Faith By Any Other Name

As I was standing in the medication room waiting for another nurse to finish removing patient medications, we began to chat briefly about how the night had been going well. I even dared to say the “Q” word—Quiet. The other nurse immediately said “Yeah, I’m kind of superstitious. I don’t say that kind of stuff, and we should probably knock on wood, so that nothing bad happens.” As a nurse, there are certain taboo words—those which shall not be uttered, with the word “Quiet” being the primary one. One is also expected to not state that things are easy/going well, that nothing bad has happened this shift, or any other form of positive statement identifying good things—all for fear that something bad will then suddenly occur.

I categorically reject that belief. I say positive things to intentionally release life with the power of my words and intentions to shift the atmosphere at the hospital toward healing, peace, and life. In fact, I go one step further—I intentionally use the word “quiet” to provoke other nurses’ reactions, and I do it for a reason. Tonight I did it because it opened up a conversation with that nurse about how we can use positive affirmations and intentions to encourage a positive and healthy unit. As a whole, I do it to educate staff on the power of faith—and faith by any other name is just as effective.

Not everyone is Christian, and many people who might respect the religious beliefs of others reject ideas when certain buzzwords are used. Sometimes words like “faith” are rejected but other words slide under the radar—things like “positive affirmation” or “positive intention.” In fact, my coworker doesn’t realize I was preaching gospel truths to her using non-religious language—that God has given us creative power to change our world. She stated she was superstitious, which means that she has spiritual beliefs that influence her decisions. I chose to prophesy a different script—a lifegiving version where she could take a stand against death, loss, and destruction by choosing to speak life over the hospital unit. I just didn’t use Christianese to do it, and I didn’t need to. Faith by any other name is still effective.

Some might say I water down the gospel when I do that, but I disagree. I am making a message hearable and teaching someone how to effectively release the creative power of God to bring life to badly injured people in a way that bypasses personal prejudices and anti-religion sentiments. I have some friends who run dream-interpretation training and mentoring (http://www.nowinterpretthis.org/) and part of their training is the intentional use of nonreligious language to communicate heaven’s truths in ways that bypass people’s mental blocks over certain buzzwords.

Imagine if I had said to that nurse, “You know, instead of being afraid of the word ‘quiet,’ perfect love casts out fear and you can prophesy in faith for the shalom of God that passes understanding to rest on this unit and become a tabernacle for the Holy One of Israel,” I would have lost her completely. Instead, I pointed out that she could use positive affirmations to bring calm and quiet to the unit without being afraid that verbalizing those intentions would bring the opposite. In fact, that very statement is echoed in Matthew 7:11, saying “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” If we ask for peace and quiet on a hospital unit, God isn’t going to give us patient falls, organ failures, and code blue emergencies.

Sometimes the right thing to do in a situation is to speak the gospel using clear and direct language, speaking of Jesus who died on the cross and of the power and authority He has given us to transform this world. But other times we need to use nonreligious language that bypasses inner resistance and communicates the same scriptural truths in a way that is hearable. Because faith by any other name is just as effective.

Peace That Bypasses Understanding

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In the past year I have been doing a lot of inner healing, working primarily with soul fragmentation (An Introduction to Soul Fragmentation is here), and the process been full of ups and downs—with a lot of downs. While the journey has been difficult, I have begun to experience the fruit of it in the more recent past, which has been a nice change. During this journey I have learned a lot more about the process of inner healing as a whole, which has been educational, but the Lord quickened something in my spirit one day that not only brought comfort but a fascinating revelation—on bringing peace that bypasses understanding.

Philippians 4:7 is one of the more often-quoted Bible verses, and it says, “. . . and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (NKJV). I was listening to a podcast, although I forget by whom, and they mentioned that verse. What I realized at that moment was that in order for us to have an understanding of something, it has to flow through our conscious mind. Yet, if God is bringing us peace that bypasses that understanding then it is dealing with the subconscious or unconscious mind—the realm of fragments and alters.

The reason this is significant is because fragmented parts have a moderate influence on how we feel—and yet when those feelings are negative it can be difficult to access and address them in a healthy way, helping those hurting parts to cope, heal, and move beyond the things that broke them off in the first place. And yet, Philippians 4:7 tells us that Jesus has a solution for us even when we don’t feel able to fix those issues ourselves. He will bypass our understanding, our conscious mind, and minister to those hurting parts directly to bring them peace.

While I understand that the verse is typically translated as “surpassing” is the word “hyperechō” which according to BlueletterBible.org means “to stand out, rise above, overtop, to be above, be superior in rank, authority, power, to excel, to be superior, better than, to surpass.” While I recognize that “surpassing” something means to move past it in a superior manner, the truth is that to “surpass” is essentially still bypassing—especially when we are talking about the conscious mind.

The encouragement here is that for those who are dealing with any kind of anxiety, depression, fear, or literally any other life problem, it doesn’t matter if we have the ability to understand why we are experiencing that issue in the moment. While understanding is often helpful in the inner healing process, the Bible tells us it isn’t an issue to Jesus—our understanding isn’t required for Him to share His peace with us. So, for everyone reading this, everyone struggling, and anyone who has fears or concerns, my prayer for you is this: May the peace that bypasses understanding guard every area of your soul, your mind, will, and emotions, in and through the power and love of Jesus Christ. Amen.

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Did God Allow Job To Be Attacked By Satan?

There is a common view in the Body of Christ that while God didn’t cause Job’s afflictions directly, He allowed them by not stepping in and stopping the attacks. While the little we see of the heavenly meeting-room scene in Job 1 might suggest that God did exactly that, there is a LOT more to the whole Job situation than meets the eye.

Job 1:1 starts off with “In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.” This suggests that there was nothing the enemy should be able to do to afflict him. After all, it goes on to explain how he would make daily sacrifices for his family. Super upright for his day, right?

Try again.

Job was incredibly bound by fear, and fear is one of the biggest enemy strongholds there is. Job 1:5 explains that every single time Job’s adult children would have a party (which seemed like it was regularly), he would then make them go through ritual cleansing and he would perform a series of sacrifices on their behalf. Why? On the off chance they might have cursed God silently in their hearts sometime during their revels. If that wasn’t sufficient, it seems Job had a lot more fear too. Job 3:25 says, “What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.” He apparently feared losing his family, his belongings, and his health because all of that already happened in Chapters 1 and 2, and in Chapter 3 he makes that statement. And while that sounds kind of mundane, I suggest that Job had a high level of ongoing anxiety about his family on a daily basis that stemmed from a deep fear that he fed daily

People like to frequently make the argument that “God didn’t stop Satan” or “God allowed it”, but they seem to ignore two key points. The first is that the ancient Jewish belief is that Satan worked for God, so that in afflicting Job they believed Satan was actually performing God’s will. Jesus clarified for the Jewish people that Satan was an enemy of God and not working for him, but Job didn’t have that revelation. The second is that Job created tons of openings in his life for demonic affliction due to an easily-identified stronghold of fear. Job invited the affliction due to legal access via sowing and reaping of fear, and the enemy capitalized on that and wreaked havoc in his life.

We like to think that God is somehow supposed to wave His cosmic arm and make all bad things go away when it conveniences us, and the rest of the time our choices somehow don’t matter. In reality, our choices, beliefs, and emotions are what dictate to the greatest degree the things that happen in our lives. Certainly there are a number of factors that influence life events, but our choices, thoughts, and emotions are by and large the biggest contributors. When people get up in arms about why God “allowed” Job’s affliction, I suppose one could make the argument that God allowed it by setting up spiritual laws that govern the cosmos that in any way at all made it so Satan could afflict the man, but that is a gross oversimplification of a LOT of things and ignores a number of other highly important issues, free will being one of them. God didn’t make robots, so He also didn’t take total control over the lives and choices of angels, humans, or any other created beings, and neither we nor He would want it any other way anyway—except when it inconveniences us, that is. So if God giving us free will means he “allowed” Satan to attack Job then sure, that would be accurate. Otherwise it’s untrue.

The thing is, God doesn’t change cosmic laws willy-nilly based on our opinion that morning or based on whatever unfortunate thing happened that day. Some people get offended over that fact, but it’s a fact. God cares incredibly much about each one of us, to the point that Jesus willing laid His life down to purchase total freedom from all demonic oppression for us. God cares far more than we will ever realize. Do we really understand that Jesus literally walked headlong into situations that he knew were going to cause him intense trauma and pain, and then continued to walk through those situations when at any second he could have said a single word and stopped the whole thing? He underwent possibly the worst torture a human can undergo, and to make it worse he knew that if he failed, then all of humanity for all time and eternity would be eternally lost. He had the biggest gun in all creation pointed at his family’s head and knew that if He didn’t go through abject torture then every single one of us would die eternally. Can you imagine how hard that was for Him? I can only barely begin to touch on how He must have felt. But Hebrews 12 tells us that He did it because He knew it would be worth it eventually.

God didn’t afflict Job. He didn’t “allow” it. He didn’t “permit” it. Job and Satan worked together to bring calamity upon him, and when all is said and done, Jesus is the one who stepped out of heaven to fix things. He did it with Job, restoring double all he lost, and He continues to bring restoration in our lives as well because God is always, only, and ever good and about abundant life.

Deal with Coronavirus According To The Grace You Live In

These days, the COVID-19 Coronavirus is all over the news. Literally. I’m not sure it’s possible to watch any other news, actually, because if it isn’t Corona, I’m not even sure anyone is reporting on it even if we would be better served by not having 24/7 fear-and-panic updates. However, this entire process has gotten me doing a good bit of pondering as I have some very divergent thoughts and stances on things, all of which come crashing together when dealing with what many are choosing to call a pandemic. I have friends whom I love and highly respect who have canceled their ministry engagements and are telling their social media spheres to stay home. I have other friends whom I also love and respect telling people to not be bound by fear and to not change their life activities and spiritual practices based on disease. After reading tons of dueling social media posts from other believers and tossing in a few of my own (guilty as charged), I’ve taken a brief mental sit-back to really evaluate why I make the decisions I make, what I think others should do and why, and how we can individually review what the “right” choices are when so many different voices in both the Church and the world are saying so many different things. I’m going to look at some of my own conflicting views, and then bring it back to my conclusion that each person needs to deal with the coronavirus according to the grace you live in.

As a nurse, I recognize that diseases are very real and both can and do kill people. I also do not want to see a single person die due to lack of healthcare availability, and this strain of virus seems to be more tenacious than other coronavirus strains and seems to have a more deadly tinge to it. If avoiding public places, engaging in “social distancing”, and generally helping prevent the spread of disease by reducing out-of-home activities can help keep people alive, it’s honestly a really wise, helpful, and kind thing to do. Mind you, people die from the flu and even coronavirus every year, and while the actual numbers on coronavirus death ratios are, from what I can gather, massively inflated due to a lack of accurate initial diagnosis and insufficient testing, the fact is that for each individual that dies from this virus, that is someone’s mother, father, brother, daughter, friend who is no longer alive on the earth. I’m not certain this is quite the health emergency it is being made out to be, but I’m also not entirely certain it isn’t. And many people, even if a statistically small number comparative to the whole, are dying from this disease, and each death matters. Longer-term, if it is the health emergency some claim, than many more will die, hospitals will be overrun, and even more will die, which is a terrible potential outcome, whether it comes to pass or not. So with all of that in mind, where is my inner conflict?

As someone who has a healthy distrust for government—any government—I don’t fully believe everything we are being told. It is rare, in my opinion, that we are ever told the whole truth by the government about almost anything, so why would this be any different? There are a number of ways certain people who don’t have our best interests in mind could stand to gain substantially from an emergency such as this. I also think the massive closures across the board of both businesses and religious sites sets a really bad precedent, and I think the USA as a nation is going to find that our response to the coronavirus, even if totally appropriate for the situation, will send the message to people in positions of influence that if someone screams “Emergency!” that Americans will simply lay down and let the government roll over our Constitutionally-mandated freedoms. Individuals have the right to choose not to frequent a business or religious establishment, but I don’t think that from a Constitutional perspective the government should be mandating it, whether at the federal, state, or local level. Furthermore, as a strong proponent of divine healing, raising the dead, and immortality in Christ, I firmly believe that we, the Body of Christ, have been given dominion over sickness and death. I believe that the Church should have no reason whatsoever to fear this virus and that on some level we should be welcoming people into church services for the purpose of divine healing, and even holding coronavirus-specific healing services to see the power of God touch the bodies of those the virus has made sick.

And that right there is the conflict. I both think that self-quarantining from a scientific perspective is actually a really good idea (because scientifically speaking, it works), and that closing down churches and self-quarantining from a faith-perspective is largely a fear response and incredibly unwise on that level. On the other hand, asking to get sick is also unwise, and then the Bible even tells us to submit to human authorities as well.

1 Peter 2:13-17 says, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.”

Honestly, part of me wishes that passage wasn’t in there because my don’t-trust-government side doesn’t like that it says to submit to human authorities. On the other hand, I also don’t think God wants us to obey evil either, and the above passage also says to live as God’s slaves, not the government’s slaves. So the lines, as much as it would be nice if they were clear, are actually still somewhat blurry in my mind.

This might still not seem like much of a conflict to some, so let me get back to the spiritual side of things for a minute. It is a fact that Jesus paid for all sin, sickness, and death on the cross over 2,000 years ago. It is a fact that God isn’t the author of disease, nor does Heaven have disease to hand out. Jesus has given us power and authority over sicknesses to heal them, and over demons that cause illnesses in the body to cast them out. In the Old Testament, a disease made a normal person unclean, but in the New Testament Jesus demonstrated that in the presence of a disease, he cleansed the disease and healed the sick of their problems. The New Testament reality is such that there is no good reason why we as the Body should need to hibernate to avoid getting coronavirus or any other disease or illness, as we should be in a position to take authority over every bacteria and virus and see them destroyed in Jesus’ name. That’s a major part of the conflict—we shouldn’t be hiding when we have divine ability to push it all back and destroy it. On the other hand, I am not new to divine healing, and I know that while theoretically that is where the Body of Christ should be at, most of the time that simply isn’t the case. And that’s where I think that each of us need to deal with the Coronavirus according to the grace we live in.

I believe Romans 12:6 offers a principle that we can use to help us decide, individually, what the right answer is for us, and I think we can each use that principle to both guide our own decisions in this as well as to keep us from holding others in judgment for their decisions which may be in conflict with ours. The verse 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 . . .” (Romans 12:6). The admonition here is to do what the person is doing in accordance with his or her faith. The way I read this, if someone has a high level of faith for something, he or she will respond to a greater degree in that area than someone with little faith. For me, if I have a high level of faith for divine healing, then it would be fairly reasonable for me to hold a church service, encourage corona-infected people to come, and expect God to show up and heal them—and under the US Constitution, I would be protected by law and therefore not actually disobeying government (a lawyer friend explained this week that legally, the government can suggest/request that churches close voluntarily, but Constitutionally they may not mandate it). If I have a low level of faith for divine healing, then I probably need to bust out some hand sanitizer, don a mask, and maybe stay at home and pray from afar (everyone should wash their hands anyway, regardless of faith level—hygiene never goes out of style). In fact, if I walk in a low level of faith in that area, I am likely to not only come to harm myself, but bring harm to others, and that is the opposite of wisdom.

I think that the more people see the members of the Body of Christ attacking one another during a time when much of the world is panic-driven, it isn’t going to show them the peace that we are supposed to walk in, nor is it going to release peace to them as we bicker amongst ourselves. So here’s my suggestion: Let us each decide the grace we have individually been given, and the grace we are actively walking in, and then live it out. Let us not hold others in judgment for walking in the level of grace they currently walk in, as that is foolishness. Jesus spent his time working with His disciples, and when they questioned what others were doing, regardless of what those people were doing, whether for or against, Jesus left them alone (Matthew 12:30, Mark 9:40). We would do well to take a page out of His book and just keep doing the things that we do in accordance with the measure of faith we operate in. We would also do well to use this as a mirror to reflect upon where our level of faith for divine healing is at. Do we actually believe the promises of God in regards to healing and health? How much do we believe those promises? If we recognize we have room to grow (which we all do), what do we plan to do about it? After all, whether Coronavirus or any other disease or illness, it doesn’t wait for us to get our theology lined up properly before it decides to strike, so now is as good a time as any to identify an area of weakness and do something about it.

In the end, regardless of where each of us are at, please know that your prayers are powerful and that the single most-beneficial thing we can each do is pray, continuously, for all coronavirus sickness to be healed, for near-death situations to be reversed, and even for those who have died to be raised from the dead by the power of Jesus Christ. As we pray, God will answer our prayers and touch people all around the globe with His lifegiving power, with each prayer making it just a little bit more here on earth as it already is in heaven. Blessings to you all, and I pray along with you that this quickly passes.

If you want to learn about how to walk more readily in divine healing, check out Praying Medic’s Book on Divine Healing and his Self-Paced Online Class.

If you want to learn about how to raise the dead, check out my book Faith To Raise The Dead and Tyler Johnson’s book How To Raise The Dead.

Faith Lessons: Buying and Selling a House

For those who have been following along for a bit, you know that we have packed our house in Portland and are moving to the Houston area of Texas. The process began in the first quarter of last year, but the past ten months have consisted of her making a bunch of declarative statements about what is and is not going to happen in this moving process . . . and I basically shot all of her ideas down over and over again. She stuck to her guns, and as things have moved forward, so far she has had most everything she has been steadfastly declaring pan out the way she has been praying for it to. While I don’t normally look to her for lessons on how to engage faith, I have to say that I have learned a lot from her in the past few months.

I am somewhat Type A, and I don’t like messy change with a bunch of moving parts. I like to administrate problems out of the equation instead of fly by the seat of my pants and make decisions as things come up. Sunshine prefers it the opposite way, which is a struggle for me at times, but this time around I think the lesson has been more about purposefully engaging faith and trusting God to walk us through each step of the process. I once heard someone say that the Bible says “Your word is a lamp unto my feet”, not a 100-yard spotlight down the road, and the lesson applies here.

In this process I have become more acutely aware of how my own fears were playing into my unbelief and even discouraging her in the process. There are times to make decisions out of human wisdom, but there is a difference between being wise and being afraid. If we operate out of fear, we will think that something is wise because it is less risky or causes less fear even if it isn’t the best choice for us. However, when we aren’t operating out of fear we can be free to choose to do something in faith *or* we can choose to do something that we consider wise based on true wisdom instead of being guided by fear.

I’m still not 100% at rest with this move, but that has much to do with the fact that I will miss my local friends, my job and my coworkers whom I enjoy a lot, and we are making a huge life change in faith that things are going to “work out” on the other end. What I am finding, however, is that while my emotions may not always be totally on board with the move, God has been faithful to come through with the solutions we need as we need them. While it would be nice if God showed up early at times, He has met each of our needs every step of the way.

I recently heard a speaker point out that we have the God-given power to alter probabilities. When we engage our faith toward something, we shift the probabilities of certain events occurring in our favor. No one told my wife how we were supposed to find a new house, pack, and then sell our current house. However, months before we did any of this she made some very conscious decisions about what she wanted to see happen. She activated her faith, the time-space continuum shifted (in spite of my fear-based attempts to shift it back), and many things have continued to work out step by step as we go. There has been a lot of warfare along the way, but the lesson here for me has been a reminder that we truly do get to choose a lot of what happens in our lives. I have a choice each day and with every choice I make to partner with God in faith or partner with the enemy in fear. What kind of choices do I want to make, and what kind of person will that transform me into over time? I choose to become a man of great faith, and I am thankful that from time to time God reminds me how to walk that out.

Do You Believe The Radical Simple Gospel?

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I was out with family at a lunch the other day, and as we began discussing something Bible-related, somehow the subject of Jesus and never dying came up. I forget exactly how it came up, but someone commented on my belief that we aren’t supposed to die, and how it’s a new one. Nothing about it is new, as Jesus spoke on the subject quite plainly multiple times in scripture (John 6 and 8 to name a few). Paul spoke somewhat clearly on it as well, to the point that 2 Timothy 1:10-11 specifically states “the gospel of life and immortality of which I have been appointed an apostle, teacher, and preacher”. Paul clearly identifies his job as a teacher and forerunner of the gospel of life and immortality. In reality, this gospel message that Jesus and Paul preached is radical yet simple.

While chatting with my family at this restaurant, it really hit me just how radical Jesus was for his day. Think about it. In John 11, Jesus and Martha had a discussion about the “Last Day Resurrection”. An end-times resurrection isn’t actually a new belief from Christianity—it was a common belief of the Jews of Jesus’ day. So what made Jesus so radical? His reply.

“Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’
Martha answered, ‘I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’
Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?'” (John 11:23-26)

When Martha and Jesus discussed Lazarus’s death, she referenced a Last-Day resurrection, but Jesus didn’t go along with her comments. He said something so radical that the people of his day just didn’t understand. Jesus said that whoever believed in him wouldn’t even need a last-day resurrection because they would simply never die in the first place. Most of the Church today still doesn’t get it. Most of us are still in Martha’s shoes and waiting for and End Times resurrection, not realizing that Jesus died and rose again so that we who believe in him would never physically die.

Jesus was extreme for his time in many ways. He called himself a “son of God”, elevating himself to godhood status (the son of a horse is a horse, the son of a God is a god). He told his disciples to forgive endlessly (seventy-times-seven) and to offer to do extra work for Roman soldiers when forced to do a little. He told people he would tear down and rebuild the temple in three days, and that he would come back to life after he died. Jesus was a radical guy. But the most radical thing he said of all the many extreme things he said was that we could live forever without dying.

Two thousand years of church history later, we are just beginning to re-emerge on this concept that has been buried in plain sight in the scriptures for centuries. Scholar upon scholar has studied verses such as John 3:16 that literally states that “whoever believed in him would not die but live forever”, and somehow arrived at a different, more esoteric meaning to the verse instead of the one that is plainly stated. God is reforming the Church, and the result is that we have stumbled across “cutting-edge” beliefs such as immortality . . . beliefs that have been plainly stated in the scriptures for generations upon generations. Yet, for whatever reason, God is now removing the veil that has covered the eyes of His people for so many years, and we are beginning to grasp again the simple revelation of the gospel—that we can live and not die.

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

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Jesus Reveals His Kindness

Back when I was helping run conferences for a local ministry, the staff and volunteers would aim to start each morning with a time of prayer before we got started and let all the attendees in the doors for the day. This was sometimes a challenge because the doors usually weren’t locked, so there was no real way of keeping people out. Sometimes we would just have random attendees join us for our morning prayer, which was cool in its own way simply because we are all part of the body of Christ and everyone is able to contribute in their own unique way even if they aren’t on the official ministry team for a certain event.

At any rate, one morning we finished praying as a group, and a volunteer had some physical issue they needed prayer for, so I prayed for him or her and the pain left. One of the attendees standing there then also requested prayer because she had back pain that was bothering her. I prayed for her and the pain immediately left, which I thought was pretty good, but what she told me next really touched my heart.

After thanking me for prayer, she told me that she had been praying on the way to the event for her back pain to go because she didn’t want to have to take narcotics and have her mind muddled from pain meds while listening to the message. When I prayed for her and Jesus healed her back, it not only fixed her problem, but it made it so she could be alert and mentally focused for the message that session.

I love all of the cool things that God does when believers gather together, and conferences are usually a great time to see Him move in exciting ways, but some things stick out to me far more than others. This one stuck with me because it is such a poignant and yet exceedingly simple demonstration of the kindness of Jesus.

For ongoing followers of my blog, you already know that one of the things about God that touches my heart the most is His kindness, and one of the ways I see that most blatantly revealed is when He manifests divine healing. Of all of the attributes of God that could totally overwhelm me, if I had to pick a single attribute that first comes to mind, it isn’t his holiness, although that would be overwhelming too. It isn’t his justice, or his goodness, or even His love, all of which could fit the bill. The kindness of Jesus cannot be overstated, because His kindness is a manifestation of His incredible and inexhaustible love.

Author Max Lucado is one of my dad’s favorite authors, and he explains this in a way that I really like. In a blog article on this same subject (https://maxlucado.com/listen/the-kindness-of-jesus/), he put it this way: “We are quick to think of Jesus’ power, his passion, and his devotion. But those near him knew and know God comes cloaked in kindness. ‘Love is kind’ writes Paul. David agrees, ‘Your lovingkindness is better than life’ (Psalm 63:3).” While I can’t pretend that my life is always perfect, I am always certain that God’s kindness toward me will never run out, and that’s something I can rest in.

I pray that your life is touched anew with a revelation of the kindness of Jesus. What are some ways He has demonstrated His kindness in your life?

Bearing Fruit That Lasts

As I said recently in a social media post, “Inner healing isn’t always fun, but it is always worth it. Sometimes the fruit isn’t instantly evident, but that’s how we’ve been trained to believe and expect things to happen in our microwave Western culture. The question we have to ask ourselves is not “does this look nice and tidy” but “does it bear fruit that lasts? (John 15:16a)”

Inner healing should bear positive results over time, but the unpopular truth is that it doesn’t necessarily mean that at the end of every session someone will feel more peaceful, joyful, or even more hopeful. Certainly one could make the argument (and many do) that if God was in it, then one should leave a session of inner healing with more fruit of the Spirit as a whole, and while that is usually true, it simply isn’t always true. Sometimes part of the inner healing process involves grieving things that you let go of. Grief doesn’t look very much like hope, joy, or peace. So while inner healing may be good, and healthy, and helpful, it is also a process.

One of the struggles of the inner healing movement is that it sometimes looks very counterproductive from the outside. What I mean by that is that if someone goes through deep inner healing and starts uncovering repressed memories of childhood abuse, traumatic circumstances that have caused PTSD, or other painful memories of past events, the long-term result will eventually be wholeness. In the short term, however, there may be an increase in emotional triggers and a grieving process for things that have been lost may occur. Mind you, Holy Spirit is the Counselor and Comforter, and during this process, He is ever-present to give both counsel and comfort, but that doesn’t always mean everything is fixed in ten seconds. To the outside observer, this tends to make things appear like they are making things worse instead of better, but that’s only if the goal is instant results instead of fruit that will last.

On the other hand, sometimes inner healing ministers, coaches, and counselors can be their own worst enemy. Certainly, there are conditions and circumstances that tend to take a lot of time and energy to wade through. At the same time, not every person or situation requires that same level of depth. If there is a high level of Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA), Freemasonry, or other bloodline-related issues in a family line, those can take a good bit of time and energy to unravel, and even moreso if the individual is an SRA survivor as well. While bloodline issues tend to far more prevalent than we wish they were, the good news is that not everyone falls into those categories, and not every situation requires years of inner healing work to unravel.

The best thing we can do for ourselves and our families is to get inner healing early and often. I say early because the sooner one deals with things in his or her family line, the better one’s future will be, and this is also passed down to any children one has as well. If people get inner healing as children or teens, they won’t have the same level of problems as if someone is fifty and just beginning the journey. I say often because life throws things at us on an ongoing basis. Whether it is something as simple as remembering to forgive a coworker who upset us or something more complex such as breaking off occult curses that have recently been sent our way, engaging this process often, even if only to a minimal degree, ensures we not only maintain but continue to progress in our personal journeys to wholeness.

While Jesus is the Healer and Savior and delivers us from our distress, even He went through difficulties and problems. The Bible says in Isaiah 53:3a that, “He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. (NLT)” In Hebrews 12:2b it says of Jesus that, “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus knew that some of the things he would go through would be exceedingly difficult. It was so hard that in Luke 22:42a Jesus even asked “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me . . .” The difficulty Jesus faced at that time was more emotional than anything else. He knew what He was getting Himself into, and He really didn’t want to do it. Yet as Hebrews 12:2 says, Jesus endured all of the pain and difficulty, grief, sorrows, and shame because He recognized that on the other side would be great joy.

At the end of the day, whether the issues in one’s life are simple and easy to move through or extremely complex, highly traumatic, and difficult to deal with, it is important for us to remember that we need to be looking not just for short-term easy solutions, but for long-term fruit.

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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Walking Together In Disagreement

Normally, when we talk about “walking with” another person, we generally refer to being in agreement with him or her. However, in the current climate of our world, which on a political level is somewhat toxic, we need to understand the importance of walking together in disagreement.

Is it nice when we agree with one another? Sure. It certainly is convenient, at any rate. Comfortable too. In fact, some people become so comfortable in their place of agreement that they surround themselves with proverbial “yes-men,” and anyone who disagrees is removed from the circle. However, there is a certain danger in always keeping ourselves cloistered in comfortable agreement, and that danger is stagnation.

When we find people in life we disagree with, especially if we are able to handle that disagreement in a mature manner, we have an opportunity to grow. I’m going to use transgenderism as an example. I personally believe that most if not all transgender individuals have an underlying psychological issue or disorder that needs to be treated as opposed to it being a difference to be celebrated. I also believe that by celebrating dysfunction, we do these people great harm. In my line of work as a trauma nurse, I occasionally work with transgender individuals and help them along their healing journey after a car accident or other physical trauma. During that time, I call them whatever name and personal pronoun they prefer to be referred by, and treat them with the same respect I would give to any other human being. Basically, the transgender subject with that person only becomes an issue, in my mind, if it is somehow medically relevant or if they choose to bring in a whole lot of drama about it. The key to my entire example is this: I don’t have to agree with their perception of transgenderism to help them physically heal, care for them, or be kind and loving to them.

There are so many things in life where we disagree with one another. And while unity and agreement can be helpful and at times quite powerful, we also have to be able to walk together in disagreement with one another. I don’t even always agree with my wife, but we have been married for twelve years and are going strong. There are definitely a lot of times I have upset her, and she has upset me, and we disagree on a lot of things. However, the key to good relationships is learning not how to walk together in agreement, because that is easy. It’s when we disagree that we have to put the effort in and figure out how to keep moving forward.

While writing this, I was distractedly scrolling through my Facebook feed and came across a conversation about kids and Trump hats and a generally volatile real-life situation. I read through the comments and read the following quote: “my bias came out when I saw those ‘Make America Great Again’ hats. To me it just says bigotry, racism and limited thinkers.” The ironic thing about the above statement is it was possibly one of the most bigoted things the person could have written, and demonstrated extremely limited thinking. A bigot, by definition, is one who is intolerant of those with differing beliefs. The man who wrote the above quote looked at a person, saw a hat with a particular slogan on it, and immediately judged the character and heart motivations of the person wearing it without actually attempting to see if any of his judgments were actually true.

My wife and I have some family friends with very divergent political beliefs. The thing is though, that we have healthy and even enjoyable political discussions because we don’t let politics define our relationship. Our choice to share life together as friends is what decides how we manage our disagreements, not the other way around. Certainly there are times to limit the level of access that we give toxic relationships in our lives, but I think that these days we are far more focused on cutting out dissenting voices than we are engaged in learning from one another and committing to walking together even in disagreement. I think it’s high time that we bring back some maturity into our disagreements.