The Root Cause -Part 1 of Divine Healing that Works

Sickness, disease, and infirmity are a major problem worldwide–in the U.S. alone we spend billions of dollars each year on health-related matters, whether hospital and doctor visits, medications, or herbs, essential oils, and other non-“medical” treatments to promote health and heal disease. As believers, we have a different, more effective, and even longer-lasting solution available to us–divine healing through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Unfortunately, even though according to Isaiah 53 Jesus paid for all sin, sickness, disease, infirmity, poverty, pain, weakness, and everything else that is less than His highest and best for us, it is uncommon to see believers living in that reality, as the “head and not the tail” and “above and not beneath” that we are promised in Deuteronomy 28:13. There are a number of reasons for this, which I will attempt to explain as you read further. Please keep in mind that while I have attempted to make this as exhaustive as possible, there is always more and deeper revelation to be had about how to step into wholeness in Christ.

Any healing journey must begin with diagnosis. Why do people get sick and what causes their bodies to break down? I will go into the longer answer in the text that follows, but the short answer is simple: sin. If we go back to the beginning, in Genesis 2:16 God told Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because when he did, he would die. Romans 6:23 goes on to explain why this disobedience caused death, explaining that “The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Jesus ultimately came to solve sin because it causes us to die. John 3:16 is one of the most quoted Bible verses and it too explains the reason why Jesus had to come and die for our sins. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believed in him would not die but have everlasting life.” Quite plainly, sin is what causes us to die. John G. Lake once explained that sin is incipient death–a term that means that it is a slow, gradual dying process, much like an insidious poison that eats at the body for years before claiming a life. Sin has gradually caused our bodies to decay, making the average age before dying to be hundreds of years less than what it was back in the beginning when they were living anywhere from six-hundred to nine-hundred years old or more. Nowadays people are lucky to make it to 80, and considered blessed if they can last to 90, much less 100 or older.

Our bodies were never designed to die to begin with, but sin entered the world through Adam, and death entered as a result of sin, and thus almost all men and women die. God is changing this, and releasing a revelation of the gospel of life and immortality that he speaks of in 2 Timothy 1:10-11, but before that we need to understand how we can fix the effects of sin and heal our bodies so we can engage that abundant life Jesus spoke of in John 10:10.

Dealing with sin starts out as simple as asking Jesus to wash us clean of our sin. If someone is not a follower of Jesus, it is at that time they should believe that Jesus came and died as a blood sacrifice on their behalf, taking their sin upon himself before he died and removing it from them forever. A prayer one might pray could go like this:

I choose as an act of my will to become a disciple of Jesus. I acknowledge that Jesus lived on this earth as a human, died as a perfect man, and destroyed death, rising from the dead three days later. From there, he went on into Heaven to prepare a place for me to join him. I accept the direction of His teachings and those of the Holy Spirit within me, and I open myself up to be filled and baptized with Holy Spirit as the empowerment God has sent me to be successful as His emissary in the earth from this day forward. I acknowledge this is a permanent and binding decision to follow the Perfect Being of Love, Jesus the Christ of Nazareth. And so it is (Amen).

From the moment we become followers of Jesus, what is referred to as being “born again,” our spirits are set free from bondage to sin and they are given new life with Jesus. The problem is that our soul–the realm of our mind, will, and emotions, has yet to receive this complete and total renewal. Thus, we must continuously work with God to renew our thought processes and understanding of who God is and what he is like–his divine nature, so that we can become like Him in all we think, say, and do.

I wish we could say this is all that needs to occur to make one whole in body and soul, but there are many other factors that come into play, both in regards to contributing factors for physical and mental illness, and in factors that contribute to healing every manner of problem. We will begin to take a look at these factors in the next installment of this series.

Divine Healing that Works- The Complete Series

Part 1 – The Root Cause

Part 2 – Demons and Deliverance

Part 3 – Fragments

Part 4 – Limiting Beliefs

Part 5 – Casting Out Demons

Part 6 – Emotional Healing

Part 7 – Triggers and Healing Fragments

Part 8 – Faith For Healing

Part 9 – Power and Authority For Healing

The Risk in Resurrection

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Some of you may have seen my Facebook status update from yesterday talking about a baby mouse we were trying to save, and that it died. We had found a small litter of mice in a friend’s car and the mother seemingly ran away in fear, abandoning them. My stepdaughter bought animal formula and she tried to nurse them. I didn’t want to get involved at first because the likelihood of three abandoned baby mice surviving wasn’t was good, I’d feel compelled to try to raise them if I did, and I didn’t really want mice as pets. But as things happen, she needed help taking care of them, and after the first two died I ended up helping feed the third one, named Bub, every few hours for a day or so before it died.

When it died, my heart broke. I was in tears holding it as it died, watching it use accessory muscles in compensation as it mouth-breathed, gasping for air. As a nurse I know what I was watching, but with a tiny baby mouse there was really nothing I could do to fix it. I tried to tap its back lightly while upside down to see if I could help it clear its lungs, but after it struggled to breathe for a few minutes, its tiny body ran out of energy, and it died. My granddaughters were also present when it died, and the oldest, 8, began to cry as well. I held her and Bub’s body, and we both just cried for a while. I am currently attempting to resurrect this mouse, and will continue to do so for the next day or so.

Abundantlife Resurrection Raisethedead Immortality Deadraising — Bub the Mouse

This is an extremely unglamorous post–the notion of snot and tears rolling down my red, puffy face isn’t exactly a reader’s dream. I share it because I feel that far too often we share the nice and happy things in life–especially on social media, except life is filled with not just happy things, but sad ones. I share this because anything worth doing involves risk–and in this case it was risk of heartache and loss. The idea of raising the dead is as much a risk-undertaking as was allowing the mouse into my heart–possibly even more, because I risk grieving its loss the first time, then grieving a second time if I fail to raise it. In spite of this, it cannot be done any other way.
When we attempt to resurrect the dead, whether animal or human, we entertain risk, and there is always a price when we step out and take risks, especially in this area. Sometimes the risk is small–we risk making ourselves look silly to some stranger we may never meet again. Sometimes the risk is much greater–our reputation in an entire town, church, or social circle, the risk of failure, the risk of heartache and heartbreak, and for some the risk of losing trust in God. Most things in life involve risk, but resurrection is one of those things that is optional. We don’t have to try to raise the dead–God won’t love us any less if we don’t. However, I do believe that when we are unwilling to step out and take these sorts of risks, our lives are poorer for it.

I don’t know if Bub will return or not. I didn’t know if he would survive when I was feeding him, and I knew in advance it wasn’t likely. I do know that I value life, and I value it enough to release the Spirit of Life, the only hope that we have in all of life, into the situation. This is a choice that I have made in my heart, to value life enough that where possible, I will actively combat the death at work in our world. I encourage you to consider what risk you are willing to entertain when it comes to healing, resurrection, and overall seeing God’s life released into this broken world.

If you want to learn more about how to raise the dead, or are interested in joining communities of believers online who are passionate about resurrection and the abundant life of Christ, please consider the following links and resources:

Oneglance Ministries
The Dead Raising Team

Raise the Dead Initiative – Facebook Group
Dead Raising Team – Facebook Group

David Hogan – DRT Conference Messages
David Hogan – Faith to Raise The Dead Messages
Revival Magazine Article

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Shortcuts and Long Delays

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

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

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

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

Childlike Faith – Podcast Replay on Touched By Prayer

Hello Friends of Eden,

Come join us on Touched By Prayer as Lisa Palieri Perna and I discuss Childlike Faith. How do we live out our faith like children of God in a world full of doubts, uncertainty, and instability? And how can we believe God for the impossible?

Click here to listen to the message!

childlikefaith, miraclesfaithvisionhealingsupernaturalgrace, holyspiritlifeabundanceblessing, gemstonesoilmannajewelsfeathersgolddustfromheaven, immortalityidentitybeliefwisdomunderstandingdiscernmentdeliverance — Courtesy of Tomstuart.com

The Time for Figs

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

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

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

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

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

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

Time Warping

Translocation: Shifting Space and Time

Translocating Under The Tuscan Sun

Spirit of a Dead Child

Today’s article is written by a guest, Melody Paasch, a teacher, prophet and dream interpreter.

In 2012, a ministry partner and I were in South Africa. We had been placed to rest in a large Guest House in the wine country for a week or so. We were extremely weary after a long chain of meetings that were somewhat intense. The battle had been strong, and the opposition fierce. As we surveyed the house, I noticed an antique baby crib in one corner of one of the rooms. I didn’t feel that it was original to the house, but it was very very old. (My background is design, so I love antiques.)

Not long after our arrival I got ready to settle in for a nap. I had chosen the bedroom with the baby bed. There was something about this crib that I couldn’t put my finger on. It was highlighted to me for some reason, but I didn’t know why. I continued to prepare to sleep and I always pray over and cleanse the property where I rest.

It is also my habit to seal off old furnishings that might hold negative entities or traumatic memory. (Remember, all matter has memory.) I renounced and broke the power and the manifestation of anything attached to the furnishings. I went through my whole nightly routine when sleeping on foreign land. I cozied up for a short nap and I dozed off. I hadn’t realized it, but my right arm was stretched out toward the crib. I had no sense of anything in the room, and sensed only peace when I fell asleep.

I must have only been asleep for fifteen minutes, when I was jolted awake feeling the warmth of a human about to touch my outstretched hand. I immediately saw a vision of a female child reaching for me, and I SUDDENLY became cognizant and began to pray! Now, I have never seen, heard, sensed or felt any sort of spiritual manifestation after praying over everything in my room before. This was new to me, but I felt that Father was trying to tell me something. So, we began to ask what Father had on His mind,

What He said next was not in our book of doctrine, and I don’t know how to explain it. All I can do is share what followed. So, if you have an issue with it, you’ll need to take it up with Him. He told us that a child had lost it’s life in that crib many years ago. I suddenly saw the face of a baby girl around 1 year old and we heard Papa say that her parents had never overcome their loss. He continued to tell us that they held onto their suffering over losing her for the rest of their years.

We asked what He wanted us to do, and He unfolded a strange strategy. He specifically directed us in Identificational Repentance. IR was not new to me, but the circumstance was. We repented on behalf of the child’s parents, for never emotionally letting her go. For remaining in the deep despair of dark mourning. For blaming themselves. We broke and renounced all agreement they had made with their grief and shame. We were acutely aware that it is always necessary to employ “repentance” and “forgiveness” to release or receive inner healing.

We released the sorrow on their behalf. I recall the deep pain and suffering that I felt as we prayed. We felt in our spirits that this was the only child this couple had given birth to. Then Father asked us to release forgiveness to them by His Spirit, in the spirit realm where they were residing. We released forgiveness to the parents from the child, to the parents from themselves and to the parents of course, from Father. And what came next surprised me as I have no theology or doctrine for the event. Papa asked us to release the child into His arms.

This is what we were instructed to do. As I said, I can’t explain it, but know that it happened. Such a heavy peace then fell, and we felt the tangible pleasure and presence of Father. As if he smiled down upon us, and I fell into a deep restful sleep. I still do not know if this was an assignment He had placed us there for, or if He was showing or teaching us something.

I can tell you that I came away KNOWING, that He is the one true and living God, who loves intensely and with deep and vibrant passion. I committed that day not to ask for the reason, but to simply enjoy being in His service. My heart is to be obedient, whether I or any human can explain it. And since that day, He has employed me in such events, again. Maybe this is one of the ways we are called to literally snatch the souls of men from the hand of the enemy. I don’t know, but I do love my job!

MELODY PAASCH
Melody Paasch is an experienced teacher, speaker, prophetic voice, and dream interpreter. Her desire is to see people move into their destiny by hearing Creator’s heart. She travels nationally and internationally spreading fresh illumination of Creator’s love to those in workshops, churches, businesses, Starbucks or wherever. An experienced dream interpreter, she has a gift for awakening the prophetic in others, with practical teaching and activation. Melody’s training, resources, and personal ministry help others to comprehend and take appropriate action in response to their dreams and prophetic words. She is the founder of the “Now, Interpret This!” online spiritual training center, where she mentors others in the prophetic and dream interpretation, to equip them to become dream practitioners and prophetic voices. NowInterpretThis.org

Why I Love Gemstones From Heaven

My wife and I had the delight this past weekend to spend time with friends, both old and new, discussing the wonders of God, including the manifestation of gemstones. There still remains so much controversy in the body of Christ over the miracle of gemstones from heaven. In spite of the issues that abound, the matter of divine jewels couldn’t be any simpler for me, and they will always hold a special place in my heart. I remember the first time I ever saw a gem appear. It was a small amethyst teardrop–I still have it in its own special bag. I remember feeling so loved by our Heavenly Father because He gave me such precious gifts! These weren’t just some way that He blessed me, but God dropped gems at my feet, on my body, and at times even over my head as a demonstration of love. He knew exactly where I was at that moment, and lavished His abundance on me.

A year later we held a series of gem parties at our house–hosting the minister through whom this manifestation of gems first came to us. Those gatherings were a special time as well, and a time I will always cherish. There was always excitement in our household and among our friends as a gem party neared. We always cleaned the house extra just to make it special for all the guests, and my wife made sure to prepare enough food that no matter what people did or didn’t bring, there would be food aplenty. My brother in law was a cleaning fiend, and he wasn’t even all that into the gems, at least at first.

The gems for me are more than just a trinket from heaven. They represent the amazing and boundless love of our Father. Some people squabble about whether gems point to Jesus or not, and whether the devil is incarnating in our midst or some such nonsense, but the Father’s heart couldn’t be more clearly displayed. I remember the many lives that were touched each time we hosted a party. I remember the one time God sent a woman to the party an entire day early to help get everything ready when the house was in particular need of help. I remember that one night we prayed for supernatural weight loss and one man went home and lost ten pounds by the next day! I remember the day a young man spelled his name out in gemstones upside down on the ceiling by the kitchen, the gems being held up by nothing other than simple faith. I remember people crying, faces in shock, as God touched their hearts, whether it was when gems appeared, during worship, or at any other time of ministry during a party. One woman was in shock as we gave her gems to take with her when she didn’t have any. Other guests were emboldened to step out and host their own parties and the love of God was spread even wider through this manifestation than my living room alone could have reached.

When the parties ended it was a bit of a disappointment to me, and while the gems occasionally appear here and at other houses of party-goers, and continue to regularly appear for the minister we hosted, I cannot help but look back at those days with a sense of gratitude. I value miracles very highly, because I believe they are meant to transform our minds and change our lives forever. The gemstones from heaven are tangible reminders that God knows where we live, what is going on in our lives, and that He cares enough to send us with physical presents that shimmer and sparkle in the least bit of light.

The jewels are a prophetic pictures of Jesus adorning His bride, making them blameless without spot and wrinkle before He comes to reclaim his pure bride. Sometimes the gems will even appear in settings, ready to be worn! My heart aches as I think about the deep, deep love that Jesus holds for us, and the many ways He manifests that love. It’s not even really about gems. It’s about love. It’s about the immeasurable love of God that can’t be expressed with words, but that God attempts to communicate to us anyway, and in every way.

I have seen so many gems appear that I can’t help but desire this manifestation for everyone. I want to not only be able to host someone who carries this, but I want to carry this gift to the world. I want to walk in signs, wonders, and miracles at such a level that people have no choice but to have their own experience–to pick up a stone for the first time that God created out of nothing in front of their eyes–to witness firsthand a creative miracle that God performed just for them. Not everyone will understand gemstones from heaven, or what they are all about, but my deep desire with this manifestation is that God’s unending love is passed on, and that through it we come to know and experience Him even more deeply. If you have never seen this miracle before, I encourage you to ask the Lord to send you your own, and to see if you can find someone who has this happen around them regularly. I can promise you, your heart will never be the same.

If this subject speaks to you, check out my 3-part blog series on this topic here:

Gems From Heaven

Part 1: “Our Experiences”

Part 2: “What Do They Mean”

Part 3: “How Do I Know This Is God?”

Catch some podcast interviews I have done on the topic here:

Gemstones From Heaven Podcasts

To get your copy of the book Gemstones From Heaven, click on the picture below! If you enjoy what you read, leave a positive review and help other readers locate the book. Many thanks to you and may you be richly blessed with gemstones from heaven!

You can also read on other similar miracles here:

Faith and a Feather

Feathers From Heaven – Our Personal Story

At the Crossroads of Wisdom and Faith

A friend on Facebook recently asked a question in the Immortality Initiative–a group I created to discuss, explore, and pursue immortality per Jesus’s many statements and promises on the subject. As regular followers know, I am pretty outspoken about this subject and post on it regularly. One topic I have considered many times, but haven’t ever written about, is the question my friend posted–about whether to keep a life insurance policy or to cash it out.

As a firm believer in both resurrection (raising the dead) and immortality (never dying), I am conflicted on this matter. Part of me says to operate in radical faith and do away with any sort of death-planning. After all, planning for death is the same as extending faith toward death, right? To some extent I believe this–that our decisions demonstrate what we actually believe, and our actions are part of how we extend our faith in any given situation. As a result, we need to make decisions that are in line with our expectations, and not divide our thinking. Having a backup plan is, on some level, the same as sowing doubt with an increased likelihood of reaping failure.

On the other hand, failure to plan is also planning to fail. If we don’t take into account the fact that even in Hebrews 11, the big Faith chapter, that many men and women believed in faith but didn’t see the promises come to pass (v39), then we are fools. Occasionally we need to use our heads and look with eyes wide open at potential outcomes and decide whether we need to take steps to mitigate risk, whether toward ourselves or others.

Let’s put these ideas into a scenario. If I didn’t have others to consider, I wouldn’t bother with any kind of insurance or “death-planning.” I strongly believe in resurrection and immortality, and whether it sounds prideful or not I find it highly unlikely that I, of all people, would fail in that endeavor. I tend toward engaging in faith-behaviors such as not having insurance as a faith-action toward my end goal. On the other hand, I am married and have a stepdaughter and grandkids, and we all live together. I am currently the only wage-earner between my wife and myself, as she is between jobs, and my stepdaughter is just returning to work after having been injured and recovering for the better part of a year. My wife is also a number of years older than I am and I will likely continue working long after she is retired. In other words, I have people that depend on me. If something were to happen to me right now, my wife would be in big financial trouble, and raising the grandkids would be much more of a struggle. She would most likely lose the house within a year or so unless she could sell, and would have a host of other problems, all piled on top of the fact that this is in the event that I am also dead. Do I have life insurance? You had better believe I do. Under this set of circumstances I think anything less is highly irresponsible–not to me, but to my family.

This tension between wisdom and faith is a difficult path to tread, and at various points in life those two ideals no longer travel parallel, but intersect at a crossroads, where you can only choose one or the other. Sometimes the faith-route is the best way, escaping certain peril, but at other times it is the path of wisdom leads to higher heights and beautiful scenery and faith leads into a dead-end desert canyon. There is no easy answer to this question, and it will likely vary from person to person and situation to situation, but I want to challenge you: What do you think? How does this apply to your life? What do you think is best for you . . . and WHY is it best?

The Key that Unlocks Doors

The more I go through life the more I am convinced that while we have been given a lot of spiritual tools in this life, the most important and influential one we have is our faith. With enough faith applied correctly we can accomplish anything. One evening as I was pondering about faith I suddenly had an awareness of the entire nursing unit I was on–a vague awareness for just a few moments. With that brief moment of awareness came a realization that all of it was within a domain that I could control–down to the very atoms themselves. If I wanted to I could literally reshape the fabric of the universe around me. I understood in that moment that I was only aware of what was possible, but that I lacked the ability at that moment to actually effect that kind of change on any kind of noticeable level because I lacked the faith necessary to accomplish it even though I have the right of access as a son of God.

Faith is the key that unlocks doors, and I believe that we as sons and daughters of God must learn to live in high levels of faith if we want to see even a fraction of the things God has promised us. The truth is that living in this level of faith is going to take sacrifice that I believe few have made to date, and it’s not because we are earning faith by our good works, but because faith is always in flux. Faith is like the ocean–constantly undulating up and down, occasionally hitting a high peak or a low trough, but usually staying in a relatively constant set of bounds. I think of those bounds as normal life.

In normal life we have a measure of things we are used to, and we get comfortable in that place. Sure, things in our house may break and we may have to get them fixed or replace them from time to time. An occasional trip to the doctor and a rare trip to the hospital is within reason–after all, we live in a fallen world. Sure, God blesses us in many ways, but the enemy also steals from time to time, and we live in a tension between blessing and attack. It happens. And unfortunately, that seems to be the normal life many of us get used to. I know I am guilty of it myself.

The problem with this is that we get so used to the level we are living at that we forget there are much higher levels that we COULD be living at. What if anytime something in our house broke we waved our hand at it and it was made whole? What if any sickness and disease was fixed in five minutes–or better yet, never graced the threshold of our doors? What if attacks from the enemy were highly uncommon because we were simply such a difficult target to attack? All of these things are possible and much more, but it starts with building faith. Faith-building starts with changing expectations. When we start to expect something different we make a requirement from our beliefs. Instead of just knowing God CAN do something, we start to expect it to happen, and then go from expectancy to outright commanding reality to change.

Changing our expectations has a lot to do with changing our external input–the things we allow into our minds. If we want to have crazy miracles happen, we need to turn off the news, sometimes even turn off social media, my iphone, and all of the other distractions, and we need to pray. We need to feed ourselves with miracle stories of God’s glory and goodness and meditate on God’s nature of love. We need to get healed of inner hurts that hold us back and take fierce captivity of our thoughts–our daydreams and ideas, that we only let those things that are fruitful take hold within our minds. None of these things are easy; all of them take time. They take a shift of focus that is not small. Movies may go out the window. Various other forms of entertainment may soon follow–not that entertainment is bad, but everything we look at, think upon, hear, see, all forms of contact play a part in our faith level. I am not saying we must shun the world, but on some level I am saying we must start to shun the systems of this world’s way of doing things. I have heard stories of such men of God as Smith Wigglesworth who wouldn’t even let a newspaper cross the threshold of their door, as they didn’t want to be tainted by the negativity and bad news contained therein.

We don’t need to put our heads in the sand and hide; rather we must put our heads in the clouds–in heavenly places where Christ is seated and where we can rule and reign with him to administrate justice and mercy into the earth. There is a reason that we are transformed and metamorphosed when we renew our minds–because only mind-renewal and a birthing of new faith will bring about the transformation we truly desire–the Kingdom of God manifesting on the earth. Let us set our sights on a higher way of life and in so doing transform our world.

Life and Death

Today we feature a guest blogger by the name of Christopher Gaston, a Facebook friend of mine who has also been delving into the scriptures behind immortality and abundant life. Enjoy!

“If the scripture tells us that whoever believes in Jesus will not perish but have everlasting life, then why do Christians still die?

The reason death exists is because we believe in death. We believe in death more than we believe in life. We expect for people to die. When we go to a funeral, we expect to see the dead buried. We do not expect to see them raised from the dead. We believe in death more than we believe in scripture. See, we don’t really believe in eternal life. We really believe in eternal afterlife or more correctly eternal afterdeath. We say that this life does not really end and that heaven is a continuation of this life, but in order for someone to get into that life, they have to die to get there.

The idea of not dying is so contrary to everything we have been taught, most people reject the thought of it outright. Yet, the scripture is full of references which testify to eternal life and we reject them and push them off to a later time and a later place after the return of Christ or of some time after a person dies. We make excuses and justifications of why they are not for today. Christians are notorious for defining what scripture means according to their experiences. And because we all have experienced death, we define the scripture related to eternal life to not actually mean living forever.

We are essentially saying, “The scripture promises eternal life, but you won’t actually get to experience it in this life. You will have to wait for eternal life until after you die or until after Jesus returns whichever happens first.” Proverbs tells us God’s people perish because of a lack of knowledge and because they reject knowledge. Through unbelief, we have rejected the knowledge of God regarding life and death.

In the Old Testament, the nation of Israel was on the edge of entering into the promise of what God had for them. They had been in a season of encountering God. God had done many great and miraculous things among them. His presence was visibly manifested in their presence. Twelve men were sent to spy out the promised land. Ten of those men can back with an evil report. The nation, rather than believing God, believed the 10 spies. They rejected knowledge and perished because of it. The entire nation failed to receive and walk in the promise of God because of unbelief. For a season, even Joshua and Caleb who had no unbelief were unable to receive God’s promise.

The church as a whole is in this place. We are on the edge of entering into the promise of eternal life where death is swallowed up in victory. We have experienced a season of healings and miracles. God has done many great things in the church. He has fought battles and won victories. His presence is tangible and at work in the church. Yet because of corporate unbelief, not one generation of the church has taken hold of the promise to live forever. Like Joshua and Caleb, even those who have no unbelief have been unable to take hold of life.

Paul saw this in his own life. He had a vision and understanding of life without end on earth. We see in II Corinthians 5 where his outward man was perishing. He called his body an earthly house or a garment. If it was destroyed, he knew he would get a new garment, a new spiritual body. His desire was not to take off the garment of his earthly body and be unclothed, which was to die, but to rather put on an additional garment, the garment of life, where mortality is swallowed up in life. He longed to be further clothed in a new heavenly garment, his new heavenly body which would never die. Sadly, however, he was not able to take hold of this in his lifetime due to worldwide corporate unbelief.

There will come a time and a generation of the church which learns to cast off unbelief and take hold of life and die no more. How can we become that generation? How can we ever truly understand and take on eternal life if we do not expect people to live forever? Why should the church continue to believe the lie that death must be tolerated? Death is an idea, a bad idea at that. Death exists because we agree with the idea of death and our agreement supports death to exist. We are familiar with death. We are comfortable with it. We tolerate it. We are taught from a young age even in church to believe in death more than to believe in life. Every part of us from birth is saturated by the idea of death. And because death still happens, the idea of death reinforces itself as truth every time someone dies.

However, whose voice will we believe? Will we be like the nation of Israel and in unbelief listen to the voice of death? Or will we be like Joshua and Caleb and believe the voice of God? For a generation to take hold of life and not die, it cannot be done by human intellect or human ability. We can only take hold of life by faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing God’s voice. How can the world hear if there is no one to tell them? Where are the Joshuas and Calebs of this generation who will be the voice piece for the living God and proclaim we are to live and not die? Who will possess life? Who will take hold of it?

There has to be a renewing of the mind, a shedding of the old ideas and taking on of the mind of Christ. To agree with death is to think according to human thinking apart from God. It takes no faith to agree with death. What is not of faith is sin and cannot please God. This death agreement actually puts us at war with God. The very nature of Christ is life and to agree with death is to be anti-Christ. This death mindset must be renewed by the mind of Christ. The church has to have an entire paradigm shift to where transformation comes to our corporate perspectives, perceptions, mindsets, attitudes, and behaviors. We have to fully reject death and take on the nature of life.

In part, this renewing the mind begins when we come to realize who we are in Christ and of the complete work of Christ on the cross. Romans tells us Jesus died once to sin. He was raised back to life and dies no more. After the resurrection, Jesus is no longer under the dominion of death but rather now has dominion over death. We have been crucified with Christ. The old body of sin was destroyed. However, as we are in Christ and He in us, we have also been raised to life with Him. As He dies no more, we die no more. As He has dominion over death, so we also have dominion over death.

The body was sown in corruption. In Christ’s resurrection it was raised incorruptible. It was sown in dishonor. It was raised in glory. It was sown in weakness and raised in power. It was sown a natural body, but raised a spiritual body as a new creation in Christ Jesus having a new nature. In Adam everyone dies. In Christ everyone is made alive. In Adam came death. In Jesus came the resurrection from the dead.

Scripture says every man is appointed once to die. We have already died in Christ. We have already been raised again to new life. If we have already died once, and as Christ dies no more and we are in Him and He in us, then we also die no more. To live is to commune with Christ, He in us, and we in Him. It is done. In Christ, death is defeated. If the church can grab hold of the understanding that we have in Christ already died and already been resurrected from the dead, it will radically change how we see death. By faith we take hold of life.

It is not enough to merely eat from the tree of knowledge and have understanding of being alive in Christ in our minds. We must feed from the tree of life which is to commune with Christ. The life of Christ has to take hold of us to become fully alive within every part of our being. Every facet of how we see, think about, and respond to death has to be taken over by life. We should be repulsed by death, so repulsed by death that it makes us sick. We should have such a fierce hatred of death that any encounter with death would cause the furious, righteous anger of God to rise up within us to say, “No more. I will not tolerate death any longer. It will not happen on my watch.”

That righteous fury of God should rise up in us to say, “It is not right for a widow to have lost her only son.” And being in such a state, we release the resurrection power of God and restore to life the only son of a poor widow. That is what Jesus did. He was repulsed by death and moved by compassion. It released newness of life. I long for the days when every encounter with death carries with it the expectation of seeing the dead raised and resurrection to new life.

There will come a generation which empties entire cemeteries. Hospitals and funeral homes will go out of business. Thousands and hundreds of thousands will be raised to new life. This generation will see the glory of God for raising the dead which has not yet been seen in the age of the church. Christ in us is the hope of this glory. The resurrection from the dead and the putting on of life so that one no longer dies are one and the same. Both are means of overcoming death. They go hand in hand.

Death is the last enemy and it will be put under the feet of Jesus. It will be done so by the work of the Holy Spirit through the working of the church in a generation who casts off unbelief, who communes fully with Christ, and who by faith takes hold of life being further clothed where mortality puts on immortality and where death is swallowed up in victory. Let it be now, and let begin with me. AMEN.”