Category Archives: Educational
Freedom from Nightmares & Suicide – Adele’s Story
A reader of this blog contacted me recently with some very good questions! We have been corresponding on various topics, like how to know the voice of the Lord, how to minister using the spiritual gifts God has given her and how to interpret what you see in the spiritual realm.
I am impressed by her hunger for the Lord – she’s 18 years old and is getting water baptized this month. She shared her testimony with me and I wanted to share it with you.
The Tanlines of my Testimony: A Story of God’s Overwhelming Love and Grace
by Adele Chong
I was a kid who seemed to have it all together: I went to church every Sunday morning, rolled in the sandbox at my favorite playground, and waited fervently until Friday so I had an excuse to stay up past my bedtime. However, no one could see beyond the drawn curtains of my house. My house was full of demons.
Centuries of generational curses brought about slews of spiritual attacks in my life. I had nightmares almost every week. A voice in my head would try to convince me to end my own life, that no one loved me, that everyone around me hated me and wouldn’t care if I disappeared. Eventually these years of battling anxiety, depression, and thoughts of suicide drew me to competitive swimming. It was an outlet where I could get high on the rush of roaring water. I thought I had everything I ever wanted: Friends, recognition, love. But what I really had was an idol, a way to calm my demons without delivering me from them.
Everything changed after a swim meet on March 9-10, 2024, where my medals were misplaced. What seemed like a small issue, ignited into frustration and helplessness. Desperate, I turned to my Bible – not to find God, but to fix my problem. I was on His calendar… I just didn’t know it.
After months of silence from the organizers, I knew it was out of my hands. So I surrendered everything to God: My anxiety, depression, thoughts of suicide, and the medals. An overwhelming peace washed over me; it was unlike anything I had ever experienced. It was God’s love, and it was better than any accolade, any word of affirmation, or any time spent in the pool chasing personal records. And I knew I would be okay. Soon, the organizers wrote back to me telling me they found my medals. I decided to read the Bible after that, starting with the Book of Romans. Then, little by little, something was changing within me. My faith in God had skyrocketed. I had an insatiable hunger for His Word. I longed for His presence in ways unprecedented. The nightmares stopped. The voice in my head disappeared. The dark countenance that loomed over me for 18 years finally lifted.
I don’t write all of this for pity or validation. I write to glorify and honour the One who saved me when I couldn’t save myself. Life as a child of God doesn’t exempt me from suffering; I still have mental strongholds to dismantle. But through His peace and strength, I am dislodging every brick the enemy planted in my mind. I hope this testimony will encourage believers in bondage. If you’re struggling with fear, doubt, and darkness, know this: God’s love is greater than any pain. Surrender to Him, and you’ll find the peace your soul longs for. Only through Jesus can we truly be free.
I hope this inspires you – you don’t have to stay in a place of darkness and defeat. Surrender is the path to Freedom! Perhaps someone you know came to mind as you read this testimony – say a prayer for them and ask the Lord if you should share this post with them.
You CAN be free! You CAN experience God’s Love like Adele did. You can have hunger for God that’s insatiable and faith that lets you know, Everything’s going to be okay. This is totally possible – even for you.
If you have questions, feel free to post them below or contact me. What is God talking to you about that perhaps you need to surrender?
Power Over Chaos: The Enemy’s Worst Nightmare
I had a really intense dream this week that gave me some wonderful deep revelation. Here it is:
I’m alone outside. I observe that the wind is starting to blow. I see all this trash on the ground. It was empty plastic bags – some clear, some white and some light blue. The kind of bags you get at grocery and retail stores.
I was in a semi wooded area and it was kind of ugly. The ground was white dirt. The trees had no leaves, like the way it looks in winter. When the wind started to blow, I noticed that all the plastic bags were being picked up by the wind – it was cleaning the ground.
I was happy about this – I was delighted to watch all the plastic bags being picked up and taken away or maybe just gathered in piles so they could be thrown away.
By watching the bags, I noticed that the wind was blowing in a swirling circular pattern. In front of me was a small lake. I saw that the swirling was centered in the lake and it was getting stronger and stronger. I could hear a voice warning me, Don’t go near the swirling! (As though this was very dangerous and the voice was trying to protect me.)
But it was inevitable for me to be swallowed up by the swirling. There was no way to escape it. It got more and more violent until I was in the center of it in the lake.
There was nothing but chaos surrounding me. It was like standing in the middle of a tornado. I couldn’t see anything – just the sense of being in the middle of this powerful swirling wind.
But instead of freaking out, I started calming down inside by humming two tones over and over. And I knew that as I calmed down on the inside, it would calm the chaos around me. Then I woke up – my husband thought I was having a nightmare and he woke me up (he said I was making noise).
Here are some Insights I received from this dream:
I have been warned to stay away from the chaos. But when chaos surrounds me, I have power over it!
You can stop the chaos without, by bringing peace to the chaos within.
I do NOT need to fear the chaos because greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world (I John 4:4). I bet that terrifies the devil! Maybe I was having his nightmare! LOL 😂
I think the voice that was trying to protect me is either my ego or maybe religion. What sounds like wisdom, but it’s really based on fear. The voice was well-meaning and trying to protect me. It thought that the chaos would harm me. But when I was in the middle of the chaos, I found out that I actually was more powerful than it.
The enemy tries to intimidate us with chaos – he says, “Look at all this craziness you can’t control!! Be afraid, be very afraid!” (If you watch the news or read the headlines – it’s there every day.)
Yet the Chaos is the very thing that reminds me to tap into the Peace within me, which is more powerful than the chaos outside of me. Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. I am powerful in Him. It’s time to stop listening to the voice of fear that is trying to protect us. Because in reality we already have all that we need. Nothing can truly harm us. We are safe in the most wonderful way.
I feel such joy! The more I embrace that things around me are out of my control, the more true lasting power I realize I have because I am the one that brings calm to the storm. I don’t have peace by controlling things around me to keep things from getting “out of control”. I have peace because none of it is under my control. I don’t have to control it! I don’t have to manage it in order to have peace and power. Peace and power are already mine – it resides in me as I abide in Christ.
The devil is terrified that we will discover this secret and take away his power by bringing peace on earth.
We are the enemy’s worst nightmare. Not the other way around. I LOVE that!! 😁😍🤣
Wow. Thank you, Lord!! Your kingdom rules over all and we are your ambassadors. We bring Your kingdom wherever we go! ❤️
So what do you think? Does this speak to you the way it did to me? What is the Lord highlighting to you about this dream that you could apply to your life today? Please comment – I love to hear your thoughts!
Thank you for being part of this journey – bringing Peace on Earth. Go be dangerous to the devil! 😎
Angry Intercession – Can You Pray Angry?
The Power of Righteous Anger in Prayer
Have you ever heard to angry intercession? Can you pray while you are angry?
Some people are afraid of their anger. I am not. When you surrender all your heart to Jesus and ask Him to use your emotions for His good and His glory, amazing things can happen – even in anger.
The apostle James said, The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. James 5:16-18 NKJV
The effective, fervent prayer – fervency is passion and one form of passion is Anger. Does that disturb you? Is it okay as a Christian to get angry?
There comes a time and a place where the follower of Jesus says to the darkness, “ENOUGH!” This is usually said from a place of desperation to see God’s glory, to see His kingdom expand. It can also come from a heart of deep compassion for someone who is in bondage to darkness.
You might have a situation in your life where you have seen darkness prevail and you are tired of it. You have prayed, you have quoted Scripture, you may have even fasted or gotten counsel from a spiritual leader, but nothing seems to be changing.
Then one day, you snap. You say in your heart, “Enough is enough! It is time for this thing to shift now!!!”
Enough is enough! It is time for this thing to shift now!!!
I don’t think it’s something you can come up with on your own. I think it is a holy, divine disatisfaction given by the Holy Spirit that bubbles up within your spirit.
Imagine Jesus on the day he went to the temple in Jerusalem during the Passover feast (John 2). He had been going for years and had seen what the money changers were doing. He knew people were being oppressed by the high prices they charged for the sacrificial animals that were required to present to the priests. You’ve probably felt like those people when you go to the airport or to a concert and they charge $5 for a bottle of water or $6 for a can of soda. You know you can buy water and soda for much less than that at the grocery store so why are the prices so high? Because they know you are a captive audience and you don’t have any other options – they take advantage of your thirst. After years of seeing the corruption, one day Jesus simply said, “Enough!” and he drove the money changers from the temple with a whip! I don’t think He was smiling and saying, “Bless you” as he used that whip. I think He was likely angry or frustrated – the Bible uses the word “zeal”, another word for passion and action combined.
I have experienced the power of righteous anger in prayer and I have taught other people about it too. It occurred to me that this is probably a foreign concept for many people so I decided to write this post.
So many of us have only seen soulish, unholy anger that it hard for us to imagine what holy anger feels like or looks like. Ask Holy Spirit to show you – there is definitely a place for it. Let me give you some illustrations.
I know a woman who had a husband who was not treating her well and not walking with God. She was raised by a Christian family but she wasn’t really seeking the Lord. She turned her heart to God and the closer she got to Him, the more her husband’s behavior was bothering her. She was getting angry but didn’t want to fight with him – she wanted him to repent and turn to the Lord instead. She knew she was powerless to change her husband herself. She told me she took a child’s plastic bat and went outside to a big tree in their backyard. Whenever she got angry, she would swing at that tree and yell out her prayers to God. “You GET HIM, God! I am tired of his bad behavior!!” She just let it out – focused on God, allowing Him to do whatever He wanted to do to her husband. She told me she did it every time she got really angry at the darkness in his life and she didn’t care who heard her (they lived in a neighborhood where the houses were very close to each other). To make a long story short, God did get ahold of him and he later became completely sold out to God! By the time I knew them, he was the associate pastor of our church. He was a wonderful, gentle shepherd who really gave his life for people to come closer to God, both by his example and his willingness to teach them God’s ways. He is now with the Lord but I will never forget him. Her Angry Intercession brought him into his destiny, I believe. Fervent prayer has real power! Give God praise! 🙂
I have experienced this myself at times. I will feel the enemy pressing down on me, pushing me, oppressing me. I don’t usually know why – I just feel it. The longer it is going on, the more aggravated I get. Finally, something in me says, “ENOUGH OF THIS!” and I start yelling at the devil. Sometimes I have done this while driving (because that happened to be when it hit me to release it). Sometimes I have done this while in my living room (when no one is home so I don’t scare them). I let the anger I feel toward the oppression out of my mouth – I release the passion for righteousness that the Lord has placed in my heart. And I see things shift! If the oppression was specifically targeting me – it lifts and I feel at peace. Sometimes the oppression has been for someone else I am praying for in my family – and I see the shift in their life through their attitude or the choices they are making. It’s really quite stunning when it happens. So don’t be afraid of your anger in prayer – it might just be the exact thing that is needed for breakthrough.
Please pay attention to this fact – when you are praying angry, you are not directing your anger toward a person. You are directing it toward the darkness that is affecting you or someone you love.
There’s a Scripture that has always made me wonder what it means – “… the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.” (Matthew 11:12) I discovered that the English translation says “violence” but the original Greek says it more like this: “the kingdom of heaven is forcefully acquired and the forceful are snatching it up”. It’s a deep determination that you are going to get what God has for you and nothing is going to keep you from it!
One key I’ve noticed is that this anger is focused on righteousness. It is not the same as selfish anger, which tends to be focused on you and your own agenda. Does that make sense? You are praying for God’s will to be done, not your own.
So, how about you? Have you ever experienced this righteous anger in prayer? Does this concept bother you? Is it okay to get angry at injustice and then pray that way? What are your thoughts? Please comment below so we can all learn from each other.
By the way, before you are tempted to start quoting verses that tell you to stop being angry, remember that it also says, “Be angry, and do not sin.” (Ephesians 4:26) There is a place for Righteous Anger. Would you rather have a God who doesn’t care when injustice occurs? No, God is angry with wickedness every day (Psalm 7:11) and I’m glad because someone should be! Compassion is “love on fire” and when someone you love is being harmed by the darkness, you get angry. That’s holy anger in Love!
Now go be dangerous to the darkness – release God’s light of Love! 🙂
Feeling in the Spirit – What Do I Do With It?
I saw this question posted recently in a group I am in:
“My fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, who God has blessed with the gift of discerning of spirits, do you feel things? I find it difficult to talk to people about it without me sounding crazy and at times I feel like I’m going crazy, like there’s something wrong with me. I struggle to work out what is my stuff or other people’s stuff or what I am meant to do with what I feel. Does anyone understand me or experience the same things?”
YES! You are not alone!! 💗
I decided to write out a response to this question because I see it frequently. The person asked if there was a book or something where they could learn how to use this gift of feeling things in the spirit. Unfortunately, I don’t know of a good book on this topic. That’s partly why I started this blog – to share what I’ve experienced to help normalize it for people. And to let them know, You are not crazy and you are not alone – I experience these things too.
So in this post, I’m going to go over this gift of discerning of spirits as it relates to “feeling”. Part of what makes this a bit confusing to discuss is that “feeling” can mean emotional feeling and it can mean tangible feeling – like sensing a presence in your room. Because the feeling gift works both ways, I’ll discuss each one.
Where to start? This is such a deep topic and no one has tackled it sufficiently yet. There are precious few books written on discerning of spirits.
What Do I Do With What I Feel?
Let’s start with what to do because that is usually the first question I hear from people: “I felt __, but I didn’t know what to do about it.” Here’s my 1 step plan: Ask the Lord. When you feel something (whether tangible or emotional), simply stop, pay attention to what you are experiencing and ask, Holy Spirit, what is this? Am I supposed to do something about this? Then wait for a minute or two and see what comes to your heart or mind. Don’t try to figure it out on your own – that’s leaning on your own understanding. If you need to know, God will tell you!
Sometimes clarity will come to you and you’ll know what to do. Sometimes you get nothing. In that case, simply continue on with your day and trust that if it’s important, God will show you more. I specifically ask Holy Spirit because the Spirit has been given to us to lead us into all truth, to teach us things.
When you feel things that no one else appears to feel, you may be tempted to question your sanity. This happens because your soul is trying to interpret what your spirit is perceiving. Don’t let your soul try to talk you out of what you are sensing. You are sensing it for a reason. Just stop and ask the Holy Spirit to show you what to do.
Sometimes you may feel things because it gives you more information about a person or a situation, but you may not need to do anything about it. It’s just information. For instance, today I went to a local farmer’s market. I saw a vendor that was selling pretty rocks, incense, stones with inspiring words carved on them, tea, jewelry and other items. I heard an older lady say, “We are a mind, body, spirit store.” I looked at a younger woman standing behind the table and I perceived her unrest. She was shifting from foot to foot and nervously moving one of her hands. But I felt it first. That’s what made me look up from the table and pay attention to her behavior. I asked the Lord silently inside my spirit whether I should say something to her. In fact, I thought it was ironic that they were selling things promising to give you peace when this woman clearly was not at peace. The Holy Spirit told me not to say anything so I moved along. Later it occured to me that maybe this woman’s unrest was because of demons she may have invited in and they were uncomfortable being near the light that I carry. People who dabble in the spiritual realm using these items often invite guidance from spirits that they think are harmless but later are revealed to be demons with a hurtful agenda.
In case you are wondering if it’s just you, let me assure you – I feel things every day. Everywhere I go I feel things. Do I know what it all means? No. I don’t have to. I’ve learned that in the kingdom of God, information is on a “need to know” basis. If you need to know, God will tell you. If not, just keep going.
So how did I know this was “her stuff” and not “my stuff”? I’ve learned to pay attention to what I am feeling. I was at peace as I was strolling through the farmer’s market. I make it a point to cultivate peace, to bring it wherever I go. So when I felt this unrest in the spiritual realm, I looked around to see where it was coming from. I knew it wasn’t my unrest – it came from outside of me. It wasn’t inside of me.
Feelings on the Inside versus the Outside
There have been times, many times in fact, where I am at home minding my own business and suddenly I feel a negative emotion. It comes out of the blue. I will feel it on the inside as though it is my own emotions. And yet, I was not thinking any thoughts related to that emotion. I wasn’t upset about anything – it just came to me.
What do you do when that happens?
I do the same thing – my 1 step plan. I stop, pay attention and identify what I’m feeling. Then I ask, Holy Spirit, what is this? Am I supposed to do something about this?
It could be an attack of anxiety from the demonic realm – just sent to harrass me. If so, I would pray, “I come out of agreement with anxiety and fear. I command you to leave right now. I cover myself and my household with the blood of Jesus.”
I might ask Holy Spirit if there’s an open door that allowed this attack to enter. If so, I say, “I close every open door to the enemy’s realm and seal them with the blood of Jesus.” If I was the one that opened that door, I would repent.
But maybe this feeling is not an attack. Maybe someone else is feeling anxious or upset. If I am near a friend or family member, I may feel prompted by the Spirit to turn to them and ask, Are you feeling anxious about anything? Maybe this is a word of knowledge as a feeling so that I can offer to pray for them and show compassion for their pain.
Sometimes I don’t get any clarity about who is the one with the feeling so I simply send peace. I might pray, Lord, I don’t know who is feeling anxious right now, but I give this feeling to You. I ask for Your peace to penetrate and saturate this anxiety. I receive Your peace.
This is the role of an intercessor – to bring to the Lord the unrest in the world and release His peace and love to heal the pain that is causing the unrest.
The main thing I try not to do is assume I know what is going on. That would be leaning on my own understanding. Instead, I turn to Him and ask for direction and then act.
If I was not at peace when the feeling suddenly came, it can be confusing to figure out – is this mine or someone else’s? Either way, I simply surrender it to the Lord. I stop and ask for direction. If it was mine to begin with then I certainly don’t want it! Or maybe I was feeling a little off already and this extra emotion was sent to sabotage my day. Still the 1 step plan is my choice of action. I am going to do my best to get back to the place of peace inside and out.
–> I will tell you a secret – the more you get healed on the inside, peace becomes your normal operating environment. Peace and Joy. So when other feelings suddenly come over you, you realize – This is not me! And it’s easier to deal with it. (So pursue inner healing – it’s wonderful!)
As an intercessor, sometimes you may carry an emotion for someone else for awhile. You might feel the heartache of divorce or grief. You might feel the loneliness of abandonment. You might carry a sense of anger over injustice. Keep in mind – you are not meant to carry it for a long time. Keep surrendering it to the Lord and ask Him to lead you in how to release what is needed from His kingdom into the earth – or on behalf of a specific person. He will show you. You will be directed. It might just come as an intuitive understanding of what to do. Just follow His leading.
Feeling Atmospheres
When there is unrest in a nation, you might feel it in the atmosphere. That can feel inescapable! This is very hard if you are a feeler. Sometimes the feeling is only regional. I’ve had times where I could feel so much pressure in the atmosphere around me and I just knew I needed to go for a drive. As I drove out of the area and passed a certain boundary in the spirit, immediately the pressure decreased. A big sigh of relief would come over me and I’d realize it was regional. Often when it is over a large area like that, there’s not much you can do about it other than just endure until it passes. Someday we as a corporate body will have authority to shift the atmosphere over a larger region, but right now, I certainly don’t have that on my own and I don’t know of a local body in my area that does.
Am I Going Crazy?
Last question: How do you know if you are going crazy? This is an excellent question because many of us may feel like we are crazy, especially when no one else seems to sense what we do. First of all, if you are questioning your sanity that’s actually a sign of good mental health. People who have truly lost touch with reality, don’t ask that question. Secondly, find others who have this gift that you can share your feelings with. It really helps to have someone who is sensitive to the Holy Spirit who can validate that what you are sensing is not crazy. The gifts are meant for the body of Christ and having others around you helps you fine tune your gift of discernment. Lastly, ask the Lord. He will confirm to you what is accurate and what is not. You can trust Him. It’s His job to take care of you, including your mental health. 🙂
The main thing is to simply learn to let go of anything you don’t understand. Ask Him about it. Wait for an answer and if nothing comes, just let it go. Don’t get wrapped up in your imagination.
This gift forces you to rely on the Holy Spirit more than anything else! It is vital. You can’t operate in the gifts of the Spirit without relying on the Giver of the gifts! Reading a book or this post might be a little helpful, but God is truly the only one who can teach you how to use the gift He gave you. So press in to intimacy with Him.
I hope this post has been helpful. I am sure there are more questions regarding Feeling in the Spirit. Please post any questions below and we can continue this discussion.
Just as a reminder – you are not crazy and you are not alone. I am a feeler too – there are many of us. We need to stick together. Thank you for letting God move through your feelings – it’s a gift! 🙂💗
P.S. I just remembered a story about this that might encourage you. One time I was in a small group Bible study at someone’s home and I began to feel uncomfortable. I didn’t know what to do about it, but the tension was increasing. I looked around the room and no one else seemed to notice. So I didn’t say anything. Finally, we took a break and had snacks. I went into the kitchen and someone whispered to me, “Did you feel uncomfortable tonight?” I looked at them in surprise! “You felt it too?!” I asked, kind of shocked. Just then someone else walked in and said, “Me too! Didn’t it feel weird?” Then another person joined the conversation and we discovered FOUR of us had felt something was off but since we all assumed we were the only one feeling it, we didn’t say anything. So keep in mind – you are probably NOT the only one feeling what you are feeling, but most of us have no idea how to communicate about the unseen realm with others and we fear sounding weird so we don’t say anything.
Training for God’s Kingdom
Rick Joyner posted this Word for the Week and it really spoke to me. It’s so good that I don’t want to paraphrase it – the way he says these things rings with truth. I have respect for Rick and the many years he has ministered wisdom to the body of Christ to know the ways of God. This is a classic example of how he shares the wisdom he has received from the Lord. So here are Rick’s words:
From the book of Revelation, we can see that the entire church—and the world—will go through great troubles before His coming kingdom. These tribulations are for the purpose of helping the church, and then the world, enter the kingdom of God. As the apostle Paul said in Acts 14:22, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” So, tribulations are a gateway to the kingdom for us, and ultimately for the whole world.
[Wow, think about that! Have you ever thought of your tribulations as a gate to the kingdom?! My, my, my – and not just for us as believers, but for the whole world. (my thoughts)]
The Lord said, “In the world you will have tribulation” (see John 16:33). Everyone in the world has tribulations, but as Christians, we can have the great advantage of understanding their purpose and using them to enter the kingdom of God. We’re called to live in the kingdom of God now, not just in the next life. As we’re told in Hebrews 12, the kingdom of God cannot be shaken, so if we build our lives on His kingdom, we will not shake when “everything that can be shaken will be shaken.” That time is upon us, and the Lord is using trials to help us establish our lives on solid ground. This is not just so that we won’t be lost, but so we can pull others out of the quicksand this world is becoming.
We’re called to live in the kingdom of God now, not just in the next life. – Rick Joyner
If we understand our trials, it is easier to derive the maximum benefit from them. This can also make the trials easier to endure, as we know that the Creator and sustainer of all things has promised He will not let us be tested beyond what we are able to endure. For this reason, when we are getting close to the point where we don’t think we can take anymore, we know that the end of the trial is near.
This being understood, we know that the Lord knows much better than we do what we can take. If we trust Him, even when we get to this place we don’t think we can take any more, the longer we can endure at this point, the more our capacity will grow.
As Francis Frangipane used to say, “We never fail one of God’s tests; we just keep taking them until we pass.” If we give up prematurely, we just have to take the test again. So, don’t give up! In Luke 21:19, the Lord said, “By your endurance you will gain your lives.”
As we’re told in Hebrews 12, the kingdom of God cannot be shaken, so if we build our lives on His kingdom, we will not shake when “everything that can be shaken will be shaken.” That time is upon us…. – Rick Joyner
In Hebrews 10:36, we are exhorted, “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.” Hang on just a little longer, and it will be over. If we endure, we don’t have to keep going through the same trials over and over. As James wrote, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4).
As Winston Churchill said, “When you’re going through hell, keep going.” The book of Revelation reveals how trials are a part of every life on earth, and the earth will go through them until the end of the age to come. As we mature, the trials are no longer just for our maturing, but so we learn to help bear the burdens of others until they can stand. Then, they start to help others. This is when we don’t just have to just count the trials as joy; they truly become joy as we see the victories.
“We never fail one of God’s tests; we just keep taking them until we pass.” -Francis Frangipane
Jesus could have taken His authority over the earth immediately after His resurrection and bound the devil then. He had paid the price to redeem us and the whole earth, so why didn’t He do this and make it easier for us? He did not want it to be easy. If we’re going to be the overcomers He speaks to in the book of Revelation, we have to get the “easy” mentality out of our thinking. He wanted it to be hard so that those who were called to rule with Him could be proven, and have their capacities enlarged, so they could reign standing firmly on His kingdom authority, not their own.
There is a saying that, “If we do not have the experience of growing wealth, we will not have the wisdom to keep it.” This has proven to be true, and it is also true with authority. If we do not have the experience of growing and maturing in kingdom authority, we will not be able to maintain it. Our trials are “training for reigning,” so don’t waste them!
I hope you enjoyed this Word for the Week from Rick Joyner. Did you ever think, Why is life so hard?!! Well, now you know! 😆 We have to remove “easy” from our mentality if we want to be training for reigning, like Rick says. It IS true – trials shake you free from your attachment to earthly things and expectations of what life “should” look like for you. That enables you to start focusing on what cannot be shaken – God’s kingdom, doing things God’s way. It is very hard to go through this process – it’s painful and causes disillusionment with everything you thought you knew about life. But if you can endure, you gain something priceless – proven character to actually sit with Jesus on His throne in the kingdom. He said, “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” (Revelation 3:21).
I hope to see you there – sitting with Jesus on His throne – because that’s where I will be! 🙂
Feel free to comment below – I know this is a deep, heavy kind of post. One that may challenge you and that you may not want to hear. I trust Holy Spirit will enlighten your heart in the knowledge of truth and help you receive whatever you need to know to endure the current trial you are in. God bless you. 💗
Unity in Uniqueness – There’s No Other Way!
“Everyone else is __ and I’m not. I don’t fit in. I must be weird or something.”
I would venture to guess that every person has had those thoughts at some point in their life.
I just discovered that this is a LIE!
Who knew?
We tend to see patterns among our associates – friends, coworkers, family members, neighbors. Because we have a strong desire to belong, we look for those who are similar to us. We join clubs, community organizations or sports teams to be one of the gang.
Then when “everyone else” appears to be united in doing the same thing or wearing the same style or buying the same products and we don’t conform, we feel like the odd one. In fact, in some social circles, that point will be brought to your attention, like:
“You don’t like football? What’s wrong with you?”
“Come on, everyone’s having a drink. What’ll it be?”
“Are you seriously wearing THAT outfit to the party?”
People pressure us to conform to whatever they are doing because conformity feels like belonging.
But it’s NOT.
And those who know this often feel like they don’t really belong.
And they are right! 🙂
On the outside, it can look like everyone is agreed on the same thing. Like employees wearing a uniform at their job – does it make them a unified team because they all wear the same thing? No, not usually.
It’s not true connection and unity.
We are each made to be unique – like snow flakes. There aren’t two that are alike.
So when you think you are weird for not being like everyone else, stop yourself and say,
“No, nobody is like everyone else – we are all unique for a reason!”
True belonging and connection comes because we are all different. I like you because although we might have some things in common, you have your own perspective, your own personality and your own sense of humor. I LIKE that about you!
On the outside you might see conformity in a group of people, but I have never in my life met two people who were alike. Never. Even identical twins are not perfect copies of each other – they each have their own tastes, talents and interests in life.
Each person is “weird” in their own way and it is a reason to be celebrated! (not rejected)
In God’s kingdom, every part does it’s share and together God’s purposes are fulfilled. The Bible says,
But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? (I Corinthians 12:18-21, 17)
The whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. (Ephesians 4:16)
We NEED our uniqueness to make the world a beautiful place!
Like puzzle pieces, we each have our own shape, our own edges and uniqueness. Some people will connect with certain parts of you and others will connect with a different side of you. THAT’S THE WAY IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE!
There’s Unity in Uniqueness – true belonging comes from truly being who we are. And not trying to be like everyone else because that’s just plain impossible.
I hope this encourages you today. It’s impossible for you to be weird, odd or strange – because there is no standard that everyone conforms to. You are meant to be different than others – that’s what makes you YOU.
Questions? Comments? Arguments against or Support for this idea? Feel free to post them below and let’s start a conversation about this.
Thank you for reading my “weirdness” and enjoying it too – I like you just the way you are. 🙂💗
By the way, this kind of reminds me of a recent post I did on the Rainbow Circle of Light. Each person had a different wavelength or color of light with which they glowed. Shine brightly! 😁
Learning to Hear God’s Voice
Whenever someone tells me they want to draw closer to God, one of my first questions is about whether they know how to discern God’s voice. Learning the language of the Spirit is like learning another language – it takes time and practice! You can pray all day and fast and read Scripture, but there has to be two way communication in order to build a RELATIONSHIP with God. It cannot be one sided!
In fact, I remember when I was a child and someone said from a pulpit that Jesus was our best friend and we should talk to him all day long. In my mind, my reply was, Well, He better talk to me too! No one talked about hearing from God so I didn’t say what I was thinking for fear of being labeled disrespectful. I guess most people just assumed it was a one way thing – you talk and God listens. I remember when I started to hear from God and I told my dad. He said, That’s preposterous! God only talks to holy men in the mountains. He was raised Greek Orthodox and there are special mountains where the priests go to hear from God.
Guess what? God still speaks! And you can know when God is speaking to you. Did you ever notice that almost every story in the Bible revolves around someone hearing from God? It’s important when God speaks to you and you should write down what He says! It also means He talks to a lot of people so why wouldn’t He talk to you too? 😊
If you want some step-by-step instructions, here is a course I can recommend to help you get started.
Developing a Close Relationship with God: A Simple Method – link to course
If you need encouragement and hope to develop a close relationship with God – that’s what this course provides. If you took the course, you’d learn how to focus so you can pay attention to God without distractions. You’d also learn to recognize His voice and become familiar with the different ways that God communicates. You’d practice recording what God has said to you each day. This would give you confidence to take action on what He tells you to do. That’s quite an adventure! Lastly, you’d have a new appreciation of what it means to really TRUST God.
It’s very short – like 15 minutes a week for 4 weeks. And it’s not expensive. You can listen to it while you drive or even when you exercise. It provides simple exercises to help you interact with God.
Recently a reader of this blog sent me this message about the course:
My husband and I just completed this course. It is concise and we feel so comforted and confirmed that our personal experiences with God are true! At our church, no one shares how they communicate personally with God. I learned by asking God to help me discern which voice is His, which voice is mine and which voice is the enemy (or accuser). This course gave us confirmation of our experience with Holy Spirit.
It is very important to learn how to tell the difference between God’s voice, your own voice and the enemy’s voice. If you need help with that, read this post: God’s Voice vs Other Voices: How Can You Tell the Difference?
If you have learned to hear God voice already, please comment on this post – that way we can all learn from each other!
Here are some related posts that might also help you:
How to Remove Blocks to Hearing God
Why Can’t I See or Hear in the Spirit?
How to See in the Spirit
Last night I was in a prayer meeting and one of the ladies (JC) asked how she could see in the spirit. Often when we would pray together as a group, someone would say what they saw. This was challenging for her. She did not see things in the spiritual realm and didn’t know how to develop this ability.
Before we started praying, I briefly shared some things with her. This morning I received a message from JC saying,
Thank you for your tips on how to connect my hearing sense with my seeing sense. It was so good for me – I experienced some breakthroughs (she gave examples). Thank you so much, I am blessed! Glory to the Father! Thank Him for letting me move forward little by little.
Here are the things I shared with her – in case they might help you too.
First, what is your strongest sense? Do you see, hear or feel? Most of us perceive the unseen realm of God’s kingdom by one of these senses. I’m primarily a feeler. JC said she is primarily a hearer.
I encouraged her to focus on what is already comfortable for her – hearing. Then when someone else describes what they see, imagine that scene in your mind and see if the Lord will let you hear something that relates to what the other person is seeing. Imagine what you are hearing. This helps to connect the two senses.
Don’t focus on what you can’t do – focus on what you CAN do. Then share it with the group. Even if it seems very small or insignificant. What you focus on will grow. It also validates it for your mind.
Our mind (natural man) often questions what our spirits perceive. Our mind is used to being in charge and interpreting the world around us based on our 5 natural senses, right? So when you start using your spiritual senses, the mind tries to jump in and take charge. It often questions what you are perceiving and tries to convince you that you are wrong or stupid or even crazy. It creates doubt (the opposite of faith).
When you express what you are sensing in the spirit, it feels like a big risk. You risk being seen as foolish or sounding crazy. But guess what? When you say out loud what you are sensing, it validates it in your mind. It makes it easier to accept, which builds your faith and opens you up to sensing even more! It is honoring the Lord by honoring what He is showing you.
As you do that, your senses get sharper and they begin to work together. As JC practiced last night, by focusing her listening skills, she suddenly got visual pictures! She told me that some of the things she saw seemed impossible. But she told herself to accept it. After she did that, someone else in the group would describe the same thing she was seeing – confirmation! She was ecstatic! That meant she wasn’t crazy or just making things up (which is what the natural mind wants you to think).
Saying out loud what you are sensing brings it from the unseen realm into the seen realm. It brings it from the kingdom realm into the natural realm. It connects the two realms in our natural reality which makes it feel or seem more real. It IS real, but our minds often discount it because it’s from the spirit. This teaches our natural mind how to receive and accept the things from the spirit.
Here’s another exercise you can do to practice seeing:
- Look around the room you are in. Then close your eyes and imagine the room. Look around it in your mind’s eye. How much detail can you see? Practice this a few times until you can clearly see as much detail as possible.
- Ask Holy Spirit to show you where to look in the room. Focus on that area with your eyes still closed. Ask Him to show you something from the unseen realm. Wait and see what He shows you. Then ask Him to explain what you are seeing and He will.
I did this exercise with a friend and she saw an angel in my living room. Sometimes people have told me they see other things with this exercise like a portal or an item like a sword or a tree.
“A spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing us, embracing us, altogether within reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognize it. God Himself is here waiting our response to His Presence. This eternal world will come alive to us the moment we begin to reckon upon its reality.” – A. W Tozer, The Pursuit of God
Let me know what tips have helped you to develop your spiritual senses. Comment below so we can all learn from each other. When you do the exercise I described above, please share what you saw. If you see anything dark or scary, ask Jesus, “Where are You in this picture?” Then focus on Jesus and watch what He does. 🙂
More posts that can help you see more clearly in the spiritual realm of God’s kingdom:
How to See – Training & Live Discussions!
I am so excited to announce that Blake Healy is now offering training and live discussions on How to See in the Unseen Realm! Blake has written a very helpful and inspiring book on this topic called The Veil – you can read my review (with excerpts) here. People LOVE his book and how down to earth he is about a topic that can get kind of weird (right?). So I am thrilled that he is now taking his experience and sharing it with us live. In the past he has offered a few in-person workshops but now you can access his training from anywhere in the world.
He has a Patreon account which gives you different levels of access to his training based on how much it is worth to you (and how much you can afford). I screen shot the levels so you can see what they are. You can join Patreon and follow Blake’s account for free, but to access the content, there’s a monthly cost.
He has 3 training sessions already uploaded so it looks like he is just getting started! You could join now for $15/month to enjoy the live group discussion with Q&A on Zoom twice a month. Then later when he has more course content released (probably in a few months), you could increase to $30/month and watch all the training videos. Looks like he will also be offering activation meetings every three months too. If you want one-on-one coaching and even more activation calls, then you can sign up for the highest tier.
If you are eager to be able to see in the spiritual unseen realm, I encourage you to read Blake’s book and then join his Patreon community. He’s one of the most knowledgeable people on this topic – and he makes it simple and easy to grasp. Here’s the link to his Patreon community. I noticed he posted the first lesson of his Foundations class for free – click here to watch it.
So many people find this blog looking for tips and suggestions for how they can see in the spirit realm – I hope this new resource from Blake Healy helps you! 🙂
Posts on Seeing in the Spirit from this blog:
How to See in the Unseen Realm
Why Can’t I See or Hear in the Spirit?
How to Remove Blocks to Hearing God
God’s Voice vs Other Voices: How Can You Tell the Difference?
Spiritual Senses – Which one is your strongest?
Fiction Flexes Your Seeing Muscles
Click one of the article titles above and start learning more about this fascinating topic.
The Pain Is Gone! 😲
A few nights ago I was on the phone with a older Christian woman. She mentioned that her knees had been really hurting in the last two weeks and that her legs were very stiff. She has had leg stiffness and knee pain every day for the last year, but although she has been exercising and losing weight, the pain was getting worse not better.
We were both puzzled by this. As we were discussing what she could do to alleviate her pain, I had a sudden inspiration. I asked her, “Have you considered blessing your body each day?” I had heard a friend share this idea last year – the power our words have on our bodies and how we need to honor the body God gave us.
She said, “Yes, I could do that. But I suddenly realized that I need to repent for the way I have not always taken good care of my body in the past.” She started praying right then and there, “Father, I am sorry for not always taking good care of this body you gave me. I am grateful for the way this body has served me and allowed me to do so many things. Please forgive me for times I have misused it.”
Then she began to bless her body and suddenly she saw Pain as a spirit that was tormenting her. So she said, “Pain, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus! Go!”
She finished her prayer and we continued to talk.
Then she stood up to see what was the result of her prayer. She was shocked! She told me, “The pain is gone! Wow!! Thank you, Lord!” Then she sat back down and we talked some more. Then she decided to walk around. Again, she was incredulous, “There’s no more stiffness in my legs – they are SO loose! This is amazing!! Thank you, Jesus!!” 😲😍
It was so much fun to hear her joy! She had been in pain every single day for over a year. Can you imagine how freeing it must have been for the pain to simply leave?
“You know, if someone else had asked me to pray for their body because they were in pain, I would have probably prayed like that for them. But it never occurred to me to pray for my own body that way. Thank you for encouraging me to do that,” she said.
“You’re welcome. Thank you, Lord, for bringing that to mind! I think that’s part of having compassion on ourselves in the same way we would have compassion on someone else,” I replied.
The Lord has been talking to me lately about anticipating His goodness. What does it look like? Can we train our minds to anticipate a good outcome instead of worrying about bad things happening? He has been challenging me to reach out and grasp His goodness. Sometimes it feels easier to have faith for someone else, but right now, He wants me to pay attention and do this for myself. It’s a form of self-compassion – learning to receive His goodness toward me.
What areas of your life is God challenging you to anticipate His goodness toward you? Sometimes we need to start with repenting of Unbelief in His goodness in order to open our hearts up to receiving more from Him. I know I do. Lord, what do you imagine for my future? In what ways is Unbelief in Your goodness holding me back?
Please comment below – your insight might inspire someone else to open their heart to receive more of God’s goodness today!
Share this with a friend who needs to hear it! 💗
Discernment of the Supernatural Realm 