I am excited to announce that my new book “The Power of Impartation” is available for purchase on Amazon in both print and Kindle, and for you book-listeners, the audiobook will be ready soon! Stay tuned for more details as we get closer to the audiobook launch. I have been working with Steve Bremner, a fellow author, writing coach, and who also does podcasting and audibooks and I’m looking forward to the audio version we are putting together.
This book started out as a two-part blog post here on the website (part 1 is here), which turned into a four-part blog post, and the revelation just kept coming, so a book seemed like the best way to communicate the information. While the subject itself isn’t necessarily new (there are a few other books with the same title), the information within definitely is! Most of the chapter on Mantles is information I have never heard anyone else teach before, and much of the rest of the book is the same—new revelation for a new season.
Impartation in this context is the transferring of spiritual substance from one person to another, and we see it throughout the Bible—Moses, Elijah, Jesus, and Paul all have done this for those around them, and Paul even wrote in a letter to Timothy about when this happened to Timothy. Impartation is a method by which we can share the grace of the Holy Spirit that is on our lives with friends and family and help them to walk in a greater level of supernatural power, releasing the signs, wonders, miracles, healing, and deliverance that Jesus demonstrated and commanded all future disciples to do—and that includes you and me! By understanding what impartation is and what it can do both for and through us, together we can help change the world around us for Jesus.
My website’s tag-line is “an out of the box take on health and spiritual life” because that’s the perspective I tend to write from. I find new ways of looking at and understanding the same scriptures and ideas, and not just “different” for the sake of being different. My goal is always to help people access the promises of God in a greater manner than before through effective teaching that works! This is why I wrote this book, and I am confident that by putting the principles within into action, you will notice the results.
In the book I cover:
What impartation is and how it works
How to accelerate the growth process
The power of revelation knowledge
How mantles and lampstands operate and how to use them
How to steward the gifts of the Spirit
And much more!
Whether you are a new believer wanting to learn and grow or a mature believer who wants to take your spiritual growth to the next level, this book will help supercharge your journey. I am excited about this book, and I hope you are too. You can follow the link below to get a copy today!
[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.22″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.27.4″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]I was chatting briefly with another nurse on the intermediate care unit today and she was telling me how she is retiring soon to take care of her elderly parents, and that while she feels she is doing the right thing, she is really afraid that she might be making wrong decisions at the same time. She told me about all of the precautions she is taking with her parents related to the current year-long medical scare. And she asked me a question.
“Do you think I am going overboard?”
I didn’t really have the time to go into the immense corruption, proof of planning prior to the fact to release such a medical scare, the obvious and constant media lies, the immense dangers of the poison shot, and why random face textiles don’t solve any problems for healthy people.
What I was able to share was possibly more important by far, and it was a simple truth we all need to be reminded of sometimes. What I said was “Whatever decisions you make, don’t be led by fear.”
At the end of the day this woman is demonstrating great love to end her career early and make sure her parents have the best latter-to-end of life they can have. And yet if she makes ongoing decisions based out of fear she will be miserable doing it.
I explained briefly how she has useful medical knowledge that she can use, but that any time she finds herself getting afraid and making plans from that place, she needs to back up and start making decisions based on what she knows, not based on how she feels.
So many times in life we can get derailed by the enemy by giving into the lies in our own minds that push us into emotional fear-based decision-making instead of walking out life in peace even in bad situations because we realize we don’t have to be reactive to darkness—we can continue to make choices from a centered place and not give room to fear.
My encouragement to you is the same as I gave her. We all have lots of things going on in life, but this advice will never steer you wrong:
“Whatever decisions you make, don’t be led by fear.
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The Bible has a lot to say on the subject of life and immortality—my favorite being 2 Timothy 1:10-11 in which Paul directly states that he has been given the gospel of life and immortality as a message from God to teach and preach. And yet, there is something about being physically immortal that remains a challenge to us, largely because very few people successfully have accomplished the goal to date (Enoch, Elijah, and Jesus being three solid scriptural examples). One of the parts of this gospel of life and immortality that is so confusing is that the scriptures seem to suggest we have already been given this body in seed form—a promise or unveiling of things to come. We’re going to get an idea of what that might look like in the natural, as well as a practical step we can take to see it displayed in our lives.
The book of Isaiah has some pretty interesting verses that speak to the topic of immortality. Isaiah 40:31 says, “But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” This verse sounds straightforward, but the implications are impressive. God renewing someone’s strength so he or she can run without limit and walk endlessly without fatigue is not possible without divine power flowing endlessly through the body. In other words, in order to consistently surpass the physical limitations of the human body, it requires a body that isn’t human. This passage is somewhat veiled, but it hints toward the idea that God provides bodies for us that do not wear out, grow weary, or lose strength in any way.
There are other passages that speak to a transformation of our human bodies and what our physical experience will be like. It is first mentioned in Isaiah 49:10a where the prophet says, “They will neither hunger nor thirst . . .” Interestingly, Jesus echoes this same comment in John 6:35 saying, “Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’” We need to remember that hunger and thirst are indicators of a chemical lack within our bodies—a lack of energy-producing food or a lack of the water that is used in many chemical processes in each cell of our bodies and which makes up a large percentage of the body matter both inside and outside of our cells. A less-scientific way of saying that is that hunger and thirst demonstrate that we have a need that cannot be sustained without outside help, and when we meet that need with food or water, we stop being hungry or thirsty. What both Isaiah prophesied and Jesus declared of himself is that in Christ we can live in such a way as to be so fully sustained by the energy of God, with our physical bodies, that we won’t require food or drink ever again.
And yet, while these are just a few of the practical ways this promise of bodily immortality will manifest itself, it seems that very few people successfully apprehend this scriptural truth. I believe we are entering an era of time where this will become much more widespread, but it is important that we understand we have already been given a seed of that promise. Romans 8:23 states, “Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.” The Bible is clear that our bodies are meant to be redeemed, but the Holy Spirit is given to us as a form of firstfruits—elsewhere in scripture explained as “a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come (2 Corinthians 1:22).” 1 Corinthians 15 is probably the most renowned chapter in scripture discussing the immortal body, but even it mentions our immortal bodies being given in seed form. 1 Corinthians 15:37-38 says, “When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.”
Now, understanding we have been given immortal bodies in Christ in seed form, part of our task is the process of unveiling, what 2 Corinthians 3:18 calls “being transformed into his image from glory to glory.” One physical activity we can do to test this out, or in some ways actively engage our faith in this area, is to fast. Normally when we fast it is to abstain from food and/or drink in order to gain some kind of goal, but this is a little different in that we aren’t fasting to obtain immortality. Rather, this type of fasting is to reveal it. We are putting our faith in what the scriptures tell us about never being hungry or thirsty, and are testing it out to see if we have arrived yet. After all, if we never stop eating long enough to try it out, how will we know when we have arrived? Likewise someone could do the same with intense exercise to see if they are able to push past normal limits, running or walking with unending energy.
While doing these types of things we are putting a demand on our faith to unveil the immortality we have been promised in scripture. Think of it a little bit like chiseling a sculpture out of a rock. The image exists as potential in the rock, but it takes a process of unveiling or removing the extra rock piece by piece so what lies underneath becomes fully visible. I believe that bodily immortality in Christ can be a bit like this for the Body of Christ as a whole. As we continue to pursue this in faith, even doing things such as fasting or exercising to engage our faith and put a demand on the seed of immortality within us, we will discover that we will eventually find that we can go without food or drink or can perform physical activities at otherwise-impossible levels. This does not mean that we engage in unwise and reckless behaviors to test God, but that if we decide to test out God’s promises in scripture that we do it with wisdom, monitoring our hearts and our bodies as we engage our faith for immortality to be revealed in us.
Finally, I want to leave you with an admonition that Paul gave at the end of 1 Corinthians 15 as he closed out his thoughts on the subject of immortal bodies and being physically transformed. He said, “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).” Paul recognized the labor was not in vain, and neither shall ours be as we continue to pursue everything Jesus Christ purchased for us through His precious blood, not limited to but certainly including our immortal transfigured physical bodies.
There is an important lesson in scripture on holding firm to the prophetic word even when other voices are telling us otherwise. It is one of the harder tests of prophetic maturity, and one that we all will have to be challenged on many times as we learn and grow in the prophetic. However, now of all times it is vital that we understand the importance of this lesson. There have been dozens, if not hundreds of prophetic words, many of them from well-known prophets, about God’s plan for Donald J Trump to take a second term as President. Some of those words came through even before his first term, and Kim Clement prophesied about Trump back in 2013. I want us to take a look at a pretty clear lesson in scripture where life and death was on the line when it came to standing on what God spoke. The passage is long, but it is an important reminder that it is our job to hold firm to the prophetic promises, not backpedaling when situations don’t look good.
1 Kings 13:1-32
By the word of the Lord a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering. 2 By the word of the Lord he cried out against the altar: “Altar, altar! This is what the Lord says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.’” 3 That same day the man of God gave a sign: “This is the sign the Lord has declared: The altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out.”
4 When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he stretched out toward the man shriveled up, so that he could not pull it back. 5 Also, the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God by the word of the Lord.
6 Then the king said to the man of God, “Intercede with the Lord your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored.” So the man of God interceded with the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored and became as it was before.
7 The king said to the man of God, “Come home with me for a meal, and I will give you a gift.”
8 But the man of God answered the king, “Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here. 9 For I was commanded by the word of the Lord: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.’” 10 So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.
11 Now there was a certain old prophet living in Bethel, whose sons came and told him all that the man of God had done there that day. They also told their father what he had said to the king. 12 Their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him which road the man of God from Judah had taken. 13 So he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And when they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it 14 and rode after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”
“I am,” he replied.
15 So the prophet said to him, “Come home with me and eat.”
16 The man of God said, “I cannot turn back and go with you, nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. 17 I have been told by the word of the Lord: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.’”
18 The old prophet answered, “I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the Lord: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.’” (But he was lying to him.) 19 So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house.
20 While they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the old prophet who had brought him back. 21 He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You have defied the word of the Lord and have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. 22 You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your ancestors.’”
23 When the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him. 24 As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying on the road, with both the donkey and the lion standing beside it. 25 Some people who passed by saw the body lying there, with the lion standing beside the body, and they went and reported it in the city where the old prophet lived.
26 When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who defied the word of the Lord. The Lord has given him over to the lion, which has mauled him and killed him, as the word of the Lord had warned him.”
27 The prophet said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me,” and they did so. 28 Then he went out and found the body lying on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had neither eaten the body nor mauled the donkey. 29 So the prophet picked up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him. 30 Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him and said, “Alas, my brother!”
31 After burying him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the message he declared by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true.”
The man of God had a clear word from God, and when another prophet came along and validated him and then said something contrary to what God had said, the man of God backpedaled and wrongly went with the other guy’s version. The end result was that the man of God was killed by a lion.
Now is the true time of testing for prophets and their prophetic words. Are you standing on what God told you in obedience? Or have you already begun apologizing for what He told you? The test isn’t as much whether you got the word right this week, but whether you are standing firm on that word into next week and the week after. This is going to be a VERY educational time for the Body as to where the various prophets stand and how they either stand or crumple under the pressure. In fact, some have already begun to apologize, and we will find that those who didn’t stand firm will just have to apologize for their apologies in a few weeks.
There’s MASSIVE voter fraud that is being exposed and challenged right now, and the fraud is what is covering up an already-existing Trump Landslide Win. The words are spot-on, and people need to hold firm to them in faith and prayer right now precisely because of the election fraud, not backpedal and waver in doubt.
Visible circumstances are a terrible indicator of what God is doing, and prophetic words are obviously most helpful when situations get rough like they are right now. If there was no challenge, we wouldn’t need so many words from God beforehand telling us the election outcome in spite of circumstances. It is time for believers to understand how the prophetic is designed to function, and then pray and believe accordingly.
Continue to stand on the prophecies and fight in the spirit for righteousness, justice, and truth to prevail in this nation!
Ignorant No More: A Realistic View of Spiritual War
There is little I find more disheartening than when talking to people who should be mature believers but who are somehow still very much asleep to the spiritual realities around us. A recent conversation with a friend highlighted this to me. We were talking about some of the issues in the USA right now—the riots, media manipulation, child trafficking, rampant political corruption, and more. I mentioned that I expected some of these issues to worsen through and after the 2020 Presidential election due to many individuals who are pulling out all the stops to keep from being arrested and tried for treason, sedition, and other high crimes. My friend, who doesn’t like to deal with anything negative, said something like “Michael, can’t we pray and fix all of that? That’s such a hopeless view of things.” No, it’s a realistic view of things because, like it or not, we are in a spiritual war.
Anyone who has followed my blog for some time knows that I have pretty high expectations as far as the workings of God in our lives. Whether inner healing and deliverance, raising the dead, immortality, or spectacular miracles such as gemstones and feathers from heaven, oil, manna, and much more, I am constantly pushing forward to access all that God has prepared for us in Christ Jesus. And yet, it would be the height of foolishness and immaturity for me to ignore the spiritual war we are in, all in favor of focusing only on the positives. In fact, while I value Bethel for many of the good things they bring to the Body of Christ, that is one of their major weaknesses. They don’t like to deal with the demonic (nor teach people how to) because they, of their own admission, don’t want to “give glory” to demons by acknowledging their existence. Well, demons would like nothing more than for us to ignore them because they try pretty hard to remain hidden. Failing to train believers to cast out demons isn’t maturity. Ignoring negative-sounding things in favor of positive-sounding ones only goes so far before it causes problematic imbalances.
Let’s be honest. Do I enjoy knowing that human trafficking exists in this nation in part to provide human sacrifices for people who willingly serve Lucifer so that they and demons both can gain power in the earth? No—nothing about that is enjoyable, and it can be disheartening to know that most of the time there is little more I can do about it than pray. Yet, remaining ignorant doesn’t help those people, and it won’t save the next victim either. Ignoring the undeniable fact that we are in a spiritual battle only serves to tie my own hands and reduce my effectiveness in dealing with the enemy.
My buddy Steve reminded me once that in every interaction he has had with angels during any kind of demon encounter that they were always armed with swords. And the reason that angels carry swords is because they know they are in a war and are fighting an enemy. We have been given spiritual weapons to fight this same spiritual war, and yet sometimes we teach and/or are taught to lay those weapons down because we are too negative or focusing on things that aren’t nice to think about. We need to learn how to be awake to the designs of the enemy, fight the battles in front of us, and yet also fix our eyes on the prize. There is a reason that Jesus is the desire of the nations, but even as we pursue Him we need to remember that as Revelation 1:16 shows us, even Jesus has a sword.
This past December 10th I had to put my dog Rowan down. She was the first dog I had ever had as an adult, and while she was a bit anxious at times, she was a sweetheart. Any time I was doing inner healing and deliverance with someone she wanted to be in the room. And the reason we had to put her down? 100% due to witchcraft attacks on our family. In fact, a few weeks prior to that a witch spoke to me and told me they were going after her because they wanted me to suffer. Super thoughtful, right? Ultimately, Rowan started having tonic-clonic seizures that we couldn’t get under control, then post-ictal she started trying to attack us, and since we couldn’t predict when she would have them it became unsafe for her to be around the kids, so we put her down. It absolutely broke my heart, and the rest of the family was just as devastated. And all because we are in a spiritual war that has real enemies and real consequences.
Sure, we can pray for God to fix things, and believe me, from the time the witch threatened me I was praying over my dog and my family—and yet we still lost the battle. It must be nice to be one of those people who can delude themselves into believing that life with Jesus is all roses and bliss, but that’s not reality. The reality is that while in His presence there truly is fullness of joy, we are still in a spiritual war and we don’t win every battle.
For me, that fact simply spurs me on harder to mature and become all that I must become in Christ to be both a sword against our spiritual enemies and a shield in front of my family and friends, but not everyone responds to problems the same way. What would have happened if the prophet Daniel had decided that fasting until an answer came wasn’t worth it, or wasn’t needed because “finished works” theology told him that fasting isn’t needed any more? I rather doubt that Michael the Chief Prince and the angelic messenger in Daniel 10 would have been able to win against the Prince of Persia if Daniel had not dedicated himself to fasting and prayer during that time.
If we choose to remain asleep to the war then we are relegating ourselves to the sidelines and making ourselves of little effect, and more often than not when sidelined we will either be ignored by the enemy because we are so harmless or we will be attacked relentlessly and destroyed. And neither outcome is acceptable.
I’m not saying we need to become hyper-suspicious of everything around us, nor am I saying that we can never have fun. No, it is important that we learn to live from a place of inner rest, enjoying the goodness, love, joy, and peace of God, and yet from that internal position rise up to put a stop to the darkness that encroaches upon this world God has given us responsibility over. Yes, the elections are important. And yes, the corruption in our political sphere, the Covid-lockdowns, the riots, and much more all need to end. But all of those things need to be put in context of a spiritual war that has been waged for thousands of years (and possibly even for millennia).
Earth isn’t the only battlefield. There are spiritual battles that occur all the time in star systems in far off galaxies and in other dimensions. Our prayers actually have ripple effects through the multiverse and across dimensions into other realms and realities that shift the tide in favor of God’s people throughout all of time and eternity. Our prayers are powerful and accomplish far more than we realize, but it is time that we realign our perspective on reality. It is time that we mature enough that we can both remain idealistic about the plans that God has for us to bring us prosperity and goodness and yet also effectively fight and win against the powers of darkness that seek to stop the promises of God from ever coming to pass. I can’t pretend to know what that will look like for each individual, but we need to examine our hearts, be open to the Holy Spirit dealing with our immaturities, intentional ignorance, and our fears, and learn to stand strong against the evil one. For, as Ephesians 6:12-13 reminds us, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.”
A Glimpse Behind the Conference Curtain: Offering and Sales Manipulation
At the beginning of 2019, I and the entire board of the Portland ministry we were on staff with resigned—all on the same day. There were a number of reasons behind it, but much of it ultimately all boiled down to a subject I want to discuss today: Manipulation and Control. The purpose of this article is to shed some light on the goings-on behind the scenes of dysfunctional ministries that host big-name conference speakers for large events. Keep in mind that not all ministries who host big-name speakers are dysfunctional, nor are all speakers, by any means. However, there are definitely wolves among the sheep and as we are seeing God expose the hidden things in the church—gross sexual impropriety and much worse—it seems appropriate to speak out about the manipulation that can occur when egos and ministry-building get in the way of equipping the Body of Christ for works of service. While this is only one of the troubling manipulation-issues behind why we quit, we’re going to take a glimpse behind the conference curtain, looking at offering and sales manipulation.
Scripturally speaking, it is not wrong to take offerings at a meeting, nor do I think it is inherently wrong to sell resources such as books and CDs that a minister has produced. The issue isn’t so much in whether or not those things are happening, but how they can happen, and why. For example, I have literally been present for conversations between the ministry leader and “big-name” speakers where they were discussing who should announce the offering. Normal, right? It’s a good idea to communicate among those leading a meeting to identify who is doing what tasks. . . except that wasn’t the purpose of the conversation. The express point of that talk was to identify which person would be able to draw in the biggest dollar amount in the collection plate by leading the offering, and how they would go about doing it.
It was all about the money.
Now, don’t get me wrong. There is a practical side to wisely stewarding money, and any time I would lead the offering I would usually make a very brief statement about what the offering was for and why it was important, and then we would go about passing the plates. Everyone present already knows what an offering is, so letting people sow into the ministry to help cover the financial needs of running the event and further supporting the ministry seems perfectly reasonable to me. What is totally unnecessary is a 20-minute sermon to share bible verses we all know—especially when the only reason that message is being shared is to create an atmosphere that manipulates the listeners into being more likely to give. Some could argue that they are doing this to break off demonic strongholds that prevent people from giving how God wants them to, and I could certainly make a little room for that line of reasoning, but that isn’t usually what happens when speakers take offerings. They tend to dress it up and make it sound incredibly spiritual—as though God has ordained a special blessing for those who pay money into the plate on that particular day. They use super-spiritual language to try to sell God’s blessings in what is the Protestant version of old-time Catholic Indulgences.
Not only that, but these speakers know full-well that if they do all of this in a particular order that it will yield the highest monetary gain.
Step 1: Have worship so everyone opens their hearts. Step 2: Have a well-known person share an offering message to turn those open hearts toward the subject of giving and generosity Step 3: Plant the idea that they will receive something spiritually special on that night and that night only to create urgency in the room. Step 4: Pray manipulative prayers over the congregation for those who pay money into the offering plate to pound home the urgency. Step 5: Pass the plates and rake in the cash.
There is a sort of science to all of this based on how people function in group settings. When a group of people mentally focus in a particular direction, it creates a corporate energy in the room and if an individual is unaware then it is very easy to get swept up into that group energy. Essentially it is the same mechanism behind mob-mentality and why people who are normally peaceful and rational will go absolutely nuts when everyone around them is doing the same. Mob-mentality is a more violent mechanism of this same corporate energy, but in any group situation there is an opportunity for corporate energy to present itself. This happens at MLM conventions, sports games, movie theaters, protests and rallies, and more. And large church meetings are certainly not exempt. What sometimes feels like the Holy Spirit moving on our hearts is actually a combination of what God is doing in the room and the corporate energy of the group. And because our hearts have been opened up through worship, we become more susceptible to that manipulation—because it comes from the last place we expect it.
The same thing happens with sales at church conferences. Take the same group of people who have already been manipulated into giving more than they might otherwise have, and then have a big-name speaker share a message that also is the subject of a book they just wrote. As an author, I find it entirely normal that a speaker would talk about something they wrote a book about. The reason authors typically write books is because they have something to say about a topic, and in the case of ministers they often are trying to help the Body of Christ learn and grow in a certain area which is why they wrote a book and are speaking about it to begin with. I even find it perfectly normal that the speaker would announce that their new book is present, as some people will find that book subject legitimately helpful. The manipulation comes when the speaker talks about a topic and then at the very end of the message announces not only that they have their new book present (which, to some people, will be legitimately helpful) but then creates urgency by announcing a special sale, a limited time offer, and a limited number of books present—as though that same book can’t be bought online on a different day. Some ministers go so far as to peddle prophetic words as well—giving a “free” prophetic word or scripture to everyone who buys a book that day.
To balance this out a bit, it is important we understand that there are a spectrum of spiritual forces at work in any meeting. There is definite demonic resistance that wants to keep hearts closed off, prevent people from hearing God, and keep them from receiving from the worship and message. There is also angelic assistance to help protect from and clear out all demonic influence, open hearts, and help facilitate a revelatory flow for all present in the meeting. The Holy Spirit actively works in people’s hearts to create faith, love, hope, generosity and more, and reveal the fruit of the Spirit at work in our lives, and the unhealed aspects of our own hearts also come bubbling up to reveal our more base heart motives such as ego, self-centeredness, and pride. It is not always easy for a minister to try to sense the flow of what God is doing, discern how to push back against what the enemy is trying to do, and attempt to do it all in a way that releases the highest good for everyone present. It realistically isn’t possible to have everything perfect for every person at every meeting.
I truly believe that most ministers, pastors, and leaders honestly desire to honor God with the things they do in and around church meetings. And yet, having witnessed firsthand on multiples of occasions the intentional manipulation of the Body that can occur at big church conferences, it seems foolish to me to pretend that noble motives are the only things that exist. Thus, it seems that the instructions Jesus gave his disciples before sending them out still apply today: “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:16) We must be wise to the schemes of the enemy, even those wolves who have infiltrated the flock, protecting our hearts from manipulation and control, all while keeping our hearts supple toward the Lord and all that He is doing in those same circumstances. It isn’t always easy, but by God’s grace, and through a greater awareness and discernment of what is going on around us, I believe we can succeed.
If I’m Already Saved Then Why Do I Still Have Emotional Problems?
One of the major weaknesses of the Church as a whole is its lack of focus on emotional health. In fact, the Church often ends up on weirdly unhealthy ends of the spectrum. One example is attributing all mental illness to demons and ignoring other legitimate organic causes. While much mental illness can and does have a demonic component, it is rarely the only cause, and attempting to cast demons out of someone who already has mental health issues without dealing with anything else can cause more trauma all on its own. Another example is when Christians tell a victim of spousal abuse that they cannot divorce and leave their abuser because “adultery” and “God hates divorce.” One end of the spectrum focuses entirely on one spiritual component to the detriment of other causes, while the other focuses on physical circumstances and ignores all other aspects of a given situation. Both are unhealthy, and both need to change. And yet, there is still a third camp that is so ridiculous I’m not quite sure where it lands—the “You’re saved, so everything is all better now” group. And when things actually aren’t better in spite of being told they are, people start to ask sensible questions like, “If I’m Already Saved Then Why Do I Still Have Emotional Problems?”
One of the first wrong answers we tend to tell people is “Maybe you aren’t really saved.” This then leads us to say the “sinner’s prayer” over and over (I still can’t find anything remotely resembling that in Scripture) as though telling God we are sinners regularly will somehow help us live in freedom in Christ (Hint: it doesn’t). When that doesn’t work, we usually tell the person they have someone they haven’t forgiven, and that God can’t forgive us if we don’t forgive other people. Then we soul-search to try to find that one person we haven’t forgiven that is causing such afflictions in our life. Oftentimes we still can’t figure out who that person we are being told must exist is, so we pray a catch-all prayer (again) to forgive anyone and everyone we might possibly have considered the potential of whether or not to have unforgiveness against . . . and yet things still don’t change.
So if it isn’t because we aren’t saved and we have already forgiven everyone, what causes the emotional problems? Didn’t all of that get taken care of in Christ? After all, Isaiah 53:4-5 says, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed (NKJV). If Jesus bore our griefs and sorrows, all of our emotional issues, then we’re good, right?
Wrong.
Sure, it would be nice to think that “because Jesus” that we will never experience any kind of emotional problem. I would absolutely LOVE that. But it doesn’t work that way.
Everyone has emotional junk. And while some of it can and often does get automagically fixed upon salvation, sometimes it takes a bit more work. Not only that, but what about new emotional wounds that happen after one gets saved? I prayed the “sinner’s prayer” when I was three years old (no, I wasn’t too young and yes, I do remember it). I’ve always loved Jesus. And he’s always been kind to me. But if all of my emotional baggage went away at that age, then I’ve still had over thirty years of new “stuff” that I’ve picked up over time. Putting down my dog last December still hits me at times. Getting kicked out of my church about 14 years ago just because I got married and the church couldn’t control me was hard for a number of years. If someone thinks that my wife and I have never had a major argument, then clearly he or she has never been married. And that doesn’t include family system issues from childhood, kids being mean on the playground in elementary school, and much more.
The good news is that while everything doesn’t simply vanish upon salvation, Jesus did pay the price for 100% of our emotional healing. It’s just that it usually takes our active involvement to apply what He did to the brokenness in our hearts. Jesus is the most amazing healer out there. He is gentle, kind, loving, and He has all the power needed to restore even the most shattered of hearts. When we feel like Humpty Dumpty, like nothing will be able to put us back together again, Jesus can. We may have to go through a process. We may need to systematically apply His grace to specific problems through prayer until everything is whole. And that process often isn’t fun, but it is good.
Should we expect that God will heal hearts upon salvation? Yes. And let us continue to pray and believe for that to occur. But if it doesn’t, we aren’t deficient, we haven’t failed to get saved, and we haven’t failed to believe God’s promises. In most cases, the Church has failed to accurately teach us how to apprehend true freedom in Christ. But the good news? We’re learning. We’re better than we used to be. And wholeness is always attainable. In Christ. From Christ. Because of Christ.
If you are looking for some resources to help you on your own inner healing journey, I recommend the following:
As I was standing in the medication room waiting for another nurse to finish removing patient medications, we began to chat briefly about how the night had been going well. I even dared to say the “Q” word—Quiet. The other nurse immediately said “Yeah, I’m kind of superstitious. I don’t say that kind of stuff, and we should probably knock on wood, so that nothing bad happens.” As a nurse, there are certain taboo words—those which shall not be uttered, with the word “Quiet” being the primary one. One is also expected to not state that things are easy/going well, that nothing bad has happened this shift, or any other form of positive statement identifying good things—all for fear that something bad will then suddenly occur.
I categorically reject that belief. I say positive things to intentionally release life with the power of my words and intentions to shift the atmosphere at the hospital toward healing, peace, and life. In fact, I go one step further—I intentionally use the word “quiet” to provoke other nurses’ reactions, and I do it for a reason. Tonight I did it because it opened up a conversation with that nurse about how we can use positive affirmations and intentions to encourage a positive and healthy unit. As a whole, I do it to educate staff on the power of faith—and faith by any other name is just as effective.
Not everyone is Christian, and many people who might respect the religious beliefs of others reject ideas when certain buzzwords are used. Sometimes words like “faith” are rejected but other words slide under the radar—things like “positive affirmation” or “positive intention.” In fact, my coworker doesn’t realize I was preaching gospel truths to her using non-religious language—that God has given us creative power to change our world. She stated she was superstitious, which means that she has spiritual beliefs that influence her decisions. I chose to prophesy a different script—a lifegiving version where she could take a stand against death, loss, and destruction by choosing to speak life over the hospital unit. I just didn’t use Christianese to do it, and I didn’t need to. Faith by any other name is still effective.
Some might say I water down the gospel when I do that, but I disagree. I am making a message hearable and teaching someone how to effectively release the creative power of God to bring life to badly injured people in a way that bypasses personal prejudices and anti-religion sentiments. I have some friends who run dream-interpretation training and mentoring (http://www.nowinterpretthis.org/) and part of their training is the intentional use of nonreligious language to communicate heaven’s truths in ways that bypass people’s mental blocks over certain buzzwords.
Imagine if I had said to that nurse, “You know, instead of being afraid of the word ‘quiet,’ perfect love casts out fear and you can prophesy in faith for the shalom of God that passes understanding to rest on this unit and become a tabernacle for the Holy One of Israel,” I would have lost her completely. Instead, I pointed out that she could use positive affirmations to bring calm and quiet to the unit without being afraid that verbalizing those intentions would bring the opposite. In fact, that very statement is echoed in Matthew 7:11, saying “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” If we ask for peace and quiet on a hospital unit, God isn’t going to give us patient falls, organ failures, and code blue emergencies.
Sometimes the right thing to do in a situation is to speak the gospel using clear and direct language, speaking of Jesus who died on the cross and of the power and authority He has given us to transform this world. But other times we need to use nonreligious language that bypasses inner resistance and communicates the same scriptural truths in a way that is hearable. Because faith by any other name is just as effective.
In the past year I have been doing a lot of inner healing, working primarily with soul fragmentation (An Introduction to Soul Fragmentation is here), and the process been full of ups and downs—with a lot of downs. While the journey has been difficult, I have begun to experience the fruit of it in the more recent past, which has been a nice change. During this journey I have learned a lot more about the process of inner healing as a whole, which has been educational, but the Lord quickened something in my spirit one day that not only brought comfort but a fascinating revelation—on bringing peace that bypasses understanding.
Philippians 4:7 is one of the more often-quoted Bible verses, and it says, “. . . and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (NKJV). I was listening to a podcast, although I forget by whom, and they mentioned that verse. What I realized at that moment was that in order for us to have an understanding of something, it has to flow through our conscious mind. Yet, if God is bringing us peace that bypasses that understanding then it is dealing with the subconscious or unconscious mind—the realm of fragments and alters.
The reason this is significant is because fragmented parts have a moderate influence on how we feel—and yet when those feelings are negative it can be difficult to access and address them in a healthy way, helping those hurting parts to cope, heal, and move beyond the things that broke them off in the first place. And yet, Philippians 4:7 tells us that Jesus has a solution for us even when we don’t feel able to fix those issues ourselves. He will bypass our understanding, our conscious mind, and minister to those hurting parts directly to bring them peace.
While I understand that the verse is typically translated as “surpassing” is the word “hyperechō” which according to BlueletterBible.org means “to stand out, rise above, overtop, to be above, be superior in rank, authority, power, to excel, to be superior, better than, to surpass.” While I recognize that “surpassing” something means to move past it in a superior manner, the truth is that to “surpass” is essentially still bypassing—especially when we are talking about the conscious mind.
The encouragement here is that for those who are dealing with any kind of anxiety, depression, fear, or literally any other life problem, it doesn’t matter if we have the ability to understand why we are experiencing that issue in the moment. While understanding is often helpful in the inner healing process, the Bible tells us it isn’t an issue to Jesus—our understanding isn’t required for Him to share His peace with us. So, for everyone reading this, everyone struggling, and anyone who has fears or concerns, my prayer for you is this: May the peace that bypasses understanding guard every area of your soul, your mind, will, and emotions, in and through the power and love of Jesus Christ. Amen.
I grew up in the Episcopal Church (my dad is an Episcopal priest), and was introduced to the Charismatic as a whole when I was about 20 years old and in college. Early on, I began a wild pursuit of the miraculous, and during this time I heard lots of different opinions about how to walk in signs, wonders, and miracles, and I want to share with you all some observations and lessons I have learned over the past decade and a half since.
First, I would often get advice from people about how to operate in miracles. They included a lot of random, often contradictory, at times unscriptural, and occasionally downright nonsensical suggestions:
1. Pray to walk in healing, signs, wonders, and miracles 2. Pray to know God 3. Believe in faith that I already have it 4. Praise God for the fact that I already walk in it all even if I don’t really, as an act of faith that I will at some point 5. Stop praying for miracles because I need to get to know God instead 6. Spend time with Jesus, because that’s what the disciples did that set them apart 7. Seek God’s face instead of His hand 8. Go witness/evangelize to people because signs, wonders, and miracles are the work of the Evangelist. 9. Only some people can do miracles, so if I am an Apostle then it will happen, but otherwise it’s just not God’s will for my life. 10. In the Old Testament it was Prophets who operated in signs, wonders, and miracles, so Prophets should be the ones operating in them today. 11. Get filled with the Holy Spirit because Acts 1 says that’s how I will be filled with power. 12. Since I have already been baptized in the Holy Spirit I am good and have all I need, especially since the Bible says I have already been given everything pertaining to life and godliness. 13. Stop being so focused on miracles, as they will lead you astray, and get back to the Word. 14. Get in the Word because reading the Bible will give me an impartation for the miraculous. 15. Pray in tongues 16. Praise in tongues (in this context, they just meant meant “do tongues to music”)
I’m sure there were more, but I hope you see the problem here. That’s over a dozen different things that one should or shouldn’t do to walk in miracles—and while some of the suggestions above are really good, half the time they contradict one another or just make no sense. Understandably, this left me awfully confused about which of the different things I should be doing to walk in miracles, and 15 years later I still greatly desire to do more miracles in spite of having seen some cool healings, signs, wonders, and miracles already.
It took me a number of years to wade through all of the well-intentioned theological double-speak because I was so new to the prophetic and the power of the Holy Spirit, but I eventually figured out some things. One of the things that really strikes me as incredibly illogical are the people who say things like “Just follow Jesus and it will happen” or “Seek His face and not his Hand. Seek the giver and not the gift.” The Bible doesn’t actually agree.
In fact, in Matthew 7:7-11 it says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
Think about that. The Bible (and not just any part but Jesus personally) literally instructs us to ask for things we desire, and that if we do, we will receive them. Anyone who tells you to stop seeking after the miraculous, kindly and gently ignore their advice.
The other one that really gets me is “Don’t focus on that stuff (the miraculous) because it will draw you away from God if you focus on it too much.” I’m sorry, but Jesus spent multiple years going around teaching his disciples to heal and do signs, wonders, and miracles, and suddenly when I want to do the same things Jesus did, it’s a problem that I focus on it and want to walk in it?? Jesus certainly didn’t agree with that line of thinking. In John 14 Jesus said that we should believe in him, and if we can’t take him at his own word, then we should believe on the *evidence* of the miracles that he did. As followers of Jesus, we are supposed to walk in miracles.
My friend Steve once pointed out on social media that while Mark 16 does say that “these signs will follow those who believe,” it’s not meant to be a passive thing but something that brings action. Think of it this way. Let’s assume for a minute that the Holy Spirit dwells within each one of us (which He does), and that because of that we can all operate in the miraculous (which we can). If I were to assume that because I’m a nurse that all of my patients will improve but I never actually do any interventions to help them get better, it would be absurd to expect positive results. Likewise, if we assume we can walk in miracles but never exert any effort to actually do so, it would be improbable to expect that we will see any occur.
I’m not saying one has to purposefully enter dangerous situations or go evangelize on random city streets for hours each day for miracles to occur (although both theoretically could yield some results). What I am saying is that if we never step out to pray for anything to occur, why are we expecting to sit on our laurels and have miracles just fall in our laps? Passivity has never been the way of the Kingdom of God. John 11:12 says, “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” If we want to see miracles happen, we need to actually do some miracle-ing. Not-praying for them, not-expecting them to happen, not-seeking them, not-talking about them, not-doing-anything-related-to-them is a highly unreliable way to experience the power of God, whereas if we do the opposite of all of those things, we will see God move.
The Christian life is all about partnership with God. When God wants to do things, He partners with us. In the same vein, miracles shouldn’t only be a passive thing we wait to have occur to us. Certainly there are times God will do things in times and ways we don’t expect, but as a whole we should be actively engaging the supernatural instead of waiting for it to happen to us.
