Spiritual Combat – Excerpt from The Gamer’s Guide

This is an excerpt from my upcoming book “The Gamer’s Guide to the Kingdom of God” which will be sold through Amazon.com.

There are a number of different aspects to combat in the spiritual realms and each one has its own place and importance. Before explaining further, however, it is important to understand what this “heavenly combat” actually looks like. For some this concept conjures up images of witches and warlocks casting curses and dark spells over a campfire in some remote province of Africa or South America. For others this involves a Catholic Priest wielding a flask of holy water, shouting, “The love of Christ compels you!” For yet another this might include visions of angels and demons hovering above the earth clashing in an otherworldly battle unnoticed by the people below. All of these are correct in their own way, yet none of them paint the whole picture.
To gain a better understanding of spiritual combat, we must start by knowing who the enemy is. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” The battle first and foremost is not a fight against other people. It can be easy to fight back against others who are doing unkind things to us, (and there are times to take court action or similar) but as a whole, our focus needs to be on the spiritual battle we are in, and that battle must be waged accordingly. Verbally or physically attacking others will never solve spiritual problems, although it very well may compound them.

Unlike some games that make use of redemptive violence, such as murdering the evildoers to reduce the overall ratio of good to evil in the world, this does not exist in the Kingdom of God. We do not fight fire with the same fire, but rather we operate the opposite as those in this world do battle — we operate out of love at all times. And we are not left without assistance, as both protection and weaponry are afforded us for this selfsame battle. Ephesians 6:13-18 goes on to explain further: “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”

The armor is not just a conceptual construct, but literal armor. In How Satan Stops our Prayers: Combat in the Heavenly Realms John Mulinde discusses a conversation he had with a former follower of Satan who often had made war against the followers of Jesus and what that man had explained to him about the Armor of God:

———————————————————————————-
“The man said that when prayer breaks through like that, the answer will always come. He said he did not know of a single case in which prayer broke through and the answer did not come [from heaven].

He said that the answer always came, but that in most cases, it never reached the person who asked for it. Why? The battle in the heavenlies. He said that after they [the demons] succeeded in cutting off the open heaven and restoring the rock, they would watch the person and wait because they knew the answer would definitely come.

Then the man said something that really shook my faith. It was because of what he shared next that I fasted for ten days asking, ‘Lord, is this true? Can You prove it to me?’ The man said that every Christian has an angel who serves them. Now we know the Bible says that angels are ministering spirits who minister to us. He said that when people pray, the answer comes in the hands of their angel. The angel brings the answer, just like we read in the book of Daniel. Then he said something that was difficult to receive: If the one who prays knows of the spiritual armor and is clothed with it, the answer comes by an angel who is also clothed in full armor.

However, if the one who prays doesn’t care about being clothed in spiritual armor, their angel comes to them without spiritual armor. When Christians are careless about the kinds of thoughts that enter their minds and do not fight the battle for their minds, their angels come to them without helmets. Whatever spiritual weapon you ignore on earth, your angel does not have it when he serves you. In other words, our spiritual armor is not protecting our physical bodies; it is protecting our spiritual exploits.

The man said that as the angel was coming, they would watch him to find the areas that were uncovered and then attack those areas. If he didn’t have a helmet, they would shoot at his head. If he didn’t have a breastplate, they would shoot at his chest. If he didn’t have shoes, they would make a fire, causing him to have to walk through fire.

Now, I am just repeating what the man said. Actually, we asked him, ‘Can angels feel fire?’ You know what his reply was? ‘Remember this is the spiritual realm. They are spirits dealing with spirits. The battle is intense. When they overpower an angel of God, the first thing they go after is the answer he is carrying, and they get it from him. They then give it to people who are involved in cults or witchcraft, so people might say, ‘I got this because of witchcraft.’’”

———————————————————————————-

As Mulinde and the man he spoke with explained, the Armor of God is real. It is a spiritual armor that has real form and substance and actually protects from spiritual attacks. This armor is important because it not only protects us but allows the angels God has assigned to us to use similar armor to ensure their and our protection, as well as to ensure that the answers to our prayers reach us.

The real question is: How is this armor engaged? Armor is only useful if it can be equipped, which it can. Personally I use the power of declaration. For instance, at times I have prayed and said, “Right now I put on the Belt of Truth, the Breastplate of Righteousness, the Shield of Faith, Helmet of Salvation, and Sword of the Spirit in Jesus’ name.” I have also envisioned myself donning armor to protect myself. According to Hebrews 11, faith is the substance of things not seen. If we choose by prayer or even physically acting out putting on invisible clothing to equip spiritual armor by faith, we can expect that the actual substance is being applied to us, and therefore to our angelic forces as well.
I believe we need to actively engage the attributes of that armor to wear it. As an example, Isaiah 59:17 says, “He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.” To explain what I mean by sharing the above verse, by my count there are 22 different places in the Bible where nonphysical objects are used as clothing, whether by God, people, or other forces of nature. The attributes they were clothed with were salvation, thick darkness, joy, shame, disgrace, gladness, splendor, majesty, cursing, righteousness, strength, dignity, vengeance, zeal, terror, despair, gloom, majesty, power, imperishability, heavenly dwelling, and even Christ.
While this is a lengthy list of intangible things that one can be clothed with, the point remains that wearing them looks like something. In other words, there is an experience to go along with the idea of wearing the above-named attributes. When clothed with terror there should either be something that makes us terrified or something about us that terrifies others and being clothed in gloom will likely bring a dark rainy cloud with us wherever we go. If putting on garments of strength, dignity, or righteousness, there should be something about us that causes us to stand with your shoulders just a bit higher and that causes others to stand up a bit straighter when we are around them as the shame, disgrace, and burdens fall off.

To engage the attributes of the armor of God, I believe we need to purpose to live according to those attributes. We ought to live lives that are truthful, righteous, peaceful, full of faith. We must actively pursue and engage physical and emotional healing and deliverance from darkness in our thoughts and actions. In order to do this, to emulate the way Jesus lived, we simply follow Him. As we embody His attributes more and more, the armor becomes even more effective in our lives. Having it and using it, however, are two different things. The armor of God is spiritual in nature and is available to anyone, but as Paul mentioned in Ephesians 6, he exhorted them to actually put it on. This means that it is possible to have it but not wear it. It is important that we actively clothe ourselves with spiritual armor and “put on” the attributes of our King so that we, too, may be equipped for spiritual warfare.

For Lack of Knowledge

My grandfather died a few weeks ago, and those who are connected with me on Mewe.com, Facebook, and other social media know that I went to the funeral in Virginia two weekends ago. What most do NOT know is the divine encounter God set me up with a few days prior, and what it showed me about the health level of the Church from a spiritual perspective.

Two days before the funeral, I borrowed my dad’s truck and drove up to Pennsylvania to look at the contents of a storage facility we will be clearing out later this year. I had brought a few books with me on the flight to Virginia, and I brought one book up north, “How To Raise The Dead” by Tyler Johnson. I spent the drive up listening to messages on Immortality and Abundant Life from WOW Ministries in Sri Lanka, and my faith was flying high–a fantastic drive for me!

I was blessed to have a 3+ hour lunch with my good friend Will, much like the old days when we lived nearby (I love you man!). I enjoyed the time with him thoroughly, but what I didn’t know is that God was keeping me from driving 3.5 hours back to my parents’ place in Virginia until much later that evening

I ended lunch around dinnertime and started the drive back to VA when my wife called from Portland to tell me that our friend “Jenna” called her. Jenna lives in Myerstown, PA, right down the road from where we used to live before moving to Portland, Oregon. Jenna is a mighty woman of God who has been a wonderful support to my wife and me over the years, and she has a heart of gold.

When Jenna called she had just found out her son’s friend had died the day before from either a clot or hemorrhage in the brain; she was 25 and engaged to be married. My wife called and instructed me to call Jenna back. She was blown away to discover I was less than an hour away from her instead of on the other side of the USA where she thought I was. She wanted to raise this woman from the dead, but needed some help and encouragement. I plugged her address into the GPS and met her an hour later at her house to pray, talk, and walk her through the process.

My philosophy on resurrection (and actually most Kingdom-related things) is this: If I do nothing, nothing will change and there is no hope. If I do something, there is the chance nothing may still happen, but there is now hope where before there was none. After all, let’s face it: how many people do YOU know who will plan to resurrect you if you die? If you can count more than one person, you are a minority. If more than five, consider yourself both extremely rare AND blessed.

My advice to Jenna was in keeping with my philosophy, and as she was nervous I had her sit down and write a script of what she wanted to say before making that phone call. We started with condolences, but quickly moved to the part where we tell them we want to pray for resurrection, what we want from them (access to the body), and then ask for their assistance. Mind you, this was done very respectfully and not at all as callous as this might sound on paper, but words on the page don’t convey the same heart as if one was there in person.

Jenna called, and asked in the most kind, heartfelt, and loving way possible, and the family was even looking at pictures of their daughter and Jenna’s son, so there was favor at the time of the phone call. What the family said was that they “felt peace” about the whole thing and felt that was God telling them to let her go. And that was that–resurrection over.

While blessed that God was releasing measure upon measure of His grace in the midst of this life-shattering event, I was deeply grieved in my heart. Hosea 4:6a says “my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge” (NIV), and in this case it could not have been more true. This woman, only 25 years old, had a man who was preparing to marry her, a career, life, possibly children and grandchildren in her future, and a family of parents and siblings who loved her dearly, but in a freak moment, her life ended. Yet when the only people they knew who had any hope at all extended a hand to offer that hope, it was graciously-yet-firmly refused.

As I think about it now, as I write this, I am in tears. I have been accused before of lacking compassion for the dead and the dying in regards to my beliefs about death and resurrection, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I may at times have difficulty putting myself in others’ shoes, but it pains me even now to know that this woman could be alive right now, today, if her family knew what Jenna and I know. Jesus said it best to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:10: “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

If only they had known the gift of God that was available to them. If only they understood that God’s resurrection power is alive and well today, and that Jesus still raises the dead even today, even now, they might have reached out their hands to take hold of the hope Jenna offered them. If only they had known that God sent me across the USA, then three hours north of my destination, to meet with Jenna, complete with a book on the very subject of need sitting with me, full of faith and ready to go, and who kept me from driving home for hours after I had originally planned to leave, they might have relented and she probably would have been raised. People truly do perish for a lack of knowledge.

When I say that God revealed to me the state of the health of the Church, I am sad to say that it was bittersweet. I am encouraged that God is moving and at work among His people, but it does upset me at times to know that many are living with grief and problems that simply don’t need to be there. I am reminded, through this event, that part of my job, our job, as believers, is to extend the Abundant Life that Jesus promised us in John 10:10 to all who are in need, and that the first place it must start is the Church. We as the Body of Christ must reach a place of health in our mindsets and beliefs where we understand that when God says in Revelation 20:4 that “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away,” that God meant what He said.

This isn’t a far-off heaven-when-you-die reality for a day yet to come. We are called NOW to burn as bright flaming beacons of light amidst a world that is filled with broken, hurting, and even dying people, and to destroy the power of death in action, placing it under Christ’s feet. The Old Order of things passed away over 2000 years ago on a splintery wooden cross on a hill in Israel when the Savior of this world gave up his spirit and died in his body so that we might never have to, and that the power and authority to extend the life he purchased us would flow in us and through us to dry the tears of this world. I will not stop proclaiming the Gospel of Life and Immortality that Jesus purchased for us, so that the Church may be revived into fullness, and through it the world might live again.

God Doesn’t Kill But He Takes People Home??

In the past week I have been to a funeral, attempted to resurrect someone from the dead (but failed to get permission to access the body), and have had numerous conversations with others who just had family members pass away. In all of this it is impossible for me to not think about what Jesus purchased for us that he stated over and over again in the gospels, especially in the book of John. “Whoever believes in me . . . will never die.”

I had a conversation this evening with a family member where I recounted the failed resurrection attempt. His response? “The Lord knows His timing and call some to be with him sooner than we might think.”

My response? “I don’t think God kills people.” You see, I have a hard time believing that God does kill people, especially when the person in question was twenty-five, died of a brain aneurysm, and left a grieving fiancée, family, friends, and a great deal of unlived-life behind. Really?? We think that “God’s timing” involves killing a young woman?

The quick reply to my response was, “Well, the Lord doesn’t kill people, He just takes them home.” I’m afraid that in my quickness to use common sense I left behind my religious mindset that would have made that response make any sense at all. Can someone please explain to me how the Lord “took” this woman home via brain-aneurysm-death, yet He didn’t kill her? I’ll admit, I’m a bit confused at that reasoning.

We have for far too long given ourselves over in religious circles to thought-processes that make no sense in order to explain tragedies that elude easy explanation. Worse still, we attribute those tragedies to the God of Light and Love as though somehow God is perpetrating these literal crimes against humanity. Instead of acknowledging what the Bible clearly states in John 10:10–namely that there is a thief loose in the world who kills and destroys, and who is nothing at all like God, we make up these pious-sounding arguments that (stunningly) people somehow actually believe.

I think it would be far more authentic if we started questioning random acts of darkness instead of simply attributing them to God for lack of better understanding. I will be the first to tell you that there are lots of passages in scripture that I don’t understand and have no explanation for. I cannot explain all of the verses that say that God killed hundreds of thousands of people, because God didn’t do that since it’s not in His nature. I can’t explain a good number of Old Testament verses for that reason, but I CAN understand with impunity that Jesus and God are the same, and that Jesus revealed himself to be the one who GIVES life, not the one who takes it away.

We have for too long relied on Job’s limited and inaccurate view of God as one who gives AND takes away instead of relying on the perfect revelation of God found in Jesus Christ. It’s time we moved on from the spoiled rancid last-year’s milk of the old way of God-kills thinking and try chewing on the meat of the God who raises the dead, heals the sick, and give hope where there was previously no hope. Instead of living a powerless gospel that saves no one at all but relies on death to get them to heaven, I’m believing in the Jesus who promised abundant life, and who said “whoever lives and believes in me WILL NEVER DIE.” You get the same choice–choose wisely.

Personal Responsibility For Healing

Many of us have heard horror stories of things that happened in the “prayer lines” — those times when someone failed to get healed, was viciously accused by the prayer-leader of not having faith, and how that person left crying, angry, or otherwise. Sad to say but those stories are often true and do actually happen. While the prayer leader may have been well-intentioned it is safe to say that the effects of their words and actions were not just ineffective but actually detrimental. I suggest there is a much better way to operate in this setting or situation, but this way carries over into all aspects of life — it is the Way of Personal Responsibility.

In any prayer situation with others it is safe to say that usually one party (the supplicant) approaches the other (prayer leader) for prayer. The supplicant obviously has a need that they don’t feel is adequately addressed without the assistance of others, which is the reason they sought help. Common sense also dictates that if the supplicant were able to solve the need on their own that they would not have sought help, which tells us that they are in a place of lack. Presumably the prayer leader is in a place of plenty in that area of need, or at least is in less lack, and so the supplicant requests prayer intending the blessing to go from the place of higher influence to lower influence. And so the prayer occurs.

When the prayer occurs there is one vitally important detail the prayer leader must be aware of — that they are responsible for providing the solution. Certainly God is the one ultimately responsible, but on an earthly level God has given us responsibility to bring heaven to earth and so it is the job of the prayer leader to do just that. What this means is that ALL failure in the situation, if blame MUST be apportioned, goes to the prayer leader. Why? Because the supplicant never had it to begin with or they wouldn’t have sought prayer. Thus, any lack of heaven’s breakthrough in the situation is the responsibility of the prayer leader to address, solve, and resolve the matter.

I find it quite sensible to take this approach for a few reasons. First, if one looks at the bible verses where someone was healed by their own faith they directly approached Jesus and usually had a solution in mind but just needed Jesus to give them an extra boost in prayer. There is not a single time Jesus said to someone “your faith has made you well” where they had no pre-formed notion of how this wholeness might occur. When he didn’t say it one can assume their faith did NOT make them well, and therefore most of the time it was not the supplicant’s faith that brought the solution, and anyone else would be wise to adopt a similar mindset.

Second, I have named this the Way of Personal Responsibility for a reason. I have little to no control at all over the lives of others. I cannot make them believe things a certain way, speak, act, or think a certain way, and as such I am the only person whose beliefs, thoughts, and actions I control. If as prayer leader I believe Heaven needs to come to Earth I cannot depend on any other person to provide enough God-power in the situation, as I am the one who is being sought for just that very thing. Therefore it is my responsibility to provide it and I never know when I will be called on for that task. I might be healing someone in a grocery store or a coworker, and it might be nowhere near a highly-anointed church prayer-line where people are getting blessed left and right. If someone needs a touch from heaven I can only count on myself to carry it. Thus I must choose actions that line up with that belief and when all is said and done I can know that I did my all.

By corollary it also means that if in that situation as prayer leader I FAIL to provide the touch from heaven under no circumstances may I begin blaming the other person and at NO point EVER do I tell that person the nine reasons why they failed to be prepared enough for me to pray for them. Obviously they were unprepared or they wouldn’t need prayer in the first place.

It is time that we each individually take a step up in our personal spiritual responsibility. People blame others for heaven failing to manifest as a cover for their own feelings of inadequacy, fear, disappointment, and shame. Blame-passing over why prayers were not answered is not fruitless but rather is poisonous. If heaven is going to manifest it begins with a look at one’s own self not at anyone else in the visual range, and as I and everyone else do this more and more I firmly believe we will see a shift in not just the way we approach prayer with others but the end results as well.

And Your Foot Shall Not Be Taken

I have a friend who has even struggling with health issues for a while. Diabetes led to kidney failure and a number of months back he developed a bad ulcer on his heel. This ulcer has been pretty problematic for him, and the only real blessing I can see in it is that the diabetes has caused such numbness from neuropathy that he can’t feel it. Although it’s also how he got the ulcer in the first place.

I have been praying with him for his foot somewhat regularly, and about a month ago I noticed some signs about his foot-health that were really concerning. Without going into gory details basically the tissue in the foot was slowly dying. My guess at that time was that if something radical didn’t happen then he was going to lose the foot. After I told him this exciting and uplifting news we went back into prayer for complete restoration of the very troubled appendage. The result? Just two days later he was emergently admitted to the hospital.

After meeting with a cluster of doctors at his bedside they all left except one remained behind. This surgeon informed him that he was going to lose his foot and that they would do surgery in two days. As you can imagine, my friend was having one of the worst moments of his life. But it seems that God had other plans. A pastor friend of his had been reading Proverbs that morning and he read a verse that struck a resounding chord within him.

“For The Lord will be your confidence, and your foot will not be taken.” Proverbs 3:26

He called our mutual friend to give him this word, which elated him significantly. Here, God was telling him to place his confidence in Him and that his foot would NOT be taken. My friend did this and took this word to heart. The next day another surgeon from another discipline walked into his room and said “Your circulation in that leg is too good. We aren’t going to take the foot.”

He underwent a few more weeks of treatment in the hospital and left with his foot doing much better. They even started him on special oxygen treatments to speed tissue healing, which they had not been doing prior to the most recent hospitalization. When I heard this story I felt very encouraged. You see, I knew what it was that I saw, and while I had been standing in faith, it was still quite difficult to look at the natural appearance of things and continue to believe for healing. Yet even when things got worse still, it was not too late. God chose his own moment in time to turn the situation around.

This was not only encouraging to me, but I felt this is testimony that is meant to bring encouragement to all people. You see, every individual has things they are believing, hoping, or even just wishing to receive from God. He is the God of Always Enough, and has limitless supply to meet every need. I was reminded through this that the situation does not matter, no matter how dark or horrid it may appear, there is a bright life-giving outcome that God has planned for me and those that I love, and he has planned the same for you.

It is too soon to give up and quit. Perseverance is what wins the race and gains the prize. Push through that problem. Push past that doubt. Ignore the voices of fear & limitation. You don’t know, but the next push, the next prayer, the next hour might contain the answer you have long been waiting to receive. You will make it through.

His Expansive Grace

My latest blog post titled “God Still Loves Satan” has apparently ruffled a few feathers, as evidenced by some of the comments both on this blog and on Facebook, not to mention conversations I have had with others in-person. As I am not one to shy away from feather-ruffling (hint: I do it on purpose), I thought I might follow up my last post with a Bonus Edition, interrupting my biweekly posting schedule to speak a little about God and the expansive nature of His grace.

This might seem to some like an old, overly-worn and somewhat boring topic. After all, aren’t there enough of those greasy-grace preachers around? Who needs one more blog post? Be that as it may, I suggest you better bust out your biggest container of Dawn soap because the grace is about to get a WHOLE LOT GREASIER!!

Jesus is love. God is Love. Holy Spirit is love. Love covers over a multitude of sins. Love never fails. And what can separate us from the love that is in Christ Jesus? Death can’t. No, really, it can’t. For all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Colossians 1:19-20 says “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” God is reconciling ALL to him without exception. Again, I repeat God is reconciling all to him without exception. And as much as people might not like it that includes Lucifer, who fell from grace and became the Adversary, the Satan.

Why would God do this? Why would he reconcile Lucifer, the one who has caused massive and almost immeasurable damage to those on this planet? Because God is not only more loving and merciful but he is ALSO more just that either you or I. I had a conversation this past week where someone said to me “if God is going to let the being who made all of mankind fall into sin back into heaven then I don’t want to be there.” That statement is one I have heard many people say over time, and it is indicative of their inability to forgive and to release someone from their judgments. It is in no way indicative of how God SHOULD be. In reality, to think that God would somehow forgive humans, of whom all have sinned and fallen short, but somehow not want to forgive other beings he created is not only absurd, but completely irrational. To not like or forgive Satan doesn’t in any way change God’s nature of love, grace, and mercy. To go a step further, to suggest that there is a sin out there that is somehow uncoverable or unforgivable or unfixable by Jesus’ blood is beyond ridiculous. If you believe anything at all about the saving power of Jesus and his redemption of us all through the cross, then you know it is while we were still SINNERS that Christ died. And how is Satan any different from us in that regard. For ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

What that statement actually says is that there is someone out there who has sinned so horribly that that person believes Jesus SHOULD not forgive them, as the Bible is quite clear that God’s power is limitless and it has never been an issue that God cannot forgive them. And who is it, I ask, that gets to decide who God should and Gould not forgive?

There are many out there whose sense of Justice is threatened by this concept of God-forgiving-satan. But I have to ask, what could possibly be so threatening about a God who is far more loving than we are? Is it that we yearn for some sort of payment in life for wrongdoing to satisfy an inner need? Is it that we cannot imagine being in heaven with the truly wicked? I will say this — he who is forgiven much loves much. Is it possible that those with this strong need for justice simply haven’t been forgiven for enough to appreciate the depths of God’s grace? Is it that they need to dive even more deeply into the arms of His grace to find mercy and grace to help in time of need?

The reality is that while each and every single one of us was a sinner and sentenced to death under the Law, Jesus who knew and committed no sin became sin for us and in our place died our deaths. How are we so arrogant to think that we get to dictate whom God may and may not extend His grace to when we are just as guilty under the law and requiring of that same grace ourselves? The fact is that without God’s grace each of us would eventually go into a place of utter and abject darkness in the spiritual realms and suffer with our own inner darkness for eternity. Those who don’t know God have said many times “How could a loving God sentence people to hell for eternity?” The truth is that He doesn’t, and they inherently know it is true in their hearts, for God has written the Law on their hearts and ours. God forgave our sins and it is His and His right only to decide who He chooses to forgive or not forgive, and He has already stated in Scripture that He has come to save all, to rescue all, and to restore all.

I will not apologize not ever back down for sharing, writing, or preaching a gospel of Limitless Grace and Limitless Love at the hand of a Limitless God. And for those who are now furiously searching the scriptures to find a way to disprove me I will save you time. There is not a single verse anywhere that says God will not save Lucifer. And while there is no verse that directly mentions Lucifer’s name and states outright “Yea verily shalt Lucifer be savedeth,” there are a number of verses that talk about God saving all. And it is impossible to prove that God meant humans only, as it was proven otherwise by the verse quoted above in Colossians.

I will never understand why people feel threatened that God is more loving than they are. I will never understand why they feel limitless grace somehow threatens the belief in a God of Justice. My only guess is that those who ardently seek justice are holding onto a need for someone or something to be punished. My recommendation is that if that is you, lay down that need, for the same measure you use will be measured to you. If you must have someone else, even a fallen angel, pay for their sins that Jesus already paid for, be certain that you are willing to undergo the same judgment. Be certain that you understand what you are saying is that Jesus’ blood was NOT sufficient to cover all. And be certain that you understand your gospel, then, is weak, sick, and lacking in power to save. I, for one, will choose to believe the better report of the One who is All-powerful as whose name is Mighty To Save.

God Still Loves Satan

“God is love.” That is a basic foundational truth of followers of Jesus.
“God is a Righteous Judge.” That is a basic foundational doctrine of almost any Christian you have ever met, any may be your belief as well.

And you wouldn’t be wrong; God is a righteous judge. However, the former truth is of greater importance and of greater power than the last one. How so? Love is preeminent over all things, even judgment. Even the Mercy Seat when sprinkled with blood on the Ark of the Covenant covered over the judgment for the sins of the people of Israel because love covers over a multitude of wrongs.

God’s love is far deeper and higher and wider and more majestic than we can grasp in even hundreds more years-worth of lifetimes. God’s love extends so far that he became, in Jesus, the “lamb who was slain before the foundations of the world”. Literally this translates out to “the lamb who was slain before the moment of conception of time and space.” In other words, Jesus was slain in Eternity as well as at a moment inside the flow of Time. If he was slain in Time for us in Time, who then was he slain for in Eternity but those in Eternity??

God in his love is not willing that ANY should perish but that ALL should come to repentance. For does it not say that “all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved?” I personally know two people who both died and went to hell, and from hell they called on the name of Jesus and he delivered them and brought them back to life. If it was impossible to get saved in Hell, then both of these men would still be dead and would be there now. Instead, they are not because ALL who call on the name of Jesus WILL BE SAVED. It is a promise from God to each of us and He will in no ways break that promise. There is no negotiating the terms of that promise to fulfill our own inner sense of justice because He and He alone is the Righteous Judge. If He says it, it stands.

This immense and immeasurable love of His is scandalous. It’s shocking. It can be so controversial as to be shockingly unseemly at times. But this is the love of our Heavenly Father – that while we were still sinners Jesus Christ died for us. But here’s the scandal – Jesus didn’t just die for all humans. He died for ALL. Colossians 1:19-20 says “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Who else could this be referring to but fallen spirits, as God has stated he will reconcile ALL in heaven and earth to Himself.

Wait, you mean God wants to get Satan saved? Bingo. Is it really too hard to believe that God, in His infinite love, could still love Satan? I’m not talking about loving evil, but loving Lucifer the angel whom he created with his own hands. Lucifer who gave his own heart over to darkness and took upon himself the name “Satan,” which is in actuality a title meaning “adversary”. God still loves Lucifer just as much as he did the day He made him. The Father’s heart still weeps over the loss of that child of his, and how Lucifer’s hate turned him into a bitter, dark, evilness that reached out and swallowed up the light of a great many others. It is hard for us to grasp this concept and the depth of the Father’s love, even for demons, but this much is true: God changes not.

And if He changes not, then His love for the enemy – for Lucifer and his fallen angels and those who have sided with them – the witches and warlocks and sorcerers and the like, are not too far from God’s love. No, in fact they themselves run from his light and love, but God is only ever chasing them with his Goodness. For the Lord is good and His mercy endures forever.

There is the matter as mentioned earlier that God is a righteous judge, and for this reason Hell and such exist. God will most certainly judge everything that hinders love. Satan was cast out of heaven because he was actively destroying the work of Love that God created. God is not wimpy or unable to protect or save, but He is far more redemptive even in that judgment and justice than we can even comprehend. Is there punishment for Satan? Certainly. But I suggest that he even now lives in eternal torment, as the light of God is always and ever shining its way toward him and is a light that even in the darkest places in the spirit realm Satan cannot truly escape.

Some have questioned whether this has any value or point whatsoever. After all, how can knowing whether God loves Satan or not make any difference in our lives? Perspective. It’s all a matter of perspective. If we look at the most unlovely and evil beings in all of time and eternity and realize that God’s heart is still big enough to have room for them in it, how can he fail to love even the most unlovely human on this planet? If we get a perspective of Eternal Love, then we can only but emulate that love to those around us, even those who we consider unlovable. After all, it only takes one drop of His love and a heart can be changed forever. Why not let it start with yours?

Translocating Under The Tuscan Sun

Last month I watched Under the Tuscan Sun with my wife and step-daughter and there is a scene where the main character and her realtor are discussing why she bought a 3-bedroom house when she doesn’t have anyone else to share it with. She then goes on to list the things she wishes would happen at the house, including a wedding and a baby.

The realtor then tells her a short story of the history of building train tracks between Venice and Tuscany. Long before a train has been invented that can make the trip. He says that they built it because they knew that SOMEDAY the technology would exist.

I then said out loud “That sounds very Field of Dreams”. And then it hit me. This is exactly what I have been doing in the spirit realm, and I felt this was a message of encouragement from God in regards to translocation and space-time-alteration miracles.

You see, I and another friend have had revelation that we are collectively building and developing the Translocation skill to a level where people can engage it on a much more frequent basis instead of these rare stories where it seems to always happen by pure chance, and almost never where the person initiated the experience. We have had a sense that the ability will not be much more fully realized until it starts to enter the collective human consciousness in a greater way. While it is still possible for individuals to access this capacity, the level and frequency with which this happens remains minimal.

I believe this is for two reasons. First, it is not something that has been commonly talked about from a perspective of literal reality. It is common with movies such as ‘Jumper’ and the Star Trek to relegate this topic to an entirely sci-fi/fantasy realm with little to no basis in reality. Scientific articles show that scientists are having difficulty moving even a few protons by teleportation, much less an entire human body. The common belief is “this is impossible” and that permeates the collective faith level of the populace. Second, those who DO have these experiences appear reticent to come forward and share them with others. Whether for fear of ostracism or some sort of religious retaliation for experiencing supernatural events, many keep silent and few others benefit from the knowledge and wisdom gained from their experiences.

Having had a number of these experiences myself, I have made it a point to talk about this topic and push forward into deeper understanding. Experience has shown me that unless someone is willing to take a risk and share their own journey, hopes, dreams, and experiences, few others will be willing to follow and open up. However, when one or two take that risk, the volume of people who open up with their own insights increases dramatically. Social Media is a very useful outlet for these purposes, and I have made use of it myself to network with other like-minded thinkers and do-ers.

I believe that we are entering a period in time where this capacity will not only be available on a broader level, but will be a much-needed ability, and to this end I continue to pursue it as well as remain open to God’s grace, divine connections, and opportunities to practice this ability with a goal of deeper experience and insight.

God is restoring miracles to His people, and we are on the rising edge of a wave of the miraculous that will sweep the earth. I feel encouraged that now is the time of the open door, now is the time of the pursuit, now is the time to move forward, extend one’s hand, and grasp success. I believe that as we reach past time and space into the Eternal realm that we will not be disappointed, and that we will find all we seek. For as Jesus himself said in Matthew 7:7-8, “Ask and it shall be given, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened. For whoever asks receives, whoever seeks finds, and to him who knocks the door will be opened.”

Translocation: Shifting Space and Time

Time Warping

The Time For Figs

Photo by Chance Agrella via source license from Freerangestock.com

On Spirit, Soul, Body, and Light

I was having a conversation with Holy Spirit recently where he pointed out that I never need to try to be more holy, as I AM holy and therefore everything I do is holy, There is no divide between secular and sacred. It doesn’t exist. In the Beginning of Time God called all things good.

I then thought about the fact that while I may not be more or less holy, that there are certainly things I can do that influence God’s activity in my life. Holy Spirit explained it like this: “You cannot become more holy than you already are now, but you can position yourself to carry and release a greater measure of God’s glory into the Earth based on your choices. And not even just your actions, so much, but by your thoughts and beliefs. The truth is that your actions are dictated by your thoughts, so it is really your thought life which decides the measure of glory that you carry.”

I then thought about auras and the fact that it is possible to see energy fields around people and even plants and objects. I was pondering how an increased measure of glory must cause one’s energy field to expand, and that part of our goal ought to be to expand our energy field as a result of heaven’s influence. For I believe it was similar to this that people tell stories of men of God who would go somewhere and even from miles away someone would be overcome by God’s power, inasmuch as the people were influenced by that man’s godly aura.

Holy Spirit didn’t deny that it was true, but explained and clarified it for me. “You have more than one aura. You do have a soul aura which is where people can pass information from one to another by their energy fields, and where unconscious information including emotional states are transferred when in proximity with one another. You also have a spirit aura. This is the light of God which comes from Heaven and is reflected from you and emanates out of your spirit. This light is not directly transferred to your soul aura, so the energy fields are not one and the same. However, anyone who has a strong and vibrant spirit aura will invariably have some measure of trickle-down effect that influences their soul aura, making their soul aura more vibrant and life giving as well.”

I considered the problem that we often do not have the measure of glory flowing through our lives that we could have, and I inquired as to why that was. Holy Spirit said “There are gates, you might imagine that it is akin to the sphincters in the digestive system, between access from the spirit to the soul and again the soul to the body. How open or closed those gates are direct how much of Heaven’s light is passing through you at any time. This is dictated in part by your thoughts as well, as your soul is the transfer point between your spirit and body. Basically, the state of the first gate decides how much of Heaven’s light reaches to your soul, and the state of the second gate decides how much of Heaven’s light trickles down from your soul to bring Heaven’s light to your body. Healing and restoration in the body, and even transformation of your physical body, is a result of Heaven’s light moving through the soul and penetrating and transforming your physical form. This is how people can be breatharians and live on air and energy alone –because my life has not just transformed their soul, but the channel is open for me to invigorate their body as well.

The way to do this is in part by meditating on my word. What this does is it transforms your beliefs to reflect the truths of Heaven, and as this occurs, more light shines through.” I got the feeling He meant the actual Bible when he said this, but I don’t think it has to be limited to the Bible only, as Holy Spirit can easily give us a rhema-word to meditate on as well.

That was about where the conversation ended, but it put some things into an interesting perspective for me, and gave me not only some new things to think about and consider, but some helpful hints on moving toward living the “life more abundantly” that Jesus said he came to bring.

A Great Wave Arising

I was at church recently speaking to a man named Jerry. Like me, he is an outside-the-box kind of person who tires of the “normal” church way of doing things. We were discussing conversations we each have had with God recently about not really fitting in at the church we attend, and how God was showing both of us that the reason we feel like we don’t fit in is that, in fact, we don’t.

Sounds sort of obvious, right? Well, it was, but there was more to it than that simple fact. Jerry started telling me of a number of other people in the church who are much more Kingdom-oriented than Church-oriented, and who are basically there waiting until the powers-that-be catch up and head more directly in the direction God wants to take the place. We were also discussing how God wants to be far more interactive with us and equip and engage us all at a meeting instead of this top-down leader-follower mentality that has been cultivated in churches for centuries up through the present-day.

I felt encouraged after the conversation, but I felt that there is more to this idea than just a conversation between two men on the fringe of a church service. The truth is that many of you reading this are in a similar space. There are those of you out there who are saying, “God, why in earth am I here at this church or with this group? I don’t fit in at all. I am on the outside, not the inner circle. I am not appreciated or understood. What are you doing?”

What I suggest is this–like me, you are sitting on the edge of the church system because you are diving headlong into the Kingdom, and you can’t flourish well in both the church system AND the Kingdom realm.

It is time that we Western Christians detoxify from the American church system. We are too used to sitting in a pew listening to someone try to force-feed us their latest or greatest scripture verse regardless of whether it speaks to us at all. We have turned church into a weekly production instead of an ongoing interaction with like-hearted lovers of Jesus. We have become cookie-cutter Christians, emulating the newest Christian trends as a substitute for “mainstream culture”, forgetting that we have simply created a mainstream Culture of our own but attached a different label to it.

Believers as a whole are not healthier or more problem-free, and the weight of keeping The Machine going continues to wear on those in leadership, at times drawing their focus from the true goal of equipping the saints for works of service in everyday life–in our jobs and lives in the real world, not in creating our own insular culture.

We can’t afford to follow the mindless church-machine system any longer, nor can we afford the mindsets that come with it: relying on science in place of divine healing and miracles, throwing money at the homeless to make them go away, attempting to legislate morality instead of working for heart change, and finally perverting God’s word to ensure that people keep “tithing” to the church system, a practice which died with Jesus and the end of the Hebrew sacrificial system.

God will have a reformation in the Western church, and he will do it under whatever conditions we present Him with. While conversion tends to increase when people are under pressure, He doesn’t need to cause an economic collapse, persecution and FEMA camps, or a massive natural disaster for us to open our eyes and ears and turn our hearts toward him in a fresh new way, asking “What is the way you would have us live, Lord?” and then living it out with radical obedience.

In the midst of the inner struggle we each face as we look at the plight of the Church as we run towards the Kingdom, there are those of us who can take heart. We who have already said, “Lord, have your way, whatever the price,” those of us who are sitting on the fringe waiting for those “in power” to get it, know this:

There is a new day dawning and a new sun arising. The hopes that you have held out in days past, and even in years past, waiting for things to change, they soon will. Prepare your hearts and minds, prepare your homes and lives for Suddenlies, for I am the God of the Breakthrough and I am poised to break through. Do not say “I have heard this before,” for while you may have heard it, you have not seen what I am about to do. This is no longer a time of waiting, but a time of active preparation for what I am manifesting in your midst. The miracles of the past, the healings of the past, the salvations of the past, and the deliverance from bondage in the past will be as a drop in the bucket for what I am positioned to do. A Great Wave is rising up and about to crest. See that you catch it and rise to the top.”

Creative Commons licensing for image: http://openphoto.net/gallery/image/view/18794