Practical Tips To Engage the Flow of Revelation

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.22″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.0.10″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” hover_enabled=”0″]As an author and spiritual teacher, I find the process of engaging the flow of revelation to be an important one.  I have found myself pondering at times what that special something is that turns something from knowledge or information into revelation insight that brings inner transformation.  At other times, I have questions about things that I simply don’t sufficiently understand, nor do I have anyone I can ask who gets it better than I do.  Thus, I have had to learn over time how to engage the flow of revelation from God.

Because I enjoy writing, one of the ways I have learned to engage the revelatory flow is to write.  Part of why this works is what I refer to as the Law of Focus, a subset of the Law of Sowing and Reaping.  This spiritual law basically states that whatever I focus on and engage, I attract to me.  In the process of focusing on a topic, I end up receiving revelation simply in the writing process.  I do also study the Bible and relevant material from others, but even as I ponder and study a subject, new ideas come to me.  Sometimes when I study I gain profound new understanding as my research turns into an interactive revelatory flow.

In reality, all information is knowable in the spirit, and anyone who knows how to access it can access revelation simply by wanting to.  However, multiple factors can influence how easily we do or do not receive that revelation.  If we want to engage revelatory flow, we should do things that position us under the spout where the revelation comes out.  Prayer and fasting are two tools we can use to help position ourselves, as is surrounding ourselves with others who are headed in the same direction.  However, at the end of the day much of what this all does is still make use of the Law of Focus.

While I do all of those things at times as well, this is why writing is such an important key for me.  I tend to process well when speaking out loud, but finding someone who wants to listen to me talk something out isn’t always possible, which is where writing comes in.  Another great way to do this is to teach or speak on a subject, but that is often limited to those who already have a platform of some kind.  While I understand that teaching a subject you might not fully grasp in order to learn about it might seem disingenuous, I believe in championing messages we have not yet fully apprehended.  I wrote about this in an article titled “Forerunners and Imposter Syndrome” which explains why I believe this can be important:

The apostle Paul ran into this same problem, to the point that he repeated himself twice when speaking to the Philippians about this in Philippians 3:12-14, saying, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Paul was very clear that he had not already attained the fullness of the revelation he was preaching, but he didn’t let it stop him from proclaiming the revelation.

I had a dream the other night that seemed to suggest there are two main ways God gives us a message He wants us to carry. The first is as a prophetic revelation, and this typically comes first. Prophetic messages are often those given by the forerunners, as they are speaking of realities that have not manifested as of yet. The second are apostolic messengers—those who have lived out the message, have struggled through the ups and downs as they have pioneered the experience, and who have become the living embodiment of that which they speak. Neither means of carrying a message is better than the other, nor is either inferior to the other; they are simply different. Apostolic messengers carry the experiences within them, while the prophetic messenger is often speaking of things he or she has yet to attain to. It is important to understand whether a message is prophetic or apostolic as defined above, as prophetic messages are those that place us in greater danger of Imposter syndrome.”

The point of releasing a prophetic message is that while we have not yet fully grasped or lived out the content of our message, by releasing the revelation we have, not only do we pull on heaven to give us more but we also help position others to do the same.

While not everyone is an author, teacher, or speaker, we can all make use of simple tools to engage the Law of Focus and activate the revelatory realm.  Journaling and discussion with others are two easy ways to do this.  Another option is to talk to an empty room.  I like to pace while I talk, and if I am on a long phone conversation I can be found doing laps inside the house or wearing a hole in the grass, and have done the same while practicing preaching messages.  While at first it feels a little strange to talk to no one, as long as I ignore the fact that I would look like a total idiot to anyone watching, all goes well and it is very fruitful.

Regardless of the method used, whether in public or private, there are a variety of different ways we can actively engage the flow of revelation which in turn will enhance our spiritual growth.

If you have other methods they use to engage revelatory flow, please share in the comments below and let us know!
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_code admin_label=”Code”][/et_pb_code][et_pb_comments admin_label=”Comments” _builder_version=”3.16″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” button_letter_spacing_hover=”0″ button_text_size__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_text_size__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_text_size__hover_enabled=”off” button_text_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_text_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_text_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_border_width__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_border_width__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_border_width__hover_enabled=”off” button_border_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_border_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_border_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_border_radius__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_border_radius__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_border_radius__hover_enabled=”off” button_letter_spacing__hover_enabled=”on” button_letter_spacing__hover=”0″ button_one_letter_spacing__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_letter_spacing__hover_enabled=”off” button_bg_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_bg_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_bg_color__hover_enabled=”off”] [/et_pb_comments][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

5 Criteria Jesus Used To Choose Whom To Heal

One of the things I run into frequently when teaching people about healing the sick (but which also applies to raising the dead, casting out demons, and more) is the issue of “Jesus didn’t heal everyone he saw.”  So how did Jesus choose who He should heal?  I have found 5 criteria he used, and which we can also use, to help make that determination in our own lives.

Before answering that question, I think we need to take a step back and look at the motivations behind the question/statement surrounding the idea that Jesus didn’t heal everyone.  It is usually one of two things:

1) Someone is legitimately trying to understand when and for whom to release divine healing
2) Someone is trying to avoid being obedient toward doing the things Jesus commanded us to do

The second group is all about shirking responsibility.  While one can make the argument “There isn’t enough time in the day to heal everyone so I have to pick and choose”, the ones pushing that line of reasoning are rarely so busy healing the sick that it’s even a relevant question to ask.  For them, the question is a method of avoidance, not an honest attempt to understand how to walk out what Jesus commanded.  The only solution for that group is to repent—change their way of thinking and doing things.  Anything else is a waste of time and energy, and I don’t tend to give much time to this group of individuals for that reason—I want people who want to grow.

The first group is typically already active in some way in healing ministry, or if not, usually desires to learn and grow to be effective in healing the sick and injured through divine healing prayer.  For this group, I will gladly take the time to identify the 5 criteria Jesus used to know when to heal the sick, which are as follows:

 

1. Does He Love Them?

In order to know whether or not to heal someone, we first need to know “Does God love that person?”  The answer is obviously “Yes!“.  Why is this relevant?  Because healing is a manifestation of God’s love.  It is His mercy, goodness, and great kindness that causes Him to heal us.  Thus, if God loves someone, it is His desire to see them healed.

 

2. Did He Die For Them?

If we want to know if we even *can* heal someone, we need to know if Jesus died for them.  Why does this matter?  Because Isaiah 53:4-6 lays out a list of things Jesus accomplished when He died on the cross and rose again.  The passage is as follows:

“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

Jesus took all of our emotional problems, physical maladies, and our sin.  In their place, we get to be healed.  If Jesus died for someone, then He already purchased their healing on the cross over 2,000 years ago, and thus we can always pray for the sick and know with 100% assurance that it is God’s will to heal them.  In fact, God can’t even say “no” to something He already paid for . . . not to mention that all the promises of God are “yes” and “amen” in Christ (2 Cor 1:20)!

 

3. Did God tell Him to Do It?

The most obvious times we should heal someone are the times where God tells or shows us to.  Jesus said “I only do what I see my Father doing (John 5:19-20).”  While in context Jesus was responding to people getting angry at him healing someone, and Jesus was explaining that He was doing it through God’s power and not on his own, the underlying concept remains—that we should partner with God and do what He is doing when He is doing it.  When God is trying to heal someone, it’s time for us to step up and step out!

 

4. Have They Asked For Help?

While it is true that Jesus didn’t necessarily pray for and/or heal every person he came across who had a malady, He *did* touch everyone who asked.  In fact, Jesus even preached this very thing when He said “Give to those who ask  . . . (Matthew 5:42a)”  Any time in the Bible that someone came up to Jesus and asked Him for help, He helped them.  That is the example that Jesus modeled for us, and we as the Body should walk out that same example.  While one may not stop for every person, we *should* make every effort to help those who ask us to help them.

 

5. Does He Care?

The last criteria I see Jesus using to know when to heal the sick is where the Bible says “He was moved with compassion.”  When Jesus saw a need and His heart was moved with a desire to touch them, He did.  We don’t always have to have some special directive from God in order to heal the sick.  Sometimes all we need is the desire to touch people with love and compassion, and the Bible says that God gives us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4).  In fact, if you will recall above that in John 5:19-20 Jesus said He did what He saw the Father doing, in verse 21 Jesus said, “For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.”  Yes, Jesus literally explained that if He felt like healing or resurrecting someone, then He would go ahead and do it—and we should do the same!

 

These are the five criteria I have identified that Jesus used when deciding when to heal the sick.  I believe the same applies to raising the dead as well as to many other situations, but regardless of why one steps out to heal, the truth is that people don’t generally get healed unless we decide to step out in faith.  So whatever you do, don’t get rigid in the way you do things, be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and don’t be afraid to take a risk and go be His hands of healing!

 

 

Frame It! – Building a Vehicle for Answered Prayer

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.22″][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”4.0.7″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” hover_enabled=”0″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]

One of the areas of “study” that I have a personal interest in is that of spiritual laws. And when I say “study” in quotes, its because it isn’t exactly something you can easily find books about (which is why I plan to write one at some point). Nevertheless, I do find that as I go, I tend to discover certain keys and principles that explain the underlying functions and influences that alter the world we live in. At the end of the day, we all want our prayers answered. In this case, I want to share something about prayer, and how we can make use of what I refer to as “framing” to work as a vehicle for answered prayer.

Revelation 5 and 8 shed some light on how framing in prayer works, so we are going to look at the verses and then I will break down how we can put this principle into practical use.

“And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people (Revelation 5:8).”

“Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake (Revelation 8:3-5).”

To summarize, these verses show us that in the spirit there are golden bowls that collect our prayers. Each bowl has a defined size, which we know because it is possible to fill the bowls. If something can be filled, then it has a quantity associated with it—which means prayer can in some way be quantified, which is its own discussion for another time. However, what this means for us here is that we can release a certain amount of prayer that will fill up a bowl, and the result of filling the bowl is that the answer to our prayers gets sent from heaven back to the earth.

If bowls get filled in response to our prayers, and we are the ones who get to decide what we are praying, then *we create new bowls based on our prayers*. It’s kind of profound, actually, that we have the ability to make spiritual containers in response to the things we pray, both individually and corporately, and that again opens up an entire other line of understanding about how we co-create with God, but I digress. Knowing that we have the ability to create containers to obtain answered prayer, we can make use of this fact to intentionally make new containers. The benefit of intentionally making a new container is that we can intelligently design the parameters for when and how that bowl gets filled.

Certain types of prayers, especially those that are to obtain or develop something new, are of particular benefit for this sort of task. I will give an example that I encourage the ministries I have been involved in to make use of, but this has applications for business, home life, and more.

Pretend that someone is starting a ministry, and they want that ministry to be prepared to grow into everything God has intended. We can assume there will at least be a president/founder/leader, and depending on the organizational structure, other subsequent positions. If a ministry wants to make intentional use of this framing strategy, they will develop job descriptions for all of the potential ministry positions, even if they don’t have a need for it or even room for it yet. For example, let’s say that one eventually wants to have a Prayer Director to lead intercession and prayer strategies and various intercessory positions, a ministry school with a School Director and instructors, a Worship Director with worship leaders, a Chief Administrator, Financial Officer, and more, then one should begin by writing out a job description and qualifications for each of these positions. By doing so, it creates definition.

So much of answered prayer is relative to our intentions toward what we are praying about. If the leaders of a ministry set out a bunch of definitions for positions in advance, even before the need is fully there, this accomplishes a few things, both practical in the natural and functional in the spirit. In the natural, it helps the leadership get an idea of the type of person they are looking for to fill the position, which means that when that person shows up, they will be likely to notice (more about how this works with the Reticular Activating System works here). In the spirit, however, this definition influences the conditions for when and how the prayer bowl gets filled, and as a result how the position gets filled.

By “when and how”, what I mean is that by defining what a particular position should look like, and the characteristics needed of the person filling it, the prayer bowl that gets created will work to answer prayers toward filling that position using that definition. In other words, let’s say that we need a Prayer Director who has leadership qualities for leading prayer teams, administrative qualities for keeping prayer needs-lists updated and other related organization-relevant stuff done in an organized and timely manner, sensitive spiritual perception to be able to tune into the ministry’s needs, and also high levels of faith, power, and authority in the spirit to accomplish much in prayer. If one does not pre-define what they are looking for, then they will end up with someone in that position, but that person may or may not have all the skills needed for the job. On the other hand, by defining all of those as needs under the Prayer Director position in advance, when praying for God to send a Prayer Director, what one is then praying for is for God to provide someone that checks all of those boxes. When the prayer bowl gets filled, the end result is going to be a person coming alongside the ministry who can meet all of those needs.

While not every situation needs definition, there are some things that definitely do. If you are a business owner and want to grow your business, define the areas of growth in as much or little detail as you like, recognizing that the level of detail you give will influence how your prayers get answered. If you are looking for a new home, or a vehicle to buy, or anything else at all that involves “new” or “change”, then framing up your needs in advance will design a prayer bowl to more specifically fit the needs you have anticipated. As far as what it takes to fill a prayer bowl, and how we can use spiritual laws and principles to accelerate that process, we’ll have to take a look at that in another article.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_code admin_label=”Code”][/et_pb_code][et_pb_comments admin_label=”Comments” _builder_version=”3.16″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” button_letter_spacing_hover=”0″ button_text_size__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_text_size__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_text_size__hover_enabled=”off” button_text_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_text_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_text_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_border_width__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_border_width__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_border_width__hover_enabled=”off” button_border_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_border_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_border_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_border_radius__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_border_radius__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_border_radius__hover_enabled=”off” button_letter_spacing__hover_enabled=”on” button_letter_spacing__hover=”0″ button_one_letter_spacing__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_letter_spacing__hover_enabled=”off” button_bg_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_bg_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_bg_color__hover_enabled=”off”][/et_pb_comments][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

Understanding Spiritual Laws and Forces: The Paper Airplane Model

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.22″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.0.4″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”]

Many people wonder why prayers don’t get answered in the time or way they are asking. Other times, people have listened to a preacher state a single “guaranteed” method to have prayers answered, but when put into practice, they only work a small portion of the time. There are a number of reasons for this, but I think they are best explained through an example I was telling my wife the other day: the example of throwing a paper airplane.

Throwing a paper airplane seems like an incredibly simple process:   You fold it, you throw it, done.

Yet, if you think about all the variables and factors that go into how that airplane flies, it is much more complex than it first appears.
In order to throw a paper airplane, there first has to be a paper airplane. The airplane could be made with a variety of sizes and thicknesses of paper, each of which has its own weight. There are a variety of airplane designs that involve folding the paper different ways to arrive at a flying object, and while each is unique in its appearance and design, all of them are still paper airplanes. To add even more variation, while it doesn’t influence the function of the object, the airplane could be a wide range of colors or designs as well.

Once the paper airplane is folded, it is now time to throw it. While this seems straightforward, there are many things that influence how it flies. Aerodynamics of the plane design show their influence here as both lift and drag exert their influences. Then there’s the force used to throw the object, which is gradually slowed by friction in the air but the momentum behind the plane works to counteract that. Gravity is part of drag that works to bring the plane down to the ground, but that doesn’t fully account for the level of atmospheric pressure exerted when at sea level versus a higher elevation, meaning that at different elevations, the pull gravity exerts is different. Furthermore, there are other external factors such as wind speed and direction that will influence the airplane’s flight.

So how does all of this relate to spiritual laws and answered prayers?? First, let’s take the example of the airplane and pretend it is the person. Each person is designed uniquely by God, and each of us are wired to function optimally in certain ways. The reason personality profile tests work is because there are still main “types” of people, but at the end of the day no two people are fully alike. This is exactly like making a paper airplane. Paper size, shape, thickness, and even color are like the differences between people and personalities, but there is more. Each of us have different life encounters which also cause us to have different beliefs and inner wounds. We each have certain areas where we either understand or misunderstand God’s nature, our nature, and that of the world around us. There is the influence that our spirit and soul exert on various aspects of our lives as well. These are like the differences in the paper and folding of the airplane. Those unique perspectives (whether healthy or unhealthy) and subsequent inner soul and spiritual influence, shape who we are and how we interact with the outside world, and, akin to the flight of a paper airplane, they affect how spiritual laws influence us as well.

Now let us bring in external forces: demonic resistance and the curses of others, angelic assistance and the prayers of others, and bloodline blessings and iniquity, all of which influence how, when, and if prayers get answered. There is our faith, the faith of other people praying in that situation as well, as well as our and their doubt and unbelief. There are regional atmospheres influenced in part by angels and demons and other spirit beings but also by the collective consciousness of the people living in that region.

Then there are other spiritual laws such as sowing and reaping, focus, honor, impartation, blessing, and more. All of these various factors act upon us simultaneously, and each one exerts its own influence on how, when, and if our prayers get answered. It is only when we don’t understand that there are multiple factors at play and do things to actively enhance or mitigate their effects that we lose out.

With a paper airplane, we can do something that adds weight (usually a paperclip) to help it fly better/longer, we can increase the force of the throw, move somewhere without wind or turn so we are throwing with the wind current, and stand on a higher elevation so it takes longer to reach the ground. Each of these actions address some of the opposing forces that negatively influence the paper airplane’s flight. Likewise, when we understand the various spiritual laws and spiritual forces at work in our lives, we can make conscious choices that promote the outcomes we desire. Both inner healing and mind renewal decrease the ability of demons to influence us. They also can decrease doubt and help enhance our faith. As we pray to engage the angelic host and bind demonic forces, we will experience a greater measure of spiritual assistance. As we sow with our thoughts, words, and actions over time we will reap the benefits of those choices as well. If we gather in a group with others, we can purposefully extend a targeted influence over a certain situation, problem, etc. that affects our region and that is influenced by regional collective consciousness, shifting the atmosphere our way. All of these are examples of a great number of things that can be done to influence prayers and outcomes in our lives, but it all boils down to a simple concept: At the end of the day, our input decides the output and if we want a different outcome, we need different input.

As we change the input coming through our lives toward heaven, then the output of heaven toward us will alter accordingly.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_code admin_label=”Code”][/et_pb_code][et_pb_comments admin_label=”Comments” _builder_version=”3.16″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” button_letter_spacing_hover=”0″ button_text_size__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_text_size__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_text_size__hover_enabled=”off” button_text_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_text_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_text_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_border_width__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_border_width__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_border_width__hover_enabled=”off” button_border_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_border_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_border_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_border_radius__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_border_radius__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_border_radius__hover_enabled=”off” button_letter_spacing__hover_enabled=”on” button_letter_spacing__hover=”0″ button_one_letter_spacing__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_letter_spacing__hover_enabled=”off” button_bg_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_bg_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_bg_color__hover_enabled=”off”][/et_pb_comments][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

fragmentsalters innerhealingdeliverance innerworldemotionalhealing

An Introduction To Soul Fragmentation

In a number of other articles, I have discussed various aspects of inner healing, deliverance, spiritual gifts, and even physical healing, but many of them relate in some way to some basic functions and dysfunction of the soul. I will attempt, here, to provide a basic introduction to soul fragmentation: what it is, how it works, how the enemy uses it to afflict us, and how applying the redemptive power of Jesus to these soul fragments promotes inner wholeness.

Soul fragmentation is a protective mechanism in our soul that is designed to help us deal with difficult emotions, pain, and even physical trauma. The soul takes all of the difficult feelings, balls them up, attaches them to a small portion of the soul, and then separates it from the main core of the soul. This puts the emotions at a bit of a distance and allows the person to continue to function in life in spite of trauma or emotional difficulty. It usually happens when we are not able to properly cope with a situation, which is why fragmentation tends to happen more in children and less-often as adults. By the time one becomes an adult, we usually have developed methods of dealing with difficult situations and the emotions associated with them, so fragmentation tends to happen less frequently. However, it is possible for fragmentation to occur at any age.

The best way I can describe this process is if we think of the soul as a gemstone. When a major issue comes up, the soul-gem pushes all the negative emotions into a corner and breaks a chip off itself, letting the chip with the bad feelings float nearby. That chip is a soul fragment. Now imagine that someone came by and took a hammer to the gem. A bunch of tiny chips would break off of the stone, but there would still be a main core of the stone that, if perfectly reattached, all the chips would fit back in place. A good way of thinking of an emotionally unhealed adult is like the gemstone with a bunch of chips. Each piece has somewhere it belongs, and all of them are able to attach back to the core of the gem. In the analogy, the core of the soul, which is sometimes known as the “presenting personality”, is that big core of the gem. Basically it’s you, the one reading this article and generally living your life.  While this is a little confusing, this is all happening on the inside somewhere, in what is essentially an inner dimension. It’s a little difficult to describe, exactly, but we typically refer to this inner dimension as “the system”, and it is where all of these fragmented portions of the soul reside. It’s like if someone had a weightless space where the soul-gem lived and the fragmented chips all orbit the core of the gem in this space.

As mentioned above, the core is the main person, you. All of the other little chips, however, carry memories and feelings from events in one’s life as well, and are also parts of the soul. Inner healing that works with fragments and alters helps these chips get healed of all the painful emotions, and then oftentimes will help them reattach to the core of the soul. Keep in mind here that the soul is basically comprised of the mind, will, and emotions. The curious thing about this is that because each portion of the soul is a legitimate part of one’s personhood, each fragment has its own portion of not just emotions, but of mind and will as well. This means that each portion of the soul can exercise its part of your God-given free will, and because it has its own portion of the mind, it can also think. While this can be a little confusing to those who aren’t used to this concept, it plays out in how the soul actually functions. Scripturally speaking, the term “heart” is usually connected with the soul, not just the physical organ that moves blood around the body. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” If this passage is to be believed, then the heart has both thoughts and intentions (intention=will), not just emotions.

In the short term, there are no significant implications of a soul fragment having its own thoughts and will, but think about what happens if someone experiences trauma as a young child and it goes unmanaged until someone is in their thirties or forties. That fragment has had three to four decades of independent thought derived from free will and time to develop and grow. As a result, his or her thoughts and actions don’t necessarily line up with the core. Usually this only presents more minimal problems, comparatively, but in some cases the different parts are able to access the body and sort of “take charge” either in conjunction with or instead of the core. This is where we see what is more commonly known as DID, or Dissociative Identity Disorder, where someone has what we refer to as “alters”, short for “alternate personalities”. While very few people have what clinicians would diagnose as DID, to a certain degree it is a meaningless diagnosis considering all humans who have ever lived other than Jesus have or have had fragmented parts of their soul. Yes, everyone has fragments and alters, referred more generally as “parts”.

While this may be hard for some to swallow, here’s why all this matters. When the soul fragments and those emotions are walled off, they are still connected to the core, almost like there is a string attached and those fragments float out in the ethers nearby. Those fragments still have an influence on what the core of the person thinks and feels. The enemy likes to use soul fragmentation as a means of influencing our thoughts, emotions, and actions by tormenting and afflicting the parts, who in turn pass those things to us.

To explain, let’s pretend that the soul is a business group who own a building, and every employee is a voting member. For every situation in life the supervisor takes a vote, and everyone decides what decisions to make. When extreme emotional problems arise, however, it’s like someone piped a poison gas into the building. The supervisor activates the emergency filtration system, and all the poison gets piped into one room, and that room is sealed from the outside. The problem is that the room the poison gas was put into was an employee’s office, and he was still inside. The poison doesn’t kill him right away, so as time goes on and situations come up, he still is involved in the voting, except the poison muddles his thinking and he constantly makes bad decisions. Now, imagine that as time goes on more and more incidents occur, and more and more employees get walled off in rooms full of poison mist. Over time, the number of employees who are still voting but making bad decisions increases to a noticeable level. This is essentially what happens over time, and is part of why soul fragmentation is an issue. The fragmented portions of the soul are still connected to the core, and influence daily life but from an unhealthy standpoint.

To make matters worse, demons target fragments and alters because they are easier to afflict that the core of the person. If we go back to the soul-gem analogy, remember that we have those fragments floating in space orbiting the core, and each one is attached by a string. When demons afflict a fragment, they are usually trying to create fear or anxiety or some other negative issue, and because the fragment is connected to the core, those feelings travel up that string and the core starts to feel that fear or anxiety or other feelings too. This is where irrational fear comes from. Everyone has fears that are not based on bad things that have happened to us. People rarely have been injured by clowns, but sometimes they cause inexplicable fear anyway. That fear encounter is actually a part that is experiencing that fear, usually with demonic torment involved, and the fear travels up the string until you are feeling that fear as well. This is why the fear is unexplainable, but you still feel it anyway. You don’t have the bad memory—the part does. You don’t have the thoughts of fear or concern, but the mind of the part does, so while you aren’t having fear-thoughts, you suddenly have irrational fear-feelings, and become affected by it.

When we get “saved”, and Jesus comes into our hearts, what happens is that our core gets saved, and oftentimes a number of fragments do as well. However, typically not all fragments get saved at that time. While this is sometimes difficult for people to understand, and even harder to accept as truth, Isaiah 61:1 offers us some keys. It says, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners . . .” The term “brokenhearted” can also be translated as “those whose hearts have shattered into pieces”. If we recall again that the heart refers to the soul, it is talking about soul fragmentation. Jesus comes to un-shatter our fragments and bring us healing. However, consider the rest of that verse—Jesus proclaims freedom for captives and release from darkness for prisoners. Sometimes fragments and alters are not just captive, but are imprisoned in darkness by the demonic somewhere inside the system (or at times outside the system).

The Bible refers to “strongholds” of the mind, and if we take it more literally, think of demons setting up an enemy fort inside the system somewhere. These fragments get captured and imprisoned inside the fort, and sometimes get brainwashed into working as guards. When Jesus comes into someone’s life, the core gets saved and Jesus basically sets up His own Kingdom inside the system. The job, then, is for Jesus to take all the captives and prisoners and bust them out of the strongholds and bring them into His kingdom. For whatever reason, this doesn’t all take place instantly for all parts when the core receives salvation, so it can often be a process of gradually getting more and more parts saved and set free. This is also why when people preach about “grace” and the “finished works” of the gospel as being all one needs for freedom in Christ, sometimes people still struggle and it feels like the gospel isn’t working the way it is supposed to. The thing is that it is working, it’s just that some parts are still captive and haven’t been influenced by the power of the gospel yet.

When I first understood this fact, so many things started to make much more sense. You see, I am a firm believer that everything has to make sense, and that if something works one way for one person and another way for another person, there are definable reasons why that is the case. If one person gets set free from problems by receiving the gospel but someone else is still having major struggles in that area spite of receiving that same salvation message, there have to be other factors at play that influence why those two people have different experiences.

Mind renewal is a key part of receiving the life of Christ. When we renew our minds as Romans 12:2 tells us, we get to enjoy and experience the good things God has for us. However, we have to remember that fragments each have a portion of our mind. And by mind, I’m not saying that each part occupies a portion of the brain. A friend who is a trained psychologist told me that it is believed in modern psychology that all fragments and alters (he refers to them as “ego states”) are located in the hypothalamus. What I am saying is that the mind and brain are different entirely. The mind is an other-dimensional reality where we have thoughts in some inexplicable way, whereas the brain is the physical means by which we experience those thoughts and they influence our body to perform certain actions. The portion of our mind that is our core is usually the one directly accessing the brain, but every other fragment and alter also has their own mind, or portion of our total mind, and they have their own thoughts. It’s a little bit like how the Bible says that we have the mind of Christ, not I have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16).

When we get saved we renew our mind (that of the core), but the mind of each part needs to be renewed as well (and ideally eventually integrated into the core in most cases). Once each part’s mind is renewed, typically whatever the issue was that was brothering one will evaporate, demons sometimes leave automatically as they are unable to remain any longer, and the person experiences true and lasting freedom. Failure to recognize and address this is a major barrier to walking out all God has for us, but when we understand how the soul works, get fragments and alters freed from demonic strongholds, get the negative emotions they carry healed, and then get them to renew their portion of our mind, then freedom flows. Oftentimes, as this happens we can integrate them back into our core self as well, so there is no longer an “us” but we become an “I”.

One objection to this teaching is that we are somehow nullifying or making weaker the power of Jesus to set people free through the “simple gospel” by making things confusing or complex, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The fact is that the “simple gospel” only ever has a certain measure of effectiveness at causing permanent life change in an individual. While some might find that offensive, it’s a fact. I don’t know that anyone reading this has ever met someone who never has a negative thought, struggle, or life issue. Jesus is the only one who was never fragmented in soul. Certainly I believe that in Christ we can become fully integrated once again, but Jesus is the only one who never had that problem, and never had issues outside of people who were demonically influenced to attack him. The rest of us, in spite of having instant salvation, still have to walk out an ongoing sanctification process. I suggest that ongoing sanctification work is in part the gradual freeing of fragments and alters.

I actually agree with people who teach the “finished works” message that the “simple gospel” is all we need, but that’s only under the condition that every part of the person actually gets to experience that transformative power of the gospel. That not-happening is why some people can struggle with issues over time in spite of repeated attempts to renew their minds and “get” the gospel message. It’s because the problem isn’t with them (the core), it’s with another part. Why would Isaiah 61:1 say that Jesus binds up the brokenhearted in the emotional realm, and then suddenly in the same sentence repetitively twice talk about setting physical people free. Captives are those who are taken unwillingly or unlawfully, while prisoners are those who have committed wrongdoing and are captives lawfully, but in context I suggest this is all taking place in the soul realm. If there weren’t any captives or prisoners in the soul then the Bible wouldn’t reference them, but since it does reference them, then we should probably pay attention.

This is an overview of the basics of soul fragmentation: what it is, how it works, how the enemy uses it to afflict us, and how applying the gospel to each parts sets us free. There are special cases where people have significantly more fracturing than others, typically in cases of government-sponsored mind control or Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA), but this is a general overview of how the soul functions to manage painful emotions, how the enemy uses that, and how the gospel sets us free. I have written numerous other articles on the subject as a whole, and if one wants to learn more about the subject I encourage you to read any of the articles in the Fragments, Alters, Parts, and DID category.

 

 

How To Partner With Your Angels

I recently listened to an audio message by Dan Duval about angels on his podcast program Discovering Truth With Dan Duval. This particular message confirmed something for me that I have thought about but never clearly formulated into words—that angels grow and develop over time like we do, and that in fact they are always growing in maturity. Furthermore, Dan pointed out that we can empower angels by praying for them and by praying to God about things so that we can engage and release their various functions and abilities.

The idea that we empower angels with our prayers isn’t really a new concept, nor is it new to me, but I don’t think that people typically word it that way. In fact, I don’t recall that Dan specifically phrased it that way either, but I certainly am right now. We empower angels with our prayers.

To some this might not seem important or significant, but I think this subject has immense value not only for our spiritual growth, but for every aspect of our lives. Consider that God has assigned angels to each one of us for our protection, but also for destroying works of darkness and advancing against the enemy (Psalm 91:11-13). If God sees fit to assign angels to us as messengers, protectors, and fellow servants-in-arms against the enemy, then it seems prudent to me that we should understand not just that God uses angels (read Why Does God Use Angels?), but how we can partner with them to manifest God’s Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.

Before going further, I tend to get a lot of kickback when I say things like “let’s partner with our angels”, so let me explain what I mean. It should already be incredibly apparent I’m not talking about worshipping them—only an idiot or someone intentionally misinterpreting what I am saying would think that. The Bible prohibits it in multiple places (Exodus 20:2-3, Deuteronomy 5:6-7, 1 Corinthians 10:14, Colossians 2:8, Romans. 1:24–25, Revelation 1:8-9, Revelation 22:8-9). What I am saying is that God has given angels certain spheres of authority and assignments, and that their jobs include a number of things that are helpful for us as we walk out everything God has for us. Some of the more obviously scriptural functions of angels include giving us messages from God, protecting us physically and spiritually, delivering us from bad situations, guiding us, and even delivering objects such as food from time to time. With such a wide range of potential functions (my list of which is by no means exhaustive of their full abilities), it would be downright foolish for us to ignore the things that God has sent angels to partner with us to accomplish in the earth.

Some people say we can command angels directly. Others believe we are supposed to pray to God and ask Him to command the angels. Others still believe we don’t address angels in any way and simply pray to God and let Him work out the details of how that happens. Regardless of which method(s) one chooses, prayer is a vital part of this process. Psalm 103:20 says, “Praise the LORD, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word.” Angels perform God’s word, so whether that is us declaring His word or Him speaking His words to them in response to our prayers, the more we engage heaven in prayer, the more that angels are empowered and released to do things.

If we recall back to Daniel 10, we find Daniel concerned about some things the Lord revealed to him, so in verses 2-3 he spends time fasting and praying for understanding. In verses 12-13, twenty one days after he began, an angel appears to Daniel and explains, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.” The key point of relevance here is that the first day Daniel began fasting and praying, the angel was sent to him with a message. However, it was another full twenty days before the angel actually arrived with the message, and it took an angelic prince, Michael, getting involved in a battle against a demonic prince for the other angel to finally get through. If the answer was sent on the first day, what the heck was Daniel doing fasting and praying for almost three more weeks??  Simple: His prayers were either directly or indirectly empowering the angelic host to win the battle and get the message through to him.

Why do I say this? There is an important principle outlined in Psalm 115:16 having to do with authority in the heavens and the earth. The passage says, “The highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth he has given to mankind.” For whatever reason God chose to set it up so that things related to planet earth require our prayers. I don’t think it was coincidental that Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 6:10 to pray what I call a blank check prayer to God: “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” What Jesus prayed in common vernacular was “God, do whatever you want here on earth.” The entire purpose of this prayer was so that God can manifest His will in His way, not being limited in any manner by limiting prayers. When we pray for God to do things in the earth, He often chooses to use angels to do it, and when He does, the power released when we pray is used in some inexplicable way to help them do their jobs better.

I see two primary ways to partner with angels to perform God’s will. The first and most basic method is to look at the needs in our own lives, and those of our family, friends, churches, cities, nations, and the world as a whole and pray to God and/or decree God’s will to the heavens and the earth based on our understanding of those needs.

A second way to partner with angels is to attempt to discern what angels are actually present nearby and either in talking to them directly or asking the Holy Spirit, find out what they need to accomplish their heavenly assignments, and then pray accordingly. While it still involves prayer, this method is more focused on helping specific angels with specific needs that they identify, whereas the first is focused on generally helping some angels out there somewhere with needs that we identify (And yes, talking to angels is incredibly scriptural. The majority of times we see an angel in scripture, they are having a conversation with a human.).

Neither method is more correct; both are simply different but equally viable means of engaging angels to accomplish God’s will in the earth. The method or methods one chooses to employ will usually have a lot to do with one’s belief system, which often has a lot to do with what religious system one was raised in, and what rules or regulations that particular religious system imposed on the individual.

For example, my dad is an Episcopal priest, and while my parents are charismatic-leaning to a certain degree, and even though I know my dad has had conversations with angels on more than one occasion, I have good reasons to believe that this idea the way I am presenting it would make them both pretty uncomfortable. Years ago, if someone had told me this same thing, I probably would have been uncomfortable with it too, but largely only because I had learned a lot of dumb rules and regulations from religious systems (not just from the Episcopal church, but from other denominations too) that limited and prohibited a lot of things based on their own fears and traditions (which are often developed out of fear and control). As I began to prayerfully and intentionally reason through what I believed and why, I started to see that some of the things we have been taught are incredibly stupid, such as the idea that we shouldn’t talk to angels. If we aren’t supposed to talk to angels, then neither should have Abraham, Jacob, Isaiah, Elijah, Mary, Joseph, Zechariah, nor the apostles John, Peter, and Paul.

In the end, it all really comes down to prayer, plain and simple. If we want to partner with our angels to see God’s will manifest in our lives to a greater degree, we must develop lifestyles of prayer.

If you want to hear more about this subject, I strongly encourage you to give a listen to the podcast that sparked this article, a free message by Dan Duval called “Angels: Our Brothers in Arms”

 

hearinggodsvoice prophecyvisionsdreams propheticword seerprophet

Four Simple Steps To Hear From God

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ inner_width=”auto” inner_max_width=”none”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.23.3″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text]

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.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_code]<script type=”text/javascript” src=”https://app.getresponse.com/view_webform_v2.js?u=B40ZB&webforms_id=6653905″></script>[/et_pb_code][et_pb_comments show_avatar=”on” show_reply=”on” show_count=”on” background_layout=”light” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_button=”off” button_letter_spacing=”0″ button_use_icon=”default” button_icon_placement=”right” button_on_hover=”on” button_letter_spacing_hover=”0″]

 

[/et_pb_comments][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

Why Does God Use Angels?

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ inner_width=”auto” inner_max_width=”none”][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.23.3″]

A question that some readers have asked me is “Why does God use angels?” After all, we have Jesus, and the Holy Spirit lives in us, so what role could angels possibly play that God Himself can’t just take care of on His own? I see the logical reasoning behind the question, but I think that it leaves out a lot of details about who God is, how He works, and what we have seen Him do throughout Biblical history both before and after the cross.

First, we need to recognize something about God’s nature. The very first thing we see about God’s nature in the Bible is in Genesis 1, where God reveals Himself as Creator. God likes to create. If we consider the sheer number of different insect species in the world, not to mention all the birds, fish, mammals, etc. He has a limitless ability to envision and create living beings. God created Angels, Powers, Thrones, Dominions, Living Creatures, Elders, and more in the heavenly realms, possibly all before He even began to fashion the earth. God did this partly because He loves to create. He also loves to love, and I personally believe that part of the reason God created such a myriad of different beings was partly because He wanted to love them. God gave us a job in Genesis, which was to take dominion over the earth. The Bible speaks of angels’ primary job as being messengers. If nothing else, God made angels to serve certain functions in His universe, in the same way that He created us to serve certain other functions in that same universe. So the first reason angels do certain things is simply because God designed it that way.

Second, let us look back at the work of the Holy Spirit and angels in the Old Testament. The Holy Spirit appears in a few places: as the Cloud and Pillar of Fire (Exodus 13), where He comes upon Saul (in 1 Samuel 10:10), and when the priests made sacrifices to consecrate the first Temple 91 Kings 8:10-11).

Angels appeared *many* times throughout the Old Testament: to Hagar (Genesis 16), Abraham (Genesis 18), Lot and his family (Genesis 19), Jacob (Genesis 32:1), Moses (Exodus 3), the Israelites (Exodus 23:20-23, 33:2), to Balaam and the donkey (Numbers 22), the nation of Israel (Judges 2), Gideon (Judges 6), Manoah and his wife (Judges 13), David (2 Samuel 24), Elijah (1 Kings 19, 2 Kings 1), Daniel (Daniel 6, 10), the prophet Zechariah (Zechariah 1-6). Furthermore, Angels showed up in the New Testament to Joseph (Matthew 1:20, 2:13, 2:19), Zechariah (Luke 1), Mary (Luke 1), and a group of shepherds (Luke 2). Angels play a consistent role as messengers in the Old Testament, so it should not surprise us when God uses Angels in such a role today.

Another point to consider is that the Bible speaks of angels in a few different places in both the Old and New Testaments as being involved in heavenly warfare. If we think about the implications of this, it means that there are a bunch of spirit beings who are not God the Father, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit who are warring against one another in the spiritual realms. We are instructed by God to be involved in this battle, and God didn’t simply exercise His God-level powers one time the moment everything went wrong and squash all the baddies. For whatever reason ( *ahem* free will), God decided not to do that and has involved angels in that celestial battle. As such, why should we find it surprising when God uses angels to fight in what is literally a spiritual holy war?

We also need to remember that Heaven operates on a hierarchy system. God is the Supreme Emperor of all things. Monarchs don’t do everything themselves—many things they delegate to their subjects. The Throne Room in heaven also has twenty-four elders (Revelation 4:4) and four living creatures (Revelation 4:6) who presumably have some sort of ruling authority, with one-hundred-million angels surrounding them (Revelation 5:11). We see in Joshua 5:13-15 that God has an army, and that the army has a commander. Daniel 12:1 refers to Michael as a “heavenly prince” and in Daniel 10:13 Michael is referenced as “one of the chief princes”, meaning there are other chief princes and other not-chief princes as well. Ephesians 1:21 and 6:12 and Colossians 1:16 also list rulers, authorities, dominions, thrones, powers of this world, and wicked heavenly spiritual forces. If heaven operates on a hierarchy system, and it clearly does, why would we expect God to do everything Himself when He has clearly designed other beings for us to partner with to release His will in the earth?

At the end of the day, while the answer “God made it that way” isn’t a very satisfying answer, that really does seem to be the most apparent reason why God uses angels, but as we have seen, the entire Bible supports this fact as well, so when angels are sent to us by God we can be confident that we are not only permitted but encouraged to partner with them to bring heaven to earth.

If you want to learn more about how to partner with angels, join my free email list (below) and you will receive my ebook “Engaging Angels” as a thank you.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_code]<script type=”text/javascript” src=”https://app.getresponse.com/view_webform_v2.js?u=B40ZB&webforms_id=6653905″></script>[/et_pb_code][et_pb_comments show_avatar=”on” show_reply=”on” show_count=”on” background_layout=”light” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_button=”off” button_letter_spacing=”0″ button_use_icon=”default” button_icon_placement=”right” button_on_hover=”on” button_letter_spacing_hover=”0″]

 

[/et_pb_comments][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

Is The Law Of Attraction In The Bible?

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ inner_width=”auto” inner_max_width=”none”][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text]

The concept of the “Law of Attraction” was made famous by the book “The Secret” which was published in 2006, and its material has garnered quite a bit of attention over the last decade. This “law” is based on the idea that the things we release as far as our hopes, dreams, goals, and most specifically our inner intentions go out into the universe where they will then be reflected back upon us with the things that we desire. The term most often used for this is “manifesting”, where someone releases an intention into the universe and “manifests” their will. While the concepts in it are usually applied to money or possessions, and are not new ideas even among the New Age where it is primarily marketed and targeted, it certainly can be confusing to a reader who feels like the information resonates in some way but isn’t sure how this “Law of Attraction” fits in with biblical principles. Let’s take a look at the answer to the question, “Is The Law of Attraction in the Bible?”

The simple answer is “No . . . and Yes.” So, really, not so simple after all.

The Law of Attraction as it is usually touted is based on the concept of a benevolent and intelligent Universe that keeps track of our thoughts and intentions and reflects them back upon us. Keep in mind that “universe” is always capitalized in this context because it is treated not as an inanimate existence, but a benevolent force with a mind of its own. In fact, this Universe sounds SO benevolent that it almost could be mistaken for God. And that’s really where it fails the Biblical sniff-test. This teaching takes the created universe and elevates it to the level of God, something that believers were warned about pretty clearly in Romans 1:18-23. The passage is actually pretty enlightening regarding this subject, so let’s read the whole thing then continue:

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.”

While the focus of the verse is on the wrath of God, let’s skip that part and look at the why of the wrath. It says that God has made His nature plain to everyone because of what? The creation. God’s creation displays His invisible qualities, such as His eternal power and divine nature. Furthermore, it goes on to explain that because this is all clearly visible in creation, everyone is without excuse.

Here’s where this connects with The Law of Attraction and “The Secret”: In verse 20 it says, “for since the creation of the world. . . ” That word for “world” isn’t actually the word world, but the Greek word “kosmos” (Strongs G2889), which is, unsurprisingly, the English word “cosmos.” Another word for the “cosmos” is the “universe.” If we read it with that in mind, it tells us that the Universe spoken of in the Law of Attraction is 1) a created thing and 2) that it points directly to God’s power and divinity, so we are without an excuse to deny His existence.

The New Age has taken the universe as a created entity and done what the rest of the passage speaks of—turned it into what is essentially an idol to worship. This is where the New Age concept of the Law of Attraction isn’t just not-biblical, but is actually fairly anti-christ in nature, putting the focus on created beings instead of the One True God.

There’s more to the story however, because as I said before, it is both unbiblical and biblical. Let’s look at the other side of the equation, but before we do that, let’s ask ourselves the question, “Why is the Law of Attraction so attractive?”

What makes this idea so attractive are actually two primary things:
1) It has a positive feeling connected to it.
2) It works.

If it was just that someone gets good feels related to the idea, that wouldn’t really be enough to keep people on board long-term, but the fact that it actually works is why this idea is propagated and is partly why people are, dare I say, attracted to the Law of Attraction. People like things that work and people tend to tell others about things they have tried that work. In other words, the Law of Attraction gets a lot of word-of-mouth advertising when people find it effective. Since that’s the case, let’s take a peek at what about it is scriptural, and how we can put that to use in our own lives.

There are two primary verses that can be used to explain the Law of Attraction in Scripture. The first is Luke 6:37-38 which says, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

It’s quite simple—what we put out, we get back, whether it is judgments, condemnation, forgiveness, or anything else at all. Furthermore, when we put it out, we get it back in a greater degree than we put it out, so there is a wisdom-nugget in there to be wise about what and how we act and think because “with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

The second passage that expresses this concept is Galatians 6:7-9 which states:

“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

This passage shows us another aspect of this Law—that really, the Law of Attraction is simply the Law of Sowing and Reaping by a different name. It makes a mockery of God to think we can sow without reaping, because whatever we sow, we are guaranteed to reap. Galatians 6 has two tidbits of wisdom for us as well in this regard. The first is to pay attention to what we sow, because everything either brings death or life with it in return. The second nugget of wisdom is that we must persevere in our sowing because while things do not always appear immediately, as long as we persist, we will receive our harvest. Hebrews 6:12 explains that concept by saying, “We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.” Faith and patience are primary keys to reaping what we have sown.

To answer the “Yes” side of “is the Law of Attraction biblical, it is literally just a repackaging of the Biblical principle of sowing and reaping. It says that whatever we put out, we will get back . . in good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over.

One key point to remember here is that our prayers, our thoughts, our words, and even our actions all play a role in sowing and reaping. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and intents of the heart.” The last part, thoughts and intents of the heart means exactly what it sounds like—the things we think and our intentions and expectations for things. That’s why Proverbs 23:7a says, “For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” The things we think, we become—sowing and reaping yet again.

There are other ways of expressing this concept, such as “what you behold, you become” but at the end of the day whether we call it “Beholding”, “the Law of Focus”, “the Law of Attraction”, “Sowing and Reaping”, or something else entirely, it is all just various ways of expressing the well-supported biblical concept that what we put out, we will receive back in like kind. Even Jesus taught on this subject. However, regardless of what one reads and what tools someone decides to use related to intention, manifestation, faith, and attraction, please let us always keep in mind that we aren’t sowing it out to a benevolent and sentient Universe, but a benevolent and sentient God who created that universe. And let us always remember what Psalm 37:4 says, which is that as we delight in Him, this benevolent and sentient God of the cosmos will give us the desires of our hearts.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_code]<script type=”text/javascript” src=”https://app.getresponse.com/view_webform_v2.js?u=B40ZB&webforms_id=6653905″></script>[/et_pb_code][et_pb_comments show_avatar=”on” show_reply=”on” show_count=”on” background_layout=”light” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_button=”off” button_letter_spacing=”0″ button_use_icon=”default” button_icon_placement=”right” button_on_hover=”on” button_letter_spacing_hover=”0″ /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

Can a Christian Have a Demon?

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ inner_width=”auto” inner_max_width=”none”][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.22.6″ text_font_size=”15px” text_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”text_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ text_text_shadow_vertical_length=”text_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ text_text_shadow_blur_strength=”text_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ link_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”link_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ link_text_shadow_vertical_length=”link_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ link_text_shadow_blur_strength=”link_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ ul_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”ul_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ ul_text_shadow_vertical_length=”ul_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ ul_text_shadow_blur_strength=”ul_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ ol_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”ol_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ ol_text_shadow_vertical_length=”ol_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ ol_text_shadow_blur_strength=”ol_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ quote_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”quote_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ quote_text_shadow_vertical_length=”quote_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ quote_text_shadow_blur_strength=”quote_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ header_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”header_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ header_text_shadow_vertical_length=”header_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ header_text_shadow_blur_strength=”header_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ header_2_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”header_2_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ header_2_text_shadow_vertical_length=”header_2_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ header_2_text_shadow_blur_strength=”header_2_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ header_3_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”header_3_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ header_3_text_shadow_vertical_length=”header_3_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ header_3_text_shadow_blur_strength=”header_3_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ header_4_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”header_4_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ header_4_text_shadow_vertical_length=”header_4_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ header_4_text_shadow_blur_strength=”header_4_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ header_5_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”header_5_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ header_5_text_shadow_vertical_length=”header_5_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ header_5_text_shadow_blur_strength=”header_5_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ header_6_text_shadow_horizontal_length=”header_6_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ header_6_text_shadow_vertical_length=”header_6_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ header_6_text_shadow_blur_strength=”header_6_text_shadow_style,%91object Object%93″ z_index_tablet=”500″]

This is a pretty common question that I hear people ask, and there are (unsurprisingly) two main answers: Yes and No. And in reality, there really are only two possible answers, although the different camps tend to break their beliefs down into further detail on the specifics. Before answering this question, I’m going to explain why it’s important to know whether a Christian can have a demon or not.

The answer to this question helps explain a number of significant things in the life of a believer. It helps assign blame appropriately when things go wrong in life. It helps us understand the root causes and influences of personal vices, sins, and ongoing life struggles. The answer helps us realize why we sometimes have difficulty overcoming in certain areas of our lives, while other areas we see great victory in. Most of all, the answer to this question helps us know how to walk in the freedom that Jesus Christ already purchased for us on the cross over two-thousand years ago.

The answer to the question is “Yes”. Yes, Christians can and do have demons. But that’s just the beginning. Not only can we have them, but we can have them influencing us in ways we never realized, and once we uncover their work and get rid of them, we can walk in levels of freedom, peace, and joy in Christ we never realized were possible. Many times we have been so used to demonic resistance in those areas that we just never realized there was something better to enjoy in God.

“But Michael, it says in the Bible that Christians can’t have demons!”

No, it actually doesn’t. People simply make assumptions based on what they wish were true and ignore the facts to arrive at that conclusion.

The most common verse people use to “prove” that a Christian cannot have a demon is from James 3:11, which states “Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?”. The idea is that “fresh water” which supposedly represents the Holy Spirit here, cannot coexist with “salt water” which supposedly is demons, and thus a Christian, who has the Holy Spirit indwelling him or her, cannot have demons. The problem with this verse is, well, the first problem is that salt water isn’t used anywhere in all of scripture to describe demons, so it’s basically making things up. The second problem with this verse is that the context is extremely clear, and it is very plainly obvious that this passage is not talking about demons. Let’s look at the passage a little deeper. By reading a larger section of James 3 and not just cherry-picking verse 11 out of context, it gives this passage a pretty obvious meaning. James 3:7-12 says:

“All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.”

The entire passage is about the tongue, and the terms “fresh water” and “salt water” here are referring to our words, not the Holy Spirit and demons. Furthermore, in verse 10 it says “my brothers and sisters, this should not be” It doesn’t say cannot be, meaning it is impossible, but rather that it currently happens but it would be a good thing for it to not happen. So even if we pretended this passage was about demons and not about how we use our words, the passage would prove to us that it is possible, not the other way around.

In Acts 8, Philip went to Samaria, and verse 7 tells us he healed many people and cast demons out. In verse 15, it tells us that many new converts had been baptized with water, but had not yet received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. From this, we can recognize that Philip was doing a few different things all at the same time. He was preaching and converting people, casting out demons, and healing the sick. If all he had to do to make the demons leave was convert people, which the passage shows us he was already doing, why bother casting out demons? Why not just skip that pointless step and convert everyone if indeed conversion brings total and complete removal of all demonic forces from the body and soul? Simple: Because as much as we all wish it did, that’s not how it works.

In reality, demons make people uncomfortable. The idea that there are non-visible evil entities that can live inside us and influence our thoughts and behaviors is kind of creepy. The idea that we have a special protector named Jesus who keeps all the bad things away is of great comfort to many. The problem is that they take this fact to the extreme and apply it in ways it was never meant to be applied and in situations where it doesn’t work that way. While Jesus does give us the power to oppose demonic forces, that fact doesn’t automatically eject ones that have already taken residence up within us, and people have a hard time swallowing that. Actually, most people avoid all involvement with the demonic as a whole, including casting them out of people. I attribute this largely to a combination of fear and ignorance.

Many are afraid of demons, so if they ignore them, they can feel like demons aren’t there. Others are simply ignorant of the workings of the enemy and simply don’t have a clue of what is going on in the unseen realms around them. Still others have no clue but don’t want to get a clue because remaining ignorant means they get to stay happy in their self-protected bubble of inaccuracy. Ignorance, however, is not part of the armor of God mentioned in Ephesians 6; on the other hand, the belt of Truth is.

If we want to lead fruitful and effective lives, throwing off “everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles (Hebrews 12:1b),” then we need to include casting out demons in the mix. This goes for Christians, not just unbelievers. Most of the people I have cast demons out of have been followers of Jesus for years, oftentimes a decade or more. And while the common party line of those who erroneously think Christians can’t have them is “Well, they must not have been really saved to begin with”, the fact is they’re just wrong and don’t want to admit it.

Some people find it easier to play a round of theologymnastics to try and make all life situations fit into their inaccurate belief system than it is to admit they are wrong and learn new things. That seems silly, fruitless, and extremely immature to me, so I don’t play that game. If I’m wrong about something, I might as well realize I lacked sufficient information before, then include new information to arrive at a better understanding of how creation actually works. There is nothing shameful or wrong about not knowing something, and we are all hopefully learning new things on an ongoing basis. What is shameful is ignoring the truth when it is presented in favor of further entrenching oneself deeper into ignorance.

Casting out demons may not be everyone’s preferential way to spend their time, but it is important to at least know what to do when demons decide to unexpectedly appear. As believers, the Bible says we have been given authority over unclean spirits to cast them out, and we need to both understand and walk in that authority, even if we do so infrequently. If you don’t know much about this practice, it’s time to learn because demons don’t stop their work just because you don’t know what to do when you discover a Christian has a demon.

Below are a series of articles I have written that may help you better understand how to deal with demons when they manifest in yourself or those around you:

http://www.thekingsofeden.com/2016/04/divine-healing-that-works-part-2/

http://www.thekingsofeden.com/2016/05/divine-healing-that-works-part-5/

http://www.thekingsofeden.com/2018/01/dont-fear-demons-make-demons-fear/

http://www.thekingsofeden.com/2015/08/the-influence-of-demons/

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_code]<script type=”text/javascript” src=”https://app.getresponse.com/view_webform_v2.js?u=B40ZB&webforms_id=6653905″></script>[/et_pb_code][et_pb_comments show_avatar=”on” show_reply=”on” show_count=”on” background_layout=”light” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_button=”off” button_letter_spacing=”0″ button_use_icon=”default” button_icon_placement=”right” button_on_hover=”on” button_letter_spacing_hover=”0″ /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

Recent Posts