Cultivating His Presence

When I first began to learn about intercession from my friend and mentor Diane, she introduced me to a practice called “soaking.” I had no prior familiarity with this concept, but when she did it, she could feel God’s presence around her, even to the point of being like a weight pressing her body downward, and that sounded so totally awesome that I wanted to learn how to do it too! While that might sound strange for those who don’t know, the word for God’s presence, “chavod/kavod/chabod” in Hebrew, means weighty glory or weighty presence, so God’s presence showing up has the potential to feel like weight, and this is seen a few different places in scripture. During our Watch meetings every other weekend we would spend hours praying, but usually around an hour of that was spent doing this soaking-thing. She would put on a CD of softer, more lyrically intimate worship music and we would lay there, cultivating His Presence.

At first I just took it on faith that this was good for me, but as time went on, I too began to sense this inexplicable something around me. An energy, sort of, but also a wind. A weight and yet not a tangible weight at all, and a bit like fire, but not hot or burning in any way. Even now it is still so difficult to describe the energetic sensations of the Presence of the Holy Spirit as He overshadows me when I soak, but I spent a season learning what this felt like.

During the Watch I would lay down and God’s presence was always right there. Holy Spirit had been with us the entire meeting so far, and nothing changed. When I was home, however, it was different. I couldn’t sense His presence around me at all, at least not just by turning music on and laying down. Benny Hinn, Todd Bentley, and others have had experiences where they simply ask Holy Spirit to come and He would, but this was after a period of cultivating a relationship with Him, so that when they asked Him to come, He would. I didn’t have that. So here’s what I did:

I began to cultivate.

An old family friend gifted me with a guitar, so I began to play the four chords I knew and looked up worship songs that exclusively used those chords. I made up my own. I spent usually an hour or more almost every day worshiping and soaking in the late evening, oftentimes falling asleep on the floor. What was the goal? I would worship until I sensed that the atmosphere in the room had changed to feel like it did when I was soaking on Friday nights. After I reached that point, I would then lay down and enjoy Holy Spirit’s presence in the room with me. Sometimes I would talk to him but usually I would just lay down and enjoy the sensation of Him on my body.

Gradually, over the course of weeks, it started to take less and less time to get to that point, until somewhere along the line I would just lay down and turn music on, and in under a minute, sometimes immediately, I would begin to sense Him drawing near. The Catholic monk Brother Lawrence described this in his letters The Practice of the Presence of God, but ultimately I had reached a point of just enjoying Him for Him, without asking for anything or interceding over the fate of the world. And while those things are good too, sometimes God just wants us to sit with him without deeper agenda, simply enjoying Him in simple pleasure.

I didn’t understand until recently that a large part of soaking is simply enjoying Him, but as we spend time in God’s presence He changes us as well. His essence infuses us with His nature–his joy, peace, and other fruit of the spirit. His voice sometimes becomes easier to hear, and oftentimes soaking is a good opportunity to expect and practice visions, spirit travel, and other visionary experiences. While there are other benefits, in the end its about drawing near to God, and as we do He draws near to us (James 4:8).

When I began I was impatient, and was afraid it would take years for me to cultivate that instant-presence appearing to me. But God is good and kind and isn’t interested in forced labor to be able to engage Him. It didn’t take years, or even months, and if you have never done this before and want to get started, it won’t take you that long either. You might even just try asking Him to come surround you and fill you, and He may come right then. If not, spend some time cultivating his Presence in worship or prayer, and as you do, God will reward you with the best gift ever–Him.

On Spiritual DNA and Inheritance

I was at work one night recently and for some reason was reminded of the spiritual legacy that I have received from my parents. Unlike most inheritance, which one receives upon the parents’ death, my parents are quite alive–and this is the benefit of spiritual inheritance, which we receive not on death, but at conception.

Our spiritual and soul traits are just as much a part of our DNA as physical traits such as height and eye color. While science is able to visualize two strands of DNA, it is posited by various spiritual groups that we might have up to 22 strands, and a few fringe groups suggest we might have 144 or even upwards of 2 million. While I think the 2-million is probably a bit over the top (I am talking about strands of DNA on a single chromosome, not DNA segments, snippets, codons, etc.) it is becoming increasingly accepted even in some Christian groups that we have more than the two visible strands of physical DNA.

The Bible supports this somewhat, talking about how we have been “born from above” in John 3, and how we have God’s spiritual seed within us. At the very least, if there is an invisible spiritual DNA that closely matches physical DNA then at minimum we have 4 strands total between the physical and spiritual, but I suggest the number is much higher, reaching at least 12 if not more.

At any rate, this spiritual DNA explains some of the “coding” and similarities we may observe between ourselves and our parents. It definitely does in my case. As with physical DNA, while some traits are passed down, others may remain dormant in the family line while others express themselves noticeably. I have seen this in my own family and life, and believe that 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 explains this concept to a certain extent. “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.” While the same Holy Spirit lives in both my parents and myself, and while even that same spiritual DNA exists in both myself and my parents each respectively, Holy Spirit draws different attributes of that DNA to the surface.

My mother is and has always been hungry for things of the Spirit, and would occasionally have visions. She was in the Episcopal denomination where fairly little is understood about spiritual gifts as a whole, and it is even less often talked about, providing little opportunity to learn and grow in that area. She is also a teacher, loves evangelizing children, and is creative, fun, and very excitable.

My father is an Episcopal priest, and he has much compassion for the sick and hurting. While he was originally planning to be a doctor, he instead works with the spiritually ill, having heard an audible voice telling him to go to seminary instead. My father also used to do deliverance ministry when I was younger. He has a lot of wisdom, is good working with his hands, and loves gardening.

As I look at my parents and the rich heritage of desires and things of the spirit that they bring me, I find it little surprise that I can see my own passions as a reflection of their own. I am exceptionally hungry for things of the Spirit–signs, wonders, and miracles. I am a seer as well, but have learned to both see and hear in the spirit, and am able to exercise a more full range of spiritual sense than either of my parents. I have a desire to preach and help teach the body to grow in all things spiritual, which can be seen as a sort of evangelism to the Church to help the Body move in the gifts of the spirit and Holy Spirit’s power. I am a nurse by profession and may one day be a doctor as well, but I greatly enjoy healing the sick by the power of God, and firmly believe God’s healing power extends even to resurrection and immortality. I enjoy gardening, although nowhere to the extent that my wife does, and I like doing hands-on crafty things although not the same kind as my father.

My point in sharing this is that I believe we all have a spiritual inheritance that helps shape who we are and who we are called to be. While sometimes it can diverge sharply from the traits we see expressed in our parents, I believe that if we dig deep enough we will find that in some cases it isn’t that our traits are so different from theirs, but that our parents’ dreams and passions were swallowed up by the cares of this world, and as we find and give those things expression we can in some way help fulfill the destiny they were designed to experience as well. It brings a whole new perspective to the idea of “honoring your father and mother” because as we discover and engage our spiritual inheritance we are igniting not only our destiny, but theirs and those of our ancestors before them. It is no surprise then that as Hebrews 12:1-2a says “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” Our spiritual DNA is part of the race-markers for this race, and it is a relay, not a single-person run. The cloud of witnesses include our ancestors who are looking to see what we do with the distillation of destiny that runs through our veins.

God has positioned you uniquely where you are, and to have the gifts and abilities passed down from your parents. Regardless of whether your parents were good to you or not, what unique gifts have you received from them? If you don’t know your birth parents, ask the Lord to show you the legacy He has given you–both from them and from your current family. Spiritual inheritance is spiritual by nature, and adoption is a form of spiritual in-grafting whereby you can partake of the DNA from both your birth parents and your life-parents. I encourage you to continue to seek and pursue the Lord as He reveals new aspects of your calling, gifts, and destiny to you–for as with all relay races, when one finishes, we all finish. May the blessing of the Lord be upon you as you unlock and decode your spiritual DNA.

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A friend was kind enough to point out that there are some books on the subject that may help you walk through this process. One, recently published by some friends, is called Accessing Your Spiritual Inheritance. The back cover text says:

“Alice didn’t fall down a rabbit hole but she did walk through a mystical doorway in a vision to recover blessings her ancestors failed to claim. When Alice came back and shared her experience, Seneca wasted no time going through her own door. Del’s approach differed — she wound up floating along in her bloodstream!   Through telling our stories, others went through their own doors, leading to better relationships with God, increase in finances, favor, and giftings. Although this book touches on generational curses and how to remove them, we focus on claiming the blessings your family line has lost. However, you’ll need to be open to having a vision, and we’ll walk you through the step-by-step process so that you, too, can restore your lost generational blessings. Your hidden inheritance awaits!”

Other Books include:

Repentance: Cleansing Your Generational Bloodline

The Gospel According to Shrek 2

My grandkids had Shrek 2 playing the other night, and while I don’t like to re-watch movies much, I sat down with them for a bit to watch, and **spoiler alert** the part playing was toward the end where Fiona and Prince Jerkface (aka Prince Charming) were dancing . Shrek is getting ready to rescue Fiona from the evil fairy godmother, and as I watched, I couldn’t help as tears streamed down my face.

The first few seconds I didn’t understand why I was crying, but as I watched it quickly became clear–This section of the movie is filled with love demonstrated by heroic sacrifice. From Mongo the Giant Gingerbread to Puss in Boots putting themselves at mortal risk (and one of them dying) to stop the soldiers and give Shrek time to rescue his wife to Shrek himself and how he went to any and every length to save his bride, Holy Spirit was nudging my heart that Shrek is a picture of Jesus.

Jesus, like Shrek, wasn’t the best looking, as it says in Isaiah 53:2, “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” Shrek didn’t have good looks, and even when turned into a human he was plain at best. He didn’t make himself attractive so we would want him because of his physical beauty, but because of his love.

On the other hand, Satan, like Prince Charming, was the picture of beauty. “You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: carnelian, chrysolite and emerald, topaz, onyx and jasper, lapis lazuli, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you” (Ezekiel 28:12b-15).

Prince Charming was just that–a charmer. He was all about appearance, power, and selfishness, laying down nothing of himself but expecting others to fall at his feet. Shrek wasn’t willing to let his wife be taken away by this wolf in sheep’s clothing, fighting his way into a castle to save her.

It might seem silly, but there is something so incredibly moving about the scene when you watch him and his loyal friends surmount every obstacle to reach their goal. It is amazing to me how God weaves the gospel message in and through everyday life, and how something as simple as a children’s movie, one that includes magic potions and fairy spells—things that usually don’t strike us as “godly”, demonstrates so clearly the great love that Jesus has for us, and that he stopped at nothing, laying down his own life to unite with us once again.

Watch below and be touched by God’s immense love for you.

To watch the whole movie, select the photo below:

The Gospel According to Dr. Strange

The Gospel According to Kung Fu Panda 3

You Are Not the Jackass Whisperer

As a forerunner, I often pursue topics that are ahead of the curve–and I’ve been doing it for much of my life. I learned how to travel in the spirit around twelve years ago, before almost anyone I knew was talking about it (you can read the story here). Over the past 4-5 years I have been focused toward not just trying to raise the dead, but teaching and providing an atmosphere for others to do the same–and only two other ministers I know do this. The past number of years the Lord has been leading me to learn and teach on immortality, and I have authored numerous books that speak of signs, wonders and miracles. In all of this running ahead of much of the pack, I have learned many things, one of which is: I am not the jackass whisperer.

No, really. I’m not. And why is this important to a forerunner? Because I run into it frequently–and if you blaze the trail for others in any area of life you need to hear this. Every time I publish a new book about the miraculous, and probably in almost every discussion I have on social media about resurrection, immortality, or the miraculous, I get a variety of people. Some are interested and want to hear more. Some are skeptical or have differing thoughts than I but we have a good discussion. Still others appear regularly on these threads with apparently no more goal than to disagree, and yet a fourth group appear out of nowhere, leveling the heresy finger, and expecting me to bow to their wishes.

I enjoy the first two, and the third group, while mildly entertaining and somewhat irritating all at once, is usually manageable. The fourth group, however, I am reaching a point of no tolerance for. Their seemingly only goal is to sow chaos and discord, doubt and confusion, and little to nothing they share is uplifting. Quite often their comments are full of baseless assumptions that anyone who has spent any time around me, this blog, or even just connected with me on social media will know are simply not true. Furthermore, they have the gall to tell me about the demonic nature of the contents of my books–books they have never read, mind you, nor would they ever be willing to.

I like to think of myself as someone who gives grace in a lot of situations (such as this one), but I have learned that at some point, I have to set boundaries, and firm ones. I have come to the point where if someone shows up to cause trouble, they are not welcome and I will simply make them go away. The “Block” feature on social media is a wonderful thing. And don’t get me wrong–when someone who appears contrary first comments, I usually let it go for a time or two to see where they are going with it–and to see where their heart is at. They could be one of the ones in group three above who is annoying and mildly contrary but not enough to really warrant blocking. Then again, they could be an out-and-out internet troll, and I simply don’t have time for that.

Correction. I choose not to make time for that. Really, I have far better things to do with my time than babysit the jackasses in the world. I’m not the jackass whisperer–and neither are you! It’s our job to run forward and pave the way. To explore new things, test the waters, and discover all that is out there for us to find. We don’t have the time to be held back by those whose only goal is to, well, hold us back. So the next time you come across someone who is inexplicably contrary to you, remember that it’s not your job to fix them, and most likely they won’t let you. Shake the dust off and keep walking. After all, even if someone else signs up for the job, you are not the jackass whisperer either.

Extend Grace

As the administrator and moderator of various social media groups, it is my job to ensure that communication within a group is topic-relevant and generally non-offensive (no swearing or name-calling). From time to time I have to resolve conflicts, and most often this occurs behind the scenes via private message. It can be very frustrating to have these conversations because while I hope people will always operate in maturity, they don’t. Everyone is at different places in their personal growth, so while maturity is preferable, it’s not always present. My biggest job is to extend grace to the offender to help them grow, which is often difficult as their behavior usually stems from misguided heart motives.

In a recent encounter, I spoke with a woman we will call “Amelia” about this very thing. She had a domineering approach in the group so I wrote her privately. We had a manageable discussion at first, and the conversation continued for a few days as I struggled to effectively communicate with her. I sought counsel from my wife and another trusted friend to help me walk the line to both extend grace and set clear boundaries.

The boundaries are pretty simple: this is what is and is not acceptable in the group and these are the rules you need to abide by. Period. This is a black and white line of clearly defined expectations that is easy to understand. To extend grace is a bit more difficult, as it means swimming in the gray area during each conversation. This individual was highly dogmatic in her approach which I have a hard time with, and it also didn’t mesh with the group. As one can guess, this dogma also made communicating a need for change difficult as well, and it was poorly received. My biggest struggle when doing this is that I have to “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15) but to me that means I extend grace. It means I do my best to promote, uplift, and not quench another’s fervor even when requiring change.

I once heard a pastor preach a message out of 2 Timothy, and a concept he shared has stuck with me since. It comes from 2 Timothy 2:25: “Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth,”. When we give gentle instruction, we extend grace to our opponents and increase the likelihood they will actually hear our message and respond accordingly. How does this work? I believe it starts by assuming the other person has the best heart motive regardless of their actions, and then I speak to that motive.

In this instance, I spoke to Amelia about the wonderful intentions she had and that I recognized those intentions for what they were. It also meant I explained that these intentions, while well-meaning, were not received by the group based on the method used to express her heart. I offered a suggestion as to how that motive might be more clearly received by others–and I repeated this same tactic almost every time I responded. By assuming the best, I pulled on the good Amelia was trying to bring to the group instead of focusing on how it fell short of expectations. The goal was to reinforce the positives, helping Amelia feel her heart was heard even if she had to change her approach.

Unfortunately, in those few days the conversation moved from civil to caustic, complete with threats, and in the end I blocked her both personally and from the group. While the negotiation ultimately failed, I still believe in the process. It would have been really easy to click a few buttons and block her right away, but this doesn’t make room for growth. I believe one of the big struggles in our day is that we can electronically write people off in a few moments.

Working through conflict and taking the difficulty head-on can go by the wayside, especially when moderators aren’t necessarily more mature or emotionally healed than everyone else. I believe this method–to purposefully extend grace–is the way Jesus helped people to grow and I believe it’s something we all can learn to do better. Think of a current situation where you could use this and see if it affects the outcome–you might be surprised at the results, and even if it fails, you have built someone up when you could have torn them down. It’s what Jesus would do. “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he has brought justice through to victory.” (Matthew 12:20).

God, Gays, and the Orlando Shooting

Generally speaking, I don’t like reading about tragedies on social media for days on end, and I rarely have anything to add to the conversation so it is uncharacteristic of me to write a blog post on the subject, but after waking up yesterday afternoon from a dream (I work on night shift and often sleep during the day), the dream stuck with me and something I heard on the news later about the Orlando Shooting nearly made me cry while caring for a patient at work.

What I remember of the dream was fairly simple. I was talking to a young guy–early twenties, college-aged. We were getting on a bus to go somewhere and continued to chat. At some point in the dream I mentioned to him that we needed to get shirts that said something to the effect that God isn’t mad at people because they are gay. In the dream I think I may have had one appear on me while I was telling him. Then I woke up.

The night before last I was awake most of the night working on my newest book, Feathers From Heaven, and I vaguely caught something on my Facebook feed about this shooting, but I didn’t look up any details on it. When I awoke from my dream, I knew that something was up, and my brother-in-law told me about the shooting shortly thereafter. On the drive to work I felt in my spirit that something was wrong–a nondescript feeling I couldn’t describe but utter sadness, to the point that I was crying while driving my truck to work even though I had no words to explain why.

At the hospital, I was working with a patient when I heard on the TV in their room that buses had been taking people away from the danger zone to another safe location. Right then it hit me that I was riding a bus in my dream, with a message that God doesn’t hate people becasue they are gay, and that instead He loves them very much. I realized that many people are going to start running their mouths and spouting off that this is God’s judgment against the gay community.

Let me be extremely clear: God is NOT judging anyone who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or any other sexual orientation, and He certainly isn’t commissioning people to commit acts of murder and sheer evil such as the shooting in the Orlando bar. It’s wrong, and it isn’t God’s heart. God loves gays. He doesn’t love people more or less based on who they sleep with or what actions they take. And you know what? Except for the grace of God I’d probably be gay too. Maybe even I’d be in a bar somewhere getting shot at. What makes me different than anyone in that bar? God’s goodness, nothing more and nothing less.

The beautiful thing about what Jesus did on the cross is that God is no longer counting our sins against us. Some people consider being gay a sin. Others don’t. Regardless of where you stand, the Bible is very clear that God isn’t standing in heaven with a lightning bolt waiting to smite people–He doesn’t have any smiting left to give because Jesus willingly took all judgment and wrath upon himself. God has nothing but love and kindness to give, which is really all He had to begin with.

It is very important that in the days ahead we make sure to avoid judgment, anger, hate, and anything along those lines when talking to people in the gay community. You know what? People are afraid. If nothing else, this attack accomplished that. People now have even more of a reason to fear for their lives simply because they are alive and breathing. And you know what else? It’s our job to do something about it. Whether we make shirts or signs and stand at a gay pride parade or even just refrain from posting judgmental comments on social media, let us all make an effort to dispel fear, encourage love, and generally just be decent people without making this mass murder about guns, who we sleep with, or anything other than an opportunity to love some hurting people and pray for them.

What would Jesus do in this situation? Likely, he would operate in power and raise the dead. He would be kind to the brokenhearted. He would lift up the downcast and sit with the grieving. Jesus would be the living embodiment of the kindness and goodness that are the only things that bring healing in this type of situation. He would love, and love deeply. We are given many options of how to respond today. Let us choose to be Jesus to someone.

Shortcuts and Long Delays

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I have never been known for my extreme patience. When it comes to most things, especially spiritual things, I am all about the shortcut. I don’t see any reason why we should make it a goal to take things as slowly and painfully as possible if we can speed up our spiritual growth. From a perspective of spiritual power and effectiveness in healing and other ministry, I feel that there are so many hurting people that we need to learn how to effectively accelerate our growth. To this end, I have written multiple chapters on the subject in my latest book, The Gamer’s Guide to the Kingdom of God.

In spite of my preference for the fast-track, there are some things that simply don’t have any shortcuts–one in particular is relationship with God. There is something about spending time with God, whether Father, Jesus, or Holy Spirit, that cannot be accelerated. It’s an ongoing, daily living-life that has no turbo-charge button and no special shortcut to take to speed things up. Even if there were, the speeding up would be the equivalent of slowing down, because when it comes to relationship with God, the journey IS the destination.

There is an awakening in the Body of Christ in this time to the mystical realms–of oneness with Christ Jesus, being fully consumed by his passion and his love. This is not a process that can be accelerated, in the same way that one cannot quickly throw a pot. The process of firing that pot is equally painstaking and slow, as the temperature must be just right or the pot will fire incorrectly and be ruined. Turning our heart of affection towards Jesus is a daily, even hourly event. As we turn our hearts toward Jesus in love, there is a communion that takes place with Him where we encounter His love, and a sensation of that love wells up within us, often causing outward visible signs of that inner, invisible working.

The deepest spiritual growth is not in who is the most spiritually powerful, who can work the most miracles, or who can heal the greatest number of people. It is not in delivering accurate words of knowledge and prophecy, nor in the ability to cast out demons or combat principalities and powers of darkness. Love is the preeminent law of the universe, and this love can only be cultivated fully through the Being of Perfect Love, Jesus Christ. As we engage in oneness with Him in our hearts, we attune ourselves to the frequencies of the universe–the stars, plants, animals, the elements, and even the heart of humanity. The love of Jesus is what truly transforms us into His image and likeness, so that we, too, can release light, life, and love into the world and in so doing to transform it. Spiritual power is of some value, and to be effective in the Kingdom we must operate in spiritual power, but nothing can compare or compete with the all-encompassing love that is Jesus, in whom we live and move and have our being. No, there are no shortcuts to attain to this goal, and short cuts do make for long delays. The good news is that relationship with Jesus, the mystical union of our hearts with His, is but a moment away, a moment to turn inward and turn our hearts heavenward. Let us be a people who remember the journey is the destination, and as we remember, let our hearts once more entwine with His.

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At the Crossroads of Wisdom and Faith

A friend on Facebook recently asked a question in the Immortality Initiative–a group I created to discuss, explore, and pursue immortality per Jesus’s many statements and promises on the subject. As regular followers know, I am pretty outspoken about this subject and post on it regularly. One topic I have considered many times, but haven’t ever written about, is the question my friend posted–about whether to keep a life insurance policy or to cash it out.

As a firm believer in both resurrection (raising the dead) and immortality (never dying), I am conflicted on this matter. Part of me says to operate in radical faith and do away with any sort of death-planning. After all, planning for death is the same as extending faith toward death, right? To some extent I believe this–that our decisions demonstrate what we actually believe, and our actions are part of how we extend our faith in any given situation. As a result, we need to make decisions that are in line with our expectations, and not divide our thinking. Having a backup plan is, on some level, the same as sowing doubt with an increased likelihood of reaping failure.

On the other hand, failure to plan is also planning to fail. If we don’t take into account the fact that even in Hebrews 11, the big Faith chapter, that many men and women believed in faith but didn’t see the promises come to pass (v39), then we are fools. Occasionally we need to use our heads and look with eyes wide open at potential outcomes and decide whether we need to take steps to mitigate risk, whether toward ourselves or others.

Let’s put these ideas into a scenario. If I didn’t have others to consider, I wouldn’t bother with any kind of insurance or “death-planning.” I strongly believe in resurrection and immortality, and whether it sounds prideful or not I find it highly unlikely that I, of all people, would fail in that endeavor. I tend toward engaging in faith-behaviors such as not having insurance as a faith-action toward my end goal. On the other hand, I am married and have a stepdaughter and grandkids, and we all live together. I am currently the only wage-earner between my wife and myself, as she is between jobs, and my stepdaughter is just returning to work after having been injured and recovering for the better part of a year. My wife is also a number of years older than I am and I will likely continue working long after she is retired. In other words, I have people that depend on me. If something were to happen to me right now, my wife would be in big financial trouble, and raising the grandkids would be much more of a struggle. She would most likely lose the house within a year or so unless she could sell, and would have a host of other problems, all piled on top of the fact that this is in the event that I am also dead. Do I have life insurance? You had better believe I do. Under this set of circumstances I think anything less is highly irresponsible–not to me, but to my family.

This tension between wisdom and faith is a difficult path to tread, and at various points in life those two ideals no longer travel parallel, but intersect at a crossroads, where you can only choose one or the other. Sometimes the faith-route is the best way, escaping certain peril, but at other times it is the path of wisdom leads to higher heights and beautiful scenery and faith leads into a dead-end desert canyon. There is no easy answer to this question, and it will likely vary from person to person and situation to situation, but I want to challenge you: What do you think? How does this apply to your life? What do you think is best for you . . . and WHY is it best?

Windows of Time

We have a small izu persimmon tree outside the front of our house. We transplanted it a few years back and only this year did it start producing a significant amount of fruit. I am not very clear on what one actually does with a persimmon, but i do know that this year the branches were absolutely laden with fruit. I kept telling myself I needed to pick some of the fruit because the branches were getting heavier and heavier. Eventually one of the branches broke off from the weight of the fruit, and we ended up losing a lot of the fruit that was there.

I was walking up our driveway a few weeks ago and glanced at the injured tree that is noticeably missing a limb. I couldn’t help but think that there was a prophetic message about that tree. I pondered it for a bit but didn’t come up with anything. The next day my wife and I were talking about her unemployment benefits running out, and how if we had acted sooner we could have had an extension that we now missed out on. I had a flash of inspiration and realized the message of the persimmon tree: windows of time.

There is a time and a season for most everything in life, and some seasons have much greater importance than others. If we actively engage those seasons we can get the most out of whatever that season holds for us, whereas we can also be inactive and let the blessings slip by. The persimmon tree operates in seasons, and there is a window of time where the fruit is ripe and ready to pick. If you procrastinate, as I did, the fruit is lost, and in this case the procrastination actually caused damage to the tree and may impact its productivity next year, as less branches equals less space to grow fruit. Likewise, since we didn’t engage the season of unemployment benefits properly, the season ended sooner than it could have.

I realized that the message of the persimmon tree wasn’t just applying to unemployment, as we would have had no time to implement it and the message was too little too late. Thus, I surmised it was about other things–things yet to come, as well as things in the lives of others. In meditating on this message, I believe this is a now-word that God wants all of us to hear and take heed.

There are windows of time that God opens in each of our lives–kairos moments where the favor is present, the doors are wide open, and even if it requires some effort we must make every effort to step through the doors. Only then will we obtain the blessings on the other side. Failure to do so will not only result in loss, but possibly will cause further loss as the ripple effects of our choices spread out. If we don’t engage those opportunities when they arise, we will invariably pass into a new season where we are no longer able to engage those blessings. In John 9:4 Jesus said it like this: “As long as it is day, I must do the works of Him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.”

In my personal life, I can see multiple areas where this applies: school, writing, house maintenance, friendships, and work. On a national level I believe the United States has times and seasons where we have opportunity for blessing, and if we don’t pray the nation through those doors we will reap the results of our national failures.

Now is the time to acknowledge windows of time. Now is the time to engage the opportunities laid out before us. We must go forward through the open doors, put the work in, the time in, the effort in, and do whatever we need to do, because there is coming a time where we will no longer be able to work, and when that time comes, the results will speak for themselves. Let us be a people who receive blessings as a return for timely labor.

The “Q” Word

On most nursing units the “q” word is never uttered, lest mayhem and chaos soon follow: quiet. Just the other night I mentioned that my patients were doing well and it should be a quiet night, when another nurse said “you just jinxed yourself.” My response was simply “I don’t believe in that.” As a believer I find it frustrating at times that this Q-taboo seems to be so prevalent in the industry, as though that one simple word by itself carries so much overarching power that all other circumstances will fall under the weight of its mighty domain.

Little with gesturing with finger for keeping quiet — Little girl gesturing with finger to keep quiet

The word “jinx” originates from the latin word jynx, describing a wryneck bird. It is found in Africa, Asia, and Europe, and in addition to being used in spells and divination, it has the unique ability to turn its head 180 degrees. Interestingly enough, most common uses of the word “jinx” refer to a situation being turned 180 degrees on its head, although I don’t believe this has anything to do with the etymology of the word. Basically, a “jinx” is a mental construct describing a spell or curse, and has come to hold meaning over time.

Fast forward to the present, I find it quite strange that speaking positively over my night is somehow construed by others as a negative. Proverbs 18:21 says “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.“ The words we speak carry power, and we have the ability to choose outcomes in life situations based on the things we choose to speak and believe. I find it fascinating that believers and nonbelievers alike recognize this truth. For example, some believe that saying the q-word will bring calamity on their life, and so they avoid “speaking death” over their situation. On the contrary, I recognize that my words carry the power of life, so I choose to speak positive, lifegiving statements over my workplace, such as the night being quiet, which means there are no major problems or emergencies that will come up.

I encourage you to pay more attention to the things you speak in this coming week. Are the words you use lifegiving, or do they tear down, uproot, and destroy? While words themselves carry far less power than words spoken with emotion behind them, the things we say still carry a measure of our God-given authority and power when we speak them forth. Let this be a reminder to us all to choose wisely the things we speak, that we would constantly engage the Kingdom of Light in all that we say! Blessings to you!