When Chest Pain Becomes Paranoid Delusions, Demonic Voices, and Suicide

I recently had a patient who came in to the hospital for chest pain. But it turned out that his chest pain wasn’t a heart problem—or any problem, really. It was temporary, and brought on by sheer panic. Why? Because the voices in his head were threatening him, making him paranoid, delusional, and suicidal—all of which we only discovered after all of the cardiac tests came back completely negative. And once we did discover this, we began to monitor him for suicide because in that moment he was at very high risk for self-harm.

The truth is that he really didn’t want to hurt himself. It’s just that the constant threats from the voices in his head were tormenting and he reasoned that if he killed himself first then they wouldn’t be able to carry out their threats. His logical reasoning is highly flawed but at least understandable—and to be fair when someone is under that level of torment in their consciousness their ability to use logical reasoning definitely is reduced.

Now, when it comes to mental health there are usually a few basic categories most Christians fall under. First there are the “it’s just chemicals in the brain misfiring” people, and these believers usually also don’t believe in miracles or divine healing or almost any of the other things that set Christians apart from every other belief system.

The second group are the “it’s just demons” people who ignore all information to the contrary and if someone is hearing voices then the only options is demonic influence. Now this group at least recognizes that demons are real, and can cause or contribute to mental health problems, but there are some huge limitations they hit, such as further traumatizing already damaged people when the “demons” don’t leave because the fact is that not every mental health problem is a demon.

There is a third, growing category of people who recognize that not all voices in the head are demons or simply the result of chemicals, but the result of a fracturing of the human soul into different pieces and that while sometimes the voices can be demonic, sometimes they are other portions of someone’s soul they are hearing. These parts cannot be cast out, nor should they be, as they aren’t “another being” any more than one’s left leg is considered separate from the rest of one’s body. What they need is to be healed (To learn more about this, read “An Introduction To Soul Fragmentation”).

I talked to this man to find out a little more about him and what he was dealing with, as it can be very helpful to get an idea of what someone’s suicide plan is, and asked him if the voices were telling him to hurt himself. Quite often they are, and the voices create a very high level of internal pressure upon the person carry out whatever they are saying. In this case they were just threatening him, although the level of internal pressure sounded similarly high as compared to other situations. He didn’t tell me anything specific they were saying, but he made it clear that he didn’t really want to hurt himself but he was afraid of what they would do to him and he was just wanting to protect himself from them. If the man were given an official diagnosis (which at some point he was), he would likely be diagnosed with paranoid delusions, auditory hallucinations, and suicidal ideation, or something along those lines.

This man and I spoke briefly about what he was experiencing, but the next thing he said to me I found most interesting, and it was very telling as to what we were dealing with. He told me that ever since I walked into the room the voices had gotten quieter. He described it as though they were further away, like they had been pushed off in the distance, and were quieter and harder to hear as a result. Now, as I explained before there are mental health problems that *aren’t* demons, but in this case it became instantly clear that demons is *exactly* what we were dealing with.

I am certain that someone far more spiritual than I would have commanded them all to leave right then and the man would have been set free instantly and then gone about the rest of his life, but I didn’t do that. Why? Because in the medical field there isn’t an official diagnosis of “demonization.” After I cast demons out of a patient and I get asked about the “nursing intervention” I just performed, my Bible-verse-laced explanation of why I dealt with spiritual reality the way I did simply won’t cut it. What it would actually look like is that I took advantage of a vulnerable person with mental health problems to push my spiritual beliefs on them. Thus, unless my goal is to get fired and risk losing my license then I’m a bit limited in what I can and cannot reasonably do when I am at work in these kinds of situations. Which certainly can be a point of frustration for me because let’s be honest—in this instance demons were 100% the primary problem. So, I did the next best thing.

I decided to expose them. I told the man that those voices are lying to him, that they have no power over him, and that they are incapable of hurting him. I shared that any time he starts getting upset or anxious about what they are telling him to remind himself that they are lying and that all they can do is talk. In some situations can demons do more than just talk? Sure. But in this case it seemed pretty apparent that all they could do was threaten him enough to try and get *him* to come into agreement with their plans and purposes. Every time I saw him for the remainder of the day I made sure to tell him that everything was going to be okay and that he was safe.

I’m not sure how it is in other countries, but often in the US we have a stigma about mental health disorders. Sure, sometimes it can be chemical imbalances in the brain. Sometimes it is demons. Sometimes it is demons that are also causing chemical imbalances. Sometimes its alternate personalities and/or soul fragmentation at work. Sometimes it is all of the above or any combination thereof. At the end of the day most people with mental health problems want to feel safe, loved, and normal. They don’t like feeling like the “crazy weirdo” even if they fully realize that’s where they’re at right then. The internal stimuli and the pressure that it creates adds a whole new level of stress upon someone that is simply invisible to the external world, and that can be very difficult to deal with.

When someone has a broken bone everyone can look at the cast or sling or stabilization boot and see that someone has a problem. When something in your mind is broken, whether chemically, demonically, or through trauma and fracturing of the soul, we largely write it off as “their problem” and expect people to just “be different” and fix themselves. Broken bones often require surgery and involved medical care. But it’s considered socially acceptable and we make all kinds of allowances for it. Mental health doesn’t get that same consideration, partly because it is really hard to prove that is the problem and partly because “time off work” and “rest and elevation” don’t fix soul-based problems. The primary solution for problems of the soul is actually you and me—believers who know that Jesus came to bind up the broken hearted, to set captives free, and to bring us into total wholeness. It isn’t good enough to just have head knowledge if we never use it, and it isn’t helpful to have authority over all powers of darkness if we never bother to exercise it. But that’s why that’s our job—to set the captives free, to make disciples, to cast out demons, heal the sick, and do all of the other things Jesus commanded us to do. Because if we don’t do it, who will?

Renewing the Vows with a Miracle Ring

At the end of last year I was at a Love After Marriage seminar/workshop to work on my marriage. While that doesn’t sound like great news, the truth is that from time to time in marriages we all run into problems—whether expected ones, unexpected ones, or ongoing persistent ones we just aren’t sure how to fix or get past. Sometimes newlyweds go to one simply so they can get a head start on having a healthy marriage, which is a great plan too. The workshop this weekend was pretty awesome, and God did a lot of really stunning things for everyone present. And while I could probably share so many different little things that God did, oneof a few stories in particular stuck out to me which I will share here.

After working through a lot of difficulty and getting major breakthrough through the course of the 3.5 day workshop, one couple decided to renew their wedding vows. Prior to this weekend they had been divorced once, remarried each other, and were heading down the same path of this-isn’t-working all over again. But God did something spectacular.

The ministry couple leading the event had them come up on stage (there were about 40 people present in total) to renew their vows, and even had a few audience members stand in as “best man” and “matron of honor”—but there was one small hiccup in the process. The wife didn’t have her wedding ring on and for whatever reason couldn’t find it. Oops.

But God.

The moment I heard her say “I don’t have a ring,” I suddenly knew I had the solution. I was wearing a simple metal ring with an ornamental design on it that was either a leaf or a feather depending on what the viewer thinks it is. I bought the ring a number of years prior and the moment I heard her say she needed a ring, I knew in my spirit that this one would fit her. I brought it up front, she tried it on, and it fit perfectly. During the short but very-cool ceremony (thrown together in under 5 actual minutes of time), a few people prophesied over the couple, so I decided to come up and explain the significance of the ring.

I had bought it an unknown number of years ago as a reminder to pray for miracles—and specifically miracles such as those that I write about in some of my books—gemstones, feathers, and one in particular I have been asking the Lord for, the manifestation of leaves from the Tree of Life. To me, this ring fitting her and being part of this moment of restoration signified that God was not only doing a miracle-work in their marriage, but that He was releasing a new measure of His life into it as well. I felt blessed that something so seemingly simple, giving someone a ring, could have so many levels of significance, and all of it was prepared in advance by our Heavenly Dad who cares so much more about us and our needs than we have any concept. He prepared the right ring years in advance so at the right time and in the right place it would fill its designated purpose—to help a couple enjoy the renewal of the lifelong work that He plans to do in and through them.

The brief ceremony was really special, and it was evident that God had done a work in both of their hearts to reconnect, reignite, and reinstate what the enemy had meant for their destruction. God is so kind, and so good!

If you are having marriage struggles, just want deeper intimacy with your spouse, or want to develop a healthier family culture, I can’t recommend Love After Marriage enough. Run by Nothing Hidden Ministries, they are all about helping people build the healthy, godly families God has planned for us. Whether dealing with problems, learning practical tools to bring the Holy Spirit into the midst of any conflicts, heal past hurts, or develop healthier relationships, this ministry has seen it all and God has used them to heal and restore hurting and broken families around the world. You don’t have to have earth-shattering problems (although they can help those too)—you just have to want to have a better marriage than you do right now, and God will show up and meet you. If you are married I encourage you to follow the link and sign up for a Workshop today (they have Single Life workshops as well!). Click to visit Nothing Hidden Ministries.

Living out the “As We Go” Mission

My checked bag had gotten misplaced on the trip home from Peru, somewhere in-between Iquitos and Los Angeles—so when I arrived in Austin I filed a claim for lost luggage, then went home. The next evening I got a message telling me that not only had it arrived in Austin just a short time ago, but that someone was driving the almost-hour to my house to deliver it to me!

I live on a highway in the country, but during the night it is very hard to find—partly because you can’t even see my house from the road and partly because the speed limit is 60mph so unless you know where to stop, you’re probably going to miss it in the dark. Knowing this, and wanting to actually get my luggage back, I drove to the end of the lane, parked just inside the gate, then walked to the road so the delivery driver could see me.

I had gotten a series of texts that included a literal GPS tracker so I could reload the page and see in real-time where the driver was. Technology is a bit over-the-top these days, to be honest, but in this case it made things a little easier. Traffic was minimal at 10-something at night so I saw the driver slow-roll past my lane and then put his hazards on and stop. He was clearly trying to figure out where to turn, but he spun around, saw me, and pulled in. According to the app the driver’s name was Wasiu, and he was a pleasant man, who greeted me by saying “God bless you” for making it easier for him to find the place. We briefly spoke as he returned my bag from the airline, and then I began to walk back to the gate to get in my van and drive back to the house.

As he was about to pull away and my back was turned to him, the Holy Spirit spoke a word to my heart so I quickly turned around and ran to Wasiu’s car to stop him before he drove off. What I said to him was a single sentence, a very simple message the Holy Spirit had dropped into my spirit moments before. All I said was:

“God wants you to know He has heard your prayers and He is going to answer them.”

He had started to drive off but he stopped the car, parked it, and got out, then shook my hand, thanking me profusely for telling him that. I have no idea what he had been praying for and I didn’t ask, but it was clearly very important to him and the prophetic word landed where it needed to.

Sometimes I think we expect that ministry needs to look super-special in some way. In fact, that moment of delivering a timely word was as much “ministry” as the almost 2-week Peru Overseas Missions trip I had just arrived home from the day prior. We can clearly point to mission trips and church services and outreach events as “ministry” but the fact is that “ministry” doesn’t always have to look spooky or special. Sometimes it looks like sharing a timely word to your lost-baggage delivery driver at 10:00 at night as he is about to leave. The “as we go” command of Mark 16:15 really is about “as we go.” I’m not saying we can’t have times of intentional ministry because those are important too, but we must make sure that our ministry times aren’t only the times we specifically set aside to do it. “As we go” is a lifestyle choice, and everyone can (and should) do it. We are Sons and Daughters wherever we go, and Kingdom authority is present within us everywhere we are, which means that “as we go”, so goes the Kingdom. Our job is to help “your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” but it won’t happen by accident—so let’s go!

Taking Homeless Drug Addicts to Dinner

One of the things I love about going on mission trips with Overseas Missions is that we just don’t do what is expected of us. Most short term mission trips seem to involve preaching at churches, building something for people, and/or feeding the poor. All of these are good and have their place, but they’re sort of the norm. Instead, while there are definitely some specific plans, there is also a lot of freedom with OM for us to be ourselves and just do what we feel led to do. This means that in Peru one of the guys paid for over 1,700 ice cream cones over two days to give free ice cream to the people of Belen. It was unplanned, but when he talked about it on social media, a bunch of his rich not-saved-yet friends decided they want to do that in the future when they go traveling overseas as well—which they do yearly. Expanding the Kingdom can look like church meetings and salvations, but sometimes it looks like we don’t expect it to. Which is why we took a bunch of drug addicts and homeless men and women to dinner.

When the plan was first shared with the locals, we invited a number of people who our local contact there would regularly minister to in a drug hole—a place where the locals would come and buy and use drugs, eventually passing out, having their stuff stolen, and all kinds of other unseemly acts while under the influence. Normally the later the night got the more of this would occur. After finishing up with a medical clinic, we began making the invitations and walking to the restaurant, a good twelve blocks from where we had done the clinic. While at first there were about 15 people going with us, by the time we arrived that turned into about 30 people. And keep in mind, this wasn’t the kind of thing that is easy to budget for—not because Overseas Missions lacks the ability to plan, but because God is into radical generosity and if Jesus didn’t turn away 5,000 men (not including women and children) after he preached to them, we’re not going to turn away a few extra people at a restaurant, even if we aren’t sure we have the money for it (and when all was said and done, a number of generous people saw about it on social media and paid for the whole meal).

One of the things that made this such a big deal is that some of these people have never eaten in a restaurant like this. And keep in mind we aren’t talking some kind of 20-star American restaurant that charges $1000 a plate. We’re talking about the kinds of places you and I might eat at with our family or friends without really even batting an eye at the price. As a kid I used to think that Red Lobster and Olive Garden were these majorly upscale establishments and when I got older I realized they’re literally just normal restaurants. Well, imagine visiting the Peruvian equivalent of a normal American restaurant, but this time you’re a homeless drug addict with no money and you’ve never eaten at one before. For some of our guests, this was a big deal—and that was our goal.

You see, one of the things about carrying the labels that we give people, even some of the ones I’m using in this article—“homeless” and “drug addict”—is that in our minds it devalues people so we offer them less respect and mentally we remove value from them. By inviting these men and women to be our guests, we are giving people honor who receive none. Just being seen walking with us and the restaurant being unable to turn them away because they are with us gives them a huge boost in confidence and respect. And that was a big part of our goal. We wanted these men and women to understand that they, as sons and daughters of the King, have value and are worthy of dignity, honor, and respect.

So, as we sat down to the meal, we told them exactly that. We ate in “family-style” dining where we have large plates of food we serve off of instead of individually-ordered meals, and we explained that we were doing this because each one of us, whether American or Peruvian, is a son or daughter of God. That regardless of whether someone decides they want to know God more after this meal or if they simply want to enjoy a free meal that they can know that we are celebrating them and honoring them as God’s children. And that as the one worldwide family of the One True God that we are eating the way families do. Finally, we thanked them for honoring us with their presence by joining us, then we prayed over the food, and we all ate together.

One of the really cool things I got to personally observe is the way the culture of the Kingdom spreads little by little. Jesus once explained to the disciples that they were to beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod because yeast is the sort of thing that once it gets into bread begins to spread throughout the entire loaf without someone even always recognizing it. Well, our Father’s Kingdom is much the same, and where His Kingdom begins to be made manifest, it spreads. One example of this I saw during the meal is that the man next to me had his face continually down to his plate and he was practically inhaling his food. The guy was clearly quite hungry and was committed to eating, which was cool because we wanted them to be well-fed. The man sitting across from me noticed his water glass was empty, so he took it upon himself to fill my neighbor’s water glass. This sounds like such a little thing but we have to keep in mind that these men and women are used to a certain level of “every man for himself.” When they are able to feel secure, knowing there is more than enough, they become free to serve one another freely, and this was simple evidence of that.

Sometimes we are looking for the big flashy miracles and the massive meetings where we can show our friends that thousands of people said a prayer to follow Jesus. But big and flashy isn’t always what God is after. Jesus sometimes went out of his way to offend people so those who were just waiting for flashy stuff to happen and weren’t serious would stop following him. Spreading the Gospel of the Kingdom sometimes looks like big meetings and flashy miracles. But sometimes it looks like taking a homeless addict to dinner—one who very well may be high as a kite while he’s eating. But that’s okay. Because Jesus didn’t come to those who have no need of Him, but to those who were desperately in need of His goodness, kindness, and love. And we, the Body of Christ, are His hands and feet.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” (Matthew 25:31-40)

Finding Gold in the Dust

One of the things we did in Peru 2023 was to hold medical clinics. In fact, one of the things Overseas Missions has done on many of their trips is to hold medical clinics as an outreach method. We give people actual medical treatment to the extent we can, then we send everyone to our prayer team to get prayer, and, no exaggeration, almost everyone walks away healed. As the saying goes, people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Taking time to meet people’s practical physical needs goes a long way to show that we care about people, which then creates an opportunity to minister God’s love to them. For us, this isn’t just notches in a belt where we can pat ourselves on the back and feel we “accomplished something for God.” In fact, this approach is one of the things I love about how Overseas Missions does things because it really is all about people and sharing God’s heart for them, not about being able to show a church group nice pictures after the fact to get more funding. It’s all about finding the gold in the dust—and God demonstrated that to me during our clinics in a unique manner.

As a nurse, I am quite happy to use my existing skills and training to help create ministry opportunities. Even if we didn’t do clinics I’d still go on these trips, but this is one way I can give back that not everyone is able to, and as an outreach method there is little that compares to it. I remember in 2018 I was in India on a similar trip and because we were doing these clinics we were visited by hundreds of locals who otherwise would have passed by but never stopped for prayer. After all, most residents of India believe in gods of some kind, so unless we do something unique they don’t really know why they should care about our God as compared to the ones they already follow. One woman from that trip even told a team member, “You have loved me more than my gods ever have.” That’s the God-kind of love and that’s what these trips are about. Now, back to the clinics.

Little about these clinics is glamorous. We have bags full of medicine and vitamins, some reference books, an extremely limited number of resources with which to assess patients, and we have our eyes, hands, and stethoscopes. We sit on plastic chairs, have our medicines laid out on dusty wooden tables and benches, and people make lines in literal dirt and dust to be seen. And yet, time and time again, every time I would look at people’s skin for rashes, parasites, fungal infections, or any other gnarly thing they needed help with, their skin always had gold dust all over it.

Every.

Single.

Time.

It was ridiculous.

This is how amazing God is and how He does things far differently than we do. God’s economy is not man’s economy.

Now, I didn’t check everyone’s skin, but for those I did, in the trash-filled, slummy, muddy, poor, dusty, dirty, overlooked area of Belen, Iquitos that we visited, all of them God had covered with His golden glory. It was really obvious too. The first one I saw was on a man who had this odd rash around his neck and shoulder area. He wasn’t the kind of guy who uses sparkly makeup and skin lotion either—he was a dude who lived in a poor area and wasn’t about to waste money on that kind of stuff, and certainly he wouldn’t use it as a treatment for a skin rash. It surprised me so much that I had the other nurse and our translator look at it as well. But it didn’t stop there, or with him. A kid with Ringworm? It was a kid with ringworm covered in a thin layer of gold dust. Unidentified rashes? They were unidentified and yet covered in a light dusting of golden glory.

The one that surprised me the most, and I tell this story in detail in this article, was the woman who had a tumor on her ankle, and the intensity of the gold dust on her tumor-covered ankle was the most of anyone I had seen the entire time we were there.

I will be meditating on this in the future to truly understand what God was saying and doing here because I don’t think I truly have grasped the depths of what He wants to show me in this particular way He manifested His presence. And I don’t say this because the gold dust miracle is new to me, because it isn’t. I will eventually publish, possibly even later this year, a book called Gold from Heaven that will discuss this miracle. But there is something specific and unique about this time and place that God chose to do it and I hope to gain better understanding of it. But for whatever the reason that God decided to show His glory off in this manner it was spectacular.

You see, I love this miracle, but I wasn’t asking for it. We had been praying for the sick and the injured to be healed all week long, not for gold dust to appear on their blemished skin. He WAS been healing almost everyone we prayed for, but this both delighted me and caught me off-guard because it seemed so pointless and was so beautiful all at the same time. Like I said before, God’s economy isn’t man’s economy and the way He does things is so different than our methods. We are always looking for some specific way that the miracle is going to “preach the gospel” and if we can’t point to how it gets people to say a sinner’s prayer or get miraculously healed or some such thing then we tend to reason that it can’t be God or that He must be confused somehow because we have ideas of what God really cares about and none of these unique miracles make the list. But God is interested in removing our limitation thinking, not operating inside of it just to keep us happy. Furthermore, God isn’t limited to either healing the sick or manifesting gold dust as detractors tend to think. No, the Creator of the entire cosmos who spoke creation into being with a single word is more than capable of doing both and tons more at the same time.

I was excited to see what God did at these clinics, through all of the Peru 2023 trip, and what He will continue to do in the future. He is continuing to teach us new things and transform our ideas of who He is and what He is like, I firmly believe that we must learn to experience His opulence in these kinds of ways, whether things like finding gold in the dust of poor slums that far outshine our idea of extravagance or in other ways that He chooses to reveal His goodness, there is one thing that is certain in all of this. Jesus is alive and He will stop at nothing to display His love and goodness to all of us!

Training a Son of Our Father To Heal the Sick

One of the things we did in Peru 2023 with Overseas Missions was hold medical clinics, which, being a nurse, I play a role in. The clinic process usually involves seeing patients, assessing their needs, giving medications where possible, then sending the problem list (written on a piece of paper with their name) to the prayer team to pray for the problems. The results are pretty fantastic—almost everyone who goes through the clinic and gets prayer gets healed. Because we are in a non-English-speaking country, however, that means we have to use translators because most of the team doesn’t speak the local language which, on this trip, was Spanish. Our leader made some arrangements with locals he is in relationship with, and one of the translators, Jonathan, was the son of a local Iquitos pastor.

He did a fabulous job translating for us the entire time we were in Peru. And although Jonathan was a pastor’s son, he wasn’t accustomed to praying for the sick (to be fair, I am the son of an Episcopal priest and I wasn’t raised to pray for the sick either). So, while most of what the nurses in the clinic did was identify and treat physical problems and send people to the prayer team, I had a few times I felt the Holy Spirit nudge me to have us pray—so mostly I had Jonathan do it. He was uncomfortable at first (he told me, but it was pretty obvious even if he hadn’t said anything), but he did great and was willing to push himself out of his comfort zone. It probably helped a bit that for everyone he prayed for, their pain gradually left as well, so he could see the results of his prayers in real-time.

Now, when it comes to praying for the sick, I have a bit of a mental algorithm I go through in my head while talking to the Holy Spirit and just trying to be generally aware to spiritually discern what God is saying and doing, so I made sure to tell Jonathan my process, and I’ll share that here as well.

First, when it comes to heal the sick I begin with a prayer of command. Something simple like, “All pain, leave now in the name of Jesus.” You see, in Matthew 28:18-19 Jesus told his disciples that He had received all authority in heaven and earth, then delegated the disciples to go and exercise that authority on His behalf. So, when praying for the sick the first thing I do is engage my authority and release power to heal, and expect it to be done in faith. Then, where possible, I have the person test it out and see if they can tell a difference.

After praying, one of three things will happen: it will get better, get worse, or stay the same (or they may not be able to tell, so in that case I assume it has remained the same).

If it gets worse, it’s a demon, so then I cast out demons.
If it gets better but not all-better then God is actively healing them in that moment and I pray again.
If it stays the same then I pray again because even Jesus prayed twice (Mark 8:22-25).
And if it gets all-better then they’re healed. Give them a hug and let them know God loves them.

The rest of the prayer session tends to continue in a similar manner, with me praying then identifying what is happening, then adjusting from there. If we hit blockages where nothing is happening after praying multiple times or if they have been gradually getting healed and it stops, then I cast out demons. Once I have done that if it still plateaus, then I am talking to the Holy Spirit to see if there are emotional issues or curses or something else that are interfering with what we are praying, deal with that issue, then ideally go back to my prayer process again until they are fully healed.

Since Jonathan eventually plans to be a doctor anyway, I taught him this algorithm to him since it’s largely based on how I problem-solve as a nurse anyway, and figured it would be a good fit for him. Then, as we prayed for people, I coached him through the process, asking him what he saw, what he thought we should do next, etc. Finally, in keeping with the prayer of power and authority, I continued to remind him that he is a son of the Most High God and that Sons of the Kingdom don’t ask for creation to obey us—we command it to.

We practiced this healing prayer process both during the clinics infrequently with patients and also at a few healing prayer services we did while in Iquitos. While praying together, Jonathan and I saw God heal blindness, deafness, and a number of other less-problematic conditions, but the last patient we saw on the last clinic day was a pretty special circumstance that beat out all of those.

On the final day of the clinic, we spoke to a young woman who’s main complaint was knee pain. Seeing that she was the last patient, I had Jonathan pray for her, and the pain left instantly. After praying for her knee and giving her antiparasitics for her family, vitamins, and some other medications, I observed that her ankle looked really strange, something she hadn’t mentioned anything about. It looked at first glance like she had broken it sometime in the past and it had healed very poorly, as it was swollen and misshapen. Upon asking her, it turned out that she had an ankle tumor. I mean, I would have led with that, but people can be funny.

Now, while I inspected her ankle I noticed something that was impossible to miss because of how glaringly obvious it was. This young woman’s ankle and the tumor on it were absolutely covered in gold dust! We had seen other patients in the clinics and everyone whose skin we inspected for a skin problem had supernatural gold dust on their skin problem, but on this woman’s ankle it was thicker and just more somehow. I showed Jonathan and then showed the woman—and explained it was a miracle from heaven (milagro de cielo) and a sign that God wanted to heal her body. With that, we began to pray.

As you can probably guess, I had Jonathan pray for her. I began by having her rate her pain and move her ankle so we could observe how much range of motion she had (another way to evaluate change when healing the sick). Jonathan liked to pray long, flowery prayers with a bunch of “Father Gods” thrown in there so I told him to pray a super short prayer this time. I had him say “Pain, leave in the name of Jesus.” He prayed, and some of the pain left. After praying she said it felt like something was “grabbing her ankle,” so I had him command “Demon get out and all swelling go in the name of Jesus.” He did, the demon left, the rest of the pain went, and as we continued to take turns praying over the next few minutes, the swelling visibly reduced to about half the size! Her pain was gone, and her range of motion in the ankle had improved significantly.

We had to close up right after this as it was getting dark, or I would have continued to pray more because God was actively healing this woman’s body and removing the tumor and its effects! And while I preferred to continue praying, I could also trust that God would continue the work that He had started to begin with. After all, covering her tumor in gold dust wasn’t my idea—it was His. This precious woman was crying by the time we were done because she could tell that God was touching her body. It was so beautiful to see her moved by God’s gift to her, and I simply extended my faith in trust that God would finish the work over the next few days.

That miracle was pretty awesome, but almost as awesome to me was helping train up another Son of our Father to heal the sick and destroy works of darkness. After all, if in a week’s time Jonathan saw the sick healed, blindness and deafness healed, and he even saw a tumor shrink at his prayer of command, what else is possible when partnering as a Son with our Heavenly Father? Nothing is impossible with God!

Healing the Bora Chief

During my time in Peru with Overseas Missions, we spent a day on a tributary of the Amazon. We saw some cool animals (sloths, crocodiles, weird turtles, macaques, and more), swam in the river, and toward the end of the day we stopped by a village of the mostly-indigenous Bora people. Their chief, Walter, was quite the clever businessman, and their actual village was a 4-minute walk away, but they had created a model-village close to the river for tourists. It was late in the day so many of the villagers had left for home already, but because our local Peruvian contact knows the chief, they arranged for some of the villagers to remain behind to welcome us. What happened next was awesome.

First, Walter and his tribe welcomed us with a number of traditional dances of the Bora people, and afterward they showed us some of their tribal wares. The items were pretty cool, as they included jewelry made of porcupine quills, artwork, and more. I didn’t look at the artwork much though because we brought some gifts for the tribe, which I briefly explained to Chief Walter—we brought medicine.

One of the things that made this trip so fun was that so much of what we did was counter-culture to how life normally goes. Usually, Chief Walter does a presentation with his tribe and they are in a service-role to the tourists as a form of income. And while our team was honored to receive similar treatment (even better than usual if you consider they stayed late in order for us to see them), it is uncommon for the tourists to bring gifts for the tribe. We provided pain medications, vitamins for the children and pregnant women, and other medications that are both generally useful and not readily available in the jungle.

Because Walter and the tribe were largely believers already we didn’t preach to them, but we did make sure to pray for anyone with pain and injuries before we left. An elderly man came up for prayer who had lost much of the sensation and mobility in his arms after carrying a heavy load through the jungle. He fell and was injured and afterward he could no longer move or feel properly. While from a medical perspective I suspect he had some level of nerve impingement in his upper back, the fact is that this negatively impacted his quality of life. Until Jesus showed up, that is. One of our team, Shawn, prayed for him and he regained all range of motion and sensation and all the pain in his body left!

Then, my buddy Troy and I prayed for Chief Walter who had some kind of injury to his foot. Considering the 40-minute walk twice a day along with the multiples of dances they performed barefoot, I suspect he had plantar fasciitis or similar—but regardless of the condition, it meant that simply doing daily life was painful, much less his job as the village leader. Well we prayed and the pain left! Now, when healing the sick and injured it can be easy to pray, not test anything, and leave feeling like we have added a notch to our belt and witnessed God heal someone, but I’m not a fan of leaving things untested if there is a way to try it out. We began by having the Chief stomp his feet, which he was able to do without pain, so we took it to max-level. I asked him to jump up and down on it to really make sure he was healed. And He was, because Jesus still heals!!

Often, manifesting the Kingdom is as straightforward as being more engaged than people normally are, and other times it looks like gifts of medicine. In this case it looked like both of those and healing prayer—but however we release the Kingdom, the key is for us to just step out and do it! Faith looks like risk, but when we step out and risk something we create opportunities for God to show up and show off His immeasurable goodness and love.

A Night with the King

During the 2023 Peru Mission Trip with Overseas Missions, one of the things we did was hire prostitutes. Now, it sounds terrible when I say it that way, but the REASON we hired them was so we could have their undivided attention to throw them a party. You see, our team leader reasoned that since Jesus was known for hanging out with prostitutes and sinners and yet never engaging in any of their activities, we should do the same, and facilitate these women having a night with King Jesus.

Prior to even leaving the USA for Peru we had already known this was part of the plan, so some of us brought party supplies with us, including a kit to make a big purple-and-gold balloon arch. Some of the local women bought party supplies at a store, then we spoke to Sylvia, the manager of our hotel, to borrow a large meeting-hall, which we subsequently decorated with all kinds of party supplies. The women didn’t typically go to one of the main city plazas until around or 9 pm, so it was going to be a late night, but we pre-planned for that as well.

Once we were ready for the party, complete with cake and a range of other snacks, we had to figure out which members of the group were going to locate the women who we would be sharing God’s love with. In the end we all decided to go, so we hailed a bunch of motorcars (which are the local equivalent of taxis) to find women and escort them back to the hotel.

Now, we had a secret weapon with us. One of the local women has, for the past 13 years, gone and ministered to the women (and some cross-dressing men) in the plaza, so she was able to point out who we should speak to. But get this. What sounds like a group of people making plans on God’s behalf took a supernatural turn—something we only found out hours later—but when we arrived in the plaza, even before we had approached anyone, a few of the prostitutes were standing together and they felt a wind go across them and a sense of peace settle upon them. After we hired the 4 women, they decided to take a separate motorcar to the hotel, and one of them told the others “our services won’t be used tonight.” The others didn’t believe her at the time—but God had gone before us to prepare their hearts to receive from Him that night.

It reminds me of when Abraham sent a servant out to go find a bride for Isaac and the servant wasn’t sure how to just “find” some random woman. Genesis 24:39-40, spoken by the servant of Abraham as he tells the story to Rebekah’s family is as follows:

“Then I asked my master, ‘What if the woman won’t come back with me?’

“He [Abraham] replied, ‘I have walked faithfully with the Lord. He will send his angel with you. He will give you success on your journey. So you will be able to get a wife for my son.”

In the same way that an angel went before Abraham’s servant so the man could find a wife for Abraham’s son, God sent an angel before us so that these women could have an encounter with their bridegroom, King Jesus.

The women were definitely not expecting a party, and took some time to warm up to us, but eventually they were smiling and having a good time. We served them cake, chatted briefly, then as they warmed up to us our leader asked if they minded if we shared some things with them that God was telling us about them (ie. prophesy to them). They agreed, so we began to prophesy God’s plans and purposes for their lives and share wisdom and insight about who God had created them to become. The more we talked the more it was apparent these women weren’t even selling their bodies because someone was forcing them or because they were young and foolish. Almost all of these women had families at home that they were trying to feed. In one case, the woman had stopped the lifestyle and was washing clothes for around 50 soles a day (about $13), but it was backbreaking work and her father had grown very sick and she needed the money to take care of him. Since she had a means where she could make double her daily income in an hour, it was easy to understand how she went back into prostitution. These women lived hard lives and were trying to make ends meet, not live some kind of glamorous lifestyle of the rich and famous. They just didn’t want their families to starve and be homeless. As such, the theoretical worth of their bodies could be reduced to $15-30USD an hour. It’s really sad, if you think about it even for a moment.

During the time we prophesied over them, our leader realized that the Holy Spirit was speaking in a particular and unique manner. You see, earlier in the day when the women had gone to buy party supplies, they bought some roses as well, but only had enough to buy two at first. Somehow they got the money for four, and brought four roses back to the hotel. Well, we didn’t know until that night that we would end up with four women, but God did. Furthermore, one of the women’s names was Rosa, which means “rose” in Spanish. This was yet another way that God encountered both these women and us, preparing the way before all of us for the night.

We prayed for them, hugged them, and spent time letting these precious women know how valuable they are, now much God loves them, and that He has prepared a way for them. One of the other local women with us shared her story of how God brought her out of a lifestyle of prostitution and she encouraged them that God had prepared a way for them to leave the lifestyle and still care for all of their needs as well. All in all it was a powerful night, and the women left with double their normal rate (we wanted to show them double-honor and not just pay “as good as” the men who use and abuse them), the rest of the cake, a bunch of snacks, roses, and hearts full of God’s love for them.

One final detail was that right after we left the plaza and everyone was headed back to the hotel for the party it began to downpour. This wasn’t a light sprinkle of rain, and no one would have remained out in the plaza anyway. If we hadn’t gone when we did there would have been no one to minister to that night, and those women wouldn’t have made any money either. Not only that, but right as we finished the party was when the rain stopped. God literally took care of all of the details for us because He is far more interested in touching these women than we are. The Bible tells us that God is a jealous God. This doesn’t mean that He has petty squabbles over things, but that He will stop at absolutely nothing to restore His daughters and sons to Him and for Jesus to have his full reward—that is the WHOLE Bride presented to Himself without spot, wrinkle, or blemish. He is committed to completing His work that He has begun in all of us, and this was very evident in how He revealed Himself to these precious women that night.

Eternal Life in the Age to Come

In Mark 10:29-30 Jesus said some pretty spectacular things. “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.”

One of the things I think we sometimes forget is to look at things in context. Sure, I suppose we could say that the “age to come” is in heaven after people die. God has lots of rewards stored up for us in heaven, so that statement would make a lot of sense at face value. The problem is with the last phrase Jesus uttered–“and in the age to come eternal life.” When Jesus made that statement he had yet to go to the cross, die, and rise again. At that time he and all of his disciples were technically still in the Old Testament Age. It was only after his death, resurrection, ascension, and I would even argue another ten days later on Pentecost when Holy Spirit came in power that the new age began. Thus, when Jesus was promising his disciples they would live forever, I don’t think He was just saying that they could live forever in heaven after they died. That would contradict all of the other things He had told them previously. No, Jesus was saying that after he rose and destroyed the power of death over their lives, they could have eternal immortal life free of death in every form.

Am I saying we are already living in the age to come? Not necessarily—otherwise how would they have had time to receive one hundred times more of what they have given up in the present age? However, I am also not saying it isn’t what Jesus meant. What I am quite clear on is that we have relegated many of the promises of God (and most especially those regarding eternal life) to a far off heaven-when-you-die reality instead of a Kingdom-here-and-now version that Jesus spoke of. In fact, Jesus prayed in the Lord’s Prayer for “your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it [already is] in heaven” for a reason. It wasn’t so we could jet out of here and go somewhere else, but so we would transform earth and make it like heaven, ushering in the age that has not yet come because earth hasn’t become like heaven yet.

This is a serious challenge for many because it flies in the face of so many things we have been taught. And yet, those things we have been taught often fly in the face of what Jesus directly said and demonstrated. Jesus taught that we are not supposed to die. He taught that if we die we are supposed to get raised from the dead and keep living. He explained publicly that while the forefathers of the Jewish people ate manna, literal bread from heaven, and still died, that those who ate of Him, the bread that came down from heaven, that they would not die.

In all honesty, a single article like this doesn’t have sufficient length to explain what Jesus was talking about, nor to answer all of the questions that arise when opening this subject up. That’s why I’ve written a book that discusses the subject quite extensively. The Gospel of Life and Immortality is a one-of-a-kind book that begins by explaining how God led me into this particular perspective of the gospel message. The second chapter is dedicated entirely to looking at what Jesus taught on the subject so we can be incredibly clear that this is in fact the true gospel message and not “something else,” and from there we look at the Old Testament, Paul’s teachings, and much, much more. Toward the end the book covers very practical considerations, answers common questions not otherwise answered in previous chapters, and gives some practical steps we can take to walk this out in our lives. If this subject has gotten you curious, questioning, or hungry to hear more, click the title to pick up a copy of The Gospel of Life and Immortality today!

The Spiritual Significance of a Ring

In the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), there is a parable that loads of sermon messages get preached on with some regularity, at least in the United States. In fact, I can’t even count the number of sermons I have heard on this particular passage myself—the subject of the Prodigal Son. Most sermon messages focus on prodigal children in general but tend to focus in more specifically on part with the son’s return in the parable as retold by Luke. However, I had a unique encounter in the spirit one day that made this parable not only come alive to me, but it was the first of a series of occurrences involving a particular object found in that story: a ring.

Now, for those who aren’t familiar with the parable I suggest you read it, but what I am referring to is a moment where a father bestows upon his formerly-wayward son a robe, a pair of sandals, and a ring. I had an encounter once that relates to this story. I was sitting on the floor in my apartment praying and worshiping one afternoon when I perceived in the spirit that an angel had placed a clothing box in front of me on the carpet—the flat, rectangular kind that department stores gift-wrap clothing in. Not able to perceive what was inside the box, I decided to physically act out what I was doing (because sometimes physical action helps engage your will and your spirit to perform spiritual actions), and physically made the motions of removing the lid from the box.

All well and good, but once I did that I still saw nothing inside the box. Now, that doesn’t mean it was empty—simply that I couldn’t see inside what was in front of me in the spirit. As a further act of faith, I reached into the box with both hands and pulled out whatever was inside. As I did so, I was able to see that I was holding a big, white shaggy robe. Having no clue why this robe had been delivered to me, and given how far I had gotten already, I did the next sensible thing and went through the motions of putting it on. The moment I did this, I suddenly became aware that in the spirit, sandals had appeared on my feet and a ring with a golden band and a cut green stone had appeared on my right index finger. All three have symbolic importance, but I want us to focus in on the ring today.

The Lord had been gradually teaching me at this point how to see in the spirit more clearly, as well as about spiritual objects, which is a discussion for another time, but the ring fascinated me. In fact, it was the first of a series of spiritual rings that I was given over time, one of which the Lord gave me as a sign so I would know the wife He had prepared for me—I just didn’t discover that until a few years after I received that particular blue-sapphire ring. If we want to understand the importance of spiritual rings, it helps to get a good understanding of what the Bible tells us about them.

Rings are not actually mentioned very frequently in scripture, but there are 7 passages in the Bible that refer to the use of rings in relation to authority (Genesis 41:42, Esther 3:10, Esther 8:8, Isaiah 3:21, Jeremiah 22:24, Haggai 2:23, and Luke 15:22), but I want us to read a few of them that I think shed some light in the significance of spiritual rings that the Lord may give us from time to time.

Rings in general had a variety of uses, but in this context rings were most often used as a sign or seal of authority. In Genesis 41:42, Pharaoh gave Joseph his signet ring when he made Joseph the second of command over all of Egypt, signifying the level of authority Pharaoh had bestowed upon the man. In Haggai 2:23, the word of the Lord prophesied that Zerubbabel would become “like a signet ring” in context of becoming one with ruling authority. The passage in Luke 15 referred to the wayward son being restored to a position of huios sonship, a Greek word used to denote that one was a mature adult son—one who could operate properly in authority over the household and its affairs. While rings in the Bible have mostly been used in context of kings and rulers, regardless of who is using a signet ring, it denotes authority given to one to make decisions and have them carried out by others.

Another passage that is important to read in this regard is Esther 8:8 which says, “But you may write as you please with regard to the Jews, in the name of the king, and seal it with the king’s ring, for an edict written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s ring cannot be revoked.” This passage is referring specifically to Persian law, which stated that when something was signed into law by the king it could not be revoked, but it shows us something of the importance of a king’s ring—that it permits us to make laws and rules and to command others.

Now the Bible calls all of us kings, and tells us that Jesus is the King of kings—a prime ruler who governs over all of us, those who are being brought into maturity as the sons of God to rule and reign with Him. If we are to rule as kings, then we must understand the importance of authority we have been given to legislate, make decrees, and to command others, whether on earth or in the heavens. While we do not have to have a spiritual experience where we receive a ring in order to extend and engage our spiritual authority, it is still important to note that at times, when the Father is promoting us into a new position in the spirit, He may give us an encounter where we receive a ring in keeping with the established meaning and purpose it holds as found in scripture.

I suspect that many people have had encounters they never realized the significance of—a vision where one appeared, or even a dream where they received a gift of a ring. Because rings are so closely tied with marriage in Western Culture, it can be difficult at times to understand the significance they hold in regards to authority and stepping into new positions in the Kingdom. Sometimes people may even give us a physical gift of jewelry! All of these are different ways that God can communicate with us to show us the promotions He is giving us because we have been faithful with what He has provided us in the past. Enjoy the upgrade!