The Rules of Speaking With God

Like the ideas for many of my blog posts, this one began with a conversation with a friend—in this case my buddy Steve. I was sharing with him that I was having a really hard time with the fact that another dear friend of mine not only didn’t get raised from the dead, but that I had a dream the morning of his funeral where he did​ get raised and when I woke up it took me a minute to realize I had been dreaming. A total mood killer. for the happiness I was waking up with. Anyway, I was telling Steve what God had shared with me about the situation, and how it was the first time in a long time that God told me something different than He normally does in dead raising situations (God always tells me the same thing—what a great job I’m doing, whether they return or not). Steve reminded me of something I knew but had forgotten, and something we have talked about on other occasions—that there are rules in play that may have permitted God to tell me something different this time than He normally does. I get this is an odd concept for most people, so let’s talk about the rules of speaking with God.

Whenever I talk about spiritual rules and laws, most people get offended. I wish it wasn’t true, but they do. Often, people seem to equate the existence of spiritual rules as being the same as living under Old Testament Law, the law of Sin and Death that Jesus came to set us free from. And maybe to some degree they are either the same or related. Its possible. But more to the point, when Jesus died and rose again, physical laws like gravity and rules of Newtonian Physics didn’t cease to exist—so why do we think spiritual ones would just vanish? For those interested in a deeper discussion of spiritual mechanics and how they influence our lives (and how we can use them for spiritual growth), pick up a copy of my book The Power of Impartation—I go fairly in depth on the subject there. For now, however, I want us to focus on one specific area, the rules that govern our interactions with God.

It sounds weird to think there are rules that govern how we interact with God, but there are. For example, Number 12:6-8A says, “he said, “Listen to my words: ‘When there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord.'” God clearly explains how with most people​ God communicates in certain ways—riddles, visions, and dreams. However, because Moses sees God’s form, there is something different about how God can communicate with the man, so God does it face to face with him. Why does that matter? It isn’t because God isn’t interested in talking clearly to us—it’s because there are rules that dictate how the interactions can occur. Why else would there be prophecies about how one day in the future we would all​ be taught by God directly instead of through prophets and teachers (Isaiah 54:13; Jeremiah 31:33–34; Hebrews 8:10–11 and mentioned by Jesus in John 6:45)? It is because God wants​ to talk to us this way but can’t​. At least not yet, not fully how He would like to, but we’re headed in the right direction.

Where else do we see this? All over the Bible. God has very specific things He wants to accomplish, but because there are rules that I don’t even entirely understand, He has to have angels give messages, sometimes cryptically, to have people do things they don’t entirely understand—things that probably would go more smoothly if God would just speak more directly and clearly. And many of us have had similar situations, right? Where God tells us something vaguely, or gives us a cryptic warning dream that we only manage to interpret with the benefit of hindsight, rendering the warning entirely useless. I mean, if God really cared, wouldn’t He give us a warning we can understand easily? He would love to​ because God is kind and loving and good. But He can’t, because of the rules.

God is limited by a combination of things. Often there are limits to what we are able to hear based on our current capacity and ability. Jesus mentioned this in John 16:12-13 saying, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” Jesus had more He wanted to tell them, but was limited by their​ capacity to bear, handle, or manage what He wanted to tell them. The same is true with you and me, and it limits what God can tell us. That is why God takes us from one level of truth to another. He might tell one person something that is true to a certain degree, and then years later as they grow in things spiritual God then says something else that might seem contradictory at first to the previous thing God had said—but God was not lying to the person. Rather, he was sharing one level of truth and when the person grew and was able to handle more, God could share a deeper truth. We see the same thing often with denominations. God will move people from one denomination to another as He is growing them because of the truths that they carry and the depths God wants them to grow into.

God is limited in some ways by the level of demonic resistance. Or maybe, instead of saying God is limited, it might be more accurate to say that our receiving capacity is limited in what messages do and don’t arrive to us successfully. Daniel is a great example of this. In Daniel 10, the man Daniel received a very troubling revelation, and then received an interpretation in a vision, and then he began to fast and pray because of how troubling it was. An angel shows up 21 days later but explains that he was sent the same day​ Daniel began to pray and seek an answer, but that a demonic prince, a fallen Beni-elohim, the prince of Persia, opposed him as he traveled in the spirit to bring the message, and Michael the Archangel, another Beni-elohim prince had to come and fight on his behalf so he could get the message to Daniel. The spiritual battle over revelation is actually pretty intense at times, and those who do inner healing and deliverance know this to be true. Sometimes during a session all spiritual communication simply shuts down as the enemy tries to prevent all revelation from coming through, and if persistent enough, usually the believers praying will break through and the revelation that brings freedom will begin again. It isn’t that God is unwilling to release freedom, but that the battle is real and the enemy sometimes go into overdrive to stop the communication.

I don’t claim to understand all of the reasons why these things are this way, but I do understand they are this way. There is something really good that knowing this does for us though. Because we now understand the underlying problem, we can do something about it. In the case of demonic interference, we can continue to pray, fast as necessary, and break through the demonic blockades. We can do things to enhance our own weight-carrying capacity in the spirit so that God can release more to us. Fasting and praying in tongues consistently are two good ways to do this, but not the only ones. We can also make sure to not just ask questions of God, but change​ the questions and change the way we word them and ask them. There is something about how we ask questions that sometimes frees God up to answer them differently. Maybe it’s that asking different questions bypasses ways the demonic were blocking them. Maybe it’s that asking different questions lets God answer them in a way we are already prepared to handle them. I don’t know why it works—I just know that it does. Sometimes there isn’t anything different we can do and we simply have to grow into a new place before we can get different communication from God. Whatever the reason, there is a reason, but as we remain steadfast and persistent in drawing near to God, we can trust that He will draw near to us and that our communication will grow deeper, clearer, and better over time.

 

 

The Solar System Model for Understanding Fragmentation and Dissociation

For those of you who have been following The Kings of Eden for a while, you know that I am a large proponent of inner healing and deliverance—largely because Christ died in part so we could be set free from all of the powers of hell and to live well and whole in spirit, soul, and body.  When discussing this, I believe it is important that people understand how we get wounded and what happens when we do, all in order to better understand how to heal those wounds and pursue wholeness.  Today, we are going to look at what I have named the “Solar System Model for Understanding Fragmentation and Dissociation” to better understand how we can heal the fractured portions of our souls and what happens inside as we go through this process.

If you are not familiar with fragmentation (something everyone has, not just those who have been clinically diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder) then you will probably benefit from reading my article called “An Introduction to Soul Fragmentation.”  For a better understanding of how fragmentation influences day to day life and the inner healing process, and how dissociation actually works in the day-to-day, listen to Dan Duval’s message “The Airplane Model of Dissociation.”  It does a very good job of explaining.  Now, down to business!

The Solar System Model of Fragmentation is something I have developed after going through some of my own inner healing process, as well as through some discussion with friends who are either going through similar things or who are helping others in their journey through healing soul fragmentation.  This model is designed to help the reader visualize and understand the different components of the soul, what wounding and degrees of wholeness look like, and can provide a useful visualization tool for those who are visually-oriented and/or operate in the seer aspect of prophetic gifts.  First, we will break down the components, then we will look at how they work in conjunction with one another and what this means for the inner healing journey.

Much like how our solar system consists of a primary sun, multiple planets in consistent and deliberate orbit around the sun and in concert with one another, moons and satellites that orbit those planets, and then other space debris such as comets, asteroids, and more, our soul can be described in much the same way.  If our primary or core aspect of our soul is displayed as the sun, then almost everything else—the other planets and moons, comets, and asteroids, represent other portions of our soul that have been broken into pieces through various emotional wounds and trauma throughout our lives and even in the womb.  The levels of complexity inside the human soul mirror the complexity in our solar system so no analogy is perfect, but the Solar System Model provides a strong base of understanding that can be adjusted as needed for the individual’s system.

In a person who has no soul fragmentation (Jesus, to my knowledge, being the only one who has ever done this) the solar system would be composed of a sun and *only* a sun, as there are no other broken-off parts.  The rest of us have a combination of planets and moons—parts that have reached some measure of healing and salvation and are walking in unity with the main personality, and comets and asteroids—parts that are still in conflict inside the system in some way.

Planets, of any size, can be likened to parts that have gotten healing and salvation in Christ, reaching a general measure of wholeness and possibly even some maturity.  The moons around them are other parts, often ones that broke off from that planet sometime in the past when some wound caused already-broken parts to fragment even further.  Their steady, regular orbit shows that while they have not reintegrated or reunited with the core, the sun, they no longer cause any conflict or problems inside the system and don’t tend to be targets for demonic attack.

Comets and asteroids, on the other hand, are the unhealed portions of the soul that are prone to demonic attack.  While they still move around the solar system, their movements are generally more chaotic and they are influenced more easily by other factors both inside and outside of the system.  These parts lack emotional healing and often also need a lot of help renewing their understanding.  Where the Bible tells us to “take every thought captive,” the negative thoughts that require this attention are usually generated from these portions of our soul who lack an understanding of things like identity in Christ, the finished work of the cross, and often have a lot of other unfruitful beliefs.

Why does this matter?  Half of the problem with fragmentation is the conflict inside the system.  When I first started doing this type of inner healing work, I thought that getting parts integrated (rejoining the broken pieces with the main core of the soul) was of primary importance.  I have come to learn that integration can be likened to the final 1% of an inner healing process, where the other 99% consists of healing wounded emotions, learning healthy mindsets and beliefs, and removing the demonic and other harmful spiritual influences.  What makes inner healing so difficult is that the sun and the planets, which are easier to access, don’t tend to have a lot of wounding.  Most of the wounding is carried on the parts zooming erratically around the solar system, making it more difficult to access the parts and thus harder to heal the wounds.  As different parts receive inner healing and freedom in Jesus, they move from a chaotic and irregular orbit into the ordered portion of the solar system.

As more inner healing occurs, the soul becomes more ordered and healthy with less chaos, randomness, and disorder.  The demonic like to attack the parts that are lacking in protection (the asteroids and comets) because they are easier to attack.  These parts often form agreements with the demonic (which for our understanding can be viewed as subconscious or unconscious agreements we have made) and are easily tricked by the enemy.  When these parts get brought into a stable orbit, which means more healing, greater safety in Christ, and often a greater ability to grow into maturity, they become less available to the enemy, which means fewer avenues for demonic attack.

For the individual, the outward experience of this will be fewer life events that carry emotional triggers, a greater ability to handle difficult emotions, and hard emotions will simply be less powerful as a whole.  One’s belief system will clarify itself as parts realign their beliefs with the truth, which means double-mindedness and unbelief (caused by these parts being unaligned with the core self, the asteroids in conflict with the sun) gradually work their way out of the consciousness as well.  All in all it means a person who is more whole inside with greater emotional resilience to handle all that life throws at them.

While the Solar System Model can go into more depth, it provides a basic understanding for what fragmentation looks like inside the individual.  As I continue to develop this model, I hope to be able to provide not just a more comprehensive understanding for how the broken and healing soul works, but to provide better resources as avenues to accelerate the inner healing process.  For those who are interested in learning more about this method of inner healing, you can pick up a copy of Broken To Whole, a book I coauthored that covers inner healing for the fragmented soul.  As I have developed this model after writing that book, it will not be in there, but in addition to other information, we do provide various exercises the individual can do to help jump-start their journey toward wholeness of the soul.  If you want some help in identifying and working with parts, as well as supporting the inner healing process, you might want to try Fragment Finder, a flower essence that helps resolve the buried emotional wounds which have caused the formation of soul splits or fragments.  For those who really want to dive into their healing journey, you can also buy the Broken To Whole Essence Kit, a package combination of five essence blends and a print copy of Broken To Whole.  If this material interests you, be sure to check out the other related blog links below, and sign up for my email list to get updates when new books, products, and events are released!  Blessings to you!

 

What Religion Isn’t Ready For, It Will Revile

About 8-10 years ago, I helped run a prophetic training and activation group on Facebook, where I would put on practice-events so people could practice hearing God for one another and stretching themselves by doing it in unique ways such as them not knowing whom the word was actually for. During this time I was learning a lot about Christian traveling in the spirit (insights which are included in my book The Beginner’s Guide to Traveling in the Spirit, available on Amazon), and as Religion normally does, the nail that sticks up is the one that gets hammered down.

In this instance I was being accused of prophetically spying on others in the group and traveling in the spirit to their homes, and not only was I being accused of this, but I was grossly unaware of it at first until a close and well-trusted friend told me what was going on. They had tried to rope him into it by having a group discussion without my knowledge so they could “deal with me.”

While there are multiple issues with all of this, the first is that I had no awareness of the problem they were planning to fix on my behalf because no one told me (and considering I wasn’t guilty of their accusations to begin with, there really wasn’t anything to fix besides their behavior). When my friend told this group of dissenters that nothing they accused me of fit my character and when he confirmed zero people had spoken directly with me about it, he did, which I appreciated.
I then spoke directly to the ringleader, who denied, denied, and denied some more, and then continued to tell me how much she loved me and my family and spoke all kinds of nice words to me. I confirmed again with my close, trusted friend that all he had told me was indeed the case and then readdressed her. She continued to deny everything, and yet while this was happening these secret conversations began expanding into the group dynamics and various group members began to show up where they never or rarely had before to dissent on various things I wrote on the subject of spirit travel. As it became rapidly apparent this woman was lying to me, I ended our communication (with her lying and denying to the last), and the group almost unanimously asked me to leave.

The ironic part is that this was a group to train people in the prophetic, and this was an opportunity to teach people how to discern spiritual things. If demons can masquerade as angels of light and angels can appear as humans, is it really that much to imagine that a malevolent spirit could pretend to be someone else in order to stir up trouble? Only if you are tied so closely to religion that you refuse to actually discern what is going on. A short few years later, Christian spirit travel became a big thing and now it is entirely normal in some Christian groups and some believers center their ministries around this topic.

A long story for a short lesson, but the lesson is this: the enemy will always come up with ways to get Religion to get you to conform to its rules and regulations, and when you don’t fall under its thumb of control the Religion will attempt to crucify you in some way to stop you—much like it tried to do to Jesus.

If God has placed something in your heart, don’t let the naysayers stop you. Don’t let the voices of anger and negativity and opposition drown out your courage to move forward. Always remain firm in the unwavering truth that Jesus loves you, His Undying Spirit lives and breathes within you, and that with God all things are possible. If you can’t fail Him, and He is always with you, then anyone else against you is simply noise. Drown out the noise, ignore the reviling of Religion, and keep walking forward in Him!!

 

 

A Prayer of Freedom from Terror on 9/11 — September 11, 2001

During an inner healing session a friend was doing with me this past week, we hit on something unusual—or rather I should say unexpected, but in hindsight it wasn’t really that surprising. What the Lord was showing her was that sometime around age 18 I had some kind of event that caused terror, and it was somehow related to my high school. Well, “terror” is a fairly specific term with a pretty specific meaning, and I could not recall a single event in high school that evoked—

Wait.

September 11, 2001 happened two months before my 18th birthday. You know, a “terror attack” on the United States. I was in my second period classroom in Pennsylvania that morning when we watched it on TV.

That was it.

Now, as a 37 year old I am significantly more aware of some of the details they did a poor job of covering up, like the inside operation that it was, the third tower that automagically fell down on the same day, and the demolition explosives that are visible in all three buildings that fell that day (remember the third plane that went down? It was supposed to hit a third building so they could claim all three were terror attacks, but since people on board supposedly downed that plane, they just blew the building up anyway), as well as the extreme lack of plane debris and the impossible-to-miss street lights the theoretical Pentagon plane should have hit had it actually done as claimed, not to mention that jet fuel is physically incapable of causing the structural damage-leading-to-building-collapse that we all witnessed in New York that day.

However, while there were a bunch of theatrics along with very real explosions and very real deaths in a massive bid to create more war and push forward certain agendas (including the Patriot Act), there was something else at work that day. Through one highly televised act, there was a psychic attack leveled by the forces of darkness on not just the US nation but I suggest worldwide. This event was specifically designed to create a spike of terror in millions if not billions of people and was like a feast day for the demonic. And you know who didn’t miss out on that? Those humans who actively and purposefully serve the kingdom of darkness, who used that day and that event to harvest all of that terror and fear and pain to forward works of darkness in the Earth.

Why does this matter to you? Well, when I observe something in an inner healing session, especially if it is something that is likely to affect a lot of people, I like to test it out a bit and see if what I think is a widespread issue actually is a widespread issue. With some things I talk to friends, test out my theory on them, and often find I am correct. In this case, I just asked friends who do inner healing and deliverance regularly, and found that there indeed were many people’s mind-control programming that got activated that day, including end-times stuff, creating new soul fractures through trauma (funny how terror events can do that), and more. The powers of darkness like to use massive events to co-opt the mental and emotional energy of millions of people, which is why things like yearly Superbowl halftime shows are so demonically inspired. They know millions will be tuned in and engaging with whatever they do on stage, so they hold thinly veiled ritual ceremonies with dancing, singing, props, and more to literally pull in and focus the psychic energy of all of the participants toward predetermined effects. I suggest 9/11 is no different in that way.

What did we do about it? We prayed to break off all spellbinding tied to us and anyone in our bloodline through birth, marriage, or adoption from the psychic trauma of that day. We declared that the blood of Jesus would disconnect us all and cleanse us from every way the enemy has tried to tie us into their workings through terror that was evoked through the events of September 11, 2001. While technically the session was for me, the issue was related to both of us so we prayed together for us and our families, and we both felt a shift afterwards, as well as hit on some other spiritual stuff that praying about the issue pulled up as well.

Now, since I was 17 at the time and just one of millions of Americans who were affected on that day, not to mention anyone else in any other nation who may have been negatively influenced as well, I have written the following prayer. If you feel this issue relates to you (if you were alive on that day I can almost guarantee it is worth praying) then pray the following. Some may feel a need to adjust certain wording to their situation, but as a general whole this is a blanket prayer meant to cover many issues that the enemy has seeded in the hearts of mankind through that evil event.

“In the name of the One True Lord Jesus Christ I speak this prayer over every aspect of my being in every realm, timeline, and dimension of time and eternity. I send the effects of this prayer throughout my bloodline including marriage lines and adoption lines both forward and backward in the generational line. I break off ever hex, spell, incantation, curse, evil prayer, psychic trauma, collective consciousness of terror, and related tied to the events of September 11, 2001 and days surrounding it. I reject, repent, and renounce any ways in which I may have been connected or co-opted, knowingly or unknowingly, into any form of ritual, spell, or other practice that used the terror, fear, pain, and other emotions, beliefs, and collective consciousness of that day for evil purposes. I take authority over those things and destroy them. I collapse every realm, alternate timeline, dimension, and every portal, gate, or other opening that was created by the enemy through the workings of that day. I remove the right of access that was gained on that day and subsequent days to the Earth realm and all connected spaces from any and all spirits who do not serve the Most High God and I send the heavenly hosts to go remove all trespassers from those places. I break off all access to Earth that was given to evil and fallen cosmic heavenly beings through the events of that day. I decree the removal of all demonic forces, all of their instruments and objects, and all of their effects that were derived from that day and subsequent days from myself, my bloodline, marriage lines, and adoptions lines, and from every part of my sphere of authority and influence. I command healing into every aspect of my being that was negatively affected on that day and apply the finished work of the cross through Jesus’ precious blood sacrifice to bring total wholeness to my spirit, soul, and body and to bring me into total and complete freedom in Jesus Christ. I apply the blood of Jesus to that day in history to wash it completely of all ill effects and for that finished work to resonate throughout every timeline and dimension until the restoration of all things. I receive this now by faith as a complete and permanent work in Jesus mighty and worthy name. Amen!”

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.”

 

 

Filling Prayer Bowls – Accelerating Answered Prayer

In a previous article titled Frame It! Building a Vehicle For Answered Prayer we discussed how to frame up prayer using a model of golden bowls found in Revelation 5:8 and 8:3-5, with a promise of more to come, discussing how prayer bowls get filled and how we can accelerate the process with spiritual laws and principles. In the same way that the natural world full of visible matter has natural laws that govern its function, the spiritual realm full of invisible spirit-matter has spiritual laws that do the same. Where natural laws include things like friction, drag, gravity, and thermodynamics, spiritual laws include things like sowing and reaping, focus, and agreement. When we understand how spiritual laws function, we can make strategic use of them to enhance the effectiveness of our prayers. Spiritual principles are similar to laws in that they influence how things function, but are not as specific and targeted as laws are. Alternately, to look at why prayers often go unanswered, you can read our article titled Understanding Spiritual Laws and Forces: The Paper Airplane Model. Before explaining how we can use spiritual laws and principles to do this, I want to clarify something. None of this is us earning God’s favor or earning the right to have our prayers answered. We have already been made fully righteous in Jesus Christ, and instead of trying to earn the right to get our prayers answered, the scriptures tell us that because of our position as sons and daughters of God we are to “boldly approach the throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help in time of need (Heb 4:16).” We don’t pray from an earthly position of need, but from a heavenly position of birthright and authority, decreeing and legislating into the earth that which we already have access of in heaven. However, God also wants to bring us into maturity as sons and daughters which means learning how the spiritual realms work and the rules by which they operate. The good news is that doing so will help us to be more effective in manifesting heaven’s rule in the natural realm.

Spiritual Laws

The primary law that influences most of what happens in the earth is that of sowing and reaping. Galatians 6:7 tells us that what we sow or put out, we will reap or get back. Luke 6:37-38 speaks of a similar concept, saying, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Both of these verses show us that whatever we put out, and in the measure which we put it out, we will receive in like kind in return. In the natural that means if we plant corn seeds, we will grow corn plants. If we plant acorns, we will grow oak trees—and the law works the same way for things spiritual. What this means for answered prayer is that if we want to accelerate the speed at which we get things done, we can intentionally sow in order to intentionally reap. Using the idea of prayer bowls getting filled in prayer, that means we might choose to intercede for others who are dealing with the same things we are, knowing that as we sow on behalf of others, we will reap back the same for our own situation. You can read a little more about it in another article titled Is The Law of Attraction In The Bible?
The thing about using the law of sowing and reaping to accelerate answered prayer is that it isn’t necessarily a quick-fix. It is effective, but not always fast. Think about it—when someone plants a seed, it takes months for it to grow before it produces edible fruit. Sowing and reaping is effective, but it isn’t usually instantaneous. While there are situations and circumstances that can accelerate the “growth time”, as a whole using sowing and reaping to accelerate answered prayer works best in situations that are expected to either be long-term issues or recurring ones.
A second law we can use to accelerate the filling of prayer bowls is the Law of Agreement. Matthew 18:19 says, “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” This verse explicitly states that when two people agree in prayer on something, God answers. Deuteronomy 32:30 expands on this principle, showing us that there is an exponential growth that occurs when we get multiple people involved in prayer. It says, “. . . “one man chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight . . . (Deuteronomy 32:30)” When people align in prayer there is something about that joining together that causes not just a basic acceleration but has a synergistic effect in the spirit that propels answered prayer forward.

Spiritual Principles

Spiritual laws are not the only things that help accelerate prayer. There are other principles and spiritual functions that do not fall under the category of laws that can also help us accelerate prayer. Some of the primary ones include engaging and including angels, addressing atmospheres and praying under an “open heaven”, and inner healing and deliverance.
Angels are messengers, helpers, and warriors and some of their functions include helping us do all that God has planned in advance for us to do. Psalm 103:20 says, “Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word.” One of the functions of angels is to perform God’s word, and when we pray in alignment with God’s will and nature (considering Jesus *is* the Word made flesh), angels assist us. One means of accelerating prayer is to be intentional about involving angels. In fact, if we consider the prayer-bowl analogy, Revelation 8:3-5 even shows us that angels are actively involved in the process of answering prayer. In Daniel 10:12, an angel comes to Daniel and tells him that when Daniel first prayed to God, he was dispatched with the answer to the man’s prayer, which only further demonstrates this point. If we want to enhance the effectiveness of prayer, we would be wise to include our heavenly helpers (To learn more about how to partner with angels, enroll for free in our email list and you will receive a free e-book titled Engaging Angels).

Atmospheres are one of those subjects that it seems most are unaware of on a conscious level, but if we really think about it, we have all experienced the influence of an atmosphere. Have you ever walked into a room where two people were arguing? You can literally feel the tension in the air—a perfect example of a negative atmosphere. In the same way that we can both sense and create negative atmospheres, we can sense and create positive ones. A good way to do this is to literally verbally take authority over the atmosphere wherever you are and command it to shift in a way that is according to Heaven’s design, but spending time in worship or prayer are other ways to do this. The idea of praying under an “open heaven” is essentially derived from the idea that we can have a spiritual atmosphere that is highly conducive to prayer, angelic activity, and which restrains the function of the demonic. For a revelatory perspective on this, I highly recommend the article How Satan Stops Our Prayers: Combat In The Heavenly Realms by John Mulinde. Ultimately, whether one titles it something special like “open heaven” or not, the underlying point is that we can influence a time of prayer by addressing not just the spiritual forces of angels and demons during the time of prayer, but by setting up the spiritual conditions around us at the outset of that prayer time. By adjusting the spiritual atmosphere as we start to pray we can enhance the effectiveness of our prayer time and often can sense an active release in the spirit when the things we are praying for are being answered.

Inner healing and deliverance don’t really seem like the kind of thing that would help accelerate prayer, but Hebrews 12:1 gives us a key as to how they can help. It says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us . . . (Hebrews 12:1)“ Soul wounds and demonic baggage are perfect examples of things that hinder, and they also push people toward entangling sin. Going through inner healing and deliverance helps us throw them off, as the verse recommends, so we can run forward with perseverance. While this might not seem to help with prayer at first glance, demonic resistance hinders prayer, and inner wounds eat at our faith. By addressing both of these, we remove things that erode the effectiveness of our prayers, which in turn increases effectiveness.

 

Whether working with spiritual laws such as sowing and reaping or spiritual principles such as atmospheres and open heavens, we do not have to live at the mercy of our circumstances when it comes to prayer. We can take an active part in when and how our prayers get answered, and can use Godly wisdom to partner with heaven to see God’s Kingdom manifest on earth as it already exists in heaven.

 

 

Spiritual Authority to Cast Out Demons and How It Actually Works

The subject of casting out demons is growing in popularity in some Christian groups, and for good reason—it is an important need and people are realizing their ignorance and choosing to learn. However, in order to take authority over a demon to cast it out, one actually has to have that authority. One of the subjects that I think is fairly poorly understood among Christians is that of spiritual laws and their relationship with spiritual authority. There is a lot of teaching out there about our authority in Christ, but far less on the subject of spiritual laws. Why does this matter? Because casting out demons is normally based on spiritual authority, and spiritual authority is based on spiritual laws. It isn’t a matter of “we can do whatever we want because we know who we are in Christ” but “through Christ we can operate to the extent of our authority based on existing spiritual laws. Now, before someone levels the heresy finger at me, lets discuss spiritual authority and how it actually works.

Authority of any kind is obtained through power delegated to an individual from a governing body. In order for a governing body to govern, there have to be rules in place that decide what is and is not permitted—in other words, laws. For a person to operate in spiritual authority (which is spiritual power that has been legally delegated to an individual based on existing laws made by the governing body), there must be spiritual laws.

I hear people teach on this subject, saying things like “Take authority over a demon and cast it out”—and they are 100% correct in teaching that. But sometimes even when one does that, the demon doesn’t leave. So how does that work, and why does the demon not always leave when we command it to in the name of Jesus? This is where understanding spiritual laws come into play.

First, before anyone decides I am wrong and that demons have to leave every time they are commanded out, let’s look at what the Bible shows us. We’re going to look at three separate situations that deal with spiritual authority and casting out demons, and what that means for us and our beliefs about whether demons can resist or refuse being exorcised.

The first is found in both Mark 5 and Luke 8, and recounts Jesus’ encounter with the Gadarene man possessed by a legion of demons (a legion is roughly 4,000-5,000 men). In it, Jesus actually had to command the demons out twice (as the first time clearly didn’t work and only agitated them further), and the second time only occurred through bargaining.

Mark 5:6-8 says, “When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!’ For Jesus had said to him, ‘Come out of this man, you impure spirit!’” This passage shows us that the demons started yelling after Jesus commanded them out, and it was then that they started speaking through the man’s body.

Mark 5:11-13 continues the story, saying “A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. The demons begged Jesus, ‘Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.’ He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.” I can’t pretend to understand what was going on that Jesus needed to let the demons go into pigs instead of sending them to the Abyss, and the passages are written in a way that suggest Jesus had the authority to send them there if he wanted to. Maybe he just felt like it, maybe he had another reason he chose the pigs, but in doing so it destroyed someone else’s livelihood (which is something Jesus would likely have avoided if circumstances were different), so Jesus probably had a good reason for doing it that way. Regardless, not only does this passage show us Jesus bargaining with demons on exactly how they will leave a man, but he was forced to command the demons to leave two times before it actually took place. If Jesus has to command demons more than once, even if it only ever happened to him one time (and that’s only what was recorded), we shouldn’t be surprised if we run into the same problem.

The second situation that shows us something about casting out demons and spiritual authority is in Acts 19:13-16 which says, “Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, ‘In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.’ Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?’ Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.”

It was not unheard of in that day for certain Jews to perform exorcisms. This family exorcist-team heard about Paul doing it and decided to try his method, not realizing that Paul wasn’t working with a method like they typically did. Instead, Paul was operating out of spiritual authority. Notice that the demons not only recognized that both Jesus and Paul had spiritual influence, but that the demons also recognized that these seven brothers did not possess that same authority. The end result was a badly-failed deliverance.

The third passage is Phillippians 2:10-11 which states, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Yes, one day in time or eternity every knee will bow, but that hasn’t happened yet. Thus, it is only in theory that demons must obey, and in actual practice we sometimes have to make them obey.

What can we learn from these passages?

First, if a demon doesn’t leave, simply repeating oneself isn’t necessarily going to get the job done. Does that mean that it can’t work? No. What it does mean is that we will need to figure out why that demon is able to resist being cast out. The ability of a demon to enter a person is based on spiritual laws, as is its ability to remain. That’s why the topic of spiritual laws is relevant to deliverance to begin with. Demons already know spiritual laws, and know those laws well enough to know when they can and cannot remain in a person. When a demon is able to resist being cast out, it is usually because there is something connected to that individual that is making room, giving permission, or in some manner making an allowance for that demon to remain. Demons know these laws and that’s why authority doesn’t always work to cast them out. Theology that says authority always works to cast out demons is theoretically correct but in actuality wrong.

There are a number of things that can either give or help give demons access to a person. Unhealthy emotions and/or beliefs, sinful actions and desires (and feeding them over time), curses, generational iniquity, any form of abuse, and intentional engagement with the demonic are some of the main ones, but this is not an exhaustive list. The way this works is that all of these involve some human’s free will—and our free will is a significant contributor to demonic involvement in situations. There is a principle in the Bible that says that whatever happens on earth requires human involvement and agreement (Psalm 115:16, Amos 3:7). As such, for demons to afflict us and latch on to us generally requires someone (whether us personally or others perpetrating evil upon us) to utilize their free will to permit it.

When interrogating a demon to find out how it was able to gain access to a person, I have heard demons say on multiple occasions things like “They let me” or “They gave me permission.” Keeping in mind that demons lie as commonly as we breathe, the things they say are often a twisting of truth. For example, if someone has spent a lot of time engaging pornography, and have spirits associated with lust and perversion, while the demon may claim that he or she “gave them permission”, it wasn’t like someone sat there and said “demons of lust and perversion, please enter me.” But that’s what the demons make it sound like. No, it was that person’s actions which engaged the law of sowing and reaping (what you put out you get back) and the law of focus (what you engage will engage you). It is only by understanding spiritual laws that we can get a better handle not just on how people get demonized, but why demons are sometimes able to resist our efforts to cast them out. In the above example, if the spirits of lust and perversion won’t leave, it is usually beneficial for the person to renounce whatever actions, thoughts, words, activities, etc. they have engaged in that would constitute a form of spiritual agreement between them and the demonic. Again, while one might not be consciously invoking demons, the energy that our actions release has an attractive quality to it for either light or dark, good or evil. In fact, Proverbs 18:21 says it like this: “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” While this isn’t just limited to the words we say, this is a perfect example. The things we speak, or really the energy we put out in any manner, will cause us to receive the fruit of those words or actions.

When we want to cast out demons, we need to identify where we operate in spiritual authority, areas of weakness or bondage in our own lives that undermine our spiritual authority, and our own limiting beliefs. We also need to recognize that in addition to learning how spiritual laws function, which is vital, we also have to *develop* our spiritual authority. Believe it or not, spiritual authority can be grown (we will look at that subject in another article). The Bible says in Luke 2:52 that “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” While not technically authority, this passage demonstrates that Jesus had to grow in aspects of his walk as he journeyed through life, and we are no different. While in Matthew 28:18-19a, “Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go . . . ” it doesn’t mean that they received all authority. He received all authority and has delegated it to us, but we don’t necessarily walk in all of it at once. In John 16:12, Jesus said to his disciples, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.” He recognized that their ability (and likewise ours) to handle everything he had for them at that time was limited, and v13-15 goes on to explain that the Holy Spirit will reveal and release more to us as we become ready for it.

Ultimately, spiritual laws help give us insight into how the spiritual realms operate, how the angelic and demonic are able to function, and ultimately give us a glimpse into how we can become more effective in casting out demons. Specifically, growing in spiritual authority is an effective means to reach that end, but ultimately there are a good number of tools we can use and even new ones we can develop by understanding how spiritual laws influence both spiritual authority and how to more effectively cast out demons.

 

How Can I Keep My Freedom After a Deliverance Session?

[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″]One of the things people don’t always realize about casting out demons is that it is only long-lasting if the underlying root issues are dealt with. Matthew 12:43-45 and Luke 11:24-26 speak of the same situation—casting demons out of a person. Jesus explains that if a stronghold exists within a person, casting out the demons will not fix the problem if the stronghold isn’t dismantled. Strongholds can be thought of as a literal building inside a person in their innermost being (for info on that, read my blog article on the Inner Dimension).

If you don’t dismantle the strongholds, the demons will just come back, and the above passages say that they can bring even more demonic reinforcements back in with them. Not a great plan. So how are we supposed to walk in total freedom if casting out demons is a bad idea?

To be clear, casting out demons is a fantastic idea—it just shouldn’t be the only thing we do. It’s a bit like building a three-legged stool. If deliverance is one leg of the stool and that’s all you do, then the stool won’t function properly at all. The only way to get the stool to work right is to add the other two legs: inner healing and mind renewal.

Healing emotional wounds can be simple at times, and in other cases very complex. Praying Medic’s book/ebook “Emotional Healing In Three Easy Steps” is a fantastic resource for a simple 30-second prayer that can be prayed by anyone at any time for lasting results. I use it regularly personally, in my home, and with people I have worked with for inner healing and deliverance. It works really well and I highly recommend it because it is incredibly simple and quick to learn and use. In more complex cases it is a good idea to get some outside help from a prayer coach or prayer minister of some kind, but try using simple tools such as those in Praying Medic’s book first and see how things go. By healing the inner wounds that help create demonic access, it destroys the ability of demons to re-enter a person and in some cases uproots strongholds that provide them with firm footing once inside.

Renewing the mind is another incredible key to living in freedom. Demons get access through both our emotions AND thoughts, so if we only deal with one and neglect the other, we are only going to see half the results. We have all learned to believe things that are not true about God, about ourselves, and about the world around us. We are constantly sowing these wrong beliefs out as an intangible energy that attract demonic forces toward us, and it is visible to them in the spirit realm. As we align our beliefs with God’s, we not only stop these negative emanations, but begin to sow and reap in the positive, attracting good things toward us. That’s why Philippians 4:8-9 says that if we think about good things that “the God of peace will be with us.” There is a direct correlation between our beliefs and the level of peace and glory that we can live in. Changing our thoughts changes our lives, and it brings freedom both because it brings about better, healthier life choices and also because it has a preventive effect against the demonic.

There is a fourth component that God is revealing to the Body in this hour, which is releasing those same three components of life transformation into the parts inside our inner world—fragments and alters who the demonic are using to get to us. While I don’t want to go into depth on them more here, when this is understood, it is evident that it is a huge key to living out the full, abundant lives that Jesus purchased for us. When we deliver, heal, and renew the minds of all of the parts inside of us, the level of freedom goes to a level that few even believe is possible.

Regardless of whether one wants to believe in or deal with parts or not, when we put deliverance together with emotional healing and renewing the mind, we become unstoppable forces of inner wholeness. This allows us to enjoy the freedom that Romans 8 speaks of where without any further effort we can simply walk freely by the Spirit of Life. Anything less than that is to live beneath the level of fullness of what Jesus purchased for us.
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fragmentsalters innerhealingdeliverance innerworldemotionalhealing

An Introduction To Soul Fragmentation

In a number of other articles, I have discussed various aspects of inner healing, deliverance, spiritual gifts, and even physical healing, but many of them relate in some way to some basic functions and dysfunction of the soul. I will attempt, here, to provide a basic introduction to soul fragmentation: what it is, how it works, how the enemy uses it to afflict us, and how applying the redemptive power of Jesus to these soul fragments promotes inner wholeness.

Soul fragmentation is a protective mechanism in our soul that is designed to help us deal with difficult emotions, pain, and even physical trauma. The soul takes all of the difficult feelings, balls them up, attaches them to a small portion of the soul, and then separates it from the main core of the soul. This puts the emotions at a bit of a distance and allows the person to continue to function in life in spite of trauma or emotional difficulty. It usually happens when we are not able to properly cope with a situation, which is why fragmentation tends to happen more in children and less-often as adults. By the time one becomes an adult, we usually have developed methods of dealing with difficult situations and the emotions associated with them, so fragmentation tends to happen less frequently. However, it is possible for fragmentation to occur at any age.

The best way I can describe this process is if we think of the soul as a gemstone. When a major issue comes up, the soul-gem pushes all the negative emotions into a corner and breaks a chip off itself, letting the chip with the bad feelings float nearby. That chip is a soul fragment. Now imagine that someone came by and took a hammer to the gem. A bunch of tiny chips would break off of the stone, but there would still be a main core of the stone that, if perfectly reattached, all the chips would fit back in place. A good way of thinking of an emotionally unhealed adult is like the gemstone with a bunch of chips. Each piece has somewhere it belongs, and all of them are able to attach back to the core of the gem. In the analogy, the core of the soul, which is sometimes known as the “presenting personality”, is that big core of the gem. Basically it’s you, the one reading this article and generally living your life.  While this is a little confusing, this is all happening on the inside somewhere, in what is essentially an inner dimension. It’s a little difficult to describe, exactly, but we typically refer to this inner dimension as “the system”, and it is where all of these fragmented portions of the soul reside. It’s like if someone had a weightless space where the soul-gem lived and the fragmented chips all orbit the core of the gem in this space.

As mentioned above, the core is the main person, you. All of the other little chips, however, carry memories and feelings from events in one’s life as well, and are also parts of the soul. Inner healing that works with fragments and alters helps these chips get healed of all the painful emotions, and then oftentimes will help them reattach to the core of the soul. Keep in mind here that the soul is basically comprised of the mind, will, and emotions. The curious thing about this is that because each portion of the soul is a legitimate part of one’s personhood, each fragment has its own portion of not just emotions, but of mind and will as well. This means that each portion of the soul can exercise its part of your God-given free will, and because it has its own portion of the mind, it can also think. While this can be a little confusing to those who aren’t used to this concept, it plays out in how the soul actually functions. Scripturally speaking, the term “heart” is usually connected with the soul, not just the physical organ that moves blood around the body. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” If this passage is to be believed, then the heart has both thoughts and intentions (intention=will), not just emotions.

In the short term, there are no significant implications of a soul fragment having its own thoughts and will, but think about what happens if someone experiences trauma as a young child and it goes unmanaged until someone is in their thirties or forties. That fragment has had three to four decades of independent thought derived from free will and time to develop and grow. As a result, his or her thoughts and actions don’t necessarily line up with the core. Usually this only presents more minimal problems, comparatively, but in some cases the different parts are able to access the body and sort of “take charge” either in conjunction with or instead of the core. This is where we see what is more commonly known as DID, or Dissociative Identity Disorder, where someone has what we refer to as “alters”, short for “alternate personalities”. While very few people have what clinicians would diagnose as DID, to a certain degree it is a meaningless diagnosis considering all humans who have ever lived other than Jesus have or have had fragmented parts of their soul. Yes, everyone has fragments and alters, referred more generally as “parts”.

While this may be hard for some to swallow, here’s why all this matters. When the soul fragments and those emotions are walled off, they are still connected to the core, almost like there is a string attached and those fragments float out in the ethers nearby. Those fragments still have an influence on what the core of the person thinks and feels. The enemy likes to use soul fragmentation as a means of influencing our thoughts, emotions, and actions by tormenting and afflicting the parts, who in turn pass those things to us.

To explain, let’s pretend that the soul is a business group who own a building, and every employee is a voting member. For every situation in life the supervisor takes a vote, and everyone decides what decisions to make. When extreme emotional problems arise, however, it’s like someone piped a poison gas into the building. The supervisor activates the emergency filtration system, and all the poison gets piped into one room, and that room is sealed from the outside. The problem is that the room the poison gas was put into was an employee’s office, and he was still inside. The poison doesn’t kill him right away, so as time goes on and situations come up, he still is involved in the voting, except the poison muddles his thinking and he constantly makes bad decisions. Now, imagine that as time goes on more and more incidents occur, and more and more employees get walled off in rooms full of poison mist. Over time, the number of employees who are still voting but making bad decisions increases to a noticeable level. This is essentially what happens over time, and is part of why soul fragmentation is an issue. The fragmented portions of the soul are still connected to the core, and influence daily life but from an unhealthy standpoint.

To make matters worse, demons target fragments and alters because they are easier to afflict that the core of the person. If we go back to the soul-gem analogy, remember that we have those fragments floating in space orbiting the core, and each one is attached by a string. When demons afflict a fragment, they are usually trying to create fear or anxiety or some other negative issue, and because the fragment is connected to the core, those feelings travel up that string and the core starts to feel that fear or anxiety or other feelings too. This is where irrational fear comes from. Everyone has fears that are not based on bad things that have happened to us. People rarely have been injured by clowns, but sometimes they cause inexplicable fear anyway. That fear encounter is actually a part that is experiencing that fear, usually with demonic torment involved, and the fear travels up the string until you are feeling that fear as well. This is why the fear is unexplainable, but you still feel it anyway. You don’t have the bad memory—the part does. You don’t have the thoughts of fear or concern, but the mind of the part does, so while you aren’t having fear-thoughts, you suddenly have irrational fear-feelings, and become affected by it.

When we get “saved”, and Jesus comes into our hearts, what happens is that our core gets saved, and oftentimes a number of fragments do as well. However, typically not all fragments get saved at that time. While this is sometimes difficult for people to understand, and even harder to accept as truth, Isaiah 61:1 offers us some keys. It says, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners . . .” The term “brokenhearted” can also be translated as “those whose hearts have shattered into pieces”. If we recall again that the heart refers to the soul, it is talking about soul fragmentation. Jesus comes to un-shatter our fragments and bring us healing. However, consider the rest of that verse—Jesus proclaims freedom for captives and release from darkness for prisoners. Sometimes fragments and alters are not just captive, but are imprisoned in darkness by the demonic somewhere inside the system (or at times outside the system).

The Bible refers to “strongholds” of the mind, and if we take it more literally, think of demons setting up an enemy fort inside the system somewhere. These fragments get captured and imprisoned inside the fort, and sometimes get brainwashed into working as guards. When Jesus comes into someone’s life, the core gets saved and Jesus basically sets up His own Kingdom inside the system. The job, then, is for Jesus to take all the captives and prisoners and bust them out of the strongholds and bring them into His kingdom. For whatever reason, this doesn’t all take place instantly for all parts when the core receives salvation, so it can often be a process of gradually getting more and more parts saved and set free. This is also why when people preach about “grace” and the “finished works” of the gospel as being all one needs for freedom in Christ, sometimes people still struggle and it feels like the gospel isn’t working the way it is supposed to. The thing is that it is working, it’s just that some parts are still captive and haven’t been influenced by the power of the gospel yet.

When I first understood this fact, so many things started to make much more sense. You see, I am a firm believer that everything has to make sense, and that if something works one way for one person and another way for another person, there are definable reasons why that is the case. If one person gets set free from problems by receiving the gospel but someone else is still having major struggles in that area spite of receiving that same salvation message, there have to be other factors at play that influence why those two people have different experiences.

Mind renewal is a key part of receiving the life of Christ. When we renew our minds as Romans 12:2 tells us, we get to enjoy and experience the good things God has for us. However, we have to remember that fragments each have a portion of our mind. And by mind, I’m not saying that each part occupies a portion of the brain. A friend who is a trained psychologist told me that it is believed in modern psychology that all fragments and alters (he refers to them as “ego states”) are located in the hypothalamus. What I am saying is that the mind and brain are different entirely. The mind is an other-dimensional reality where we have thoughts in some inexplicable way, whereas the brain is the physical means by which we experience those thoughts and they influence our body to perform certain actions. The portion of our mind that is our core is usually the one directly accessing the brain, but every other fragment and alter also has their own mind, or portion of our total mind, and they have their own thoughts. It’s a little bit like how the Bible says that we have the mind of Christ, not I have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16).

When we get saved we renew our mind (that of the core), but the mind of each part needs to be renewed as well (and ideally eventually integrated into the core in most cases). Once each part’s mind is renewed, typically whatever the issue was that was brothering one will evaporate, demons sometimes leave automatically as they are unable to remain any longer, and the person experiences true and lasting freedom. Failure to recognize and address this is a major barrier to walking out all God has for us, but when we understand how the soul works, get fragments and alters freed from demonic strongholds, get the negative emotions they carry healed, and then get them to renew their portion of our mind, then freedom flows. Oftentimes, as this happens we can integrate them back into our core self as well, so there is no longer an “us” but we become an “I”.

One objection to this teaching is that we are somehow nullifying or making weaker the power of Jesus to set people free through the “simple gospel” by making things confusing or complex, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The fact is that the “simple gospel” only ever has a certain measure of effectiveness at causing permanent life change in an individual. While some might find that offensive, it’s a fact. I don’t know that anyone reading this has ever met someone who never has a negative thought, struggle, or life issue. Jesus is the only one who was never fragmented in soul. Certainly I believe that in Christ we can become fully integrated once again, but Jesus is the only one who never had that problem, and never had issues outside of people who were demonically influenced to attack him. The rest of us, in spite of having instant salvation, still have to walk out an ongoing sanctification process. I suggest that ongoing sanctification work is in part the gradual freeing of fragments and alters.

I actually agree with people who teach the “finished works” message that the “simple gospel” is all we need, but that’s only under the condition that every part of the person actually gets to experience that transformative power of the gospel. That not-happening is why some people can struggle with issues over time in spite of repeated attempts to renew their minds and “get” the gospel message. It’s because the problem isn’t with them (the core), it’s with another part. Why would Isaiah 61:1 say that Jesus binds up the brokenhearted in the emotional realm, and then suddenly in the same sentence repetitively twice talk about setting physical people free. Captives are those who are taken unwillingly or unlawfully, while prisoners are those who have committed wrongdoing and are captives lawfully, but in context I suggest this is all taking place in the soul realm. If there weren’t any captives or prisoners in the soul then the Bible wouldn’t reference them, but since it does reference them, then we should probably pay attention.

This is an overview of the basics of soul fragmentation: what it is, how it works, how the enemy uses it to afflict us, and how applying the gospel to each parts sets us free. There are special cases where people have significantly more fracturing than others, typically in cases of government-sponsored mind control or Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA), but this is a general overview of how the soul functions to manage painful emotions, how the enemy uses that, and how the gospel sets us free. I have written numerous other articles on the subject as a whole, and if one wants to learn more about the subject I encourage you to read any of the articles in the Fragments, Alters, Parts, and DID category.

 

 

How To Partner With Your Angels

I recently listened to an audio message by Dan Duval about angels on his podcast program Discovering Truth With Dan Duval. This particular message confirmed something for me that I have thought about but never clearly formulated into words—that angels grow and develop over time like we do, and that in fact they are always growing in maturity. Furthermore, Dan pointed out that we can empower angels by praying for them and by praying to God about things so that we can engage and release their various functions and abilities.

The idea that we empower angels with our prayers isn’t really a new concept, nor is it new to me, but I don’t think that people typically word it that way. In fact, I don’t recall that Dan specifically phrased it that way either, but I certainly am right now. We empower angels with our prayers.

To some this might not seem important or significant, but I think this subject has immense value not only for our spiritual growth, but for every aspect of our lives. Consider that God has assigned angels to each one of us for our protection, but also for destroying works of darkness and advancing against the enemy (Psalm 91:11-13). If God sees fit to assign angels to us as messengers, protectors, and fellow servants-in-arms against the enemy, then it seems prudent to me that we should understand not just that God uses angels (read Why Does God Use Angels?), but how we can partner with them to manifest God’s Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.

Before going further, I tend to get a lot of kickback when I say things like “let’s partner with our angels”, so let me explain what I mean. It should already be incredibly apparent I’m not talking about worshipping them—only an idiot or someone intentionally misinterpreting what I am saying would think that. The Bible prohibits it in multiple places (Exodus 20:2-3, Deuteronomy 5:6-7, 1 Corinthians 10:14, Colossians 2:8, Romans. 1:24–25, Revelation 1:8-9, Revelation 22:8-9). What I am saying is that God has given angels certain spheres of authority and assignments, and that their jobs include a number of things that are helpful for us as we walk out everything God has for us. Some of the more obviously scriptural functions of angels include giving us messages from God, protecting us physically and spiritually, delivering us from bad situations, guiding us, and even delivering objects such as food from time to time. With such a wide range of potential functions (my list of which is by no means exhaustive of their full abilities), it would be downright foolish for us to ignore the things that God has sent angels to partner with us to accomplish in the earth.

Some people say we can command angels directly. Others believe we are supposed to pray to God and ask Him to command the angels. Others still believe we don’t address angels in any way and simply pray to God and let Him work out the details of how that happens. Regardless of which method(s) one chooses, prayer is a vital part of this process. Psalm 103:20 says, “Praise the LORD, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word.” Angels perform God’s word, so whether that is us declaring His word or Him speaking His words to them in response to our prayers, the more we engage heaven in prayer, the more that angels are empowered and released to do things.

If we recall back to Daniel 10, we find Daniel concerned about some things the Lord revealed to him, so in verses 2-3 he spends time fasting and praying for understanding. In verses 12-13, twenty one days after he began, an angel appears to Daniel and explains, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.” The key point of relevance here is that the first day Daniel began fasting and praying, the angel was sent to him with a message. However, it was another full twenty days before the angel actually arrived with the message, and it took an angelic prince, Michael, getting involved in a battle against a demonic prince for the other angel to finally get through. If the answer was sent on the first day, what the heck was Daniel doing fasting and praying for almost three more weeks??  Simple: His prayers were either directly or indirectly empowering the angelic host to win the battle and get the message through to him.

Why do I say this? There is an important principle outlined in Psalm 115:16 having to do with authority in the heavens and the earth. The passage says, “The highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth he has given to mankind.” For whatever reason God chose to set it up so that things related to planet earth require our prayers. I don’t think it was coincidental that Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 6:10 to pray what I call a blank check prayer to God: “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” What Jesus prayed in common vernacular was “God, do whatever you want here on earth.” The entire purpose of this prayer was so that God can manifest His will in His way, not being limited in any manner by limiting prayers. When we pray for God to do things in the earth, He often chooses to use angels to do it, and when He does, the power released when we pray is used in some inexplicable way to help them do their jobs better.

I see two primary ways to partner with angels to perform God’s will. The first and most basic method is to look at the needs in our own lives, and those of our family, friends, churches, cities, nations, and the world as a whole and pray to God and/or decree God’s will to the heavens and the earth based on our understanding of those needs.

A second way to partner with angels is to attempt to discern what angels are actually present nearby and either in talking to them directly or asking the Holy Spirit, find out what they need to accomplish their heavenly assignments, and then pray accordingly. While it still involves prayer, this method is more focused on helping specific angels with specific needs that they identify, whereas the first is focused on generally helping some angels out there somewhere with needs that we identify (And yes, talking to angels is incredibly scriptural. The majority of times we see an angel in scripture, they are having a conversation with a human.).

Neither method is more correct; both are simply different but equally viable means of engaging angels to accomplish God’s will in the earth. The method or methods one chooses to employ will usually have a lot to do with one’s belief system, which often has a lot to do with what religious system one was raised in, and what rules or regulations that particular religious system imposed on the individual.

For example, my dad is an Episcopal priest, and while my parents are charismatic-leaning to a certain degree, and even though I know my dad has had conversations with angels on more than one occasion, I have good reasons to believe that this idea the way I am presenting it would make them both pretty uncomfortable. Years ago, if someone had told me this same thing, I probably would have been uncomfortable with it too, but largely only because I had learned a lot of dumb rules and regulations from religious systems (not just from the Episcopal church, but from other denominations too) that limited and prohibited a lot of things based on their own fears and traditions (which are often developed out of fear and control). As I began to prayerfully and intentionally reason through what I believed and why, I started to see that some of the things we have been taught are incredibly stupid, such as the idea that we shouldn’t talk to angels. If we aren’t supposed to talk to angels, then neither should have Abraham, Jacob, Isaiah, Elijah, Mary, Joseph, Zechariah, nor the apostles John, Peter, and Paul.

In the end, it all really comes down to prayer, plain and simple. If we want to partner with our angels to see God’s will manifest in our lives to a greater degree, we must develop lifestyles of prayer.

If you want to hear more about this subject, I strongly encourage you to give a listen to the podcast that sparked this article, a free message by Dan Duval called “Angels: Our Brothers in Arms”

 

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