Beginning The Journey of Sound

In fall 2011 I attended a workshop hosted at some friends’ house related to sound, vibration, and quantum physics. I didn’t know it at the time but the woman teaching the workshop, Carla Reed, was not just speaking on the subject, but is an instructor in Soma Energetics’ Sound Therapy methods. Carla has a good many years of experience in this field, both as an ordained minister who has had many God-encounters that have led her towards this path, and as a certified Sound Therapist and Instructor.

At the time we met, I had already had a measure of experience in the realm of Quantum Spirituality, God having taken me on my own training journey over the past decade or so. Quantum science has shed unique light on ancient spiritual principles, and this integration of science with one’s spiritual journey is releasing even more revelation and spiritual wisdom into the earth.

Carla discussed the material over a few sessions and returned that next spring to teach the Level 1 Practitioner course, which teaches people to use tuning forks in a dualistic role as both a sound therapy and an energy therapy. I was not a part of this class, but my friend the hostess of the first workshop was and we have discussed the therapy as she has learned and grown, and I have been her guinea pig on more than one occasion. I also purchased a personal tuning kit and have used it sparingly on myself and family. Carla returned in 2013 and taught the Level 2 Practitioner course, and earlier this year she and my friend went to Spokane for the final level of training, including Brain Tuning and DNA and RNA tuning.

After having watched this process as a bystander over the past few years, I have been excited about the tuning and the results and have had noticeable results myself from tuning sessions. Since launching The Kings of Eden LLC, I made the jump and purchased the instruction material and Energy-tuner set of forks for the Practitioner Level 1 Sound Therapy. Subsequently, I plan to post from time to time on my own learning process and the results I have obtained from tuning others. Having done energy-work for years, I feel confident that I will pick it up rapidly, but I look forward to both the results obtained via tuning others (as no energy therapy truly leaves the practitioner unchanged during the session) and the results on friends and family as they too become more ‘in tune’ with their own life journey! I expect the journey to be both exciting and transforming.

Stay Tuned!

Kingdom Training Schools: A Vision of Things to Come

In the Old Testament there were prophets that ran together in groups. Some surmise that these were ‘schools’ of Prophets, and maybe they were. Jesus himself taught his disciples in a group that one might call a ‘school’, and rightly so. For Jesus both did AND taught with authority, and his disciples were with him most everywhere he went. But the one thing I think that is sometimes overlooked in the busy process of learning to be disciples is that Jesus actually TAUGHT.

Over the span of his three year ministerial-seminary-with-internship, Jesus sent his students on multiple learning-intensives involving self-study. The first time he sent his twelve out, and then later on he sent out seventy-two. Presumably the first twelve actually worked with some of the others in the group of seventy two on that second intensive course, taking those who were the slowest and most shy and helping them branch out into the experience of the course material as any good Teaching Assistant ought to do.

In addition to these learning intensives, Jesus offered a scholarship program for his ministerial training, having sufficient funds in the Trust that he assigned his TA with the highest marks in Accounting manage the accounts (Unfortunately this particular student kept a second set of books, but that’s somewhat beside the point). Jesus did not turn his students away on account of a lack of money because he saw to it (as did his Father) that all of their needs were met.

In the midst of reviewing this training school that Jesus ran, one could pay attention primarily to the didactic learning that took place, focusing on such scripture passages as the Sermon on the Mount, the many parables he told, and his monologue at the Last Supper just before they entered their Senior Immersion. And in truth, that is what much of the Church seems to have focused on in our Seminaries and Colleges and with our Masters and Doctorates in Divinity and Theology. But if we do that we miss out on a key theme running throughout the Gospels – Jesus both did AND taught.

One thing that no one can deny is that the teaching Jesus did included a lot of demonstration and hands-on learning. Jesus was big on having his students experience the things he spoke about, not just sit there and listen to him prattle on about grand ideas with no actual fruit to show for them. Jesus was actively involved in pushing his students into experiences with God that stretched their understanding of who God is and what God is like, and also what God would do in and through them.

When Jesus went up on the Mount of Transfiguration, he took some students with him to experience the Glory. When he went to raise Jairus’ daughter and Lazarus, he had students with him then as well. Jesus was very clear that the Gospel of the Kingdom involved manifestation of things Heavenly into the Earth-realm. For this reason the Lord’s Prayer contains a prayer of command – “Come, your Kingdom, and BE DONE, your will, on Earth as it is in Heaven!” Jesus expected of his students that his teaching would not just alter their minds but would cause literal physical substance to manifest at their command.

And we can see that this is true from what Jesus taught. The first time he multiplied the loaves among thousands of people they multiplied at Jesus’ hands. The next time they multiplied while in the DISCIPLES’ hands. Jesus was demonstrating to them that they, too, could manifest the Kingdom in power. And when they later were discussing the matter of not having enough bread, he rebuked them for completely missing the point of his object lesson. Jesus wasn’t just interested in starting a religion – he was transforming people to become vessels of Glory that would release that glory in tangible form. When a temple tax was required, a coin was taken from a fish’s mouth. When a lake proved too far to go around, Jesus began walking on it, and when he came upon his disciples in a boat, he teleported them to the far side. Yes, Jesus was as interested in teaching through experiences to manifest the supernatural realm in the earth as he was chatting about spiritual sounding ideas.

Knowing that Jesus taught this way, I find it no surprise that so many ‘Schools of the Supernatural’ are springing into being around the U.S. and probably around the world. But having been in one of them myself and having observed smatterings of the curriculum of others, I wonder how much is actually being taught in these schools compared to what Jesus taught his students. From where I sit, it appears that we are busy learning to finger paint in Kindergarten compared to the Masters-level thesis-writing that Jesus had his students doing.

I feel very strongly and have for years that God is trying to take us into a new level of Kingdom experience. God is trying to graduate us from Kindergarten, through first and second grade, and even skip us up a few grades into Middle School. I believe and feel in my spirit that there is a wealth of abundance of learning and experience to be had and to be caught if we would avail ourselves of Heaven’s Curriculum. As we look at stepping into a new grade and new levels, the questions I have are the same ones I always ask: What does it look like? and How do we get there?

I had a vision a while ago where I was a part of a school that seemed like it was in an old city with streets made of stone – one I perceive to be located somewhere in Europe based on its feel. We were in an old house that had a yard in the back and the place was filled with students. We didn’t have a set curriculum, per se, but we did have some things we were actively pressing into and practicing. Worship with music was certainly part of the plan, but it wasn’t by any means the main venue of each day. Meals were communal and each part of the house had a training purpose. There was a ‘playground’ out back that had a set of dividing walls, each with a picture painted on it. The goal of the pictures was to stand in front of one of them and then practice teleporting to one of the OTHER pictures. The different pictures (painted by one of those present in the vision) served as focal points for the teleportation. One of the walls in the dining area was full of items which had been attached to the wall by faith – plates, spoons, etc. Another wall next to it was available for people to try and walk up it. Food was prayed over and it would be expected that God would either provide the food in some fashion or other (whether it was delivered by someone, bought with faith-found money, multiplied in front of us, or otherwise appearing from Heaven), or we would fast. Mind you, fasting was not mandatory, but it was just the way we did things. No one in the vision felt like they had any major sickness, and while lean times might have been the order of the day, it was a time of intensive spiritual training for things to come.

Looking back at that vision now, I don’t yet see many of the pieces that God showed me in that vision, but what I do have is the revelation — that it is possible to actively LEARN to engage and perform the supernatural by faith, and that we as the Body need to learn how to do this and activate our gifts of prophecy, healing, miraculous powers, and the like.

Imagine a scene where one of these higher-level Miracle schools is in action. Think of a storefront church building that’s grown too big to be a home church but isn’t large enough to be a mega-church yet. If a passer-by looked through the window when the school was in action, what might they see? What one might see are not only the things Jesus did – walking on water, raising the dead and cursing fig trees, but much more.

Maybe the meeting would start with worship. Perhaps it would start with testimonies. The attention would focus on Christ. It would start with focusing on Him, as the King of Kings is the central figure of every gift and empowerment of the Spirit. From there the school would break up into practice teams. Each team might discuss a certain miraculous power and what the Bible says about it, what God has been showing them in personal revelation, and comparing and discussing to reach a deeper understanding. These revelations and new truths could be added as curriculum material for the future and for the other practice teams to use later. The teams would each then transition into a learning lab where faith is put into action.

In one of the learning labs, viewers might see kiddie-pools full of water and students with their pant legs rolled up, shoes off, stepping onto the water to see if it holds. If they break through the surface and it doesn’t hold their weight, they stop, spend a moment re-centering and refocusing on what God has told them – things like “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” and ‘Jesus said I would do GREATER works than these”. After spending moments or minutes they would try again.

Over in another corner one might see people practicing with multiplying food by faith. In yet another corner one might see a group with flashlights and searching everywhere – their hands and arms, the ground, their pockets. Every now and again one might pick something up, motioning and shouting excitedly. It appears it might be a gemstone by the way it glints in the light. Did that just appear? And where did that sparkly dust come from on that woman’s hands? Miracles of apportation in action.

On one wall there would be a series of paintings – possibly ones that were painted during the worship time. There is tape on the floor in front of each picture that is in the shape of a person-sized box. Students are just standing there staring at the pictures and sometimes closing their eyes. It rapidly becomes clear what this lab is about when one student translocates himself from one picture to another!

Heading around back one might see a group tending a small garden plot – but with no tools other than their mouths. Speaking to the plants, the group is telling them to grow whole, healthy, and for all weeds to remain ungerminated in their seeds. Worms and ladybugs would be welcomed to the plot and all harmful insects would be rebuked and sent elsewhere. Leaf blight and dry fungus could not flourish, and the fruit of such a plot would certainly be large in size and plentiful in number.

A field trip might take the class to a local funeral home where families receive back their dead by the power of God, or to a hospital cancer unit where tumors fall off in front of one’s eyes. Or even to a burn unit, where skin grows back on a victim’s arms and legs in seconds at the utterance of the name of Jesus.

And with so much faith in the air, certainly in a place like this there would be no sickness, no disease, no disability. And with the faith to see gemstones appear, there could be no lack either, for whatever need arises would be met with faith equal to the task, and the solution would manifest before the eyes of the one in need.

Why all the focus on the miraculous? The gift of Miraculous Powers (note that it’s plural, not singular) is possibly one of the most neglected gifts of the Spirit at this juncture in history. Much is known about faith already – the Word of Faith movement saw to that. Asuza Street brought with it, among other things, a revival of tongues and interpretation. Entire volumes have been written on discernment and casting out of demons since the days of Derek Prince. The Healing movement has flourished mightily since the days of John Wimber. The Latter Rain movement brought a resurgence of prophets and the gift of prophecy, word of knowledge, and word of wisdom. Of all of these, the gift of miraculous powers stands alone without understanding, yet if the Church were honest with herself, Jesus spent possibly more of his time doing miracles than anything else. Of Jesus’ own confession, Capurneum was a place where he did many miracles, and the Book of John states that more miracles were performed by Jesus than could fit in all the books in the world.

What is clear at this point is that it IS possible to actively learn and engage in order to perform the supernatural by faith. The Church as a whole are expected by Jesus to learn how to do this and activate the gifts of prophecy, healing, miraculous powers, and the like far more than before.
In my own life and those of personal friends I can list miracles we have experienced: apportation of objects including gemstones, feathers, and oil; translocation in time and space; spirit travel on earth and in heaven; gravity defying miracles; multiplication of objects (including food); levitation; mind-reading; weather control; and raising the dead. I know that all these things and more can be caught and/or taught, and I also know that God is releasing greater revelation, authority, and understanding to the Body at this time to walk in these things in a much greater measure.

There is an ever-present danger that must be addressed to balance out the pursuit of the Miracle realms. It is possible to find a group of people who have a high level of operation in various miracles, anointings, and giftings, and some who have a lot of faith in these many areas, and to do so in order to create a school like that I have described above. This actually might be an idea that would advance the school’s supernatural journey rapidly, but at the same time there is a risk. Quantity of miracles without depth of character is a pitfall that has ruined people before, and without care will do it again. “Where there is no guidance the people fall, but in abundance of counselors there is victory.” Psalms 11:14. Without a multitude of counselors who can see areas of weakness – both of the individual and the group, it is almost guaranteed to fail before it has even started. These counselors are not present to be fault-finding or blame-seeking, but rather to serve as an early warning system for problems so that they never grow too big. As it says in Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” It is best to avoid destruction, and while pride is not the only character flaw that causes problems, the entire issue is avoided by means of vigilance.

An additional problem in developing this type of school is the money. While one might locate the right teachers and group facilitators, it is impossible to make promises that students will learn this or that, guarantees that can be made in public schools, but not in Kingdom schools. That said, is it ethical to charge tuition with no guarantees? Additionally, these things can be taught, but they can’t be bought. This is a difficult thing, but the vision still remains within me. I do believe we are reaching a time where schools such as this will develop into supernatural communities, and those currently in existence will increase and expand, exemplifying a new wave of power-packed supernatural encounters such as most people have only dreamed.

I envision communities of people where teleporting, flying, and manifesting money and resources by faith is a daily occurrence. Where rescuing children from sex trade is simply a matter of teleporting into the holding area and teleporting thirty people back out with you. Where there is no real lack among them because it can be created at will based on the needs present. Clothes, shoes, money, whatever one has need of is available because those in these Haven communities know how to manifest the abundance out of heaven into the earth so that there is no needy among them. I envision properties that are portals of heaven into earth like nothing we have yet seen. Moravian Falls, Redding, Prayer Mountain in Korea, none of those hold a candle to what I see possible when the right people come together in one heart and one mind seeking after the supernatural workings of God to manifest life with love and demonstrations of the Spirits’ power.

When I think of all the human struggles and issues that could rise up and the difficulty that having a cohesive group living in one accord like that would pose, I say to myself ‘It would take a miracle’, but I can’t let go of the idea in my spirit that God really WANTS us to live in that kind of realm of the flow of the Spirit. Until then, I will continue to press forward into the goodness of my Father, knowing that He is building in us all a blueprint of the things that He is doing, and knowing that as I follow the portion of that blueprint God is laying on my heart and piecing my page together with others God is calling and preparing, that together we will be able to construct a spiritual city in the earth whose Architect and Chief Builder is God.

Translocation: Shifting Space and Time

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A while back I was spending time with my good friend Hope. We were having a fun time discussing the supernatural, God, etc., which is pretty common for us. A topic we have regularly touched on is supernatural physical transportation. This has many names, but among the most common are ‘translocation’ and ‘teleportation’. Oftentimes the word used has little to do with any notable difference, but is just a matter of who is using the terminology.

For those who are unfamiliar with this concept, it appears it at least two notable places in the Bible. The most oft-quoted Bible-passage where this phenomenon occurred is in Acts 8:39-40 when Philip was taken up by the Spirit from the presence of the Ethiopian eunich and moved to Azotus, some distance away. The other obvious instance of physical transportation found in scripture is in John 6:21 when Jesus stepped in the boat with his disciples when he was walking on water and they were immediately on the far short. This phenomenon can be placed within the purview of the ‘gift of miraculous powers’ in 1 Corinthians 12.

God has shared a few details about translocation with me from time to time, and one of the concepts He showed me is that this is to be a team-process, not just an individual one. What I was shown about this concept of team-transport is that it isn’t going to be something that one person learns and then shows or instructs everyone else, but that a team of people was going to work together to bring the revelation and experience about. He didn’t specify who this team was, as I am sure it is a much more global event and many of the ‘team members’ would never know each other. In spite of this fact, the interplay between people and the sharing of revelation and experiences from one person to another causes everyone together to achieve more than one can alone. With that said, I already knew that Grace was a part of my local ‘chapter’.

Long before I even knew her, the Lord told Hope that she would one day be teaching people how to physically transport themselves from place to place supernaturally. I have felt a desire for this as well – both to do it myself and to teach others. On a natural level it seems imminently practical. With the price of gas rising over the past number of years and no real stabilization in the world’s commercial markets, we can only assume this trend will continue. The way I see it, why pay hefty gas prices when I could simply skip most of the travel-portion of a trip and arrive at my destination with a full tank of gas? Additionally, it is a prudent use of resources, far better for the environment, reduces wear on your vehicle, and saves time. Or at least that’s what I had thought until I started to learn more by discussion, revelation, and experience. What I thought, while true, is only part of the picture.

To back up a while before this conversation with Hope, my wife and I had a couple of experiences of being transported while driving together. The two most recent ones happened while driving back from a home-group that usually meets two hours north of us. The first time we translocated home from one of those get-togethers we observed that we skipped 22 exits on the highway and arrived home approximately 15 minutes early. The second of the two events happened during a snowstorm – it had started snowing on the drive up, and by the time we were ready to leave and driving back, the roads were much more snow-covered. A number of cars had already been escorted into the ditch, so we drove at half speed. We spent one hour of the trip at normal speed and one at half speed and arrived home in the normal 2 hours. What SHOULD have happened is that our two-hour trip should have taken three hours, but instead we traveled the same distance at half the speed and arrived in the same amount of time, traveling the entire physical distance.

I learned something from those two experiences which I have never heard anyone else share, and that is there are at least TWO different ways someone can get transported. One is by alteration of space and the other is alteration of time. As I said above, my thoughts about the benefits of physical transport are true but aren’t the whole truth, and that’s because I had discounted the option of traveling with a time-alteration. The benefits I had listed only apply if there is a space-alteration. And there are other differences too.

For instance, the benefits of space alteration are very useful if we need to get from one location to another. We can arrive faster, or even instantaneously, if we transport in space. We save time that way, and if we are using a vehicle we gain the other benefits I listed above. There are other possible benefits as well. For example, let’s say we need to travel across a body of water that is otherwise impassable – say from the Mainland US to Hawaii. The amount of faith required to drive ON the water for that distance, not to mention the amount of gas it would take and/or to faith the gas tank full, the length of time one would have to be driving, and any other hazards of driving a car across a vast ocean all come into play. Given that option, translocating and cutting all of the watery parts out of the equation is a much better plan. Think of it as a type of space-bending where you fold space and drive across the smaller distance. The water would be in the folded-over part and land on both of the shorter pieces. That was how I have conceptualized it in the past, and while it is an overly simplistic explanation, it adequately addresses the basic concept.

Time alteration is equally beneficial and it has some unexpected applications. Some of these applications were obvious to me at first, but others didn’t come to light until Hope and I got together and talked months after the two transport events. The main benefit of altering time is that you travel the whole distance but do it in less time. If you are late, trying to avoid rush-hour traffic, on a long trip, etc., altering the flow of time around your vehicle is a fantastic way to travel. While you don’t get the gas savings, you save a bunch of time that can be ‘spent’ at your destination.

For instance, if I woke up late one day for a plane flight, and the flight was supposed to take off in five minutes, no amount of physical transportation is going to help me. Even if I was instantly transported to the baggage check area with my baggage, and then transported to the security line and then spirited away to the terminal and walked onto the plane, it would take more than five minutes. I probably wouldn’t be dressed and ready to LEAVE in five minutes, and besides, even if I was ready to leave immediately, the security checkpoint would make me late for sure. This is where time alteration becomes handy. If I alter the flow of time around me, I can take my good old time getting up, dressed, and making my way to the airport. I can leisurely check my bags and move through security, then saunter confidently onto the plane, all with three minutes to spare before takeoff is scheduled.

What makes this particular aspect of translocation is that the benefits are not limited to travel. As I said before, this method is useful even if there is NO trip to be taken. Using time alteration properly, it is possible to complete two hours-worth of yard-work in fifteen minutes. If I were particularly tired at work, I could take a LONG nap on my ten-minute morning break and wake well-rested and ready for the rest of my day. These are only two examples, but the variety of applications are immense.

As we looked at the benefits of each type of translocation, Hope and I realized that there are times when one method of travel is more useful than the other. In other words, each has its own strengths and weaknesses, and it is important to be aware of them if this is to become a common practice. As mentioned before, no amount of time alteration will move the Pacific Ocean out of the way. But if we bend space, it disappears and we can travel easily. If there is ever some sort of impassable object in the way – whether a dead end with a road on the other side, a river with a bridge out, or a mountain with no roads leading across it, physical transport is an imperative. It comes with the fuel-savings benefit and because the trip crossed a smaller amount of distance, it also takes less time.

Time alteration is useful when there is business to be conducted while en route. For example, the amount of prayer, conversation, etc. that can happen in a six-hour car trip with a friend is substantial. But what if you were able to have the span of time INSIDE the car that covered about six hours, but your actual experience external to the car was only about forty-five? You would arrive at your destination far sooner than planned, but you would have been able to engage in all of the prayer, communion, revelation, etc. due to the length of time you were able to spend talking and sharing with each other? If you had been transported physically, you would have lost the benefits of that trip together. Time alteration is also useful when there is no trip to be had, and when you just want or need to get something done faster.

When Hope and I were discussing all this, something else very cool happened. There are times when the best way to learn things you don’t know is to teach someone else. The reason for this is that at times when you are explaining something to someone else you may say something really profound which turns out to be new revelation. The fun part is that you heard it for the first time when you heard it come out of our own mouth. In fact, it may have been so good that you stopped talking just to process whatever you just said. Knowing that this happens it is possible to take advantage of the revelation-on-the-go method of teaching and start trying to teach people how to do this stuff, knowing full-well that I would learn on the way. Hope and I discussing this topic had this very effect, and we uncovered additional understanding.

We discovered that when physically traveling, there is no actual bending of space taking place. If we were doing that, there would be an alteration of physical structures which is obviously not happening. Entire buildings would be crushed in the bending-process, which means that bending isn’t what happens. While it makes explanation easy to our limited minds, what is happening is that our EXPERIENCE of space is being altered, not the space itself. The same is true with time. Time as a whole is not altered, but our experience of it is. When my wife and I drove home in that snowstorm, there was a jeep in front of us most of the trip. While it is possible that jeep was an angelic vehicle, it is equally possible it was just a jeep with normal human passengers. If it were the latter, they most likely did NOT experience the time-change that we did, and therefore their trip took the whole three hours while ours only took two. The only reason this is possible is that our experience of time and that of the vehicle we were in was altered, but nothing else. A way to conceptualize this is if you think of moving through time while traveling a distance, then stepping sideways outside of the flow of time while still traveling the distance. When you step back into time, you step back in where you stepped out, and thus the experience that little or no time has passed. If we spent an hour on our trip at normal speed, an hour at slow speed, and then one hour’s worth of time where we stepped out of the stream of time entirely but were still traveling, that explains how we were able to travel three hours-worth of distance in two hours’ time.

Where this idea starts to mess with my brain is when I look at other possibilities. What would happen if at the end of the trip that jeep and we ended at the same destination? If we compared watches, would theirs be an hour after ours? Or would they too get brought into our time-alteration experience as well? How is it possible for two vehicles to travel the same distance within view of each other, but have one arrive an hour sooner than the other? I have no answers to these questions at this time, but these are the sorts of questions that get my mental gears moving.

I’m the type who likes to understand the hows and the whys of things, and like to really grasp not just THAT they’re happening, but like to understand them in-depth. I honestly believe that we are stepping into a time where this sort of thing is necessary to learn, and believe that God WANTS us to learn how to do it at will. The only way I know how to learn something that no one else seems to know how to do either is to ask, seek, and knock for the revelation and the experience, and to evaluate my experiences and those of others. I hope and pray that the information we have uncovered with be helpful in your journeys through time and space, and I ask that anyone who has learned or uncovered anything on the subject either through revelation or experience share it with me as well as anyone else who is hungry and seeking. I believe that as we learn, grow, and share together, our Team-Travel experience will be more enriched, but I also believe this will accelerate growth in this area.

Blessings to you all, and I pray this becomes a normal experience for you!

Time Warping

The Time For Figs

Translocating Under The Tuscan Sun

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Juicing: That Thing People Do

There are a great many ideas out there about juicing – what it does and doesn’t do, who should and shouldn’t do it, what juicer to use. There are even people who focus on ‘food combining’, which deals with what foods do and do not mix well together from an enzymatic and digestive perspective. While I will not attempt to tackle the topic of food combining at this time, the other items listed above are sort of need-to-know information for anyone who is interested in juicing, or even for someone who has heard about it but isn’t sure they’re ready to try it yet.

The basic premise of juicing is this – there is a limit to the amount of food you can chew and eat. Juicing breaks down the outer cell wall of the plant and releases the inner ‘guts’ of the cell – the juice. It is here that most of the nutrients are to be found, and juicing allows you to consume these nutrients without having to eat the rest of the fruit or vegetable. The benefit of this is that you can increase your intake of vitamins, but not necessarily have to increase the amount of food you eat.

We all know that vitamins are ‘good for you’, but the reality is that we don’t usually have a great grasp on the relationship between our food and the nutrients it provides. In addition, every ‘new’ health study that someone publishes tells us something completely different. One week coffee is highly addictive (which it actually is) and is being touted as the worst food item for you and the next it’s the best cancer-killing agent out there. Another week broccoli becomes the item of choice – high in calcium and other phytonutrients. A few months later someone else will invariably publish a study saying that it has high levels of toxic mycoproteins that flangellate the insubriate pentarid of the upper gentarium ellipsoid. And since no one knows what the gentarium ellipsoid is, but the article makes it sound like having it flangellated is a really bad thing, everyone starts avoiding broccoli. But when it comes down do it, there seems to be very little new information about nutrition out there that would truly shock anyone who knows many of the basics.

Vitamins as a whole are required for your body to live. If you have a deficiency of any nutrient your body will attempt to compensate, but at some point in time you will get sick. The only way to correct this is by obtaining adequate quantities of that nutrient. I have talked to a good many people who are under the misconception that ‘eating a balanced diet’ is sufficient to obtain these nutrients at adequate doses. Due, in part, to our horrid farming practices as a nation, and the way in which we strip the soil of nutrients instead of replenishing them, as well as the on-demand sale of goods which causes us to pick fruit weeks and weeks early and pretend they are ripe, we eat low-nutrient foods. The density of vitamins and minerals increases as a fruit or vegetable ripens, and short-changing that natural ripening process cheapens the VALUE of the food even if it doesn’t alter the price.

One way to fix this is to take multivitamins, and depending on which one you take, this is a good idea. However, some of these vitamins were created artificially in a lab and the body is not able to utilize them in the same as if they were straight from nature. Other ingredients, such as certain kinds of calcium and iron, are not compounds the body has enzymes to digest, even if the label states that ‘calcium’ is in the product. This means that you have to be choosy not just about your food, but about your multivitamins. Juicing can help solve this problem.

Juicing does a few things all at once. By breaking the cell walls down, as mentioned above, it makes the nutrients readily available. Additionally, because the bulk of the cell walls are not there the body can consume a higher quantity of the juice (much of it is actually just water, which the body can process rapidly). The more juice, the more vitamins. Juicing ALSO causes enzymes to be released into the body in greater proportion. Enzymes are used for most chemical processes in the body, and the number of enzymes limits the quantity and speed that other functions in the body can take place, including digestion. Using the enzymes present in the juice, the body can actually digest and absorb other food even better than normal! Not only that, but the body is able to process foods in liquid form much more easily than solids due to the configuration of the digestive system. Thus, juicing leads to a higher rate of absorption even if the same quantity of nutrients were eaten by normal means. Finally, juicing causes a natural detoxification in the body, removing harmful substances that you didn’t even know were there.

As for who should juice – there are very few people who would be harmed by juicing. Those specialty cases are generally those who have severe hormone imbalances that are freak genetic events, caused by surgery or physically traumatic accidents, etc. This specific and limited group of people may lack certain abilities that a normal human body may possess that would allow for cell repair, and in their cases, depending on the nature of the injury, juicing could significantly worsen their condition, especially if they have a propensity towards toxicity of any vitamins. Diabetics are at risk with juicing, but those risks can be mitigated if done properly and depending on the type of diabetes. Type 1 diabetics simply do not have the insulin-producing capacity of a normal pancreas, and truthfully ought to consult an endocrinologist prior to any significant juicing, as this could seriously alter their body chemistry. Type 2 diabetics need to be careful, and also ought to consult a physician, but the risks are greatly reduced IF DONE PROPERLY.

What a Type 2 diabetic needs to know, which doctors will rarely ever tell you, is that Type 2 diabetes is actually curable. Type 2 diabetes is caused by insulin resistance at the cellular level, NOT by a lack of sufficient hormones produced by the pancreas. This is a dysfunction that is usually linked to obesity and other generalized overload of the body from toxic substances in our environment. Juicing, when done right, will cause the body to lose weight as well as remove these toxins from the body. As this occurs, the body will be able to heal itself, insulin resistance will reduce, and the body may simply cease to be diabetic any longer. While juicing is not a guarantee of this, it is a high likelihood. Type 2 diabetics must pay attention to the quantity of sugars they consume during their juicing process, and it is best if one juice-fasts instead of eating other foods as well, in order to both offset the blood sugar increases and to reduce calories faster (accelerating weight loss). This can be done by choosing juices that are heavy on vegetables but low on starchy vegetables. Fruits are not bad, contrary to popular belief, but it is important to closely monitor blood sugar during this process, and make adjustments to the juice ingredients as needed.

Supplements such as chromium (also chromium picolinate), cinnamon, and broken-cell-wall chlorella can help manage and reduce blood sugar, and can be used during a diabetic’s juicing process to help manage blood sugar levels. As always, this advice is not in any way to take the place of that of a licensed physician, but can be used to help you know what questions to ask. Keep in mind you may need to find a doctor that actually knows something about the subject, as this isn’t something that is really covered in medical school and like the rest of us, doctors are often guessing if they haven’t specifically learned about the subject.

Juicers themselves come in two main types, although there are a great number of companies out there. The two main types are masticating and centrifugal. Masticating juicers basically crush and slow-grind the ingredients in a manner that does not heat them up to the same temperature that centrifugal juicers do. This means they maintain a higher level of enzymes comparatively, as few enzymes are destroyed by the juicing process. This type of juicer is also nauseatingly slow and usually cannot juice large quantities. If someone is planning on juicing a glass or two at a time, and maybe is retired, or really dedicated, or has a ton of free time, or is paying someone else to do it, then a masticating juicer is really a fantastic idea. Even refrigerated, this juice will maintain its benefits longer than a centrifugal-juiced juice. Centrifugal juicers basically spin really fast and shred the food into tiny bits, spinning out the juice from the pulp. They work really fast and usually can juice large quantities of juice at one time. Due to the speed, they do destroy more enzymes than the masticating, but still provide far more benefit than not juicing at all. This juicer is great for those of us who want to be healthy but need to juice larger quantities of juice at one time and who don’t have an hour or more to give to the process every time they want a few glasses of juice. It will require a bit more produce than masticating, as masticating juicers often have slightly drier pulp due to better extraction, but I personally have never noticed a significant difference on a day-by-day basis on the amount of produce used.

Juicing and drinking immediately (read that as ‘drinking within 15 minutes of juicing’) generally will provide the highest benefit, but juicing and drinking within the next day or so will still be healthful. In my person opinion, after 2-3 days have passed you really need more fresh juice, but it is okay to juice a larger quantity and store some in the fridge. My wife and I both work and we don’t have the time (or if we do we aren’t willing to make the time) to juice each glass individually each time we are going to drink juice, so I usually juice a half-gallon at a time and we drink it over the course of about a day. As my wife is on a heavy juice-detox program right now, she is drinking the majority of that juice, and if both of us were drinking heavy quantities we might need closer to a gallon daily between us for our health goals.

We were discussing this the other night and decided to test it out to see what the difference in benefit was between fresh juice and day-old juice. I made some fresh juice and we decided to muscle-test it versus the rest of the juice we had from the day before still sitting in the fridge. Both juices tested positive for us, meaning that our bodies were stronger as a result of touching the juice, but the difference between the day-old and the fresh juice were noticeable! If nothing else, it has made a believer out of me for the juice-and-drink philosophy!

In the end, not everyone will find juicing is right for them. Some find it more expensive, although we have found that the more we juice, the less we spend in food costs. We shop smart to make that happen, but the end result is we pay less. Some will find they can’t or won’t make the time, and others still don’t have the ability due to lack of a juicer or inability to obtain one, or other social constraints which prevent them from juicing. Still others won’t, not for any of the above reasons, but because they are afraid to step out and try something new. If you have any interest in juicing whatsoever, or even just in better health, take that scary step. Borrow a juicer, pick one up at a yard sale, buy one off Craigslist at a discount, but give it a try. If you don’t like the recipes you’re using, try something different. Give juicing a fair attempt – not because juicing is worth it, but because you’re worth it.

And if you have had any success with it, have hints or tips for the rest of us, or even have questions, please comment and share. We’re all partial-experts, and when we share, we all grow.

They’re Not Your Thoughts

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Back in 2010 I spoke to a good friend (let’s call this friend Frank), who was having a tough time emotionally. Frank texted me about 10:30 because he was having some difficulty from a faith-perspective. But the story starts an hour or two earlier. He was at work and a coworker was having some pain. He thought “I should pray for her.” Then he thought. “But why should I? God wouldn’t answer ME.” Later, he saw a blind man at the train station. Same thoughts. These thoughts got him thinking. “Why am I thinking this? Do I really believe that? I mean, why do I believe that God won’t answer me? Is my faith really that shaky? What is wrong with me” He really started spiraling downward emotionally at that point, and was having a really rough time. That was when he texted me.

We texted back and forth a little, I made a suggestion, and that was about it until he called me about an hour later. We talked, and all ended well. But I’ll share with you all what I told him at that time.

There are times you have thoughts. And there are times that the enemy gives you thoughts. The problem comes only when you think that their thoughts are your thoughts. They’re not your thoughts.

You see, the enemy likes to be tricky. They will put thoughts in your head and then when you start thinking about those things they PUT there, they will accuse you (again, making it sound to you like your own thoughts), of thinking those things. Could be as simple as “I don’t have faith.” “God doesn’t love me”, or something more specific, such as thoughts of anger, rape, abuse, violence, stealing, or some other malevolent idea. It really doesn’t matter what the thought is, because it isn’t yours. When they can get you to believe that YOU thought it, then they will accuse you of being a sinner, dirty, evil, etc. And the thing is, it works. They tend to get you to blame yourself for their ideas.

There is another way. In fact, it’s the way that I texted and then later suggested to Frank. But it all hinges on one point: Any thought that begins with an incorrect premise from a Kingdom perspective is an illegal thought. In Frank’s case, the illegal thought was “God won’t do it for me.” He didn’t need to think ANY further than that, because it is a lie. How do you know it’s a lie? Simply, the Bible SAYS it’s a lie. “God is no respecter of persons”. It’s in there somewhere. I could even look it up for you and tell you where, but that would keep you from having to do it yourself ^_^.

I’m not necessarily known for my copious amounts of Bible-reading. But I do know a lot of what it says, and knowing it comes in handy in times like these. If you know what God is saying about you, then you really don’t need to give the lies of the enemy any further thought. When the enemy plants lies in your head, what you need to do is send the liar away, and choose to focus on something that is true (preferably in opposition to the lie). Satan is a liar and the Father of lies (you can look that verse up too!), so we know that it is a normal part of the enemy’s schemes to do this. We know that God is the Father of Heavenly Lights in whom there is no twisting or turning of shadows. We know that God does not change. We know that in Him there is no darkness, but rather He is Light. With all of this said, there is nothing that God is hiding from you. There is nothing He is keeping from you. That was the lie the enemy told Adam and Eve in the Garden. It’s not a new tactic.

Why am I sharing all this? Not to depress you, and there is no condemnation if this has happened to you (Hint: We have all been there at least once, and I multiples upon multiples of times). Simply learn it and be protected for the next time. If you GIVE IN to the lies, the enemy takes it step further. What does this look like? Well, what happened to Frank? He started wallowing in the lie. He gave in to the lie and took it into his heart and let it become truth to him, if only for an hour or two. What then happened was that his heart sank. His emotions gave way to the lie, and he began to sink. He was struggling for a while before it got dealt with, too. This is why it is important to cut it off early. If you feed the lie, it will take root within you and grow.

But even if it DOES take root and grow, God is always more powerful, and will remove the deception. The easiest way is to choose to rule over your emotions at that moment in time. It’s not an easy thing to do, but anyone can do it if they choose. Hear this: It is a conscious choice to rule over the emotions. Everyone is capable of this. You simply have to choose to do so. You are not incapable; you are not bound. You have the freedom to choose to do it. You just might not want to, and it becomes difficult the more you feed the negative emotions. You must choose at that point to focus on the Truth that you didn’t think about earlier. You must repeat that truth to yourself. Even command your emotions to fall in line with the Truth of God. You must choose that regardless of how you feel, your emotions are based in a lie, and therefore will no longer have power over you. It is a thought, an idea. It’s not a feeling. You must overcome those feelings with your thoughts. It’s a pain, I know. But it’s really the only solution that I’m aware of that you can do that will solve it. I know I’m repeating myself, but I’m belaboring this point for a reason. I want you to get it, and I want you to use it ^_^

Well, after Frank called and we talked, I shared all of this with him, and I declared truth over him. It solved the problem right then and there. Because Frank wasn’t able to fix it himself that time (I think partly because he didn’t know what I’m sharing here until I told him), he had to get help. He did, and he’s fine. But because he couldn’t fix it himself, he had to wait a couple hours, all the while sinking deeper, until he could get set free. One of the things I told him was that I used to always call my friend/mentor Diane when I had a problem or spiritual warfare issue. At some point in time, however, I realized that I couldn’t depend on her to fight my battles for me. I had to be strong enough to do it myself. I had to be able to stand firm when no one else was around, no one else was praying, and the only person I could depend on is the Person of the Holy Spirit. If you are stuck in this sort of thing, there ARE other ways to get out of the rut, and they involve other people. But if there isn’t anyone else… what are you going to do? Stay stuck?

The fact is that you are MORE than a conqueror, you are a overcomer, the SAME SPIRIT that raised Jesus from the dead lives IN you, and he has filled you with POWER by this spirit. You are the head, not the tail, above and not beneath, and you have been seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus, who is far above all principalities and powers, and who disarmed them a long time ago and made a public spectacle and display of them by nailing them to the cross. There’s much more I could say, but you can read it in the Bible just as easily as I can type it out for you to read.

This was a good reminder for me too. I got to share something with Frank that will help him in the future, but it also reminded me of this particular tactic of the enemy, which I am sure will be useful for me as well. Demons are liars. Don’t listen to them, don’t feed their lies. Know what the Father says about you, and live by it. Regardless of your circumstances, they don’t dictate God, and they don’t dictate the reality of His children as a result. If HE says it’s true, then it is, and if HE says it’s a lie, then it is. Be strong in the power of His might, stand firm against the schemes of the enemy. And remember: They’re not your thoughts.

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Wait Just A Little Longer

Yesterday was a little different than usual for me – I worked a half-shift instead of a full shift and had the afternoon free. I had to stop by a friend’s house to pick up our share of raw milk from a farm co-op we belong to. This couple, my wife and I, and one or two other people have formed our own ‘church’, and we fellowship every Tuesday night over dinner and an episode of “Marvel: Agents of Shield.” From time to time the agenda will change and we will end up doing something else for the evening, but both regularly and impromptu we gather in each others’ homes, break bread together, and simply BE the Body of Christ.

While I was there this afternoon, the wife of the couple (we’ll call her “Kay”) and I took a few spontaneous moments to pray for her as she and her husband are assisting with an important event this weekend from their ‘Normal’ church. We stood by the kitchen counter and simply held hands wordlessly, receiving and releasing God’s Presence and Love into the matter. While doing this we chatted some, but spent a large part of that time silent, enjoying and seeking God silently in our hearts.

After a few minutes of this, I was ‘ready’ to be done praying, but Kay hadn’t let go. I could have simply moved my hands away, but something about the situation kept me from stopping – and it’s good that I did. In that moment I made a conscious choice to wait just a little longer. I decided in my heart not to simply pray for her, but to also let God’s love and peace well up in me. I chose to cease being simply a conduit from God-to-Kay and instead become a vessel willing and ready to be filled. As I did this, I could feel my own internal atmosphere begin to shift, as well as the air space directly around my body. It took on a sort of gentle energy-filled state, almost like being in a small breeze or suddenly surrounded by a peaceful current of water. This is what the presence of Holy Spirit often feels like to me – a gentle moving and subtle shifting of the atmosphere right around me.

As I gave in to this feeling, letting God be God and I being open to His goodness, things started to happen. Kay mentioned to me that she had been having wrist pain and stiffness over the past few days that had appeared somewhat suddenly and was becoming troublesome. I began to pray over the wrist and command all demon spirits to leave, when Kay suddenly coughed – a common occurrence when demons leave the body, and a good sign of success. After praying for a few more minutes and doing a little more spiritual work on her body, her wrist was significantly better, with only the last remnants of the pain and stiffness remaining.

Right as we finished praying, her right ear started to get stopped up and her hearing diminished, and her left ear which has been having this problem for weeks suddenly worsened. Being no stranger to the activity of demons, this was clearly the work of spirits attempting to find another place to afflict. We moved to the ears next, and I placed my hands on the sides of her head. We both continued with this wordless soaking-type prayer as my right hand began to vibrate and tremor as God’s power started touching her ears.

When we finished praying for her ears, her right ear was restored and her left ear far better than it had been for some time. And then one of her housemates, “Sarah”, came down on her way to a prayer gathering at another church. We took about 2 minutes, as she needed to get out the door, to pray for her and decree more of Heaven into her life, and then we all headed out to finish our own errands for the day. Each of us left touched by God in some way, filled up and strengthened for whatever tasks lay ahead.

As I pondered this event – something simple and spontaneous yet impacting, I realized that there was more to this than the immediate event. I felt God speaking to my heart about a message for many in this time. We all go through situations in life where we need to be encouraged or strengthened and where we need a touch from Heaven. Some of those times we pray and receive the answer and other times we go away disappointed. Other times we keep on and continue to pray and seek and ask and knock, knowing that God’s Word says that ‘everyone who asks will receive, he who seeks will find, and to him who knocks the door will be opened.’

There are many of us right now who have been asking and seeking, some even begging for God to do certain things. The answers have not come, and we’re ready to stop, possibly give up, and move on. In the same way that I was getting ready to finish praying but the job wasn’t done, I needed to come back and take a fresh look at things. For everyone who is getting ready to give up, to stop praying, stop seeking, stop asking, and stop knocking, now is a time to press through. Now is a time to come back to a place of centering on Him and His goodness and letting him not just manifest through you, but also to FILL you. DO NOT GIVE UP!!

For as surely as the rain comes in due season, so will the rain of heaven pour itself upon your life. In every area that you have been asking for God to come and touch, He will come and fill it. Continue to press through, even after you feel like you can’t do it anymore. Return to the Lord in your heart that times of refreshing would come. Wait on him once more, wait just a little longer. For “Your breakthrough shall come” says the Lord. “I am not a liar, that I should say one thing one moment and another the next. No, all the promises I have given you are ‘yes’ and ‘amen’ in my Son Jesus Christ. Continue to seek ME – look to Me and you will find your rest and peace – a rest and peace which will carry you into the next season full of joy and singing. Yes, you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace. The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you in singing and the trees shall clap their hands.”