God Revealing Love Through Signs Wonders and Miracles

I use social media a lot–and for a variety of reasons. On occasion I will find a status update about God that saddens me, usually because it shows how little people understand the goodness of God. One recent status in particular stood out to me because it demonstrated how little people understand that much of the supernatural is God revealing love through signs wonders and miracles.

The status update said the following:
“Let’s not ooh and awe over feathers, gold dust and oil. Let’s ooh and awe over Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”

At face value, this seems like a nice message, albeit a pithy one-liner, but it is so far from how God actually wants us to live. God is not threatened when we get excited over the amazing things He does. In fact, it would be downright strange if we didn’t get excited. Remember in Luke 10 when Jesus sent the disciples out? It says “The seventy-two returned with joy and said, ‘Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.’ He replied, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’” (Luke 10:17-20).

Jesus was excited with them, and the next verse goes on to say that Jesus was “full of joy through the Holy Spirit.” Jesus didn’t get upset that they rejoiced over the power He gave them, but he did refocus them. He mentioned that they needed to keep their perception fixed on God, not on controlling demons–very different than the social media post essentially telling us not to appreciate God’s works.

What I found most sad was that at the time over 60 people had re-shared the status. It points to the fact that people are concerned about being deceived and/or have legitimate concerns about the excesses in this manifestation, but at the same time it also points to the fact that the Church is really immature when it comes to dealing with signs, wonders, and miracles. The truth is that if the Church had a greater level of maturity, we wouldn’t have as many problems dealing with the miraculous. We would know how to discern what God is doing in our midst, and we would deal with people who get into excess before things get so out of hand that it becomes a serious problem. We would be able to address people who fake miracles without letting it tarnish our enjoyment of God’s awesome works.

There are a number of verses, many of them in Psalms, that talk about praising the works of God’s hands. It seems to me to be more important to praise God AND His works than it is to try to avoid enjoying His goodness as though that will somehow lessen God’s glory. In truth it’s a bit silly to think that praising God’s works will in some way detract from God’s glory. Consider a Nobel Prize Winner–does enjoying their invention take away from their glory, or does it give them joy that their work is so highly valued? Sure, it’s important to keep focus of the most important things in the midst of our joy over manifestations–such as God’s goodness and love, but we can’t let ourselves forget that these miracles ARE God showing His goodness and love.

Trying to push down one to raise up the other doesn’t do anything helpful. Not “oohing and awe-ing” at amazing stuff is not a sign of maturity–it’s absurd and immature. Rather, we need to encourage people to enjoy God THROUGH His signs, wonders, and miracles, and let signs BE signs–that point us to God. THAT’s what maturity looks like. Doing both but not letting the one detract from the other.

This sort of response is a large contributing factor behind why I wrote Gemstones From Heaven and its recently released companion book Feathers From Heaven. These books, along with the other future books in the series, are designed to bring a greater level of maturity to the Body of Christ. In them I discuss God’s purposes behind these manifestations and how we can discern whether it is God at work or not. Give a read, leave a review, and above all, let yourself enjoy both the works of God’s hand AND the goodness, kindness, and mercy of His heart. When it is God revealing love to us, we only win when we are open to receive it. Blessings in Christ!!

Faith and a Feather

Feathers From Heaven – Our Personal Story

Gems From Heaven:

Part 1: “Our Experiences”

Part 2: “What Do They Mean”

Part 3: “How Do I Know This Is God?”

Gemstones From Heaven Podcasts

Power and Authority For Healing – Part 9 of Divine Healing that Works

In the previous installment of this series (here) we looked at practical ways to engage our faith, and how to use it to manifest physical healing when praying for people. In this final part of the Divine Healing That Works Series, we take a look at power and authority and how to work with them to heal, as well as some other healing tips.

When I pray for healing, I do my best to make use of both power and authority to heal. In a church service, especially during altar calls and such, there is usually a flow of power that is moving in the room. That is a fantastic time to pray for people for healing, and since everyone is facing toward the front, the energy is flowing toward the front. It’s not that there is anything more special or holy, but that’s where the power is being directed, so the wise thing to do is position oneself accordingly–go up toward the front. I have had times where even though not on the “official ministry team” that when standing up front and praying for friends, I could feel the power of God strongly descend on my body. It’s an actual sensation that feels, well, powerful, and I know that in that moment I have tapped into the flow of power in the room. Whether I have that feeling or not, I still make use of the principles I just listed above, but it’s always nice when there is a confirming sensation to go with it.

While power can change based on the dynamics of the situation, authority doesn’t. My authority as a believer doesn’t change if I am in a church or the supermarket, or even if I am surrounded by warlocks cursing me. Authority is essentially a legal state whereby I have the right to command spirit beings and even the rest of creation, and they must respond accordingly because of who I am. When operating out of authority, power is somewhat irrelevant, although it is best when the two work together in concert. When I pray for body parts to be healed, I don’t pray wimpy God-if-it-be-your-will prayers. No, I follow Jesus’ example and I command things to change. Headache, go. Leg, be made whole. Pain, leave now in Jesus’ name! I take the authority God has given me and I tell creation how it is going to respond, and I expect it to do it. If it doesn’t work the first time, I keep doing it, and usually after a few times we will start to observe changes.

One of the best-kept secrets of healing prayer is persistence. There are multiple references in the New Testament in regards to persistent prayer. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” “Pray and keep on praying” “When you pray, pray believing you have received it and it will be yours. Do not be double minded, for the double minded man should not expect to receive anything from God.” “

Another tip in regards to healing prayer is that when in doubt, stall for time. What I mean by that is oftentimes when praying for someone for healing, it takes a few seconds or even a few minutes for the healing itself to manifest. I think that can at times be attributed to what I will call the Daniel Effect — where the angel bringing the answer from God was held up by demonic resistance. Persistence in prayer is so effective because oftentimes we are breaking through a spiritual blockade set up by the enemy to keep angels from bringing healing from the throne of God into that person’s body. As we continue to pray, the healing should come. What I refer to as stalling for time is literally to continue to stay in a state where I am mindful and expectant that God will heal, but continue to engage that person to keep them focused until the healing comes. After a few minutes if there is no change at all the person will usually get tired of praying, and at a certain point you will need to move on. While this can be disheartening, this happens far more often than I like to acknowledge, and is one of the main reasons why the method I have outlined here, dealing with the underlying factors that prevent healing, is so important.

Because it is important to help people stay engaged in the healing process, and as a means of helping engage their faith, have the person check out and test their former injury if possible. There are situations where one simply has no way to test it, but check to see if their pain has changed or if they can do something they could not do before. I always have people rate their pain or even mobility on a scale from 0 to 10 before I pray, and again after I pray. If their pain stays the same, I pray again. If it gets better but isn’t all the way healed, I tell them that God is healing them right now, which again activates and encourages their faith, and I pray again. If it gets worse, then I start to command demons off of the body part in question, as pain does not naturally get worse unless an active force worsens it. If I am praying for healing, there is no reason for the pain to worsen unless a demon is causing it, and I use that as an indicator in prayer. When someone is getting healed and is partway there, I encourage them that Jesus didn’t die for them to be partway healed, and plans to heal them completely. I remind people this because they are often far more willing to accept partial healing than one would think. When someone gets partially healed, it often comes right back because we never completely fixed the problem–so I try as hard as I can to get people to stick through to the end.

While much of what I shared in the previous paragraph deals with “street healing” where we randomly pray for strangers we pass in the store or on the sidewalk, the principles apply to any healing situation. Do a pre-test for their injury if possible, pray, engage their faith, recheck the injury for changes, pray again if needed. The actual prescription for healing the sick is pretty simple, but there are a lot of tips and tricks along the way that help us be more effective when we can get people in the right frame of mind, get them to focus on heaven’s power, get them to act out their faith by testing the body part for changes, and then persisting in prayer in that moment, even stalling for time as needed, to see the breakthrough come.

While I cannot claim that this method is 100% fool-proof, I do not believe I am far from it. Healing the sick through prayer is an age-old conundrum, and the ever-present question of “How do I get it to work?” is nothing new. We as believers, and people as a whole, have been working to answer that question for centuries. While I cannot say I have the complete definitive answer, I do believe that there is little out there in books, seminars, and audio teachings that will successfully address any physical malady with more success than this method. While I do understand that this is a long, ongoing process I suggest, and is by no means a shortcut answer to getting healed, I do not see another more effective means of healing. Many have run from place to place, meeting to meeting, and man of God to man of God seeking faith, power, and anointing for healing, but it will rarely be more effective than engaging the inner transformative process that Jesus desires to bring in us, and as a result of that inner transformation, to then bring His power to bear and create external transformation to go with it. I hope this series has been helpful to you, and I wish you Godspeed on your journey to healing.

For other information on healing, consider the following books:
Divine Healing Made Simple by Praying Medic

The Essential Guide to Healing by Bill Johnson and Randy Clark

Power Healing by John Wimber and Kevin Springer

Healing the Whole Man Handbook by Joan Hunter

How to Heal the Sick by Charles and Francine Hunter

The Healing Breakthrough by Randy Clark

Divine Healing that Works- The Complete Series

Part 1 – The Root Cause

Part 2 – Demons and Deliverance

Part 3 – Fragments

Part 4 – Limiting Beliefs

Part 5 – Casting Out Demons

Part 6 – Emotional Healing

Part 7 – Triggers and Healing Fragments

Part 8 – Faith For Healing

Part 9 – Power and Authority For Healing

Faith for Healing – Part 8 of Divine Healing that Works

In the previous installment of this series (here) we looked at emotional triggers, their relation to soul fragments, and some basic means to work with them on our own when there aren’t prayer ministers conveniently available to help us work through our triggers. Now we (finally!) get to the part where we do the actual “stuff” –the physical healing.

This is the part everyone wants to learn and get good at, but I have become increasingly convinced it’s not as effective if we don’t do the stuff I’ve been talking about before it. Yes, there are many situations that don’t lend themselves to this depth of prayer work and sometimes all we have is a one-minute emotional-healing prayer, but equally as often we are around friends and family members who are contending for healing over time and simply are not getting healed regardless of how much we pray. While inner healing, fragments, deliverance, etc. can work for acute problems, they work particularly well for chronic issues that often didn’t appear overnight and have been unhealed for a long time. If healing prayer doesn’t work, once those other issues are addressed, return to praying for physical healing.

Physical healing has a number of components to it, and it is possible to be effective with any single component, but it works best when they are used in concert with one another. Faith, power, and authority are major keys, as are casting out demons from the site of the injury. In the same way that demons attach to emotional issues, they attach to physical ones. It is exceedingly rare that I don’t find a demon involved with a physical problem, and with any condition that includes pain I often find the person’s pain decreases significantly once I cast demons out.

One of the difficulties of our modern-day, western, industrialized, scientific minds is that people can get freaked out by the idea of demons. Many people believe in them but try to avoid them, and get spooked when we openly address them. Often I will simplify things, especially when praying with someone I don’t know very well and don’t know how they will respond to me praying about demons. I will pray something like this: “I command every hindrance that is preventing this healing to leave now in the name of Jesus.” I know what I am praying, and so do the demons. They know they are being evicted and they have to skedaddle. If I don’t feel them gone, I simply repeat the prayer. The other person may be able to put two and two together, but at that point their pain is usually lessened (if it’s a condition involving pain) and I’m moving on to the next part of the healing process.

Faith is a key component of healing prayer because faith is the connection between heaven’s power and this earthly realm. Our job as emissaries of God is to become the point where heaven and earth converge–to do that requires faith. When I pray for someone, I will oftentimes pray lengthy, flowery, wordy prayers. I do this for a few reasons, and not mostly because I like to hear myself talk, although that might be what it sounds like to some. No, I tend to pray long prayers because I am actually doing something in the midst of the prayer itself–building faith for them and me.

When I pray, I usually speak scripture verses that help engage my faith in that moment and have the potential to build the other person’s faith as well. In some ways my praying is more declarative than petitionary in that sense, but it helps me put my mind “in the game.” Faith as a whole is a dynamic substance–and yes, it is a spiritual substance. Faith is a creative spiritual force that causes spiritual power to function. When our faith is engaged, we have greater results than when it is not because as a force it sets spiritual power into motion.

Long-term, it is far more important that we cultivate lives of faith-building than it is to know how to stir it up in the short-term, but both have their place. Regardless of whether I have cultivated faith over time through the things I listen to, hear, and focus on, there will come times when I need to activate faith in the moment. I believe it is important for all of life, but it is extremely helpful with healing prayer to be able to activate faith on the spot.

We exercise our faith every day without realizing it. When we sit in a chair or touch a light switch, we don’t spend time wondering whether the chair will hold us or whether the light will turn on–we expect that it will operate as it is supposed to and we act accordingly. What we believe deep down is what we tend to manifest, so when I pray to enhance and activate my faith, it is to take certain beliefs I hold and in that moment give them greater priority and prominence than any limiting beliefs I still hold. I find this practice to be effective, so I continue doing it. Someone else may have other ways to stir up and engage their own faith in the moment, and if another method works well, then by all means use it.

The other thing about faith is that many people believe they have little faith, but what they don’t realize is that the problem is rarely the quantity or size of their faith, but rather what they put their faith in. Doubt is not actually a lack of faith, but it is faith that the thing we are believing for will not occur. The reason why doubt is so limiting is because it undermines the faith we engage that the thing we believe for will occur. In my book “The Gamer’s Guide to the Kingdom of God” I use this illustration:

“Doubt isn’t the opposite of faith, really, but rather it is faith in the negative. It is belief that the very thing we are looking at will not happen. To give an illustration, doubt is a little like a man who has a carriage and four horses. He attaches the front of the carriage to two horses, then sets the other two horses up as well–on the back end of the carriage facing the opposite direction. He climbs in the carriage and gives the command for the horses to begin pulling him. After all, he has places to be! After only a few moments he observes them going nowhere. He gives the command again and hears the clopping of hooves, but still feels no movement. Getting out, he gets angry with the horses and begins to whip them, urging them forward. As we all know, if at the end of the day the man doesn’t change the way he ties his horses to the carriage, he will continue to get nowhere. This man needs to repent, which doesn’t mean slinging snot and tears before some holy man or in some church or temple. That idea is incorrectly based off of the thought that repent comes from the French word repentir which means to be sorry for crimes and sins. Rather, the word used in the Bible is the Greek word metanoia which literally means to change one’s mind. All the man would need to do is change his mind about how he manages his horses, line his actions up with that different thought by moving two of the horses, and he would get different results (250-251).”

“Knowing that doubt is actually a form of faith manifested in the negative helps us to understand how faith is hindered. The most common way that faith is hindered is through our own unbelief–usually through the information that we feed ourselves in the external world and through our inner self-talk and our verbalized statements. In other words, we sow doubt into the field of our mind and then wonder why we reap a harvest of unbelief (251). ”

If we want our faith to be effective, and we want to see people healed, we have to transform our minds and change our focus. If we believe, as many still do, that God may or may not want to heal someone, it will be difficult to have faith that God will heal them. We need to understand that Jesus already paid the price on the cross one time for all creation to remove sickness, disease, pain, weakness, poverty, lack, and every other unhealthy and destructive force, and in their place releases constantly upon all of us His abundant life-giving power. To believe that God does not heal or might not want to is probably the single most effective method the enemy has used through the ages to prevent us from walking in resurrection power and to heal the sick. No, we must be willing to change our own thinking in this area and refuse any belief that says anything less than healing for everyone, every time, all the time, for all time.

In the final installment of this series we will look at how to heal using the power and authority we have been given in Christ Jesus, and cover a few tips for better results on-the-spot when praying for physical healing.

Divine Healing that Works- The Complete Series

Part 1 – The Root Cause

Part 2 – Demons and Deliverance

Part 3 – Fragments

Part 4 – Limiting Beliefs

Part 5 – Casting Out Demons

Part 6 – Emotional Healing

Part 7 – Triggers and Healing Fragments

Part 8 – Faith For Healing

Part 9 – Power and Authority For Healing

Triggers and Healing Fragments – Part 7 of Divine Healing that Works

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In the previous installment of this series (here) we reviewed the need for emotional healing, and looked at how to successfully begin to deal with unhealthy and unfruitful emotions to step into a place of inner freedom.

To move beyond forgiveness to get at other root issues, I recommend starting by increasing general awareness of emotional triggers. A trigger is any event where we feel our emotional balance getting upset. Often, the reactions we have to life events are far more intense than they need to be. If we are able to take a step back and do a mental inventory of the situation, as well as our emotions, we can realize and identify that our response is far more drastic than necessary, which means we are being triggered. Every emotional trigger is like a neon sign pointing to an unhealthy place inside of us. As we identify these places, we can start to tease through the underlying problems in prayer.

Many times when I get in arguments with my wife, I will get triggered when I don’t feel like I am being heard. For a variety of reasons, that is very important to me and is still an unhealthy place within me. When I don’t feel I am heard, I get louder and more rude, trying to adamantly make myself be heard. As one can guess, this is a bit of a turn-off, and it generally upsets my wife. The more I have become aware of this trigger, the more I have been able to stop, calmly say to my wife “I am sorry for responding like that. I think I am not feeling heard,” and respond in a more normal fashion. Usually when I recognize what is going on, she will attempt to make sure I feel like I have been heard in the situation to help address the trigger as well. In other words, we have increased our communication to have more grace for each other’s difficulties. At the same time, I also recognize I need to continue to address the underlying factors that cause that trigger to exist.

If I am dealing with a trigger by myself, I will often start looking at the emotion in question (usually long after the event and when I am no longer being triggered) and start asking myself questions. “Why did this upset me so much?” “Is there an underlying need I have that was not being met in that situation?” As above, an underlying issue for me is not feeling heard. I may look at places earlier in my life where I didn’t feel heard–and Holy Spirit will bring memories back to me of places where I not only felt unheard, but felt that I was powerless in a situation to make people hear me. Those feelings of powerlessness are part of why I get louder and try to force myself to be heard even now as an adult, trying to keep the feelings of powerlessness and loss of control at bay. I may use Praying Medic’s short healing prayer to address those feelings associated with that memory, and any other feelings that arise. I may cast demons out of myself as I identify them being attached to that situation. As a whole, when I engage this method, or something similar, I find myself increasing in freedom.

There are times where the above methods are insufficient to solve the problem. Oftentimes emotional triggers are actually coming from fragments that are still hurt, bound, and have yet to be integrated into my core self. Sometimes fragments may appear as a person in a prison cell or similar, and often are tormented by demons. When a situation arises that feels similar to the initial situations that caused the fragment to fracture off, the fragment totally freaks out, which explains part of why we have excessive emotional responses when triggered. We must identify that there is a fragment involved, then attempt to address the issue in prayer. I wish there was a clear-cut method of how to deal with fragments by oneself, but I do not know of any. When working with others, we can talk to the fragment directly, but when working on ourselves it is difficult to try and call a fragment up to manifest, as there is then no one to talk to the fragment and work through the situation. Thus, we must address them in our heart and mind. I usually try to reassure the fragment that they are safe, and if I identify that they are locked up in some fashion, pray them unbound.

Angels are particularly useful when dealing with fragments, and I believe we would see more effectiveness in healing prayer in general if we worked with angels more frequently. We can give angels instructions and have them carry them out–including working with fragments to see them healed, restored, and integrated. I am still somewhat new at working with angels in this area, but I know that the more we work with angels, the more effective their ministry becomes. Working with angels is similar to how we talk to God in prayer, but we are simply direction the conversation to a different spirit being. If we can speak to demons, even command them to come out of people, then talking to angels isn’t much of a stretch. For those who tend to get leery of this sort of talk, I am not at any point suggesting we worship angels or that they are in any way equivalent with God–they’re not. They are fellow servants of God like us, and we have been given authority by our heavenly Father to command them to do God’s will.

As we work with our fragments over time, we gradually will become more adept at it, as well as find ourselves reaching greater levels of freedom. When I work with my fragments with my prayer counselor, we usually choose what issues we want to address, then speak to the relevant fragments (ex. “Fragment that is feeling powerlessness, come up.” Knowing the fragment’s name isn’t important, and we can always ask them after they come up and start talking). Often we will start with an issue that I observed myself being triggered on since our last session (I keep a running list on my smart phone), but occasionally we will either go in a completely different direction based on what we sense God doing, or we may pick back up with a fragment from a previous session that we were unable to integrate at that time.

Having spent all this time talking about demons, fragments, and emotional healing, it is probably still not clear how they relate to physical healing. Demons often supernaturally empower pre-existing physical problems, and they often create new ones. When the demons are ejected, the malady can decrease or even disappear entirely. Emotions are stored in various organs and tissues in the body, and certain emotions can cause pain or dysfunction in tissues. When these emotions are healed, the energetic patterns in the tissues change, and no longer support the existence of the infirmity. When fragments that contribute to the problem, through their own emotional issues, demons, etc., are healed, delivered, and integrated, yet another hindrance to physical healing is blasted out of the way. When these areas are addressed fully in regards to a specific malady, it becomes significantly easier to heal that physical problem in prayer.

For those interested in more information specifically on how to recognize and heal fragments and alters, check out my coauthored book Broken to Whole: Inner Healing for the Fragmented Soul.

You can also check out the Fragment Finder flower essence from Freedom Flowers .

In the next installment of this series we will take a look at how to use faith in practical ways to help bring physical healing.

Divine Healing that Works- The Complete Series

Part 1 – The Root Cause

Part 2 – Demons and Deliverance

Part 3 – Fragments

Part 4 – Limiting Beliefs

Part 5 – Casting Out Demons

Part 6 – Emotional Healing

Part 7 – Triggers and Healing Fragments

Part 8 – Faith For Healing

Part 9 – Power and Authority For Healing

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Emotional Healing – Part 6 of Divine Healing that Works

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In the previous installment of this series (here) we looked at practical aspects on how to cast out demons. Now we will review the need for emotional healing, and how to successfully begin to deal with unhealthy and unfruitful emotions to step into a place of inner freedom.

Emotional healing can sometimes be a complex process, but I will attempt to simplify it as much as possible. When beginning to deal with emotional issues, it is best to start with forgiveness. When in doubt, forgive everything. You can never over-forgive, and forgiveness needs to be revisited from time to time simply as things come up in life that we forget to forgive people for. When we forgive, we often release anger, bitterness, and other related emotions, and this frees up a lot of emotional and soul-realm energy that the body now can put toward healing. While forgiveness may seem like a too-simple solution to some problems, not all inner healing needs to be complex.

There are a variety of natural healing modalities that can be used to help resolve the frequencies carried by negative emotions, thereby neutralizing the harmful emotions within the body. Flower essences and essential oils are two of the most common products that are very effective for this purpose (Check out Freedom Flowers for a good place to find flower essences). Others have found a type of therapy called tapping to be helpful, of which EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) is probably the most well-known, and there are a vast number of other therapies such as affirmations, meditation, sound therapy, art therapy, energy therapies, etc. which can help bring emotional healing and freedom as well. Some of these do not set out to heal emotions, but given how the therapies work they often accomplish healing as a side-benefit. Although there are a vast number of other therapies, products, etc. that can also be useful, different people get different results from each.

One of the problems people run into, especially in Christian circles, is the fear that they are going to get demonized when they try one of these therapies. First, it is important to note that God is the God of freedom. He isn’t as concerned with the trappings and appearance of something, as He is with getting us free. God isn’t threatened by the New Age or any other belief system that might not agree 100% with the “Christian” worldview. He isn’t waiting until people decide to become Christians to bring freedom into their lives. In fact, there are some in the New Age who are madly in love with Jesus–it’s just judgmental Bible-thumping Christians they don’t like (and they’re not alone). God regularly sets people free using non-Christian therapies because He’s a good God and has everyone’s freedom in mind with no ulterior motive other than for us to enjoy the freedom.

Luke 11:11-13 says “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” In other words, if we are seeking emotional freedom, God will give us that freedom, not demonic bondage. Even if we are doing something that has “risks” associated with it, as a general whole we can expect and live in faith that if we are seeking freedom, that’s what we will get. 2 Corinthians 3:17 say “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” If we seek freedom, and God is giving us freedom, we simply aren’t going to get more demonized as a result. If we go through a therapy that might not have a Christian title on it, but doesn’t actively involve casting spells or invoking demons or such, then we really don’t need to worry about getting even more bound as a general whole. Mind you, there are demons that involve themselves with various spiritual modalities and methods, so discernment is still important, but the point is that we don’t have to walk around in fear that a demon is going to jump us. The fact is that we are around demons all the time–we just can’t usually see them. Likewise, we are also around angels all the time–and while we can’t usually see them either, most Christians seem to have been taught more to be afraid of the devil than to be confident in the angelic protection that we regularly enjoy–and as a result most people get what they focus on. If we want freedom, seek freedom, and ask for freedom, that’s what we can step out in faith expecting, and it is what we will receive.

One of the things I have found is that some signs of demons leaving the body are common in various forms of meditation and energy cultivation practices. While every yawn may not be a demon exiting the body, it is certain that we are releasing negative energies and emotional patterns when these things occur, even if the therapy is not, again, a “Christian” therapy. God is more about freedom than He is about a man-made title attached to it.

When it comes to emotional healing prayer, there are many methods and means, but many of them require training or even an entire book of their own. To simplify here for the reader, I have included below a short prayer that I often use. I learned it from my friend Praying Medic a year or two ago, and I often use it when I address emotional issues, whether for myself or someone else, largely because it is quick, easy, and can be done anywhere.

First, identify the primary emotion or feeling that is bothering or afflicting you. Take that emotion and pray: “Father, I don’t want this [name the negative emotion] anymore. Please take it from me and heal all of the wounds that caused it. I ask that you give me [state opposite positive emotions] in place of the [negative emotion]. I receive it now by faith, in Jesus’ name.” Check to see if you feel that emotion associated with that situation anymore. If you do, repeat the prayer. If you don’t, move to the next problem-emotion. Repeat these steps as needed until all the negative emotions for that situation are gone. This is a simple method that is quite useful, but not foolproof. Sometimes an emotional issue is complex and the simple-method doesn’t work for a variety of reasons. I personally use this first and only pursue further if this is ineffective.

When it comes to pursuing further and deeper emotional healing, this is the part where it can become tricky, and oftentimes it helps to have a friend or prayer-counselor of some kind to help out. I am familiar with a number of emotional healing methods, but I still regularly work with a friend who is what I refer to as a “Transformation Minister”–someone who works with people to bring inner healing, cast out demons, and help transform their beliefs to become healthier, bringing freedom and ultimately life transformation. I work with this friend because I value my own freedom and as shocking as it may seem, I have not arrived at perfection yet either. No one is “above” inner healing, and anyone who believes he is probably needs it all the more.

Praying Medic has written a short ebook on this subject and includes prayers for inner healing as well — you can find it here: Emotional Healing in 3 Easy Steps

In the next installment of this series we will take a look at ways we get emotionally triggered by life events, how this relates to helping our soul fragments receive healing, and look at some basic means to work with them on our own when there aren’t prayer ministers conveniently available to help us work through our triggers.

Divine Healing that Works- The Complete Series

Part 1 – The Root Cause

Part 2 – Demons and Deliverance

Part 3 – Fragments

Part 4 – Limiting Beliefs

Part 5 – Casting Out Demons

Part 6 – Emotional Healing

Part 7 – Triggers and Healing Fragments

Part 8 – Faith For Healing

Part 9 – Power and Authority For Healing

Casting Out Demons – Part 5 of Divine Healing that Works

In the previous installment of this series (here) we discussed limiting beliefs, and our need to experience God’s love in ways that speak to us individually. In order to receive healing and step into abundant life, we must deal with all the underlying factors that get us sick. As we covered in previous installments of this post, the first step is to diagnose the problems, and then we can begin to address them with solutions.

We are given many ways to heal: Deliverance, Inner Healing, Belief Transformation, Fragment Integration, Power, and Authority are the main methods. The most commonly used are power and authority, but they often lead to people “losing” their healing or not getting fully healed. This is because the underlying causes–demons, beliefs, fragments, and inner wounds, usually have not been dealt with. When they are appropriately addressed, healing is usually pretty simple because there are no longer any barriers to overcome.

There are entire books written on deliverance, so for the sake of keeping this article much shorter than it otherwise would be I recommend you find a few and read them. No one has it all figured out, so read a few of them, with the exception of any who don’t think Christians can have demons. If they have that key factor wrong, it’s questionable how helpful the rest of the book will be. The key with deliverance is to use discernment, wisdom, preferably have at least another person present with you for the session, and don’t let yourself get afraid. The goal of demons is to get you afraid, and they can’t simply demonize you by being in the same room with you. They don’t actually want to leave their host, and they will do anything in their power to keep from manifesting, and if you get them to manifest, anything in their power to prevent from leaving.

Demons have a hierarchy, and typically there will be a spirit that is in charge of a bunch of other spirits. When you try to cast it out, the ruling spirit may send out one of its lackeys as a sacrificial lamb of sorts, a Trojan horse to make you think you got the job done–it fully plans to invite that spirit back in later. Once when I was praying with my eldest and youngest granddaughters at separate times in the same day. The eldest, 7 years old, was able to describe to me what the demons were doing as I cast them out. She told me at one point that the “king” was still in there. I had never told her that demons operate in clusters or about the head spirit of the cluster sacrificing other spirits under its command so it can stay in. My youngest granddaughter, roughly three and a half at the time, was really antsy and unfocused as I began to pray over her, but as spirits left she settled down and had a better attention span. Additionally, when I called a spirit up and commanded it to tell me how many spirits were in there, the spirit, using her voice, said “a lot” I asked again, this time asking for a specific number, and it told me “sixteen.” I have news for you, my youngest granddaughter can count, but not very well. If asked for a number she is going to give me a small number like three or four, not any number over ten. I took it as clear confirmation I was doing the right thing.

The actual “casting out” part is pretty simple–you simply command the demon to leave. Something like “Spirit of pain, I command you to leave in the name of Jesus” will do just fine. Mind you, what we have covered thus far includes that demons don’t want to leave and will resist. You may need to be a broken record, and you may need to uncover the access points that assist the demon(s) to remain there–usually involving beliefs, emotions, and even abusive experiences people have had. If unable to cast the demon out, start looking for those root causes and address them, then cast the demon out again–it should go much more easily. A former mentor of mine in this area had years of experience in the Assemblies of God doing inner healing and deliverance, and he told me they used to spend hours–sometimes even four hours trying to cast out a single spirit. He no longer is willing to do that, and has found more effective means of dealing with them in far less time. When he searches for root issues, the deliverance goes much faster and is more effective.

To include some tips from my own experience with deliverance, it can be difficult at times to know if a demon has actually left. I rely heavily in these situations on the gift of discernment of spirits, often expecting to have a vision of an actual number of how many spirits are left in the cluster I am dealing with. You can also command the spirits to tell you, but at times the person will resist letting the demon speak and the demon is resisting speaking, so it can be a bit tricky. It can be possible to observe demons leaving at times without special spiritual knowledge. The Bible says in Psalm 104:4, “He makes his servants winds, his spirits flames of fire.” Demons are spirits, and they may respond to being cast out as though they are a form of wind (In Hebrew the word “spirit” itself literally means “breath”). On many occasions when exorcising demons I have seen people burp, yawn, cough, sneeze, or even pass gas or vomit. While the last is not a form of wind, as a whole these are potential indicators that a spirit has left the body even without a gift of discernment–and not by any means the main or only thing we should pay attention for. I also keep my eyes open so I can see what is happening to their body. When dealing with demons, it is infrequent but quite possible they could try to physically attack you using the host’s body. That is just one of the good reasons why you want to have a partner present, and keep your eyes open. Having another witness present can reduce risk for allegations of sexual abuse or assault or such things which someone could accuse you of when under demonic influence regardless of how innocent you are. When I observe physical changes, I know we have spiritual movement, and it is easier to direct a moving rock than a still one. I try to build on that momentum to get the person free.

It is also important to recognize whether the passage of air actually completed itself or not. For example, when doing deliverance on myself I often start to yawn but the yawn doesn’t finish, stopping halfway. I have felt the same with gas–it rumbles around but might not actually come out. Both of these are examples of spirits fighting to stay. Keep in mind the air-passage method is by no means foolproof or guaranteed proof-positive of a demon exiting, and learning how to use and engage the gift of discernment is a must. I often use a mental count-down, and God gives me actual numbers of how many spirits are left I need to deal with, and the number changes as they leave. In the end, the best way to go about deliverance is to read up on it, then dive in; there is no substitute for experience.

In the next installment of this series we will focus on how to go through emotional healing, with a prayer at the end to use as a simple tool to help deal with emotional issues.

Divine Healing that Works- The Complete Series

Part 1 – The Root Cause

Part 2 – Demons and Deliverance

Part 3 – Fragments

Part 4 – Limiting Beliefs

Part 5 – Casting Out Demons

Part 6 – Emotional Healing

Part 7 – Triggers and Healing Fragments

Part 8 – Faith For Healing

Part 9 – Power and Authority For Healing

Limiting Beliefs – Part 4 of Divine Healing that Works

In the previous installment of this series (here) we looked at soul fragments–what they are, how to identify when fragments are at work, how they influence us, and how they contribute to sickness and disease.

The last major contributor to sickness and disease is our belief systems. When we believe inaccurate things about ourselves and God’s nature, it influences how we perceive the world. As I mentioned at the beginning of this series, we have to continually work with God to renew our minds and gain better understanding of God’s nature so that we become like Him. Part of why this is so important goes back to how God made us—in His image. God is a creator, and since we are made in His likeness, we also create on a daily basis. Science has been able to prove that our minds and hearts send out energy waves on multiple types of wavelengths of the energy spectrum on an ongoing basis. The principle of sowing and reaping comes into play here, as well as Proverbs 23:7 which says “as a man thinks in his heart, so he is”. What we emanate out in vibrational patterns from our heart and mind, we receive back in like kind based on how God set up the laws of sowing and reaping in all of creation. In other words, we literally create at least a portion of both the positive and negative things in our lives based off of the frequencies we emit, both conscious and subconscious.

Our awareness of the frequencies we are emitting is irrelevant–if we have beliefs that we hold, whether accurate or not, we will reap the results of those beliefs. If I believe the world is out to get me and God is angry at me, I am prone to having my life experiences further confirm my star-crossed existence. On the other hand, if I believe that God works everything in my life for good and that he has blessings to lavish on me each day, I am going to attract those blessings to me as a natural result of sowing and reaping without even giving it conscious thought. The difficulty with this is that we tend to emit both positive and negative frequencies based on the level of healing we have–attracting both health and life and sickness and disease at the same time. As I mentioned before, we emit darkness and light, and attract both angels and demons. The more we consciously focus on good things, the more we minimize negative attraction and enhance positive attraction, all of which help the healing process.

Positive affirmations are one method people use to transform their beliefs–essentially rewiring their subconscious beliefs through repetition of an idea they want to believe on a deep level. This can be a useful method to help transform one’s thinking, but at the end of the day it is only a means to an end. In my opinion, the main problem we have with limiting beliefs has to do with our perception of our value. In other words, it’s an identity problem. When deep down we don’t really understand who God has made us to be and how He values us, that insecurity is going to trickle down into every aspect of our lives.

I have a few friends who spend time each day resting in God’s love for them. For one it involves meditation, and experiencing God’s presence and love. For another, it involves conversation with God where He simply reaffirms each day to my friend that He loves him unconditionally. For each person it is going to look different, largely because we each experience and receive love differently. Author Gary Chapman has broken the ways we receive love into 5 categories in his book “The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts”. He has written an entire series on the subject, but the overly simplified version is that we each have a primary way in which we give and receive love, and one or more secondary ways as well. The 5 languages are: physical touch, gift giving (and receiving), acts of service, quality time, and words of affirmation. Each method is good, but some are more meaningful to us than others depending on our preferred “language”. Personally, I prefer physical touch above all others–which means I tend to hug my friends, give shoulder rubs, etc. as a way of showing love. I do it naturally–and I always have. While everyone likes to receive gifts, it’s really not my love language, and it speaks to me far less than other things do.

Connecting this idea back to our beliefs, we all have a need to feel and believe that God loves us. I believe the vast majority of the deficits we experience in our lives are at their core a result of feeling and believing we are unloved. If we are able to identify the ways we experience love, and then focus on spending time with God in those ways, I believe we can reduce the amount of time it will take for us to go through inner healing, as well as to transform our beliefs about God. When we know God loves us, it changes our outlook on life. For some, it may involve hearing words of love daily from God. For me, I need to have an encounter with His presence–feeling God’s energy on my skin, which when I take the time to do, I enjoy greatly. For another person, they need to develop a heart of gratitude for the many lavish and even simple gifts that God gives them throughout the day–whether a physical item or something as seemingly irrelevant as a heart-shaped coffee stain from their morning coffee. Whatever primary and secondary means we use to most effectively experience love, we need to capitalize on them and focus on experiencing God in those ways throughout our lives. As we are transformed by God’s love, our beliefs will naturally transform–and when our beliefs about Him change, our experiences will transform in line with sowing and reaping as well. When our experiences change, we will learn new things from our experiences about God, further cementing those new, positive beliefs.

While this blog is about how to get physically healed, it may seem that all we’ve done is talk about demons, emotions, fragments, and beliefs, and haven’t actually addressed how to get people healed. I have been laying the necessary groundwork to understand the factors that contribute to physical disease and prevent healing, which we will continue to do before we start talking about praying for physical healing. In the next installment of this series we will move beyond understanding about demons and look at how to actually cast them out.

Divine Healing that Works- The Complete Series

Part 1 – The Root Cause

Part 2 – Demons and Deliverance

Part 3 – Fragments

Part 4 – Limiting Beliefs

Part 5 – Casting Out Demons

Part 6 – Emotional Healing

Part 7 – Triggers and Healing Fragments

Part 8 – Faith For Healing

Part 9 – Power and Authority For Healing

Fragments – Part 3 of Divine Healing that Works

In the previous installment of this series (here) we discussed how demons can affect us and put us under bondage, what their legal authority actually is, and changes we can make in our lives to prevent their influence.

Soul fragments are another aspect of this emotional-wound issue. As I have mentioned in previous blogs, these fragments are the things that give people multiple personalities and are literally the result of our soul breaking into pieces. To explain further, think of the soul as a gemstone. It is moderately strong, but life stressors act like a hammer, and when a hammer hits in just the right places over time this soul “gem” can crack and eventually cause pieces to chip off. As a whole, soul fragmentation is not good, but it occurs as a protective mechanism. The majority of fragments form in younger years when children don’t have the coping mechanisms that adults do, and traumatic difficult life experiences children cannot cope with get transferred to a small portion of the soul that then fractures off to become a fragment. As a result the core self, the main body of the gem, is able to continue life as usual with much less trauma and interruption than it would otherwise experience. God designed the soul such that those fractured pieces don’t float off into the ethers and disappear; rather they stay tenuously connected to the main body of the soul gem. Our job as believers when working with others and their fragments is to reconnect those fragments back to the original soul, eventually causing the soul gem to be whole once more.

This might sound simple at first, but it can be a lengthy and involved process. In working with someone on my own fragment integration, I have learned a few things. First, let me point out that prior to learning about this subject, I didn’t actually think I had multiple personalities. I have since come to discover that not only do I have them, but literally everyone has them–and we just don’t know it. Likewise, every human on the planet has some measure of demonic influence in their life whether they are aware of it or not. Lack of awareness doesn’t make it any less there much in the same way that not being able to see wind makes it any less present during a storm.

Integrating fragments often involves casting demons out of the fragment, healing emotional wounds that the fragment carries, and working with it to change its erroneous beliefs and impart truth. Working directly with fragments is much more effective than praying with the person’s core self to try to get at fragment-related issues. One of a number of reasons for this is that fragments don’t share all of the same memories that the core self does. They are often located in a nondescript space somewhere in the spirit realm, and at times find themselves locked in some kind of prison or jail. They may or may not know Jesus, even if the core self has been a believer for years. I have been a believer since I was 3 years old, but while most of my fragments so far have at least heard of Jesus, some of them don’t know him or have a poor opinion of him in spite of the fact that I have deeply loved Jesus most of my life.

When I work with a prayer counselor on my fragments, he literally prays and asks for fragments to come up. What this means is that my core consciousness takes a bit of a back seat while these “other” consciousnesses start to express themselves. One fragment was an adult male who had a southern accent and kept biting his lip. Another was probably around age 5 and liked drawing airplanes–and I cannot recall ever having been a fan of drawing planes. I have seen some of the fragments start out as females and as God healed them, their gender changed to that of a male. I once had a teenage fragment who thought God the Father was angry and mean, but liked Jesus because he was kind and loving, and he had a fragment of his own that had fractured off to boot! Some of my fragments have been madly in love with Jesus while still others have never heard of him or only tolerate him at best. Some of them have heard of him but don’t know much about him or have never met him in person. I will never forget the time the 5-year old plane-drawing fragment met Jesus–he began to cry when he saw Jesus because “he’s so beautiful!” I was literally sitting there sobbing because Jesus is beautiful (and he is), but I, as my core self, was observing my actions from inside me with some detachment while this fragment was having an encounter with Jesus that I couldn’t see.

Please understand that I am being rather transparent in sharing this, and I understand that this may seem somewhat strange or completely made up to some, but I’ll be honest, as a nurse I have a somewhat scientific and logical mind and this is the last thing I would make up just for fun–because if it’s fake then it isn’t fun, just dumb. There’s nothing remotely humorous, glamorous, or interesting about making up spiritual experiences because if they never actually happened then it’s just blatant stupidity, which I have little tolerance for. I found this fragment-business a bit strange at first, and on some level still do, but if I am honest with myself it’s not really any more difficult to believe than the idea that the God of the entire universe decided to impregnate a virgin, become a human, grow up and die, only to come back to life a few days later with holes still in his hands, feet, and side, but not bleed to death again; who is both a lion, a lamb with horns, and a human all at once and is coming back someday on a white horse with a tattoo on his thigh to give us all white rocks and to take us to some other plane of existence to live happily ever after and eat leaves from special trees by a river, and the source of that river is underneath the throne of the king in the throne room of a temple. It’s not any stranger than having the God of the universe speak to me about someone’s life in a prophetic word, or casting a demon out of someone and watching their face involuntarily contort, or watch them vomit as the spirit comes out. It’s no less odd than gemstones, feathers, oil, gold dust, manna, or other supernatural objects appear in front of me miraculously from this alternate plane we call heaven.

When my core self takes a back seat during these sessions, I am able to hear, see, and interact as much as I want with everything that is going on. I personally have been able to have my core self take back over whenever I want, and up to now I have been fully aware of everything that happens when we work with my fragments. This is not the case for everyone, as I have heard stories from my prayer counselor of other clients where the core self basically goes to sleep and doesn’t remember any part of the session. Sometimes demons take over the person’s body and they start to talk through the person’s mouth. It is possible for the person to remember this but be unable to control himself, but it is equally possible for the person to have no recollection whatsoever.

I had one encounter with a friend, unrelated to my own prayer counseling, where he suddenly began manifesting a demon, and didn’t remember it after the fact, and he related to us what happened when the demon had taken over his body and his core consciousness had been pushed under. The story is found on my blog titled “Breaking Free From a Spirit of Divination” but this demon revealed its presence during a gathering with friends as we were praying for healing for his neck pain. An excerpt from that blog is as follows:

“This spirit had hidden itself quite nicely for approximately forty years, only to be unearthed now from its hiding place. And when I say ‘unearthed,’ Chris was basically unconscious and the demon had control of his eyes and vocal cords. The fact is that this demon made it that long largely because demons operate under the principle of ‘be heard but not seen.’ What I mean by that is that they will whisper all sorts of lies into the host’s mind and plant ideas that the host doesn’t realize aren’t actually his thoughts to begin with, but they will usually talk in first person to make it sound like the host is thinking them instead of the thoughts being planted. In fact, this demon STILL didn’t really want to be made known because even when we spoke directly to it, the thing only answered in very short phrases using as few words as possible.

My prayer counselor was kind enough to explain to me at a later date that the spirit didn’t talk much because it wanted to give as little information as possible, but that when that spirit is talking to us, THAT is the moment to treat it like an interrogation session and pump that spirit for as much information as possible: how did it get in there, how many other spirits are there, what are their names or functions, who is the spirit in charge of that spirit-cluster, etc. The more information you can gather from the spirit, the better prepared you are to deal with it and its companions.

Interestingly enough, after dealing with the root point of access (in this case it was a childhood friend and the use of an Ouija board), we had the opportunity to ask Chris what his experience was while we were dealing with the demon. He didn’t remember a single thing we had said or done from the time we started praying and his neck started having severe pain until we cast the demon out and he regained full consciousness. What had happened was that he was still awake, more or less, but that his consciousness had gotten pushed under and the spirit’s consciousness was now the one on top and was talking with us. However, Chris was able to tell us what he DID experience when he was under. He said he felt he was in this enclosed space and he wanted to get out, so he started pushing against a wall. However, this wall was a little like rubber and it was just bending with his pushing instead of giving way. He kept pushing, and at one point in time he pushed and the wall gave way and he was out. That moment that the wall gave way was the same moment that we case the spirit of divination out. After that, we prayed for him and Chris began to have visions of fields and fields of flowers. He was just so absolutely amazed by these tons of flowers and the beauty that God was showing him with these flowers. While it might sound a little silly, God was restoring that place in his soul that had been occupied by that spirit, and God was bringing back everything the enemy had stolen from Chris and demonstrated that to him with visions of beautiful flowers.”

While inner healing and deliverance sessions are often less dramatic than that one, they have the potential to get interesting when working with the spirit realm. The major benefit of this form of healing prayer is that it bypasses the conscious mind and gets at root issues, saving possibly months and years of time in prayer counseling. Working directly with a fragment, we are able to healing its inner wounds, perform deliverance on it and correct its inaccurate beliefs, and then reintegrate it into the core self. As this happens, the individual becomes more resilient, more able to deal with life stressors, and incidentally more able to function in Kingdom power and authority. Since the soul is no longer divided into so many damaged parts, the individual doesn’t have as much internal “double-mindedness”. There are no longer multiple “streams” flowing from the same source, but one clear gushing river of life that flows into everything he does.

We can learn to identify the presence and/or manifestation of a fragment any time we have an emotional overreaction in a situation or what I refer to as a “trigger.” When we encounter a situation that hits a little too close to home for a fragment based on its past trauma–trauma that it often re-lives on a daily basis, we have unnecessary reactions, often verbally lashing out in anger at a spouse, panic attacks, unexplained anxiety, or other emotions that if we were an outside observer, we would recognize were abnormal to the situation. When noticing these triggers, I tend to write them down and bring them to my counselor for prayer, but when doing it alone we can take those same triggers to God in prayer, ask Him to reveal the fragmented part that is hurting, and ask Him to show us how to heal and integrate it into our core self.

For those interested in more information specifically on how to recognize and heal fragments and alters, check out my coauthored book Broken to Whole: Inner Healing for the Fragmented Soul.

You can also check out the Fragment Finder flower essence from Freedom Flowers .

In the next installment of this series we will look at limiting beliefs–what they are, how they influence us, and how we can change them.

Divine Healing that Works- The Complete Series

Part 1 – The Root Cause

Part 2 – Demons and Deliverance

Part 3 – Fragments

Part 4 – Limiting Beliefs

Part 5 – Casting Out Demons

Part 6 – Emotional Healing

Part 7 – Triggers and Healing Fragments

Part 8 – Faith For Healing

Part 9 – Power and Authority For Healing

Demons and Deliverance – Part 2 of Divine Healing that Works

In the previous installment of this blog (here) we looked at the root cause of sickness, which is sin, and suggested that as followers of Jesus that there are a number of things that factor into infirmity and disease, which, when dealt with, enable divine healing power to work and bring healing.

There are many other factors that come into play, both in regards to contributing factors for physical and mental illness, and in factors that contribute to fixing every type of life problem. Demons play a significant role in contracting infirmity and disease and the prevention of healing. Throughout the New Testament, and even on occasion in the Old Testament, there are examples of demon spirits that make people sick. Jesus cast one demon out of a boy that gave him something akin to epileptic seizures and suicidal tendencies, throwing himself into fires to immolate himself and water to drown him. Once Jesus cast out the demon, the boy was set free from what we would consider nowadays to be mental health problems. Mind you, I’m not saying all mental health problems are specifically caused by a demon, but I will say I think all sickness and disease have demons as a contributing factor, whether physical or mental illness. Deliverance, or exorcism, also known as the casting out of demons, is a must even for believers. Many believe, erroneously, that Christians cannot have demons, citing such verses as James 3:9-12 as proof-text, although grossly out of context and not speaking about demons, but rather one’s language choices. The idea that a Christian cannot have a demon could not be further from the truth, and this unsound doctrine has sentenced many to a life of bondage to evil spirits they did not believe existed simply because they were taught that a believer can’t have a demon.

The next argument that usually comes up when discussing deliverance and whether a Christian can have a demon, is on the matter of whether a Christian can be possessed or not. In my book The Gamer’s Guide to the Kingdom of God I explain it this way:

“I have been involved in more discussions than I care to count about whether someone who is a believer can be possessed by demons or not, and it’s a discussion I basically refuse to entertain any longer as it is usually indicative of an armchair-believer, interested in mentally understanding the concept from the comfort and safety of his couch, not actually ever casting demons out of anyone and not trying to learn for practical use. I will say this: Yes, Christians can have demons. I don’t care if you call it possessed, depressed, or oppressed, and I don’t care if you think they are in you, on you, over you, under you, or around you. They’re devils. Get rid of them. Don’t worry so much about the deep theology behind their location. If you find devils, make them leave, and leave discussion on pinpointing their exact position to someone else who has a goal of total ineffectiveness in deliverance ministry. While there is a measure to which understanding what we are dealing with is wise, I have yet to find a single time when knowing whether the demon was in someone, over them, under them, or next to them made a load of difference in whether I was able to cast them out or not. Regardless of where they are located, when we finish praying they should be long gone. Period.”

Leave the discussion of demon-locations to others–spend your time learning to effectively destroy demon strongholds, remove legal authority, and cast them out.

How do demons have legal authority? Think back to the garden in Eden when Adam sinned. His sin breached a spiritual legal contract that forfeit the rulership of this world to Satan. Satan and his demons therefore had a legal right to oppress people in accordance with their sins, stealing away their power and life energy as a replacement for what they lost when their connection with God, the Source of all power, was broken as they were cast out of heaven. While some may argue the devil’s legal right to rule the earth, it should be clear that in John 16:11, even Jesus referred to Satan as “the prince of this world,” which is a title denoting a position of authority. Mind you, Jesus also noted that because of what he was doing that the prince was condemned, abdicating that authority, but the point remains that Satan did obtain actual authority in this earth realm. When Jesus came and died, the Bible says that he destroyed the power of death (Hebrews 2:14), and took back the keys to death and the grave (Revelation 1:18). In order to remove this legal authority, we have to legally apply what Jesus purchased for us, writing over the old legal document in his blood and writing a new one–a new and living way through his broken body and shed blood. Much like the legislative branch of government writes laws and the executive branch is responsible for carrying them out, we are the executive branch of God’s Kingdom, and along with the angels we execute His will in the earth. If we or anyone we know are being plagued by demons, it is our responsibility to remove the legal rights of the enemy and cast them out.

Deliverance comes down to, again, diagnosing the problem. Demons oppress people because something about that person’s life allows them access. When we destroy their access, we can usually cast them out without difficulty. Access is won through agreement. Typically, we have a belief or action that agrees with an attribute or function of a demon. As a result of those erroneous beliefs and/or our unhealthy actions, we create areas for demons to have free reign–often referred to as strongholds. In order to destroy the stronghold we have to find the source of access and remove it. For some this can be a deep emotional wound, a belief system, or choices we make. We also have soul fragments, what are most commonly understood as multiple personalities, which play a part as well. I will address this topic later.

Our words and thoughts are powerful, and when we make negative statements, often about ourselves, we can create demonic access through our spoken words. After all, Proverbs 18:21 says “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Even self-deprecating humor, while it can be funny, gives us the opportunity to literally curse ourselves. We can curse not only ourselves but others when we speak negatively about them. That is one of the reasons why gossip is so unhealthy, because it is uncommon that people gossip positively. Usually the words that are spoken about the person being discussed are negative in nature, and they release power that literally empowers demons and create points of access for those demons to set up strongholds in the lives of others. Small matters may be turned aside through angelic protection over that person, but even angels get worn down in battle, and with enough negative energy and access points opened, even the weakest spirits can slip through.

Negative emotions create access points as well. Oftentimes these are as a result of unhealed inner hurts, but regardless of the cause, negative emotions send out a dark spiritual signal into the spirit realm that attracts demons, much as angels are attracted to the positive emotions such as love, peace, joy, etc. There is a reason that Phillipians 4:8-9 says “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” When we think and focus on positive emotions, we invite God’s peace into our lives and welcome angelic assistance with open arms. While it’s not specifically stated in the above verses, the corollary of that is that when we think on things that are base, lowly, unholy, and impure, we invite chaos and demonic assistance into our lives–something that none of us need or want.

Emotional wounds can be light and easy to address, or they can be old, deep, and well-guarded. In some cases, rape being an easy example, there can be deep-seated resentment, anger, bitterness, distrust, and other emotions that get locked away deep inside a person’s soul. These emotional issues attract demons, but that’s not all. These negative emotions are actually stored within various organs in the body and affect the invisible energetic systems within the body, all of which have a trickle-down effect ultimately resulting in a sick and diseased body. There are entire ministries that focus on teaching forgiveness and releasing negative emotions, and some of the time people will get physically healed without anyone praying for a specific condition because the root cause of the infirmity was actually an emotional issue.

In the next installment of this series we will look at soul fragments–what they are, how to identify when fragments are at work, how they influence us, and how they contribute to sickness and disease.

Divine Healing that Works- The Complete Series

Part 1 – The Root Cause

Part 2 – Demons and Deliverance

Part 3 – Fragments

Part 4 – Limiting Beliefs

Part 5 – Casting Out Demons

Part 6 – Emotional Healing

Part 7 – Triggers and Healing Fragments

Part 8 – Faith For Healing

Part 9 – Power and Authority For Healing

Dream Big, Joseph!

Today’s article is written by Tyler Johnson, Founder and Director of the Dead Raising Team (DRT) and One Glance Ministries. I cannot speak more highly of his life and ministry. Enjoy!

“I’ve been reading on Joseph. His life is astounding and many of us probably relate to his experience, especially pertaining to his family. The passage says that when his brothers saw him coming to them from afar, they said “Here comes this dreamer!” Clearly, Joseph had vision for something greater than what his brothers ever imagined. He caught a glimpse of his identity before God and it rocked him. He shared it out of excitement, which wasn’t a good idea. Joseph wasn’t expecting it, but him sharing backfired.

Many people in the Body of Christ get vision of who God intends them to be, briefly seeing the greatness God has planned for their lives. They step out and tell their family, friends, and mentors out of sheer excitement. These are the people that have walked beside them for years, have prayed for them to succeed, have been relationally faithful. In many ways, these are the people that a person would expect to celebrate with them. But just like Joseph, many times family and friends do not have the reaction that we expect. Instead of confirming the call of God upon our lives, they react. Despite the many years of knowing us and who we are, they suddenly get unsure about us. This is extremely disconcerting and confusing when it first happens. If this is you, hang in there and read on. You aren’t alone.

There are many reasons why this happens. Sometimes we have stepped outside of what they are comfortable with pertaining to relationship with God. Sometimes they simply threatened by the change God is implying upon our life because they just see the person as a younger brother, as in Joseph’s case. Condescension can be a guise for the desire to control, insecure, and even jealousy. See, prior to God gloriously messing up our lives, we all played a role in our families and friend’s lives that they had grown accustomed to for years. When that role and identity is challenged by God, people can react. That is okay! It is all a part of the show . . . even though it may not be very fun. Some of the most awkward conversations I have ever had where ones where I was telling family or friends about something wonderful that I had learned about God or something God did through me. The *last* thing you expect is for those conversations to go badly because you are so innocently excited about what God just did. Then suddenly, *BAM* the relational door slams shut and you are standing there on the doorstep of their life wondering what on earth you did. In fact, I have lost far more friendships over God doing something wonderful and me telling a friend because I was stoked than the (many) legitimate screw-ups that I have been responsible for.

Even Jesus went through this ridiculousness. JESUS. The people around Jesus said things like, “You are just the son of a carpenter from Nazareth! We know who you are!” They weren’t interested in Jesus excelling past their standards and vision. They tried to hold him to a certain mold and the moment they saw Him breaking it, they flipped out. When people can’t celebrate other people’s victories and destinies, all that is left for them to do is hold everyone else back from what they haven’t yet experienced personally. Christ’s own blood family thought he was nuts at more than one point, but very clearly at Mark 3:21; “He is out of his mind.”

Just as was true with Christ, our own family may straight up tell us that we aren’t hearing from God and to stop rocking the boat. Obeying God has a way of turning those against us that we were sure were for us no matter what. Sometimes it may not be that our family straight-up calls us crazy. Sometimes, because they know that their honest thoughts may hurt you, they may just keep their mouth closed and take on a tone and demeanor of apathy and indifference. They use the word, “Interesting” when you share, calmly smiling, quietly waiting for you to finish. This is the best they know to do, and that is okay too! This lack of support can be just as hurtful, but it needs to be remembered that the motive behind it is love. They don’t want to hurt you and are trying their best not to quell your excitement. People aren’t evil. . . they are just sorting through their own stuff and sometimes unintentionally let it leak onto you. What will convince your family and friends of what you are saying will not be your words but your lifestyle. Just start to live it and they will come around with time.

When we continue to love those that don’t understand what God is doing in our life is when we start to embody the very thing God is calling us into. Be the bigger person and take the higher road. Offense can be imparted; Don’t take it on. The point is that if *God Himself* caught flack for expressing the truth of who He was, then surely you will too. If you haven’t caught flack for who you are in the eyes of God, you probably have either heard from God of who you are and haven’t told anyone yet, or it has yet to be revealed to you. You know when you are stepping into your destiny when you start to catch flack simply for obeying what God is telling you to do. Jesus promised persecution. Hardship shouldn’t cause us to back off but lean even more into God.

At this point some people actually back off and give up on what God was telling them. I have seen it so many times. In fact, I have seen it so many times that I sometimes get concerned when a person gets great vision for their lives prior to having intimacy with God and being grounded in strong character. This is because if a person doesn’t know how to run into the love of God when the fire and brimstone starts being heaved at them by people, they won’t make it long. Their experience becomes a pillar of crumbling salt they look back upon rather than becoming the thing God told them they could become. Not long after Joseph gets sold off to the enemy by his own family, completely abandoned and forsaken by everyone he knows, he is taken to Egypt. There, away from his family and friends in a foreign place, God exalts him to the place He intends for Joseph. God’s favor was not something that was dictated by his family and friends agreeing with him.

God’s favor is unstoppable; it hunts down God’s sons and daughters and moves mountains to make what God said come to fruition. He will do the same for you. If family and friends don’t celebrate God’s intended plans for a person, He will quickly move the person to a place where others do. God will not allow the gift inside someone to die simply because family and friends can’t understand how someone could ascend to such heights. God is too loving to let this happen because the gift inside is meant for anyone that is hungry for it, and God won’t let that go to waste for the sake of the hungry. If you want to keep those around you close, celebrate their victories and vision.

Egypt gets a bad rap, but at least they recognized Joseph’s value . . . something Joseph’s own family failed to do. Surround yourself with people that think the way God does about you. When family or friends buck your heart or vision, just love them. If they are right, loving them is the correct response. If they are wrong, loving them is the correct response. The only one that can sabotage God’s plans is you. You are powerful. God’s plans are bigger for you than you or anyone else could grasp. Dream big, you dreamer.”

-Tyler-

In addition to his most notable accomplishments — a husband and father of three children, Tyler Johnson is the Director of the Dead Raising Teams and One Glance Ministries. He has written multiple books, including How to Raise the Dead and the masterful 2-book fiction series The Coming that carries with it a deep revelation of heaven. His blog, found at Oneglance.org is a collection of his many thoughts, revelations, and experiences in full time ministry and teaching on the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. He teaches Resurrection Schools around the world, and is available for ministry engagements. He also has a growing Youtube channel found here: One Glance Ministries

God Revealing Love Through Signs Wonders and Miracles

Power and Authority For Healing – Part 9 of Divine Healing that Works

Faith for Healing – Part 8 of Divine Healing that Works

Triggers and Healing Fragments – Part 7 of Divine Healing that Works

Emotional Healing – Part 6 of Divine Healing that Works

Casting Out Demons – Part 5 of Divine Healing that Works

Limiting Beliefs – Part 4 of Divine Healing that Works

Fragments – Part 3 of Divine Healing that Works

Demons and Deliverance – Part 2 of Divine Healing that Works

Dream Big, Joseph!

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