Four Simple Steps To Hear From God

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Everyone needs to hear from God. However, while in theory it should always be easy to hear God speaking to us, sometimes this can be difficult. Some factors that make this more difficult are when we are stressed or tired, but we can also hit demonic resistance that attempts to block our ability to hear God. Sometimes the problem is that we haven’t learned how to recognize God’s voice speaking to us whether in words or images. There are, however, some keys to help us hear Him more easily. We will look at four simple steps to hear from God that may help ease this process.

Step 1) Set aside uninterrupted time to focus on hearing God.

This time is meant for listening to God, which also means not doing anything else. Demons like to create distractions when we set aside time like this to keep us from honing in on connecting with God, so plan in advance to reduce distractions. Turn off your phone if needed. Go to a quiet location, whether that is sitting in your car, the library, or your room. Take the pets out to the bathroom before you start so they don’t start whining at the door. If you have kids, you may need to find an activity that will keep them both occupied *and* not fighting with one another. Naptime is especially good for this, but a movie can also be helpful.

Step 2) Write down your thoughts, questions and concerns.

Some prefer pen and paper, but I prefer to use word processing software on my computer. One could also use a tablet of some kind with a writing app. I have a friend who doesn’t know how to type but writes all the time, so he uses a text-to-type software. However works best for you, write out the things on your heart, sort of like journaling, but with intention and expectation on hearing God’s thoughts as answers for the questions and concerns that you bring up.

Step 3) After asking a question, stop writing and listen.

This can be the hard part if you aren’t used to it, as often you are waiting for responses to enter your mind. Write down the thoughts or images that come to mind. Usually this is God communicating with your spirit, which then flows down into your soul/mind and is processed by your brain as thoughts. The difference is that these aren’t your thoughts, which is usually evident because at this point you really aren’t thinking anything at all other than being still and listening. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you feel you have covered everything on your mind.

If you don’t have anything specific in mind, ask the question “God, what do you want to say to me today?” We may have our own questions, thoughts, and agendas, but often God has things He wants to say that are unrelated to what we are asking. When we take time to hear not just God’s thoughts for specific situations, but open ourselves up to whatever He wants to tell us, we will often be surprised by what He says

Step 4) When you feel you are done writing, read back over what you wrote.

See what feels like it resonates. If something doesn’t feel like it fits, ask yourself why. This final step involves discerning what we feel is and is not what God is saying, and is an important step. Sometimes the things we hear come out of our own fears, questions, hopes, and concerns. Sometimes we get conflicting voices speaking to us. Sometimes, we are both hearing God and getting things muddled up with our own thoughts at the same time. Discernment is important, and taking time to review what we feel we have received helps us to develop that skill.

While not foolproof, this is a method that I often use to hear from God. As a tradition, I also take time to do this around Christmas each year with no agenda other than to hear what God wants to share with me about my life, that of family and friends, and even sometimes things in the world in the coming year. I will sometimes get prophetic words for a few friends and family at that time as well. This simple four-step process is an easy way to get into a mental space to hear from God, and helps to clear all the emotional clutter out of the way by setting aside purposeful time with God. Life gets busy, but we never should get so busy that we can’t take time to listen to God’s thoughts toward us.

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Should We Prophesy About Dates, Spouses, And Life-Altering Decisions?

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Over the past century, God has been restoring the prophetic to the Body of Christ. People have been learning about the gifts of the spirit, prophets, discernment, hearing God’s voice, and more. One of the things that are commonly taught when learning about prophecy are the three things that we should never prophesy. The first is dates that things will or will not happen. The second is who we will or will not marry, and the third is about any kind of life-altering decision. Should we prophesy about dates, spouses, and life-altering decisions? Let’s find out.

My dad is a Charismatic-leaning Episcopal priest, and he doesn’t like dealing with the prophetic. Why? Because he absolutely hates when people say foolish things and tack a “well, God told me so it must be true/wise/good” on the end. He’s always like “That’s the ultimate trump card. What am I supposed to say to argue with that, even though it’s obviously a dumb idea?” His solution to issues like this is to avoid it as much as possible, much like the prohibition on prophesying about dates, spouses, and decisions. There is some wisdom behind this to a certain extent, but it is also somewhat of a reaction to past abuses, and there is a risk that we inhibit future growth by avoiding these topics entirely.

Before going further, let’s look a little at the levels of prophecy in scripture. In 1 Corinthians 12 the apostle Paul outlines the gifts of the Spirit, and in 1 Corinthians 14 he expounds in more depth on the gifts of prophecy and tongues. Prophecy, in that context, is for building up others, strengthening one another, and comfort. There is another passage in Ephesians 4 that talks about prophets as a gift of Jesus to the Body of Christ. Some argue that anyone who can prophesy is a prophet, but the gift of prophecy from the Holy Spirit and the gift of the prophet from Jesus are two different things. Both can prophesy, but I suggest their functions are different. Furthermore, Romans 12:6 says, “We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith . . .” Prophecy, then, has levels that are in some measure designated by our level of faith as well.

The common teaching in spirit-filled circles is that while all people can prophesy for building up, strengthening, and comfort, only people with the designated title of “prophet” should go in further depth and speak about dates, spouses, life decisions, and other more “risky” things. The rationale there is that certain people have a special grace to prophesy those things that others don’t have as a result of their “office” as a prophet. While I definitely agree that there are real prophets and there are differences between the grace on their life and that of non-prophets, I don’t think it means that no one else can prophesy about the three areas in question.

One of the major reasons people teach that no one else should prophesy on these subjects is due to a combination of fear and wisdom. Fear says that bad things have happened before and people have made bad decisions from prophecies that were inaccurate, so we should avoid it entirely. Wisdom says that people have made bad decisions from prophecies that were in accurate so we need to pay attention to who, how, where, and when we deal with those types of prophetic words. The former is focused on how bad the problem is while the latter on how to avoid the problem, but in reality both have the potential to miss a third aspect of the situation: discernment.

If we do not teach the body how to rightly discern between God’s voice, our own mental clutter and baggage and noise, and the enemy, then no amount of rules are going to fix the problem. Hebrews 5:14 says that we learn to discern through constant use. If we are never put into challenging situations, we will never hone our discernment. As a teacher, I want people to learn and grow, so I see no value in making arbitrary rules out of fear to avoid a problem that might or might not come up. Actually, I expect that not only will we have situations that are less than optimal, but that these moments are teaching opportunities. Why should we expect people to grow if there is no challenge?

Initially when prophets came into the Charismatic scene, there were some pretty impressive displays of accurate prophetic unction, including words of knowledge of people’s names, birthdates, social security numbers, and other very detailed information about their lives that God would share with the person ministering. Then, as excesses came into the movement and God and people began to work on stewarding things better, God was having people learn how to hear his voice and there was a pulling-back on the so-called extravagant prophetic words. However, I believe it is time for the pendulum to swing back in the other direction. We need men and women of God who know how to not only hear very specific and important information, but when to share it and with whom.

Most of the time I have seen rules put into place about what may and may not be prophesied, it is in situations with highly legalistic, dysfunctional, and manipulative leadership. That isn’t to say that all leaders who make those kinds of rules are those things, but “you shall and shall not say these sorts of things from God” rules are rarely in the heart of God for a situation. Certainly, 1 Corinthians 14 tells us that the spirit of a prophet is subject to his or her control, and there are times and situations to exercise wisdom and restraint, but that isn’t usually what is happening.

As I see it, there is a measure of wisdom in stewardship, but also a good deal of fear veiled as wisdom. I believe we need to expect both the person prophesying and the person receiving the word to discern the veracity of the prophecy. We also need to make sure we are teaching people how to discern prophetic words and not just avoid talking about certain subjects. If God can speak through a donkey, then He can tell what he likes to whom He likes, and it isn’t our job to place man-made rules on who may or may not prophesy certain things. In fact, the moment we lay down those rules is probably the moment God is going to put someone in our path to break those rules, and while we will call them “rebellious”, there is a good chance God put them there on purpose to break them because they are stupid rules, although usually well-intentioned stupid ones.

I have learned over time that I am pretty bad about hearing dates accurately, so I personally just avoid telling people dates. Why? Because if I prophesy according to my faith with maturity, then I won’t mislead people when I already know I’m usually wrong about dates. I also have a high personal level of responsibility toward discerning and delivering prophetic words. I test it internally and make sure I am confident it comes from God before ever delivering it, as everyone should do before speaking a prophecy to someone else.

At the end of the day, if we want to see people grow in the prophetic, we can’t avoid the difficult areas. Mind you, we also don’t want to be foolish either, so as God pushes the Church to elevate the prophetic to new heights once again, we have some work to do. If we teach people not only how to discern God’s voice as the one giving the word, but to test every word we receive on the other end, then regardless of the situation, we can avoid a lot of problems while still engaging all that God has for us and the wisdom He wants to speak to and through us.

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Things Your Pastor Never Taught You About Elemental Spirits In The Bible

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Roughly a decade ago, I was working on my wife’s shoulder which was bothering her, and I had a visionary experience. I was trying to concentrate on what I was working on, but had this really irritating picture in my head of something that was doing a sweeping motion that I couldn’t get to go away. Whatever the thing was, it was messing with my concentration, to the point that I was spending more mental energy on making the image go away more than what I was doing for my wife’s shoulder.

At first I didn’t realize I was having a vision, and then I realized that it wasn’t going away due to the nature of the vision, so instead of trying to make it end, I began to pay attention. As I focused in on the sweeping motion, I sort of zoomed out and realized it was a broom that was sweeping off our front porch. Stuck in the cracks of the stone was a piece of paper, which I proceeded to pick up. I tried to read what was on it, but couldn’t.

As I did this in the vision, a really ugly spirit of some kind approached me and said something (I forget now), and I made him leave. Directly after that, I asked Holy Spirit how a demon could appear in my vision and interact with me, as I found that both confusing and new at the time. What He said to me was this:

“It’s not a demon.”

I was like “It’s ugly enough to be one… So what was it??”

Holy Spirit replied “An air spirit.”

I can already hear the sound of a record player coming to a screeching halt as someone says “wait, what?”

Right after Holy Spirit said this to me, He reminded me of Ephesians 2:2 which refers to Satan as the “Prince of the powers of the air.” The word ‘powers’ there is the word exousias, which is used in 2 types of places:

1) used when the New Testament talks about power, also thought of as virtue or energy, of the kind that Jesus used to heal people
2) found in the lists of heavenly hierarchies, specifically Colossians 1:17 and 2:15. In these lists, it’s the same word being used, but in reference to angels and/or other sentient spirit beings.

While one could make a reasonable argument that there is no connection between “Powers of Air” and what I would refer to as elemental spirits, there was something else that made me pay a little more attention to what He shared with me. Years ago, my friend Ben (I talk about him in my book The Beginner’s Guide to Traveling in the Spirit) was telling me once about an experience he and a couple of his friends had. They were practicing their gifts of discernment together, as Ben was a feeler, and one of his other friends was a seer. The name of the game was basically “How many angels are in the room?” They identified 11 angels in the room, except for one thing . . . some them weren’t angels—they were Powers. He described what they looked like to me. Of the Powers, one looked like a fountain. The other one was like a pillar of flame.

A seraphim/fiery burning one caught on camera

Now, I don’t believe in coincidences. When I put that story together with the Power of air that Holy Spirit showed me in that vision, suddenly we have air, fire, and water, 3/4 of what are typically known in mythology as “elemental spirits”. Furthermore, the Bible makes another somewhat veiled reference to this in Psalm 104:4 (which is later quoted in Hebrews 1:7) which states: “He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants. (NIV)” In this passage it suggests that God uses either a sentient wind or Wind/Air spirits his messengers (or angels, as it could be translated), and he has servants who are flames of fire. Interestingly enough, “seraph” means something to the effect of “fiery burning one”. If that doesn’t sound like a fire-spirit of some kind, I don’t know what does. Now, while I’m not making the argument that seraphim are fire elementals, my point is that throughout scripture we actually see more references to Powers, or elemental spirits, than we might realize.

Did you know that elemental spirits are also referenced elsewhere in scripture? They are. Strong’s G4747 is the word “stoicheion” which means the following:

any first thing, from which the others belonging to some series or composite whole take their rise, an element, first principal
the letters of the alphabet as the elements of speech, not however the written characters, but the spoken sounds
the elements from which all things have come, the material causes of the universe
the heavenly bodies, either as parts of the heavens or (as others think) because in them the elements of man, life and destiny were supposed to reside
the elements, rudiments, primary and fundamental principles of any art, science, or discipline
i.e. of mathematics, Euclid’s geometry (taken from Strongs Concordance, Blueletterbible.org)

What the Bible refers to as “stoicheion” are literally elemental spirits–formed of the elements from which all things come from. Stoicheion are referenced in 7 places in scripture: Galatians 4:3, Galatians 4:9, Colossians 2:8, Colossians 2:20, Hebrews 5:12, 2 Peter 3:10, and 2 Peter 3:12. When we read these verses, it specifically refers to elements of creation. Galatians 4:3, the first mention, states “Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world . . .”

One of the things I have come to realize in my life travels is that *typically* most people are in some measure of bondage to the elements of the world. And when I say “world”, I mean creation and the cosmos, not just planet earth. Think about it. The entire reason astrology works is because we are connected in some way to the cosmos, and even our position in space at birth causes us to be influenced in subtle ways by the energies of other stars and planets. It’s difficult to explain why astrology even works, but it usually does. The problem is that we aren’t *supposed* to be subjected to such things, but most people still are anyway. Thus, there is something about breaking free from the influence of elemental spirits, or at least the ones that don’t serve God, that is important. If Satan is in control of the elemental spirits of the air, then what other elementals are under his control?

While I have heard stories of people who have encountered elemental spirits, I have had some encounters of my own. Some of these spirits serve God, but more often than not they are ignorant of God’s existence and are very self-seeking and selfish. In fact, Colossians 2:8 says, “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” Something about elemental spirits tends to involve deceit, and one friend has pointed out that they tend to work through illusion, which makes sense in context of this verse.

Galatians 4:9 tells us that elemental spirits are actually far weaker than we realize (it says they are “weak and beggarly”), and from what I understand, they use deceit and illusion to get us to come back in bondage under then, and in so doing, they can use our power as their own. Why would they want to do this? 2 Peter 3:10-12 suggests they will be destroyed by heat and fire, and it is likely they want to use our power to somehow avoid that fate. Furthermore, there appears to be a connection between elemental spirits and getting us to follow highly proscribed rules and religious structures. There is something about getting us locked into definable patterns that helps them to engage and use our power.

I first wrote about this topic on December 1 of 2009, 10 years ago. Before then, there were a few people talking about it, but very few. In the last ten years, God has been giving even more people revelation about this subject and not only how elemental spirits can influence us, but what we can do about it and how we are supposed to bring them under the dominion of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I don’t pretend to have it all figured out, but I do believe that God wants us to have a greater understanding of this subject as a whole.

If you want to hear more about this topic, consider listening to a podcast episode on Discovering Truth with Dan Duval called Stoicheion, Elementals and Rudiments with Ruthie Andrews.

Stop, Drop, and Pray

While I was driving to work the other night I was listening to a podcast, I had this strong impression that I needed to pray. I turned off the podcast message and went into prayer. After a few minutes, I felt impressed to call a certain friend. When I did, she let me know that she was glad I called because she had literally just asked the Lord for help in a situation, and moments later I rang her cell phone. I prayed with her and helped her work through the immediate issue. I learned as a Cub Scout to “stop drop and roll” if for some reason my clothing ever caught on fire. Sometimes, putting out spiritual fires can be similar—we need to stop, drop, and pray.

I once heard prophet Larry Randolph say something at a conference I attended that has stuck with me. He said, “In the midst of the mundane, the supernatural happens.” Often I think we are looking for big spectacular displays of divine power, but more often than not God works supernaturally in subtle ways. Think about it—before my friend had even prayed, God alerted me I needed to pay attention to what He was doing, and then even as she was praying, He impressed on me to call her. In Scripture, this could be characterized as a manifestation of the gift of the word of knowledge, but more often than not I just think of it as God communicating with me. Sometimes God lets us know things not through a spiritual gift, but through our relationship with Him.

Prayer is a crucial part of our spiritual lives, and it has the ability to change any situation. While I believe that cultivating a lifestyle involving intentional prayer is important, I also believe that random times of prayer are also vital. It isn’t enough to just have metered times of prayer complete with prayer lists because some life situations don’t fit the mold. Don’t get me wrong—I believe that using a list can be a valuable means of intercession because it provides focused reminders about people and situations that need ongoing prayer. However, we must also cultivate sensitivity in our hearts to the Holy Spirit so that we know when it is time to stop, drop, and pray.

One of the best pieces of advice I can give someone who wants to grow deeper in their relationship with God is to become more sensitive to both the voice and leading of the Holy Spirit. It says of Him in John 16:13-14, “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. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.” Holy Spirit loves to reveal the will of God to us, and He does it in full concert and cooperation with Jesus and the Father, so we can trust that all directions we receive from Heaven come with a unified will and purpose.

I plan to eventually write and release one or more books on the prophetic, including wisdom and guidance on how to hear the voice of God and recognize the various ways He leads us, but until then, here are some other resources that may be helpful to grow in hearing God’s voice:

My buddy Praying Medic has written two books on the subject that I highly recommend. They are
Hearing God’s Voice Made Simple and Seeing in the Spirit Made Simple.

There are many others out there, but two good ones are Spirit Talk by Larry Randolph and Translating God: Hearing God’s Voice For Yourself And The World Around You by Shawn Bolz.

You might also be interested in reading about how I learned to first listen to God and then pray what He desires in my article titled “How I Received Mentoring In Prophetic Intercession“

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A Word of Knowledge In A Dream

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This past Friday morning I woke up from a peculiar dream. The dream is as follows:

I am in a church that is a lot like Life Center, a church I used to attend. I am up front on stage with a small group of people who are calling out words of knowledge and ministering to the people in the audience. The woman who goes right before me calls out a word of knowledge for some condition God wants to heal and then announces that she will pray for the first three people to come up front. It strikes me as odd that she limits how many people she will pray for, but it is my turn next.

I tell the crowd what God is showing me, which is that He is healing people with jaw conditions of any kind, including tooth problems and another word I can’t think of but which deals with jaw pain. A few moments later I am able to remember the name, which is TMJ. I announce all of this, and a bunch of people all over the auditorium stand up. As there are far too many to pray for individually in a reasonable amount of time, I pray over all of those who are standing, and half of them get healed. I tell the rest of them to come up for prayer. Then the dream ends.

Upon waking, I found the dream somewhat perplexing. While I absolutely love the idea of healing dozens of people under the anointing, there was no context in my life to identify its relevance. While I used to be part of a local ministry that put on conferences, I resigned a few months ago and am not currently in a position where I would expect to be ministering on stage in front of a group.

While the dream was Friday morning, that evening I brought some friends to go listen to a buddy of mine speak and minister about resurrection power and abundant life. At the end of his message, he asked everyone who had gone with him to India last November to come up and be the prayer team. Other than my friend, there were 5 of us from the trip present, so we all went up to pray for people.

At this moment I was now standing in the front of a church getting ready to pray for the sick and injured when my dream that morning suggested I would be doing exactly that. Furthermore, the name of the church I was in was “Life Church”, very similar to the name of the church in my dream. It didn’t really hit me until a short time later, and what really drove it home was the second person I prayed for, who needed healing for her . . .

. . . TMJ.

And upon praying, God healed her jaw.

It was that moment that I realized that I was living out the dream I had that morning. Again, keep in mind that nowhere in the natural could I have expected this outcome. I have a dream of being in front of a church group and get a word of knowledge in the dream about people needing healing for TMJ. That night I am called upon by a friend unexpectedly to be on the ministry team, and one of the three people I prayed for has that condition!!

This is a perfect example of divine guidance that comes forth in a dream. God wants to give us revelation in our dreams and speak to us things that He wants us to know. This particular dream was still a little interpretive, but the main details of the dream played out pretty closely in real life. Presumably, God gave me that dream in advance to show me about what would happen that evening, but I failed to realize it until it was already happening. Why did He reveal that to me knowing that I would misunderstand? I don’t know. Maybe because it encouraged the woman I was praying for? Possibly because He is trying to teach me something new about dreams, or healing, or other life circumstances? I’m not sure.

What I do know is that regardless of how simple or complex our dreams are, God wants to speak to us while we sleep. The question to ask ourselves is, “Are we listening?”

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Prophetic Bulletin: Weights and Measures; A Time To Intercede For The United States

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Sunday morning, 2/3/19, I had this nagging sense that something was wrong, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it—even whether it was related to something in the natural or the spirit. I began to talk to my family to try to figure it out, and it turned out that both my wife and stepdaughter were having a similar sense. We began to discuss, and rule out, what we felt it was in relation to. It wasn’t the strange car parked near our house, it wasn’t something about going to church that morning, and while it didn’t feel like it was an earthquake coming, we went out and bought a few things just in case. We weren’t really sure what it was, but we decided to skip the movie we were going to see in theater (we had bought tickets the night before) and skip our gym workouts spend time in prayerful discussion to discern the nature of the problem.

After posting on FB to crowd-source, and having a large number of people respond that they had been having a similar sense from God and/or a general feeling of things being strangely off somehow in the past day or so, we began to recognize this wasn’t just something in our house, but nationwide, and some reports were coming in from people around the globe. All of this was too coincidental and simultaneously widespread for it to actually be a coincidence. God was trying to tell us something. I immediately began to fast, and we continued to seek God. After more prayer and fasting, and connecting with others in the Body who are hearing and sensing similar things, I have narrowed it down to four main areas I believe God is highlighting right now and wants us to pray into.

1) The Superbowl and Sex Trafficking

The Superbowl is the number one day a year for sex trafficking. I do believe that is part of what I was sensing the other day, and many others had the same revelation, and we have prayed into that. While the Superbowl is over, Sex Trafficking is still a major issue. The US has had some big breakthroughs and busted a number of trafficking rings in the past year, but we need to continue to pray for the hidden things to come to light, and the captives to very literally be set free from this abominable practice. Furthermore, some of this gets into some really high-level spiritual stuff dealing with ritual human sacrifices, sex rituals, and the goal of the enemy to regain spiritual power to control the destiny of the United States. We need to pray the power of iniquity is broken over this nation. (for more information/education on the how and why of satanic rituals, go here)

2) The Safety and Effectiveness of the President

The Lord spoke to me the night before last and told me to fast until Tuesday evening (this evening), and as I was pondering this I realized that the State of the Union address occurs this evening. I believe part of what is going on is that God has plans for what He wants this President to accomplish, and the powers of darkness are working overtime to prevent the POTUS from doing what God has ordained for him to do. Regardless of whether Trump is consciously aware of the will of God for his presidency, God has plans that He wants to come to pass, and we need to pray for wisdom and divine guidance, physical and spiritual protection, and for favor and open doors for everything God wants to accomplish through the President and his policies and actions.

3) For The Release of the Heavenly Host and the Binding of Demonic Spirits

One of the significant things the Lord revealed to us on Sunday, 2/3/19, was from an unexpected source, the movie Monsters, Inc. Frequent readers of my blog know that I do not like Disney due to its ties to ritual abuse and the Illuminati agenda, as well as its ongoing subliminal messaging throughout their shows and movies (for more info, read A Sinister Undercurrent in Disney), and if you look at some of the messages behind this movie, it only further shows why. Nevertheless, this is what God was showing us. In the movie, the plot involves the main characters using doors to travel supernaturally around the world, basically the equivalent of heavenly portals. They are monsters whose job is to scare children and collect the fear they release to use as a power source. This is actually very similar to what is actually done in the natural, using children and their emotions and spirituality as a power source for the demonic through rituals. 2319 is a special emergency code which means that things have transferred back through the portals. Disney actually posted a “beware” warning image on February 3rd in correlation with their in-movie code. You literally can’t make this stuff up. The warning we were sensing in the spirit lined up with a prophetic warning from a movie about monsters traveling through portals to release fear on children.

What does this mean? God is showing us that the enemy is attempting to release a new series of demonic powers through portals in the heavenlies to release a new measure of fear into the earth, and to bring domination and control over its inhabitants. As the sons and daughters of God it is our job to rise up and oppose this demonic infiltration through prayer, and pray for the demonic to be bound on earth and in heaven, and for God to release the Heavenly Host to oppose what the enemy is trying to bring into the earth. Isaiah 59:19 says, “When the enemy comes in, like a flood The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.” We need to pray for a flood of the Spirit and the angelic host to overpower everything in the demonic realms.

4) For All Decisions Made by the President, Congress, and Supreme Court

We need to pray that all decisions made by our governmental leaders not just at the Federal level, but at the State, and Local levels are righteous decisions. We must pray for righteous leaders to be raised up in all of these levels of government. As mentioned in the first prayer point about trafficking and rituals, there is a lot going on behind the scenes, and the demonic realms have lost a lot of their ritual power that they must regain in order to accomplish their evil work. This is why we are seeing abortion laws being frantically passed to provide even more blood sacrifices to fuel the enemy’s plans and in preparation for the new Supreme Court Justice once Ginsberg passes away. I believe there are numerous factors behind why the demonic realms have lost some of their power in this season, but the biggest reason is the prayers of the saints. As we continue to pray for God to manifest His will and His ways in our government, and for righteous leaders to be raised up for this nation at the federal, state, and local levels, we have the potential to see a revival in our governmental system. However, whether this does or does not occur in the near future will have far-reaching influence on this nation.

Through a conversation with Lisa Perna, founder of Touched By Prayer, where she shared some revelation the Lord gave her about measures, the Lord showed me that we are in a window of time right now where we are being weighed and measured as a nation to see if we will, collectively, choose righteousness or wickedness in the coming years, and what direction this nation will head. There is a lot more to this than what I have just shared, but it will need to be unpacked in a bit of detail, which I will do below.

In the book of Ezekiel, chapters 40-42 are a detailed explanation of the prophet watching a man measure the Temple, temple courts, altar, and just about every other aspects of the architecture one can think of. Right after he finishes measuring everything the glory of God enters the temple. The chapters directly after the measuring record the restoration of three things: the restoration of the Glory (ch. 43), the restoration of the Priesthood (ch. 44) and the restoration of the Nation (ch. 45). Now, this is a significant pattern of what God is doing right now, but we need to skip to Revelation 11:1 before we continue exploring this. Revelation 11:1 says, “I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, ‘Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, with its worshipers.'” The same pattern, or rather we should look at it as an opportunity for a pattern, is set out again in Revelation 11:1, but the results are somewhat different, involving not the restoration of all things, but the destruction of many things instead.

From a prophetic perspective, as I began to study this issue of measuring last night, I was quite shocked to come across Revelation 11:1. The Lord has been highlighting the number 111 to me for the past few months, and in spite of looking up all of the Bible verses potentially related, I had not yet received the revelation on what it signifies. I believe I now understand. God was setting up a prophetic confirmation to clarify what He is speaking right now about the nation being measured, and the fate of the United States being in the balance in the spirit.

This issue of measuring and weighing is found multiple places in scripture. We see it in Ezekiel 40-42 and Revelation 11, but it is in multiple other places in scripture as well. Daniel 8:23 speaks of when transgressions and/or transgressors have reached their fullness. Ephesians 1:10 speaks of how times have reached their fullness. We see this same concept again in Exodus 2:23-25, although in different verbiage, where after a certain measure of time God intervened. This passage was actually alluded to in Genesis 15:13-16, with verse 16 saying, “In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” There is something about certain things reaching the fullness of time in the spirit that causes things to shift and change. This related to the concept of sowing and reaping in Galatians 6:7. If we sow good things, we will reap them, and what is being measured is what we are sowing to see how we will reap. We see this in Revelation 5:8 and 8:3-5 where the prayers of the saints are collected in golden bowls, and when the bowls have been filled, they get combined with fire from the altar of God and are thrown back down to earth to cause massive changes.

While I don’t tend to pay a lot of attention to the Hebrew Calendar, today, February 4th at sundown into February 5th is Rosh Chodesh Adar, the first day of the last month of the Hebrew religious year. In other words, we are ending a one-year Hebrew cycle of 5778 and entering year 5779 (the religious calendar). Adar is the last month the Israelites spent in Egypt, and it is also the precursor to Passover, when God released His spirit in what can be considered the “first revival”. February 5th is also the day the POTUS will be delivering the State of the Union address, and I believe this convergence has prophetic significance.

What God is revealing right now is that the United States is in a position of being weighed in the balance. We are in a window of time right now where righteousness can prevail again in this nation, but it depends not just on the various legislations that our lawmakers pass, but on our prayers. If anything, it depends even *more* on our prayers, as they will help decide what laws are rejected, passed, or overturned in this pivotal period. Our prayers will have a significant influence on what direction this nation proceeds, and due to our level of international interconnectedness, what happens to the US impacts the world.

As I shared earlier, Ezekiel 40-45 show us a pattern in scripture. After we are measured, and depending on what is found, it lays the groundwork for the restoration of the Glory (which we usually think of as revival), the restoration of the priesthood (which is correlated with God doing a restorative work in the Body of Christ), and the restoration of the nation. God wants to restore righteousness and justice in the United States, and now is the time. In this season, on a governmental level, we can see legislative power returned to the People of the United States, Roe vs. Wade overturned with the addition of a righteous judge to the Supreme Court, and lawlessness as a whole removed from the land. The enemy opposes these and the many other things God is releasing at this time, so it is imperative that we fast and pray for the will of God to be released in this nation. Prophet Dutch Sheets posted a prophetic word in Charisma News within the past 24 hours that shares a similar perspective to what God has revealed to me at this time (I found his prophetic word after initially writing this).

While some of this prophetic message can sound depressing or fear-inducing to some, this bulletin isn’t for the purpose of sowing fear. This is about becoming aware that the enemy has plans for destruction, but God has plans for abundant life (John 10:10). Every time and way the enemy wants to tear down and destroy, God raises up His righteous people to destroy demonic structures and release His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. When God wants to do something in the earth, He gives revelation to His people (Amos 3:7), which allows us to partner with Heaven to manifest His will. We must not let ourselves get into a place of fear, but press forward in faith through fasting and intercession to call forth the will of God in this nation, and as we see the pattern in Ezekiel, when we decide through prayer how the US will be measured, we will see revival in both the Church and the world as the glory of God is released in a new measure once again!

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Reassigning Angels

Just the other night I was driving with my stepdaughter to a local open Thrive meeting. We were about 30 minutes early, so we decided to stop in at a Trader Joe’s grocery store that was on our way and grab a bite to eat. We were hungry and it was going to be written off as a business expense anyway, so we figured we might as well. As I pulled into the parking lot, I realized I had been here before, but it had been a while. The building on the far side of the parking lot from the store was a place where a ministry I used to be on staff with hosted conferences a number of years prior.

Feeling like this was a God-timed moment, I drove over to the building and parked the van. My stepdaughter was confused, and I probably didn’t explain clearly, but we got out and walked up to the door. I then prayed something to the effect of “I lay claim to every heavenly deposit that was left here from the previous events that we did and for every angelic assignment that has been left untended and remains here. I lay claim to those blessings and angels and attach them to the ministry of The Kings of Eden in Jesus’ name.”

I turned around to walk back to the van, but suddenly was hit with the power of God and instantly became what is known as “drunk in the Spirit.” As I walked to the vehicle, I could sense a roughly fifteen-foot-tall angel following right behind me, and by revelation I knew that there were in fact three angels that had come with me. While one of them is called To The Nations, I’m not certain yet what functions the other two serve.

The encounter itself was somewhat profound and entirely unexpected, and the next fifteen minutes of being drunk in the spirit while shopping for snacks was also fun, but as I reflect back upon this event, there is more to it than meets the eye.

How long would those angels have waited there for someone to give them something to do if God hadn’t brought me by that night?

The Bible says, “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14). Angels, and the heavenly host as a whole who have been sent to earth at God’s command, have been sent to serve us in a myriad of ways. When God gives them an assignment, it doesn’t end because we neglect them. Rather, they are still waiting for us to engage them again and to partner with them to fulfill their heavenly mission. Some assignments are sent to specific people, but other angels are assigned to fulfill a particular mandate. While the gifts of God will not be removed from us, mantles and mandates can pass us by if we remain stagnant or fail to move into all that God has for us.

This begs another question: How many others of the heavenly host are waiting for someone to help them complete their assignments here on the earth? And if angels are waiting for us to come and pick them up, what are we waiting for?

I firmly believe that God has many more angels assigned to us than we realize, and probably many who are waiting for us to release them to get things done! Pray this prayer with me:

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the multitudes of the heavenly host that you have sent out on our behalf to bring your light, life, and love to the world. Wherever there are unused and abandoned angels whose mission is aligned with ours, we ask that you would transfer them to us and to the things you are doing in and through us, our lives, family, work, and ministries. We apply the full armor of God to ourselves and our angels. In the name of Jesus, we activate and release every angel who has already been assigned to us to go and accomplish all you have sent them to do. We ask that you would assign additional angels to us according to your will and perfect design, and that you would open the storehouses of heaven to bring us every spiritual blessing that has been stored up for us in heavenly places in Christ, and we ask all of this right now in Jesus’ mighty name! Amen.

How Much Life Do You Want?

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My wife tells me that I flit from thing to thing and idea to idea—and she’s not entirely wrong. It’s just that in my moving from one subject to another, whether in prayer and contemplation, writing, or otherwise, I tend to circle back around to the same subjects over and over again. The subjects of life and immortality are some of these ideas that I keep coming back to, so the other day I was spending some time in prayer and discussion with the Holy Spirit while driving to work. As I did so, I began to inquire about how we can practically engage the revelation of immortality in Jesus Christ (2 Tim. 1:10-11) to live and not die.

One point I made was that we know that this is enacted in part in our thoughts and words on an ongoing basis. As Proverbs 18:32 says, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” The things we confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts alter our reality, and we receive the results of that fruit, whether nourishing or poisonous. If we speak death over ourselves, it should be no surprise when we grow sick, old, and die. Likewise if we spend even a few minutes each day praying and decreeing life in our bodies then we can expect to live healthier, more vibrant lives. Nevertheless, this can’t be the only piece to that puzzle, as if that is all there was to it, then we’d be there already. As I pointed this out, Holy Spirit nudged me that this is indeed an important step in the process that I have been neglecting, and that is partly because in some ways it seems almost too simple to be true.

I was reminded of the story of Naaman, the commander of the King of Aram’s army. He contracted leprosy, and sought out Elisha the prophet to heal him. He got angry when Elisha didn’t even meet him in person, and sent a messenger to tell him to wash very specifically in the Jordan River. Naaman got very angry, complained that many other rivers were better, and left in a rage. His servant spoke to him and said something that showed great wisdom on his part. “Naaman’s servants went to him and said, ‘My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’!’ So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.”

Sometimes we write off the simple things because they seem too simple, and I have been guilty of this. Nevertheless, while speaking life over ourselves daily is a useful and important habit to build, if that was all it took, I wouldn’t be asking the Holy Spirit how we can walk in this reality, as masses of people would have been doing this for centuries and living thousands of years at a time. So, we continued chatting briefly, as I began to ask more questions about how we can live this out and have it work for us here and now without having to wait for decades of speaking life over ourselves for this revelation of immortal, abundant life to work gradually over time.

Well, Holy Spirit asked me an interesting question, saying “Since you have been set free from death, the question really becomes ‘how much life do you want?'”

At first glance this might sound a bit strange, but the scriptures confirm that we have, indeed, already been set free from sin and death. Romans 8:1-2 says, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” If we think about it, that means that we have literally been set free from anything that should cause us to die. I will point out that “set free from” doesn’t mean we are incapable of dying. It simply means that we are no longer forced to.

This has puzzled me for a while, actually, as I have thought to myself that we already know that Jesus has already paid for all sin, sickness, poverty, pain, disease, and death for all time. Therefore, it seems odd that people still die. After all, if we have been set free from sin and death, shouldn’t we stop dying? I think the question “How much life do you want?” answers this.

In theory, we are not supposed to die, but if we want to die, we can. Likewise, if we want to live, we also can. God gave the children of Israel these choices in Deuteronomy 30:15, 19, which says, “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. . . This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live . . .” The same choices God gave to the Israelites, He has given us in Christ Jesus. So while we shouldn’t die, we still can if we want to. The key difference between the Israelites and us is that we have received an upgraded version through a perfect sacrifice that has wiped out all of our sin, and therefore removed the right of death to destroy us. However, we still have the ability to choose death if we still want to.

Not only that, I believe both the world and the Church have been duped into believing that death is our only choice. A large part of this is attributed to what I refer to as a worldwide death-consciousness, the collective understanding of almost everyone in the world that we are all fated to die, and this collective consciousness carries an energy with it that pushes us all slowly toward death. Because we have been swindled into believing the lie, we confess the lie, live the lie, and teach the same lie to others, only further perpetuating the myth of mandatory death. The Bible tells us something far different, and Jesus said many times over that we can live forever.

Kobus Van Rensburg, a prophet and teacher and former senior leader of SpiritWord Ministries (https://spiritword.org.za/) received this same revelation many years ago, that he had a choice whether to die or live. With this revelation in hand, even during his battle with cancer, he was pronounced clinically dead on six different occasions and was resurrected each time, until finally dying more permanently on December 21, 2013. If nothing else, he demonstrated that we can choose life time and time again, and as we choose life, we can receive it in place of death. While many have mocked him for his beliefs, few can say that they defeated death after dying on six separate occasions.

All in all, I am left asking myself the same question “how much life do I want?”, and I encourage you to ask yourself the same. Do you want to enjoy and experience all God has for you without old age, pain, and health problems? I welcome you to continue with me on this journey as we pursue and apprehend the abundant, immortal life of Jesus Christ.

To read more on this and related subjects, pick up a copy of my book “The Gospel of Life and Immortality,” available on Amazon in both Kindle and in Print.

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Partnering with God: Putting Faith Into Action

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There is a lot of debate about what faith is and how we partner with God through faith to see things come to pass. In some cases we do things out of faith that God hasn’t specifically told us to do, but there are other times where God has shared something with us, either by a knowing in our hearts, speaking to us directly, or through a prophetic word. Regardless of the method by which we receive the revelation, there are a number of ways the promise can come to pass. The confusing part is knowing which method is in store for us and how we need to respond. We are going to look at the various ways we can step out in faith to become partners with God’s promises.

Prophecy Is Usually Conditional

Most promises from God, whether received through prophecy or otherwise, are conditional. This means that it’s not “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” Instead, it means that the choices we make and the things we do influence whether or not the prophecy comes to pass. An example of this is the difference between Mary and Zechariah in the Bible. Mary agreed with the word about Jesus but God had to strike Zechariah mute so he wouldn’t disagree with the prophecy about John and prevent it from coming to pass. If prophecies are conditional, then we can either help them along or prevent them from happening.

Sometimes, simply choosing to trust God is the faith-answer, but that’s usually when actual faith is applied to what God said, not simply a head nod and then going on our way and forgetting about what God said. When someone truly trusts God deeply in their heart to do what He said He will do, immense faith is released to partner with that prophetic word to cause it to come to pass. However, based on observation, I believe that kind of faith is uncommon.

Pray It Through

The first thing we can do to partner with a prophetic word is to pray into it. What I mean by this is to pray for the thing to come to pass. If God says, “I have a bigger house for you,” then start praying for a bigger house. If God says, “I have a certain ministry for you,” then start praying for that ministry and for all God wants to do in and through it. Most things in the Kingdom are birthed through prayer, so spending time praying for what God said to come to pass is wisdom, and it is the very least thing we can do, not to mention the easiest. The acronym PUSH was made by someone regarding how we are to pursue things in prayer. It means Pray Until Something Happens—and that’s what we should do to partner with the prophecy.

Do Something

A next step to take after that is to actually do something to put things into action. For example, let’s say that I got a prophetic word about writing books (I have had multiple words to that end). If I am going to partner with God to write books, then I have to do a few different things to see that promise come to pass. First, I have to decide what to write about, then I have to actually take time and write it. Then I have to edit and revise the book, develop a cover design, and publish it—and if I want the book to sell, I probably need to do some marketing too. All of these things don’t just happen on their own. It’s not like I woke up one day and found some books on my shelf with my name on the cover. No, I spent time deciding what to write, writing it, and then rewriting it to make it better. Partnering with God means actually setting time aside to do the things He has said I will do, and in the area of book writing it has involved considerable time and effort on my part. Mind you, I enjoy writing so I do enjoy the process, but the fact is that it doesn’t just happen on its own.

The point here is that if we want to see a word come to pass, we often need to do practical things in real life to make that happen. Have you received a word about having some massive healing ministry? Well, probably you need to identify what that is supposed to look like. Take some time with God in prayer and draw up a plan. Do you need to start a 501©3 nonprofit and rent out a place to start hosting meetings, or do you just need to start praying for people in the grocery store? Do you even know how to pray effectively for people for healing? Maybe you need to take some time to learn about divine healing methods and figure out how God wants you to go about praying for the sick. Maybe you need to sign up as a volunteer chaplain at your local hospital. Do you see where I am going with this? A massive healing ministry won’t happen on its own. If God wants to do something like that through you, it is going to take time and effort on your part.

One of the biggest weaknesses of the modern prophetic movement, in my opinion, is the “sit on my laurels” attitude. Everyone wants a prophetic word, and of course they do! The prophetic is amazing! It encourages you and gives insight into God’s heart for you, and can often provide wisdom in challenging situations. You can get perspective on things God wants to do with you in the future, and by revelation receive direction on how to proceed forward in life. Nevertheless, if we don’t do something to put wings to prophetic words we receive, they will rarely come to pass. It is easy to blame someone else, a ministry, an organization, etc. for not helping you in your calling, but at the end of the day it’s not really their job, it’s yours. If God opens up favor for you in an area, then that’s great. But if He doesn’t, then He is still planning on doing what He said, but it may not be the way we are expecting it to happen.

In the end, partnering with God in regards to prophetic promises is a must if we want to see them come to pass. Sometimes it is as simple as praying. Sometimes there is a small action to do. Other times there is a long series of actions to do on an ongoing basis. Whichever the answer, it is very uncommon that a prophecy will come to pass with no involvement on our part. Not impossible, mind you, but rare, uncommon, infrequent. Ultimately, the wisdom step here is to remember to engage the things God says to us. If God tells us things, and we keep our hearts open and obedient, then as we pray for those things we can trust that He will lead and guide us in His timing to step out in action. The book of John tells us that faith without works is dead, not because we are trying to earn our faith by our works, but because the natural response to putting faith in what God says is to step out in action.

If you have things God has promised you that have yet to come to pass, I encourage you to put them on a list and begin to pray about each one. Ask God what He wants you to do to partner with Him in those things, then write down the answer He gives you. As you identify the “next step” for each one, take that step and see what happens. Once you have done those steps, if you are ever unclear you can always revisit them in prayer again to get more insight on how to move forward. As you do practical things to partner with God, I believe you will begin to see more and more of God’s plans and purposes for your life take shape around you.

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Wisdom For Growing In The Prophetic

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Back in the early 2000’s I was a volunteer with Living Stones Christian Fellowship at Penn State and was being trained to do campus ministry. We did a retreat each fall and spring (I think this was the fall retreat), and I was praying and fasting prior to the event. I was also at a stage in my life where I had just begun to learn to hear God’s voice and was practicing it at every opportunity. As I prayed for the event, I began to seek God about it. In that process I may or may not have asked the Lord what the speaker was supposed to preach on (I don’t recall), but I definitely asked God what He wanted to do during the weekend.

After writing down the list of things God shared with me, I went to one of the campus pastors with the list in hand . . .

. . . and told him God wanted to do the things on the list, so he needed to tell the speaker to speak on those specific topics.

Yes, I literally told him that.

In hindsight that probably wasn’t one of my brightest or best moments, and the campus pastor seemed to agree with that analysis. He rebuked me for being arrogant and prideful and informed me that the speaker hears from God perfectly fine without my assistance and that if God wants the speaker to address something, then he will tell the speaker about it, not me.

I was taken aback by the response, as I felt it was somewhat important, and he not only didn’t listen to me at all but chastised me for wrong heart motives. Certainly, he might not have been entirely wrong, but keep in mind that I was still fairly new to the prophetic. In spite of the fact that I was learning that anyone can hear from God, that somehow didn’t translate into recognizing that anyone can hear from God, least of all people who had learned to hear God’s voice long before I did. I wasn’t intentionally being arrogant, but rather was inexperienced. Nevertheless, he did have a good point. I even tried to talk to the speaker, who was someone from the church, and he wasn’t very open to listening to me either. With all doors firmly shut in my face, the only option left was to pray. And while praying probably should have been the first thing that I did, I didn’t know that.

Fast forward to the event, even though they weren’t the message “topics”, he addressed every single thing on my list as key components of his messages.

What did I learn from this?

First, I was right. But there was another lesson: God talks to other people too. Don’t feel a need to broadcast everything God tells you to others, especially if you lack sufficient platform or individual relationship. Pray and let God do the work. After all, that’s probably half or more of the reason he told you in the first place.

I recently read something in Ivan Roman’s book Prophets Among Us (a book I highly recommend), that pointed out that prophets often get so excited and instantly invested into the things God shares with them that sometimes they forget either the timing or other factors related to the situation. While I’m not claiming to be a prophet by sharing this, I can tell you I felt an urgency behind what the Lord shared with me, and the urgency combined with prophetic immaturity certainly wasn’t a great combination.

Growing in the prophetic is as important as learning to hear God’s voice. If all we do is learn to hear God but never grow in maturity beyond that, we end up doing things like I did—things that make us look like arrogant jerks, know-it-alls, or worse.

Just because God gives us a word about something doesn’t mean everyone else needs to change to fit what we believe God is saying. It can be a struggle, as our heart’s desire is often to see what we hear God saying come to pass, but oftentimes prayer is all that is needed in a given situation. When we realize the power of prayer, we will be better equipped to trust that our prayers accomplish far more than our efforts at human manipulation. In the end, this key of wisdom for growing in the prophetic is to learn when to share, and when to pray—and to recognize that we are always supposed to pray regardless of whether we share or not.

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