take plants. They try to keep them free of diseases, and work to ensure sure they get sufficient sunlight, water, etc. While this is not always possible, they do manage things in the overall sphere of the plant. Like humans have angels, these are helpers that work on behalf of the plants themselves. They enjoy what they do. In a sense, they are like farmers. They are obviously agrarian in nature, and so some people have made a connection between these spirits and gods and goddesses of farming and harvest. That connection both is there and it isn’t. It is there in the sense that people’s awareness of plant spirits does influence positively their harvesting and crops. All spirits appreciate attention, and when you give them attention, they are more likely to want to do a good job with your crops. It is not there in the sense that they are not gods, or at least not how humans typically conceptualize them. There certainly are strong and powerful nature spirits, and this is where some of the agrarian myth has come in. Ultimately, all the earth is God’s, and should be treated as such. While these spirits *do* help out, they are not to be worshiped.”

Like humans, every plant has an energy field. Plant spirits help care take that field, and manage the corporate energy field of groupings of plants. For example, individual grasses in a field are so close to each other that their fields are constantly merged, and oftentimes many have shared roots, all part of the same plant. Plant spirits work with the subtle energy of the plants to create the best for all the grasses there. This also happens in forests, but in the case of larger forested areas, both more and more powerful spirits are needed. Like Elemental spirits, they manage the overall state of that within their domain.

Since asking Holy Spirit about this many years back, I had the fortune to be reminded by a good friend of Findhorn, a community in Northern Scotland he had told me about a few years prior. I proceeded to order the book The Magic of Findhorn’ and dove in. As it turns out, that was a wise idea, as the book greatly increased my own understanding of the realms which I was already seeing and communicating with. If you are curious about this subject, I highly recommend picking up a copy.

The book proceeded to elaborate on the lives of Peter and Eileen Caddy and the community that was built around their efforts to be led by God in all things. While not overtly Christian, they had a clear understanding that God was at the center of all things and attempted to live their lives out of that, receiving daily instructions from him. In this process of living from “daily manna,” over time and through circumstances they found themselves jobless in a caravan in a caravan park at the edge of the town of Findhorn. Having no job, little money (on the “dole”, aka welfare), and needing something to supplement their meager resources, Peter started a garden.

The process of growing this garden included advice and direction from God through Eileen, including how to engage the ethereal energies of the universe to bring the best health and life to the plants. At some point however, their friend Dorothy, who had thrown her lot in with them, began to connect with what she called ‘devas’, the spirits who, as I explained earlier, were sort of the ‘Archetype’ spirit of that plant. The first she spoke to was a pea deva, and proceeded to meet many other spirits since, welcoming and communicating with each every time they brought a new plant into their garden. Interestingly, she was told by one of the devas that she would only be able to communicate with the devas of those plants that were in the garden. As you can imagine, over time this garden grew not only to be monstrous in size, but with the help of the devas, the plants were imbued with energies far greater than those found in any normal farmer’s field. But it didn’t stop there.

Robert Ogilvie Crombie, known as Roc, met up with the Caddys and Findhorn as the community was beginning to attract other people. While Dorothy was connecting with the Devic realm, he brought his own unique flavor to the mix—the Nature spirits. His first experience was with a satyr in a park near his house in London, and he had since met with the god Pan on multiple occasions. Pan is, as myth suggested, a satyr of massive size, complete with the horns and all. Mind you, while the book termed Pan a ‘god’, I personally believe that had to do with Roc’s understanding of Pan’s purpose and position and the fact that historically he was considered one of the ‘gods’, not because Roc in any way worshiped him. And for lack of a better term to describe him, a non-capitalized “god” works just fine, and I will continue that here. After all, the scripture states that we too are “all gods”. What impressed me about Pan was that at one point he too, like the angels in scripture, entreated Roc at one point to worship God and God only.

During this process of encounters with Pan, Roc also met a king of the elves, and he began to form a relationship with the Nature Spirits. It seemed that there was a sort of reconciliation that was happening between Man and Nature Spirits through this process, and Roc was the intermediary that had been chosen for the task. As a fringe part of the Findhorn community he brought with him this fascinating knowledge and experience that only increased the supernatural nature of what was taking place there. It became apparent over time that the Nature Spirits could either help or harm the activity of the plants, and that while the devas were somewhat less attached to the outcome of individual plants, the Nature spirits got quite upset when plants were killed, pruned, or torn down, especially when this happened while in full bloom.

The book goes into much more about all of this, and I recommend that anyone who has further interest get their hands on a copy of this fascinating book. There is far more than I could possibly expect to share here. While I recognize that many might question the nature of these spiritual experiences these people were having, let me remind you of two things. First, all spirits have to be tested, and I only share this here because I have done that to my own satisfaction and sincerely believe that they are part of God’s Kingdom. Second, keep in mind that I read this book ONLY after I had already seen elves, fairies, and many other nature spirits, had talked to ‘devas’ and communicated with plants. For me, this book has been a divine blessing, confirming and clarifying things I already had a glimmer of understanding about, but those of you who read it can and will decide for yourselves as well.

I do caution you, however, against deciding this book is not of God without actually reading it. The reason I say this is that there is so much in life and our understanding of God and this world that comes by revelation alone. I am not so ignorant as to reject all revelation that doesn’t line up with my current understanding, and do actively seek wisdom in these matters. For me, The Magic of Findhorn was a God-sent book that I read at the right time, when my own understanding and revelation could take me no further. Even now I consider this book to be a primer for anyone who wants to interact with the Nature Realms as a whole.

I am currently at a place where I am trying to put knowledge and experience into practice. While the book and my own experiences offer the beginning-point of a grid for these things, I understand that I will not truly know any of this deeply unless I am willing to step out and do and see for myself. While I cannot say I have seen dramatic results on our property, I have no doubt that as we continue to co-labor with these spirits on the earth that we will uncover new depths of God’s provision for mankind, animals, and even all creation. And if for some reason all else fails, we will still have a great garden.

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But You Forgot To Ask Me – A Lesson about Worry

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This past week and a half my hospital increased staffing due to an expected increase in admissions from over a million additional people traveling through our state to view the eclipse in the Zone of Totality. Portland is a major highway hub for part of the state, and I work for one of the main trauma hospitals for the surrounding three states. I work night shift and had packed a bag to stay with a coworker who lived close so I could avoid extra traffic the days pre-and-post eclipse. During that Sunday night, the Lord spoke to me and said, “You’re concerned about what is going to happen later, but you forgot to ask Me.”

I realized how silly it was for me to worry about this entire ordeal when God already knows the outcome, and all I needed to do was ask Him. We can make the best plans, but if God has something else in mind it would all be for nothing. I’m not against advanced-planning, and as a former Boy Scout I am all over emergency preparedness, but as a follower of Jesus Christ I have some advantages that aren’t included in the Boy Scout Manual—a Divine Guide who lives with me and in me (John 14:17).

The end result was that I drove home with sub-normal traffic, enjoyed the near-totality eclipse with my family, and then drove back to work later that evening with no traffic problems either. While we did have some gnarly traumas come through the hospital, none of the other potential issues I was worried about and planning to abate came to pass.

The Bible talks about this in a number of places. Two that come to mind are Matthew 6:34 and Philippians 4:6-7. Matthew 6:34 says, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Philippians 4:6-7 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” I guess we all need those simple reminders from time to time.

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