Live Life Longer

As a nurse, I both have and overhear a large number of extremely random conversations on a weekly basis. I recently was in a room where a woman was talking about how she and others her age had lived long lives and how they need to make room for others. In other words, she was talking about how they all needed to die in order for their posterity to have space on the planet to live. Fortunately or unfortunately, she is absolutely wrong. I say it’s fortunate that she’s wrong because it means people don’t need to die to make room for other people to live. It’s unfortunate because she clearly doesn’t believe that. And we largely tend to receive the results of what we believe. As that saying goes, “if you think you can or think you can’t, you’re probably right.”

As I have continued to talk about life and immortality over the years, one of the major questions I get asked is that if everything I am saying about what Jesus accomplished on the cross is true, and that we were never meant to die, and that He took care of defeating death on the cross, then why do people still die? And it’s a fair question. But I think it largely goes back to what this woman was saying in believing that she needs to die as the means to exit the Earth in order to make room for other people to live. If we believe we have to die, then guess what: we probably will.

Science is only more recently becoming able to quantify things that the Bible has stated plainly for thousands of years— things such as “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). The Bible says it in a variety of ways, that ultimately what we behold and believe, we become. If we believe we have to die, then we will die. If we believe we get to live, then we will live. If we believe we are sinful then we will receive sin’s payment, which is death. If we believe we are righteous, then we receive the gift of righteousness, which is life. This principle doesn’t just touch on life and death, influences many other areas of life.

Overpopulation is not our problem on the Earth. Waste is. Poverty isn’t our problem. Waste is. Hunger really isn’t a problem. Waste and mismanagement are. Now, for any single one of those we could easily point to specific examples where they are, in fact, a problem right now, somewhere on the Earth. But my point is they don’t need to be. If we were to get rid of all of the corruption from every government in the world, we could probably solve world hunger in under six months. We have sufficient technology to desalinate the ocean to provide water for everyone all over the world. It would definitely take a lot of construction and planning, but the point is that it’s possible to do. The idea that we can’t do certain things or that we are incapable of certain things as far as providing food, water, or shelter for people is usually just a lie. On a local scale, it is definitely possible for there to be a temporary local hunger problem. When the storms hit North Carolina this past year, there was definitely a local problem. But a temporary local problem is not the same thing as saying that we are incapable of providing food worldwide. Not that the US is perfect by any means, but there are many times that the US has delivered food aid to other countries with starving populations and the leaders of that nation simply stockpiled the food as a means of control instead of distributing it to the people. At that point in time, corruption was the problem because the hunger issue could have been solved with the resources provided.

Lack and limitation mindsets will only ever yield us the same results that they’ve gotten us before: inability and incapacity. Quite often our problem isn’t that we lack something, it is that we have very firm beliefs in our lack and limitation. Sure, there may be lack in an immediate moment, but those who overcome are those who believe that they can overcome. Those who believe they can’t overcome tend to remain stuck in their problems.

I know that sometimes talking about life and immortality, living forever and never dying and never having an old and decrepit body can sound extremely impractical to people who are dealing with what most think of as real-world problems. But explain to me how death isn’t a real world problem and maybe I’ll believe you (hint: you can’t). The truth is, though, if we can believe the truth of the Bible, that we don’t have to die, maybe everything else that feels less-daunting than that will be believable too. Maybe when the Bible says that God has supplied all of our needs out of his immense wealth that we will actually begin to believe that and watch our needs and even our wants get met. Maybe when God says he has made us whole, he actually means for us to experience fullness in spirit, soul, and body. Maybe if we begin to believe that, we will see our bodies healed, our souls healed, and yes, even our spirits restored (while you may not be able to kill a spirit, you absolutely can damage one).

I want to encourage us today to believe for the limitless. To push the boundaries of our expectations beyond what we have been willing to expect before. The Bible says that God is “able to do exceedingly abundantly more than we can ask or think, according to the power at work with us . ..” (Ephesians 3:20). It is a conditional statement, which means that while God has limitless capacity, we have the ability to limit that capacity based on our beliefs and expectations. If we want to receive more, we need to believe more. I’m not talking about just working really hard in toil to believe. I am talking about transforming our mindsets to believe the truth that God has already been telling us because as we do that, we will experience the promises He has made to us.

Maybe believing in life and immortality is a bit much for you right now. Well then, maybe start by believing in a long life. And by long life, I don’t mean adding an extra five years, I mean adding an extra fifty. If the average age at death is in the 70s or 80s, and we know that some people live into their early hundreds, than realistically long life needs to extend beyond that, or it isn’t really long. It’s just the longer end of normal. If you don’t think you can believe for living forever, maybe start believing in experiencing constant divine health: that you never get sick and never get injured. Because in reality, if you never get sick or injured, and your body doesn’t experience decay, then you will never die. In fact, signs of aging will begin to reverse themselves as your body regenerates. I’m not saying you need to arrive there all at once, nor am I pretending I have either. What I can tell you, though, is that I very consistently have people tell me they think I am at least 10 years younger than I am. I personally believe that my long-held belief in life and immortality and the end of decay in the cosmos because of what Jesus did on the cross is responsible for my experience. I have been talking about this subject for the last decade and a half— and as I continue to renew my own mind to believe the truth, it seems only reasonable that my body would be starting to match that belief in an observable manner.

If you want to learn more about how to walk in this revelation of life, I encourage you to pick up a copy of my book The Gospel of Life and Immortality. In my book The Power of Impartation I also discuss some of the principles God has created in the cosmos that you can use to help apprehend the life God has already prepared for you in Christ Jesus. I also write regularly about the topics of inner healing and deliverance because the transformed soul is a major key for us to experience everything God has planned for us. If you want to learn more about how to do that, I encourage you to pick up a copy of my book Broken To Whole. And as always, I write on all of these subjects extensively so you can take a look at other articles I’ve written on this website as well.

God Already Traded His Son For Yours

I was at the hospital last night and spoke with the parent of a patient, and this parent was having a hard time dealing with the circumstances of their injured adult child (for those of you who don’t know me well, I have been an RN for over a decade). In the short conversation we had it came out that she is a believer, and she shared that she is having trouble holding onto hope in the circumstances. Now, in these types of not-good situations my job is a little more challenging than some because I actually have two jobs that can be in conflict with one another. My job as a nurse/employee is not to give people hope, but to give them an accurate assessment of the situation—which in some cases is absolutely bereft of hope, faith, or anything lifegiving. On the other hand, my job as a son of the Most High is to release life into any and every circumstance and take dominion over everything that opposes it. This is most especially true in my given sphere of influence, which includes but is not limited to my job as a nurse.

In the conversation with this individual, this person asked me what they could do because they felt they needed to do something to help their loved one recover. I encouraged them that while it can feel at times like prayer does nothing, God hears and responds to every single prayer we pray, and that prayer is never pointless or hopeless. This individual then shared that their thoughts and prayers had turned that evening to trying to bargain with God to take their life in place of their child.

It was at that moment that I decided to inject some truth into the conversation in a slightly different direction. You see, nurses end up wearing a lot of different hats while in a hospital or other care facility. We are the patient advocate, the waiter/waitress, the electronics technologist, the doctor’s assistant, the pseudo-social-worker, the assistant physical therapist, the state-appointed drug-dispenser, and for me more often than many, the chaplain and therapist. It certainly is part of my job description to offer emotional support, but given my level of expertise with inner healing, the human soul, counseling-adjacent-conversations, and overall ministry experience, I find myself in these situations more frequently than most. So, I opted to share with this struggling individual a bit about God’s nature and His plans for their family member. The goal of this wasn’t specifically to fix any one thing, but to reframe how they viewed the circumstances and their role in it. I can’t walk everyone through every step of how I might manage something if I was in a similar situation, but I can often give them some insight into a better and more lifegiving path forward, and I can pray for them.

I reminded this individual that God actually cares far more about the well-being of their loved one than they do, and that at no time ever would He require their life as an exchange for their kid—because God already traded His only-begotten Son for theirs. His plan from the beginning of creation and even before, has always and only been about Life. Jesus made very clear in John 10:10 that He and the Father were both collectively about Abundant Life, and that death, loss, and destruction are in direct opposition to their will. No matter the situation, regardless of how bad things might look, there is only ever one response from our Father, and that is to release life. You see, our Heavenly Father is lifegiving and in Him there is no darkness. He doesn’t have hidden motives and really isn’t difficult to understand. We have let pagan beliefs and legalistic old-covenant religion confuse us into believing God requires something from us in order to perform good works on our behalf when He has never required those things of us. The Bible tells us in Romans 5:10 that even while we were enemies of God that the Father sent the Son. And it is key to note that we were only His enemies in our own minds, because we were never enemies in His mind. We have been and will always be His beloved children. We spoke a bit longer, and after encouraging this family member with some more truth of God’s nature and His plans for their family, I prayed for this person, then we both separated and went about our business (I can’t even claim that I got “back to work” because I didn’t consider what I was doing to be somehow separate from my job).

Bad things happen. Difficult circumstances come to pass. Hard times arise, and we can only deal with them as best as we can in those moments. I don’t pretend to be some super-Christian who has it all figured out. I firmly know that I don’t. What I do know is that regardless of the circumstances that our mandate to release life, take dominion over corrupted creation, remove the decay from the cosmos, and to love all creation has never changed. Revelation 21 tells us there will come a day when Jesus wipes every tear from our eyes, and I am determined to be someone who apprehends the message of life and immortality such that I am alive in-body when that day arrives, and until then it is my task to help usher that day in. The Bible tells us that truth sets us free, and I think we have so often become convinced that if we bargain with God that we can somehow get His hand to move—when in reality He already moved in the person of Jesus Christ. It is impossible to trade God anything for anything, and most certainly trade yourself for someone else because He already made the trade. God already traded His son for yours. He already bankrupted heaven to redeem earth and everyone on it. He is madly and deeply in love with you, so no matter what situation, what circumstance, what darkness has been rearing itself in your life, His plans are only, always, and ever for life. Trust in that.

If you want to learn more about God’s plans for abundant life for you and your loved ones, I encourage you to pick up a copy of my books The Gospel of Life and Immortality and Faith to Raise the Dead, as well as my friend Tommy Miller’s books Deathless and Transfigured.

Rewrite The Stars – A Different Governance

I was out late with a friend one evening before my move to Ohio. We went to a sort of Portland-y food-fusion restaurant and had dinner and these margarita-like wine-slushy drinks that, for someone like me who doesn’t really enjoy wine, actually tasted pretty good. We talked about a wide range of things, but during the conversation we ended up talking about the movie The Greatest Showman, and she mentioned that she really loved the song “A Million Dreams“. Having not seen the movie, I wasn’t sure if I knew the song (but it turns out later in listening to it that I actually did recognize it, and the song is absolute fire). As conversations go, this ended up sliding us sideways into talking about other songs from the movie, and I began telling her about how I really love the song “Rewrite the Stars“, and what the Lord began speaking to my heart the first time I heard it. I wrote a bit about this in my recent article titled “A New Energy System“, discussing how we are meant not to be governed by the sun, moon, and stars (and other celestial bodies) but rather to govern over them, and in talking about the song with my friend, it made me think of some things I hadn’t shared in that article. I want to take a look at them here.

If you want to listen to the song you can catch it here

Having not seen the movie I’m not overly familiar with the plot, but from the little I gather there appears to be a bit of a Romeo-and-Juliet-style star-crossed-lovers scenario, which leads to the scene where this song gets sung. I’m not sharing the entire song here, but the lyrics that stood out to me and how this song communicates part of what I was saying in that blog.

“You claim it’s not in the cards
And fate is pulling you miles away
And out of reach from me
But you’re here in my heart
So who can stop me if I decide that you’re my destiny?

What if we rewrite the stars?
Say you were made to be mine
Nothing could keep us apart
You’d be the one I was meant to find
It’s up to you, and it’s up to me
No one can say what we get to be
So why don’t we rewrite the stars?
Maybe the world could be ours, tonight

. . . . . . .

How do we rewrite the stars?
Say you were made to be mine
Nothing can keep us apart
‘Cause you are the one I was meant to find
It’s up to you, and it’s up to me
No one can say what we get to be
Why don’t we rewrite the stars?
Changing the world to be ours . . .”

The song is all about how our destiny is guided and determined by the stars, which is a reference to astrology and astrological determinings, in that the positions of the stars and the messages found in those things are what will determine our path in life. The first line is a reference to Tarot, with the idea that one’s fate and destiny is tied to what casting cards through divination magic will reveal to us about our future, and as it continues it mentions how fate is keeping the two apart. Whether through astrology, tarot, or other magical systems, the concept is that fate is this mystical force of pre-determination that has already decided what will and will not occur in our lives. We could liken it a bit to God preparing good works in advance for us to do, but the difference is that fate is an impartial force whereas our heavenly Father makes plans and then walks them out with us relationally, not stooping to the method of control and removal of free will that fate employs. Which is part of why I like these lyrics so much. Astrology, divination, and related oracular arts are all about tying us into determined futures and linking our power and authority and our bloodlines into the future that the fallen angels want to create, and the fact is they cannot do that without our assistance, which is why some of these practices are so imperative for them to seduce people into.

On the other hand, our Heavenly Father has given us power and authority over all of these things, and we get to partner with Him to walk out a much higher calling. So as the song says, “what if we rewrite the stars?” The one character seemed to understand that “no one can say what we get to be.” The demonic and their divinatory practices do not get to overwrite, override, or control our path as followers of Jesus, nor should the celestial bodies, as we are meant to govern over them, not be ruled by them.

The song goes on to ask the question “How do we rewrite the stars?” And isn’t that what we as believers need to understand? How do we as followers of Jesus, ones who have been raised up to rule and reign with Him, remove ourselves from under the reign of creation and learn to govern over it? How do we rewrite the stars? How do we change the means by which we function in the cosmos, no longer being bound by their mandates and decrees? I don’t have the answers to all of this, but I do believe that it begins within us. In my book The Gospel of Life and Immortality I talk about the macrocosm of the universe and the microcosm of the body, and how we first engage the transfiguration of our bodies as the firstfruits, and then from there we will see all creation become transfigured as we, the sons and daughters of the Most High release it from its bondage to decay and death. I encourage you to pick up a copy of the book, and if you are interested in this subject you can also check out my friend Fiorella Giordano’s course on the New Creation Continuum which discusses related matters. Be blessed!

The Holy Spirit Told Me To Give My Favorite Jacket Away

This past week it got pretty cold in Texas. Now, to be fair, that is according to Texas standards, not those of anywhere that gets regular winter chill. Nevertheless, after living in Texas for four years, I am more maladapted to the cold then ever. I did, however, keep my winter gear from living up north, so while I may feel a little cold, I’m ultimately just fine. Well, this was the first day this winter that it was getting truly cold, and the sun had gone down, so I was wearing my winter coat when I went out. I went to the grocery store to buy food, as one does, then walked back out to my truck to get in and go home. As I was putting my bags in the truck, a guy came up to me and asked if I had any money for food.

He was homeless, looked like he was in his 30’s somewhere, walked with a limp, and seemed a bit cold. In talking to him briefly, I found out his name is Sean. I don’t tend to carry much cash on me, so I gave Sean some food bars I had just bought and a few bottles of water. It gets pretty hot in Texas, so I always keep some water bottles in my truck for exactly this purpose. When someone on the street asks me for something, I feel like I can at *least* give them some water. I handed him the small bag of food and water, and it was right then that the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said “give him your jacket.” Now, I knew which jacket God meant because it was the one sitting on my passenger seat directly in front of me. My favorite jacket. It was kind of a cross between a sweatshirt and jacket as it was a waist-length zip-up with a hood from North Face, so you could really call it either, but I like it and wear it all the time. Or at least I did up until that moment.

I asked him “Do you have any other warm clothes?”
“No, just what I’m wearing.” Sean replied.
“Then take this. Hopefully you’ll be a bit warmer. I washed it yesterday so it’s clean.”

I handed him the jacket and then that was the end of our interaction. As he limped away, eating a food bar and now hopefully getting a bit warmer, I started to reflect on the encounter. You see, I didn’t say at the time that “God told me to give this to you.” I didn’t try to preach the gospel to him. And I didn’t ask him if I could pray for his leg or whatever was causing the limp. As he was walking away it occurred to me that maybe I could say something about God, but it would have made things end on an awkward note because it didn’t flow naturally in the interaction and would have gotten tacked on as an afterthought. And maybe I should have anyway. I don’t know.

What I do know is that Sean was warmer that night and he ate more than he would have otherwise. The passage in James 2:14-18 comes to mind when I think of that evening. It says:

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.

If in our pursuit of being holy or spiritual we forget to take care of basic human needs such as food, water, clothing, and shelter, then in reality what good is this gospel? Of what value is a gospel that will do nothing whatsoever for one’s current day-to-day life and only comes into play in some theoretical afterlife? What really is that gospel saving us from, or saving us into? And how is this gospel loving if it abjectly ignores human need, lack, and pain? Now that doesn’t mean that we each individually can fix every situation everywhere. But can we change the situation in front of us? And further still, can we learn to trust God to supply OUR needs so that we always have an overflow to give from?

There’s one more piece to this story. As I was driving away, I began talking to the Lord about my jacket specifically because it was my favorite. I have other sweatshirts I can wear. I have a winter coat. I don’t have a lack of things I can wear to be warm—I suddenly had a lack of things I *preferred* to wear to keep warm. So how much was me being selfish, how much was me complaining, and how much was me processing? I don’t think I was being selfish, as I literally gave the jacket away when I was instructed. I don’t feel like I was complaining, or if so only minimally, because I truly did want Sean to be warm and be okay that night. I just also wanted to still have my favorite jacket. So I talked to Him about the mixed feelings I was having, and I didn’t really come to any specific conclusion except that I was going to choose to trust Him to be bigger than the situation and to take care of my desires and likes as well.

Fast forward two days and I was at my aunt and uncle’s house. They live in San Marcos about an hour south of Austin, and my parents had sent some Christmas gifts that arrived late. So early January here I am opening Christmas gifts, and what is the first thing I open? A brand new jacket.

I’m not even kidding. While I was giving Sean my favorite jacket and talking to the Lord about the situation, He had literally already sent me a new one and it was waiting at my family’s house for me to pick up. How often do we fail to trust God to see us through? And how often do we try to figure out ways in the natural that we can work it out for ourselves to somehow come out on top or get ahead or whatever else, not willing to trust that God not only sees and knows, but is faithful to follow through and meet us in those situations.

I think so much of our Christian walk is about learning to trust the only One who is truly fully worthy of it, and in doing so being willing to go anywhere, love anyone, touch anyone, place ourselves in any situation He leads us into no matter how dirty or ugly or unpleasant or even dangerous it may be—simply because we know He is worthy of our trust and all of our love, and so we’ll do literally anything for Him. For me that night it was giving away my jacket. Another time it could be food or money or time or anything else. But as we step out in obedience and trust, God will meet us in ways we could not have expected before—because He is faithful.

The Angel with the Wing Tattoos

The daughter of one of my patients shared a story with me about a previous visit their family had at the hospital I work at. Everything I share in this story is what she personally told me:

They had been in the hospital at that time for a few weeks when they had been expecting to stay only for a few days. Her mother had been very sick and was so sick, in fact, that she was near death and began talking to her dead relatives as though they were close at hand (which, if you understand that we are surrounded by the Cloud of Witnesses, she most likely was close to death and was talking to her deceased family.)

She was given a room in the ICU, so a nurse came to move this patient to the new room. The person who came to the room to move her was a tall blond male nurse with piercing blue eyes with beautiful tattoos of wings on each of his arms. When he came into the room he told them, “You are safe now because I’m here to take care of you.” This nurse took them to the ICU, got her tucked in bed, gave her medications, and told both the patient and her daughter to rest.

They were undisturbed for six hours overnight and got amazing sleep, then woke up the next morning, the patient went to a surgical procedure, and had recovered so well that she discharged from the hospital the next day.

When the daughter talked to staff about the nurse they had that night, she was very thankful for his care and wanted to know who it was—but the hospital had to record of this employee and none of the staff recognized any ICU nurse matching that description. Because she had been given medications, had vital signs taken, etc., all of that should be recorded electronically on the Electronic Health Record, so they decided to speak with Medical Records to get a copy of their records for that hospital stay. Per the daughter, this “employee” did not appear anywhere in the medical records as well—as if this nurse who worked with them overnight basically didn’t exist!

The daughter was excited when she told me this story, and she told me it was the reason they came back to the hospital when I met them—because they knew beyond a shadow of doubt that angels were actively at work in the building and it gave them a feeling of security knowing that God was taking care of them.

The Bible tells us in Hebrews 13:2, “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” There is something about how angels function that, at times, they will manifest in bodily form appearing as humans, and we can interact with them without knowing we are talking to angels. I firmly believe this is exactly what happened in this encounter they had!

To add some details to consider, any time someone transfers from one unit to another in this hospital, there is a process. The bed on the new unit has to be assigned and someone has to transfer them in the computer once they arrive—which means someone has to either tell the person to transfer them in the computer, or do it themselves. This means the angel would have either had to do the electronic transfer himself or tell someone else to—someone who later clearly didn’t remember that conversation with that being. When a patient transfers units, the offgoing nurse gives a report to the oncoming nurse, so someone would have had to tell the angel something about the patient they were coming to pick up, and if they didn’t do that, the offgoing nurse would have followed up at some point to ensure that report was given if for no other reason than it is a legal obligation nurses have when transferring care. All documentation in the computer would require some kind of login, and somehow every nurse on the unit would have to have believed that some other nurse was the one caring for that patient including the Charge Nurse who is the one responsible for making staff assignments. Furthermore, if the Charge RN didn’t initially notice that overnight the patient had no nurse assigned, they would certainly have noticed when it came time to make assignments for the day shift staff.

All of these details and more make this story just that much more profound when we consider all of the big and little details that God had to work out in order to send an angel to take care of his beloved daughter and to ensure she recovered and was able to return to her normal life. In the same way that God went out of His way for her, God cares about all of the big and little things in all of our lives, and when we pray and ask Him to intervene, we can trust that He will. Whether it will always be as dramatic as this encounter or not, we have a Heavenly Father who is trustworthy—and who knows! Maybe someday you will be telling me a story of an angelic encounter you had as well!

Training a Son of Our Father To Heal the Sick

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Life Through The Lens Of Immortality

The revelation of immortality in Christ Jesus, while technically preached by Jesus himself, is otherwise a fairly new revelation for the Body of Christ. Certainly there have been men and women throughout history who have both believed and accessed this reality, but for most of the rest of us, it is either entirely new or something we are on the journey to apprehend. For those who are skeptical or downright rejecting of this gospel message, it can often be because they believe it is inconsequential, a “side issue” in Christianity, or somehow unrelated to living out our faith. I suggest, however, the exact opposite—that the revelation of immortality is the primary means by which we as followers of Jesus Christ can walk in all the promises of God.

Yes, that’s a pretty bold statement, but there’s a reason good reason that I am saying this. Consider first of all that the primary issue mankind faces is that through the fall, sin entered us, and through sin, death—for as the Bible tells us, the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Now, when you understand that’s the primary problem that Jesus came to solve, every *other* problem becomes subsidiary to that. And in truth, it they really do—it’s just a matter of mindset.

Consider that all poverty is death in your finances. Relational brokenness is death in your relationship. Job loss is death in your employment. Even things like being unsure about what to do in a situation and needing wisdom could be viewed as death of your inner peace. Ultimately, most problems in life can in some way or other be characterized as a manifestation of death. Why does this matter? Because immortality is the solution.

How? Immortality is the result of the life of Jesus Christ constantly flowing in and through us, sustaining us in an ongoing manner. In every way that Christ sustains us, death is incapable of manifesting. As Jesus sustains us in our finances, we experience abundance there. As He sustains us in our relationships, we have vibrancy between one another. As He does the same with our jobs, our peace, with our belongings, our bodies, and more, we have abundant life, fruitfulness, and grace abounding in every area—all as a result of the life that Jesus Christ brings and constantly releases to us!

So how do we access this? First, it requires us to shift our mindset to understand that death is actually the problem, then to understand that Jesus is and has always been the solution for death in all of its forms. Second, we have to believe that He provided the solution for us to live forever. As we do this, and as we pursue immortality in our bodies, we will find it carries over into every other area of our lives. There are a few reasons for this. First, as we live in a greater measure of all God has for us, it will naturally touch every aspect of our lives. Second, it has to do with our faith. As we increase our faith and enhance what we expect from God, we will ultimately receive the results. Third, we have been positioned on earth and given dominion over it, so when we take dominion over death in our own bodies, how much more will that dominion extend to creation around us? Consider that death is really the biggest challenge that mankind faces. I mean, demons are a problem, but we’ve been given authority over them and can make them submit and flee in Jesus’ name. But death? That’s really where people get challenged. If you stand in front of a demon and start commanding them, you’ll notice that they respond (even if not always how you expect) to the name of Jesus. But if you stand in front of a dead body to raise it back to life? Well, historically speaking, most often nothing happens—which is part of why I wrote the book Faith To Raise The Dead, to help equip the Body of Christ to overcome in those situations. Overall I do believe there are a few reasons people tend not to return when we pray to raise them, but the point I am making here is that death is honestly a huge challenge for most believers, and in many cases a bigger challenge than dealing directly with the demonic.

If we really want to break through our faith-barriers and all that holds us back in life, then we have to increase the stakes. We must challenge our faith—and the best way to do that is to go after the BIG enemy, death. After all, the Bible tells us that death is the last enemy to be destroyed. That doesn’t mean we can’t have victory over it here and now—it just means that we have to put some effort into it, and we have to start setting our sights higher than we have before. There is a saying (I’m not sure who said it first) that goes, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you will land among the stars.” The idea here is similar. If you set your sights, and your faith, on immortality, defeating death in your body, then you have set your sights so incredibly high that at that point, anything else is easy in comparison. Furthermore, even if for some reason you don’t fully apprehend it, your faith is already going to be high for what God can do and you will certainly see Him move in every area of your life accordingly.

If you want to learn more about the promises of God in scripture regarding immortality, pick up a copy of my new book The Gospel of Life and Immortality today. The book is over 300 pages of rich content—explaining the scriptures, offering useful tips on how to navigate real-world issues, and providing practical steps to help access this revelation. It’s great for personal learning, and for those who are ready to dive in as a group, it can be gone through chapter by chapter in a group setting as well. Grab your copy and one for a friend today!

When We Release Power, Creation Responds!

One of the things that is easy to forget as we go through our physical-focused three-dimensional lives is that we are sons and daughters of Heaven who have been given authority to transform all creation in the cosmos. I had a simple situation at work the other night that reminded me of this, and just how important it is that we come into a greater understanding of our true identity in Christ. I had just started the night shift (I’m temporarily working nights after being on days for a while) with my coworker Eddie and as I bid the offgoing shift farewell I said “Have a great night!” Eddie turned to me and said “I felt that. It felt like you were talking to me.” That’s because when we release power, creation responds.

Curious, isn’t it? At face value all I did was say “goodbye,” but in truth what I did was decree well-being upon the night for those I was speaking to. It was a simple statement too, but my coworker felt the power that was released when I said those words, and he felt that power enter him as well. I hadn’t done some super-spiritual proclamation over the day shift to let them know that I was being spiritual and releasing virtue upon them to shift their night. And I didn’t have to. All I had to do was say the words and the universe around me shifted in accordance with what I spoke—enough so that someone else felt the change.

Is there something super-amazing about Michael that makes this different for him than everyone else? No—I’m the same as you—a guy who is gradually deepening his understand of who God designed me to be long before the universe was even spoken into existence. And yet, one thing that becomes increasingly clear to me as I go on this journey of growth and transformation is that we get to choose what kind of reality we will experience. Not only that, but we also get to decree that reality and life to others and when we do we release power to perform our words as the sons and daughters of God. Creation responds to our words. Why? Because we have become the divine offspring of the Word of God who spoke creation into both being and function. Remember what Jesus said to the disciples before He ascended to heaven?

“Then Jesus came to them and said, “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. . .” Matthew 28:18-20a

Did you catch that? Jesus acknowledged that all authority in both heaven and earth had been delegated to Him, and he subsequently delegated it to the disciples. But he didn’t stop there. Jesus instructed them to go make more disciples and then to teach all of them to do the same things Jesus had taught the original disciples. You and I are meant to do the same things Jesus both did and taught the early Church to do, and we have been given the same authority that Jesus gave them.

One of the biggest barriers to living in this truth is actually our thought-habits. We get into patterns of saying and doing things that are not consistent with what Jesus taught us, and we don’t realize or remember that it all begins with what we think about—because what we think has an impact on what we speak, and what we speak has an impact on the world around us.

The more we understand and recognize that *every* word we say influences creation, the more we will choose our words carefully and wisely, and intentionally build speech habits that release life and transform creation in healthy ways. Jesus addressed this point when speaking to the Pharisees and said some very interesting things that we’re going to take a look at:

You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” Matthew 12:34-38

Jesus castigated the group for the things they spoke, and explained something fascinating—that we will have to give an explanation for every empty word we have spoken, and that our words will either acquit or condemn us. The phrase every “empty word” literally says every argos rhēma, which can be translated a variety of ways. Some translations say “every idle word” but the underlying concept is that every word that is lazy, idle, or accomplishes nothing will have to be explained. Think about that. It isn’t just that we have to pay attention to whether we are speaking life or death with our words (which we do need to do) but that we need to make sure our words accomplish something. That sets the bar of expectation to a whole new level.

Jesus understood that the words He spoke had power to transform reality—and He regularly performed miracles and healed the sick from that position of a son of the Most High God who walked in that revelation and authority. He taught the disciples to do the same, and has given us this same charge—to transform all creation through the intentional (and not idle) use of our words because He has given us the authority in both heaven and earth to do so. The encouragement in all of this though, is that when we release power, creation responds! As I mentioned in the beginning of this article, all of this came out of a simple encounter at work where I decreed over coworkers how their night would go, and in fact I do that at work regularly. I intentionally tell people when I am coming on and going off shift how their shift is going to become, and I have developed this habit precisely because I know that when I speak, I get to influence my workplace. And the only difference between my workplace and my home, or my workplace and yours, or anywhere else, is simply who is transforming creation through their powerful words. So let’s remember to be intentional with our words to manifest heaven on earth!

Emergency Preparedness is Highly Spiritual

In my teens I spent a good amount of time in the Boy Scouts, including two summers as a camp counselor at a Boy Scout Camp. There was a lot that I learned during that phase of my life having to do with the outdoors, swimming, first aid, and more, but one thing that always stuck with me was the motto “Be Prepared.” There are a variety of ways one can follow that ethos, from emergency preparedness to financial preparedness and more, but I want us to consider something that follows more closely with the subjects on this site: spiritual preparedness.

I realized years ago that in any given situation I cannot guarantee that anyone else will walk in the anointing, identity, and authority as a son or daughter of God to get the job done in whatever the current circumstance is. And while I think it is healthy to a degree to rely on others in the Body of Christ, situationally, that is not always possible or even wise. Thus, I decided that I must grow to become whatever I must become in any situation to solve Earth’s problems with Heaven’s power and grace.

While that may sound arrogant to some, I think it actually aligns pretty closely with the nature of our Heavenly Dad—the one who goes by the name “Jehovah Jireh” or “the God who Provides.” I had a Mormon patient share with me once that God’s name “Jehovah Jireh” actually is better translated as “I Will Become Whatever I Must Become [to meet the need].” If we consider that God is determined to become for us whatever we need in any given situation, is it really too much to consider that we, being made in His likeness, are to walk in the same nature as our Father? And while one can make the argument that God will always provide in any situation, how did God provide for the famine in Egypt? He sent Joseph a dream so he had seven years to prepare. For Noah? He gave him over 100 years to build an ark. Sometimes, faith looks like doing something in advance.

[box] Sometimes, faith looks like doing something in advance.[/box]

Fasting is a great discipline, although difficult at times, but when tragedy strikes is really not the best time to begin fasting. In fact, I think it is far better to have lived a general lifestyle that includes fasting if for no other reason than to be prepared. Prayer is a great discipline, but is it really effective to begin developing that lifestyle once a problem hits? I suggest it is far better to have developed that discipline and have those lines of communication open prior to issues springing up. Walking in spiritual gifts, the anointing, power, authority, identity and more are all really good things for us to do. But is the time to begin doing those things really the moment when problems befall us and those around us, or is it wiser to be like the Wise Virgins in the parable Jesus told and be prepared for future situations?

I suspect we have entered an era where there is little time left to prepare for the things that are coming our way. There is tyranny in the air, many opportunities for intentionally-manufactured economic ruin for individuals, families, and even different regions of the world. Certain sicknesses have been unleashed on the world to intentionally create ill health and death, and the “cures” for those diseases may end up being just as deadly. The time to prepare for all of these things and the many more possibilities I have not named is not someday in the far off future. The best time to prepare is years ago, but the next best time to prepare is begin today.

So what does this preparation look like? What options do we have? Let me give you some suggestions—some of them are things I already do, some are things I need to do more of myself, and this is a reminder to me to do the same as well! The suggestions below are not exhaustive, but they will get you started on the road to new levels of spiritual power, new levels of mental preparation, and new levels of walking in the authority and anointing that God prepared in advance for you to walk in, to release His love and power into this earth!

Get intentional about fasting and prayer. The book Reece Howells: Intercessor is a great encourager in this area.
Spend time engaging in impartation of spiritual gifts with others. To learn more about this subject, read my book The Power of Impartation and then put the principles into action.
Transform your beliefs to reflect the Abundant Life that Jesus purchased for us. Learn about God’s desire to heal every sick person and raise every dead person back to life in my book Faith To Raise The Dead, and begin to practice and engage the material in your daily life.
Get intentional about transforming and renewing your mind. A great resource to do this is Chris Blackeby on Youtube.
Build your faith for the miraculous provision of Heaven. My two books Gemstones From Heaven and Feathers From Heaven are good ways to encourage this. Ruth Ward Heflin’s Glory books are faith builders, as is the autobiography of George Muller. There are many fantastic books out there—find them, read them, and let your faith and expectation grow!
Get inner healing and deliverance. An old classic is Derek Prince’s book They Shall Expel Demons—the principles and wisdom in that book are timeless. I have coauthored the book Broken to Whole which deals with how we engage healing the broken and fractured parts of our soul as a result of pain and trauma. There are many other fantastic books and resources out there, but however you do it, spend time with intentional inner healing and deliverance prayer whether with someone else or by yourself and release the pain in your heart to God. My friend Praying Medic has a really good book called Emotional Healing in 3 Easy Steps that takes a lot of knowledge and “how to” and compacts it into a simple little prayer that anyone can use in just a few minutes. I highly encourage this method.
Ask the Lord what other areas you need to prepare in, and ask Him to lead and guide you to the resources and methods and means with which to get ready.

What are some ways you prepare for things spiritually?

Remain Steadfast. Ignore Your Circumstances.

One of the harder things I have had to learn to do over the years is to completely ignore my circumstances when it comes to praying for others. Whether praying to raise the dead, for those completely unconscious in the ICU, or any other seemingly-impossible situation, it can be a huge challenge to remain steadfast in faith. When everything in our circumstances scream “This is impossible! You will fail!” and especially those times when there is no one else standing in faith with you, those are the times where we truly discover what is inside us.

I have been blessed with good friends who are also not strangers to believing for and seeing Heaven’s interventions into humanly-impossible circumstances, but at the end of the day we can never rely on someone else’s faith, their beliefs, their encouragement, or anything else. The only one we can rely on is God, who never fails us and never leaves us to deal with things without His assistance, regardless of how things sometimes feel exactly that way. What we are given the opportunity to learn in such trying situations is something that Hebrews 6:12 states quite plainly, saying “We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.” Impossible situations require not just faith, but patience.

Did Daniel simply engage faith when it took 21 days of fasting for an angelic messenger to fight his way past a demonic prince to bring a message to Daniel? Or was patience involved? When Jesus told the disciples to wait in the upper room, how did 500 believers dwindle down to 120 in a week’s time? Was it because some of them had faith but no patience?

In any situation we, as a choice of our will, must choose to remain steadfast—stable and steady, not wavering, not turning aside, and even if we do waver, that it only be for moments as we continue forward and onward. When we pray, we understand that we aren’t asking if God wants to intervene, but are seeking Him on how He wants to, and inviting Him to share His plans with us so we can walk it out.

In any situation we can have full assurance that it is the will of God for us to manifest the Kingdom of Heaven on earth because Jesus already purchased the solution. Our job is to walk it out. However, the only way we will successfully do that is if we let patience, steadfastness, and intentional single-focus be formed within us. While Hebrews 6:12 tells us that we must have both faith and patience, it does come with a promise—that as those things become formed and revealed in us, we will most assuredly inherit the promises.

And for those of you who are dealing with really difficult circumstances right now, I want this to be an encouragement to you. Remain steadfast. Ignore your circumstances. Keep pressing forward. God is with you, and He is always faithful.