Keeping Focus in the Hard Times

Almost a decade ago, my wife and I got kicked out of our church because we got married. While this may sound strange (and it most certainly was), that is by no means the least of reasons why people have gotten kicked out of churches over time. In fact, I suggest that many of the reasons people are asked to leave a church have a lot to do with control and conformity. I have a friend who was a pastor/church planter who gave his church back to the denomination and all they cared about was the number of attendees and monthly income–to them it was nothing more than a business deal.
As the son of an Episcopal priest, I had grown up in church my whole life. In fact, the way I did spiritual life was integrally connected to how I did church–first with liturgy, and then as I grew up and became more Charismatic in my ways I did it with far less liturgy, but there was still a weekly gathering, sometimes even biweekly, that punctuated my own personal walk with God. Once this was no longer there, I will be honest, I felt at times like I was floating adrift on a wide open sea. This church-life I had grown up depending on was no longer there, and it really threw a wrench in my works.

I didn’t have a problem with personal worship and personal time with God, as I had done that for years, but one of the things I really missed was corporate worship. There is an energy and alive-ness that happens when gathered together in a large group to worship God. There is a heavier activity of angels and glory and power flowing through the room that is simply wonderful to experience. Except for the rare conference (as most of them in the area took place at the church we had been kicked out of or were being run by people who were actively shunning us), my spiritual life was very lonely, and that was new.

One of the hardest things at that time, I think, in addition to dealing with the negative feelings created by this whole ordeal, was that I didn’t have the support system I used to have when things were difficult. Other than my wife, I felt very lonely at that point. I can’t imagine what it must be like for single people who go through this sort of thing! My life had zero of the spiritual trappings it had before, and I didn’t consider that a good thing. I longed for times that felt more spiritually “alive”, but none of my desires changed my current circumstances. While I don’t want to sound like I am whining, this was one of the more difficult periods in my life. The thing I had to learn, differently than I had ever before, was how to keep my focus on God in the middle of problems and difficulties, and when nothing looked like what I had been brought up to understand that life was supposed to look like.

God is the one constant in a changing world. His love for us doesn’t alter itself based on our circumstances or actions, unlike so many others in this world. God is faithful and dependable regardless of what we are going through, and quite often in the most difficult times are when we feel His love the most. There are other times were we are going through hard things and it feels like God is the quietest. I don’t pretend to understand why that happens, as I don’t think God is trying to inflict silence on us to teach us something, but there is something about difficulty that forges us into something entirely new–beings who have been trialed by fire and who have come out on the other side polished and ready to act.

We are in a period of great upheaval in the Church as we shift from the Church Age into the Kingdom Age. Not everyone is aware this shift is happening, and many are struggling to make the transition. I want to encourage you if you are caught somewhere in the middle, with one foot in the church and one foot out, or even as in my case, with both feet up in the air and one’s rear planted firmly on the ground just outside of a church you were kicked out of–You are not alone.

There is more to this life than you have known, and you will make it. There may be difficulties along the way, but a more enriching, deeper walk with Christ is coming just around the corner. It isn’t going to look like you are used to in the old way of doing things, but God isn’t interested in the old ways–he’s interested in your heart. Continue to do things in the ways you used to until you learn how to do them differently, because God isn’t worried about your methods and ways of learning–he’s looking deep on the inside. Do your best to keep yourself open and don’t let the anger, doubt, worries, fears, and other emotions cloud your heart. Your heart is the wellspring of life, and closing it off to others will only shut out those whom God has specially designed in this season to walk with you. Forgive quickly, especially those people who you thought were friends who turned out to be nothing like it. It can be hard to do this, but let those doors shut and keep walking forward. God has new plans for you–plans to prosper you and give you a hope and a future. Life is about to get a whole lot better for you, but it might get a little worse before it gets there. Don’t fear the change because it can’t hurt you–rather, it will transform you. And in the midst of it all, always remember to keep gazing at God’s face. Look into his eyes in your heart and keep your focus there, and even in the hard times, you will always find a way to make it through.

When Bunnies Die

Two days ago one of my two rabbits gave birth; the baby was stillborn. I prayed over that baby bunny for over 3 hours, and even my 3-, 5-, and 7-year-old granddaughters and stepdaughter joined me at points. Late that evening, God told me to move on from praying for the bunny, and that while I WOULD raise the dead, it wouldn’t be then, the day after, or the day after that. This really struck me because God didn’t just specify that the bunny wouldn’t come back that day or the next, but he specified three days, the usual length of time that I allot for praying for our animals who have died (we have rabbits and chickens), and for any roadkill that I decide to bring home to pray for.

I was pretty upset after God told me this. I had already named the cute little bunny Miracle, and had already envisioned how cool it would be to have the rabbit grow up to be an adult when it had been born dead. I will be honest–I sobbed in my wife’s arms for about 5 minutes. On the one hand it might seem like “just a dead baby rabbit,” but for me death is something personal. As a nurse who works with a geriatric population, I cry almost every time a patient dies, whether I knew them well or not. Death bothers me. It upsets me. I don’t like it, don’t believe in it, and don’t understand when the reality of abundant life Jesus purchased for us doesn’t manifest like it should.

My point in telling you all this isn’t for you to feel sorry for me or pray for the bunny, but to know that it’s totally normal and okay to have real-life struggles as we go through this process of apprehending what God has laid before us. Reversing death is not something most people talk about or even believe is possible. Resurrection isn’t even all that popular in many Holy-Spirit-filled circles. I mean, anyone would be blessed if they were present for a resurrection, but it’s not something most people are going to actually pray for, much less seek out. As such, there is a risk involved in actually even talking about this topic.

Resurrection is not always an easy topic, and praying for the dead is even harder, not because it’s difficult to actually say a prayer over a body, but for other reasons. Emotionally there is the risk of failure. What happens if I get emotionally invested in this resurrection and it doesn’t happen? I assure you I am emotionally invested in every resurrection I seriously attempt. I’m not sure it’s actually possible to seriously pray for resurrection WITHOUT getting emotionally involved. Maybe it is, but for me resurrection has a lot to do with love and compassion, and compassion has a feeling associated with it. Compassion IS by nature emotionally involved, which can make it difficult in those times when the resurrection effort fails. Lets face it, sometimes we get discouraged, or even others around us actively discourage us. Sometimes we get into doubt or fear; fear that we might die too, fear that we might catch a disease from the body, fear of almost anything else. I believe that all of these things are part of the process of overcoming. We experience these doubts, fears, discouragement, and yet in the midst of them we have the opportunity to make a conscious choice in our hearts and minds that say “I am an overcomer because of He who has overcome.”

I want to encourage you and remind you that YOU are a Deadraiser. YOU are a Resurrectionist!! YOU are the bridge between Heaven and Earth, the delivery system of Divine power and presence. YOU are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Whatever you are facing, whatever sickness or death you are praying over, contending against, dealing with, I exhort you to continue to stand firm in the promises of God. You are strong, you are courageous, you are beautiful. You are steadfast, you are brilliant, and your best moments are even now coming toward you. Greater is He who is in YOU than any life circumstance around you. And remember, it is never “too late.” We serve a God who raises the dead.

Renewing Our Dreams

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Something about turning the corner from 2014 to 2015 has caused a noticeable shift in my life and in the lives of many of my friends. It seems like moving to a new calendar year has signified the start of a new period of spiritual and life acceleration. While at times an overused term in regards to spiritual matters, “acceleration” is really the only word I can think of to describe what is happening, but it’s more like “extreme acceleration,” moving faster than the already-fast pace we were moving at before.

In my own life I have observed that the time between when God tells me He is going to do something and the fulfillment of that promise has dropped down to about a two-week period of time, whereas before it seemed that these promises would often take a year or more to start to come to pass. In my blog post titled “A Single Stone” I detailed how only a few weeks after God told me gems would begin to appear again in our house that one showed up on my granddaughter’s bed. Last month God told me he was going to open up speaking engagements for me, and in the last four weeks I have spoken at a Senate Committee Hearing and was invited to speak at a rally on the Capitol steps to fight an unjust bill that was attempting to pass through the Oregon Senate (the bill failed).

I have had a desire to preach and speak to large groups to release the Kingdom for years, and I have had a few opportunities, but for the most part nothing much has happened, and I was not willing to start to generate my own events simply to feed my ego. This year, however, God has opened this realm back up to me, and has been sharing with me the things He is planning to do in and through me, fulfilling goals and dreams I have had for years. In speaking with friends, I have observed that God is actively accelerating ALL of our lives, and is pouring out His strength to cause our dreams to come to pass.

Many of you have had dreams you held onto for years, but when problems have come up or life circumstances have gotten in the way you have given up on those dreams, forgetting that God factored in your life when He created your destiny. What is going on in your life right now is no secret to God–He is resurrecting dream that have died and is giving new ones. God is also handing out new ideas and also wisdom on how to carry those ideas out.

We are in a period of time where dreaming is possibly one of the wisest things you can do. When you have no dreams and aspirations, life becomes much more dull and boring, and it becomes a daily drudgery. Joy goes out the window when there is nothing to look forward to in life, and each new day holds the necessary tasks for survival, but you are not thriving by any means. God intends to change that.

This year is a year for transformation. This is a year to dream. God is accelerating His hand at work in our lives in this earth, and doors of opportunity are opening that have been closed before. Now is the time to revisit old ideas that were good ideas but just didn’t work out at the time. Dream up your wildest, biggest dreams that you don’t think will ever come to pass, and ask God to show you how to move them forward. Take risks and step out into new and uncomfortable places in the directions you want to go, and you will see the hand of God work on your behalf this year.

We are positioned in this season for such exponential growth and increase in our lives as we seek the Lord and what He is doing in our lives right now. This is a period where God is preparing the Josephs for the seven-year famine that is ahead, and where those who follow the leading of the spirit and put their hand to the plow will reap great rewards. Take some time right now to listen to the Lord. What is God revealing to you?

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Shifting Perspective

At the writing of this blog post I have currently been sick and battling sickness for over half a week. While that might not sound like a long time to some I am not accustomed to being sick, nor do I believe I should even be able to get sick. What at first was the beginnings of a sore throat grew into the entire left side of my neck, muscles and all, being inflamed, and multiple sores blossoming in the back left of my mouth. In fact, it was bad enough that I called off work two days in a row, and if you ask my wife I must have REALLY not felt good, as I usually go to work even when not feeling well.
I am just now turning the corner, with the throat soreness largely resolved and the neck inflammation down a little bit, although the sores are possibly the most troublesome and slow-to-heal at this point. But as you didn’t come here to hear me lament about sickness, let me explain why I share all this: It’s about perspective.

Because of the immense pain I feel every time I chew, swallow, or drink anything I have occasionally blended a protein shake to drink with as little mouth movement as possible, but for the most part I have been fasting. This might be annoying to some, but I was reminded this evening that God had asked me this past week to fast this week anyway. And while I don’t for a moment believe God inflicted me with disease to get me to fast (as I have fasted many times without needing a sickness to make me do it), I am reminded that God works all things in my life for good–both your good and mine, so as He has made me mindful that He is having me fast for a reason, I can become more purposeful about it. But there is more.
Having spent the past 2 days largely wasting my life in fun yet somewhat unproductive ways on Clan Wars and a few other game apps, I have been putting off some of my more habitual spiritual practices, including listening to the Bible via mp3 and reading and listening to other spiritually-enlightening media. This evening, after having all of my Clan Wars builders tied up for the rest of the evening, the grandkids in bed, and my wife sitting next to me also playing a game, I finally broke down and opened up Kindle on my phone. First I read a chapter more in a really lame book I am convincing myself to keep reading possibly as a stall-tactic, when I finally could take the bad writing no longer and opened up another book, “The Veil” by Blake Healy. This book is about practically engaging seeing in the spirit, but the message is communicated in an easy-to-digest format with engaging stories of some of Blake’s visionary experiences, many of which are both down-to-earth and highly revelatory at the same time.

In the chapter I was reading he mentioned at one point that he chose to look in the spirit and then shared what he saw. This made me turn my focus a bit more heavenward and so I began by looking the situation up in a book about emotional healing that my wife and I often use as a reference, and found something that fit the sores but nothing else fit. Holy Spirit quietly spoke to me and said “It’s an attack, not something from within you.” I then looked with spiritual sight at the illness, wounds, and inflammation on my neck. What I saw was a dark octopus-like being, about the size of a basketball with tentacles, head, and all, most of which were latched in, on, and around the left side of my neck and head. I proceeded to pull it off of me, which at first made my throat hurt even more. I continued to work on it for another minute or so and the soreness in the throat dissipated somewhat. Looking further I removed some other items and beings that I saw as well.

To be fair, at the moment my mouth still hurts and my throat is not perfect, but I know that the work that I did was effective at least in a measure, and my body should have an easier time healing itself with some of the negative spiritual elements removed.

Why am I telling you all this? At each step along the way I chose to change my perspective, whether about fasting or about choosing to put down the earthly and natural mindset and engage spiritual thinking. Certainly I have prayed as have others over the past few days, but I hadn’t committed to altering my thinking in the process. I am reminded through this set of circumstances that it doesn’t matter what the situation is — we are co-creators made in God’s image and on a moment-by-moment basis alter reality with our thoughts and beliefs. To change that reality yet again requires us to change our perspective — to think at a higher level than the one that created the problem.

As we change our perspective in even little ways, we build a momentum that over time drastically alters the course of our lives. I encourage you today to take a moment and change your thoughts. Think bigger. Think higher. Think as if there were no limitations holding you back. Think boldly and think life-giving. For with the measure you use it will be measured to you and it will be a good measure, pressed-down, shaken together, and running over that will be poured out into your life. The transformation begins now.

A Single Stone

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It was around midnight and I was carrying my eldest granddaughter from my bed where she had fallen asleep down to her bed for the night. There was a dim light on in her room, and as I walked toward her bed, I noticed something glint on the sheets at the edge of the bed. As I neared it I instantly recognized that it was a gemstone, but not knowing if the kids had recently been playing with plastic stones or something, I wasn’t quite sure what I had found. I put my granddaughter in bed, walked back upstairs, and turned on a flashlight to inspect further.

The moment I turned the flashlight on it I knew it was a gem from heaven, not of human origin. I have seen thousands of these gems appear to date, but few of them have been with as little fanfare or completely out of the blue as this one was. You see, a few years ago my wife and I were introduced to a couple who have seen gemstones manifest around them for years. A year after that we invited them to do a series of meetings at our house, which expanded into some other meetings in other homes around the region as well. We did this for about a year when there were some changes that took place and we stopped having those meetings. Since then, the gems have appeared with scarcity, and the last ones prior to this were probably at least six months ago, so as can be imagined, I was pretty astounded to find the stone when I did. Talk about unexpected!

I immediately showed my wife, who, with childlike abandon got giddy and gleeful as she celebrated the discovery of the stone. For those of you who don’t know her, my wife is the most fun person to be around when she gets excited about God and what He is doing. Childlike doesn’t even begin to describe the joy that spills out of her.

Tiny feathers have been appearing, floating by in the air, and disappearing for the past number of months with increasing frequency, but gemstones had not broken forth again until now. God had spoken to me a week or two ago about wanting to bring forth the manifestation of gemstones, but I was not expecting anything as quick as this one happened. I am still pondering the meaning of this event, and what God is saying and doing, but I am confident that there is much more to come, both for myself and my household, and for you, the reader.

God is readying the Body of Christ to receive a veritable explosion of the miraculous. We are in the beginning stages of what is going to be a wild ride of the miraculous. Signs, wonders, and miracles are becoming much more commonplace as Heaven invades the Earth realm, and this will only continue in the lives of those whose focus is turned heavenward. After all, as we are ambassadors of Heaven, where we go Heaven follows, and where Heaven follows, miracles break out. In the coming days diamonds falling from heaven will be the least of what God is doing–he is preparing to feed entire nations in a day, to make buildings appear where there was only rubble moments before, to make rivers dry up and resurge once those who need to cross have passed over. God will make the desert wilderness to bloom like a garden, and these things I say are no figurative speech, but a literal reality. God has far more prepared for each of us, more than eye has seen and ear has heard.

I encourage you to draw closer to the Lord in the coming months. He has been speaking to a great many people about drawing closer and sitting with Him in this hour, to hear what it is He would share with us and to equip us to steward and release the visible manifestations of his love in power to our families, communities, and even the nations of the world. As the light of a gemstone reflects the source of the light and brings new beauty into the room, spend time to sit with the Father and let His light transform you even more, refining the heavenly gemstone that you are to Him, that you can carry even more of His light into this world.

Note: The gemstone in the picture above is one that I found on my granddaughter’s bed, and the hand holding it is mine. This was found and the picture taken on January 31st, 2015.

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And Your Foot Shall Not Be Taken

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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