Raising The Dead In The Hospital

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.21.4″ text_font_size=”15px” z_index_tablet=”500″]

Last year, I was contacted by a husband to pray over his wife who was very ill. When my wife and I arrived at the hospital, she had literally just passed away. Given her condition, they had already turned off monitoring equipment, so the husband made sure not to notify the hospital staff so that we would have time to pray together before anyone came in to do any post-mortem anything. In this situation, getting access to the wife’s body was easy because not only was the husband leading the charge, but no one else even knew about it at the time. Unfortunately, getting access to a body to pray over it and command life isn’t always that easy, especially in a hospital setting.

Another time, I got a call from a friend who let me know about a local family who wanted prayer to raise their child from the dead. They were still in the hospital, and weren’t sure how to go about getting access to their child’s body to have time with her to pray. I called the family, made a plan, and later that evening my wife and I visited and we all prayed together over the child for multiple hours. The staff were incredibly helpful, and made lots of room for us to do what we wanted to do without any pushback of any kind. So what did we do to get the staff on board and why were they so helpful to us? Great question.

We contacted the chaplains.

I honestly believe hospital chaplains can sometimes be the secret weapon to get done what we want done. And here’s why: Many chaplains, especially in cities, are “non-faith-specific” in that they are trained how to help people of any belief system or religious path engage their own beliefs during their hospital stay. While a chaplain has his or her own beliefs, the goal of a chaplain is usually to support the patient and their family in their process, not push the chaplain’s beliefs onto them. Knowing this, we just got the chaplains to help us walk out our beliefs. Chaplains basically have to give equal value to all spiritual paths, yours is just as valid as anyone else’s. Therefore, they will usually go to bat for you. In this case they did, and four of us had multiple hours of time alone with the child. Sure, things could get weird if we told them we’re having a good old-fashioned dead-raising, so we went with a simpler tact that anyone can use.

If ever you are in a situation where you don’t know how to get the hospital to bring the body back to you (as a family member), tell them this: “As part of our religious beliefs, a minister will be coming to the hospital, and we would like to have time to pray together in the presence of our deceased loved one.” If you are the minister, just change the script slightly, but the underlying concept is the same. If no minister is coming, again, just change it slightly. Regardless, the key point is that being in the presence of the body and having time to pray is an important part of your spiritual path. Honestly, using the terms “our spiritual path” or “our religious beliefs” are like trumps cards in hospitals that makes people do what you want even if they strongly disagree with you.

At the end of the day, the goal of praying to raise the dead is to release the life of Jesus Christ. Even if we die, it isn’t too late. The entire message of the gospel revolves around the pivotal point that God raises the dead, as if Jesus wasn’t raised, no one else can be either, but because He was raised, we can be too. Don’t ever let a life situation, and especially not hospital staff, stand in the way of doing what Jesus commanded us to do in raising the dead.

If you need a quick reference guide on what to do to raise the dead as well as how things work in the United States (and probably most first world countries), pick up a copy of my book Practical Keys to Raise the Dead. If you want a more in-depth understanding of the subject of resurrection as a whole, pick up a copy of my book Faith To Raise The Dead, or my friend Tyler Johnson’s book How To Raise The Dead. If you want to host a School of Resurrection to bring this teaching to your church or ministry contact Tyler Johnson at OneGlance Ministries to schedule one in your area.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_code _builder_version=”3.18.9″][/et_pb_code][et_pb_comments _builder_version=”3.18.9″ /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

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

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.18.9″]

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

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

1) The Superbowl and Sex Trafficking

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

2) The Safety and Effectiveness of the President

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_code _builder_version=”3.18.9″][/et_pb_code][et_pb_comments _builder_version=”3.18.9″ /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

Sowing And Reaping To Raise The Dead

[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” text_font_size=”16″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]

A few months ago I spoke at a church in Maryland about faith, spiritual laws, and miracles, and one of the examples I gave about the law of sowing and reaping was related to raising the dead. If anyone could have heard my thoughts as I was speaking, they might have laughed. I was explaining to the congregation (along with it being interpreted into French sentence-by-sentence) how I am passionate about the abundant life of Jesus Christ, as well as His power and subsequent command to us to raise the dead. I explained how on infrequent occasion will pick up fresh roadkill to “practice” praying for the dead to be raised, and as I was sharing this, I realized that I probably sounded very silly and maybe should have picked a better, more acceptable illustration to explain the law of sowing and reaping. As I thought about it later, however, I decided that while another illustration might make the idea more readily accepted by others, the truth is that the only reason I pray for roadkill is to become more proficient at raising the dead.

Some of you readers might also find this somewhat strange, but let’s be honest, I only do it because it works.

But wait Michael, you haven’t raised the dead yet, so how can you say it works?

Simple: The Bible says it quite clearly, and it is a spiritual principle that is actively and visibly functioning in all creation, so it is impossible to deny its success. Galatians 6:7-9 says:

“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 is possibly the most clear of all the passages on sowing and reaping in scripture, as it quite succinctly explains how it functions. From this, we can see three keys to the law:

1. It makes a mockery of God to think we can sow and not reap, as it is a spiritual law inherent in creation.
2. Our sowing and reaping will bring either death or life
3. If we do not give up, we will reap a harvest sooner or later

This past week or so has been a bit emotionally trying for me, as I have spent some of my time praying to raise a 27-week gestation premature baby from the dead. I never quite realized how traumatic that could be. Don’t get me wrong. I get upset and have to fight internally to keep myself out of a place of grief any time I pray to raise the dead, but this one was different somehow. I think part of it was that I could see how much pain and suffering this death was causing the family, and I recognized that this precious little baby had a long future ahead of her that was just stolen. All in all, the situation was rough but we continue to pray and believe for this life to be returned to this small child.

In this process though, I really had to look inside and ask myself “Why do I do this?” I mean, think about it. As one of the Portland Leads for the Dead Raising Teams, I get contacted occasionally to pray to raise the dead for total strangers. Why do I willingly subject myself to adding other people’s emotional pain onto my own when I don’t have to? I spent some time this past week thinking about this, and what I settled on is basically how I began this blog post:

I am passionate about the abundant life of Jesus Christ.

In fact, I am so passionate about it that at times I go out of my way to enact spiritual principles such as the law of sowing and reaping found in scripture to accelerate the process by which I apprehend living out of that reality—one where I don’t just give lip service to believing that Jesus raises the dead today, but where it actually happens when I pray for them. Some people may find this strange, but the truth is that when things go south, everyone wishes they knew someone who operated in miracles. I personally don’t believe we as Christians have the luxury to hope we know someone else who can get the job done. We owe it to ourselves and those around us to walk in the miraculous at a level such that if someone dies (or any other problem rears its ugly head), that when we show up, so does Jesus and His abundant life to reverse the situation.

I never want to have another encounter with a mother where I hold her lifeless child and fail to release the life of Christ in the situation. I won’t shrink back, mind you, but I never want to have to share in that kind of pain again unless it is just long enough to wipe it away by the resurrection power of Jesus. Sowing and reaping is, I think, one of the most basic but also most overlooked keys God has given us to walk in everything He has commanded us to do.

I talk about this more in my book Faith To Raise The Dead, along with many other subjects including faith, authority, God’s will to raise the dead, and a host of other practical things that come up in this process. The book covers common questions related to raising the dead, as well as give a glimpse of where God wants to move us as the Body of Christ in this area. If you have ever had thoughts about this subject and haven’t quite known how to proceed, I encourage you to get this book, dig into all of the scriptural teaching found within, and see where God decides to take you.

If you want to get more involved in stepping out in faith to raise the dead consider doing any or all of the following six steps:

1. Sign up for our Raise the Dead Initiative mailing list here to receive updates and connect further.

2. Get some books. I have written two books on the subject: Practical Keys to Raise the Dead and Faith to Raise the Dead. Practical Keys is a series of excerpts from Faith To Raise The Dead, all of which give practical advice for when you are actively praying to raise someone at that time. Faith To Raise The Dead goes more into theology, but has a chapter devoted to resurrection testimonies, an appendix in the back of faith-building scriptures to help you pray for the deceased to return to life, and I answer a lot of common and even difficult questions surrounding the subject.

Tyler Johnson, founder of the Dead Raising Team has written multiple books on the subject as well: How to Raise the Dead and The Dead Are Raised. Be sure to check out Father Hebert’s encouraging book Saints Who Raised The Dead for pages upon pages of uplifting testimonies about saints in history who have raised the dead in Jesus’ name.

3. Join the Raise the Dead Initiative on Facebook. The Raise the Dead Initiative is a group I started to help the Body of Christ grow in this area, and I will eventually develop an RDI teaching curriculum to train believers to pray for and raise the dead. You may also be interested in The Dead Raising Team (DRT) and Dead Raising Campaign Facebook groups.

4. Look at how you can host or attend a School of Resurrection in your area. Contact Tyler Johnson via his website at http://www.oneglance.org/ to arrange the event. Tyler is an awesome man of God and good friend who regularly teaches Schools of Resurrection to help transform our understanding on the subject of resurrection life. He has Dead Raising Teams around the world who are ready to mobilize in their area to release the abundant life of Jesus Christ. You can also head over to Gumroad to buy and download a complete Resurrection School Audio Series.

5. Watch/listen to David Hogan’s YouTube Series on the subject of Raising the Dead: Session 1 — Session 2 — Session 3 — Session 4

6. Pray for and actively engage opportunities to raise the dead in your area by reaching out to friends when you hear that someone has passed away.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_code admin_label=”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 admin_label=”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]

Testing Your Healing

I greatly value divine healing. Jesus died to heal every single sickness, disease, pain, infirmity, and problem in our bodies, so it is important that we can live and experience that work He already purchased for us 2000 years ago. There are a variety of hindrances that can slow down the process of receiving divine healing, and ways we can work with them to accelerate our healing, which I discuss in a blog series titled Divine Healing That Works, which I eventually plan to turn into a book. Nevertheless, I believe it is important to not only know how to pray for healing, but how see results in the moment, and you can do this by testing your healing.

I should clarify before going further that healing in scripture, or at least in the New Testament, tends to refer to a gradual process of ongoing healing. Because of this, some people refer to instantaneous healings as miracles, but in either case it involves the body getting fixed, so is related to the subject of healing. In reality, most healing is gradual, but gradual may simply be over the span of five minutes, not five weeks or five years. As a result, testing our healing can be a vital part of the process of actually receiving the healing.

Many years ago I was a member of a Charismatic Church in State College, Pennsylvania, and one Sunday I came up to the front of the sanctuary for an altar call for healing, as I wore glasses and wanted my eyes healed. A good friend prayed for me multiple times, and he had me look at the clock at the back of the room to test it out. The first number of times there was no change, but as we continued to pray, persisting in prayer, my eyes began to gradually get better. While they didn’t get completely healed that day, they did continue to improve for a period of time, to the point that legally I don’t need glasses to drive anymore, when I did prior.

A key part of that healing process, however, was testing out the healing. After all, if you are expecting something to be fixed, how do you actually know it is fixed if you don’t try it out? Certainly in the case of obvious issues like a visible injury testing wouldn’t be required, but most healing cannot be identified simply by appearance, which is where testing comes in. Part of why this helps so much in apprehending divine healing is that testing it out actually engages faith. Until an injury is tested, it is essentially a theoretical healing, that much like the conundrum of Schroedinger’s cat, may or may not exist. Once you test it out, you can identify clearly whether you are or are not healed, and quite often people find they are indeed healed upon challenging the injury.

Testing accomplishes a few different things, actually. First, it helps diagnose the situation. Is the injury getting better, worse, or the same? If worse, then it’s probably a demon and I need to cast it out. If better, then God is healing them at that moment and I need to continue to pray and partner to complete the healing. If nothing changes, then we need to pray to make it change.

Second, as mentioned before, testing the issue releases faith. Multiple places in the New Testament we observe that it was when someone responded to the prayer of faith that their maladies were healed. When we test it out, we are responding in faith, and the faith manifests the healing.

Third, testing the injury distracts the person receiving prayer. This may sound strange, but it is incredibly helpful. When someone is very focused on their problem, especially if it causes them pain, it is hard to get them to stop paying attention to their pain long enough to actually let it be healed and no longer painful. When I distract them, that is oftentimes the moment when the healing manifests, and testing the injury is a fantastic way to get their focus off their pain. It sounds strange to say that testing an injury takes their mind off of it, but it’s more that it shifts what they are focusing on. Before challenging it, they are paying attention to the problem, whereas when testing it, they are now mentally looking for a solution. While it will still surprise (and often shock) people when they discover they are in fact healed, the moment of testing makes them shift their thinking. Sometimes, such as with a headache, I will have the person rate their pain from 0-10, I’ll pray, then have them turn their head side to side, and then I will ask them to rate their pain again. The turning-the-head part honestly is just to distract them long enough for the healing to manifest, and it gives them an action to do in the meantime. There is nothing special about turning your head side to side to get rid of a headache. I just do it to make them shift their thinking, and when they re-evaluate, oftentimes it is either partway or entirely better.

Testing your healing sounds silly to the natural mind, but it incorporates practical, biblically sound spiritual principles that can be used time and time again to help encourage divine healing to manifest. If you have difficulty getting results when praying for the sick, or if you want to take your healing ministry to the next level and aren’t already doing this, get people to test their healing where possible, and I honestly expect you will find that a larger percentage of people will walk away healed by the power and blood of Jesus Christ.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_code admin_label=”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 admin_label=”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]

The Power of Renunciation

[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]

The past few months have kept me pretty busy, but one of the things the Lord has been highlighting to me is what I refer to as transformation ministry—what most people call inner healing and deliverance. I have been doing a good bit of work of late both with myself and family members in this area, and am seeing the fruit at work. It is incredibly empowering, as it reveals to me more and more about the level of power and authority we have been given in Christ Jesus. One of the things I have made frequent use of during this process is the power of renunciation.

According to Dictionary.com, the word renounce means to give up or put aside voluntarily, often by formal declaration, or to disown. Any time we renounce something during a prayer session, we are making a clear statement about what is part of us and our lives, and what we have no involvement with. There is something about renunciation that creates a dividing line separating us from what the enemy wants to do in our lives. As we disavow things of darkness, whether overt or covert, it breaks the access the enemy has on our lives. 2 Corinthians 6:14-17 puts it this way:

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

“I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

This means it is no longer a “we”, but an ‘I” and “them”. As we renounce things, and our involvement with them, we are literally making ourselves holy and set apart unto God in that area of our lives. As we do this, even as the above verses suggest, it makes room for God to enter that part of our lives in a new way.

In a previous blog article, I discussed The Mechanism of A Vow, which touches on similar subjects, but renouncing things works based on spiritual rules. The things we choose to engage create openness for spiritual entities to engage us in return—what I call the Law of Focus, seen clearly in James 4:8a, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” When we renounce things, we give it anti-focus, pushing it away from us in the spirit.

Almost anything can be renounced, and it is a fairly helpful and commonly used tool in my inner healing and deliverance toolkit. Some examples include: negative emotions, erroneous beliefs, books, activities, movies, video games, organizations, vows, and more. Certainly not every book, movie, video game, or organization is bad, but some of them are. Sometimes, it’s not even that the thing itself is bad, but how we have internalized it due to our belief system is unhealthy. A good analogy of what this does is that these things can open doors in the spirit, and the enemy wants to use them to bring darkness into our lives. When we renounce them we close those doors and remove the enemy’s access to those areas of our lives.

Practically speaking, let’s say that someone has been playing and enjoying a video game that the Lord has been showing you is unhealthy. Don’t misunderstand–I’m not saying all video games are bad. I have written a book called The Gamer’s Guide to the Kingdom of God specifically using MMORPG games as a backdrop for understanding how the supernatural realms of God function. I’m not anti-video-game. However, not all video games are wholesome either. If the Lord is showing you that it is time to put that game down due to its spiritual influence, you might pray the following prayer or similar:

“In the name of Jesus I renounce [name the video game] and all of my involvement in it. I apply the blood of Jesus to that area of my mind and soul, and ask that you wash it clean with the water of Life. In its place, I ask for you to fill me with the Holy Spirit.”

This is a super simple prayer that can be used for many different things. It is one example, but renunciation prayer needs to cover three imperative parts in a specific order:

1. Breaking agreement with the old (ie. renouncing)
2. Removing the negative
3. Replacing it with positive

As we progress on our individual inner healing journeys, I highly encourage everyone to not just memorize specific prayers, but to understand the principles behind them, such as those shared here. The above prayer is simple and can be used and remastered for most situations, but when we understand the three parts of a renunciation prayer, even if we forget my example prayer, we can simply make up our own on the spot. Regardless of whether we use a script or devise our own wording, the underlying principles are very effective. Renunciation is powerful, and is a simple way to wreak havoc on the enemy’s involvement in our lives, setting us free to enjoy all that God has for us.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_code admin_label=”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 admin_label=”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]

Stewarding The Prophetic Gift

Years ago, when I was first introduced to the Charismatic Renewal and the prophetic as a whole, I lived in State College, Pennsylvania. I don’t recall when or where, but I met a woman who was highly prophetic, and gave her a ride to our church a few times. She was very friendly and outgoing, and told me about all these very specific prophecies over her life. It all sounded very exciting, and there was definitely supernatural activity surrounding her life, but I would be surprised if many of them came to pass, and for one reason: She wasn’t very good at stewarding the prophetic gift.

Prophecies as a whole are usually conditional. Most of the time they are an invitation to encounter and engage God in various areas of our lives. I have heard it say that if someone receives a prophetic word from different people more than three times it is a “done deal” and is guaranteed to happen, but I can’t say for sure whether that is true or not. Nevertheless, most prophecies are meant to help draw us into God’s plans for our lives, not encourage us to sit on our laurels and wait for God to dump the prophesied future upon us. And this is where this woman went wrong—she didn’t do the things she needed to do to walk them out.

Let me give you an example: she once had a dream where angels were lined up in a row holding number cards, much like the judges in the Olympics hold to score events. She understood in the dream that this series of numbers were lottery numbers. So what did she do? She called me and left a voice message that said “I had this dream two nights ago and didn’t buy a ticket yesterday, and those were the lottery numbers. Pray and release the angels to do it again today!”

Umm, no. You had the dream two nights ago and watched as those exact numbers become the actual lottery numbers yesterday night, and instead of recognizing that you didn’t follow through on God’s instructions, you are just hoping to have someone else agree with you in prayer and have those exact same numbers come up again tonight. Sure, God is able to do it, but it isn’t going to happen. That’s what we call a window of opportunity, and even though I was fairly young in the prophetic, even I could tell that she had missed it. I confess I was also disappointed she hadn’t called me a day sooner, because I would most definitely have bought a ticket. . .

She isn’t the only one I have ever heard having something similar happen. When I was a kid, my parents had some friends who had a similar encounter, and I still remember this story over 25 years later. The Lord spoke to one of them and gave them a lottery number to play. They didn’t buy a ticket, and unsurprisingly, they didn’t win. Their takeaway? You can’t win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket. Simple, right? While I am not specifically advocating for or against the lottery, if the Lord gives you an instruction, especially if it isn’t going to hurt anyone, then just do it! In both of these cases, the risk of buying a single ticket is so minimal that even if you heard wrong and failed, you aren’t out more than the price of a cup of specialty coffee. Furthermore, what if you took that small risk and did hear correctly? Consider the potential future impact that would have had on not only your life, but the lives of those around you.

If we are interested in stewarding the prophetic gift, we have to step out and take risks now and again. If we want to see God move, then we have to walk out the things He has told us and put action to our beliefs. When I talk about “doing things to walk it out”, some people say “Jesus did it all, so we just need to rest in the victory.” Yes, the Bible does talk about entering into God’s rest, but that doesn’t mean we sit around all the time and do literally nothing. Jesus, of all people, knew how to rest in the Father, but the Bible tells us that He went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil (Acts 10:38). Sure, we need to live in God’s rest, but if God gives us specific instructions, it would be prudent to do what we see our Heavenly Father doing (John 5:19).

I have heard people tell me these amazing prophetic words they have received that speak of them having huge businesses or big ministries far larger than most around today. And when I ask them what they are doing to walk it out, they give me a funny look. “I’m just waiting on the Lord.”

That’s not how this usually works.

In all honesty, God is probably waiting on you. Yes, there are times where God will give someone specific instructions about remaining in rest or some such thing, but I think that is often more about a heart posture as we walk things out than it is about doing literally nothing. I can’t tell you the number of meaningful words I have received from high-profile people, because it seems to happen to me a lot, but I don’t just sit there and wait for them to come to pass. I look at how I can walk them out practically.

Just this past week my wife and I were called out in a service with a very detailed and specific word of knowledge. With that came a very detailed and specific prophetic word that covered a series of things, one of them being that God had a bigger house for us. Not a new house, although it would be new to us, but specifically a bigger house. This prophet didn’t know that my wife and I have been working on getting our house ready to sell and are looking to buy a bigger house. We had some things that held us up, and more recently have just held off on listing the property. After we received this prophecy, we contacted our realtor and signed paperwork the next day to put it on the market. That’s what’s known as “responding in faith.”

At some point it doesn’t matter what it is that God says. If we want to steward the prophetic gift, or any prophetic word we receive as a whole, it will require obedience, and that obedience usually requires some sort of action. Unlike how the woman in the first story seemed to think, when God gives us instructions there are often timetables associated with them. At times we don’t know the timetable, but with something like her dream, it was pretty clear, and she failed to do one simple thing which would have had massive ripple effects in her life. We already felt the Lord leading us to get a new property, but had stalled out. When we received instructions from God, the only thing left to do was act on them.

If you have received prophetic words that still have not come to pass, I encourage you to spend some time talking to God about them. What are some practical steps you can take to walk them out? How can you partner with God to move them forward? Stewarding the prophetic gift isn’t, in my opinion, just about how to prophesy over others, but also how to walk out the words we have received. After all, if we are faithful with little, the Bible does say that we will receive more (Matthew 25:23, Luke 16:10).

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_code admin_label=”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 admin_label=”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]

The Two Basic Steps to Understanding Our Dreams

Dreams are one of those things that “everybody” has. Now, some of you reading this might say “I don’t dream”. Scientifically speaking, everyone enters REM sleep and dreams, but many people don’t remember their dreams. Regardless of whether one remembers or not, God speaks to all of us in our dreams. They are usually about us and our lives, and can be warnings, instruction, informative or revelatory, reflection, and more, and not all dreams come from God. Certain medications can influence our dreams, as can demonic powers and the prayers of other people, whether blessings curses. Some people dream in color, while others dream in black and white. Many times people have short dreams while others have long and detailed dreams with multiple parts or acts to them. While types of dreams clearly vary, what we are going to look at today is the two basic steps to understanding our dreams.

Dreams accomplish many different things, as shared above, but a key comes out of Job 33:15-18. It says:

“For God does speak—now one way, now another—though no one perceives it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds, he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, to turn them from wrongdoing and keep them from pride, to preserve them from the pit, their lives from perishing by the sword.”

While the verse focuses on warnings, the key I want to focus on is that God speaks to us in dreams to guide us. If we understand that God communicates with us regularly when we are asleep, we can glean Heaven’s wisdom for our lives here and now even when we aren’t spending time in prayer and listening to the Lord for instruction. For example, I recently had a dream where a friend was telling me about a project he was working on. In real life he isn’t currently, to the best of my knowledge, actually working on the aspect of this project we discussed in my dream, but it touches on some things he is already doing, and this dream seems to provide him with insight on a direction God wants to take the project in the future. While most dreams are about the dreamer, this dream was about him, not me, (evident by the content of the conversation) and provided divine guidance for the future.

Dreams offer prophetic guidance for us in our daily lives, but we can’t take advantage of that guidance if we don’t do two things: write them down and interpret them. The reason we have to write them down is that for whatever reason, dreams can be easy to forget. Sometimes I will wake up in the morning with a dream that was so vivid I am convinced I will remember it later. . . only to forget the entire dream. The worst part is that I know that if I had written the dream down then (or recorded myself speaking the details), I would have it, but because I waited, it is lost. I had this happen last week. I had two dreams, and both of them seemed significant to me. I was sure that I would remember them, so didn’t write them down. I promptly forgot the one, and then because I’m so awesome, I even waited a week to write down the second dream, losing a number of details on that one as well.

I’ll be honest, it’s actually quite difficult to interpret dreams I have completely forgotten, so my best advice is to make sure to record your dreams in some way very soon after you wake up. Some people use their phone to record, some people keep a journal right at their bedside. I usually use the notepad function on my phone to write down the date and a summary and any relevant notes about the dream and flesh out the details later. It works fairly well for me. Then, I eventually put them all into a single Word document by date. If I ever want to look up keywords, I can just use the find function and search for any keywords from as far back as the journal goes.

Interpreting dreams is the second step to getting useful information from them. What is so difficult is that they are frequently hard to interpret. My dreams are often long and detailed, and while individual items in a dream usually hold meaning, it is possible to get what a friend calls “analysis paralysis”, where I get tied up in the details such that it becomes hard to see the bigger picture. I usually have to write down the dream, then write down a much shorter summary of the dream, cutting out as many minor details as possible. Once I get a general overview of the dream, I can often figure out what it is about. Once I understand the overall subject of the dream, then I can flesh out the details once more. This doesn’t always work for me, but it is one of the two things I do to interpret my dreams. The other thing I do is ask Holy Spirit.

The Bible says in Ephesians 2 that He is the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation. Isaiah 11 says He is the Spirit of Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, and Knowledge. The Holy Spirit knows everything we need to help interpret our dreams, so asking Him for help is a good idea. Sometimes He will give me one or two piece of the puzzle that helps me put things together and figure it out. On rare occasion, He will explain the whole dream to me. Other times I don’t really get any understanding at all, so if I don’t feel that those dreams are poignant or significant, I just don’t worry about it. On occasion, I will ask a friend for help, as sometimes it is easier to interpret other people’s dreams than our own, but I try to keep that to a minimum as we all have dreams and it’s not someone else’s job to interpret mine.

Dreams as a whole are rarely as clear and obvious as the one I had about my friend and his project. They usually have a lot of imagery and symbolism that clouds our understanding, so we have to bust out our best codebreaker abilities and figure it out. Sometimes God will use a play on words to show us something. Once I dreamed about raising the dead on a train. In praying about the meaning, the Holy Spirit showed me that the train represented training—providing a vehicle to learn something. That might not have been apparent at first, but that one hint from Holy Spirit put the whole dream into perspective, and that was all it took for me to work out the rest of the details. In fact, a few months later I had some follow-up dreams to this one that provided further guidance on how to go about that training process.

In the end, learning to interpret dreams can be very helpful, and it is a good way to get revelation from God on an ongoing basis. Some people take a dream interpretation class or training of some kind, and this can be helpful. Well-done Christian dream interpretation training will help provide an overall framework for learning to interpret dreams, but even those classes have limits. Dream interpretation books, in my mind, are the same. They can possibly provide a little help if you are stuck on a particular dream symbol, but you usually need to understand more of the dream before a symbol dictionary can help. In the end, nothing is a substitute for one-on-one communication with Holy Spirit. When we talk to God about our dreams, He will help us.

If you don’t think you dream and want to start remembering them, already dream and want to dream more and remember them better, or dream and remember but want to get better about interpreting them, then pray the following prayer and then start putting your faith into action. Record your dreams and practice praying over them and interpreting them. As you are faithful with what you are given, God will give you more!

Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, I ask that you would speak to me during my sleep. I ask that you would increase my dreams and help me remember them. I ask that you would give me wisdom like you did Solomon, and understanding like you did Daniel. I ask this all in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Interpreting Prophetic Revelation: Oven Encounters

[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]

Since discovering that prophets and the prophetic are alive and well today, and that God still speaks clearly to his people through dreams, visions, the small inner voice, and more, I have had two separate encounters with ovens that highlight the importance of not just receive revelation, but rightly interpreting it.

Years ago, I was a volunteer assistant for our church’s campus ministry at Penn State. During our annual student retreat, I went to the campground half a day early to set a few things up and spend a number of hours in prayer prior to the weekend. Sometime during the time of prayer I put a music CD on and spent time soaking in the presence of the Lord. During this time, I had the strangest experience—my right hand twitched in a very peculiar fashion as if I was turning a knob or dial on something, and simultaneously I had a vision of an oven dial. Not sure what it meant, I assumed I was to pray for God to “turn up the heat” in the spirit.

That evening, when it was time for dinner, we discovered the oven was broken and was taking forever to heat up. Thus, it took hours longer than expected to cook the frozen lasagna planned for the meal. Had I turned the oven on when I received the vision and the hand movement, it would have sufficiently preheated to avoid the problem. Instead of rightly discerning the prophetic encounter, I took revelation that was sent by God to solve a practical problem and misinterpreted it as guidance on how to pray for the event.

More recently I had a second encounter with an oven, written about in more depth on my blog post titled When God Didn’t Tell Me About The Fire. In this instance, God didn’t tell me a single thing about the problem with the oven-fire that was starting, but instead spoke in that still, small voice about being a good steward and returning a staff badge to our ministry storage area. As a result of obedience, I smelled a fire in its early stages and was able to put it out before it burned a church down.

This is an example of following the clear directions God gave me and as a result of being led and guided by Him, being in the right place and time to avert a potentially serious problem. This time it wasn’t particularly hard to discern the revelation itself, but the instructions that came by divine revelation were designed to put me in the right place at the right time for an entirely different issue than that which was revealed.

In the first oven encounter, I misunderstood and misinterpreted what God was doing and missed out on blessing an entire group of people with a timely dinner and low-stress meal preparation. In the second oven encounter, because I rightly discerned not just the initial word, but followed through on where it led me, I was able to fulfill everything God had planned when he first gave the revelation.

Prophecy and the realm of spiritual revelation as a whole is more than just receiving revelation. We need to receive it, interpret it correctly, as I failed to do the first time, and then choose the appropriate action. Moses and Jonah are perfect examples of hearing and interpreting a revelation correctly, but choosing the wrong action. Moses was told to speak to a rock but struck it out of his own personal anger, which demonstrated to the people of Israel that God was angry with them when He wasn’t. Jonah was sent by God to preach to Nineveh so they would repent for their evil ways, but instead, out of his own hatred he went around announcing their imminent destruction. God still managed to work things out in both cases, but His heart was not displayed properly in either case.

The fact is that we all will make mistakes as we learn to hear God, receive revelation, and practice spiritual gifts. We are all going to miss it from time to time, and that is okay—its part of the growth process. Nevertheless, we must understand that receiving revelation is just the beginning, and that we have a responsibility to properly steward every stage of the process, whether revelation, interpretation, or action.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_code admin_label=”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 admin_label=”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]

The Validity Of Witnesses

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” _builder_version=”3.22″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” _builder_version=”3.25″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” _builder_version=”4.10.8″ text_font_size=”16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” hover_enabled=”0″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]

I had a private discussion recently with another believer, and the nature of the discussion had to do with the scriptural validity of immortality through Jesus Christ. The other person’s underlying question was essentially “if we were supposed to live forever, then wouldn’t someone already be doing it?” There are a number of problems with this question, but one in particular deals with the validity of witnesses.

A common question, or rather objection, I hear about immortality is “who do you know who has done it?” Well, I suppose that depends on what you are actually asking. Are you actually asking do I know someone personally because if I did personally know them then you would believe? Because if I were completely honest, I don’t think that’s what people are asking at all. I think what they are really saying is a statement that sounds like a question, and the statement would be something like “It’s not actually possible, or it would be common, and you and I and everyone else would know people doing it and see it happen, so I’m simply going to ask you to show me the physical proof and when you aren’t able to, we can accept that I am correct in saying it isn’t possible.”

I remember once, years ago, when I was discussing the spiritual gift of praying in tongues. The person I spoke with was a cessationist (who believes that ended a long time ago), and he basically asked the question “do you know anyone who does it?” I answered in the affirmative, because while I didn’t at the time, I knew other people who did. Well, unsurprisingly his answer was “well, that can’t be, it must be through a demonic spirit.” He asked for witnesses, I informed him that I had witnesses, and he immediately invalidated their testimony. What good is asking for a witness if you decide that anything he or she says has no validity? The entire point of a witness is for them to share what they saw and heard. If you don’t like what they saw and heard, it doesn’t alter its validity—it just makes you close-minded.

I recall Jesus telling a parable that touched on this very thing. The story was about a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus. The rich man ignored the teachings of Moses and the Prophets, and ended up in a place of torment. In his request to have Lazarus go warn his family, the reply was, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” (Luke 16:31).

At some point in time we have to decide whether we are going to accept the testimony of the witnesses given us. We actually have multiple witnesses of this very reality, that we can live and not die, but whether we will accept them or not remains to be seen.

Consider this: The Bible states quite clearly that both Enoch and Elijah did not die. Jesus died, but then came back to life, then after that proceeded to ascended to heaven still very-alive much like Elijah did. These three witnesses alone should be sufficient to say “this is possible.” If it is possible for some, then, it is possible . James 5:17 says, “Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.” While it might be far-fetched for some to accept that anyone can attain immortality, ascending to heaven without dying, if Elijah did it and the Scriptures are clear he was just like you or me, then we don’t have any excuses to keep us from accepting the possibility that we could as well.

Furthermore, there are others throughout history as well. Possibly the most well-documented is that of the Maharishi of Mt. Kailash, a hermit who Sadhu Sundar Singh met sometime in the early 1900s; this man spent his time interceding for the world. This man claimed to have been baptized by the nephew of Francis Xavier, a Catholic missionary who lived from 1506 to 1562 (Citation goes here). In other words, using insanely conservative math the man was at least 340 years old, and in reality was probably around 400 years of age. Either we believe the man who spoke to Sundar, or we don’t. Keep in mind that this man was a hermit who lived in the middle of a mountain and had no interest in contact with most of humanity. He gained nothing whether he lied or spoke the truth. This man referenced others who also were hermits on Kailash as well, although I don’t believe the Sadhu ever met any of them (As a side note, Sundar was born in 1889 and was presumed to have died in in 1929, but that remains unconfirmed as no one ever actually saw his dead body, and considering he personally knew an immortal . . . ). I once heard a story by a well-known charismatic preacher who was translocated by the Lord and met a Native American man who was over 200 years old. I have heard other stories as well, but again, it all comes down to the validity of witnesses. Are we willing to accept their testimony in spite of its rarity, or do we reject it because it isn’t common?

At the end of the day, isn’t that really what is on trial—whether or not God will do uncommon things? The way I see it, if the Bible tells us something is in the promises of God for us, it doesn’t matter if it is a common experience or not. We are promised spiritual gifts, divine healing, raising the dead, and much more, but there are many who have never heard anyone pray in tongues, never experienced divine healing, and have never seen nor known anyone who was raised from the dead. While some might dispute the validity of tongues for today, it is unarguable that divine healing and raising the dead are scriptural and are for us today.

In reality, the question we have to ask ourselves is “Am I going to let someone else’s experiences limit and dictate my encounters with God?” Whether someone else is successful or not at living forever has literally nothing to do with:

1) Whether God has promised it for us
2) Whether God has prepared it for us
3) Whether the Bible supports this belief and
4) Whether I can access it through Jesus Christ.

It doesn’t matter if we don’t see it now, nor if we look foolish going after it. 1 Corinthians 1:27 says, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” Looking foolish for pursuing the gospel is frustrating at times, but not enough to stop me from going after everything God has for me. I don’t personally let anyone else’s success or failure dictate what I can experience in God—and neither should you! That’s the part where we walk by faith and not by sight. But here’s the cool thing: as we continue to walk in faith that “these signs will follow those who believe” and the evidence will eventually be there.

I discuss this and related topics in detail in my book “The Gospel of Life and Immortality,” available on both Kindle and in Print on Amazon.

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_code admin_label=”Code” global_colors_info=”{}”][/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″ global_colors_info=”{}” 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]

Define Your Vision – Bring Your Future Into Your Present

A few weeks ago I spent a little time praying about the direction God is taking my wife and me regarding our ministry and another health-related business we are building. I have been feeling a bit lost of late, not sure how to proceed in any direction, in spite of having a list of items I could accomplish, all of which would “get something done.” Somehow, this hasn’t felt like what I needed, so I took a short walk and began to talk to God about it. As I walked past a bush on a path, the Holy Spirit highlighted it to me, and he said to me, “Define Your Vision.”

As I looked at this bush, Holy Spirit spoke to me—not just in clear words, but through an inner knowing in my heart what the message was, and the message was this:
“That bush has tiny little buds all over it, that will grow into branches, with their own buds and branches and so on. The seed doesn’t know exactly what is going to happen every step of the way, but that doesn’t matter. The seed contains within itself the blueprint for the entire bush and its growth process, regardless of what happens. I want you to define your vision, your mission, to be like the seed. Define the DNA of what you are doing and where you are going. Define your vision, your end-product, from the beginning—as you grow the vision will guide you on your path.”

Interestingly, this word the Lord spoke to me is similar to something He shared with the prophet Habakkuk in Habakkuk 2:2-3, saying:
“Then the Lord replied:
“Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that he who reads it may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it lingers, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.”

There is something that happens when you define your vision—it creates a clear path. This may be part of why I have felt a little unclear of late as to where we are headed and where we are growing to. I do see God growing The Kings of Eden, and I am excited with where I see us going to this point, but how long can a visionless, planless thing sustain itself? Not far. I used to think company mission statements were stupid. Typically they are incredibly broad and vague, not offering specific ideas or concepts. Over the past few years, I have realized that a mission statement is often broad and vague for a reason—it is the outline, the outermost parameters of an organization, not the individual goals that define the path. Certainly goals are important, and planning is what moves you from one phase to the next, but if goals are a single step each, then the mission is the journey of a thousand miles.

A mission statement helps define the vision in valuable ways, but the main one is actually pretty simple, and very straightforward. When any new idea comes forth, you simply have to ask one question “How does this forward the mission?” There are trillions of great ideas in the world, but if a great idea doesn’t forward the mission, then it is not the right idea—or at least not the right idea for that group. For example, consider that a business is about the pursuit of health. While someone might have a great idea about how the business can help people enhance personal prosperity, unless it is somehow tied into health, it doesn’t match the mission. Mind you, it might be a great idea for another company, and that individual may even go on to form a new company with that idea in mind, but then he or she will design a mission and vision that match with that idea.

I personally believe this idea is applicable in far more areas of life than it might seem at first glance. You don’t have to have a mission statement for everything you do, but at least define your vision—get clear about those things that are important to you and those that aren’t. Figure out the things you want to focus most on in life, and purpose to make time for them. Identify those things that really are somewhat extraneous, and see how you can reduce or even eliminate them entirely. This even works when spring-cleaning, clearing out clutter to get ready to move, or with any other project. What belongings do you own that don’t fit with where you are headed? Define your vision, then dump the extra baggage! You will be glad you did.

There is something about putting definition to something, framing it and making it real in your mind, that gives it life and energy and helps it to spring forth into reality. If you have been feeling unclear about where you are headed in any area of life, take time to define your vision. We are in the process of doing that now, and I believe it will only help us as we move forward. I’m excited, actually, because I believe this is the beginning of many new things to come!

If you aren’t already subscribed to our mailing list and want to know how this vision and plan works out for us, fill out the brief form below to get occasional updates, as well as receive a free ebook on engaging angels as our gift to you. Be well, be blessed, and may you prosper in every way as you define your vision!

[/et_pb_text][et_pb_code admin_label=”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 admin_label=”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]