Breaking Free From a Spirit of Divination

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A few months back I had the opportunity to spend some time with good friends up in Washington State. Almost all of these friends have been following the Lord for a good many years, which is why it came as a bit of a surprise to me when, while praying for a friend for healing, (who we will call “Chris”) we found ourselves dealing with a spirit of Divination that had come in during Chris’s childhood. I should mention that I’ve done a bit of deliverance before, and as a whole the idea of dealing with demons doesn’t really scare me much, but I haven’t ever made a habit of talking with the demons, as I don’t value them and I consider them beneath me. However, this encounter and a conversation I had with another friend a few weeks later, changed how I plan to do deliverance in the future.

It started out with Chris asking for prayer for middle-ear infection/inflammation, and what quickly ensued while saying a simple prayer was a full-scale cramping of the entire right side of his neck and near-screaming in pain. We got him seated, but there was a lot of thrashing around. It was pretty quick that the entire group realized we were dealing with a demon that was visibly manifesting and not simply an inner ear problem. We did some commanding and tried to cast the thing out with sheer power, but it wasn’t working. One of the wisest of our bunch, Northwest Prophetic, calmed Chris down and got the demon to settle a bit. We discerned its function and began to ask it questions, mainly “How did you get in?” If I had thought a bit more I suppose we should have asked it how many OTHER spirits were in there with it and we might have gotten more than the one we did, and in the future that is exactly what I will do, but I digress.

This spirit had hidden itself quite nicely for approximately forty years, only to be unearthed now from its hiding place. And when I say “unearthed,” Chris was basically unconscious and the demon had control of his eyes and vocal cords. The fact is that this demon made it that long largely because demons operate under the principle of “be heard but not seen.” What I mean by that is that they will whisper all sorts of lies into the host’s mind and plant ideas that the host doesn’t realize aren’t actually his thoughts to begin with, but they will usually talk in first person to make it sound like the host is thinking them instead of the thoughts being planted. In fact, this demon STILL didn’t really want to be made known because even when we spoke directly to it, the thing only answered in very short phrases using as few words as possible.

Steve Harmon was kind enough to explain to me at a later date that the spirit didn’t talk much because it wanted to give as little information as possible, but that when that spirit is talking to us, THAT is the moment to treat it like an interrogation session and pump that spirit for as much information as possible: how did it get in there, how many other spirits are there, what are their names or functions, who is the spirit in charge of that spirit-cluster, etc. The more information you can gather from the spirit, the better prepared you are to deal with it and its companions.

Interestingly enough, after dealing with the root point of access (in this case it was a friend and the use of an Ouija board), we had the opportunity to ask Chris what his experience was while we were dealing with the demon. He didn’t remember a single thing we had said or done from the time we started praying and his neck started having severe pain until we cast the demon out and he regained “full consciousness.” What had happened was that he was still awake, more or less, but that his consciousness had gotten pushed under and the spirit’s consciousness was now the one on top and was talking with us. However, Chris was able to tell us what he DID experience when he was under. He said he felt he was in this enclosed space and he wanted to get out, so he started pushing against a wall. However, this wall was a little like rubber and it was just bending with his pushing instead of giving way. He kept pushing, and at one point in time he pushed and the wall gave way and he was out. That moment that the wall gave way was the same moment that we case the spirit of divination out. After that, we prayed for him and Chris began to have visions of fields and fields of flowers. He was just so absolutely amazed by these tons of flowers and the beauty that God was showing him with these flowers. While it might sound a little silly, God was restoring that place in his soul that had been occupied by that spirit, and God was bringing back everything the enemy had stolen from Chris and demonstrated that to him with visions of beautiful flowers.

Shortly after that another friend, we will call Joel, came up and said “Hey, when we were praying over Chris I started having the same symptoms that he did — inner ear and right-sided neck pain, and I was reminded of a situation earlier in my life where I, too, was involved with the Ouija board and I think I’ve got the same spirit. Sure enough, we began to pray and deal with the same spirit, but this time it wasn’t an issue of just finding the entry point, but Joel had some deep inner wounds that needed to be healed. As we prayed, God touched Joel’s heart and he began to cry as God filled him with more of His life-giving love. From that point, we cast a spirit of divination out of Joel as well.

Fast forward a month or so later, I was talking with ANOTHER friend and shared this story with him when he was reminded of a séance he had taken part in when he was eight. This friend didn’t know what a séance even was at the time, but long story short, he had become more timid and fearful since that event. He and I dealt with the point of entry and cast a variety of spirits out (I asked this time and the Séance spirit had friends). Actually, the other demons kicked the Séance spirit out once it started telling us info about who else was in there! We made short work of those spirits, and that friend got freedom as well.

I know these may sound like simply stories to some, but I believe that even some of you reading this are being reminded by God of things that you have done in your own life that have given demons unwanted access to your life. God often uses testimonies of things we have done to jog memories and resonate with things in the lives of others, and I feel strongly that this is the case here as well. In addition to this blog post being for the purpose of general teaching and sharing of experience about deliverance, this is a divine opportunity to receive freedom in your own life. There’s no need to be in fear, but simply spend a few minutes praying and repent for the actions and beliefs you held that created that access, then tell the spirit to leave. Keep doing this until you feel like there has been a difference, and as you do this ask Holy Spirit to guide you into greater freedom. If necessary, talk to a friend and get some outside assistance. I love you all and my prayer for you now is that you be blessed, set free, and your lives to be transformed. Even now is that God is releasing you from bondage and setting you on a path toward even deeper realms of His goodness.

Much love,

-Michael-

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Keeping Focus in the Hard Times

Almost a decade ago, my wife and I got kicked out of our church because we got married. While this may sound strange (and it most certainly was), that is by no means the least of reasons why people have gotten kicked out of churches over time. In fact, I suggest that many of the reasons people are asked to leave a church have a lot to do with control and conformity. I have a friend who was a pastor/church planter who gave his church back to the denomination and all they cared about was the number of attendees and monthly income–to them it was nothing more than a business deal.
As the son of an Episcopal priest, I had grown up in church my whole life. In fact, the way I did spiritual life was integrally connected to how I did church–first with liturgy, and then as I grew up and became more Charismatic in my ways I did it with far less liturgy, but there was still a weekly gathering, sometimes even biweekly, that punctuated my own personal walk with God. Once this was no longer there, I will be honest, I felt at times like I was floating adrift on a wide open sea. This church-life I had grown up depending on was no longer there, and it really threw a wrench in my works.

I didn’t have a problem with personal worship and personal time with God, as I had done that for years, but one of the things I really missed was corporate worship. There is an energy and alive-ness that happens when gathered together in a large group to worship God. There is a heavier activity of angels and glory and power flowing through the room that is simply wonderful to experience. Except for the rare conference (as most of them in the area took place at the church we had been kicked out of or were being run by people who were actively shunning us), my spiritual life was very lonely, and that was new.

One of the hardest things at that time, I think, in addition to dealing with the negative feelings created by this whole ordeal, was that I didn’t have the support system I used to have when things were difficult. Other than my wife, I felt very lonely at that point. I can’t imagine what it must be like for single people who go through this sort of thing! My life had zero of the spiritual trappings it had before, and I didn’t consider that a good thing. I longed for times that felt more spiritually “alive”, but none of my desires changed my current circumstances. While I don’t want to sound like I am whining, this was one of the more difficult periods in my life. The thing I had to learn, differently than I had ever before, was how to keep my focus on God in the middle of problems and difficulties, and when nothing looked like what I had been brought up to understand that life was supposed to look like.

God is the one constant in a changing world. His love for us doesn’t alter itself based on our circumstances or actions, unlike so many others in this world. God is faithful and dependable regardless of what we are going through, and quite often in the most difficult times are when we feel His love the most. There are other times were we are going through hard things and it feels like God is the quietest. I don’t pretend to understand why that happens, as I don’t think God is trying to inflict silence on us to teach us something, but there is something about difficulty that forges us into something entirely new–beings who have been trialed by fire and who have come out on the other side polished and ready to act.

We are in a period of great upheaval in the Church as we shift from the Church Age into the Kingdom Age. Not everyone is aware this shift is happening, and many are struggling to make the transition. I want to encourage you if you are caught somewhere in the middle, with one foot in the church and one foot out, or even as in my case, with both feet up in the air and one’s rear planted firmly on the ground just outside of a church you were kicked out of–You are not alone.

There is more to this life than you have known, and you will make it. There may be difficulties along the way, but a more enriching, deeper walk with Christ is coming just around the corner. It isn’t going to look like you are used to in the old way of doing things, but God isn’t interested in the old ways–he’s interested in your heart. Continue to do things in the ways you used to until you learn how to do them differently, because God isn’t worried about your methods and ways of learning–he’s looking deep on the inside. Do your best to keep yourself open and don’t let the anger, doubt, worries, fears, and other emotions cloud your heart. Your heart is the wellspring of life, and closing it off to others will only shut out those whom God has specially designed in this season to walk with you. Forgive quickly, especially those people who you thought were friends who turned out to be nothing like it. It can be hard to do this, but let those doors shut and keep walking forward. God has new plans for you–plans to prosper you and give you a hope and a future. Life is about to get a whole lot better for you, but it might get a little worse before it gets there. Don’t fear the change because it can’t hurt you–rather, it will transform you. And in the midst of it all, always remember to keep gazing at God’s face. Look into his eyes in your heart and keep your focus there, and even in the hard times, you will always find a way to make it through.

Gemstones From Heaven: The Book is Published!

Hey Everyone!

I am excited to officially announce that “Gemstones From Heaven” is now in the Kindle store. You can find it by clicking on the link below. Get your copy today, tell your friends, and if you like it, leave a review on Amazon. It helps other people find the book as well. Thanks for reading!

“Are you ready to experience miracles? Do you want to see the impossible become possible? Join us on an exciting journey as we uncover the meaning behind a unique miracle happening around the globe–and how you can have this miracle too! Come see why gems are literally falling from heaven!

As you read this book you will discover what God is saying and doing through this miracle, answer your questions, and how you can partner with Angels to have this happen for you! This book doesn’t avoid the hard questions but takes them head-on in a no-holds-barred expose of the gemstone manifestation. The only thing you will wonder when you finish reading is ‘When will I find my first gem?'”

Court Case: Alignments with Death

As many followers of this blog know, I believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ includes physical immortality, as evidenced by many scriptures that speak toward that end as well as things Jesus himself directly stated to his disciples. With that said, I am not discussing immortality in this post so much as I am sharing a heavenly experience I had earlier this month that I engaged specifically to deal with matters of life and death in the spirit realm. It is my hope that this post encourages you in your own pursuit of all things spiritual and godly.

I went up into the spirit back into the Courts of Heaven where I had been led previously by an angel to disavow attachments I had made to Death and to put myself in the custody of the Spirit of Life, Holy Spirit. The court case began with someone presiding over the case, although I did not quite understand who. I was clear, however, that this was a human, not an angel or other being presiding over the court.

I took my seat on the right side, and Death was located at a table to my left. There was no jury, as this was essentially a custody hearing and I was seeking to change custodians. I was invited to speak and explain why I was seeking this court hearing. I explained that I did not understand when I was younger that I did not have to die, and so I made many statements and held beliefs and engaged in actions that aligned myself with death and I placed myself in its care. I went on to say that I now understand that I do not have to die and I want to be released from Death’s custody.

Death then stood up and had a chance to speak. When I looked at Death I saw this thin, spectre-like being that was a sort of smoky black with ill-defined features. It stood up before the judge in a hissing voice and began to accuse me, stating that I had chosen it and that I was its rightful property. After it gave a short speech, it sat back down.

Next, I saw a man holding a scroll approach the judge’s bench–it was Jesus. He unfurled this scroll before the judge and they had a short conversation which I could not hear. I couldn’t read the scroll but I understood that it was basically a writ stating that I had been fully bought and covered by Jesus’ blood, and that as a result Death had no rightful hold over me. This was all the evidence that was needed, and after the judge saw that, he called me up to the witness stand to testify. This was my opportunity to declare and decree in the heavens what my intentions were for the future.

I got up to the stand and I stated that I now believe that I am not destined to die, but to live forever. I acknowledged that while I once believed I had to die when I was younger, I have since learned the truth and have come to accept that reality. I stated that I no longer consider myself under custody to death and place myself in custody of the Spirit of Life, and I broke agreement with every belief, mindset, and understanding that I had previously held that said I would get sick or had to die. I renounced every statement I had made or that anyone else has made that has cursed me to be sick or die in any way, or that I have agreed with about the hold that death has over me and others. I stated that I am no longer allowed to die, but if for any reason I ever were to die, that I would resurrect immediately unless the Lord wanted to show me something in the heavens first, but that any time I were to ever die that I would always, always come back to life. Having completed my decree, the judge banged the gavel once and basically declared that my custody had changed hands.

Before the case was dismissed, the being who was serving as my counsel, who I could not clearly see but believe was Holy Spirit, petitioned the judge for a transfer of property from Death to me. The counsel basically explained that Death had stolen from me and as a result that I was entitled to seven-fold the amount stolen from me. The judge instantly granted this, and assigned a bailiff of the court to go carry out this decree, then ended the case.

With the court case over, Death stalked out of the room, but he was actually hobbling now, as though life force had been taken from him and he was now weaker. A man who was glowing in golden light approached me, and introduced himself as Isaac. I understood that he was Abraham’s son. As I could not see him clearly, he dimmed the light emanating from him, and while I could not see him clearly I could see that his hair was brown, that his face was somewhat rounded in shape, and that he was shorter than me. He explained that he had a few things to share with me. First, he told me that while I was not at that point yet, as I continued down this path of immortality that at a certain point my cells themselves would literally undergo a transformation. I had a vision of what he was saying as he was speaking, and it showed me where my cells literally transformed from normal cells into vibrant, golden-glowing cells that emanated life-energy and had no speck of sickness or disease in them.

He then escorted me to a garden, which he said was my garden in heaven. It was spacious and beautiful, with much lush greenery that was landscaped quite beautifully, with a gazebo in the part of the garden that I saw. We turned, and Isaac showed me a young tree, approximately five to six feet tall, that had two or three pieces of oblong, pear-like fruit on them. “This is a tree of life. Take a bite of the fruit.” He said. I picked one and took a bite. It was juicy, and as I ate it I could feel a message being sent to my cells to dump toxins and other garbage they had been holding, and I could feel my intestines beginning to church slightly. At his instruction I took two more big bites, then he told me to plant the core in the ground, which I did a short distance from the other one in an empty space. I understood that a new tree was going to grow from it, and that because life in heaven is so abundant that even the fruit wasn’t going to decay but rather would remain intact underground yet still have the tree grow out of it. From there, Isaac took me to a mountain which he said was my mountain–my property. Stored inside were a great many things, but he took me to a room that was filled with scrolls and other writings.

The room was jam-packed, but everything was in disorder. Random scrolls and rolls of paper were piled on things and papers were spilling out of filing cabinets, as well as various piles on the table and other surfaces. He explained that there was a lot of revelation present in me, but that because everything was so cluttered that there was revelation I had received that I haven’t even realized because it is hidden under the piles of disorganization. He instructed me to work on “cleaning up” so that everything would become more organized. I had a vision of a small, half-sheet-sized piece of glowing golden paper that was sitting on the floor somewhere, and that while I could see this paper in the vision, that it was hidden under other things and that as I cleaned, I would find it. I took this to mean that I needed to clean up how I have my computer files of all the prophetic words, dreams, and other revelation that God has given me so that it is more accessible. From there the experience ended.

I hope this gives you not only a glimpse of some of the things that are possible in the spirit realm, but a picture of what a case in the Courts of Heaven might look like. There are many courts and the cases do look different depending on the subject matter, but I encourage you to test the waters and try it out for yourself!

The Influence of Demons

Demons can be nasty critters–and unfortunately for us they sometimes hang out inside of us and wait for opportune moments to flare up, like a bad case of gout. Or allergies. Or . . . you get the point. I have been “saved” and following Jesus for over 28 years, and yet, somehow, I still find demons flaring up from inside me at the most inopportune times, often completely unnoticed by me. Tonight is not one of those times, as I was able to recognize it for what it was and deal with it.

The story will follow in a moment, as well as what I did to deal with it, but let me say this first: yes, Christians can have demons. Yes, I know there are probably a bajillion bible verses someone is readying at this moment to throw at me to Bible-bash me into correct theology without actually changing my experiences, but the truth is that I have cast demons out of a number of believers and some non-believers, and I find the “Christians can’t have demons” theology to be, in and of itself, demonic in nature. If the enemy can get you to believe that they’re not actually there when in fact they are, they’ve already won, with no resistance from you whatsoever. If you’re one of those people, don’t feel a need to comment below–although I censor very minimally, I probably won’t approve the comment. Why? Because it’s simply not true. I will probably go into “sound Biblical teaching” at another time to expound on this further, but for now, just suspend all disbelief and hear the story.

Late this evening (it is now the middle of the night as I am typing this) I was driving home from a movie with my wife. We were chatting about a variety of things when I began to go off on this rant about her, my grandchildren, and a couple other things. At one point I could hear her muttering under her breath but I didn’t hear what. Very shortly after that it was like someone turned off a switch and amidst my loud ranting and rambling, I started to purposefully quiet my voice and I said “. . . and I’m not really sure why I even just went off on you like that right now. I am really sorry.” Turns out the muttering under her breath had been my wife praying for me, and the switch that got shut off was demons manifesting through me.

Yes, I was “in control” of my body the entire time, in that I was physically driving a car, etc. but at that moment I wasn’t really in full control of my emotions. Or more accurately, I wasn’t exercising full control over them. There was this anger that was bubbling up from within me that started subtly at first but eventually was full-bore without really any reason for it in the first place other than what might normally be called “venting.” Well, I was venting all right, but only a small portion of what I was venting was my actual feelings. The rest of it was demons riding on and encouraging those feelings to blow them sky-high, and in doing so cause me to emotionally vomit all over my poor wife.

The truth is that I actually love my wife a great deal, and was exceedingly sorry that I had just treated her like that, with really no provocation whatsoever. When she prayed, it was like a veil was pulled away from my awareness and I realized that I was basically spouting the words of demons residing within me, and thus chose to stop spouting. At that point I began to renounce the feelings of anger and the beliefs that I had just been shouting, and verbally separated myself from those thoughts and feelings. Next I began to speak to spirits of anger, rage, and any other spirits that I could think of that were related to the subject matter, as well as to any that were connected to them, whether known or unknown, and whether I had named them or not. In other words, I was trying to get as many as possible out of there. A short time later I began to observe signs within my body that demons were, indeed, leaving. I cannot say how many left versus how many remained, but I was pleased that I at least became aware enough in that moment to cease demonic manifestations and emotionally hurting my wife and choose to do something about it. I have since apologized to her multiple times, and, being the gracious woman that she is, has accepted kindly each time, but it has brought a new level of vigilance in my mind regarding my behavior.

How often are my actions and emotions influenced by demons? How often do I start thinking thoughts that are being whispered in my ear, yet I believe they are my thoughts and I start actively thinking them? How often do I let myself unwittingly become a pawn of the enemy by being unaware in that moment of the spiritual battle raging around me? Probably far more often than I would like to imagine.

God has been reminding me of this issue recently, and I am amazed at how much I have forgotten to wage a spiritual war on a daily basis in my mind, will, and emotions. The soul is the zone of our battlefield, and we fight that war with spiritual weapons. No amount of yelling at my wife is going to change a single thing that love won’t change, and it will only damage in the process, whereas love will heal.

Demons want to use the creative power that God has given us in our words and thoughts to steal, kill, and destroy, and the more unwitting we are about it, the better. If we don’t take every thought captive to Jesus Christ then we invariably will be used by the enemy far more often than we think. We can choose to speak death or life over people, and according to our words it will be done in the earth.

I want to encourage each reader today not to leave from reading this post in fear of how the demons are going to get you, but with a heightened sense of awareness that we are, indeed, in a spiritual battle that is fought in the day-to-day choices we make and the things that we speak. I encourage you to ask God in the coming days, weeks, and months to reveal every place where your actions are being influenced by the demonic realms, as well as help you to exorcise all of the evil spirits that remain within you and to prevent any new ones from coming in. If you know anyone who is able to help you with that, much the better, but don’t forget that angels fight on your side, and you can ask God to release assignments to angels to war on your behalf! Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world! May you be blessed today and may the Lord reveal to you every scheme of darkness that is set against you, and deliver you from every snare of evil, in Jesus’ name. Amen!

How I Learned to Travel to Heaven

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The first time I ever tried to ‘go’ into the heavens I was driving in my car on an hours-long trip, talking on my cell phone with a friend named Ben. We were talking about the idea of freely accessing the heavenly realm, and I was the only person I knew until that conversation who believed that was possible. Turns out that the things I had been pondering were things he had recently begun to experience too, and it was a confirmation to me.

In weeks past I had been thinking about things like “We are seated in heavenly places in Christ” and “we are blessed with every spiritual blessing IN heavenly places” and ‘come boldly before the throne of grace’. They all suggest that there is an experience to be had that goes along with this concept of ‘in the spirit’. And if there is an experience, and it’s something God has for us, then I’d like to experience it myself.

Ben told me about the first time he ever went to heaven in the spirit, and what he saw. And when he went the first time, a friend walked him through what he saw in a particular place he had been to in heaven. Ben started out by just imagining the things his friend was telling him about. If the friend said there was a tree to his right, he’d imagine that. Then he started to see what else he could see, and started actually interacting with the imaginary experience, and it basically had stopped being just imagination and had transitioned into the actual place in heaven the friend was describing.

Right there on the phone he started telling me about it and I started seeing it in my head, sort of like I was imagining it too, but it was almost the same as if I was having a vision too (to me they’re a lot alike — vision and imagination). He was telling me about it and told me to try it later when I wasn’t driving, but I realized that I was actually doing it then while we were on the phone. I’ve been back to that place multiple times since then, and one time I ended up on a horse that took me to a city where I had an encounter with Jesus that brought some inner healing to me related to my sexuality. I am happy to share that with you later if you want to hear about it.

But that’s how I got started my first time ever. Since then, I have had other experiences that have had me places in heaven, and sometimes I might choose to go back to a location I remember just because I can. When I ‘go back’, it’s much like how I went the first time. I start remembering and imagining what it was like, with the intent that I’m going to actually BE there. As I do that, I begin to experience it in my mind/imagination once more,

As for how you can practice it — have you ever had an experience or a vision that you felt like took place somewhere in heaven? If you have, you can just remember and re-imagine that experience, and you’re basically going to re-enter that place in the spirit just by wanting and imagining. And from there, what you do in that place is up to you. You might see if you can meet an angel or just ask God to do something and see what happens, or walk around and see what else you see nearby that place. For the longest time we have had this belief in religion that spiritual things had to be hard to attain–whereas Jesus said that his yoke was easy and his burden was light. I encourage you to try heaven-travel on your own, in a quiet space if possible, and see what you might discover. Heaven is much closer than you think.

If you would like to read more about traveling in the spirit, pick up a copy of my book The Beginner’s Guide to Traveling in the Spirit, available on Amazon.com in both print and Kindle.

Seeing Myself From an Aerial View

I had a conversation with a friend recently where we discussed the difficulty of seeing ourselves as God sees us. I wish I could say that few of us deal with this problem, but the truth is each one of us struggles with this reality. If we didn’t, we would already be manifesting the “greater works” Jesus promised us and we would look a great deal differently as the Body than we do now. What I am more and more faced with is this idea that God sees me as far more equipped and able than I do, and that I need to change my perspective to align with His.

For example, my friend Praying Medic and I spoke by phone about my recent Gemstones blog posts, and he suggested that I turn them into a short Kindle book on the subject. While I thought it was a cool idea, at first I struggled with the concept. “Who am I to write a book on this manifestation?” I asked myself, looking at my own doubts, difficulties, and insufficiencies. Then, as I thought a bit more, I said to myself “Very few people have MORE experience with this than I do, and even FEWER of them are writers. Why NOT write a book on this?”

I am discovering that the Church is extremely hungry not just for supernatural manifestations of God’s love, but for understanding and activation into these things, and I now believe I have been divinely positioned to release a greater measure of that into the Body of Christ. If I were busy viewing myself as someone who is unworthy or unable, I would be unprepared to help steward this forward by writing a book. The truth is that unless we are able to take a more impartial view of ourselves, we will very rarely come up with an accurate appraisal of our own skills and abilities.

I was recently visiting with family in a dynamic with my older brother where I found myself reviewing my own value and worth from a life-accomplishments perspective and internally trying to see if I “measured up.” I was listing off my accomplishments for my wife and she asked me “Do you feel like you need to prove something?” I thought for a moment and the answer was “Yes, I do feel that way, but there’s no reason why I should need to prove myself to measure up.” The reality is that I don’t need to compete with my brother in any way–we are nothing alike and I honestly don’t want to be like him.

He is an officer in the military with all of the perks and responsibilities, has a Masters Degree, a wife his age with kids, and is a member of the Episcopal Church. On paper he looks super-successful, but there is always a deeper truth behind appearances. He gets moved all around the country and world every few years and lives his family less than 50% of the time due to being deployed in the middle of the ocean somewhere. He is staunchly set in his religious ways and is not open to new ideas or revelation if they don’t align too closely with what he already thinks. He is so used to telling others what to do and having them follow his instructions without questioning that he treats other people that way as well.

On the other hand, I am 31 and still haven’t finished my Bachelors degree, have no kids, married a woman 24 years older than I am, and have no clear religious affiliations to speak of. However, I am a Registered Nurse who will not only be completing my degree soon, but have already been working in my field for years with very good pay with only an Associates Degree. My wife is older than I, but is much better matched for me than anyone in my own age bracket. I have three wonderful step-grandchildren who live with us and who I get to help raise. I have one book that is in the editing process to be published, over ten more ideas on the drawing board, and another two which are also significantly underway. I get to see my wife and family every day and only work 80% of a normal person’s work schedule. From a spiritual perspective, God has placed me on the cutting edge of some areas of supernatural thought and experience, and I relish in the new things that God brings in my path and the opportunity to test out and learn new things. In other words, I am happier being me, and comparing myself to someone else isn’t going to help me become more of who God made me to be. I’m not my brother and I don’t have the talents and inclinations he has, and he doesn’t have mine.

Having a clear picture of how God sees us is best developed by listening to God himself. It can be easy for me to see myself from my own internal view, but if I take time, even just a moment in a situation where I am having difficulty, to ask God what He thinks and feels about me, it is completely different than what I am usually expecting to hear, and over time it helps me have a different image of myself. As I gain a clearer picture of who I am based on how God sees me, my entire life becomes more functional as instead of living from inner dysfunction I begin to live from a place of inner wholeness.

Liberated Living

Many years ago, shortly before we got married, my wife turned me onto Liberated Living, the ministry of John and Beverly Sheasby, a precious couple who teach and minister the love of Jesus, but largely focus on helping people grow in an understanding and experience of God’s grace and love toward us, and our identity as sons and daughters of God. They have a vast number of very helpful teachings on their website, many of which I have listened to over the years, and most of which are completely free!

Check out their website, and feel free donate if you feel blessed by their ministry, but most of all, download the teachings and watch your growth reach a new level! Be blessed everyone!

http://liberatedliving.com/downloads/

Gems From Heaven – Part 3 – How Do I Know This Is God

It is impossible to fully discuss supernatural events if we didn’t address the D-word: deception. So many people get so worried and worked up about getting deceived or being afraid of getting deceived or knowing someone else who got deceived or hearing of someone from someone else who they heard of that someone knew who got deceived through whatever manifestation is in question at that moment. In reality, it’s simpler than people make it–we test the fruit.

It is easy for some to relegate this manifestation to the devil’s work, although if it is, I’ll be honest that I don’t think his tactic is working. You see, every meeting I have either hosted or attended, we all praise God for them, tell others about the work God is doing in and through them appearing, and glorify Him all the more for this manifestation. If it’s a deception tactic it’s failing miserably. Besides, please explain to me what the absolute worst thing that could happen because of believing that God makes gems appear would be. Someone quits their job to sell gemstones? Someone tries to form their own denomination centered around the manifestation? I suggest that’s not deception, but rather blatant stupidity, and God has been able to fix all of our screw-ups from time immemorial. I really don’t think people need to get as worked up about “deception” as they do. Besides, have you ever tried to tell someone they were deceived about something? How well did that go over? Right.

I think it is important to point out and remember that discernment is an inner perception, not a scriptural fact. Each of us have to test the manifestation individually, look at the change it brings in our own hearts, and test the results. I cannot honestly say that I believe this manifestation has made me a worse person. There have been struggles and areas of growth that have come to light in the midst of this, but all of these things speak to me of the refining nature of God’s hand at work, much like cutting and polishing a rough jewel so that it sparkles even more brilliantly. Have there been conflicts in my own household and with friends over this? Yes. Am I happy about those conflicts and the results? No. Do I believe this means God isn’t in it? No. Our responses to what God does in no way legitimizes OR denigrates what God is doing, but over time the fruit of God’s work will be lifegiving. Even with those conflicts I have had, I am not remotely sorry for the gem experiences I have had, and if I had the option of the experiences with the conflicts or no experiences and no conflicts, I will choose the former every time.

The fruit I have seen in my own life and in that of others is that people fall more in love with God. We are more blessed at the end of the day than at the beginning. People have had their hearts touched by the manifestation in ways that have absolutely nothing to do with gems at all, but those gems acted as a confirmation from Heaven in regards to other things God was saying and doing in that person’s heart. Inner healing has occurred during these gem parties as well.

Last month when this gem-storm occurred at our house, my eldest granddaughter, who is seven, was crying and throwing a tempter tantrum because she was upset that God wouldn’t give her a big rainbow-colored stone like she had asked Him. She didn’t understand why God wouldn’t do what she was asking and was really upset and feeling unloved by God, the exact opposite of the purpose of the gems. I had to take her aside and help her calm down, then we sat on her bed and had a short discussion about gratitude and appreciating what God was doing while still asking Him for what she wanted. She left her room feeling much better and continued to play and enjoy the gems. Not twenty minutes later, while we were laying more flooring, she came running back out of her room yelling. “God did it! He gave me my stone! Look everyone! Look!” She was holding a clear stone that was the size of a quarter. It was beautifully cut and had 57 facets to it. Not only that, but I held it up to the sunlight and it cast rainbows on the wall. Yes, God had given her a large rainbow-stone. Even now as I write this it brings me to tears as I am brought more in touch with God’s love for his children, and for our children. He is so incredibly kind and generous and loving, far more than I could ever claim to be.

While this was happening, and even while I was having this discussion with my granddaughter about gems and gratitude, I was struggling in my own heart about wanting a blue sapphire ring that I wanted to give to my wife. It was somewhat important to me, and even though I was echoing the things I had said to my granddaughter in my own heart and mind, I was still struggling. But a few hours later, God gave me the most beautiful, round, blue sapphire stone I think I have ever seen. It was the perfect size and shade, a deep yet brilliant blue.

While many may question how and where these jewels come from, I cannot help but be convinced through these two events and many others like them that this manifestation is clearly and only the work of our Heavenly Father of Lights in whom there is no darkness at all. Whether these gems appear from heaven, or if God is bringing us the wealth of the wicked, plundering stores of treasure sunk at the bottom of the ocean or hidden in secret vaults around the world, I truly cannot say for certain. One thing is clear to me in the midst of this unique demonstration of God’s grace, is that that we are only brushing the very faintest edge of His goodness. God has far more good things stored up and planned for us than we could ask or imagine in a million years, and he will freely give us all things in Jesus Christ.

I know that many of you desire to have this manifestation in your own life, and I desire the same for you. It is exciting to see God manifest his grace and love to us in such an overt, noticeable, tangible way, and can be used as a tool to share the message of God’s love with others. To that end, I want to pray for you to receive this grace upon your own life. “Father, I ask that you grace each person who reads this today with the manifestation of gemstones from heaven, with supernatural oil, gold dust, feathers, and everything else you have for him or her. We thank you for your goodness and grace, and we receive this gift freely because of your great love for us in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

I hope this series has blessed you and answered some of your questions. Please feel free to message me here or on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/kingdomwarrior612) with questions or comments. Thank you and God bless you all!

Part 1: “Our Experiences”

Part 2: “What Do They Mean”

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

Gemstones From Heaven Podcasts

If this post has blessed and interested you, check out my book! 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!

The End of Revival

I have been in the Charismatic Church arena for over a decade, and while that isn’t a long time for some, it’s a third of my life. In that time I have connected with a vast proportion of current “revival” culture, which is, in my opinion, a highly involved process of begging God to do what He has already done–to come to earth and pour out His Spirit upon us. At this time, we have entire church groups who fast and pray regularly, even daily, in a flagellant posture attempting to wrangle a few extra drops of heaven out of God’s grasp. Don’t get me wrong–I believe in fasting and how it changes our own internal state. I can literally feel a change in the energy in my body when I fast, but that changes me, not God.

I have spent a considerable amount of my own time praying for revival as well–literally crying over the state of our nation and this world, and the hopeless condition that we are in if God doesn’t send His Spirit down yet again to bring revival. As I have grown in all things spiritual and become more accustomed to the Charismatic Way of doing things, I have discovered that we Charismatics are especially good at praying in such a way as to ramp up our emotions into a passionate frenzy. We use music to bring everyone else with it, then we grab a microphone and begin screaming super-spiritual catch-phrases into it and eventually we are so worked up that tears are literally streaming down our face as we beg God to do things that, I assure you, He has not only planned to do already, but is far more interested in doing than we are. So why all the fuss?

I’m not trying to just poke fun at people here, but I have been in gatherings where this is exactly what we did. In one of these meetings when the girl was screaming into the microphone, we were in a room with a drop ceiling and everyone was not more than ten feet from her. In other words, she could have talked and prayed at a normal volume or even just spoke a little louder and all of us would have heard her just fine. When I say it was painful, I don’t mean just from an emotional perspective, I mean that it was really uncomfortable on my ears. If you can’t get more anointing, go for volume I guess.

The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells within me. I AM revival wherever I go because I carry within me the One Who Revives. I have within me the faith of God who makes all things new. I have the power to heal sickness, to cast out demons, to create solutions in every problem. Every word I speak produces life or death depending on what I choose to speak. I am a powerful person because God has made me that way–we ALL are! We don’t really need “another revival” — Revival is over. It is time for a Mystic Awakening.

The Christian mystics were people who fell so deeply in love with God that they become consumed by Him. There is something about facing your gaze toward Him that is overwhelming. As we turn our affection toward God, He turns his affection toward us and pours out new measures of his love. Current worship-culture is, in my opinion, far less attractive to God than unbridled private affection, not because worship culture is bad, but because when we gaze into His face in our hearts there are no other distractions. We can’t be carried along in an act of reverence by other people and nice-sounding instruments in spite of a lack of personal engagement, so when our eyes are affixed on how altogether lovely he is, our whole heart is involved. Again, corporate worship is a good thing, God loves it, and angels flock to corporate worship in droves for healing, refreshing, and warfare against the enemy, but it’s not the same as sitting alone with the King.

One thing the mystics are known for is ridiculous miracles–resurrections, translocation, bilocation, and multiplying food are just the beginning strokes. One monk would occasionally make himself invisible or extremely tiny so that other monks couldn’t find him and interrupt his times of devotion with God. Padre Pio was seen by enemy fighters during the War floating high in the air over his town and planes were literally unable to drop bombs–the bombs would not release from the hangars no matter how many times they tried. There is a story of one mystic who was asking his superior what he should do next as he had done everything else his superior had instructed. “Why not be transformed completely to fire?” he said as he began to glow.

If we want to see Heaven come to earth, we need to spend more time in Heaven and bring it back with us. Those who are the MOST heavenly minded will be of utmost earthly good, as those who are so completely taken by God’s affection cannot do anything but let that life overflow into the earth sphere around them. Revival has become a catch-phrase that leads to more meetings and conferences with speakers, products, and mass marketing to other believers whether it carries the essence of Heaven or not. A Mystical Awakening is simply letting our hearts and our whole bodies be consumed by God’s goodness and letting the ecstasy of His affection transform us into living flames of His glory to revolutionize this world. Revival is at an end–let the Mystics arise!